MORE than a third of Andy Burnham’s new Cabinet are supporters of an influential Labour Party pro-Israel lobbying group, The National can reveal.
Some 39% of the Prime Minister’s top team – though not including Burnham himself – are affiliated with Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), which has previously been implicated in concerns over foreign influence in UK politics.
The lobbying group does not reveal its funders and no longer keeps publicly-available lists of its members or parliamentary supporters. The most recent list of parliamentary supporters comes from 2024.
In a secret recording for a 2017 Al Jazeera documentary, then-parliamentary affairs manager for LFI Michael Rubin, who would go on to serve as its director until earlier this year, told an undercover journalist: "We do work really closely together, it’s just publicly we just try to keep LFI as a separate identity to the [Israeli] embassy of course."
Iqbal Mohammed, the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley who argued in a recent Westminster Hall debate that “our principles of transparency, scrutiny and accountability appear to vanish” in instances of Israeli meddling in UK politics, told The National that the influence of groups like LFI must be “transparent”.
He said: “Membership of any group or organisation that’s lobbying for or promoting the interests of specific industries or specific foreign states should be fully declared and transparent.
“The funding of these organisations should also be transparent and any perceived or actual influence of these organisations on government policy or decisions or our democratic systems should be within the bounds of British law and democratic principles.”
An LFI spokesperson said: "LFI’s work is supported by the generosity of members of the Jewish community and those who share our commitment to the State of Israel. LFI does not receive any money from the Israeli government or the Israeli Embassy, nor does LFI make donations to Labour MPs.
"Labour MPs who participate in LFI delegations to Israel and the Palestinian territories declare the value of those trips to the Electoral Commission and in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. This information is publicly available, and it is in line with the practice adopted by other similar organisations.”
Andy Burnham
It has previously been reported that the Prime Minister was a member of LFI during his last spell as an MP between 2001 and 2017, but The National has been unable to independently verify this. His entry on the register of interests is yet to be published since he re-entered parliament last month.
He appointed former LFI chair James Purnell as his chief of staff in Downing Street upon becoming Prime Minister.
At an LFI leadership hustings in 2015, he pledged that his first visit if he became Labour leader would be to Israel.
In 2004, he took an LFI-funded trip to Israel and Palestine.
Wes Streeting
The Defence Secretary, who triggered the downfall of Keir Starmer’s premiership, identified himself as a supporter of LFI for “over 20 years” in texts he sent to Peter Mandelson during the genocide in Gaza.
The messages also saw the minister express concern about how “Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes”.
Yvette Cooper
The Health Secretary was listed as a “parliamentary supporter” of the group in a 2024 list. As foreign secretary, she was criticised for setting out what campaigners said were a “wholly insufficient” package of sanctions on West Bank settlers.
As home secretary, she was instrumental in the decision to ban Palestine Action under terrorism laws.
Lucy Powell
According to a 2025 list of ministers’ interests, the then-Commons leader was a member of both LFI and Labour Friends of Palestine.
Pat McFadden
The Work and Pensions Secretary was previously a vice-chair of the group.
In messages released as part of the Mandelson files, McFadden was seen being highly critical of Streeting – when both men sat in Starmer’s Cabinet – after the then-health secretary circulated videos and a note to fellow ministers which described the conditions of medics working in Gaza.
In a message to Mandelson, McFadden claimed he had received “a wild long hysterical message from Wes about Israel. I pushed back. I can forward but reflects pretty badly on his maturity in my view.”
Jonathan Reynolds
The Business and Trade Secretary was previously a vice-chair of the group. Reflecting on an LFI trip to Israel he took, he said: “Wherever you go within Israel itself you see Muslims, Jews and Christians living their daily lives alongside one another.”
He also played a role during his previous spell as Business Secretary in suspending some arms exports to Israel.
Bridget Phillipson
The Equalities Minister has been listed as a supporter of the group. She previously claimed that Britain played a “key role” in shaping the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which the former would go on to repeatedly violate.
Alex Norris
The Justice Secretary is a parliamentary supporter of LFI, according to the 2024 list.
As a Home Office minister, he said he was “angered” by the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a football match against Aston Villa in Birmingham in November.
Angela Eagle
The Environment Secretary is listed as an LFI parliamentary supporter. She denied being a member of the organisation in a 2024 tweet. In November 2023, she raised the case of one of her constituents who was trapped in Gaza a month into the genocide.
She sponsored a 1993 Early Day Motion in the Commons calling for an end to the “Arab boycott” of Israel and called on the then-Tory government to make it illegal for companies to comply with it.
Chris Bryant
The Northern Ireland Secretary was listed as a member of the group and of Labour Friends of Palestine, according to a 2016 article in The Independent. His most recent entry in the register of ministers’ interests does not mention his membership. He was however included on the 2024 list of parliamentary supporters.
Bryant admitted to playing a key role in derailing the SNP’s Gaza ceasefire vote in 2023, which he described as “grubby”.
Douglas Alexander
The Scotland Secretary is not a member of the group but did give the keynote speech at its annual lunch in 2013 in which he thanked then-chair Jon Mendelsohn for offering him “invaluable support and advice for many years now”.
Ellie Reeves
The Attorney General is listed as a parliamentary supporter of the group. As the party’s deputy campaign coordinator, she admitted in 2024 that Labour had “a lot of work to do” to rebuild its relationship with Muslim voters, which is widely seen to have been damaged by their equivocation on Gaza.
Baroness Smith
The Leader of the House of Lords is listed as a parliamentary supporter of the group.
A peer since 2010, she served as the leader of the opposition in the upper chamber from 2015 to 2024, though boycotted meetings of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet for eight months from June 2016.
