Newly elected British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, alongside targeted sanctions against companies and individuals supporting settlement expansion. The action jointly announced with Canada and France and supported by numerous European nations was triggered by Israel opening tenders for 1,200 settler homes in the E1 area and rising settler violence, which Miliband described as ethnic cleansing. In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned the remarks as "outrageous lies" and announced retaliatory measures, including expelling UK representatives from a joint military center, closing the British consulate in East Jerusalem, ending UK training of Palestinian security forces, and banning selected British officials from entering Israel.