Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has spoken of how important it is “to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine”.

But her attitude is not the same when it comes to another occupation - that of Palestinian territory by Israel. The United Nations, no less, views this territory as occupied, and UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 call for withdrawal of Israel from it. But Truss actually said last October, at a Conservative Friends of Israel Conference Reception: “The United Kingdom wants to build with our friends and allies around the world, and there is no closer friend and ally than the State of Israel.”

If Watford’s Conservative MP Dean Russell is reading this, perhaps he could explain why his Foreign Secretary takes such a hard line against Russia, and yet lavishes praise on an occupying country elsewhere. Over to you, Dean.

K. Gannon

Watford