Starmer v Saville – As head of the Crown Prosecution Service how did Starmer avoid scrutiny on the decision not to prosecute Saville on the grounds of “insufficient evidence?”

To answer Keticgirl

In part it is Sir Trevor Chinn who is a longstanding pro-Israel lobbyist. Since the 1980s, he has funded Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel and played a leading role in groups such as Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Leadership Council.

The Guardian described BICOM in 2009 as “Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation – which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures”.

Since its foundation, Israel had been dominated by David Ben-Gurion’s left-wing Mapai party, which in 1968 was merged into the Israeli Labour Party. Mapai enjoyed good relations with the British labour movement, first through the British branch of Poale Zion and later via Labour Friends of Israel, which was established in 1957 to act ‘as a bridge linking Mapai… with the Labour Movement in Great Britain’. Several leading British Zionists were affiliated with the Labour Party. Eric Moonman, who was a Labour MP, as was Barnett Janner, who chaired the Zionist Federation from 1940 and was President from 1950 to 1970. Though the Labour Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin was famously ambivalent, even hostile, towards Israel, by the 1950s the Labour Party was overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, which was imagined by many on the left to be a socialist state.

The British left’s reflexive support for Israel gradually eroded from the late 1960s, and particularly following the 1973 war. At the same time, the Conservative Party, in thrall to the New Right, was coming to increasingly identify with Israel. Amongst the most pro-Israel of Tory MPs in this period, the historian William Rubinstein noted, were some of Britain’s most right-wing politicians; including Rhodes Boyson, Julian Amery, Winston Churchill, John Biggs-Davidson (Chairman of the right-wing Monday Club) and Ian Paisley. In April 1979, the Jewish Chroniclequoted a ‘prominent Conservative close to Mrs Thatcher’ as saying: ‘Conservatives, particularly those of the younger generation, admire the State of Israel for its independence and power. They see the Jewish State as a vital outpost of the free world in the Middle East…’

This period saw the establishment of Conservative Friends of Israel, which was set up by the right-wing religious Zionist and Conservative politician Michael Fidler. Described by his biographer as having had extreme political views ‘reminiscent of the philosophy of Enoch Powell’, Fidler favoured arming the police and restoring capital punishment, and campaigned to ‘strictly enforce the Immigration Act’. Over 80 MPs joined his Conservative Friends of Israel group in 1974, including Margaret Thatcher, and within a year it had a larger membership than Labour Friends of Israel. By 1978 it was the largest political lobby in Westminster. Fidler, its National Director, was also President of the General Zionist Organisation of Great Britain (GZO), which was established the same year as Conservative Friends of Israel as the British branch of the World Union of General Zionists, a deeply conservative Revisionist Zionist grouping. In Israeli politics it was affiliated with the Liberal Party, which was part of the right-wing coalition led by Menachem Begin which came to power in 1977, beginning a right-ward shift in Israeli politics which has continued largely unabated to this day. British Zionism soon followed suit when in 1980 the Revisionist Zionists ‘swept the board’ in elections to the Zionist Federation.

Funding for Conservative Friends of Israel was raised mainly by Michael Sacher, the man behind BIPAC. Other major donors included the multi-millionaire business tycoons Trevor Chinn, Gerald Ronson and Cyril Stein.

Neoliberal Zionism

Chinn, Ronson and Stein were part of a circle of wealthy British Zionists who bankrolled a number of pro-Israel organisations from the 1980s, but showed little interest in the traditional institutions of Jewish life. They came to be known as ‘the funding fathers’. ‘Unelected and unaccountable,’ Geoffrey Alderman writes, they became ‘the new rulers of Anglo-Jewry’. Most were affiliated with Britain’s foremost Zionist fundraising organisation, the Joint Israel Appeal (formerly the Joint Palestine Appeal, and later the United Jewish Israel Appeal). The Joint Israel Appeal was originally founded in 1944 by Simon Marks, and under the leadership of his nephew Michael Sacher it ‘established itself as the pre-eminent and most powerful single organization in the community’. During the 1980s it was, the Jewish Chronicle reports, run by a ‘triumvirate’ of Trevor Chinn, Gerald Ronson and Michael Levy, and was ‘widely regarded as the community’s most influential organisation’. Levy, a former record company executive and a relative newcomer to the ‘funding fathers’ circle, would later play a part in the rightward shift of the Labour Party under Tony Blair – and perhaps some role in the party’s rapprochement with Israel.

