According to Lord Cameron, he attempted to impose sanctions on two far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli cabinet for inciting violent extremism against Palestinians while serving as Foreign Secretary.

The former prime minister of the Conservative Party claimed that the July general election had gotten in the way and urged Labour ministers to return to the sanctions debate instead of enforcing a more comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.

Lord Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Today program that action was planned against Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich in order to "put pressure on Netanyahu" to act in accordance with international law.

“Before we left office I was working up sanctions on these two ministers, ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, who, when you look at what they say, they have said things like encouraging people to stop aid convoys going into Gaza, they have encouraged extreme settlers in the West Bank with the appalling things they have been carrying out,” he said.

“So, actually saying to Netanyahu, ‘yes, we support your right to self-defence, no, we are not going to end the sale of arms, but actually when ministers in your government who are extremists and behave in this way, we are prepared to use our sanctions regime to say this is not good enough and has to stop’.”

Both ministers believe in Jewish supremacy over what they see as a historic “Greater Israel” encompassing all of the occupied Palestinian territories and stretching much further beyond the country’s current boundaries.

They have used racist rhetoric to demonise Palestinians and encouraged Jewish settlers on the West Bank to take the law into their own hands - while also opposing rights for women and gay people.

According to Lord Cameron, he was told that criticising the ministers during the election campaign would have been "too much of a political act."

However, instead of taking the "wrong path" and reducing military supplies to Israel, he asked Sir Keir Starmer's government to "look again at this sanctions issue."

After a court ruling last month that Israel would deploy UK-made weapons in breach of international humanitarian law, David Lammy, Lord Cameron's replacement as Foreign Secretary, imposed restrictions on the shipments. He refrained from outright banning it, though.