Sir Keir Starmer - new Labour stooge for the Jewish masters running UK
Great Britain is slowly turning into a full fledged Jewmocracy. Jews who just make up a tiny 0.5 percent of the total population, suddenly appear in the higher echelons of power in numbers completely out of proportion to their quota.
In the Conservative Party/Tories we have had Jewish top names such as Dominic Raab, Michael Howard, Malcolm Rifkind and Lord Saatchi and politicians of Jewish ancestry such as David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
In the Labour Party we have noted the infamous Jewish Miliband brothers David and Ed, and the Jewish money men Lords Levy, Gavron and Hollick.
Now in 2020 the "radical", potentially "anti-Semitic", Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been outmanouvered and replaced by Sir Keir Starmer, a man deeply inserted into the Zionist fold.
Below we quote from authentic articles from the Jewish/Israeli press to show the delight they express to have a man who declares that he will "support Zionism without qualification" and who even is married to a Jewish woman having Jewish children, taking over at the helm of the Labour Party.
Further below we publish two articles from The Electronic Intifada commenting on the situation.
Sir Keir Starmer opens up about his family's Friday night dinners
Exclusive: The frontrunner to replace Corbyn talks about his family and how his father-in-law proudly says prayers at Shabbat dinner
By Lee Harpin
The Jewish Chronicle, March 5, 2020
Labour leadership frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer has revealed he participates in Friday-night dinners with his family, at which his proudly Jewish father-in-law says prayers.Speaking to the JC, the Holborn and St Pancras MP said he felt comfortable attending family and communal “barmitzvahs, weddings, and funerals”.
The married father of two children also said he had “no issue” with standing for the traditional toast to the president of the state of Israel at Jewish weddings.
He told the JC: “I don’t have any issue with that — or with any of the traditions.”
See also: Starmer vows to restore Labour's relationship with Chief Rabbi
Sir Keir also confirmed that following the death of his mother-in-law last month, who tragically lost her life following a road accident, a rabbi from the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood conducted the funeral service.
Sir Keir is determined to protect his family’s privacy and the JC has agreed not to disclose the names of family members.
As Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the 57-year-old has endured a relentless work schedule over the past few years.
Now favourite to replace current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on April 4, Sir Keir’s workload is unlikely to decrease, but he says he still cherishes Friday nights “which we actually do as a family.”
He added: “As you probably know my wife’s family is Jewish. On her father’s side there are barmitzvahs, synagogues — there’s all the traditions.”
While the family does not come together every single week, Sir Keir said that for the father of his wife, Victoria, it is “obviously important” that they try to congregate as frequently as possible.
He revealed other members of his extended family host more religious Shabbat gatherings, which the Labour MP “goes along to without any issues”. But he said Friday nights at his own family house in north London are somewhat more “gentle”.
But he said that as Shabbat comes in his father-in-law would “say prayers too.
“It is about just being with the family,” said Sir Keir.
“It’s about being a bit more disciplined, about being home with our children and the family — they are growing up fast.
“When you’re an MP or running to be leader of the Labour Party there is a heavy pull on your diary all of the time and it’s the easiest thing in the world just to fill it all up.”
Sometimes, Friday-night arrangements do not come to fruition, he admitted.
“We try — it doesn’t always work,” he added.
Sir Keir revealed he visited some of London’s major synagogues — often for family occasions such as a recent barmitzvah in Hendon.
There are also more spontaneous visits, such as the one he made to South Hampstead shul after the nearby antisemitic graffiti incidents in December.
“On that Saturday I wanted to go because there had been those horrible graffiti attacks around,” he revealed.
“I actually wanted to go without press or publicity or tweeting about it. To me, that was far more in keeping with the sense of standing with people. To just walk to the synagogue from home and join in.“I wasn’t actually expecting to speak, just to be present, but I was asked to talk. I didn’t make a long thing, I just explained why I was there.”
