Patel resigns as UK minister
London: Britain’s seniormost Indian-origin minister Priti Patel has resigned from her Cabinet post amid a political storm over her unauthorised secret meetings with Israeli politicians while on a holiday in the Jewish country.
London, Nov. 9: Britain’s senior-most Indian-origin minister Priti Patel resigned from her Cabinet post amid a political storm over her unauthorised secret meetings with Israeli politicians while on a holiday in the Jewish country.
Ms Patel’s position as international development minister had become increasingly untenable after it emerged that she had two further meetings with Israeli officials that were not disclosed earlier.
The 45-year-old minister resigned on Wednesday night after a meeting at Downing Street with Prime Minister Theresa May, who had summoned her midway from a tour of Africa. In her resignation, Ms Patel again apologised and said her actions “fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated”.
It follows a week of controversies around a dozen undisclosed meetings she had with other Israelis, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for which she had been forced to apologise.
Her departure from the Cabinet marks an abrupt halt to the meteoric rise of the Gujarati-origin MP, often touted as a potential future leader of the Conserv-ative party and a prime ministerial candidate.
She was elected as a Conservative MP for Witham in Essex in 2010 and gained prominence in the then David Cameronled Tory government as his ‘Indian Diaspora Champion’.
She is among the most vocal supporters of Brexit. Ministers are required to tell the UK Foreign Office when they are conducting official business overseas, but it emerged that British diplomats in Israel were not informed about any of Ms Patel’s meetings which included a meeting with Mr Netanyahu and other political figures as well as charity organisations.
Opposition parties had been calling for Ms Patel’s resignation as minister in charge of DfID and the country’s aid budget if it emerged that she had breached the ministerial code of conduct and failed to follow established protocol.