Scottish government suspends meetings with Israeli officials

The Scottish government will no longer hold meetings with Israeli ambassadors until "real progress" is made in Gaza ceasefire talks, it announced on Monday. 

The ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) administration has faced backlash after it emerged that Angus Robertson, its external affairs secretary, had met with Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK. 

Robertson apologised for the meeting not being "strictly limited" to ceasefire talks, and said that further invitations by Israel would be rejected unless progress was made towards a truce, humanitarian aid into Gaza and until Israel "co-operates fully with its international obligations on the investigation of genocide and war crimes".

It comes as an SNP lawmaker was expelled from the party after posting on X: "If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed ten times as many."

Speaking to Sky News, John Mason MSP said: "It's never my intention to upset people, but I'm not afraid of upsetting people in the sense of if I think something important needs to be said."