“Britain’s support for Israel is “not unconditional”, the foreign secretary has said, raising the pressure on Binyamin Netanyahu over the killing of seven aid workers. Writing for The Sunday Times six months after the Israel-Hamas war began, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton issued a warning to Israel over its compliance with international humanitarian law. Six days after three Britons were among seven killed while working for World Central Kitchen, Cameron describes their deaths as “tragic and avoidable”. While Israel has described the killings as a “grave accident” and has sacked two senior military officials, the foreign secretary says there is “no doubt where the blame lies” and warns: “This must never happen again.” – Sunday Times
“The tragic and avoidable killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers was a terrible reminder of the cost of the Gaza conflict. Citizens from five different countries lost their lives, three of them from the UK. On this occasion, there is no doubt where the blame lies: Israel’s inquiry has already enumerated the inadequate processes and the unacceptable conduct of the IDF personnel involved. This must never happen again. Sunday marks another grim milestone: six months since the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7. We must not forget how this conflict started — with the Jewish people suffering the worst and most murderous pogrom since the Holocaust.” – Sunday Times
“If you want an example of the death wish of Western civilisation, I give you the current proposal from members of the British establishment that this country should ban arms sales to Israel. If you want evidence of government madness, it appears that Foreign Office lawyers are busily canvassing the idea — which has not, as far as I can tell, yet been rejected by the Foreign Secretary himself. He seems to have gone into a kind of purdah on the subject. More alarming still, we are told that an Israeli arms ban is the subject of an active row in Cabinet, with only a handful of ministers positively sticking up for Israel. The contagion has spread pretty wide, and very fast.” – Mail on Sunday
“Britain has failed to prepare itself for war as a “whole nation endeavour”, former defence ministers have warned in a stark wake-up call to the Government. James Heappey, the former Armed Forces minister, has revealed that only Whitehall officials from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) bothered to take part in an exercise to find out how the country would be governed from the UK’s wartime bunker. Two weeks after leaving office, the Tory MP and former Army officer urged ministers to prepare for conflict. His comments were backed by Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, who said there were “too many people” in the Government “relying on hoping” that the current instability would “go away”. – Sunday Telegraph
“A second Tory MP has come forward with claims of being targeted by a sexting scandal, prompting the Metropolitan Police to launch an inquiry into “unsolicited messages” circulating within Parliament. Dr Luke Evans, the MP for Bosworth, revealed on Friday that he had experienced “cyber flashing” and was the one who initially reported the matter to the authorities. He is now joined by fellow Conservative MP William Wragg, who admitted he too had been bombarded with unrequested explicit images and texts via WhatsApp. Mr Wragg disclosed that he was “manipulated” into sharing the personal contact details of fellow MPs with an individual he encountered on a gay dating app.” – Sunday Express
“Angela Rayner’s claims to have not broken any rules over her property dealings have been blown apart by a Mail on Sunday investigation into her real ‘home’. Labour’s Deputy Leader has insisted for six weeks that for many years her ‘principal property’ was a house in Stockport, where she claimed to live separately from her husband and children for the first five years of her marriage. Now this newspaper has disproved her story by studying dozens of postings made by Ms Rayner on social media during that period showing her life with her children and cats at her husband’s address.” – Mail on Sunday
“The government has temporarily banned permits for new incinerator plants in England, including one the Environment Secretary Steve Barclay is fighting to stop being built in his constituency. The environment department will now consider how many plants are needed. It comes after a top government lawyer warned a plan being explored to pause permits was “unlawful”. This month Mr Barclay said the proposed incinerator in his Cambridgeshire seat was a “massive blot on the landscape”. – BBC News
“Let’s call it the Blair Dilemma. What do you do when you win a huge majority that is based, not on any enthusiasm for your party, but on a visceral dislike of the last lot? If the polls are right, Sir Keir Starmer will leave the Tories with fewer seats than Blair did in 1997 – largely because Reform is a worse nuisance to the Conservatives now than was the Referendum Party then. But, as poll after poll shows, there is no great love for Labour. Like Blair in 1997, Starmer is benefiting from the accumulated annoyances that inescapably build up when the same party has been in office for four terms.” – Sunday Telegraph
“The UK has lost influence since Brexit to become just one of many “middle powers” in the world, former foreign secretary David Miliband has said. Writing for the Observer, Miliband, now president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said that in order to reverse the decline, the UK needed to enter new “structures and commitments” with the EU on foreign policy. “Our relations in Nato are strong, but with the EU they are almost non-existent. And this is all the more glaring since the war in Ukraine has brought the EU and Nato closer together,” he said.” – Observer