Sir Alan Duncan, the Conservative MP who once referred to the Israeli lobby as "a very powerful financial lobby which dominates [US] politics", has confirmed he will stand down at the general election.

Sir Alan has made a number of controversial statements on Israel – particularly in relation to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

In 2011, while serving as International Development Minister, he described Israel’s security barrier as a “land grab,” also accusing Israelis of stealing water from Palestinian communities.

In a 2014 speech at the Royal United Services Institute, he likened Israel’s policy on settlements in occupied territories to South African apartheid, saying “those that supported settlement policy should be put on a par with racism, sexism, xenophobia and antisemitism.”

Sir Alan also suggested that the supporters of settlements should be disqualified from sitting in Parliament and remaining a member of a political party.

At the time, a spokesman for the Board of Deputies branded his views on Israel and settlements as “breathtakingly one-sided.”

In an interview with the BBC's World at One programme, he also claimed the USA was "in hock to a very powerful financial lobby which dominates its politics."

In 2017, Israeli embassy staffer Shai Masot was secretly filmed saying he would like to “take down” Sir Alan, which forced the ambassador to apologise to the then-Foreign Office minister.

The MP for Rutland and Melton since 1992, he joins a growing list of Conservatives who will not contest December’s election, including David Liddington, Jo Johnson and Michael Fallon.