UK ex-minister Alan Duncan facing disciplinary for calling top Conservatives 'too pro Israel'

Former UK Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan is being investigated by the Conservative Party after he called senior figures in the party “too pro-Israel”.

The comments were made in an interview with Times Radio, where Duncan elaborated on remarks he made in a previous interview with LBC.

Duncan said that some senior Conservatives were “extremists” because they condoned Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“All of the top of the party, the likes of [Robert] Jenrick, [Suella] Braverman, [Michael] Gove, [Oliver] Dowden, [Tom] Tugendhat, [Priti] Patel – they don’t believe the settlements are illegal, and that means I think we’re entitled to call them extremists,” he said.

He added that all of the people mentioned should “be called out,” and that comments made by the former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, were “repulsive.”

“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 Frankly, it is so disgusting, so repulsive, so repellent that I think she should immediately have the whip withdrawn,” he added.

According to a journalist for LBC, a Conservative Party spokesperson announced that Duncan had been informed of the probe in writing and that it would likely take a few weeks, and could end in expulsion.

The pro-Israel Campaign Against Antisemitism group decried Duncan’s comments as “antisemtic tropes of Jewish power and disloyalty”.

“This is not the first time that he has made accusations of parliamentarians being controlled by Israel,” they added.

On Wednesday, Duncan denounced the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) group, saying that they do the “bidding” of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Duncan’s comments come at the same time that legal experts, including three former British Supreme Court justices, warned the UK government that by continuing to arm Israel, it risks violating international law.

NEW

This is the moment Sir Alan Duncan called for Tom Tugendhat to be sacked as Security Minister

He says it is time to “flush out those extremists in our own politics, some of whom are at the very top of government”@LBC @NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/gZ6dPa47Vh

— Henry Riley (@HenryRiley1) April 4, 2024

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday evening, the signatories — comprising former Court of Appeal judges and over 60 King’s Counsels (KCs) — describe the current conditions in Gaza as "catastrophic".

They said the UK has a legal obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza, stemming from the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) interim ruling in January that Israel's actions could plausibly constitute genocide.