Tim Walker

Mandrake

Slow Responders

Having largely gone along with the Government’s position on Gaza, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey suddenly seemed to awaken to the humanitarian crisis when he called on Keir Starmer to take undefined “sanctions” against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part in the “ethnic cleansing”.

Mandrake hears his intervention came after Davey became aware of an increasing sense of impatience – bordering on rebelliousness – among his own MPs and party members that he wasn’t taking a firmer line on the issue.

“There’s a feeling Ed is too much in thrall to Gavin Stollar, chair of Lib Dem Friends of Israel, for whom he has lately secured an OBE,” says my man at party headquarters. “Ed is absurdly worried about causing any offence and, even on the day he talked of his abhorrence about what was happening in Gaza, he took care to be seen to be speaking out too – just a few moments before – against antisemitism, just to cover himself.”

He adds that, in his view, Davey also had a cynical reason to be seen to be taking a stand on Gaza as, a matter of hours after his intervention in the House of Commons, he headed off to the National Liberal Club to make an appearance at a £35-a-head Lib Dem Eid Celebration to raise money among Muslim donors.