Patel offered an open goal to the FCO mandarins

EDITOR

Jewish Chronicle the Balfour Declaration on Nov 2 – at which both Mr Netanyahu and Mrs May were present.

But when the FCO found out, it kicked off a turf war and the announcement was delayed. Now it is as dead as her ministerial career.

Ms Patel also had another idea: to share British aid with the Israelis in the Golan Heights. This never went further than Department for International Development officials working on the practicalities. But it was a red rag to the FCO bull.

On one level, their objections were perfectly understandable. It is not DfID’s role to reposition British foreign policy and working with the Israelis in the Golan Heights, however humanitarian the cause, would have done that.

Yet the real story here is that, rather than deal with this through the channels of Whitehall, at least one person within the FCO appears to have used it as a means of bringing down Ms Patel by briefing James Landale, the BBC’s diplomatic editor.

We can, by definition, never know the identity of his source. But even if it was not the most widely touted name – Sir Alan Duncan, effectively Boris Johnson’s deputy – it fitted in remarkably well with his politics. A man of no limited self-regard – according to one account of the Brexit referendum, he wrote in a draft press release for the Remain campaign: “His declaration will be seen to have a pivotal bearing on the many voters who are still undecided” – he is both a Remainer and infamously hostile to Israel. Ms Patel’s behaviour offered an open goal.

And even if it was not Sir Alan who decided to score, he cannot have been other than thrilled at what has come to pass. To repeat, no one forced Ms Patel to break the code of conduct. But think: had she held an unauthorised meeting with the leader of Iceland, do you think she would still have been forced out?