Official Caught Discussing How To "Take Down" British Government Resigns

Maria Strizzolo has left her job with the Skills Funding Agency after she was filmed discussing the Foreign Office's minister of state Sir Alan Duncan with senior Israeli political officer Shai Masot.

The UK civil servant caught on camera discussing how to "take down" a British government minister with an Israeli embassy official has resigned.

In a secretly-recorded conversation Mr Masot said Sir Alan was causing "a lot of problems".

At the meal with Mr Masot and Ms Strizzolo was an undercover reporter posing as a pro-Israel graduate activist.

Mr Masot asked Ms Strizzolo: "Can I give you some names of MPs that I would suggest you take down?"

She replied: "If you look hard enough I'm sure there's something they're trying to hide".

Mr Masot responded by saying: "I have some MPs... She knows which MPs I want to take down."

When Ms Strizzolo said "it's good to remind me", Mr Masot replied "the deputy foreign minister".

Sir Alan is the second most senior minister in the department after Secretary of State Boris Johnson.

The Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev apologised for the comments.

The conversation was recorded at a restaurant opposite the Israeli Embassy in Kensington during October last year, as part of an investigation by broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Before she resigned, Ms Strizzolo told The Mail On Sunday that her words to Mr Masot were "tongue-in-cheek and gossipy".

She added: "Any suggestion that I...could exert the type of influence you are suggesting is risible."

She said she knew Mr Masot socially but that she had never worked with him or had any "political dealings" with him "beyond chatting about politics, as millions of people do, in a social context".

Sir Alan, who has been critical of Israeli government policies, was seen as more of a problem than Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who was "basically good", according to Mr Masot, a transcript of the conversation revealed.