Theresa May was dragged into a cover-up row today as she ordered Priti Patel to cancel an Africa tour and return to the UK to be sacked.
The International Development Secretary’s fate appears to be sealed after two further secret meetings with Israeli officials emerged on top of the 12 that had already been revealed.
She also reportedly visited an Israeli military field hospital in the Golan Heights, a disputed area that Britain does not recognise, and failed to declare it.
But the Prime Minister herself is also the subject of questions – amid claims she spoke to Miss Patel about her meeting with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as long ago as September.
Downing Street insisted last week that the first Mrs May had heard about the encounter, during a ‘family holiday’ in August, was last Friday. No10 flatly denied the conversation took place.
The latest developments heighten the sense of chaos engulfing the government, as the Westminster sleaze row rages and ministers face allegations of blunders on other fronts.
Aid Secretary Priti Patel is believed to have been summoned back to the UK from Nairobi for a showdown with Mrs May, dropping plans to fly to Uganda with Trade Secretary Liam Fox. She is pictured on a previous foreign trip
Theresa May (pictured leaving No 10 last night) summoned Ms Patel for a dressing down yesterday but has not sacked the minister despite the extraordinary revelations
Priti Patel hinted that UK aid cash could be handed to the Israeli Army during her secret meetings on a family holiday, Downing Street confirmed today
The row over Miss Patel’s extraordinary breach of government protocol while on a ‘family holiday’ to Israel surfaced last week, but erupted again on Monday when she admitted there were more undeclared meetings, including with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mrs May demanded an apology from Miss Patel and formally reprimanded her, hoping that would draw a line under the furore.
However, it has now been alleged that she held two further unauthorised meetings with senior Israeli political figures which were not attended by UK Government officials.
No10 sources said the minister had been told to return to the UK from Nairobi for a showdown, cancelling plans for her to fly to Uganda with Trade Secretary Liam Fox.
But the problems threatened to widen today with claims in the Jewish Chronicle that No10 asked Miss Patel not to include a meeting with foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York in September in her list of disclosures.
Downing Street is also said to have been made aware of Miss Patel’s meeting with Mr Netanyahu shortly after it happened – despite a spokesman telling journalists this week that they were unaware until last Friday.
In the most explosive allegation, it is said Mrs May spoke to Ms Patel in advance of the UN General Assembly and they discussed the minister’s meeting with Mr Netanyahu, as well as the details of Ms Patel’s plan for UK aid to be shared with the Israelis.
Mrs May is said to have agreed the idea was ‘sensible’ but needed sign off from the Foreign Office.
But a No10 spokesman said: ‘There are two allegations in the Jewish Chronicle. Both are categorically untrue.
‘It is not the case that anyone from Number 10 asked anyone from DfID to remove a meeting from the list that was published this week.
‘And it is not the case that the prime minister knew about Priti Patel’s meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu before last Friday.’
Miss Patel narrowly avoided the sack following the initial wave of revelations after the PM decided she could not risk destabilising the Government further after Sir Michael Fallon quit over sexual harassment claims last week.
But Downing Street’s stance changed yesterday after it emerged that Miss Patel had tried to divert some of Britain’s aid budget to humanitarian work by the Israeli army in the disputed Golan Heights. Britain accuses Israel of occupying the territory illegally.
No10 indicated that she did not mention the proposal in talks to ‘clear the air’ with Mrs May on Monday – leaving the PM to hear the facts in a BBC report.
It emerged overnight that on September 7, Ms Patel met Israeli Minister for Public Security Gilad Erdan for talks in the House of Commons.
Then, on September 18, she met Israel’s Foreign Ministry boss Yuval Rotem while in New York at the UN General Assembly.
DfID said it was not aware of the Erdan meeting until last night, and there were no UK government officials present.
The Rotem meeting was known about on Monday, but was not disclosed on the list because that only covered the period when Miss Patel was on holiday.
Miss Patel met both Erdan and Rotem over the summer, and met them again in September.
A Downing Street source said this morning that Miss Patel was ‘en route’ back from Africa ‘at the request of the PM’.
She is expected to land at around 3.30pm, and is not thought to have access to wifi or mobile phone signal on the flight.
The backlash against Miss Patel reached boiling point last night, with sources at the heart of government saying ‘no one, least of all the Secretary of State herself, is pretending she handled this well’.
Tory MPs refused to come to her aid yesterday during a Commons statement on her conduct in which she faced renewed calls to resign.
Miss Patel admitted on Monday that she held 12 secret meetings with Israeli ministers, officials, businessmen and charity bosses during a two-week holiday with her husband and son in August.
She also admitted giving a misleading account of the visit when details of the trip began to emerge on Friday.
She was accompanied by Lord Polak, honorary president of the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby group, which has given the Tories almost £400,000.
No officials were present at the meetings and no minutes were taken. The Foreign Office was not informed until August 24, after they had taken place.
Yotam Polizer, of the IsraAID organisation, which Miss Patel met, said the meeting had been arranged two weeks in advance – suggesting it was fixed before she left the UK.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that Miss Patel also visited a military field hospital in the Golan Heights, where Syrian refugees were being treated.
The British government, along with most of the international community, does not recognise the territory, which was captured in 1967, as belonging to Israel. Protocol dictates that visits there are not hosted by Israel.
No10 refused to say yesterday whether Miss Patel broke the ministerial code. But Mrs May has asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood to tighten it to so ministers cannot hold secret meetings with foreign governments.
Labour claimed Miss Patel was guilty of four separate breaches of the code and called for her to resign. Kate Osamor, the party’s international development spokesman, said: ‘It is hard to think of a more black-and-white case of breaking the ministerial code of conduct.
