Sir Keir Starmer will recall his cabinet from their summer break for an emergency meeting on the Gaza crisis after coming under growing pressure to recognise a Palestinian state and amid mounting concern over humanitarian conditions in the region.
Ministers, who are in a summer recess until September 1, are expected to reconvene this week to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
It comes after peace talks came to a standstill last week after Washington and Israel recalled negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff blaming Hamas for a “lack of desire” to reach an agreement.
Since then, Israel has promised military pauses in three populated areas of Gaza to allow designated UN convoys of aid to reach desperate Palestinians.
But the UK, which is joining efforts to airdrop aid into the enclave and evacuate children in need of medical assistance, has said that access to supplies must be “urgently” widened.
Sir Keir is meeting with US president Donald Trump in Scotland on Monday and is expected to raise the prospect of reviving ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas during the talks.
The prime minister will travel to Ayrshire, where the US president is staying at his Turnberry golf resort, for wide-ranging discussions on trade and the Middle East as international alarm grows over starvation in Gaza.
The two leaders have built a rapport on the world stage despite their differing political backgrounds, with Mr Trump praising Sir Keir for doing a “very good job” in office ahead of their talks on Monday.
But humanitarian conditions in Gaza and uncertainty over US import taxes on key British goods in America threaten to complicate their bilateral meeting.
In his talks with Mr Trump, Sir Keir will “welcome the President’s administration working with partners in Qatar and Egypt to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza”, Number 10 said.
“He will discuss further with him what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long.”
The leaders will also talk “one-on-one about advancing implementation of the landmark Economic Prosperity Deal so that Brits and Americans can benefit from boosted trade links between their two countries”, it said.
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds could not say whether the RAF would be directly involved in plans to airdrop aid into Gaza but warned that the delivery of aid “cannot wait”.
“We know the only way to get sufficient quantities of aid into Gaza is for that blockade to end, for those vehicles to get on the ground. The point about the air drops is that we cannot wait. We’ve got to do something. It’s an unconscionable situation.
“We can all see the lapse in humanity on display, and we’ve got to do things to do that.”
He added: “I don’t know about the operational implementation, but on the air drops, as a country, we’re always standing by.”
