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| Priti Patel fallout erodes public trust and diminishes UK's stature, say critics | Priti Patel fallout erodes public trust and diminishes UK's stature, say critics |
| (about 13 hours later) | |
| The furore over Priti Patel’s secret trip to Israel, which has culminated with her resignation, has reignited questions over the future of the Department for International Development and sparked wider concerns within the aid community. | The furore over Priti Patel’s secret trip to Israel, which has culminated with her resignation, has reignited questions over the future of the Department for International Development and sparked wider concerns within the aid community. |
| The former international development secretary’s unravelling, misleading and contradictory account of her August trip, and her breach of protocol in failing to declare meetings with foreign politicians in advance, came amid a turf war between DfID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over aid expenditure. | The former international development secretary’s unravelling, misleading and contradictory account of her August trip, and her breach of protocol in failing to declare meetings with foreign politicians in advance, came amid a turf war between DfID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over aid expenditure. |
| At least one MP, Douglas Carswell, has called for DfID to be merged into the FCO. | At least one MP, Douglas Carswell, has called for DfID to be merged into the FCO. |
| In June, Patel’s junior ministers, Alistair Burt and Rory Stewart, were appointed to joint positions across DfID and the FCO, in what was seen as part of a Foreign Office takeover. | In June, Patel’s junior ministers, Alistair Burt and Rory Stewart, were appointed to joint positions across DfID and the FCO, in what was seen as part of a Foreign Office takeover. |
| Priti Patel goes to Israel on what she claims was a family holiday, which she paid for herself. | |
| Patel met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting was not authorised in advance and no UK officials were present. She later claimed the Foreign Office was made aware of this meetings and others while her trip was under way. | |
| Meanwhile, Patel’s deputy Alistair Burt and David Quarrey, the British ambassador to Israel, were meeting Michael Oren, a deputy minister at the Israeli prime minister’s office, according to the Jewish Chronicle. According to notes of the meeting, cited by the paper, Oren referred to Patel having had a successful meeting with Netanyahu earlier. | |
| Foreign Office officials became aware of Patel’s first meetings, according to a statement given to the Commons by Burt on 7 November. He did not mention his own visit to Israel. Hansard quotes Burt telling the Commons: “The Secretary of State [Patel] told Foreign Office officials on 24 August that she was on the visit. It seems likely that the meetings took place beforehand.” | |
| On the same day Patel met Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s Yesh Atid party, who describes her as a “true friend of Israel”. | |
| On an undisclosed date during her trip, Patel visited an Israeli military field hospital in the occupied Golan Heights, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. If confirmed, this would be a breach of a protocol that British officials do not travel in the occupied Golan under the auspices of the Israeli government. | |
| Patel leaves Israel after 12 work meetings, during two days of a 13-day holiday. As well as meeting Netanyahu, she also held talks with the public security and strategic affairs minister, Gilad Erdan, and an Israeli foreign ministry official, Yuval Rotem. The meetings were organised by Lord Polak, a leading member of the Conservative Friends of Israel. He accompanied Patel on all but one one of the meetings. | |
| On her return to the UK, Patel inquires about using the UK aid budget to help fund the Israeli army’s humanitarian work in the Golan Heights. The idea is rejected because the UK does not recognise Israel’s permanent presence in the Golan Heights, which were seized from Syria in the 1967 war. | |
| Patel meets Gilad Erdan, the minister for public security, and is photographed with him on the House of Commons terrace. | |
| While in New York for the UN general assembly, Patel has another meeting with Yuval Rotem, an official from the Israeli foreign ministry. | |
| Theresa May meets Netanyahu in Downing Street. | |
| Patel told the Guardian that the foreign secretary knew about her trip and suggested the Foreign Office had been briefing against her. “Boris knew about the visit. The point is that the Foreign Office did know about this, Boris knew about [the trip],” she admitted telling the paper. | |
| The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Landale reported that Patel had undisclosed meetings in Israel without telling the Foreign Office. He quoted one official as saying that Patel had been “pushing to get her hands on the Palestinian Authority aid budget and we have been pushing back”. | |
