UK Foreign Office staff promoted peer’s Israel trip despite downgrading of ties

LONDON: The UK Foreign Office recommended that David Lammy, the country’s foreign secretary at the time, endorse a trade mission to Israel in late May despite his earlier criticism of Tel Aviv’s conduct in Gaza. Lammy had also suspended trade talks with Israel, yet Foreign Office staffers insisted that ministers should support the visit by Ian Austin, a pro-Israel peer, The Guardian reported. Austin’s trip went ahead despite lacking support from ministers or advisers as a result of bureaucratic dysfunction. Officials had earlier requested ministerial advice over the visit.

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