Category Archives: David Cameron

Sunak says ‘all sides should show restraint’ after Iranian attack on Israel – as it happened

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British PM says he will speak to Netanyahu to express solidarity and discuss how further escalation can be avoided

UK general election opinion poll tracker: Labour leading as election looms

David Cameron ruled out trying to become PM again in an interview this morning. (See 9.30am.) But Liz Truss has not done so. In an interview with LBC’s Iain Dale, being broadcast tonight, she did not entirely dismiss the possibility. This is from LBC’s Henry Riley.

Truss is giving interviews to publicise her memoir which is out this week. According to extracts sent out in advance, she also confirmed in her LBC interview that she wanted to see Donald Trump win the US presidential election. She said:

I don’t think [Joe] Biden has been particularly supportive to the United Kingdom. I think he’s often on the side of the EU. And I certainly think I would like to see a new president in the White House …

The thing I would say about Donald Trump is, because I served as secretary of state under both Trump and Biden, and Trump’s policies were actually very effective. If you look at his economic policies, and I met his regulatory czar, I travelled around the United States looking at what he’d done. He cut regulation, he cut taxes, he liberated the US energy supply. And this is why the US has had significantly higher economic growth than Britain.

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Cameron’s Mar-a-Lago lobbying may not be enough to reach the new Republican party

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The UK foreign secretary’s Trump dinner appeared to fail to bring support for Ukraine, and his Washington meetings don’t look any more promising

Whatever happened at Mar-a-Lago between David Cameron and Donald Trump on Monday night, was clearly going to stay in Mar-a-Lago.

Dinner at the Trump Florida residence was always going to be a stiff test of the UK foreign secretary’s influence over the former president, presidential candidate, and the man he had previously referred to variously as protectionist, xenophobic, and misogynistic.

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UK will not suspend arms exports to Israel, David Cameron says

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Foreign secretary says Britain’s position on export licences is ‘unchanged’ after reviewing latest legal advice

David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week, as he insisted the UK would continue to act within international law.

The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: David Cameron meets Donald Trump to urge more US support for Kyiv

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British foreign secretary talked with Republican presidential candidate following Trump’s repeated questioning of US aid to Ukraine

Russia and China will continue to cooperate in the fight against terrorism as part of their ever-strengthening relationship, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in Beijing on Tuesday after talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.

“I thank the Chinese side for their condolences in connection with the terrorist attack in the Moscow region on March 22 of this year, for supporting Russia’s fight against terrorism,” Russian news agencies cited Lavrov as saying.

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David Cameron warns of Gaza famine as UK sends Royal Navy ship to boost aid effort

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Move to join US-led maritime corridor follows international fury at last week’s killing of seven aid workers

The Royal Navy was ordered into action on Saturday to help supply desperately needed aid to Gaza, as the foreign secretary, David Cameron, warned that the Palestinian people trapped there were on the brink of famine.

With the UK and US governments under intense pressure to halt arms sales to Israel, Downing Street said on Saturday that ministers would instead boost support for a planned new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to channel “life-saving aid” by sea to a population in urgent need of basic food supplies.

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Banning arms sales to Israel would be ‘insane’, says Boris Johnson

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Former prime minister says a western arms embargo on Israel would ‘hand victory’ to Hamas

Boris Johnson has said banning arms sales to Israel would be “insane”.

The former prime minister also criticised the foreign secretary, David Cameron, for remaining silent on the debate over curtailing UK arms sales to Israel.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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Legal assessment of Israel’s actions in Gaza risks being subsumed in Tory row

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Conservative supporters of Israel want David Cameron to dial back criticism and accept defeat of Hamas is in UK’s interest

A legal assessment by the UK Foreign Office of whether Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza risks being subsumed in a Conservative row over the party’s loyalty to the country, and by rival judgments on the damage to British interests in the wider Middle East if the UK is not seen to distance itself from Israel’s methods.

Judging by the last Tory leadership contest, in which Liz Truss courted votes by promising to transfer the UK embassy to Jerusalem, there is a good chance Israel will feature in any leadership debate after a predicted general election defeat this year.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Nato ministers agree to plan for greater alliance role in coordinating Ukraine aid, says Stoltenberg – as it happened

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Allies will plan for ‘greater Nato role in coordinating security assistance and training’, says Nato secretary general

They have become a familiar sight in the skies above parts of Russia: long-range enemy drones, buzzing their way to another target.

In the biggest Ukrainian onslaught inside Russian territory since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion two years ago, Ukraine has in recent weeks carried out a series of attacks on Russian oil refineries and ports. On Tuesday, it hit a refinery and drone factory in the industrial region of Tatarstan - more than 800 miles from the border.

Allied support to Ukraine is a fraction of the resources needed for deterrence and defence of North Atlantic area and yet the successful defence of Ukraine greatly impacts the overall cost of Nato’s defence.

Serious long-term support of Ukraine requires predictable, equitable and robust allocation of resources.

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UK government lawyers say Israel is breaking international law, claims top Tory in leaked recording

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Chair of foreign affairs select committee Alicia Kearns said at a Tory fundraiser that legal advice would mean the UK has to cease all arms sales to Israel without delay

• Analysis: scale of suffering will make war crimes harder to deny

The British government has received advice from its own lawyers stating that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in Gaza but has failed to make it public, according to a leaked recording obtained by the Observer.

The comments, made by the Conservative chair of the House of Commons select committee on foreign affairs, Alicia Kearns, at a Tory fundraising event on 13 March are at odds with repeated ministerial denials and evasion on the issue.

