Key events
Kiran Stacey
My colleague Kiran Stacey has this report on Grant Shapp’s interview on the BBC’s Today programme here:
This is from my colleague Kiran Stacey on Grant Shapps’s exchange with Mishal Husain this morning. (See 9.40am.)
I would venture it was not smart for Grant Shapps to tell @MishalHusain this morning she was “literally the only person who would be confused” by the government line on Israel’s evacuation order. 😬
— Kiran Stacey (@kiranstacey) October 13, 2023Rishi Sunak became the first prime minister in decades to stay overnight on a Royal Navy vessel, as he travelled to Sweden for a security summit, PA Media reports. PA says:
Sunak got a taste of navy life, as he spent a night aboard the HMS Diamond ahead of the Joint Expeditionary Force summit on the Swedish island of Gotland.
The prime minister was up early to serve breakfast to sailors, dishing out hash browns and tomatoes to the ship’s company.
The last prime minister to spend the night aboard such a vessel, according to navy records, was Labour’s Harold Wilson.
Rishi Sunak having breakfast with the crew on board HMS Diamond. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty ImagesRishi Sunak (3rd from left) with Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store (4th from left) and other political leaders viewing military equipment given to Ukraine. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty ImagesShapps says it is ‘highly likely’ Britons are among people held hostage by Hamas in GazaIn an interview with Sky News this morning Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, said it was “highly likely” that Britons were among the people being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. He said:
I can’t go into specific detail. What I can tell you is it is highly likely, no one will know for sure, that there are those with either British nationals or people with joint nationality involved in the hostage situation, as has been reported previously.
Shapps backs Israel over Gaza City evacuation order but ducks questions on practicality or legalityGood morning. As the Israel-Hamas conflict escalates, it is becoming the main topic of debate in UK politics. Our main coverage is on the Israel-Hamas liveblog, which covers the story from an international perspective.
But here I will be covering the UK response, which has included the government continuing to show very strong support for Israel.
The United Nations has said Israel should withdraw the order it has given to about 1.1 million people living in Gaza City to move south, saying it thinks it is “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences”.
Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, has been giving interviews this morning, and he has not taken the UN line. He has backed Israel’s decision – while ducking questions about whether its order is practical or legal.
On the Today programme, when asked if he thought it would be possible for around 1 million people to evacuate in 24 hours, Shapps said it was good that Israel was providing citizens with information about its intentions and he said the UK wanted Hamas to be “removed from the scene”, but “in a manner that does not affect the Palestinian population as far as is possible”. Hamas was using the population as human shields, he said.
Mishal Husain, the presenter, asked him if the UK government thought it was possible for 1 million people to move by this time tomorrow. Shapps did not answer directly, but said he had come from a Nato meeting where ministers were shown “incredibly distressing” footage of the atrocities committed by Hamas, including children being beheaded and bodies being dragged through the streets. He went on:
Israel is dealing with an organisation that will literally stop at nothing, and are using the Palestinian population as human shields.
Now, we’ve said to Israel, of course, it’s important to act within international law.
Husain asked if the evacuation order was within international law. Again, Shapps did not answer directly, but said Israel was warning the Palestinians of their intent. “They have the right to defend themselves as a country,” he said.
Husain tried again. She asked:
In recent times, there has never been an order of this kind. It amounts to wanting the population of half of the territory of Gaza not to be there any more. Does the UK government support that order?
And Shapps replied:
We’ve never been in these times, in as much as we’ve never seen a country have 1,300 people slaughtered by terrorists. If you scale that up to Britain’s size, it’d be thousands of Brits slaughtered by terrorists coming into the country. You’d expect, and in this case you’d expect Israel, to have the right to defend itself.
Now if those terrorists then hide themselves within populations, it is right to give that population notice so that they can move.
Husain asked Shapps to confirm that the government was supporting Israel in issuing this order, and that it thought an evacuation on this scale within 24 hours was realistic. Shapps replied:
The UK government supports Israel in providing advance notice that Hamas are hiding within a civilian population where, by the way, they’re also holding capture those people who they kidnapped at the weekend.
Husain said Shapps was not being entirely clear, but Shapps insisted he was. “The UK government supports Israel’s right to defend itself.” And when Husain said: “In this way?”, Shapps went on:
And Israel is providing advance warning of military action in order for people to move themselves out of the way, and I think it’s absolutely right that happens.
Rishi Sunak is in Sweden for a meeting of leaders from the Joint Expeditionary Force, and we are due to hear from him later.
I will also be covering any other political news, although the diary is light. But the DUP are having their conference in Belfast.
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