IT’S PRITI SHAMBOLIC
Rattled PM forced to sack second Cabinet minister in a week
PRITI Patel finally quit last night over her secret Israeli meetings scandal.
It piled pressure on a weak Theresa May, already hit by the sex pest scandal.
Labour’s Kate Osamor said: “Mrs May needs to get control or step aside.”
THERESA May’s leadership was plunged into turmoil last night as she had to axe her second Cabinet minister in seven days.
Priti Patel, 45, quit over her damaging secret meetings with Israeli officials and PM Benjamin Netanyahu that could have left the impression Britain favours Tel Aviv over Palestine.
The International Development Secretary was hastily summoned back from a trip to Africa as further details of her meetings emerged.
In chaotic scenes Mrs May, who had already fired Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon over harassment claims, had to wait 30 hours before she could finally axe Ms Patel.
And even then her strong and stable leadership mantra came crashing down after she allowed the disgraced politician to say she had resigned rather than been sacked.
Mrs May also had to deny claims she knew about some of her minister’s Israeli meetings earlier than thought and had told her to cover them up.
Labour again called for the PM, already engulfed in the Westminster sex pest scandal, to quit.
And even her own MPs were turning against her, with around 40 said to be poised to ask her to go. Shadow International Development Secretary Kate Osamor said: “Theresa May must get control of her chaotic Cabinet or step aside. Priti Patel appears to have breached the Ministerial Code, gone behind the Government’s back, and misled the British public.
“After denying the allegations, then repeatedly changing her story and failing to disclose all of her meetings, it is right that she has now resigned.
“But we still need to know what was discussed in these meetings and what Number 10 and the Foreign Office knew and when.” Ms Patel arrived at Number 10 last night straight from the airport for her showdown with the PM, which lasted six minutes. In her resignation letter to Mrs May, she admitted that her actions “fell below the high standards that are expected of a Secretary of State”. She offered a “fulsome apology” and 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.” Mrs May replied: “Now that further details have come to light, it is right that you have decided to resign.”
Ms Patel’s fate was sealed after it was revealed she had failed to disclose two more unauthorised meetings with senior officials on top of the 12 she had admitted holding during a “family holiday” to Israel in August.
She met the country’s public security minister in Parliament in September and a foreign ministry official in New York a week later.
It was also claimed Mrs May had been told about Ms Patel’s meeting with Mr Netanyahu within hours of it taking place in August.
Number 10 has repeatedly denied the allegation and insisted the PM only found out about it when it was reported in the media on Friday.
Downing Street said: “It is not true that the Prime Minister knew about the meeting with PM Netanyahu
Theresa May must get control of her chaotic Cabinet or step aside. Patel misled the public KATE OSAMOR LABOUR MP ON SCANDAL ENGULFING GOVERNMENT
before Friday 3 November. It is equally untrue to say that Number 10 asked the Department for International Development to remove any meetings from the list they published this week.”
Despite the denials, Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson wrote to Mrs May claiming to have been sent information revealing a further meeting during the Israel trip.
He said he had been informed Ms Patel had met with officials from the British Consulate in Jerusalem, a branch of the Foreign Office.
Mr Watson told the PM: “It would surely be impossible to sustain the claim that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was not aware of Ms Patel’s presence in Israel.”
It also emerged Ms Patel visited an Israeli field hospital in the Golan Heights on her “holiday”.
Britain does not recognise the Israeli-occupied area.
The Foreign Office and Downing Street were unaware the meetings had taken place and diplomatic officials were not present. Ms Patel admitted to discussing “humanitarian aid” during the meetings, which were set up by Lord Polak, a corporate lobbyist and the driving force behind the Conservative Friends of Israel.
While in the country she met no Palestinians, which led to fears it could give the impression the Government position had changed on the issue. On her return, she pressed British officials to probe ways to provide support to the Israeli army’s humanitarian operations in the Golan Heights. But the idea was reportedly instantly shot down.
Questions also remain on what kind of visa Ms Patel used to travel to Israel and whether she was given any hospitality. British people can go there without a visa, but only for tourism.
The Department for International Development would not comment. Ms Patel was on her way to Uganda when she was hauled back to Britain. She had landed at Nairobi in Kenya and was due to catch a flight to the neighbouring country. But she set off back home at 10.10am, but did not inform diplomats in Entebbe she would not be coming. The first they knew was when she failed to arrive.
Mrs May is expected to announce Ms Patel’s replacement later today.
It will be her second reshuffle after Sir Michael’s axing. But her decision to appoint chief whip Gavin Williamson to Defence was blasted by her own MPs, who raised concerns over his lack of experience.
She is also having to deal with other scandals in the Commons amid the sex harassment claims.
First Secretary of State Damian Green is being investigated over claims he behaved inappropriately with a female Tory activist and kept “extreme porn” on a computer.
And minister Mark Garnier remains under investigation by the Cabinet Office after he admitted calling his researcher “sugar t*ts” and asked her to buy sex toys.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last night refused to personally apologise for saying jailed Brit Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists in Iran, which could lead to her sentence being increased.
Surely it would be impossible to sustain the claim the Foreign Office was not aware TOM WATSON LABOUR DEPUTY LEADER QUESTIONS WHAT UK OFFICIALS KNEW
IF the first loss of a Cabinet Minister was a tragedy for Theresa May, the second confirmed her disintegrating Government is a farce that Britain cannot afford.
No pantomime this season will match the buffoonery of Tories who put personal ambition and survival ahead of the national interest.
Disgraced Priti Patel had to go, like shamed Michael Fallon a week earlier, and any one of a dozen could be next for the exit door.
Patel is proof of how arrogance, naivety, foolishness and ambition are a toxic mix. Her freelance foreign policy in Israel and subsequent lies demanded she got the sack.
May’s hesitation underlined her observer status in No10. By letting Patel resign instead of being fired, the PM chipped away another bit of what was left of her authority.
Move over, May. We need strong leadership, which the Tories are incapable of providing.