Theresa May faces second cabinet reshuffle in a week

Theresa May accepted the resignation of her international development secretary after Patel acknowledged that secret meetings with senior Israeli figures "fell below the high standards" expected of a Cabinet minister.

The Prime Minister faces a politically sensitive challenge in replacing prominent Brexit-backer Patel.

Her decision to appoint Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary after Sir Michael Fallon's resignation last week was openly criticised by some of her MPs and May will be anxious to avoid creating further unrest in her fragile administration.

The Prime Minister could be keen to replace Patel with another Brexit-backer in order to placate Eurosceptic MPs on the Conservative benches and maintain the current balance within the Cabinet.

Prominent Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested that disgruntled Remainers could have been behind the leak which led to Patel's downfall.

He said that generally "conspiracy theories are wrong" because "people aren't behaving according to some grand Marxist plan".

"But nonetheless there are still some people who are still very bitter about the result a year ago and inevitably that colours their behaviour," he told BBC's Newsnight.

"If you go into how did Priti Patel's visit come out in the first place, was it leaked by the Foreign Office, was it leaked by somebody at the Foreign Office who resented her and probably the Foreign Secretary's role in Brexit, you may find something."

Patel's replacement would not necessarily have to be an ardent Brexiteer, he said.

"As long as it's somebody who has accepted that Brexit is happening and will support it properly and won't be a frightful Eeyore I don't think there will be a problem."

With Brexit talks resuming in Brussels, May's domestic difficulties are having repercussions in European capitals, with preparations reportedly being made in case her administration collapses.

The Times quoted an unnamed European leader as saying: "Britain is very weak and the weakness of Theresa May makes negotiations very difficult."

Witham MP Patel was forced to cut short an official trip to Africa and return home for a showdown with May on Wednesday at which it was made clear her Cabinet career was over.

Her downfall came after it emerged she had a series of 12 engagements with senior Israeli figures - including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - during a holiday in the country in August.

She then held two additional meetings, one in the UK and one in the US, following her return from Israel.

In a further development, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that during her stay in the country she visited an Israeli military field hospital in the occupied Golan Heights.

Britain, like other members of the international community, has never recognised Israeli control of the area seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The meetings, without officials and in relation to one of the most sensitive areas of foreign policy, led to Patel apologising and being given a dressing down by May on Monday.

But subsequent disclosures added to pressure on Patel, culminating in the meeting in Downing Street which lasted around 30 minutes.

In her resignation letter Patel said: "I accept that in meeting with organisations and politicians during a private holiday in Israel my actions fell below the high standards that are expected of a Secretary of State."

In a possible indication that she could be a standard-bearer for Brexiteers on the backbenches she vowed to "speak up for our country, our national interests and the great future that Britain has as a free, independent and sovereign nation".

In her letter to Patel, the Prime Minister said said: "As you know, the UK and Israel are close allies, and it is right that we should work closely together.

"But that must be done formally, and through official channels.

"That is why, when we met on Monday, I was glad to accept your apology and welcomed your clarification about the trip to Israel over the summer.

"Now that further details have come to light, it is right that you have decided to resign and adhere to the high standards of transparency and openness that you have advocated."

Iain Duncan Smith said his instinct was that the PM would seek to keep the balance in the Cabinet but that her number one consideration was to "find the person she thinks is most able to do the job".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the Tory MP played down suggestions that the Cabinet was in chaos or that Patel's departure would spark a reshuffle.

"Theresa May is in full charge of this Cabinet and I have no doubt at all her appointment today will reflect the nature of that." he said.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has written to May demanding further details of Patel's meetings in Israel.

Watson said he had been told that the former international development secretary met officials from the British consulate general in Jerusalem, which he said made clear that the Foreign Office was aware of her presence in the country.

He demanded to know whether the Prime Minister or Foreign Office had "suppressed" information about the supposed meeting.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Watson said: "I would like to know the facts of this case, because it is very unusual. I was told that the Foreign Office deliberately asked Downing Street to remove details of the briefing she received from Foreign Office officials when she was in Israel.

"If true, it shows that there was knowledge that Priti Patel was running a sort of independent foreign policy earlier, and that she's not been sacked for breaching the ministerial code in doing that, but she's been sacked because it became public that she was doing that."

Responding to reports that EU officials were preparing for a possible change in government, Watson said: "If Theresa May collapses, then the country is in a very bad place and would require a general election.

"It does seem to me that we are in a very unstable situation at the heart of government and that random events could bring the Government down. We are ready with our manifesto, we would be prepared to go into a general election with a bold set of policies."

In her first public comment since her resignation, Patel said in a tweet: "An enormous thank you to friends, colleagues, constituents and the public for the support and kindness you have shown me over the last few days."

Discussing whether Patel's successor should be a supporter of Brexit, Duncan Smith told Today: "We are all Brexiteers now, so the question is to what degree do you want someone in that job to be in support of David Davis and others, and I think therefore the balance on having strong Brexit views is one that in all probability the Prime Minister will certainly look for."

Duncan Smith said it was "a bit rich" for EU figures to suggest May's position was precarious, at a time when the Netherlands and Germany have faced difficulties forming governments, there was "chaos" in Italy and arrests of Catalonian separatists in Spain.

The former Tory leader said the coming period for May's Government would be "a bit bumpy at times", but insisted she was the only person able to keep the Cabinet and party together.

"There are going to be twists and turns, there are going to be ups and downs, because that's the nature of a Government that doesn't have a majority," he said.

"I think Theresa May is the one person that can actually still unite the Cabinet, unite the party, and make sure that whilst we are leaving the European Union, the party itself stays at ease with her domestic agenda."

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi predicted that Patel would return to government, telling ITV1's Good Morning Britain: "I think she's done the right thing. She will be back, I'm sure of that."