The Green Party has said that Priti Patel’s position is now “doubly untenable” after it emerged the International Development Secretary failed to disclose all the details of her recent secret meetings in the Middle East to the Prime Minister on Monday [1].
The party says that Ms Patel has broken four out of ten principles of ministerial conduct in the government’s own ministerial code.
Co-Leader of the Green Party Jonathan Bartley also said that Theresa May now needs "clean up the mess", clearly establish the details of what Patel has done and be honest with the British public about what was discussed during her trip to Israel, the promises that were made, and where Government policy now stands in relation to Israel.
Mr Bartley said:
“The latest revelations make Ms Patel’s position doubly untenable. Not only has she in effect tried to set up her own secret Middle Eastern policy unit. Not only did she appear to promise money to Israel that wasn’t hers to promise. She failed to return to Parliament to take account of her actions, she mislead the prime minister about the details of her visit, and she still hasn’t come clean about the full details of her meetings in Israel. To my mind that’s at least four out of the ten points in the Ministerial Code broken.
“There can only be one end to this saga: Ms Patel needs to be sacked. But the prime minister also has to clean up the mess. These were the actions of a minister that she appointed. We need full disclosure of the issues discussed, opinions raised, and actions promised in Ms Patel’s meetings in Israel and how the British government intends to respond to those promises. We need to know as well what she will be doing to prevent this kind of event occurring in future and what prevented Ms Patel’s holiday meetings being disclosed to the Cabinet.”
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