Boris has sunk to a new low with his Israel intervention – even by his standards

For Johnson to claim that David Lammy and Keir Starmer want Hamas to ‘win’ is absurd, disgraceful and unworthy, writes Sean O’Grady

Seemingly out of nowhere, a very ex-prime minister pops up on Twitter/X to make an untimely, intemperate and unhelpful intervention on the present conflict in the Middle East (Getty)

It’s been a question that has, unfortunately, troubled the nation for longer than many of us would care to think, but it must be posed once again: what is Boris Johnson up to?

Seemingly out of nowhere, a very “ex” ex-prime minister pops up on Twitter/X to make an untimely, intemperate and unhelpful intervention on the present conflict in the Middle East by responding to the Labour government’s very modest arms embargo on Israel.

The statement was delivered by the foreign secretary, David Lammy, yesterday afternoon, but it has taken until today for our disgraced former premier to respond in this incendiary manner: “Hamas is still holding many innocent Jewish hostages while Israel tries to prevent a repeat of the 7th October massacre. Why are Lammy and Starmer abandoning Israel? Do they want Hamas to win?”

The only bit of his post that is accurate is the fact that the hostages are indeed innocent. Israel (by which he means the Netanyahu government) says it is trying to prevent a repeat of the 7 October massacre, but Bibi’s motives are broader and more political. Killing 40,000 Palestinians and destroying virtually every building in Gaza is not going to prevent other future atrocities, or make Israel more secure. Quite the opposite, as we see.

Also to the point: Lammy and Starmer aren’t “abandoning” Israel – if they were, they would rescind all the arms export licences and go much further: recognising the Palestinian state immediately, supporting the genocide case at the International Criminal Court (though Starmer has dropped a British bid to delay the ICC reaching a judgment on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyhu) and even sanctioning the state of Israel.

None of this is being undertaken. The defence secretary, John Healey, admits that the move will – in practice – have little “material impact” on Israel’s security.

For Johnson to claim that Lammy and Starmer want Hamas to “win” is simply obscene. It’s an absurd, disgraceful and unworthy remark, even by the standards of the underemployed, one-time prime minister. He didn’t get away with lying to parliament, but he’s evidently not learned his lesson.

So, what’s he up to? It may be because he craves attention; or wants to remain “relevant”; or he’s generally fed up and bored with nothing to do but finish off his memoirs; or perhaps he needs to boost his income from the global celebrity speaker circuit. A combination of all those, probably. In truth, we don’t know – and we needn’t care.

Boris doesn’t matter. He isn’t an MP, so he can’t run to be leader of the opposition. If he did run, he might not win – and even if he did win that doesn’t mean he’d come back as prime minister at the next general election. His tarnished record means he will never settle easily into the role of “elder statesman”.

He should make the most of what ought to be his very happy lot in life, and reflect – if not repent – at leisure on what he has done to this country.