The United Kingdom “will always be Israel’s friend,” British Secretary of State for Defense Gavin Williamson pledged on Tuesday at a London gathering.

Speaking at the Conservative Friends of Israel’s Annual Parliamentary Reception, Williamson — the 41-year-old MP for South Staffordshire — hailed Israel as a “beacon of light and hope, in a region where there is so much hatred and hurt.”

“We shouldn’t underestimate how difficult it is to keep that light bright and burning” he went on to say.

Williamson asked: “If we are not there to stand up for a country, whose views and ideals are so close, or are simply our own, what are we as a nation? What are we in politics, if we cannot accept and celebrate the wonderful blooming of democracy that is Israel, but instead always turn to a narrative of spite, envy?”

Britain and Israel, Williamson noted, have “a strong and firm relationship of working together. It’s a relationship of partners…It’s a partnership of equals, a partnership of friends.”