Sir Keir also said that he and South Hampstead Rabbi Shlomo Levin “get on a treat”.
He continued: “I would call Shlomo a friend.
“I’ve done a number of events there and I’ve also been to see him there to discuss various issues. That’s been very helpful for me.
“He is obviously very proud of the new synagogue that has been built there.
“It’s a fantastic building. He is also very keen that it is used across communities, for interfaith.”
He added that he “felt very comfortable” and was left grateful by the “very warm reception” he got from the congregation at South Hampstead following his brief speech, which included Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl and London Jewish Forum founder Adrian Cohen.
Confirming he had “a number” of extended family members who live in Tel Aviv, Sir Keir should he would not want others to “read too much” into his comments about Zionism made at last month’s Jewish Labour Movement hustings event.
All the Labour candidates were asked if they considered themselves to be “Zionists”.
Sir Keir had indicated that while he “sympathised” with Zionism, he would not describe himself as a “Zionist”.
“I believe in the state of Israel, and as a secure homeland for its people,” he had said.“Lisa Nandy [the rival Labour leadership candidate] had made the point that Zionism has become weaponised and means different things to different people. That was why I gave that answer.
“If the definition of ‘Zionist’ is someone who believes in the state of Israel, in that sense I’m a Zionist.”
He also paid tribute to Georgia Gould, the Jewish leader of the Labour-run Camden Council.
“We do a lot of work with the Jewish community there, a lot of interfaith work,” he explained.
“What I have tried to do in Camden is what I would try to do as leader of the party, which is try to have that active engagement and contact the whole time.
“I would hope that most of the Jewish community in Camden would say, ‘Yes we can always get hold of Keir when we need to’.”
Sir Keir Starmer: I'll restore Labour's relationship with Chief Rabbi
Exclusive: Labour leadership frontrunner vows to 'meet with anybody to restore trust' in wide-ranging JC interview
By Lee Harpin
The Jewish Chronicle, March 5, 2020
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to restore Labour’s “important relationship” with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis — and to deal with those within his party who continue to deny there is a problem with antisemitism.In a wide-ranging interview, the overwhelming favourite to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader recalled the moment the Chief Rabbi made an unprecedented intervention ahead of the last general election.
“I certainly would not want that to happen ever again,” said Sir Keir of Rabbi Mirvis’s insistence in December that Mr Corbyn was “unfit for high office”.
Promising to meet him if he is elected as new party leader next month, Sir Keir said he believed the decision by the Chief Rabbi to issue a scathing attack on the Labour leader in The Times just weeks before the election had been met with “mixed views in the community”.
See Also: Starmer opens up about his family's Friday night dinners
But he spoke of his desire to fix relations with British Jewry’s de facto religious leader, saying: “It is an important relationship and it has to be restored. I would meet with anybody to restore trust.”
Speaking to the JC from his Westminster office this week as Labour members cast their votes in the party’s own election race, Sir Keir accepted that there was still a massive problem with anti-Jewish racism in the party.
Some Labour figures have suggested that up to 20,000 members of the party should face automatic expulsion for what would appear to be clear-cut examples of antisemitic conduct.
“I just don’t know where people are getting the numbers from, I just don’t know — but there are clear cases,” said Sir Keir.
“We have all seen them and they have to be dealt with robustly and swiftly and there’s no reason they can’t be.
“And one of the arguments I was making was, if you can be swiftly removed from the Labour Party for supporting another political party at a general election, then you could be swiftly removed from the Labour Party for being clearly antisemitic.”
Tellingly — and in an apparent acknowledgement of the negative activities of groups like Jewish Voice For Labour — Sir Keir conceded that there was another major problem within the party from those “that have denied we’ve got a problem”.
He added: “To my mind, they are part of the problem. So you’ve got those who are antisemitic, then you’ve got those who tend to suggest that we don’t have a problem.
“That is part of the problem. So that needs to be dealt with.”
