A British trade delegation has visited Israel this week to explore the possibility of a post-Brexit free trade deal.

Coordinated by the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), seven senior Conservative MPs, including the Science Minister Sam Gyimah, the former International Trade Minister Mark Garnier, and former Chief Whip Mark Harper opened the Tel Aviv stock exchange on Tuesday.

As well as visiting Israeli companies across a range of sectors, including energy, medical science and FinTech, they spent a day in Beersheba, touring a number of hi-tech and cybersecurity firms.

“Brexit presents an enormous opportunity to increase our trade throughout the world,” Mr Harper said.

“We’re excited to be looking at the opportunities within Israel. Renowned worldwide as the ‘Start-Up Nation’, Israel is an exciting and dynamic place for British businesses to operate and we’re looking forward to hearing about the many opportunities to take the already record levels of UK-Israel trade to the next level”.

A spokesperson for CFI described the trade delegation as the “first of its kind” and said it would “enable British parliamentarians to increase their understanding of the UK-Israel trade relationship as well as exploring the opportunities for increased cooperation between the two countries after the UK leaves the EU.”

The UK is currently Israel’s second largest trading partner, after America.

In 2017, total bilateral trade amounted to £6.9 billion, an increase of 25 per cent from 2016. The value of trade between the two countries has increased by 60 per cent over the last decade.