A TORY minister refused yesterday to condemn genocidal remarks made by Israel’s national security minister amid concerns that a new free trade deal with Tel Aviv will cover Israeli businesses based in the occupied West Bank.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads a far-right party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, gave a speech last Friday to settlers in the unauthorised outpost of Evyatar in which he reportedly called on the military to kill thousands of Palestinian “terrorists” in order to “fulfil our great mission” of colonising the entire territory.

This was just the latest in along list of disturbing comments by Ben-Gvir, who has previously spoke about “crushing” Palestinians “one by one.”

Labour MP Andy McDonald urged International Trade Minister Nigel Huddleston yesterday to “condemn those genocidal remarks about Palestinians and ensure that any trade deal with Israel explicitly bans UK trade with these illegal settlements and makes binding regulations for companies to uphold human rights standards.”

Mr McDonald’s party colleague Nadia Whittome added that plans for an upgraded free trade deal with Tel Aviv risk allowing Israeli businesses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to trade with Britain.

She said: “If the UK signs a trade deal without a territorial clause defining the border between Israel and Palestine, then it will be … in legal terms, equivalent to letting Israel decide by default to include its settlements in occupied Palestinian territories as part of Israel.”

Mr Huddleston insisted that “we have very frank conversations with our allies” and that any trade deals would be for “goods originating in Israel.”

He reiterated the government’s view that “Israel’s settlements beyond the 1967 boundaries are illegal.”