A Tory former Foreign Office minister is under investigation after he was accused of using ‘anti-Semitic tropes’.
Sir Alan Duncan criticised a number of MPs and peers for their support of Israel.
He accused the Conservative Friends of Israel group of ‘doing the bidding of Netanyahu’ and exercising ‘undue influence at the top of government’.
And he said Security Minister Tom Tugendhat should be sacked over previous comments on Israel’s building of settlements.
Sir Alan also called for Suella Braverman to lose the Tory whip after she said ‘plentiful food packages’ were getting to the people of Gaza.
Sir Alan Duncan has criticised a number of MPs and peers for their support of Israel and an investigation has been launched after he was accused of using ‘anti-Semitic’ tropes
Sir Alan in the House of Commons. He served as a Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton from 1992 to 2019
The Tories launched an investigation in response to the comments in an interview on LBC.
It is likely to take a number of weeks to conclude and could result in his expulsion from the party.
In the interview yesterday, Sir Alan said: ‘There are a lot of people at the top of our own politics who refuse to condemn settlements and therefore are not supporters of international law.
‘I think the time has come to flush out those extremists in our own parliamentary politics and around it.
‘The Conservative Friends of Israel has been doing the bidding of Netanyahu, bypassing all proper processes of government to exercise undue influence at the top of government.
‘So what you have is a lot of people now sitting around Rishi Sunak who are giving him appalling advice. Let’s start with the head of CFI – or has been for many years – Lord Polak.
‘In my view, I think he should be removed from the Lords because he is exercising the interests of another country, not that of the parliament in which he sits, joined I have to say by Lord Pickles. They’re the sort of Laurel and Hardy who should be pushed out together.’
Lord Polak, who is Jewish, served as director of the Conservative Friends of Israel for 26 years and is now its honorary president while Lord Pickles chairs the group in the Lords and is also the UK special envoy for post-Holocaust issues.
Sir Alan also said: ‘If you pick up Wikipedia, and you read the entry for Tom Tugendhat, who is our security minister, it says and I’ll read it out: “He condemned the United Nations Security Council for its official criticism of Israel’s building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
‘That may have been some years ago but he’s never removed that, he’s never changed his view. How can you have a security minister in the British government who does not believe in international law when all this is going on? I think he should be sacked.’
Sir Alan went on to claim that Mrs Braverman ‘is still supporting Israel and the bombing and the annihilation of people in Gaza’.
He told Times Radio: ‘For Suella Braverman today, to say that there is not a humanitarian problem in Gaza and there’s plenty of food and she’s seen the photographs.
‘Frankly, it is so disgusting, so repulsive, so repellent that I think she should immediately have the whip withdrawn.’
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was ‘not the first time that he has made accusations of parliamentarians being controlled by Israel’, accused him of ‘invoking classic anti-Semitic tropes’ and called for him to be expelled from the party.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said Sir Alan’s comments were ‘disgraceful’.
Responding to the probe, Sir Alan said: ‘Although I have heard nothing myself, I have been told by many in the media that the Conservative Party has issued a statement to say that I am to be investigated by them with a view to expulsion.
‘They did not lay out any substantive grounds for their action.
‘If this is indeed their intention, I will probably be the only person ever to be reproached for upholding his party’s policy and for defending the principles of international law and justice in the face of others who would undermine them.
‘Should they choose to pursue this, they should not be surprised if it rebounds on them massively and proves dangerously harmful to their own reputation.’
Sir Alan served as a Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton from 1992 to 2019.
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