In November 1940, at the height of the Second World War, Winston Churchill stood up in the hall of Church House and said: “Today, in inaugurating the new session of parliament, we proclaim the depth and sincerity of our resolve to keep vital and active, even in the midst of our struggle for life.” During the war, as bombs dropped on central London, Church House was used on occasion as a substitute for the chamber of the House of Commons. It was the location from which Churchill announced the sinking of the Bismarck in May 1941. In September 2025, the hall was being used for an entirely different purpose – although its links to the politics of war remained.
After his attempt to force the government to hold an inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Gaza failed, Jeremy Corbyn took matters into his own hands. Between 4-5 September, Church House played host to the Gaza Tribunal, in which Corbyn and a panel of experts heard evidence from Gazans, doctors, journalists and lawyers.
The hall was quiet and sombre as witnesses gave their evidence. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, spoke via Zoom from her home. She described Palestine as a “crime scene” and accused the UK of “failing miserably” in its responsibilities to Palestinians. Dr Victoria Rose, a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital who worked in Gaza, described running out of analgesia while conducting amputations on Palestinian children. “The screaming in the recovery room would not stop until about three in the afternoon,” she said.
Corbyn listened with his typical sympathetic outrage. Each time a break in the proceedings arrived, he was swarmed by journalists, all hoping to get his take and, of course, ask him about Your Party, the burgeoning left-wing movement he is building with his fellow Independent MP, Zarah Sultana.
This is a perilous moment for Gaza. A ceasefire has yet to be reached, and Israel’s attacks are only worsening. In this latest offensive, bombardment has levelled several Palestinian neighbourhoods. On Friday, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) announced it has taken 40 per cent of Gaza City, leaving hundreds more Palestinians displaced from their homes.
Much of the world is looking on in horror; as are many people in Britain. Gaza has not gone away as an electoral issue for Keir Starmer (though his attention is currently far more occupied by chaos in his cabinet). The UN General Assembly (UNGA) begins in New York on 9 September. Many nations, including France, are expected to use the moment as a formal opportunity to recognise the state of Palestine. In August, Starmer said the UK would recognise Palestine if certain conditions are met by the Israeli government. One condition was a ceasefire. As none has been forthcoming, the UK will go ahead with Starmer’s plan, under the leadership of a new Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Corbyn clearly wants to use this moment to put renewed pressure on the government. “The government refused my request for a public inquiry along the lines of the Sir John Chilcot inquiry”, he told me when we spoke on Thursday at the Tribunal. In June, Corbyn introduced a ten-minute rule bill into the House of Commons which attempted to force the government’s hand. It was thrown out – as most ten-minute rule bills are – leading to Corbyn holding his own inquiry. “We are not in a position to put on anything like the Chilcot Inquiry, but what I wanted to do was have a two-day hearing. We have had 17 witnesses today, 12 more tomorrow, covering a wide range of expertise.”
At the end of the process, Corbyn plans to release a report with the Tribunal’s findings. He hopes it will shed light on what he sees as the UK government’s erosion of international law through its complicity in Gaza. “What we’re trying to achieve is to understand the question of international law, Britain’s complicity and its liability.” Though his demands for an inquiry did not break through this time, Corbyn is confident that one day, the government will need to face up to the UK’s role in the conflict. “Eventually there will be one. They will agree to it in the end,” he said.
During the hearings, witnesses claimed that the UK, by maintaining ties with Israel throughout the war, has failed in its responsibilities under international law. Corbyn said: “Britain has this rather arrogant complacency about international law, about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights… they think they’re immune from them. They’re not.”
These accusations will be fanned by the arrival in the UK next week of the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog. Like the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog is subject to an International Court of Justice Order owing to statements he made around Gaza, including asserting that all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the Hamas attacks on 7 October. Starmer has been urged not to meet Herzog when he travels to the UK next week, owing to the fragile position the government finds itself in ahead of UNGA.
Corbyn does not think recognising Palestine is likely to make a major difference. “I think it will have some impact,” he said, “the idea that we would only recognise Palestine with the complicity and agreement of the occupying power of Palestine is a very strange form of recognition.” He added that the fact that countries like France and Belgium have said they will recognise Palestine unconditionally “shows the strength of public opinion, not just in Britain but all over Europe and the rest of the world”. But in the UK context, Corbyn remained deeply critical. He said the conditions set out by then-foreign secretary David Lammy all “lead to a disempowered Palestine vis-a-vis a very empowered Israel”.
Fury over Gaza has not dissipated on the left of British politics. Corbyn’s new movement – temporarily called Your Party – is already attracting support owing to its co-leaders’ credentials on Palestine. Several Labour MPs almost lost their seats due to the party’s perceived silence on the situation in Gaza (the former shadow frontbencher, Jonathan Ashworth, actually did), and many of those seats are now targets for Your Party and, under the new leadership of Zack Polanski, the eco-populist Greens. But this is about more than just winning power for Corbyn. It is all part of a persistent moral duty: one that by hosting a two-day Tribunal on Gaza, in a drafty hall in central London, the Independent MP for Islington North clearly hoped to fulfil.
[See also: Farage dances on Angela Rayner’s political grave]
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