Levy was introduced to Blair by Gideon Meir, an official at the Israeli Embassy in London, and was later appointed Blair’s chief fundraiser. He became a key figure in a network of New Labour donors that allowed Blair to achieve financial independence from the trade unions and to build up a coterie of advisors – including Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Powell – who would follow him to 10 Downing Street. Trevor Chinn was one of the donors to Blair’s Labour Leader’s Office Fund, a blind trust for which Levy was, in press vernacular, the bagman. Whether it was due to the direct influence of pro-Israel donors, or simply a feature of the Labour Party’s broader move to the right, is difficult to judge, but in 2001 the Labour Party power broker, lobbyist and former Labour Friends of Israel chair Jonathan Mendelsohn commented that: ‘Blair has attacked the anti-Israelism that had existed in the Labour Party… The milieu has changed. Zionism is pervasive in New Labour.’

This network of businessmen and financiers now dominates the organisations that comprise the UK’s pro-Israel lobby. The most influential of these are the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), both of which were established after the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the outbreak of the second intifada. While BICOM is embedded within the British Zionist movement, it distances itself from some of the more hard-line pro-Israel organisations. It has adopted a strategic approach to communications, employing public relations and lobbying professionals. Rather than targeting public opinion, it seeks to insulate policy-makers from the negative opinions about Israel encountered amongst the public.

The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), with which BICOM is closely connected, was set up in 2003 by the then President of the Board of Deputies, Henry Grunwald. Grunwald was frustrated that though a number of wealthy Jewish businessmen were close to the Prime Minister, Blair had not met with any official representatives of the community since taking office. This was quickly rectified. Within months of its launch members of the Jewish Leadership Council were invited to 10 Downing Street. Amongst the JLC’s key backers were the ‘funding fathers’ triumvirate, Trevor Chinn, Gerald Ronson and Michael Levy.

The UK’s pro-Israel lobby in context | openDemocracy

In a keynote speech to Labour Friends of Israel’s annual lunch in November 2021, Starmer repeated the racist and colonial adage that Israel was founded by “social democrats who made the desert flower”.

In 2023 Starmer addressed the LFI reception at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, describing the lobby group as “an invaluable source of energy and ideas for me and my team”.

Two-fifths of Keir Starmer’s cabinet have been funded by pro-Israel lobbyists

MP’s funded by Trevor Chinn in 2024

Tom Watson………………£66,475

Keir Starmer………………£50,000

David Lammy…………….£30,000

Ivan Lewis…………………£30,000

Owen Smith………………£27,000

Angela Rayner…………..£25,000

Ian Austin………………….£22,500

Ruth Smeeth……………..£10,500

Liam Byrne………………..£10,000

Dan Jarvis…………………£10,000

Rachel Reeves…………..£9,840

Jack Dromey……………..£8,000

Jon Cruddas………………£7,500

Tim Farron…………………£5,000

Tristram Hunt…………….£5,000

John Mann………………..£5,000

David Miliband…………..£5,000

Lisa Nandy…………………£5,000

Joan Ryan………………….£5,000

Ed Balls………………………£3,000

Liz Kendall………………….£2,500

Stephen Kinnock………..£2,000

Steve Reed…………………£2,000

There is also the arms industry

From World Peace Foundation 2024

“The arms industry enjoys unparalleled access to the highest levels of government. Ministers and top civil servants from the MOD and other relevant departments met with arms companies on average 1.64 times a day from Nov. 2009 – Oct. 2019, according to data collected by CAAT.

BAE Systems had by far the most meetings with government during this period, totaling 1,238 meetings. Of these, 219 can be characterised as ‘lobbying’ meetings, where BAE Systems was the only company represented, either their Chair, CEO, and/or a Government Relations officer was present, and the topic of the meeting was general and not related to any specific programme.

An analysis of ministerial meeting data provided via the Transparency International website shows that BAE Systems had more meetings with ministers, and more with a Prime Minister, than any other private company, with Airbus and Rolls-Royce also holding high positions on the list of top companies by meetings.”

Path-breaking new report on UK arms industry influence on government policy | World Peace Foundation

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2 thoughts on “Starmer v Saville – As head of the Crown Prosecution Service how did Starmer avoid scrutiny on the decision not to prosecute Saville on the grounds of “insufficient evidence?””

kelticgirl says:

June 17, 2025 at 7:34 pm

One has to wonder about the file Netanyahu must have on him, because he must have something on those western leaders to keep them so close.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Anonymous says:

June 17, 2025 at 8:57 pm

To answer Keticgirl

In part it is Sir Trevor Chinn who is a longstanding pro-Israel lobbyist. Since the 1980s, he has funded Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel and played a leading role in groups such as Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Leadership Council.

