Burnham and Miliband ignored FCDO and intelligence advice on West Bank sanctions

The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary reportedly ignored a range of expert voices from both the intelligence services and the Foreign Office who warned them that instituting West Bank settlement sanctions prior to Israel’s election in October was unwise.

According to an extensive exposé in The Spectator, Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband decided not to listen to advice from the government’s National Security Advisor, Jonathan Powell, and the British ambassador to Israel, Simon Walters, as well as ignoring warnings from MI6 that the move could risk intelligence sharing between the two countries.

The piece, from longstanding political journalist Tim Shipman, cites three different sources that Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was warned that announcing West Bank sanctions would strengthen the position of the current right-wing government in the polls. One security source quoted by The Spectator said: “Ed wants to get rid of Netanyahu and the Smotrich/Ben-Gvir lot [Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners]. He was explicitly told that would be less likely if he did this.”

In a comment piece published by Jewish News this morning, Phil Rosenberg, President of the Board of Deputies, also noted that since the announcement, led by Britain, that a number of countries would institute sanctions on West Bank settlements, “the current Israeli Government decried foreign interference, and what it portrayed as an imperialist and condescending attitude by the UK… it has used the whole episode to suggest that only the current Netanyahu government can withstand international meddling. The Israeli opposition was also bounced into voicing its disapproval of the UK stance. What have the polls made of all this? They have narrowed over the last week, favouring the Netanyahu camp.”

The Spectator piece also cites multiple intelligence sources warning about how the deterioration in the relationship between the UK and Israel could have a direct effect on intelligence links. The article describes how while such sources are in no doubt that Israel would still warn the UK if it had actionable intelligence about forthcoming attacks, other information could well be lost – which also has the potential to damage Britain’s standing with various Gulf States. One is quoted as saying: “The Gulfies come to us because they know that we have a good relationship with Israel and they know that basically they’re getting Israeli product. They can’t get it directly, but they want it, they need it. They’re looking at us going, “What the fuck are you doing falling out with them?”

In his opinion piece, Rosenberg describes how “the sad reality is that, while we urged the UK Government to wait until the Israeli elections on 27 October to assess its options, it has proven far more interested in 27 September: the start of the Labour Party Conference.”

A wide range of Labour MPs and Councillors have published videos presenting the government’s new stance on West Bank settlements as proof that the government has taken action. In a widely publicised video of Birmingham Labour councillors, the local representatives, including the council leader, referred to the government’s actions as “a first step”. On Wednesday, Tahir Ali, a Labour MP, publicly apologised after asking in the House of Commons whether, given Britain had previously intervened militarily in the Middle East, “is it not about time that military action was taken against Israel as well.”