Former Tory minister under investigation criticised for latest Israel comments

A former Tory minister who is under investigation by his party is facing fresh criticism for his latest comments about Israel.

Sir Alan Duncan has been accused of “all but blaming” the country for the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 people.

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The ex-foreign office minister, who is under investigation over separate comments, told Sky News that “the cause and origin” of the attacks “emanates from them (Israel)”.

Calling for the UK to suspend arms sales to Israel, he said: “The Hamas attack was a response to years of difficulty in Gaza, but more importantly, the continuing annexation, illegally, by Israel of the West Bank.”

Challenged by Sky’s political correspondent Rob Powell that he is coming “very close” to blaming Israel for what happened on 7 October, he said: “Well, over time, one can say that the cause and the origin emanates from them.”

He added: “I condemn the nature of the Hamas attacks. I condemn anti-semitism. I condemn those who say that Israel should not exist. But I equally condemn Israeli excess and illegal expansion into the West Bank by taking another country’s land.”

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It comes after the Conservative party confirmed Sir Alan, who sat as an MP between 1992 and 2019, is being investigated by the Tory party over comments he made to LBC earlier on Thursday.

In the interview, he claimed colleagues who support Israel are “exercising the interests of another country”, naming individuals including Lord Stuart Polak, the honorary president of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), and Lord Eric Pickles, who is chair of the group in the Lords.

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The remarks were condemned by Jewish groups. The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said that by “suggesting that certain peers in the House of Lords are working for Israel”, Sir Alan is “invoking classic antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and disloyalty”.

Responding to his latest remarks, the CAA told Sky News: “As if it wasn’t enough that Sir Alan Duncan has today accused some parliamentarians being controlled by Israel, invoking, not for the first time, tropes about Jewish money and the supposed outsized influence of the Jewish state on British democracy.

“Now he has all but blamed Israel for the slaughter of over 1,000 of its citizens by Hamas, the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group. This is victim-blaming at its ugliest. Where will it end with Sir Alan? This is reflecting terribly on the Conservative Party, which must finally expel him.”

Sky News has contacted Sir Alan for further comment.

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Separately, Sir Alan has released a statement on the decision to investigate him over the LBC interview, saying this could prove “dangerously harmful” to the party’s reputation.

He said he has not heard directly from his party that he is being investigated, and the party has not laid 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.”

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