The man Labour 'doesn't know' turns up in photos
with a string of senior figuresBy James Chapman
Daily Mail Online, 30 november 2007
All week Labour has tried to play down any links with David Abrahams.
But these pictures reveal just how high his reach in the party really went.
In the shadows: Tony Blair and David Abrahams
Far from the anonymous benefactor who stayed in the shadows, he met a string of senior figures over several years - while funnelling cash to the party through a series of frontmen.
The pictures show Mr Abrahams chatting to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and former Cabinet ministers Peter Mandelson and Paul Boateng, and posing with disgraced Labour general secretary Peter Watt.
One regular at Labour events in the North East said Mr Abrahams was a "fixture" whenever senior party figures were visiting.
"I recognised his face as soon as this story broke," the source said. "He had been around on the circuit for a long time. When there is a ministerial visit, you generally have to be invited to attend.
"He would always be there and would always get to talk to the ministers. Mr Abrahams had a great deal of access."
Indeed, Mr Abrahams can be seen in the front row at Tony Blair's farewell speech as Prime Minister at Trimdon Labour club in his constituency of Sedgefield in May.
Miss Smith is pictured deep in conversation with Mr Abrahams at an event in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2004, when she was equality minister. She was appointed as Britain's first female Home Secretary in Gordon Brown's Cabinet reshuffle in June.
Mr Boateng, who was in the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the time the photograph was taken in 2003, is now the British High Commissioner to South Africa.
Soon after his encounter with Mr Abrahams in 2004, Mr Mandelson, who resigned twice from Tony Blair's Cabinet, was made Britain's European Commissioner for trade.
A later picture, from March of this year, shows Mr Abrahams with Mr Watt at a black tie Mansion House dinner - thought to be a charity fundraiser.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband revealed yesterday he also knew Mr Abrahams. "I'm sure I've met him at party functions, yes," he said.
But he insisted he had "certainly not" been aware that donations to the Labour Party were being channelled through intermediaries.
He refused to comment on suggestions that Mr Abrahams himself may have been acting for other people, insisting he would not "speculate on speculation".
Mr Brown himself has admitted that he has probably met Mr Abrahams. At his monthly press briefing on Wednesday, he said: "I am sure I may have met him but I have no recollection of any conversations-about any of these [funding] issues."
Mr Abrahams has also claimed that Baroness Margaret Jay, former leader of the Lords, knew him and even approached him for a donation to Hilary Benn's deputy leadership campaign.
Baroness Jay, trustee of the Labour fundraising organisation the Thousand Club, has not yet commented on whether she has met him. Deputy leader Harriet Harman, however, has denied ever having met Mr Abrahams.
[end of article]
One more picture, added by Radio Islam...
Israeli ambassador to Britain, Zvi Hefeitz (L) with Labour´s
Jewish sponsor David Abrahams (R)
So the article above reveals that this Jew, David Abrahams, who has the most amicable relations to the representatives of the Zionist state in Britain, contrary to Labour official´s claims has deeply rooted connections to the top echelons of the Party.