THE MP for North West Hampshire has spoken of an ‘emotional’ visit made to Israel and Palestine.

Speaking in House of Commons, Kit Malthouse told fellow MPs about the visit with Yachad, a British Jewish organisation, earlier in February.

His speech came before angry MPs staged a walkout on Wednesday, February 21, as a symbolic vote on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas descended into chaos.

SNP MPs and some Conservatives walked out of the chamber in protest at Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s handling of the Gaza ceasefire debate.

Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt pulled the Government’s participation, claiming Sir Lindsay had “hijacked” the debate and “undermined the confidence” of the House in its long-standing rules by selecting Labour’s bid to amend the SNP motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war.

In his speech, Mr Malthouse said during the cross-party visit to Israel and Palestine, MPs visited the site of mass murder in Kibbutz Be’eri and Netiv HaAsara and 'heard with horror; the accounts of the victims and bereaved relatives of what happened there.

He said: “We also stood on a bluff above Gaza City and saw the artillery landing and heard the gunfire and the drones overhead. I contemplated the futility of 30,000 dead, and, with horror, thought of the assault on Rafah and its 600,000 children.”

During the visit MPs met people caught up in the conflict, including Rachel Goldberg, whose son, Hersh, is still being held by Hamas; Maoz Inon and Yonatan Zeigin whose parents were both killed by Hamas; and a group of young Palestinians who want freedom.

Mr Malthouse said that upon returning to the UK he was shocked to find Parliament “trapped in a crazy battle of semantics”.

He told the House that he did not understand the difference between all the words and phrases being used for calls to end the fighting.

He said: “The British people think our moral compass is spinning in this House, that we have no clue what we’re doing anymore, yet they see the bodies of shredded children coming across the media pretty much every day.

“They want three simple things: they want the killing of Palestinians and Israelis to stop; they want the hostages to be returned; and they want aid to flow into Gaza.”

He added: “Our job in this House as backbenchers is to vote for the outcome we want to see, not some clever process by which we might get there, or second guess what the parties are going to do, but to say now what we want to happen, and I agree with the British people that the violence must stop.

“It is time for the bloodshed to stop and for the talking to begin, and in this House, in this country, we must do what we can to make that so.”