David Garrard, a multi-millionaire pro-Israel lobbyist funded the UK Independent Group, also a major financial backer of Labour Friends of Israel, a front group for the Israeli embassy and was recently appointed to its board #LabourLeaks #TheLobby #LFI

Prior to Palestine solidarity activist Jeremy Corbyn becoming party leader in 2015, Garrard donated almost $2 million to Labour under former leaders Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. #LabourLeals #TheLobby #LFI
Despite leaving the party, Garrard continued to fund individual anti-Corbyn MPs within Labour.

The Independent Group was formed by eight Labour MPs who quit the party.

While they were still in Labour, Garrard funded two of these eight. #LabourLeals #TheLobby #LFI
Garrard donated almost $28,000 to Ian Austin – a leading supporter of Labour Friends of Israel.

Austin to Sky News, “I’ve been campaigning against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership for years.” Joan Ryan resigned from Labour claiming Corbyn’s “hatred for Israel”.
The official register of donations to MP's shows that in 2016 and 2017, Garrard donated almost $9,000 to Ryan and more than $50,000 to Chuka Umunna. Garrard has also donated almost $20,000 to Tom Watson – who has long opposed Corbyn. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut #LFI #TheLobby
Garrard quit Labour in 2018. He was embroiled in the “cash for peerages” scandal during the government of Tony Blair.

Garrard was one of four controversial names nominated by Blair to be “life peers” in the House of Lords, the UK’s unelected upper chamber. #LabourLeaks #LFI
The four were rejected, and it was later revealed they had previously loaned millions to the Labour Party, raising the question of whether they had effectively paid for the nominations.
Garrard denied any wrongdoing. Although Blair was questioned three times by police, and two of his aides were arrested, no one was ever charged with a crime. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut #LFI
2017, an undercover investigation by Al Jazeera revealed that Labour Friends of Israel is effectively a front for the Israeli embassy

Staff privately admitted that, although “publicly we just try to keep the LFI as a separate identity to the embassy,” they work “really closely”
The Israeli embassy was trying to engineer the creation of a “Young Labour Friends of Israel” grouping within the UK’s main opposition party, to counteract strong grassroots support for Palestinian rights. #LabourLeaks #LFI
Ian Austin abandoned the Labour Party to become an independent MP was appointed as the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Israel. “Trade with Israel is worth billions to Britain, it has resulted in investment and jobs in businesses across the UK'' 2019 https://t.co/EZzhcasgQA
MAINSTREAM, the anti-Corbyn group led by former Labour MPs Ian Austin, Ivan Lewis and Mike Gapes, used PR firm Public First - which is led by the person who co-wrote the 2019 Tory manifesto - to run its election activities. #LabourLeaks https://t.co/tm0oB1GtOB
Mike Gapes, a co-director of the company, said he had “no knowledge” of the destruction of the documents. “Everything was done appropriately but it’s unfortunate that things could not be found.” Auditor says ‘inappropriate’ destruction. #LabourLaeks https://t.co/qMpbjPngyI
Accounts show the party received £1.6m in donations during its brief existence. The party, which underwent multiple changes to its name and logo throughout 2019, spent £780,000, almost half of its money, on campaign advertising, according to the accounts.

More from Operation Cupcake

Wow, Morgan McSweeney again, Rachel Riley, SFFN, Center for Countering Digital Hate, Imran Ahmed, JLM, BoD, Angela Eagle, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Lisa Nandy, Steve Reed, Jon Cruddas, Trevor Chinn, Martin Taylor, Lord Ian Austin and Mark Lewis. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut 24 tweet🧵

Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, launched the organisation that now runs SFFN.
The CEO Imran Ahmed worked closely with a number of Labour figures involved in the campaign to remove Jeremy as leader.

Rachel Riley is listed as patron.
https://t.co/nGY5QrwBD0


SFFN claims that it has been “a project of the Center For Countering Digital Hate” since 4 May 2020. The relationship between the two organisations, however, appears to date back far longer. And crucially, CCDH is linked to a number of figures on the Labour right. #LabourLeaks

Center for Countering Digital Hate registered at Companies House on 19 Oct 2018, the organisation’s only director was Morgan McSweeney – Labour leader Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. McSweeney was also the campaign manager for Liz Kendall’s leadership bid. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut

Sir Keir - along with his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney - held his first meeting with the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). Deliberately used the “anti-Semitism” crisis as a pretext to vilify and then expel a leading pro-Corbyn activist in Brighton and Hove

More from World

A few thoughts on this sad development 👇👇

20 academics criticizing an paper is fine; good science, really

10000+ hate mail for studying schools in Sweden is insane

Anonymous docs/ prof (hiding in faceless accts) on twitter smearing researchers is insane
[thread] https://t.co/QYldLD3WO0


In April 2020, @jflier and I saw this coming

We saw increasingly heated and personal attacks against scientists merely for having a range of views on COVID19 (PS there is no playbook/ right ans)

Tying science to naked politics was also bad idea, we

Yet, repeatedly that is what happened. Twitter 'experts' displayed an absolute intolerance to other views

Folks who disagreed weren't just wrong, they were malicious actors spreading "disinformation"

Really? Someone worked for 25 years as faculty to suddenly spread lies?

Disinformation has been so misused that it has lost meaning.

I recently saw an ID doc & lab researcher in the UK be accused of spreading "disinformation"

hahah, get outta here, you are trying to say "i disagree" but your keyboard is broken

Personal attacks have become so bad that I have seen a lab researcher accuse a doctor of wanting to engage in inappropriate relationships with patients due to diverging views on vaccine messaging

Seriously? It was a low point even for twitter

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