The Guardian described BICOM in 2009 as “Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation – which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures”.

Since its foundation, Israel had been dominated by David Ben-Gurion’s left-wing Mapai party, which in 1968 was merged into the Israeli Labour Party. Mapai enjoyed good relations with the British labour movement, first through the British branch of Poale Zion and later via Labour Friends of Israel, which was established in 1957 to act ‘as a bridge linking Mapai… with the Labour Movement in Great Britain’. Several leading British Zionists were affiliated with the Labour Party. Eric Moonman, who was a Labour MP, as was Barnett Janner, who chaired the Zionist Federation from 1940 and was President from 1950 to 1970. Though the Labour Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin was famously ambivalent, even hostile, towards Israel, by the 1950s the Labour Party was overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, which was imagined by many on the left to be a socialist state.

The British left’s reflexive support for Israel gradually eroded from the late 1960s, and particularly following the 1973 war. At the same time, the Conservative Party, in thrall to the New Right, was coming to increasingly identify with Israel. Amongst the most pro-Israel of Tory MPs in this period, the historian William Rubinstein noted, were some of Britain’s most right-wing politicians; including Rhodes Boyson, Julian Amery, Winston Churchill, John Biggs-Davidson (Chairman of the right-wing Monday Club) and Ian Paisley. In April 1979, the Jewish Chroniclequoted a ‘prominent Conservative close to Mrs Thatcher’ as saying: ‘Conservatives, particularly those of the younger generation, admire the State of Israel for its independence and power. They see the Jewish State as a vital outpost of the free world in the Middle East…’

This period saw the establishment of Conservative Friends of Israel, which was set up by the right-wing religious Zionist and Conservative politician Michael Fidler. Described by his biographer as having had extreme political views ‘reminiscent of the philosophy of Enoch Powell’, Fidler favoured arming the police and restoring capital punishment, and campaigned to ‘strictly enforce the Immigration Act’. Over 80 MPs joined his Conservative Friends of Israel group in 1974, including Margaret Thatcher, and within a year it had a larger membership than Labour Friends of Israel. By 1978 it was the largest political lobby in Westminster. Fidler, its National Director, was also President of the General Zionist Organisation of Great Britain (GZO), which was established the same year as Conservative Friends of Israel as the British branch of the World Union of General Zionists, a deeply conservative Revisionist Zionist grouping. In Israeli politics it was affiliated with the Liberal Party, which was part of the right-wing coalition led by Menachem Begin which came to power in 1977, beginning a right-ward shift in Israeli politics which has continued largely unabated to this day. British Zionism soon followed suit when in 1980 the Revisionist Zionists ‘swept the board’ in elections to the Zionist Federation.

Funding for Conservative Friends of Israel was raised mainly by Michael Sacher, the man behind BIPAC. Other major donors included the multi-millionaire business tycoons Trevor Chinn, Gerald Ronson and Cyril Stein.

Neoliberal Zionism

Chinn, Ronson and Stein were part of a circle of wealthy British Zionists who bankrolled a number of pro-Israel organisations from the 1980s, but showed little interest in the traditional institutions of Jewish life. They came to be known as ‘the funding fathers’. ‘Unelected and unaccountable,’ Geoffrey Alderman writes, they became ‘the new rulers of Anglo-Jewry’. Most were affiliated with Britain’s foremost Zionist fundraising organisation, the Joint Israel Appeal (formerly the Joint Palestine Appeal, and later the United Jewish Israel Appeal). The Joint Israel Appeal was originally founded in 1944 by Simon Marks, and under the leadership of his nephew Michael Sacher it ‘established itself as the pre-eminent and most powerful single organization in the community’. During the 1980s it was, the Jewish Chronicle reports, run by a ‘triumvirate’ of Trevor Chinn, Gerald Ronson and Michael Levy, and was ‘widely regarded as the community’s most influential organisation’. Levy, a former record company executive and a relative newcomer to the ‘funding fathers’ circle, would later play a part in the rightward shift of the Labour Party under Tony Blair – and perhaps some role in the party’s rapprochement with Israel.

