Foreign Office ‘dullards’ slammed for treatment of Brits stranded in Israel

A former government minister has attacked the Foreign Office’s handling of British citizens stranded in Israel as a result of the war with Iran.

Lord Spellar, who served as armed forces minister under Tony Blair, said that the department had failed to learn from the criticism it faced following the repatriation efforts to bring British citizens home at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A report from Parliament’s influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee in July 2020 criticised the Foreign Office for its over-reliance on commercial flights and a lack of support for citizens stranded getting to them.

The report said: “Whilst reliance on the commercial system may have been the most cost effective and convenient way to help the majority of travellers return to the UK, for some people this was not a practical solution.”

It added that, by operating a number of chartered repatriation flights alongside the commercial options, “the Foreign office could have successfully brought home the travellers in the most vulnerable situations”.

It went on to say that while the department “advised UK citizens to make use of commercial flights”, it “did not do enough to help people access those flights”.

The committee went on to urge the government “to offer support that factors in the reality that for many, just because commercial flights are running, it doesn’t necessarily mean that those flights are accessible”.

But Spellar, who served as the Labour MP for Warley during the pandemic, drew parallels between the two crises.

Lorin Spellar (Image: UK Parliament)[Missing Credit]

“As a constituency MP we faced similar problems when the pandemic struck and thousands were stuck in Northern India. All other countries made arrangements to get their people back, stubbornly resisted by our lackadaisical Foreign Office and rightly criticised by the Foreign Affairs committee subsequently,” he told the JC.

“Even in spite of the stinging report, it is clear that the dullards in the Foreign Office have learned nothing”, he added.

A number of European nations have already successfully repatriated their citizens from Israel.

A German charter flight returned 171 citizens home yesterday with another planned for today and Poland returned 154 of its citizens yesterday.

There are currently no plans by the government to repatriate British citizens from Israel.

Asked yesterday what action the government was taking to assist British national stuck in Israel, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “This is a fast-moving situation. We are keeping all our advice under constant review.

“As you would expect the safety and security of British nationals is our top priority.

"Routes via land out of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories currently remain open and British nationals are able to use them."

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel today urged the government to do more to extract civilians stranded in Israel.

"There are thousands upon thousands of British nationals in Israel and currently the government response is not sufficient," she told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

"There are [phone] numbers being put up for families to call and that is simply not good enough … We do know embassy personnel are being evacuated. And if they can do that for embassy staff then clearly additional facilities must be extended to British nationals in Israel."

Yesterday, it emerged that the families of British embassy staff had been evacuated from Tel Aviv, despite the official Foreign Office advice not currently urging British nationals to leave.

The JC also revealed that the Foreign Office sent an email to Brits who had registered with the department about a charter flight that didn’t exist. A spokesperson said this was an “administrative error”.

Some Brits stranded in Israel have expressed frustration with the Foreign Office’s handling of the situation.

Conservative Councillor Zak Wagman (left) (Image: X).[Missing Credit]

Zak Wagman, a conservative councillor in Stanmore, told the JC that their response was “at best vague and at worst downright stress-inducing. There are Brits like me and my family stuck here, desperate to get home, and all we get from our government is silence.”

He added: “I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for a while, but the lack of any meaningful response whilst so many other European and Western nations have either successfully evacuated or are communicating concrete plans, makes you start to feel that they really don't actually care."

Yesterday, a Downing Street spokesperson said that Foreign Office staff were present on the Jordanian side of the border with Israel “to provide onwards advice about onwards travel options”.

The JC’s Jane Prinsley, who was able to leave Israel via the Jordanian border, revealed that part of that assistance included handing out digestive biscuits to Brits once they made it through the Jordanian side of the border.

Despite calls for de-escalation, the conflict between Israel and Iran shows no sign of subsiding.

At least six people were seriously wounded by an Iranian missile barrage on Israel this morning. Beersheva’s Soroka Hospital sustained a direct hit, and impacts were also reported in Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Holon.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “The safety and security of British nationals is our top priority. The Foreign Office is working around the clock to respond to the crisis and support British nationals affected.

“We have launched register your presence for British nationals in Israel and the OPTs so that we can share important information on the situation, and we are sending rapid deployment teams to Egypt and Jordan to assist British nationals who are crossing the border.

“We recognise this is a fast-moving situation that has the potential to deteriorate further, quickly and without warning. That is why we are encouraging British nationals to register their presence and pay close attention to travel advice.”