British legislator Jeremy Corbyn has called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to cooperate in exposing the United Kingdom’s “complicity in genocide” in Gaza, after the release of Streeting’s private messages in which he acknowledged Israel committed war crimes in the Palestinian territory.

Corbyn, a former Labour leader, sent a letter to Streeting on Thursday rebuking him for the UK government’s continued support for Israel despite the abuses that the health secretary himself had recognised in a private correspondence.

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“The publication of these messages reveals a shameful failure to publicly say something you knew privately to be true: that this government was complicit in war crimes,” Corbyn’s letter said.

“It is now a matter of public record that you decided to serve in the cabinet of a government that was providing military, economic and diplomatic support to a state that was breaching international law.”

Streeting, who has been a vocal critic of Corbyn and a staunch supporter of Israel, had voluntarily released text messages between himself and the UK’s former ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, an associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In the trove of messages published by Sky News on Monday – meant to show transparency over Streeting’s own ties to Mandelson – the health secretary argued last year in favour of recognising Palestine as a state.

“Morally and politically, I think we need to join France,” Streeting wrote in July 2025.

“Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.”

UK government’s position

That acknowledgement of Israeli war crimes contradicted the public statements of the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which Streeting serves.

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Corbyn’s letter, signed by his fellow members of Parliament in the Independent Alliance, noted that London’s stance had been that Israel’s actions during its genocidal war on Gaza were “at clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law”.

The letter said the “discrepancy” between Streeting’s private admission and the government’s position aimed to thwart the policy consequences of recognising Israel’s well-documented war crimes.

“Once a government acknowledges that Israel is committing war crimes, then any continued military or political support is an admission from the government that is knowingly aiding and abetting these war crimes,” it read.

The Labour government recognised Palestine last year and imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli government ministers, but critics say the UK has not done enough to hold Israel accountable for its violations.

Throughout the war on Gaza, the UK operated military surveillance flights over Gaza that London has said aimed to locate Israeli captives in the territory.

While the British Ministry of Defence has stressed that the spy aircraft “did not have a combat role”, rights advocates have argued that the policy amounts to direct involvement in the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians.

Amnesty International UK said on Tuesday that Streeting “was right” in acknowledging Israel’s war crimes.

“What is damning is that the Prime Minister and his government have continued business as usual despite overwhelming evidence from the UN and human rights organisations of war crimes and genocide,” Kristyan Benedict, the group’s crisis response manager, said in a statement.

For his part, Corbyn asked Streeting why he did not resign from the government and whether he would be willing to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in any investigation over London’s complicity in alleged war crimes in Gaza.

“Today, school children are taught about history’s worst crimes against humanity,” the letter read.

“They are asked to reflect on how these crimes could have possibly occurred. And they learn the names of political figures who failed to prevent them. In the near future, our history books will shame government ministers who could have stopped the genocide in Gaza, but chose to stay silent instead.”

Starmer vows to stay

Corbyn led Labour between 2015 and 2020. During his tenure, the party faced persistent accusations of tolerating anti-Semitism. His supporters say the allegations were a manufactured crisis to undermine him because of his support for Palestinian rights.

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Streeting – long seen as a rising star on the right of the party – became one of the most prominent detractors of Corbyn at the time.

In 2020, Starmer succeeded Corbyn as leader and suspended him from the party months later over accusations of anti-Semitism as he purged Labour of many officials critical of Israel.

Corbyn retained his Parliament seat as an independent candidate in the 2024 vote that swept Labour into power.

Last year, he cofounded the socialist Your Party. He also helped establish the Independent Alliance parliamentary bloc of pro-Palestine legislators who oppose domestic austerity.

Despite the landslide victory in 2024, Labour – which has been losing left-wing support to independents, Your Party and the Green Party – has seen its popularity plunge amid a cost-of-living crisis and rising anti-immigrant rhetoric on the right.

The Labour government has also been rocked by the latest release of the Epstein files in the US last month, which further showed close ties between the sex offender and Mandelson – whom Starmer had appointed as ambassador to Washington.

Starmer has rejected calls to step down over the scandal, pledging that he “will never walk away” from his mandate.