British minister quits over Gaza

Muslim peer labels Cameron’s policy morally indefensible

ABRITISH minister who was the first Muslim to sit in the cabinet resigned yesterday over the government’s “morally indefensible” policy on Gaza. The decision by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a minister at the Foreign Office and for faith and communities, heaped fresh pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to take a tougher line against Israel over its actions in Gaza.

His coalition government has faced sustained criticism in recent days, led by the opposition Labour Party, that it has not spoken out strongly enough against a conflict that has killed 1 867 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side.

“Our policy . . . in Gaza is morally indefensible, is not in Britain’s national interest and will have a longterm detrimental impact on our reputation internationally and domestically,” Warsi wrote to Cameron in her resignation letter.

She said there was great unease in the Foreign Office, where Philip Hammond took over as Foreign Sec- retary from William Hague last month, about how recent policy decisions had been made.

While Warsi’s star has dimmed in recent years, she was a high-profile example of Cameron’s desire to diversify his Conservative Party away from its traditional white, male base.

Her parents were Pakistani immigrants and she trained as a lawyer before being made a member of the House of Lords in 2007.

She was appointed to Cameron’s cabinet when his coalition govern- ment took power in 2010 but was shuffled out of the full cabinet, the powerful inner circle of government ministers, in 2012.

Labour leader Ed Miliband last week accused Cameron of inexplicable silence over the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, now in a three-day ceasefire.

“The government needs to send a much clearer message to Israel that its actions in Gaza are unacceptable and unjustifiable,” Miliband said.

“What I want to hear from David Cameron is that he believes that Israel’s actions in Gaza are wrong and unjustified. We haven’t heard that.”

On Monday, Cameron said the United Nations was right to condemn an air strike near a school in Rafah on Sunday which killed 10 people but would not say whether he thought it was a criminal act.

Downing Street said Cameron regretted Warsi’s decision. “Our policy has always been consistently clear – the situation in Gaza is intolerable and we’ve urged both sides to agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.”

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also backed Cameron’s stance.

Warsi’s resignation drew praise on Twitter from some Labour MPs.

“Very courageous of my brave friend @SayeedaWarsi to resign over this Government’s inexplicable silence and total weakness on the #Gaza crisis,” Labour justice spokesman Sadiq Khan wrote.

Meanwhile, London mayor Boris Johnson, a possible successor to Cameron, said events in Gaza were utterly horrifying and unacceptable.