Report: Herzog to visit the UK next week, sparking anger within Starmer’s Labour Party

President Isaac Herzog is due to travel to the UK next week, according to an unconfirmed report published by The Guardian.

According to the report, the visit will be a controversial one, as Labour Party lawmakers in the UK are urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other members of government to avoid meeting with Herzog, due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

No meetings between Herzog and any government ministers have been confirmed as of yet, the Guardian reports, but it cites a source familiar with the matter as saying that no appointments with ministers will be confirmed until next week.

Israel has not confirmed whether Herzog will be visiting the UK next week.

Herzog’s reported visit, which the newspaper says will take place on Wednesday and Thursday next week, has provoked mixed reactions, with some Labour Members of Parliament declaring that Starmer must not meet with the Israeli president, and others seeing it as a chance for dialogue and diplomatic breakthroughs regarding the war in Gaza.

Labour MP John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor of the exchequer, tells British news outlets that Herzog should be prevented from entering the country altogether, and that Starmer is “shaming” the UK by “inviting” Herzog.

It is not clear, however, if Herzog’s reported visit comes at Starmer’s invitation.

“Herzog is the mouthpiece of the IDF butchers and should never be allowed near our country,” says McDonnell.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who chairs the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee, takes a different approach, however, telling the Guardian that “efforts should be made to engage” with Herzog, who is seen by many as a more moderate figure than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The only solution to this is through politics,” says Thornberry of the war in Gaza and the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that Herzog is “easier to talk to than many in the extreme right-wing government in Israel.”