Priti Patel: why have her meetings with senior figures in Israel left her facing Cabinet axe?

Meetings: Britain's Employment Minister Priti Patel is facing the sack after recent revelations about her meeting with Israeli officials
REUTERS
Chloe Chaplain8 November 2017
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Theresa May is facing calls to remove International Development Secretary Priti Patel from the Cabinet after it emerged she had a further two unauthorised meetings with Israeli officials during a “family holiday”.

Ms Patel was reprimanded by the Prime Minister on Monday after details of several meetings emerged and she apologised for not following correct protocol in reporting them to the Foreign Office.

But the minister was ordered to return to the UK from a trip to Africa on Wednesday after it was revealed she had two further meetings with officials that she had not disclosed on Monday.

Ahead of her meeting with Mrs May, Westminster speculated whether the latest revelation would bring about the end of her career as minister.

Here is the full story:

Who is Priti Patel?

Ms Patel, 45, enjoyed a swift rise up the ranks of British politics after she was elected as a Member of Parliament for Witham in 2010.

A prominent Brexiteer with high political ambition, she was employment minister before taking on the role of Secretary of State for International Development in July 2016.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel held an undisclosed meeting with Israel's prime minister while on holiday
PA

Her appointment came shortly after Theresa May took over from David Cameron as Prime Minister.

The promotion to her first full Cabinet role was seen as a move which helped fulfil Mrs May's ambitions to unite the Tories and get more women into top jobs.

What happened with the Israel meetings?

Ms Patel took time out from a family holiday to Israel meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several other politicians, businesses and charities between August 13 and 25.

The 12 meetings were arranged by honorary president of the Conservative Friends for Israel lobbying group Lord Polak, who accompanied her on all bar one.

Secretive: Theresa May with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Getty

After details of the trip were reported, she released a list publishing information about the 12 meetings and apologised for not being transparent about them.

The list showed a meeting with Mr Netanyahu in which "prospects for closer collaboration" were discussed and another with director general of the Israeli foreign ministry Yuval Rotem for discussions about "prospects for partnership work" between the two countries on development and humanitarian issues.

She discussed "growing anti-Semitism" in British politics in separate meetings with public security minister Gilad Erdan and Mr Lapid, as well as visiting a host of charities, non-governmental organisations and businesses.

On returning from her trip, Ms Patel commissioned Department for International Development (DfID) work on disability, humanitarian and development partnerships between Israel and the UK.

On Tuesday it was revealed Ms Patel had kept the Prime Minister in the dark over plans to consider giving tax-payer money to the Israeli military in order to treat wounded Syrian refugees.

It later emerged on Wednesday that she also met Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan in Parliament on September 7, and foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York on September 18.

No British officials were present and, like her meetings in Israel, she did not report them to the Foreign Office or Government in the usual way.

How did it emerge?

Ms Patel only made Mrs May aware of the meetings on Friday, more than two months after they took place, when reports began to emerge of talks she held with a politician and a disability charity.

She initially suggested that that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson knew about the trip and claimed only two meetings had taken place.

She later apologised and admitted a "lack of precision".

It is understood that Downing Street was told about the New York breakfast with Mr Rotem when Ms Patel revealed the details of her trip to Israel, but No 10 only learnt on Tuesday about the meeting with Mr Erdan.

Why was it wrong?

Ms Patel has been accused of breaking the ministerial code's requirements through her actions.

Labour politicians suggested her decision to hold secretive meetings with officials from another government breaks the requirements for openness, collective responsibility, honesty and performing only those duties allocated to them by the PM.

Labour's Kate Osamor described it as a “black and white case of breaking the ministerial code” and said: "It is time the secretary of state either faces a Cabinet Office investigation or does the decent thing and just resigns".

Foreign secretary: Boris Johnson was not told about the meetings
Getty Images

But International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC that it was not "in any way forbidden" for ministers to speak with the leader of another country with informing the Foreign Secretary.

He added: "I find it utterly unsurprising that the international aid secretary would want to talk to charities while she's on holiday in a particular area about whether or not we can use the British aid budget to diminish the humanitarian problems there."

Will she be sacked?

Labour has called for an investigation into her actions and some members of the party said she should “definitely” go.

Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said Ms “ should not be colluding with a foreign government, it doesn't matter whether it's an ally or not”.

He added: “To not tell anybody, to talk to them without telling the British Government then come back and begin to ask for things that help that government means that she's not part of a collective government trying to do the best for Britain."

But Conservative former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Crispin Blunt said the decision over her future was “a matter for the Prime Minister” and said he was “quite certain that Priti made a genuine, genuine mistake”.

He added: "We need to recognise that a lot of ministers are not experienced in high office when they take on these roles and they need a lot of support. I see this as an accident, I don't see this is as malign or malicious, though a very serious breach of the protocols, no doubt about that."

Before the extra meetings were revealed on Wednesday, Downing Street had insisted Mrs May continued to have confidence in Ms Patel.

But as she was summoned back to the UK early for a meeting with the Prime Minister, speculation was growing that she will be fired from her role.

The BBC’s political reporter Laura Kuenssberg described the prospect of her being fired as “almost inevitable now”.

“And if May doesn’t sack her now it’s an ongoing sore that smacks of weakness,” she tweeted.

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