Rishi Sunak has tonight moved quickly to sack a Tory MP who called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Paul Bristow, the MP for Peterborough, was removed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) less than two hours after the Telegraph reported that he had become the first Conservative MP to publicly support such a plan. According to a No. 10 spokesman: ‘Paul Bristow has been asked to leave his post in government following comments that were not consistent with the principles of collective responsibility.’
Bristow wrote to Sunak on Thursday, setting out the case for a ceasefire in a two-page letter. He wrote that ‘Thousands have been killed and more than one million now displaced. It is difficult to understand how this makes Israel more secure or indeed makes anything better.’ He welcomed Sunak’s calls last week for ‘specific pauses’ in the fighting, but added: ‘A permanent ceasefire would save lives and allow for a continued column of humanitarian aid [to] reach the people who need it the most.’
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