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Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, is to boycott a UK state banquet for Donald Trump next month in protest over the US president’s alleged “complicity” in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
King Charles will host the banquet at St George’s Hall in Windsor Castle during Trump’s second state visit to Britain, which is taking place between September 17 and 19.
Davey, a long-standing critic of the US president, announced on Wednesday he would not attend the event, claiming Trump and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were averting their eyes from the Gaza crisis. A UN-backed panel last week declared a famine in the Palestinian territory for the first time.
The state banquet involving Trump will be held just days before the start of the Liberal Democrat annual conference in Bournemouth on September 20, so Davey will hope his stance will generate some publicity for his party.
Davey said: “Boycotting the banquet is the one way I can send a message to Donald Trump and Keir Starmer that they can’t close their eyes and wish this away.”
Davey’s intervention came just hours before Trump was due to convene talks at the White House on the situation in Gaza, including on ways to increase humanitarian aid to the territory and on its post war future.
The Liberal Democrats, who have 72 MPs, have become Britain’s leading “anti-Trump” party.
Starmer’s Labour government has been keen to hold the US president close, while the Conservatives and Reform UK have been supportive of Trump.
Davey said turning down an invitation from the King was an agonising decision and suggested he and his wife Emily had sought divine guidance.
“Emily and I have spent all summer thinking about this and have prayed about it,” Davey added. “There is no honour like an invitation from the King and not to accept it goes against all of our instincts.”
The Lib Dems said Trump was guilty of “complicity in the humanitarian disaster in Gaza” and Davey said: “If Donald Trump tells [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu to stop this, it ends tomorrow.”
About 150 guests, including politicians and diplomats, typically attend state banquets during official visits by world leaders to the UK.
Priti Patel, shadow foreign secretary, said Davey’s boycott was an act of “deep disrespect” to the King and demonstrated “appalling judgment”.
“America is our closest ally and security partner, and the world’s biggest economy,” she added.
Palestinian health officials have said Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 62,000 people in the territory.
Israel was responding to Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, during which militants killed 1,200 people and took a further 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