| Patel apologises after admitting she gave a misleading account to the Guardian of her trip to Israel. In a statement, she admits holding 12 meetings, including three with Israeli politicians – Netanyahu among them. | |
| She said: “This quote [to the Guardian] may have given the impression that the secretary of state had informed the foreign secretary about the visit in advance. The secretary of state would like to take this opportunity to clarify that this was not the case. The foreign secretary did become aware of the visit, but not in advance of it.” | |
| She does not mention visiting the occupied Golan Heights or the two subsequent meetings in September. | |
| A No 10 spokesman confirms that Patel was rebuked for breaching the ministerial code. | |
| Patel avoids answering an urgent Commons question about her meetings in Israel because of a “longstanding commitment” to visit Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. The international development minister Alistair Burt is put up in her place. Burt points out that Patel apologised for the undisclosed meetings. He adds: “The department’s view is that aid to the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] in the Golan Heights is not appropriate.” | |
| Downing Street initially backs Patel but later confirms that the prime minister was not informed about providing aid to Israel during her meeting the previous day. It is suggested Patel failed to disclose her two subsequent meetings in September with Israeli officials. A Whitehall source says: “There was an expectation of full disclosure at the meeting on Monday. It is now clear Priti did not do that. It will now have to be looked at again.” But according to the Jewish Chronicle, it was No 10 who told Patel not to include her meeting with Rotem in New York in her list of undisclosed meetings for fear of embarrassing the Foreign Office. | |
| DfiD confirms previously undisclosed September meetings with Erhad and Rotem in September. | |
| Patel is summoned back to London at the request of the prime minister amid widespread speculation that she will be sacked or given the opportunity to resign. She flies back from the Kenyan capital Nairobi after her meetings in Uganda were cancelled. | |
| Kate Osamor, the shadow international development secretary, told the Guardian she believed Patel’s handling of her trip had “badly damaged the world class work that the Department for International Development does to help the world’s poorest, and they are eroding trust in Britain and beyond in the principles that drive the department”. | Kate Osamor, the shadow international development secretary, told the Guardian she believed Patel’s handling of her trip had “badly damaged the world class work that the Department for International Development does to help the world’s poorest, and they are eroding trust in Britain and beyond in the principles that drive the department”. |
| She said: “Under Priti Patel’s tenure, aid was increasingly repurposed for opaque diplomacy or security objectives, and the spirit of the UK’s pledge to spend 0.7% of national income regularly undermined through the back door whenever possible.” | She said: “Under Priti Patel’s tenure, aid was increasingly repurposed for opaque diplomacy or security objectives, and the spirit of the UK’s pledge to spend 0.7% of national income regularly undermined through the back door whenever possible.” |
| Osamor called for “whoever ends up being in charge” to empower DfID as an independent department and to “restore the integrity” of British international development policy. | Osamor called for “whoever ends up being in charge” to empower DfID as an independent department and to “restore the integrity” of British international development policy. |
| It emerged on Tuesday that, on her Israel trip in August, Patel discussed funnelling aid through the Israeli army, to provide medical support to Syrians wounded in the war. A spokesman for Theresa May, the prime minister, said the country’s army run field hospitals in the Golan Heights, but stressed that there neither was nor would be financial support for Israel’s army. | It emerged on Tuesday that, on her Israel trip in August, Patel discussed funnelling aid through the Israeli army, to provide medical support to Syrians wounded in the war. A spokesman for Theresa May, the prime minister, said the country’s army run field hospitals in the Golan Heights, but stressed that there neither was nor would be financial support for Israel’s army. |
| The aid community has expressed concern that Patel’s actions should not be allowed to reverse trends in Britain’s development policy, or in its position as a world leader on development assistance. The UK is the third largest donor of foreign aid, after the US and Germany. | The aid community has expressed concern that Patel’s actions should not be allowed to reverse trends in Britain’s development policy, or in its position as a world leader on development assistance. The UK is the third largest donor of foreign aid, after the US and Germany. |
