Lobby groups funded trips to Israel for Sue-Ellen ‘Suella’ Braverman. (Photo: Imageplotter / Alamy)
Exclusive: Tory politicians have accepted over £430,000 from Israel lobby groups and made 187 trips to the country.
Suella Braverman received largest contribution for her visit to Israel this year
Some 126 of the Tory party’s 344 MPs have accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups, Declassified has found.
The revelation comes as Rishi Sunak calls a general election in which his unequivocal backing of Israel could cost the party votes.
The value of the donations or hospitality amounts to over £430,000, with the organisations paying for sitting Conservative MPs to visit Israel on 187 occasions.
Some of those trips also involved visits to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and a small number were co-sponsored by groups which do not form part of the Israel lobby.
The main funder is Conservative Friends of Israel, a parliamentary group which does not disclose its own sources of funding.
Other notable donors include the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange, and the European Leadership Network.
Thirteen Tory politicians have accepted over £50,000 in total to travel to Israel since 7 October, including for “solidarity” missions.
Friends of Israel
Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is a pro-Israel lobby group set up in 1974 by Michael Fidler, a Tory politician described in one biography as having political views “reminiscent of the philosophy of Enoch Powell”.
The organisation has long standing links with the Israeli state, and is “beginning to resemble the Westminster outpost for Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud coalition”, according to veteran journalist Peter Oborne.
Around 80 percent of Tory MPs are members of CFI. Over the past decade, it has taken more MPs on overseas trips than any other political donor in Britain.
Publicly available data reviewed by Declassified shows that CFI has funded 118 sitting Tory MPs to travel to Israel on 160 occasions, providing over £330,000 towards the visits.
Those MPs include deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, home secretary James Cleverly, and justice secretary Alex Chalk, prior to their appointment to the cabinet.
Some 22 of those CFI-led visits have been subsidised by the Israeli foreign ministry to the tune of over £8,000 in total.
Keir Starmer last week controversially welcomed Tory defector Natalie Elphicke into the Labour fold | Carl Court/Getty Images
The party may have a 30-point lead in the polls, but its lack of real offering to voters will soon cause problems
It’s widely agreed that England and Wales’ local election results were terrible for the Conservative Party, which lost 474 councillors, and not particularly good for the Labour Party, which gained only 186.
But many commentators still miss the current mood among Labour supporters. The party’s 30-point lead in a new YouGov poll has been extensively covered, but not the fact that its should-be supporters are hardly rejoicing at the news.
Because while many voters have distaste verging on outright anger at Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, and would certainly take pleasure in seeing them ousted from government, they have little enthusiasm for the Labour alternative.
Analysis of the local elections’ voting figures suggests Labour is headed for a much smaller lead at the general election than polls suggest; likely one sufficient to ensure it ends up in government but not anything like a landslide. In these circumstances, the tensions within the party, and how they are reflected in the attitudes of its voters, become significant – and may cause Keir Starmer serious problems in office.
Much of the discontent stems from suspicions that under Starmer, Labour is now on the centre-right and will not deliver the major reforms needed to help the millions of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. Even in one of the few areas where Starmer previously seemed to offer hope, workers’ rights, there are suggestions that his policy will soon be watered down.
This sense that the party will continue the current government’s status quo has only been strengthened by Labour welcoming two Tory defectors into its fold in recent weeks. One of them, Natalie Elphicke, is a determinedly right-wing politician, whom many would have said was on the far right of her previous party. Some very angry Labour MPs have contrasted her official reception with the ongoing exclusion of Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn from the parliamentary party.
Starmer is also keen to play tough on defence matters, presenting Labour as strong on military spending, and determined to maintain a vastly expensive nuclear programme and Britain’s vain attempt to be a world power.
This will likely be met with opposition from many of the party’s supporters, who have objected to the UK’s involvement in numerous failed wars in the past 25 years – including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and now Gaza.
Whatever happens in Gaza, Labour will also be left with a legacy of deep mistrust over its failure to speak up for Palestinians. The ‘Gaza rebellions’ at the local elections earlier this month, which contributed significantly to the party failing to pick up the Tories’ lost votes, were hurried affairs organised late in the day. If organisers plan earlier for the general election, they may well have a much greater impact.
Then there is the issue of the climate crisis, which looms increasingly large, especially among younger voters. Labour’s U-turn on its £28bn pledge to invest in a rapid period of decarbonisation has struck a discordant note, and many find it difficult to accept claims by shadow climate change and net zero secretary Ed Miliband that the party is still on track to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
Labour may also soon have a problem among its own ranks. Many of the party’s 30 or so socialist-leaning MPs are keeping their heads down in the run-up to the general election for fear of suspension and deselection. This will change once the election is called. Some incoming new radicals may also be elected – who knows, even the odd socialist or two might slip through. It is certainly reasonable to think that Starmer, whether heading for a majority or minority Labour government, will have up to 40 MPs with a radical bent.
Where they will become significant will be when Labour runs into serious trouble a year or so into the new Parliament, when the multitude of toxic legacies left by 14 years of Conservative government emerge. At that point, if all Labour can offer on most policy areas is little more than modest change, British politics will become far more intens
Much of the discontent stems from suspicions that under Starmer, Labour is now on the centre-right and will not deliver the major reforms needed to help the millions of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. Even in one of the few areas where Starmer previously seemed to offer hope, workers’ rights, there are suggestions that his policy will soon be watered down.
This sense that the party will continue the current government’s status quo has only been strengthened by Labour welcoming two Tory defectors into its fold in recent weeks. One of them, Natalie Elphicke, is a determinedly right-wing politician, whom many would have said was on the far right of her previous party. Some very angry Labour MPs have contrasted her official reception with the ongoing exclusion of Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn from the parliamentary party.
