"The Foreign Office recommended that David Lammy endorse a trade mission to Israel, days after he suspended trade talks and rebuked the country's government, internal documents reveal. In an unusual move, officials asked for ministerial advice over Ian Austin's visit to Israel in late May. Bureaucratic dysfunction meant the trip by the trade envoy went ahead without the support of ministers or advisers."
"In a submission prepared for Lammy and Falconer about why the trip should go ahead, a Foreign Office staffer wrote: [British embassy] Tel Aviv report that the business community in Israel are agitated by yesterday's announcement. If we were to turn off this visit now, cancelling several visits and meetings, it would send a bad signal. The official said the visit would give Austin the opportunity to explain to Israeli civil society and business that nothing has changed in our existing trading relationship and concluded: We recommend the visit goes ahead."
"The Foreign Office had said the peer would not meet any representatives of the Israeli government. But photographs show him with senior Israeli trade officials on two occasions. Austin also went to a reception at the British embassy where the education minister, Yoav Kisch, gave a speech. Emails show that Foreign Office officials recommended ministers endorse the visit despite Lammy, who was foreign secretary at the time, suspending talks on a free trade agreement on 20 May."
Foreign Office officials recommended that David Lammy endorse a trade mission to Israel days after he suspended free trade agreement talks. Officials sought ministerial advice over trade envoy Ian Austin’s late-May visit, but bureaucratic dysfunction allowed the trip to proceed without ministerial endorsement. The Foreign Office had said Austin would not meet Israeli government representatives, yet photographs show him with senior Israeli trade officials and at a British embassy reception where education minister Yoav Kisch spoke. Emails show officials argued cancelling would alarm Israeli business and recommended the visit so Austin could reassure civil society and firms that existing trading relationships remained unchanged. Lammy and Falconer did not receive or endorse the submission; ministers were unhappy.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]