‘But rather than change the minister, the Prime Minister somehow decided the code itself needed changing.’
Miss Patel was absent from the Commons during questions about her conduct yesterday because she was flying to Africa.
Miss Patel’s undeclared meetings while on ‘holiday’ in August included one with Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid (pictured)
Miss Patel had been due to fly on to Uganda with International Trade Secretary Liam Fox
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was in London for talks with Mrs May and to mark a century a century since the Balfour Declaration. Mrs May did not know of the meeting between Mr Netanyahu and Ms Patel during the talks
Instead, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt was sent in to explain her conduct.
He told MPs that Miss Patel had tabled proposals to use aid money to assist the humanitarian work of the Israeli Defence Force in the Golan Heights, adding that it had been ruled out immediately by the Foreign Office as ‘not appropriate’.
Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to the UK, described the revelations as ‘shocking’ last night and questioned last night why Miss Patel made no effort to balance her meetings by talking to them.
Shadow Aid Secretary Kate Osamor said Ms Patel should either be sent for a formal investigation or ‘do the decent thing and resign’.
THE VETERAN TORY PEER WHO SET UP PATEL’S MEETINGS
Lord Stuart Polak is a political veteran and political networker who has spent his career pressing the case for greater ties with Israel.
Born in Liverpool and still a keen supporter of ‘The Reds’ football club, as a child he was a chazan helping to lead services at his local synagogue.
He made his first educational trips to Israel from the age of 15 and carved himself out a career fostering closer relations between the UK and Israel.
He served as an officer for the Board of Deputies of British Jews in the 1980s before joining the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) in 1989.
Under his leadership the CFI became one of the biggest lobbying groups in Westminster – throwing dinners and events for hundreds of important guests and developing contacts in the corridors of power.
Lord Polak told the Jewish Chronicle in 1990 that he was motivated by a desire to ‘put as much as possible back into the community’ but also admitted he is ‘as ambitious as the next man’.
In 2015 he was made a peer by David Cameron and happily accepted the peerage, describing the honour as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’.
On accepting the peerage he stepped down as CFI director but continued as the group’s honourary president.
But Mr Burt claimed they were ‘not particularly secret meetings’ and insisted: ‘If I were on a visit to Israel I would have wanted a schedule just like this.’
He did however admit he would have told Britain’s Israeli ambassador had he planned such a schedule.
Conservative MPs failed to rally behind Ms Patel during the Commons debate. The handful of Tory backbenchers who took part criticised her actions.
Mrs May’s official spokesman confirmed the issue of a field hospital was discussed by Ms Patel in her meetings.
He said: ‘The Secretary of State did discuss ways to provide medical support to Syrian refugees who are wounded and cross into the Golan Heights.
‘The Israeli Army runs field hospitals there to care for Syrians wounded in the civil war.
‘There is no change in policy in this area. The UK does not provide any financial support to the Israeli Army.’
Mrs May’s spokesman insisted Ms Patel was ‘absolutely clear’ in her meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday.
He said the new revelation was not a surprise to Downing Street and no policy change had been made.
The spokesman added: ‘The Secretary of State has been clear with No 10 that on no other occasions while a minister as she organised meetings with a foreign government minster outside the normal channels while on holiday.’
As the extraordinary row broke on Monday, the International Development Secretary blamed her ‘enthusiasm to engage’ for her failure to Mrs May or Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson about the dozen high-level encounters.
As well as saying sorry for the stunning breach of protocol, Miss Patel was also forced to make an humiliating ‘clarification’ of comments last week in which she appeared to deny there were any more meetings to disclose.
Miss Patel said in a statement on the DfID website: ‘This summer I travelled to Israel, on a family holiday paid for myself.’
‘While away I had the opportunity to meet a number of people and organisations. I am publishing a list of who I met. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was aware of my visit while it was underway.
‘In hindsight, I can see how my enthusiasm to engage in this way could be mis-read, and how meetings were set up and reported in a way which did not accord with the usual procedures. I am sorry for this and I apologise for it.
‘My first and only aim as the Secretary of State for International Development is to put the interests of British taxpayers and the world’s poor at the front of our development work.’
Mrs Patel was accompanied by a Tory peer Lord Polak, who set up the meetings.
The statement suggested Mrs Patel had started to shift policy following her visit.
DfID minister Alistair Burt was sent to the Commons (pictured) to defend Miss Patel in her absence yesterday. He said the Aid Secretary was ‘in the air’ as he explained her absence
Shadow Aid Secretary Kate Osamor (pictured in the Commons today) said Ms Patel should either be sent for a formal investigation or ‘do the decent thing and resign’
‘On her return from Israel, the Secretary of State commissioned Departmental work on humanitarian and development partnership between Israel and the UK, and on disability,’ it said.
Yesterday’s statement also ‘clarified’ two quotes given to the Guardian last week in which the minister sought to dismiss the row.
She was reported as saying that ‘Boris knew about the visit’, but embarrassingly conceded today: ‘This quote 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.’
Mrs Patel also admitted that a quote in which she insisted ‘the stuff that is out there is it’ was ‘lacking in precision’.
‘This quote may be read as implying that the Secretary of State was saying that the meetings that had so far been publicly reported were the only ones which took place on her visit,’ the statement said.
‘The Secretary of State would like to take the opportunity to correct this impression: she is clear that other meetings also took place on her visit, in addition to those which had been publicly reported at the time of her making these statements.’
‘The FCO are clear that UK interests were not damaged or affected by the meetings on this visit.’