Hailing the role that the Jewish Labour Movement would play as “the vehicle we work with within the Labour Party” to tackle antisemitism, Sir Keir stressed that he believed that the vast majority of party members were not antisemitic but were “yearning for us to sort out this problem”.Less emphatic was his response to questions about which Labour figures he would surround himself with if he becomes leader.
“I can tell you honestly, I haven’t had a discussion with any Member of Parliament about what role they might or might not play in the future,” he said.
Last week, Mr Corbyn had appeared to suggest he would favour a role as shadow foreign secretary under a new leader.
Such a role would infuriate many in the Jewish community.
“Whatever name is put to me — and there are plenty of names floating around — I have not had any discussions,” insisted Sir Keir.
“I have not had a discussion with anybody, and that includes Jeremy Corbyn. I am entirely focused on winning the leadership race.”
Last weekend, Sir Keir led Labour’s attack on bullying claims against Home Secretary Priti Patel — but he rejected suggestions he displayed a certain amount of hypocrisy given repeated allegations of bullying in own party, particularly against staff who blew the lid on the cover-up around antisemitism.
“I did speak out about that the very next day,” he said. “I thought it was appalling to treat staff in that way, not just the staff that appeared in the programme but actually all of the staff.
"Once you go down that route you’re sending a message to your wider staff in the organisation.”
Returning to Ms Patel, he added: “I personally think it’s important to see it in its context. There are always going to be arguments within any departments.
"This is the nature of government. But this to me is no ordinary spat. I think that part of the political projects that Johnson and [his adviser Dominic] Cummings are involved in, is one that tears away at the sort of institutions and culture that have supported our democracy for a very, very long time.”
Sir Keir said one giant test of his ability to lead Labour — if, as expected, he wins on April 4 — will be how he executes his plan to rebuild the trust with Britain’s Jewish community “so we no longer talk just about antisemitism”.He speaks of “the very big issues that we need to discuss”, including the crisis in social care.
“I know this is a big issue for the Jewish community here in terms of how social care is delivered the providers, the traditions that have to be in there, and the difficulties that are obviously there,” he said.
“I know this through Jewish friends, family and colleagues. Jewish Care is an example of that and the sooner we can have that discussion the better. Social care is in a real crisis across the country.”
He promised to be “on the front foot” over the issue from the very start and to ensure that he has “line of sight” over the party’s disciplinary processes.
“I am clear that if I am Leader of the Labour Party I will be wanting those reports on my desk regularly,” he said.
“And by that I don’t mean every six months, I mean every week.
“My experience leading the Crown Prosecution Service and as Director of Public Prosecutions is if you want to demonstrate your values and cultural change within the organisation, you have to model it.
“And I think the leader of the Labour Party also has a personal duty to rebuild that faith, that trust with the Jewish community.”Sir Keir said reaction from the community, especially at the packed JLM Labour leadership hustings last month and during visits he has made to synagogues, have left him with the impression that if trust can be re-won, there are many within the community who would return to voting Labour.
“I can only judge what I pick up on the doorstep and from what I pick up from Jewish friends and colleagues who tell me pretty directly what they think,” he says.
“From my visits to synagogues in recent months there’s a strong interest when a prominent Labour MP is there and some strong and interesting conversations take place.
“If that trust can be restored then it is quite possible that people will think again and vote Labour again. But we have to rebuild that trust.
“Not just because we want these votes again but because we should never have breached that trust.”
He also speaks of the galling experience of campaigning for Labour candidates outside of his own Holborn and St Pancras constituency in north London and coming face to face with furious Jewish voters.“It genuinely breaks my heart to have to knock on doors and to have the door opened by a Jewish family who said to me we have always voted Labour in this household but we are not going to vote Labour because of antisemitism,” he said, recalling days campaigning in the Chipping Barnet constituency.
“I also don’t want our members and our activists ever to have that experience on the door again.”
