More proof of anti-Israel bias in the UK Foreign Office....

And, now he's head of the UK Foreign Office....

Having provoked anger with his description of Gaza as a "prison camp", David Cameron's latest appointment is likely to raise further suspicions among supporters of Israel about the direction of his policy in the Middle East.

Mandrake can disclose that the new head of the Foreign Office, Simon Fraser, left his post working for a minister in the last Conservative government after he became romantically involved with an official of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which was considered to be a terrorist organisation at the time.

Fraser, 52, left his position as private secretary to William Waldegrave, a Foreign Office minister in John Major's government, after just one year. His colleagues are, however, keen to deny that he was sacked.

"Simon established a cohabiting relationship with a Palestinian woman who was an official of the PLO," confirms his colleague. "Simon considered his position and decided that this relationship, which was a loving one, could cause problems among the government and in his professional life.

"He then went to Waldegrave, of his own volition, explained his position and decided it was sensible to stand down. He has since gone on to enjoy a stellar career."

The mandarin is now married to Shireen Fraser, by whom he has two daughters. He resigned in 1990, three years before the PLO formally rejected "violence and terrorism".

It was considered to be a terrorist group by America and Israel until the Madrid Conference in 1991. Fraser was given another job by the Foreign Office that year, working for its policy planning staff.

In 1992, David Mellor, one of Major's trusted Cabinet ministers, was forced to resign after it was disclosed that he had enjoyed a free holiday two years earlier as the guest of Mona Bauwens, a daughter of the late PLO official Jaweed al-Ghussein.