Priti Patel has been forced to resign as secretary of state for international development. The move followed days of speculation and revelations in the wake of an apparently undisclosed meeting with the prime minister of Israel, during a holiday in the country. She also attended several other off-the-books meetings on the trip. The meetings, apparently held without the knowledge of Downing Street or the Foreign Office, have projected an image to the world of an uncoordinated British international policy.
Meanwhile, the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has apologised if his comments concerning Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe have been “misconstrued”, following