Another day, another crisis for the British Prime Minister's embattled Government. Photo / AP
Another day, another crisis for the British Prime Minister's embattled Government. Photo / AP
It was less than a week ago that Theresa May lost her Defence Secretary. The last thing the British leader wants to think about is replacing more senior figures - even when foreign policy blunders by two of them raise that question.
As she tries to navigate a sexual harassmentscandal that has distracted her focus from Brexit, a fresh crisis has opened.
Her gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson faced calls from the Opposition to resign for jeopardising efforts to free an Iranian-British mother held in jail in Iran.
Only one Tory in the House of Commons spoke in support of International Development Secretary Priti Patel - and that was Alistair Burt, the junior minister sent out to defend her while she is travelling to Africa.
Patel admitted going behind May's back to meet Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a holiday.
The Prime Minister's spokesman James Slack insisted that May has confidence in both. Between the two, both strong supporters of Brexit, the fate of Patel seems more uncertain.
Yesterday, the day after Patel's first admission, Slack told reporters that on her return from her holiday in August, the secretary had asked her officials whether British aid money could be given to support the Israeli Army's relief work with Syrian refugees in the Golan Heights.
The idea was rejected - apart from anything else, Britain doesn't recognise Israel's occupation of Golan.
Slack later confirmed that May had only learned of this proposal that morning, when the BBC reported it - the day after Patel had apologised to the Prime Minister and issued a statement apparently setting out the full details of her trip.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Photo / AP
The idea of giving aid money to the Israeli Army was covered by a reference in the statement to "partnership" on "humanitarian work".
For some, May's latest headache is yet another demonstration of her weakness, which draws repeated questions over whether her Government can last to see Brexit to the finish line. If more dominos drop - in the shape of senior ministers - the last one to fall could be May herself.
With Brexit talks resuming tomorrow, an opinion poll showed that a record majority - 66 per cent - of Britons disapprove of May's handling of Brexit talks and are increasingly sceptical that leaving the EU will make the country better off.
Last week Johnson told a Parliamentary committee that before British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016, she had been "simply teaching people journalism as I understand it, at the very limit".
Britain's Secretary of State for International Development Priti Patel. Photo / AP
Her family and her employer insist she was on holiday. According to the Foreign Office, Iran's Judiciary High Committee seized on Johnson's remarks. Johnson told Parliament: "I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect".
He also said he would be travelling to Iran in coming weeks to discuss the case and that it was "simply untrue" to link his words with the legal action against Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry asked him: "How many more times does this need to happen? A job like this, where your words hold gravity and your actions have consequences, is simply not the job for him."
Opposition MPs also asked why Patel hadn't been fired. "It is very difficult for us to know whether is [Patel or Johnson] who has the worst relationship with accuracy," Labour's Ben Bradshaw commented. "If we had a prime minister who wasn't so weak, both of them would have been sacked."
