The UK has no plans to restart trade negotiations with Israel, Business Secretary Peter Kyle has told the JC.
The government suspended a free trade agreement with Israel in 2025 over disagreements about Israel's actions during the Gaza war.
Kyle previously told the JC that trade negotiations with the Jewish state could be "unblocked" following the implementation of phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, which began in January with the start of the second stage of President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan.
Despite this, speaking to Westminster journalists on Thursday, Kyle confirmed there were currently “no plans” to resume negotiations.
“I am watching very closely, there’s no plans to restart immediately,” he said.
Historically, the UK has enjoyed strong trade relations with Israel, with trade between the two countries worth £6.2 billion in the year to the end of the second quarter of 2025.
Kyle's comments came during a lunch for members of the Westminster lobby, where he discussed the government's wider economic agenda.
“The number one mission of this government has always been growth,” he said.
The Business Secretary criticised what he described as the Labour Party's past drift towards “extreme” and “ideological positions” under Jeremy Corbyn, and the Conservative Party's frequent leadership changes during its time in government, which he said Labour needed to learn from.
"I don't think the Tories have learnt the lesson of the Labour Party in opposition, where we moved further and further away from where the public - the mainstream views of mainstream Britain - wanted one of the two main parties to be. We went to extreme positions and ideological positions with Corbyn.
"And I don't think we've learnt the lessons of the Tory Party in government, where every time there was a problem that was experienced with their government, there was only one solution, and that's changing the leader at the top.”
Reflecting on his own political career, Kyle said he had “chosen to stand in a Tory seat”, despite being offered the opportunity to contest what was perceived to be a Labour safe seat in 2015.
Kyle, who is dyslexic and whose first job was on a chicken farm, said he had never chosen “the easy way through life” and that “overcoming barriers in life gives you a quality of temperament which I think is important.”
Speaking about his time as the minister for technology, Kyle said he had “tried really hard to keep open the options with Elon Musk”, but argued that since then the owner of X and Tesla “has taken a much more active and extreme role in British politics.
“Elon Musk is a complex and extreme person,” Kyle said. “He has become extreme in his personal views and the willingness he has to interfere with democracies around the world.”
Echoing a common mantra of Silicon Valley, Kyle said the government needed to “move fast and break things”, and suggested that the public had not yet fully felt the impact of the changes introduced during Labour's first period in office.
He said he sought to “maintain the authority of this government through volatile times”.
Kyle also told assembled journalists that he believed "entitlement is not a qualification for leadership” and that “we reward the wrong behaviour in politics,” which he said meant the public focused too much on personality, and not enough on the actions, behaviour and policy of a government.
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