The former Justice Minister, Lord Wolfson, has decried a Metropolitan Police investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes as a “monumental waste of resources, according to The Times.

The UK-based International Centre of Justice for Palestinians held a meeting with Scotland Yard last week and handed in a 70-page dossier.

It contains what it said it was “evidence” of crimes that included attacks on civilians, civilian property and infrastructure such as hospitals. It also made allegations against so far unnamed British politicians and individuals, as well as Israeli ministers.

The Times reported that the Met’s war crimes unit has received 92 referrals about the Israel-Gaza conflict, including 19 regarding Hamas.

Lord Wolfson told the newspaper, “The idea that we are going to bring peace to the Middle East by reporting war crimes to Scotland Yard in the UK is utterly naive.”

For the police to be “clogged up with foreign policy disputes is a monumental waste of resources,” he added. “This is not why UK taxpayers pay for a police service.”

It was “completely misguided” to use the law against a politician supporting Israel, he said.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s counter-terrorism unit, was quoted by The Times as saying, “The work does not impact on the ability of the Met to tackle the crimes which matter most to Londoners, including violence and knife crime.”