He said he spoke to Jewish MP Dame Louise Ellman after she quit the party she had joined 50 years ago ahead of the last election.
“I had been focused on the IHRC definition of antisemitism and on rule changes — advocating that we should have automatic expulsion and clear cases on the procedure for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
“I was saying, we have got to hand over all of the documents and give access to all of our staff so that the commission to get to the bottom of this.
“When I spoke to Louise when she left I changed my test to whether people who have left the party would feel comfortable returning.”
Sir Keir also said that if he is in charge of Labour he would take action on antisemitism before the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s report into the party is published.
With the leadership race to be decided on April 4, he said he did “not want to see a gap” before the report’s expected publication some time the following month.
“I think it is very very important for the incoming leader to demonstrate on day one, the difference that new leadership will make on the issue of antisemitism,” he said.
“I would speak to the EHRC straightway.”
JLM: We welcome Keir Starmer’s early leadership on antisemitism
By Mike Katz, Jewish Labour Movement
Labourlist, 7th April, 2020
This morning, Jewish Labour Movement national secretary Peter Mason and I joined a video call hosted by Keir Starmer, with Angela Rayner and other Jewish community organisations, to discuss how best he can get a grip on antisemitism in the Labour Party.
Given how the all-consuming threat of coronavirus has turned all our worlds upside-down, we took it as a really important signal that Keir has focussed on the issue from the get-go in many of his comments since being elected on Saturday, from his acceptance speech onwards.
JLM’s membership has been at the heart of Labour’s struggle with antisemitism. As the climate of hate worsened, people have felt alienated and even hounded out of Labour – two of them, Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman. Years, decades in some cases, of campaigning commitment and party activity disregarded as members were told they were ‘Red Tories’ or were ‘weaponising’ the very real racism they faced for political ends. This was all encouraged and abetted by the party’s previous leadership.
It’s little wonder people have flocked to JLM’s banner, finding true solidarity and comradeship – nor that our membership has more than trebled over the past couple of years and that our leadership hustings was the best-attended of the campaign.
As we explained to Keir, throughout the last four years, JLM used its unique role as the sole Jewish affiliate to the party in good faith. We engaged early on with the previous leader’s office and key staff at Southside. We successfully moved rule changes at Labour Party conference, outlawing abuse against all members with protected characteristics. We delivered training in CLPs and Labour clubs up and down the country.
All of this, only to be undermined and denigrated by Corbyn’s leadership and senior staff. Indeed, other organisations were promoted as a way of getting around us and majority community opinion.
After the many times our good faith engagement was abused and thrown back at us – after we discussed the radical step of disaffiliating from the party – we took the difficult decision to refer the party to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
We worked with brave whistleblowers, both existing and former staff and officials, some of whom the party shamefully threatened to sue, to document Labour’s failed processes. The way that the leadership interfered in the system and to prioritise protecting political allies over expelling racists.
When the EHRC’s report is published later this year, it will come as stark reading – and we will not pull our punches. I urged Keir, for the sake of a clean break, to publish the party’s submission to the EHRC, however flawed. It was disgraceful that this was never even shared with Labour’s national executive committee.
We’ve always said that the heart of the problem for our members is a toxic culture, which creates an unwelcoming environment for them, offline and online, nationally and at CLP level. Changing that culture will be a long haul – it will come down to political will, independent processes and education.
We want to reset our relationship with the party on training. But we’re clear – it can’t be used as a get-out sanction, and it will never remove the necessity of making sure that people who frankly have no place in the Labour Party shouldn’t be allowed to join in the first place.
I’ve no doubt that, under Keir’s leadership, there will continue to be issues to contend with. Detoxifying a party doesn’t happen overnight – electing a new leader is a good start, but it is only a start. There’s still a lot to be done, and it would be foolishly optimistic to think that all those members that denied there was a problem (and castigated JLM for saying so) have suddenly changed their mind.
