UK envoy visits Israel to 'drum up business' days after trade talks suspended

Lord Austin says British-Israeli trade is about 'values and relationships'

UK trade envoy to Israel Ian Austin visited several locations including Haifa Bayport. Photo: British embassy in Israel

A British envoy has travelled to Israel to “promote trade with the UK” days after Britain's government suspended new trade talks with the country.

Ian Austin, an independent peer and former Labour MP, posted details of his visit in a social media post on Tuesday. “Trade with Israel provides many thousands of good jobs in the UK and brings people together in the great multicultural democracy that is Israel,” he wrote.

It is understood that Lord Austin does not have any official talks planned. However, he wrote on social media that he will meet Israeli "businesses and officials" during his trip.

Trade envoys are not involved in trade negotiations, but work to promote and secure investment in the UK.

Last week, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended talks over an expanded trade deal with Israel and imposed new sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The measures marked the toughest response to Israel's military campaign in Gaza and its handling of the crisis in the West Bank to date. At the time, an Israeli diplomat dismissed the suspension of new trade talks as "a British loss".

The diplomat added: "It is a lose-lose situation for the UK. Israel should be one of the first partners for tech and all the things we wanted to do together. This is really a British loss. We don't see it as an Israeli loss. It's a punishment to your own people."

Lord Austin, the UK trade envoy for Israel, appears to be at odds with the mood in the Foreign Office. He had expressed his intention to visit the country and “drum up business for Britain” in Politics Home last week, writing that “trade is not just about exports and quotas, it is about our values and our relationships".

He added: “Even without the benefits a new trade agreement would bring to Britain, our message is that we’re open for business, so we’ll still be encouraging British businesses to export to Israel and Israeli businesses to invest in the UK to create jobs here."

He visited the Customs Scanning Centre, the Haifa Nazareth Light Rail project, the Haifa Bayport and the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) on his first day, “witnessing UK-Israeli co-operation at every stop”, a social media post by the UK embassy in Israel said.

A foreign office representative told The National that Lord Austin was in the country to “maintain” existing relationships with Israeli businesses.

"Lord Austin is in Israel this week in his capacity as trade envoy to maintain our relationship with Israeli businesses,” they said.

"We suspended talks with Israel on a new [free-trade agreement] because it is not possible to advance discussions with a Netanyahu government pursuing such egregious policies in Gaza and the West Bank."

The representative did not respond when asked whether Mr Lammy was aware of the trip. The Foreign Secretary accused Israel of “intolerable and repellent” actions in Gaza last week and condemned its renewed offensive on the strip.

Mr Lammy said: “We must call this what it is: it is extremism, it is dangerous, it is repellent, it is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”