Labour 'hypocrisy' torn apart by top Tory after imposing sanctions on Israel: 'It's damaging!'

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Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has announced a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank

Alex Burghart has accused the Labour Government of "hypocrisy" for imposing sanctions on Israel while ignoring human rights abuses carried out by China.

Speaking to GB News, the Deputy Conservative leader declared not only are the sanctions "worse than pointless", but they are also "damaging" to the UK's relationships on the world stage.

Addressing MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Miliband confirmed sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

He said: "To those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this. You will face the full force of UK sanctions.

"I can also announce we are sanctioning Lebanese Hezbollah's financing arm, Al Qaeda al-Hassan."

Criticising Mr Miliband's decision to impose sanctions, Mr Burghart told the People's Channel: "These are a very silly set of measures that aren't going to change anything; they're not going to make Israel change its policies.

"If that's what people think needs to happen, what they are going to do is damage a very important relationship that Britain has, and I give I'll give you an example of why it's important.

"Over the course of the past few years, MI5 working with Israeli intelligence has prevented numerous terrorist attacks in this country and kept British people safe, and now, for the sake of some gesture politics, the Labour Government is putting that at risk."

The deputy Tory leader declared the move is "foolish" and "short sighted".

He said: "That's very, very foolish. The Israelis help us because there are friends, there our allies and our enemies are their enemies. And what we saw yesterday, I think it was really very short sighted.

"If Labour goes out and does something that makes it feel better but doesn't change anything in terms of Israeli domestic policy and damages a security relationship that the United Kingdom has, then it's totally pointless, right? It's worse than pointless, it's damaging, so I'm very against what they're doing."

Highlighting the Prime Minister's recent call with the Chinese President, Mr Burghart argued there is "hypocrisy" within the Government in failing to act against China.

He said: "The other thing I noticed yesterday, and I'm sure some of your viewers have noticed as well, at the same time that Labour were saying all these things about Israel and the House of Commons, they put out a communique, they put out an account of a conversation that Andy Burnham has had with the Chinese President.

"And it said how constructive they want it to be with China, how they wanted to work with China, and what a great relationship we have. Now, I'm not saying we should put sanctions on China, but I would point out that the Chinese, over the past few decades have been guilty of some of the very worst human rights violations that we've seen anywhere.

"And yet, Labour's hypocrisy is capable of allowing it to have these two totally different approaches at the same time."

Mr Burghart declared Labour's approach to Israel in comparison to China is "madness".

He told Britain's News Channel: "I think this says a lot about the votes that Labour is trying to get back into its party from the Greens, from the Gaza independents, rather than what's actually going on in Israel."

Mr Burghart concluded there are "double standards" on the Left of politics when it comes to Israel.

He argued: "I think that there are certainly some people out there who are anti-Israel because they are antisemitic in that for a for a number of people out there, these two things are very closely bound up.

"Just look at the you look at the protests that go on here against Israel, and then you ask, where are the protests against murderous regimes? Where were the protests against the Syrian government when it was killing its own people? Where were the protests against the Iranian government when it was killing its own people?

"Again, on the Left, there is this enormous double standard which has decided to single out Israel and call out everything that they do when actually whilst at the same time ignoring yet hugely worse things that happen elsewhere."