United Nations Security Council to vote on a resolution on Gaza

UK foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell has told the House of Commons he expects the United Nations Security Council to vote on a resolution on Gaza at 3pm UK time on Tuesday, and said he expected the UK to support the resolution.

A Security Council vote was postponed on Monday in a bid to reach an agreement on wording acceptable to the US which has opposed calls for a ceasefire.

Speaking in response to an urgent question raised by Layla Moran, a British-Palestinian MP who has spoken about members of her family trapped in a church besieged by Israeli forces in northern Gaza, Mitchell said “skilled British diplomats in New York are engaged with talking throughout the United Nations to try and make sure the resolution lands”.

Asked by Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now sits as an independent MP, whether the UN vote would deliver a ceasefire and stop the war escalating into the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, Mitchell said: “That is the way you move the situation forward to the political track that he and I want to see as soon as possible.”