However, Keir has clearly showed he has the political will to do whatever it takes to – as he put it – “tear out this poison by its roots”. His words give us the reassurance that we can once again engage in good faith with him, Angela, and a reinvigorated leader’s office and party HQ, and work with them to put right this shameful wrong.
In the coming week, JLM’s officers, including our formidable past and present parliamentarians, Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman, look forward to discussing in more detail with Keir what needs to happen.
Our members want nothing more than to be able to return to a party that isn’t racist and is restored to being a safe space for Jews everywhere. So we can focus on the reasons we all joined Labour in the first place – fighting for social justice, strong public services, an economy which works for everyone – and campaigning for a Labour government to deliver just that.
When I was elected as JLM national chair a year ago, the future for JLM and its relationship with the Labour Party looked bleak. Now I feel we can properly celebrate 2020 as the centenary of our affiliation to the Labour Party.
Mike Katz
Mike Katz is chair of the Jewish Labour Movement.
Israeli Jews delighted over the Keir Starmer overtake of the UK Labour Party...
Keir Starmer, Labour boss, has been voted as one of "the Top 50 Zionist Influencers of 2020 based on over 600 nominations from [Jewish] communities around the world", by the Jewish site: https://www.top50proisraelinfluencers.com/ (see screencap above)
Starmer earning this position as he "has extended family living in Israel, and his wife's family is Jewish" and because he has stated: "I support Zionism without qualification."
It should be noted that Zionism is a specifically Jewish ideology, the basis of the Jewish state of Israel - a newly constructed Jewish entity in the Middle East - and has nothing to do with Great Britain/UK or real British interests.
The Israeli Press boasts that Sir Keir Starmer is a "Zionist" and has a "Jewish wife". Screencap from The Times Of Israel, 4th April, 2020.
In The Times Of Israel article one can further read on his family connection to Judaism and Jews:His wife, Victoria Alexander, comes from a Jewish background and through her he has extended family living in Tel Aviv.
“My wife’s family is Jewish. Her dad is Jewish, their family came over from Poland. The extended family live in Israel,” he told Britain’s Jewish News in February.
He has never been to Israel but “we’re in regular contact with them and we’ve got various visits planned, basically to take our kids for the first time.”
He said he has attended Shabbat dinners with his wife’s relatives on numerous occasions and visited London synagogues to attend family bar mitzvahs and weddings.
[...]"I do support Zionism [...]. I said it loud and clear — and meant it — that I support Zionism without qualification.”He also told the Jewish Chronicle: “If the definition of ‘Zionist’ is someone who believes in the state of Israel, in that sense I’m a Zionist.”
In The Times Of Israel article London Rabbi Dr. David Goldberg, also reveals that Starmer's "wife and children are members of my synagogue".
Keir Starmer tilts Labour sharply towards Israel
By Asa Winstanley
The Electronic Intifada, 10 April 2020
Keir Starmer addresses a Labour Party event in November 2019.
“I support Zionism without qualification” – those are the words of the UK Labour Party’s new leader, Keir Starmer.
Starmer won the membership election to succeed left-winger and Palestine solidarity veteran Jeremy Corbyn last weekend.
His first act as leader has been to declare the party’s allegiance to the Israel lobby, and to signal an impending purge of the left wing of the party membership under the pretext of combating “Labour anti-Semitism.”
Throughout his four and a half years as Labour leader, Corbyn was incessantly defamed with a manufactured anti-Semitism crisis by the the Israel lobby and by the right wing of his own party.
“Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party,” Starmer claimed in his victory speech, giving full credence to the smears against his predecessor.
“On behalf of the Labour Party, I am sorry.”
Labour lawmakers – who are overwhelmingly right wing – never accepted the result of the democratic leadership election which brought Corbyn to national prominence in 2015, and repeatedly attempted to overthrow him.
They finally succeeded last December. After the party’s defeat in the general election, Corbyn announced he would be stepping down.
