British Foreign Office minister Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi has suddenly resigned from her government post, saying that she “can no longer support the UK government’s policy on Gaza”.
Warsi was appointed to her post by Prime Minister David Cameron as chair of the Conservative Party and minister without portfolio in May 2010 – becoming the first Muslim to serve as a full cabinet minister, reported Huffington Post UK.
She wrote on her Twitter: “With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on Gaza.”
Warsi’s decision to quit makes her the first ministerial resignation ‘on principle’ since the coalition was formed in 2010 and comes in the wake of attacks on the prime minister’s handling of the Gaza crisis by Labour leader Ed Miliband – and a 72-hour humanitarian truce agreed between Israel and Hamas in Cairo on Monday evening.
Last week, however, Channel 4 News reported that FCO officials believed Warsi had “deep reservations and concerns about government policy” on Gaza.
Her resignation will put further pressure on the prime minister to take a harder line against Israel’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip and follows interventions from an array of leading Conservative politicians who have expressed unease over mounting civilian casualties on the Palestinian side, including former Tory defence ministers Nicholas Soames and Peter Luff and influential backbencher Margot James, parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to former foreign secretary William Hague.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