And while Labour may claim to be the party of fiscal fairness, there is little faith in it getting truly serious about controlling tax avoidance and evasion, and even less about wholesale tax reform. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has also already ruled out a wealth tax, despite the richest 1% of Britons holding more wealth than 70% of people in the UK.
Starmer is also keen to play tough on defence matters, presenting Labour as strong on military spending, and determined to maintain a vastly expensive nuclear programme and Britain’s vain attempt to be a world power.
This will likely be met with opposition from many of the party’s supporters, who have objected to the UK’s involvement in numerous failed wars in the past 25 years – including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and now Gaza.
Whatever happens in Gaza, Labour will also be left with a legacy of deep mistrust over its failure to speak up for Palestinians. The ‘Gaza rebellions’ at the local elections earlier this month, which contributed significantly to the party failing to pick up the Tories’ lost votes, were hurried affairs organised late in the day. If organisers plan earlier for the general election, they may well have a much greater impact.
Then there is the issue of the climate crisis, which looms increasingly large, especially among younger voters. Labour’s U-turn on its £28bn pledge to invest in a rapid period of decarbonisation has struck a discordant note, and many find it difficult to accept claims by shadow climate change and net zero secretary Ed Miliband that the party is still on track to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
Labour may also soon have a problem among its own ranks. Many of the party’s 30 or so socialist-leaning MPs are keeping their heads down in the run-up to the general election for fear of suspension and deselection. This will change once the election is called. Some incoming new radicals may also be elected – who knows, even the odd socialist or two might slip through. It is certainly reasonable to think that Starmer, whether heading for a majority or minority Labour government, will have up to 40 MPs with a radical bent.
Where they will become significant will be when Labour runs into serious trouble a year or so into the new Parliament, when the multitude of toxic legacies left by 14 years of Conservative government emerge. At that point, if all Labour can offer on most policy areas is little more than modest change, British politics will become far more intense – with a chance of some truly progressive thinking at last coming to the fore.
I need to do a piece about expecting a UK General Election to be called soon.
There is no discernible difference between the main parties – the currently ruling Conservative Party under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the likely victors at the election UK Labour Party under “I support Zionism without qualification” leader Keir Starmer.
Both parties and party leaders actively support Fascist Israel’s genocide in Gaza and intend to continue destroying the planet for the benefit of the oil and gas industry. Both parties and party leaders are happy for Julian Assange to rot in a US prison for telling the truth and despite not committing any obvious crime and certainly not any crime under UK law. There are strong suggestions that Labour leader Keir Starmer was involved in the early persecution of Julian Assange.
Any half-decent responsible government would object instead of assist Israel’s Fascist Gaza genocide and take action on climate instead of promoting and accelerating climate destruction as they are actually doing. By assisting Israel in it’s Fascist endeavours, they are exposing themselves as being just as bad themselves.
If you agree with this analysis or even most of it I ask you to participate, take part in the election campaign by opposing the main parties that support Israel or climate destruction. It’s unclear where the Scottish Nationalist Party is on the climate yet. It is not enough to let Fascism go, it needs to be actively opposed. Creatives please get involved – you can always publish anonymously.
Response to Rishi Sunak’s extremism speech at Downing Street 1 March 2024. Second version of this image with text slightly altered.Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel’s Gaza genocide.
20/5/2024 I’m uncertain if we’ll have another chance like this to alter climate policy and it’s so urgently needed. The Tories and the Red Tories (Labour) have no intention to address the climate crisis with anything near the urgency that is needed. later: Ed: Correction: I would say no intention to address the climate crisis.
20/5/2024 later. It’s difficult to take the Lib Dems at all seriously when they don’t even proofread their website. https://www.libdems.org.uk/green “We urgently need to limit temperature rises to 1.5°C or we will face irreversible climate change which will cause catastrophic land loss and make parts of our planet inhabitable.”
Tory Health Secretary Victoria Atkins endured a car crash interview on LBC earlier today, after being grilled on yet another failed Tory pledge.
In the run-up to the last general election, the Tories had promised to build 40 new hospitals in their 2019 manifesto under Boris Johnson, yet no one in the government seems to know how much progress has been made towards the target.
On LBC earlier today, presenter Nick Ferrari asked Atkins: “I know it was a number of years ago and I know it was under a previous leadership, but where are those 40 hospitals?”
Atkins replied: “Well we are making progress and we will be opening, I think, four of these hospitals this year and there will be many other sites around the country.
“I’ve been to visit one or two of them that are not completed but very much rising out of the ground. Alongside that we have the programme of works to upgrade existing hospitals.”
Ferrari hit back: “Of the 40, how many will be built by the time we come to a general election?”
A clearly frustrated Atkins replied: “We’re opening four more this year, so depending on when the election is … we will have around four this year, we’ve already opened a few more.”
Ofcom warns breaches could result in ‘statutory sanctions’.
Media regulator Ofcom has issued a warning to broadcasters about using politicians as presenters, ahead of the general election.
The media regulator issued a statement in which it said it was putting ‘broadcasters on notice that they must maintain the highest editorial standards ahead of a General Election’ and that breaches could result in ‘statutory sanctions’.
It comes after Ofcom found GB News in breach of broadcasting rules when three Conservative MPs acted as newsreaders across five different episodes of its programmes.
Ofcom found that two episodes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, two episodes of Friday Morning with Esther and Phil, and one episode of Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil, broadcast during May and June 2023 had broken impartiality rules. These episodes broke the part of the Ofcom code that says, “News, in whatever form, must be… presented with due impartiality” and “No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified.”
