Sayeeda Warsi, the minister who quit government today over Gaza, says she had to stand down because of the UKs morally indefensible position. Here are some of the things she said to Cathy Newman: For me its morally indefensible where after four weeks of a conflict more than a quarter of the Gazan population displaced, nearly two thousand people killed, never 400 innocent children killed - we still cannot find the words to say we condemn this and that we feel that this action has been disproportionate. These issues are far too serious for us to have be mealy mouthed and for us to be dragging our heels. I think there is a sincerely held view in government that the best way to resolve this matter is to try and be as accommodating as possible to the Israeli government, to try and through that seek influence with them, and through that to try and move them to a more positive decision. Im not sure that policy is working. George [Osborne] is a very good friend of the Israeli government and therefore he more than anybody else should have been saying quite frankly to the Israeli government that what you are doing is not in your interests -- this is probably the biggest single act of self-harm that the Israeli government have done over the last few years. What he should have been saying to the Israeli government is that it is unnecessary for you to kill innocent civilians, it is unnecessary for you to displace a quarter of the population, it is unnecessary for you to flatten schools, hospitals and powers supplies and water supplies to achieve your ends. And had George done that, then I agree with him, it would not have been necessary for me to resign. First and foremost there has to be accountability and justice for what has happened over the last four weeks. That has got to be a starting point. Secondly I think it is wrong for a country to allow arms to be supplied into a potential warzone. It seems odd that we have a policy at the moment where on the one hand we allow arms to be supplied and on the other hand were spending taxpayers money on patching up the people who may have been injured from the use of those arms. There was a time when the biggest issue that people were talking about was Syria, it then became ISIS, it then became various other issues but systematically for the last four weeks the only thing that people are talking about, and this is not just young Muslims, this is young people and communities across the board, is the issue of Gaza. And there is no doubt that that is therefore a potential for radicalisation for young people. Its not a claim that I make, its evidence which is there in black and white from the work that the Home Office is doing. Increasingly over the last four weeks I was deeply uncomfortable with the decisions that the government was making. I was incredibly uneasy about having to stand at the Dispatch Box day after day and repeat lines which I did not agree with. And it was time therefore for me to be honest with myself and honest with the prime minister and say I cant hold to these lines, I cant hold to collective responsibility and the honourable and decent thing to do was to step down.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:26:53 +0000
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