Key events
Miliband plays down significance of Israel’s retaliatory measures, saying UK sanctions still ‘right thing to do’
In his interview with Sky News this morning, Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, said that he regretted the fact that Israel is ordering the UK to close its consulate in Jerusalem in response to the UK sanctions. But he said the government had weighed up “the costs and benefits” of its move in advance.
He said:
I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I’m proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do.
It will be damaging, that’s true, but we weighed up the costs and the benefits in advance of this.
And we did something very important. We talked to the representatives of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prime minister, the representative here, and they both said to us with a very clear voice, you need to act from our point of view.
He added:
I would prefer that Israel hadn’t announced what it did, but overall, I strongly believe that what we did, along with other international allies, was absolutely the right thing to do.
Miliband defends sanctions on Israeli settlements and pushes back against chief rabbi’s criticism
Good morning. Yesterday Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, made what may turn out to be one of the most important Commons statements of the year. Here is our overnight report by Pippa Crerar, Jessica Elgot and Kiran Stacey.
Here is an analysis by Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor.
And here is the Guardian’s editorial.
It starts: “Rarely in recent years has the Commons felt like the cockpit of history. On Tuesday it did.”
Ministers were worried about a backlash from Donald Trump. So far, that has not happened, and in the US Axios is reporting that, when Andy Burnham spoke to Trump on Monday, “two sources with knowledge of the call said Trump didn’t push back or ask Burnham to change course”. In his report for Axios, Barak Ravid says: “US officials told their British counterparts they shared their concerns about the Netanyahu government’s West Bank policy, even if they disagreed with these specific sanctions, sources say.”
But in the UK some of the leading organisations representing the Jewish community have strongly condemned the decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, described yesterday as “truly a dark day for British Jews”. The rightwing papers are all leading their coverage on his remarks.
Miliband has been giving interviews this morning, and he has said he does not agree.
Asked about the chief rabbi’s statement, Miliband told Sky News:
Well, I’m a proud British Jew, and I don’t agree with the chief rabbi.
I have great respect for the chief rabbi, but I don’t agree with him, and I believe that it must be possible to do what we did yesterday, which is to stand up for British values of the rule of law, of dignity for people, of the prevention of injustice, and do so in a way, as I did yesterday, to say to anyone in our country who holds British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, that is antisemitism, pure and simple.
We will hear from Andy Burnham on this later at PMQs.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, speaks at the Wild Summit in Bristol. Words and video planned
From 9am: David Anderson and Jonathan Hall, the former and current independent reviewer of terror legislation respectively, are among those giving evidence to phase two of the Southport inquiry, looking at Prevent’s role in managing violence-fixated individuals.
10am: Prof Alexis Jay, chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), is among the experts giving evidence to the London assembly’s police and crime committee on grooming gangs.
Noon: Andy Burnham faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
After 12.30pm: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, may make a Commons statement on the air traffic control chaos. She is also opening the second reading debate on the civil aviation bill.
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