Foreign Office Bosses Have a Suggestion for Staff With Gaza Conscience: Resign

‘Consult your line manager.’
Over 300 Foreign Office officials who collectively raised concerns about the government’s handling of the Gaza genocide have been slapped down by their Whitehall superiors in a letter described by a former senior diplomat as “shameful”.
Sir Oliver Robbins and Nick Dyer, the two most senior civil servants in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), reminded a group of officials that while they welcomed “healthy challenge”, there were other “mechanisms available to those who are uncomfortable” with policy besides applying collective pressure – including resignation.
In mid-May, officials wrote to foreign secretary David Lammy urging the government to end its collaboration with Israel and comply with international law.
In their response, seen exclusively by Novara Media and published in full below, Robbins and Dyer suggested that employees worried that the government may be enabling war crimes speak to their line managers, vent to a staff counsellor or resign, the last of which they described as “an honourable course”.
A former senior British diplomat described Robbins and Dyer’s letter to Novara Media as “shameful” and “a sneering fob off” to staff acting on “deep personal conscience”. They called on the House of Commons foreign affairs committee to investigate the exchange.
Zarah Sultana, an MP currently suspended from the Labour whip for opposing the two-child benefit cap, told Novara Media: “This is what happens when a government enables genocide: it silences its own workers, censors questions and dares them to quit rather than change course.”
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Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2025/06/05/foreign-office-bosses-have-a-suggestion-for-staff-with-gaza-conscience-resign/








