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  4.  » Two-fifths of Keir Starmer’s cabinet have been funded by pro-Israel lobbyists

Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, 9 October 2023

John McEvoy – Declassified Nov 2, 2023

Some 13 of the 31 members of Labour’s shadow cabinet have received donations from a prominent pro-Israel lobby group or individual funder, it can be revealed.

The list of recipients includes party leader Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, and even the former vice-chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, Lisa Nandy, who is now shadow international development minister.

These donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a pro-Israel lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region, and Sir Trevor Chinn, a multi-millionaire business tycoon and long-time pro-Israel lobbyist.

More than half of Starmer’s shadow cabinet are listed as parliamentary supporters or officers of LFI.

The group was established in 1957 to “act as a bridge linking [Israeli prime minister David Ben Gurion’s party] Mapai… with the Labour Movement in Great Britain”.

It has since described itself as “a Westminster based lobby group working within the British Labour Party to promote the State of Israel”.

Labour Friends of Israel

LFI does not disclose its funders, but was revealed during an undercover Al Jazeera documentary in 2017 to have close relations with the Israeli embassy in London.

The organisation’s parliamentary officer, for instance, admitted on camera that LFI and the Israeli embassy “work really closely together, but a lot of it is behind the scenes”.

One of LFI’s main activities is to fund Labour MPs to go on “fact-finding” missions to Israel.

Declassified has found that since 2002, LFI has contributed over £150,000 towards such activities. Between 2001 and 2009, LFI took more Labour MPs on trips abroad than any other lobby group.

Eight members of Starmer’s shadow cabinet have received money from LFI to travel to Israel since being elected MPs. This includes David Lammy, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, shadow business, energy, and industrial strategy secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry.

A further recipient of travel funds is shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is currently a parliamentary vice-chair of LFI.

The value of the trips for the members of the shadow cabinet amounts to over £17,000, with additional expenses in Israel frequently covered by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

LFI has also donated to Wayne David, the shadow foreign minister for the Middle East and North Africa.

‘Essential strategic partner’

“We are proud of Labour’s record in government to strengthen the ties between Britain and Israel”, LFI’s website states. “We view Israel as an essential strategic partner in the Middle East”.

In July 2022, David Lammy made an unpublicised trip to Israel which was organised mainly by the Labour party but with the help of LFI, Declassified understands.

Lammy’s visit came after a number of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’tselem, had criticised Israel’s practice of apartheid against Palestinians.

Michael Rubin, LFI’s director, noted that Lammy’s “first visit to Israel as Shadow Foreign Secretary is an important moment in the restoration of Labour’s deep and historic ties of friendship with the Jewish state”.

Keir Starmer has addressed a number of LFI events. In a keynote speech to its annual lunch in November 2021, he repeated the racist and colonial adage that Israel was founded by “social democrats who made the desert flower”.

Last month, Starmer addressed the LFI reception at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, describing the lobby group as “an invaluable source of energy and ideas for me and my team”.

As of 31 October, just four of the 79 MPs and MSPs listed as LFI supporters or officers have signed a parliamentary Early Day Motion which calls for “an immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities”.

It also calls for “the end of the total siege of Gaza” in order “to guarantee international humanitarian law is upheld and that civilians are protected”. No members of the shadow cabinet have signed the motion.

Pro-Israel lobbying

Sir Trevor Chinn is a British multi-millionaire who has spent decades working in the motor industry, chairing such organisations as the AA, the RAC, and Kwikfit.

Chinn is also a longstanding pro-Israel lobbyist. Since the 1980s, he has funded LFI and Conservative Friends of Israel and played a leading role in groups such as Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Leadership Council.

The Guardian described BICOM in 2009 as “Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation – which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures”.

It added that the organisation had “received nearly £1.4m in two years from a billionaire donor whose father made a fortune manufacturing arms in Israel”, referring to Poju Zabludowicz, a London-based business tycoon.

Starmer received a £50,000 donation from Chinn during his campaign for the Labour leadership in 2020 – and failed to declare this until after he’d won the election.

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