Polling suggested that the Labour anti-Semitism smear campaign had a major impact on the general election outcome.
The Israel lobby was jubilant, with one major group gloating that they had “slaughtered” Corbyn.
But Labour members never accepted the false narrative.
“Invented or wildly exaggerated”
A major poll after the general election found that almost three quarters of them thought the crisis had been “invented or wildly exaggerated.”
The figure was even higher – 92 percent – among members of Momentum, the party faction founded to back Corbyn.
Starmer in his speech paid tribute to Corbyn as his “friend” and promised to unite the party.
But he immediately followed with his comments about anti-Semitism, meaning the apology amounted to a swipe at Corbyn and the left-wing grasroots membership that brought him to power.
“I will tear out this poison by its roots,” Starmer said, “and judge success by the return of our Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us.”
That statement erases the many Jewish members who remained loyal to the party, and who have spoken out consistently against the campaign to weaponize anti-Semitism to oust Corbyn and crush solidarity for Palestinian rights.
The members Starmer is seeking to rehabilitate are likely leading Israel lobbyists who stepped down as Labour MPs – such as Joan Ryan and Louise Ellman.
Starmer’s declaration of allegiance to the Israel lobby was the only statement of substance in his pre-recorded victory speech.
Since then – despite the global coronavirus pandemic and millions of newly unemployed – he has made reassuring the Israel lobby his number one priority.
The very same day, Starmer wrote to the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, an Israel lobby group which had been vehemently anti-Corbyn, repeating his apology.
He also reiterated an earlier commitment to a list of demands by the Board of Deputies that the new leader should purge the party membership.
“Within hours of the result”
Starmer has also been courting leaders of the UK’s Israel lobby since winning the leadership.
“Within hours of the result, Keir Starmer called me to discuss anti-Jewish hate in the Labour Party,” wrote former Labour lawmaker Ruth Smeeth, in a Times of Israel blog post.
A former professional Israel lobbyist, Smeeth has been one of Corbyn’s bitterest opponents.
On Tuesday, Starmer wrote another simpering apology to the Israel lobby, published in both the Evening Standard and the anti-Palestinian newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle.
“Once the coronavirus pandemic is over,” he wrote, “I will be closing the Labour Party’s offices for a day and inviting representatives of the Jewish community to come in and facilitate a day’s training for all members of staff on anti-Semitism.”
Even under Corbyn, Labour adopted a misleading and politically motivated redefintion of anti-Semitism which deliberately conflates Palestine solidarity activism with anti-Jewish racism.
The Board of Deputies’ demands included the stipulation that training on anti-Semitism in the party be run only by the Jewish Labour Movement and not “fringe organizations” – a veiled reference to left-wing pro-Corbyn group, Jewish Voice for Labour.
Founded in 2004, the Jewish Labour Movement had been a moribund group, but was resurrected by pro-Israel activists in September 2015, specifically to fight Corbyn.
The Jewish Labour Movement worked in close coordination with the Israeli embassy.
It played a leading role in promoting the Labour anti-Semitism smear campaign.
Corbyn out of Labour?
Starmer held a virtual meeting on Tuesday with leaders of the UK’s top pro-Israel groups, including the Jewish Labour Movement, the Board of Deputies, the Community Security Trust and the Jewish Leadership Council.
The lobbyists came out of this meeting singing Starmer’s praises.
But other Israel lobby factions will not be satisfied by the victory over Corbyn.
The badly misnamed Campaign Against Antisemitism (which is actually a campaign against Palestinians) has decreed that the “real litmus test” for the new Labour leader will be “disciplining Jeremy Corbyn.”
“Corbyn must be made to bear personal responsibility,” the group wrote. “This will send a message to other culpable MPs, officials and members that they cannot hide.”
Starmer’s declarations of loyalty to Zionism are for some only a starter.
