Miliband defends sanctions on Israeli settlements and pushes back against chief rabbi’s criticism – UK politics live
UK foreign secretary ‘regrets’ Israel’s response to ban on trade with illegal settlements but ‘proud’ of his actions • UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing Alex Burghart , the deputy Tory leader, was giving interviews this morning. On Israel, he opened up a new line of attack against the government, accusing it of hypocrisy. This is what he told GB News. At the same time that Labour were saying all these things about Israel in the House of Commons, they put out a communique. They put out an account of a conversation that Andy Burnham has had with the Chinese president, and it said how constructive they wanted to be with China, how they wanted to work with China, and what a great relationship we have. Continue reading...
Good morning. Yesterday Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, made what may turn out to be one of the most important Commons statements of the year. Here is our overnight report by Pippa Crerar, Jessica Elgot and Kiran Stacey. Here is an analysis by Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor. And here is the Guardian’s editorial. It starts: “Rarely in recent years has the Commons felt like the cockpit of history.
On Tuesday it did.” Ministers were worried about a backlash from Donald Trump. So far, that has not happened, and in the US Axios is reporting that, when Andy Burnham spoke to Trump on Monday, “two sources with knowledge of the call said Trump didn’t push back or ask Burnham to change course”. In his report for Axios, Barak Ravid says: “US officials told their British counterparts they shared their concerns about the Netanyahu government’s West Bank policy, even if they disagreed with these specific sanctions, sources say.”
But in the UK some of the leading organisations