Eurasia Press & News
Britain’s Foreign Office met privately with a pro-Israel lobbyist to discuss arms exports to Tel Aviv, documents obtained by Declassified reveal.
The meeting took place in October 2024 and was attended by Christian Turner, the political director at the Foreign Office, and Sir Trevor Chinn, a pro-Israel businessman from Britain.
Chinn, who made a fortune from the motor industry, has donated significant sums to Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy.
Transparency data published by the UK government initially said the purpose of the meeting was “to discuss geopolitics with [a] businessman”.
But documents obtained by Declassified under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the discussion instead concentrated on Britain’s arms exports to Israel.
Foreign Office emails show that a key focus of the conversation was “the 2 September IHL decision”, referring to the Labour government’s suspension of some arms export licences to Israel amid concerns over violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).
Chinn even offered “recommendations” on the issue, with Turner enquiring whether other British diplomats might also try “reaching out” to him and “hearing” his views.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told Declassified: “It is the political director’s job to engage with a range of voices across multiple issues to ensure informed policy making”.
The department is refusing to release any more details about the meeting. It said to do so would prejudice “the effective conduct of our bilateral relationship with Israel” which “depends upon maintaining trust and confidence between governments”.
Declassified has asked the Foreign Office to review this decision, and sought clarity on how a private discussion with a British businessman could impact Britain’s diplomatic relations with Israel.
Chinn did not respond to requests for comment Declassified sent to three different organisations he is affiliated with.
Trevor Chinn
Sir Trevor Chinn is a British multi-millionaire who has spent decades working in the motor industry, chairing such organisations as the AA, the RAC, and Kwikfit.
He is also a longstanding pro-Israel lobbyist.
Since the 1980s, Chinn has funded Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel, and played a leading role in Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), previously described by the Guardian as “Britain’s most active pro-Israel lobbying organisation”.
Recently declassified files show how Chinn repeatedly lobbied John Major’s Conservative government regarding its policy towards Israel during the early 1990s.
“He can be quite a tough protagonist of the Israeli cause and is by no means a dove”, one Foreign Office official wrote about Chinn in November 1991.
“My own feeling is that he is not very subtly tuned into the Israeli political scene, although he meets a number of leaders through his fund-raising activities”, the diplomat continued.
Trevor Chinn’s father, Rosser Chinn, was the president of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Britain.
The JNF is a quasi-governmental organisation which has supported illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, and was described by historian Ilan Pappé as a “colonialist agency of ethnic cleansing”.
Political funding
Aside from his longstanding pro-Israel advocacy, it is unclear what qualifies Chinn to meet with British diplomats to discuss “geopolitics” and arms export policy.
In the past, the UK and Israeli governments have at times sought to convey messages to one another through intermediaries in Britain’s Jewish community who have political connections in Whitehall and Tel Aviv.
Chinn is also an important funder of several prominent Labour MPs, raising questions about whether this provides him with easier access to the Foreign Office.
He has donated significant sums to Starmer, Lammy, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, health secretary Wes Streeting, and education secretary Bridget Phillipson.
In addition, he helped to bankroll the Labour Together think tank, which was launched in 2016 in order to “defeat Corbynism” and “win Labour back from the left”.
Chinn’s motivation for funding Labour Together was closely linked to Corbyn’s support for Palestine.
He “had great concerns about the election of an outspoken opponent of the Jewish state as Labour leader”, wrote Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick McGuire in their book Get In.
Hil Aked, author of Friends of Israel: the Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity, told Declassified: “The Israeli government often deploys third party actors as part of its diplomatic strategy and is known to have close relationships with Zionist advocacy groups and some wealthy pro-Israel businessmen.
“British political elites, meanwhile, have been active partners in Palestinians’ oppression since the days of Balfour. Though the public wants an arms embargo now, donations and lobbying from people in influential positions like Trevor Chinn could encourage Starmer and Lammy to ignore democracy and keep arming Israel’s genocide”.
Foreign Office meetings
Under Starmer’s government, the Foreign Office has held scores of meetings with pro-Israel advocacy groups and individuals as well as families linked to Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Lammy, for instance, has met with Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews who was criticised recently for his “fawning attitude towards the Israeli government and its military strategy in Gaza”.
The criticism was made by 36 of the 300 Deputies on the Board, who said “as British Jews” they could “no longer stay silent on the war”.
Lammy has also met with Labour Friends of Israel, an opaquely-funded group which seeks to influence UK foreign policy in the Middle East.
Hamish Falconer, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, has met privately with the European Leadership Network (ELNET), a pro-Israel lobby organisation which is directed by the former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, Joan Ryan.
ELNET lists the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs as one of its “partners”, and its director in Israel Emmanuel Navon previously described Israel’s offensive into Rafah as “necessary” and suggested EU officials “need not worry about Gaza civilians”.
A parliamentary adviser who went on a recent ELNET delegation to Israel told openDemocracy that “there was a clear and obvious agenda to make sure people had a pro-Israel stance going into government”.
The staffer added that, after returning from the trip, a senior figure at the Israeli embassy asked: “Did you enjoy the trip we sent you on?”
The Labour government has held meetings with some pro-Palestine organisations as well as UK-linked relatives of victims of the Gaza genocide, though these groups appear to have been afforded far less influence over the making of policy.
Jacqui Kirby, the mother of one of the Britons killed in an Israeli airstrike on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy in Gaza last year, even criticised Lammy for approaching her and asking her who she was.
“I thought, ‘You’re coming here to meet all these families and you haven’t even done your homework to find out who each individual is’,” she said. “After that, I could barely bring myself to speak to him.”
The UK government has also refused to stop arming Israel despite calls from the family of James Henderson, one of the other Britons killed in the WCK strike, to do so.
A Foreign Office spokesperson responded: “We absolutely do not recognise any claim suggesting that we have prioritised engaging with those with certain interests and positions over others”.