Labour’s new leader will soon learn the lesson that Corbyn did not heed: No amount of capitulation to the pro-Israel lobby can ever be enough.
These implacable foes of basic human rights and dignity for the Palestinian people take every concession as an invitation to demand more.
Israel lobbyist funded Labour’s new leader
By Asa Winstanley
The Electronic Intifada, 22 April 2020
Trevor Chinn (left) at an event he co-hosted in 2018 with Israeli ambassador Mark Regev (second left). Chinn for years funded anti-Corbyn
efforts. (UJIA)A multi-millionaire pro-Israel lobbyist donated $62,000 to help Keir Starmer win the UK Labour Party’s leadership election, it was revealed last week.
The official register of lawmakers’ financial interests shows that Trevor Chinn donated the sum as part of Starmer’s leadership campaign.
During the campaign Starmer said “I support Zionism without qualification.” Since his election he has tilted the party sharply towards Israel.
Starmer came under criticism for not disclosing all his donors during the campaign itself, when Labour members were deciding who should replace Jeremy Corbyn.
The donation from Chinn was not registered until five days after Starmer won the election, although it was received in February.
Although there is no suggestion of illegality, Labour members may consider this a violation of their trust.
Trevor Chinn
A retired auto industry mogul, Chinn has in the past funded both Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel.
He also plays a leading role in the Israel lobby groups BICOM and the Jewish Leadership Council.
In 2018, Chinn co-hosted a high-profile celebration of the life of late Israeli president Chaim Herzog, attended by Israeli ambassador Mark Regev. Published photos show that Tony Blair also attended.
He donated to the Labour Party during the Tony Blair years, but mostly ended that relationship after Corbyn, a lifelong Palestinian rights supporter, won the leadership in 2015.
The exception to this was Chinn’s funding of anti-Corbyn Labour members of Parliament, including deputy leader Tom Watson, former BICOM staffer Ruth Smeeth and Labour Friends of Israel’s then chair Joan Ryan.
All three played key roles in promoting the smear campaign that Corbyn’s Labour Party was a hotbed of anti-Semitism.
Chinn in 2016 also donated to Dan Jarvis, a Labour lawmaker who was at the time seen as a potential successor to Jeremy Corbyn.
Later that year Labour lawmakers staged a coup against Corbyn, hoping to remove him as leader. Chinn funded Corbyn’s rival in the resultant leadership election, Owen Smith.
Smith took donations for his campaign from Chinn totaling $33,000, the register shows.
During the 2015 leadership election, which ultimately resulted in Corbyn’s first victory, Chinn funded Liz Kendall, the Blairite candidate who came last with a mere 4.5 percent of the vote.
Top donor
In 2014, Chinn halted his annual donations to the Tricycle Theatre over its decision to decline funding from the Israeli embassy for a film festival it was planning to host.
“We can’t accept boycotts and whenever one comes along we have to fight it,” Chinn told The Jewish News at the time.
“The Tricycle is going to lose a lot of audience members and a lot of financial support.”
The North London theater ultimately reversed its decision after being threatened by Sajid Javid, then Britain’s culture minister.
Javid later boasted about this threat to the theater, which had been secret at the time. The Israeli ambassador also intervened in the affair, documents released under freedom of information law showed.
Chinn’s $62,000 donation to Starmer’s campaign was the fourth highest amount from an individual donor – not including trade unions and companies.
Public sector union UNISON and service workers union USDAW donated $39,000 and almost $31,000 respectively. Another major trade union, Unite, supported Starmer’s leadership campaign rival Rebecca Long-Bailey.
At more than $123,000 each, the joint-top donors were Robert Latham and Waheed Alli.
Latham is a lawyer who once worked in the same firm as Starmer, and Alli is a fashion mogul and Labour member of the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber.
Several of these donors from the business world funded Labour before the Corbyn era, and are now doubtless happy to have the party back under their influence after Corbyn’s departure.