Patel quits over Israeli meetings row
PRITI Patel has quit her Cabinet role and acknowledged that her “actions fell below the standards of transparency and openness” she had advocated.
Her decision to resign as International Development Secretary came after being summoned back from an official visit to Africa for a showdown with Theresa May in Downing Street.
Ms Patel had been intending to spend three days in Kenya and Uganda, but was forced to cut short her trip and return home from Nairobi to explain the disclosure of further unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians.
In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Patel offered “a fulsome apology to you and to the Government for what has happened”.
Ms Patel’s downfall came after it emerged she had a series International Development Secretary Priti Patel leaves Heathrow Airport yesterday after she was ordered back to Britain
of 12 meetings with senior Israeli figures during a holiday in the country in August. She then held two additional meetings, one in the UK and one in the US, following her return from Israel.
Number 10 confirmed that Ms Patel had discussed the possibility
of UK aid being used to support medical assistance for refugees from the Syrian civil war arriving in the Golan Heights.
However, the PM’s official spokesman was unable to say whether she had explained when she met Mrs May that the scheme would have involved supplying funding to the Israeli Army.
In a further development, an Israeli newspaper reported that during her stay, she visited an Israeli military field hospital in the occupied Golan Heights.
In her letter Ms Patel said her “actions fell below the high standards that are expected of a Secretary of State”. She added: “While my actions were meant with the best of intentions, my actions also fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated.”
In her reply to Ms Patel, Mrs May said: “As you know, the UK and Israel are close allies, and it is right that we should work closely together. But that must be done formally, and through official channels.”
She said she welcomed Monday’s apology, but added:“Now that further details have come to light, it is right that you have decided to resign.”