Blunders put PM on back foot
BRITAIN: It was less than a week ago that Theresa May lost her defence secretary. The last thing the British prime minister wants to think about is replacing more senior figures in her cabinet - even when foreign policy blunders by two of them raise that question.
As she tries to navigate a sexual harassment scandal that has distracted her focus from Brexit, a fresh crisis has opened up on yet another front.
In Parliament, her gaffe-prone foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has faced calls from the opposition to resign for jeopardising efforts to free an Iranian-British mother in jail in Iran. Johnson even absorbed a put-down by a fellow Conservative lawmaker telling him to put his own ambitions in check.
Earlier, only one Tory in the House of Commons spoke in support of International Development Secretary Priti Patel - and that was Alistair Burt, the junior minister sent out to defend her.
Patel has admitted going behind May’s back to meet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during her summer vacation. En route to Africa for an official visit, Patel wasn’t available to explain her actions herself in Parliament.
The prime minister’s spokesman, James Slack, insisted that May had confidence in both Johnson and Patel. Between the two, both strong supporters of Brexit, the fate of Patel seems more uncertain.
Yesterday, the day after Patel’s first admission, Slack told reporters that on her return from her vacation in August, she had asked her officials whether British aid money could be given to support the Israeli army’s relief work with Syrian refugees in the Golan Heights.
The idea was rejected - apart from anything else, Britain doesn’t recognise Israel’s occupation of Golan.
Slack later confirmed that May had only learned of the proposal that morning, when the BBC reported it - the day after Patel had apologised to the prime minister and issued a statement apparently setting out the full details of her trip. The idea of giving aid money to the Israeli army was covered by a reference in the statement to ‘‘partnership’’ on ‘‘humanitarian work’’.
Slack was unable to say who had paid for the work aspects of the trip. Patel said she funded the holiday herself.
For some, May’s latest headache is yet another demonstration of her weakness, which draws repeated questions over her government can last long enough to see Brexit to the finish line.
With Brexit talks resuming tomorrow, the back-to-back blunders underscore the degree to which May has little control over her government.
Meanwhile, a member of the Welsh assembly killed himself after being sacked over allegations about his personal conduct with at least three women, it is understood.
Carl Sargeant, 49, was removed from the Welsh cabinet by Carwyn Jones, the first minister, last Saturday, and was found dead at his home in Flintshire yesterday. His death came after a series of allegations of sexual harassment by politicians across all parties, many of them uncorroborated.
It emerged yesterday that at least three women had complained to Jones’s office about the married, long-serving Labour assembly member.
In the hours before he died, he told friends that the party had not revealed details of the accusations and said he felt unable to defend himself.