| Alex Thier, executive director of the Overseas Development Institute, said Britain was able to “punch above its weight” in the international community because of its strong development policies, such as its commitment to donating 0.7% of gross national income on aid. He said Britain needed to refocus on its leadership role. | Alex Thier, executive director of the Overseas Development Institute, said Britain was able to “punch above its weight” in the international community because of its strong development policies, such as its commitment to donating 0.7% of gross national income on aid. He said Britain needed to refocus on its leadership role. |
| “Since Brexit, the global role of Britain has been in question” said Thier. “Its leadership on key issues has been undermined by a government that has been consumed. The UK cannot afford further distractions from its global role in development … the UK needs to get on with the critical job of addressing poverty and responding to crises, and regain its status as a leader on development issues.” | “Since Brexit, the global role of Britain has been in question” said Thier. “Its leadership on key issues has been undermined by a government that has been consumed. The UK cannot afford further distractions from its global role in development … the UK needs to get on with the critical job of addressing poverty and responding to crises, and regain its status as a leader on development issues.” |
| Thier said that one of Britain’s strengths in leadership on global development was that it has separate departments for development and diplomacy. | Thier said that one of Britain’s strengths in leadership on global development was that it has separate departments for development and diplomacy. |
| “The risk now is that you are undermining that with the distraction,” he said. “And subsuming it into another department would be moving backwards, not forwards.” | “The risk now is that you are undermining that with the distraction,” he said. “And subsuming it into another department would be moving backwards, not forwards.” |
| Jonathan Glennie, the director of Ipsos Mori’s Sustainable Development Research Centre, a supplier of research to DfID, said: “Patel has spent a good deal of effort trying to take the British public on a journey about the effectiveness and value of British aid and how it can be spent in the UK national interest as well as the interests of the poorest people in the world. As details emerge about her meetings in Israel, I hope they don’t undermine this important work.” | Jonathan Glennie, the director of Ipsos Mori’s Sustainable Development Research Centre, a supplier of research to DfID, said: “Patel has spent a good deal of effort trying to take the British public on a journey about the effectiveness and value of British aid and how it can be spent in the UK national interest as well as the interests of the poorest people in the world. As details emerge about her meetings in Israel, I hope they don’t undermine this important work.” |
| Romilly Greenhill, UK director of the One Campaign, said: “This is the action of one secretary of state, who had reasons of her own for doing what she did. Politicians may come and go. Priti Patel has made some interesting choices, but I don’t think it impacts what DfID are doing on a day to day basis. It shouldn’t be taken that DfID should be aligned more closely with the FCO.” | Romilly Greenhill, UK director of the One Campaign, said: “This is the action of one secretary of state, who had reasons of her own for doing what she did. Politicians may come and go. Priti Patel has made some interesting choices, but I don’t think it impacts what DfID are doing on a day to day basis. It shouldn’t be taken that DfID should be aligned more closely with the FCO.” |
| Few in the aid community, which relies on DfID for funding, would comment more directly on Patel’s suggestion of foreign aid to Israel, although all have stressed that aid funding – both in spirit and in legislation – must be for the poorest and most disadvantaged people. | Few in the aid community, which relies on DfID for funding, would comment more directly on Patel’s suggestion of foreign aid to Israel, although all have stressed that aid funding – both in spirit and in legislation – must be for the poorest and most disadvantaged people. |
| However, one leading figure in the aid community, who did not want to be named, said: “It looks like the use of aid was not even in British interests, but in as-yet-to-be disclosed interests. It casts a cloud over the policy of aid in the national interest. | However, one leading figure in the aid community, who did not want to be named, said: “It looks like the use of aid was not even in British interests, but in as-yet-to-be disclosed interests. It casts a cloud over the policy of aid in the national interest. |
| “This is a demonstration that DfID needs to be even more independent, in terms of getting the balance right between aid in our national interest and aid as an act of solidarity and charity. It might strengthen the hand of people who say, ‘Lets keep DfID independent.’” | “This is a demonstration that DfID needs to be even more independent, in terms of getting the balance right between aid in our national interest and aid as an act of solidarity and charity. It might strengthen the hand of people who say, ‘Lets keep DfID independent.’” |