Baroness Warsi first government minister to resign on principle in a decade
Baroness Warsi, the senior Foreign Office minister, and Britain’s first female Muslim member of the Cabinet, announced her resignation from the Government over Britain’s policy on Gaza this morning, saying it is “morally indefensible”.
Lady Warsi’s resignation appeared to have caught No 10 by surprise, with Prime Minister David Cameron currently out of the country on holiday.
She wrote in her resignation letter: “My view has been that our policy in relation to the Middle East peace process generally but more recently our approach and language during the current crisis in Gaza is morally indefensible, is not in Britain’s national interest and will have a long-term detrimental impact on our reputation internationally and domestically.”
It comes amid growing unease among some Conservative MPs that the Government has failed to take a firmer line with Israel over its incursion into Gaza in the face of mounting Palestinian casualties.
The Telegraph’s Tim Stanley said her resignation is “very significant” partly because she is the first member of parliament to step down over a foreign policy point of principle since 2003, despite the UK’s at times contentious stance on issues such as arms sales, Syria or Libya in the decade that followed.
But it is also significant he said because he thinks “It will spark a debate about the UK’s relationship with Israel.”
“The resignation of a member of government is more likely to get a real debate going that I think a lot of voters actually want to have,” he added