International Development Secretary Priti Patel has been ordered back to Britain following the disclosure that she held further unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians during a holiday to the country.
Patel - who began a three-day visit to Africa on Tuesday - is flying back to the UK after being summoned by Theresa May to explain herself, the BBC reported.
The BBC quoted unnamed sources as saying that she was on a plane. Some on social media suggested she would arrive in London around 0200 AEDT Thursday.
It follows her mea culpa about 12 undisclosed meetings in Israel, including with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is understood Patel met Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan in Parliament on September 7, and foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York on September 18, following the August meetings in Israel.
No British officials were present and like her meetings in Israel, she did not report them to the Foreign Office or government in the usual way.
She was accompanied at all the meetings bar one in Israel by the honorary president of the Conservative Friends for Israel lobbying group, Lord Polak.
Labour has already demanded an investigation by the prime minister's standards adviser into Patel's meetings with the Israeli government, claiming they involved four "serious breaches" of the ministerial code.
Before the extra meetings were revealed, Downing Street insisted May continued to have confidence in Patel, who was in Africa with International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, after giving her a dressing down on Monday over her trip to Israel.
Share
