Baroness Warsi Resigns From UK Cabinet
United Kingdom's Senior Foreign Office Minister and Minister for Faith and Communities, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, resigned from Prime Minister David Cameron's cabinet Tuesday morning, protesting against the "morally indefensible" UK government policy on Israel's aggression on Gaza.
After her sudden resignation, Warsi told BBC: "Over the last four weeks I have done everything that I can, both at formal meetings and informal meetings, to try to convince my colleagues that our current policy on Gaza is morally indefensible, that it's not in our interests, it's not in British interests and that it will have consequences, both internationally and here at home. But, in the end, I felt the government's position wasn't moving and therefore I had to, on a point of principle, resign."
Warsi is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, who grew up in West Yorkshire and was the first female Muslim to serve in the cabinet.
She had told the media earlier that being born to an immigrant mill worker in a mill town in Yorkshire, and "to have the privilege of serving in cabinet at such an important time in Britain's history, I think it is terribly humbling." It was due to her appeal among the minority communities that she was chosen to lead the Tory party so as to attract the disaffected classes of the society.
According to The News International, Warsi - in her resignation letter - claimed that she could not "live with myself" for the decisions she was being asked to support. She further stressed that she was definitely all for the right of Israel to exist; however, Israel's actions that have razed Gaza and taken the lives of more than 1,800 Palestinians within a month could never be justified under any circumstances.
Her resignation has put Cameron in a fix; not only on the issue of Gaza but also that the party would need her during next year's general elections as her popularity could benefit the Conservative Party, considering that she has already performed excellently on behalf of the government earlier.
Warsi added in the letter: "I believe our approach in relation to the current conflict is neither consistent with our values, specifically to the rule of law and our long history of support for international justice. I always said that long after life in politics I must be able to live with myself for the decisions I took or the decisions I supported. By staying in government at this time, I do not feel I can be sure of that."
