International Development Secretary Priti Patel is facing calls to quit after failing to disclose 12 separate meetings with senior Israeli figures including PM Benjamin Netanyahu during what she claims was a family holiday.
Ministers, by convention, should tell the Foreign Office when they are conducting official business overseas. That she didn’t report the meetings - which took place over two days - has sparked fears that Patel used her “holiday”, in August, as a cover to surreptitiously discuss official UK government business with Israeli politicians and representatives of Israeli organisations. The BBC says that following the trip, Patel suggested that some of Britain’s aid budget go to the Israeli army.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Theresa May met Patel yesterday to “remind her of the obligations which exist under the ministerial code”, but accepted the minister’s apology for holding meetings in a way that “did not accord with the usual procedures”, says the Telegraph. Patel blamed her “enthusiasm to engage” for her failure to tell the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson about her high-level encounters, the Daily Mail adds.
May is calling for a tightening of the ministerial code of conduct, the BBC reports. But one Conservative MP told the Mail that the PM’s muted response indicates that May’s authority among her top team is “completely shot”.
According to the BBC, the revelation of the meetings left the British Consulate in Jerusalem feeling “blindsided” and “slightly bruised”.
The Netanyahu meeting included “prospects for closer collaboration between Israel and the UK on development and humanitarian issues”, Israel-based newspaper Haaretz reports, noting that no minutes were kept.
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
Iran’s government rocked by protestsSpeed Read The death toll from protests sparked by the collapse of Iran’s currency has reached at least 19
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
What have Trump’s Mar-a-Lago summits achieved?Today’s big question Zelenskyy and Netanyahu meet the president in his Palm Beach ‘Winter White House’
-
What is the global intifada?The Explainer Police have arrested two people over controversial ‘globalise the intifada’ chants
-
The issue dividing Israel: ultra-Orthodox draft dodgersIn the Spotlight A new bill has solidified the community’s ‘draft evasion’ stance, with this issue becoming the country’s ‘greatest internal security threat’
-
Will Netanyahu get a pardon?Today's Big Question Opponents say yes, if he steps down
-
‘It is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Is a Reform-Tory pact becoming more likely?Today’s Big Question Nigel Farage’s party is ahead in the polls but still falls well short of a Commons majority, while Conservatives are still losing MPs to Reform
-
American antisemitismFeature The world’s oldest hatred is on the rise in U.S. Why?
-
Nick Fuentes’ Groyper antisemitism is splitting the rightTalking Points Interview with Tucker Carlson draws conservative backlash
