![Mark Pritchard Conservative MP for The Wrekin[Screengrab/twitter/X @Politics_co_uk]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Mark-Pritchard.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
A British member of parliament has announced he has “withdrawn” his long-standing support for Israel over its ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, admitting that “I got it wrong”.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mark Pritchard – the MP for The Wrekin in western England since 2005 – stated that he had served as an MP for over twenty years while supporting Israel “pretty much at all costs”.
“I want to say that I got it wrong and I condemn Israel for what it is doing to the Palestinian people in Gaza”
🔵 Conservative MP @MPritchardUK symbolically ‘withdraws’ his support for Israel over war in Gaza pic.twitter.com/Zt923e31Ay
— Politics.co.uk (@Politics_co_uk) May 6, 2025
He announced his change of course, however, saying that “I want to say that I got it wrong and I condemn Israel for what it is doing to the Palestinian people in Gaza and indeed in the West Bank, and I’d like to withdraw my support right now for the actions of Israel, what they are doing right now in Gaza”.
While reiterating his belief that Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza should be released, that Israel has a right to exist, and that “the Jewish people should have the right to live in peace”, Pritchard stressed that “so do the Palestinian people”.
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The Tory MP stated that “I’m really concerned that this is a moment in history when people look back, where we’ve got it wrong as a country.”
He then asked Hamish Falconer, minister at the Foreign Office, whether the UK government can “stand up to our friends and allies in the United States and make a strong stand for humanity? For us to be on the right side of history, for having the moral courage to lead – not just to follow the United States and to make a difference?”
Hamish responded by commending Pritchard for his “very powerful intervention”, saying that “I hear his words and I feel their force. And I will, of course, endeavour to stand up on the international stage, and here in this despatch box, equal to the strength of some of these contributions”.
READ: British Jewish leaders break silence, condemn Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza
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