No regret over resignation: Saeeda Warsi

LONDON: One year on after leaving the cabinet table over the issue of killings of thousands of innocent Palestinian children by the Israeli army in Gaza, Britain’s first ever Muslim cabinet minister and Conservative party leader Sayeeda Warsi has said that resigning from the cabinet position “was an incredibly difficult decision, one of the hardest in my political career” but she has no regrets.
In an exclusive interview with The News, the Tory peer said that she spent weeks thinking about it. “I was torn between my loyalty to David (PM) and my commitment to my principles and values. In the end my loyalty to my principles won.” Looking back, she is satisfied and believes that she did the right thing by drawing attention of the world towards a great injustice.
“I don’t have any regrets, no, none at all. But of course I loved the job I did at the foreign office, especially the Parliamentary debates which I do miss occasionally.” “I feel I did all I could have done to persuade my colleagues that their position wasn’t right for Britain. I had very frank conversations in formal meetings and informal discussions.
Sadly the government seemed to have, and still have, a blind spot when it comes to the conduct of the Israeli government. The current governments position with regards to support for arms sales to Israel and lack of genuine consequence for the Israeli government as the Israeli government continues to expand its illegal settlements shows that the governments position is still neither balanced nor in line with British values.”
Warsi said that she received “overwhelming” support from all over the world when she resigned with a bang. “Within days I received tens of thousands of emails, messages and letters. About 95pc were positive. Of course I also received some very malicious and negative emails and letters too. My biggest surprise was some of the unquestioning blind support for Israel from some very principled members of the British Jewish community, I expected a better and more balanced approach.
“The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, the response from around the world was humbling. For me the most moving was the reaction of ordinary Palestinians on the streets of Gaza.” She dismissed some reports in media that she resigned because she was aware that she will not be retained in the new David Cameron cabinet.
“I was confident we would win the election in 2015 and I have no doubt that David Cameron would have asked me to continue in a ministerial role. I had always set my own timetable for stepping away from a government role and David and I had discussed it. My resignation was not part of that timeframe and was not linked to it. The resignation was simply my decision not to be able to stand by the government’s morally indefensible position on Gaza.” Warsi said that the Conservative friends of Israel are an extremely strong and influential organisation within the Conservative Party and “some individuals have tried to run smear campaigns” against me “but overall in the House of Lords and my relationship with the PM remains good”.
She said that within the Conservative party there are strong voices in favour of Palestinian cause also. “We have strong Pro Palestinian voices in Sir Alan Duncan, Sir Nicholas Soames, Crispin Blunt and Baroness Morris amongst others, whom I consider colleagues and friends.” Warsi said that she remains involved in many of the projects she spearheaded while she was in the government. “I’m in regular contact with former colleagues, especially on issues relating to Black and Minority ethnic communities. I’m also still heavily involved with support and funding for projects I started and funded in government such as Tackling Islamophobia , Remembering Srebrenica, The Big Iftaar, Commemoration of the contribution of Muslim Soldiers to WW1 and WW2 and work around Islamic Finance.” Warsi said she intends to publish her memoirs but she doesn’t want to do at this stage as many of her former colleagues remain in key positions. “As a lawyer I was always trained to take detailed notes of meetings. Yes I have extensive notes I took during my time in Cabinet and in opposition. I continue to make notes. I do intend to write and I’ve have a well known publisher who is keen for me to progress a book but I’m not sure what format it will take at this stage. I also don’t think the timing is right right now. There are too many people both in the UK and internationally who are still in office and I wouldn’t want to compromise them by publishing now.”