Liz Truss: ‘I’m a huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel’
The Prime Minister was joined a numerous cabinet ministers who all spoke at the Conservative Friends of Israel event at the Tory Party's annual conference in Birmingham
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Prime Minister Truss told a Conservative Friends of Israel reception she is a “huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel” and once again pledged she would “take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength”.
Speaking at Sunday evening’s Tory Party conference event in Birmingham she raised further concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The PM asserted: “Believe me, the UK will never allow – together with our allies – Iran to get a nuclear weapon”.
Truss added: “In this world – where we are facing threats from authoritarian regimes who don’t believe in freedom and democracy – two free democracies, the UK and Israel, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will be even closer in the future.”
Meanwhile Foreign Secretary James Cleverly spoke at the event of his “incredible pride” at being involved in the “warming of relations between Israel and its neighbours in the region”, adding that it “is something the UK should celebrate”.
Recalling his time playing Perchick in an amateur production of Fiddler on the Roof in his youth, the Foreign Secretary said the UK can “very effectively play the role of matchmaker”.
He said the UK would be “trying to make those relationships stronger. Making sure that they are permanent. Making sure that they work for everybody at all levels – government to government, people to people, business to business”.
Committing to visiting Israel soon Cleverly said: “You know what I know…Israel has been a beacon of democracy, liberalism, openness, tolerance in a part of the world where that has not been the history”.
On relations with Israel he added: “I see how closely we work on medical science and technology – the kind of collaboration that will hopefully prevent something like Coronavirus ever happening again”.
Conservative Party Chairman Jake Berry stated: “I follow the Prime Minister in stating in no uncertain terms the commitment of this Party to support the State of Israel. You have my unwavering commitment as Chairman of the Party that we will continue to build strong relationships with the State of Israel and to support it in its fight to ensure that it remains safe and that the capital in Jerusalem is the home to our new Embassy”.
International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said that the UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement would be “right at the top of the list” of her priorities.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Michelle Donelan announced that one of her first international visits will be to Israel and said “there are so many lessons that we can take from Israel”.
The Culture Secretary said she was “exceptionally proud of the work I did as Universities Minister to crack down on the antisemitism that runs through some of the political movements still in this country”.
She vowed: “As a Government, we remain firm on our commitment to stamp out antisemitism in every corner of our society. One of the things I did was to put the largest set of sanctions on the NUS because they fail to recognise what they were doing.
” Under this Prime Minister we will be taking even more of those actions, because we certainly should be ensuring that people who grow up in the society of modern Britain don’t even have to consider antisemitism”.
Liam Fox MP, who is standing for election to be the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, heralded the “ground-breaking” Abraham Accords which would “bring prosperity across the region”.
He called for the UK to follow the United States in proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and expressed concern about Iran’s escalating nuclear activities, stating: “If we don’t make the tough choices today, the price tomorrow will be infinitely higher”.
The event was chaired by CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman Lord Pickles and also featured appearances from CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman (Commons) Stephen Crabb MP.
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