Rishi Sunak suggested a Labour backbencher risked giving “ammunition to our enemies” by linking military action against the Houthis with the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Apsana Begum, the Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, said: “Seventy-one per cent of the British public want a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, that’s according to a latest YouGov poll taken just last month, yet last week the Government launched air strikes in the UK, an escalation of the situation in the Middle East.”
Ms Begum asked Mr Sunak whether he “had any duty towards the British public” and “the parliamentary community” when taking military action.
Mr Sunak replied: “The leader of the opposition made the point in his remarks, rightly, that we need to make sure that malign actors elsewhere would not try to distort what we have done for their own purposes.
“I would gently say to the honourable lady to conflate and link our action against the Houthis with the situation in Israel and Gaza just gives ammunition to our enemies who would seek to make things worse in the region.
“We have acted in self-defence, I’ve explained the reasons and the processes that we have followed… Separately, we will of course work very hard to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza and to try and bring about the sustainable ceasefire that we all of course want to see.”