© David JonesBaroness Warsi has quit Government over her opposition to Cameron's Gaza policy
It's been just over a week since I heard the first, low rumble of discontent on Gaza eminating from the Conservative benches. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was disheartened by the failure to do more to stand up to Israel. Margot James had written a letter to the foreign secretary. Sarah Wollaston too was unhappy.
Now, the grumblings can be contained no longer. Warsi has quit as a Foreign Office minister with a devastating tweet saying: "I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza."
Her resignation letter is all the more powerful for its measured and dignified language. She accuses the prime minister of presiding over a "morally indefensible" approach to the Gaza conflict, which she claims is "not in Britain's national interest and will have a long term detrimental impact on our reputation internationally and domestically".
She tried to persuade the new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to change tack, but was unsuccessful. And, as we disclosed on Channel 4 News, James, MP for Stourbridge, also wrote to him urging a more robust response. She too got nowhere.
Some on the Tory benches think the criticism is misplaced. After all, only yesterday David Cameron toughened his rhetoric on the crisis, calling for an end to the slaughter. Had he an inkling of the Warsi resignation by then? Possibly. A few days ago she tweeted her followers: "If there is a community meeting or protest in relation to #Gaza happening near you I'd like to know, please tweet me the details."
© Martin PopeMP Margot James is Hague's parliamentary private secretary.
Wollaston, an MP in South Devon, told me this morning that she believes the UK government should announce an arms embargo against Israel. Yes, Britain is reviewing arms export licences, but Wollaston contrasts the speed of the response against Russia following the downing of flight MH17 with what she sees as the Government dragging its heels in the face of the slaughter of more than 1800 Palestinians.
"I just think we need to apply the same standards. If this was another nation bombarding a civilian area we would see a call for an arms embargo," she said. "Look at the response to Putin: we are seeing a very significant response. On Gaza we don't see anything like the same response".
The spur to action for Wollaston, a doctor by profession, came when she received a letter from a fellow medic Sir Iain Chalmers. In it he told of the heartbreaking story of Hassan Al Hallaq, a computer engineer who'd studied in Oxford. Al Hallaq lost six members of his family, including his eight-months-pregnant wife and their two little boys, after their home was bombed by Israeli forces last month.
"For me it's purely humanitarian. I just think the scale of this demands a response. There's a double standard in the way we view civilian lives in Gaza," she added.
Wollaston wrote to the prime minister this morning to make her case. And after the resignation of Warsi, he'd be advised to take it seriously.
© Jay WilliamsMP Sarah Wollaston is one female Tory MP pushing Cameron for change.
Warsi's resignation letter is intriguing because of who it name checks: Ken Clarke, the veteran former minister who, unlike most of his Conservative colleagues, voted against the Iraq war. And, crucially, Dominic Grieve, who was sacked as Attorney general at the reshuffle.
What does he make of the suggestion from the top human rights official at the United Nations that Israel's bombing of UN schools in Gaza constitutes a war crime? On Channel 4 News last night, Blunt indicated he concurred with the UN assessment. Other Conservative MPs agree too.
And what of the former foreign secretary William Hague? Had he remained in post, many suspect he'd have taken a far harder line against Israel. Warsi praised him to the hilt in her resignation letter ("one of the finest foreign secretaries this country has seen"). Interestingly James is his parliamentary private secretary.
Are they reflecting Hague's private concerns? I'll let you know when I find out.
Its going to take the women to pull the men's chestnuts out of the fire on this planet, or so I think. Thank god some of the girls in positions of power are forging headlong into the fray on the side of truth and justice. I would like to finish the Superman motto with "the American way", but that terrain is represented by the zio-harpies; Clinton, Pelosi, Fineswine, et al. There will be no assistance from that dark cabal.
At least Great Britain's ladies are standing and being counted as possessing consciences.