Levy was introduced to Blair by Gideon Meir, an official at the Israeli Embassy in London, and was later appointed Blair’s chief fundraiser. He became a key figure in a network of New Labour donors that allowed Blair to achieve financial independence from the trade unions and to build up a coterie of advisors – including Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Powell – who would follow him to 10 Downing Street. Trevor Chinn was one of the donors to Blair’s Labour Leader’s Office Fund, a blind trust for which Levy was, in press vernacular, the bagman. Whether it was due to the direct influence of pro-Israel donors, or simply a feature of the Labour Party’s broader move to the right, is difficult to judge, but in 2001 the Labour Party power broker, lobbyist and former Labour Friends of Israel chair Jonathan Mendelsohn commented that: ‘Blair has attacked the anti-Israelism that had existed in the Labour Party… The milieu has changed. Zionism is pervasive in New Labour.’

This network of businessmen and financiers now dominates the organisations that comprise the UK’s pro-Israel lobby. The most influential of these are the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), both of which were established after the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the outbreak of the second intifada. While BICOM is embedded within the British Zionist movement, it distances itself from some of the more hard-line pro-Israel organisations. It has adopted a strategic approach to communications, employing public relations and lobbying professionals. Rather than targeting public opinion, it seeks to insulate policy-makers from the negative opinions about Israel encountered amongst the public.

The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), with which BICOM is closely connected, was set up in 2003 by the then President of the Board of Deputies, Henry Grunwald. Grunwald was frustrated that though a number of wealthy Jewish businessmen were close to the Prime Minister, Blair had not met with any official representatives of the community since taking office. This was quickly rectified. Within months of its launch members of the Jewish Leadership Council were invited to 10 Downing Street. Amongst the JLC’s key backers were the ‘funding fathers’ triumvirate, Trevor Chinn, Gerald Ronson and Michael Levy.

The UK’s pro-Israel lobby in context | openDemocracy

In a keynote speech to Labour Friends of Israel’s annual lunch in November 2021, Starmer repeated the racist and colonial adage that Israel was founded by “social democrats who made the desert flower”.

In 2023 Starmer addressed the LFI reception at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, describing the lobby group as “an invaluable source of energy and ideas for me and my team”.

Two-fifths of Keir Starmer’s cabinet have been funded by pro-Israel lobbyists

MP’s funded by Trevor Chinn in 2024

Tom Watson………………£66,475

Keir Starmer………………£50,000

David Lammy…………….£30,000

Ivan Lewis…………………£30,000

Owen Smith………………£27,000

Angela Rayner…………..£25,000

Ian Austin………………….£22,500

Ruth Smeeth……………..£10,500

Liam Byrne………………..£10,000

Dan Jarvis…………………£10,000

Rachel Reeves…………..£9,840

Jack Dromey……………..£8,000

Jon Cruddas………………£7,500

Tim Farron…………………£5,000

Tristram Hunt…………….£5,000

John Mann………………..£5,000

David Miliband…………..£5,000

Lisa Nandy…………………£5,000

Joan Ryan………………….£5,000

Ed Balls………………………£3,000

Liz Kendall………………….£2,500

Stephen Kinnock………..£2,000

Steve Reed…………………£2,000

There is also the arms industry

From World Peace Foundation 2024

“The arms industry enjoys unparalleled access to the highest levels of government. Ministers and top civil servants from the MOD and other relevant departments met with arms companies on average 1.64 times a day from Nov. 2009 – Oct. 2019, according to data collected by CAAT.

BAE Systems had by far the most meetings with government during this period, totaling 1,238 meetings. Of these, 219 can be characterised as ‘lobbying’ meetings, where BAE Systems was the only company represented, either their Chair, CEO, and/or a Government Relations officer was present, and the topic of the meeting was general and not related to any specific programme.

An analysis of ministerial meeting data provided via the Transparency International website shows that BAE Systems had more meetings with ministers, and more with a Prime Minister, than any other private company, with Airbus and Rolls-Royce also holding high positions on the list of top companies by meetings.”

Path-breaking new report on UK arms industry influence on government policy | World Peace Foundation

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Starmer v Saville – As head of the Crown Prosecution Service how did Starmer avoid scrutiny on the decision not to prosecute Saville on the grounds of “insufficient evidence?”

2 thoughts on “Starmer v Saville – As head of the Crown Prosecution Service how did Starmer avoid scrutiny on the decision not to prosecute Saville on the grounds of “insufficient evidence?””

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2 thoughts on “Starmer v Saville – As head of the Crown Prosecution Service how did Starmer avoid scrutiny on the decision not to prosecute Saville on the grounds of “insufficient evidence?””

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