Sir Alan Duncan arriving for a meeting being held at 10 Downing Street, central London, September 2, 2019
A FORMER Tory Foreign Office minister was cleared of any wrongdoing today following an internal investigation resulting from a baseless accusation of anti-semitism.
A complaint was made against Sir Alan Duncan, British foreign minister from 2016-19, after he appeared on LBC with Nick Ferrari in April.
During the interview, he said the Conservative Friends of Israel group had been “doing the bidding” of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “exercise undue influence at the top of government.”
He went on to say that politicians promoting Mr Netanyahu’s extremist policies should be sacked from government or expelled from the House of Lords.
Speaking to Mr Ferrari, Sir Alan also called the immediate halting of arms to Israel and highlighted the illegality of settlements.
The former MP, still a Conservative Party member, was then subject to an investigation by the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) that he referred to as “a political scandal which discredits the Conservative Party, and which amounts to a McCarthyite witch-hunt, nothing less than despicable.”
Speaking at a press conference in central London today, Sir Alan read out the panel’s findings, which said that his comments “did not go beyond political debate” and “were not anti-semitic and could not properly be regarded as such.”
Sir Alan said he was never told the complainant’s identity, nor what code he had allegedly violated.
He said he was also not even given a copy of the accusation for which he was expected to provide a defence.
Sir Alan said it had emerged that no formal complaint had ever been submitted in the first place, but that it was rather a “political decision by invisible actors.”
Although he had faced personal financial cost and reputational damage from the allegation, Sir Alan thanked the panel for its thoroughness.
He reiterated his support for the Palestinian people and said that anti-semitism must be ruthlessly called out where it genuinely exists.
In his closing remarks, he said: “They have tried to threaten me, but I will not be bullied or silenced.”