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MPs and peers sign letter urging UK government to ban arms sales to Israel

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Ministers under growing pressure to act amid signs Israel intends to ignore UN ceasefire resolution

Parliamentary pressure is building on the UK government to ban arms sales to Israel, amid signs that Israel intends to ignore the UN security council resolution passed this week calling on all sides to commit to a ceasefire.

A letter signed by more than 130 parliamentarians to the foreign secretary, David Cameron, highlights action taken by other countries, most recently Canada, which last week announced it would halt all arms exports to Israel.

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David Cameron, the ‘prime minister for external affairs’, gets tough on Israel

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Drawing on his years at No 10, the UK foreign secretary is happy to ruffle feathers on the international stage while setting the agenda

It is only four months since Rishi Sunak brought him back into government as foreign secretary but already, having felt the pace quicken around them, officials and diplomats have given David Cameron their own title: prime minister for external affairs.

“Cameron is on a whole other level,” said one diplomat on the inside. “Before, we had [Boris] Johnson, we had [Dominic] Raab, we had [Liz]Truss and then [James] Cleverly. Cameron can read a room – he immediately sees the elephant in it, if there is one. He constantly comes back on summonses and wants to know: ‘When can I get more on this? When can I get an update on that?’”

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Cameron urged to publish Foreign Office legal advice on Israel’s war in Gaza

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Labour presses foreign secretary as human rights groups seek judicial review of government’s refusal to ban arms exports

The shadow UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has urged David Cameron to publish the Foreign Office formal legal advice on whether Israel is breaching international humanitarian law in Gaza.

Lammy’s move comes as two human rights groups have been given permission for an oral hearing to seek a judicial review of the government’s refusal to ban arms exports to Israel.

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David Cameron says Aukus and Nato must be in ‘best possible shape’ ahead of potential Trump win

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UK’s foreign secretary is in Australia alongside defence secretary Grant Shapps for high-level talks with Richard Marles and Penny Wong

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has suggested the Aukus pact and Nato alliance must get into “the best possible shape” to increase their chances of surviving Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House.

Speaking after high-level talks in Australia, Cameron was careful to avoid criticising the former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for 2024, saying it was “up to America who they choose as their president”.

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David Cameron accuses Israel of blocking key aid crossing in Gaza

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An Israeli official denied the claim in an online row with the UK foreign secretary and has since been suspended

David Cameron has accused Israel of demanding the closure of a key aid crossing into Gaza, in a clash with a British-born government spokesperson that has reportedly resulted in the official’s suspension.

In a blistering letter, the UK foreign secretary said aid was not getting into Gaza owing to “arbitrary denials by the government of Israel and lengthy clearance procedures, including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours”.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: British foreign minister says he opposes sending western troops to Ukraine

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David Cameron says placing foreign soldiers would provide targets for Russia, even if on training missions

Pope Francis has been criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.

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EU will open sea corridor to send aid from Cyprus to Gaza amid famine fears

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Commission president says pilot delivery is expected to set sail on Saturday but did not say where shipments would land or unload

The EU has announced the opening of a sea corridor this weekend for shipping humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza in the race to stave off a famine that is already claiming lives.

“We are now very close to the opening of the corridor, hopefully this Sunday. And I’m very glad to see that an initial pilot operation will be launched today,” the EU commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, told reporters after touring harbour facilities at the Cypriot port of Larnaca, the departure point for the aid shipments.

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UK Insolvency Service seeks up to 15-year director ban for Lex Greensill

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Government agency issues disqualification proceedings after inquiry into failed finance firm Greensill Capital

The Insolvency Service has begun legal action to have Lex Greensill disqualified from running companies for up to 15 years after the outcome of an investigation into the directors of his failed finance firm.

The government agency said it had issued disqualification proceedings on behalf of the business secretary against the former Australian sugar farmer, who founded the Greensill group of companies.

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UK politics: Sunak refuses to say how abolition of national insurance would be funded – as it happened

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PM says ‘people trust me on these things’ and refuses to be drawn on whether government would forgo entire £46bn raised from measure

Keir Starmer has accused Jeremy Hunt of repeating the budget mistakes made by Liz Truss during her disastrous premiership.

In comments on the budget during a visit to a building site this morning, Starmer focused on Hunt’s proposal to abolish employees’ national insurance over time, saying that this was a bigger unfunded tax promise than those in Truss’s mini-budget. (See 9.28am.)

How humiliating was that for the government yesterday?

We’ve argued for years that they should get rid of the non-dom tax status, they’ve resisted that. And now, completely out of ideas, the only decent policy they’ve got is the one that they’ve lifted from us.

Nothing that Jeremy Hunt did yesterday, nor anything the OBR said, changes anything very significantly. Which is a shame. Because that means we are still:

-heading for a parliament in which people will on average be worse off at the end than at the start,

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Cameron describes talks with Israeli minister over Gaza as ‘tough but necessary’

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UK foreign secretary repeated request to Benny Gantz for Israel to allow delivery of more aid and refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah

The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said he had held a “tough but necessary” conversation with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, repeating calls for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and warning him against a fully fledged offensive in Rafah.

Cameron said ensuring the availability of aid in Gaza would be a factor when the UK assesses whether Israel is acting in line with international law.

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Gaza airdrops might not be necessary if Israel faced more pressure on aid

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Delivering by parachute is risky and inefficient – and other options could open up if the west were to expend more diplomatic capital

Half an hour before Rishi Sunak launched his assault on British extremism, the foreign secretary, David Cameron issued his own strong statement.

Cameron said the killings of more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza as crowds gathered around aid trucks on Thursday were horrific and required an investigation and accountability. He said the halving of the number of aid trucks entering Gaza in the past month was “completely unacceptable” and that Israel had an “obligation” to ensure significantly more humanitarian aid reached the territory.

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