UK sending navy ships and spy planes to support Israel and prevent ‘further escalation’

Published

12 months ago

October 12, 2023

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The UK will send RAF aircraft and Royal Navy ships to carry out surveillance over Israel in a show of support following the Hamas incursion over the weekend.

RAF aircraft will begin patrols in the next 24 hours while two ships will be sent to the eastern Mediterranean.

A Royal Navy task group will be moved to the eastern Mediterranean next week and will include two ships – RFA Lyme Bay and RFA Argus.

The military package will also see P8 aircraft, surveillance assets, three merlin helicopters and a company of Royal Marines put on standby “to deliver practical support to Israel and partners in the region, and offer deterrence and assurance”.

Israel ‘strikes Syrian airports’; 447 children killed in Gaza – Israel-Gaza latest

The prime minister has also asked for all military teams in Israel, Cyprus and those across the region to be bolstered to support contingency planning and the efforts of neighbouring countries to deal with the impact of instability in Israel.

Rishi Sunak said the “deployment of our world-class military will support efforts to ensure regional stability and prevent further escalation”.

“We must be unequivocal in making sure the types of horrific scenes we have seen this week will not be repeated,” he added.

“Our military and diplomatic teams across the region will also support international partners to re-establish security and ensure humanitarian aid reaches the thousands of innocent victims of this barbaric attack from Hamas terrorists.”

The military support is just the latest provided by the UK in the wake of the surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday.

Analysis: PM has limited options

To date,1,300 Israelis have died while 1,417 Palestinians, including 447 children, have been killed in retaliatory strikes in Gaza – where electricity, water and fuel has been cut off.

Israel has said it will keep blocking supplies until Hamas releases nearly 100 hostages.

The Foreign Office said flights have been organised to get British nationals out of Israel, with the first plane for “vulnerable” people expected to depart today.

PM has limited options when it comes to demonstrating military power

Deborah Haynes

Security and Defence Editor

@haynesdeborah

A decision by the UK to mobilise spy planes and support ships to the eastern Mediterranean is a solid show of solidarity with Israel – but not a demonstration of potent military strength.

The US deployed a huge aircraft carrier, bristling with fighter jets and flanked by a task group of heavily armed warships in the wake of last weekend’s atrocities by Hamas.

The problem for Rishi Sunak is that a massively reduced Royal Navy and Royal Air Force following decades of cost-saving cuts means his options when it comes to projecting power are pretty limited.

Read the full analysis here

A rapid deployment team is also on its way to assist British citizens on the ground.

At home, the government also announced it would provide an extra £3m in funding to increase the number of guards at Jewish schools following reports that some had been forced to close over fears of the safety of pupils.

One Jewish charity, the Community Security Trust (CST), said it had seen a 324% increase in reports of antisemitism as a result over the last four days, including six assaults, 14 direct threats, three instances of vandalism, and 66 cases of abusive behaviour.

Mr Sunak is due to speak to northern European leaders about the situation in Israel at the Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Sweden on Friday.

They are expected to discuss the need to work with countries in the Middle East to support stability while also maintaining support for Ukraine from Russian aggression.

Politics

Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer ‘very sensible’ to accept football tickets worth thousands

Published

14 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer 'very sensible' to accept football tickets worth thousands

Lisa Nandy has said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to accept thousands of pounds worth of football tickets was “very sensible”.

The minister for culture, media and sport also said she had never accepted free clothes from a donor.

Speaking to Sky News at the start of the Labour Party conference today, the MP for Wigan said: “The problem that has arisen since [Sir Keir] became leader of the opposition and then prime minister is that for him to sit in the stands would require a huge security detail, would be disruptive for other people and it would cost the taxpayer a lot of money.

“So I think he’s taken a very sensible decision that’s not the right and appropriate thing to do, and it’s right to accept that he has to go and sit in a different area.

“But I know that he’d much rather be sitting in the stands cheering people on with the usual crowd that he’s been going to the football with for years.”

Ms Nandy also said while she has not accepted free clothes – joking “I think you can probably see that I choose my own clothes sadly” – she doesn’t “make any judgements about what other members of parliament do”.

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She said: “The only judgement I would make is if they’re breaking the rules, so they’re trying to hide what they’re doing. That’s when problems arise.

“Because the point of being open and transparent is that people can see where the relationships are, and they can then judge for themselves whether there’s been any undue influence.”

She asserted there had not been an undue influence in gifts accepted by senior Labour figures, adding: “We don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes.

“We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.

“MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.”

She added: “I don’t think there’s any suggestion here that Keir Starmer has broken any rules. I don’t think there’s any suggestion that he’s done anything wrong.

“We expect our politicians to be well turned out, we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at different events and represent the country at different events and are clothed appropriately.

“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”

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Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves said yesterday they will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes.

The announcement followed criticism of Sir Keir’s gifts from donors, which included clothing worth £16,200 and multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,485, according to the MPs’ register of interests.

The register shows Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations to the value of £2,230.

Sky News also revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.

Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP – his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.