PM in crisis as Patel quits over Israel meetings
● Theresa May has lost two senior ministers in successive weeks
Priti Patel has resigned as international development secretary over her secret meetings with senior Israeli figures and acknowledged that her actions “fell below the high standards” expected.
The resignation means Prime Minister Theresa May has lost two senior ministers in successive weeks.
Priti Patel has quit the Cabinet over her secret meetings with senior Israeli figures and acknowledged that her actions “fell below the high standards” expected.
Her decision last night to resign as International Development Secretary came after she was summoned back from an official visit to Africa for a showdown with Theresa May in Downing Street.
The Prime Minister has now lost two Cabinet ministers in successive weeks after Sir Michael Fallon quit.
Ms Patel had been intending to spend three days in Kenya and Uganda, but was forced to cut short her trip and return home to explain the disclosure of further unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Patel said: “I offer a fulsome apology to you and to the government for what has happened and offer my resignation.”
In reply the Prime Minister told her that meetings should have been arranged “formally and through official channels”.
Witham mpms patel’s came after it emerged she had a series of 12 engagements with senior Israeli figures – including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – 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.
In a further development, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that during her stay in the country she visited an Israeli military field hospital in the occupied Golan Heights.
Britain, like other members of the international community, has never recognised Israeli control of the area seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-day War.
In her letter to Ms Patel, the Prime Minister 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.
“That is why, when we met on Monday, I was glad to accept your apology and welcomed your clarification about the trip to Israel over the summer.
“Now that further details have come to light, it is right that you have decided to resign.”