UK replaces respected Middle East minister

The quiet departure of Middle East minister Alistair Burt from the British government on 7 October has raised a few eyebrows. Burt, who joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 2010, was generally admired, and had spent an impressive amount of time during his three-and-a-half years in the job visiting the Gulf and the rest of the Middle East and North Africa region. (He visited “19 Arab states (+OPTs) almost all 3/4 times”, he wrote on Twitter.) Writing in The Independent newspaper on 11 October, Labour MP Chris Bryant described him as the “nicest, warmest and most generally fantabulous MP there is”, and numerous cross-party MPs paid tribute to him in parliament after his resignation was confirmed.