Claim that UK played 'key role' in deal rejected

ISRAEL has rejected a Cabinet minister’s claim the UK played a “key role” in securing the Gaza ceasefire as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to join other world leaders at a peace summit on the Middle East.

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said she would “have to contradict” the assertion that Britain had been a leading player “behind the scenes’

Earlier yesterday, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defended the UK's efforts towards ending the war in Gaza, where a fragile truce is holding following an agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump.

“We have played a key role behind the scenes in shaping this,’ she told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

Asked what this contribution involved, she said: “These are complex matters of diplomacy that we are involved in, but we do welcome and recognise the critical role that the American government played in getting us to this point.”