Save the Children condemned over Starmer Gaza social media post

A prominent UK charity which receives tens of millions of pounds of annual government grants has been accused of “divisive, provocative [and] factually inaccurate” claims by a government minister, after it accused Keir Starmer of “complicity” in Gazan deaths, saying that he has “continued to enable Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians”.

In a social media post, Save the Children UK, which received more than £62 million from 38 different government grants, mocked up a picture of a plaque reading: “Keir Starmer witnessed 73,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, including 21,000 children, and kept supplying arms to Israel”.

It said that “Despite a partial arms suspension in 2024, Keir Starmer’s government has continued to enable Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians, their families and children through the supply of F-35 fighter jet parts.”

The charity called on the next Prime Minister to “suspend all arms sales to Israel, suspend the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement, [and] ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.”

This is your legacy on the occupied Palestinian territory, Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer. History will remember your complicity.

Despite a partial arms suspension in 2024, Keir Starmer's government has continued to enable Israel's atrocities against Palestinians, their families… pic.twitter.com/ikFXmRT7me

— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) July 14, 2026

In the House of Lords on Wednesday, Shadow Attorney General Lord Wolfson addressed Save the Children’s social media activity, saying it had “got into doing sort of gimmicks”, and asking Baroness Chapman, Minister for International Development “Why are they not saving children, as it says in their title?”

The Baroness, who was filmed in conversation with the charity’s CEO, Moazzam Malik, in April, responded by saying: “I think there’s been an unfortunate use of social media by Save the Children, which I think is divisive, provocative, factually inaccurate, and I’m very happy to debate with any charity or NGO or anybody else (on) the decisions that this Government has made regarding any conflict at any time.

“What I do not think this country needs right now is contributions that exacerbate divisions on topics that are incredibly divisive and sensitive.”

Commenting directly in response to the Save the Children social media post, David Taylor, Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead, responded by pointing out that Britain “supplies F-35 fighter jet components to a global shared-spares pool managed by the US. We exempted F-35 parts due to the shared global supply chain, a policy upheld as lawful by the UK High Court.

“I’ve worked with Save the Children over many years, but won’t do so again without a retraction of this misleading rubbish, and an apology to Keir Starmer.”

Incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already indicated that he is likely to move forward with one of the demands listed by Save the Children; it is understood that the UK will soon move forward with laws to ban imports or exports of goods to and from Israeli settlements.