CFI has congratulated “staunch friend” Rishi Sunak following his success in the Conservative Party Leadership Election to become the UK’s next Prime Minister.
At CFI’s Conservative Party Leadership Election hustings earlier this summer, Mr Sunak asserted: “You will have my total commitment that I will fight very hard for the security of people in Israel”. During the event, he spoke of his time as Local Government Minister and his efforts to ensure local authorities were prohibited from implementing polices related to BDS. When asked about legislation to prohibit BDS he said: “It’s a manifesto commitment, it shouldn’t be controversial, and I’d like to crack on and do it as quickly as possible”.
Addressing the possibility of moving the British Embassy to Jerusalem he recently said: “To me it is undisputedly the historic capital, clearly there’s a very strong case for it to be recognised…so it is something I would like to do”.
In an exclusive letter to CFI in August, Mr Sunak wrote that he was “deeply” concerned by Iran’s threat to Israel and that “we cannot allow Iran to possess a nuclear weapon”, he added that proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “must now be on the table”.
Following the attempted murder of Sir Salman Rushdie in August, Mr Sunak said that it should be a “wake-up call for the West” and argued that “Iran’s reaction to the attack strengthens the case for proscribing the IRGC”. He also called for a “much tougher sanctions” on Iran and suggested “we have to start asking whether the JCPOA [nuclear deal] is at a dead end”.
In his letter, Mr Sunak said that along with strengthening bilateral ties with Israel we “must also fortify the relationship at home”, he then reiterated his commitment to “making the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre free to visit” and to ensure new legislation is passed to build it in Victoria Garden’s “as soon as possible”.
