London: Britain's senior-most Indian-origin minister Priti Patel has resigned from her Cabinet post over her unauthorised secret meetings with Israeli politicians while on a holiday in the Jewish country.   Patel's position as international development minister had become increasingly untenable after it emerged that she had two further meetings with Israeli officials that were not disclosed through the proper procedure.   The 45-year-old minister resigned late last night after a meeting at Downing Street with Prime Minister Theresa May.   

In her resignation, Patel again apologised and said her actions "fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated".   It follows a week of controversies around a dozen undisclosed meetings she had with other Israelis, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for which she had been forced to apologise.   

Her departure from the Cabinet marks an abrupt halt to the meteoric rise of the Gujarati-origin MP, often touted as a potential future leader of the Conservative party and a prime ministerial candidate. She was elected as a Conservative MP for Witham in Essex in 2010 and gained prominence in the then David Cameron-led Tory government as his 'Indian Diaspora Champion'.   

In a letter to May, Labour's shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett had called on the premier to either call in her independent adviser on ministerial standards to investigate, or "state publicly and explain your full reasons for why Priti Patel retains your confidence".   In her apology statement on Monday, Patel had attributed the unreported meetings to "enthusiasm". "In hindsight, I can see how my enthusiasm to engage in this way could be misread, and how meetings were set up and reported in a way which did not accord with the usual procedures. I am sorry for this and I apologise for it," she said.   

But with her departure now, May has lost a second senior minister within a week, after Sir Michael Fallon stood down as defence minister amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards female journalists.   Another of her close Cabinet allies, first secretary of state Damian Green, is also under investigation over misconduct allegations and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been under fire over his handling of a case involving a British Iranian jailed in Tehran.