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Labour Thought This Scandal Would Fade – It Just Got Set on Fire
Right, so once upon a time, the Labour MP Lisa Nandy was allegedly a prominent advocate for Palestinian rights. As chair of Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East (LFPME), she openly condemned Israeli aggression in Gaza, called for halting arms sales to Israel, and demanded Britain end its complicity in what she then described as clear breaches of international law. Six years later, her political identity has to say the least shifted. Now serving as Culture Secretary under Keir Starmer, Nandy has become one of the most vocal defenders of Israel in British politics and arguably it is a show of her true colours. She has demanded sackings at the BBC for airing Bob Vylan’s anti-IDF chant at Glastonbury, remained silent on a damning report showing the BBC gave thirty-three times more coverage to Israeli deaths than Palestinian ones, and faced scandal after a leaked memo from her office branded the BBC “institutionally antisemitic” ahead of a meeting with Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.
Nandy if anything abandoned LFPME and undermined it, the influence of pro-Israel donors worked their wicked way it would seem, and her selective outrage over media bias, and the wider consequences for Labour’s credibility and the BBC’s independence on matters pertaining to Israel and Palestine speaks volumes. Nandy’s transformation is less a matter of ideological conviction than of career calculation, made in a party increasingly shaped by donor interests and pro-Israel proclivities.
Right, so before her seemingly dramatic pivot, Nandy had been talking the talk as a voice of conscience within Labour. As LFPME chair, she repeatedly condemned Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank. When she stood up in parliament in 2018 and issued a statement questioning arms sales saying—“Given what we’ve seen in Gaza, why on earth are we still licensing arms to Israel?”—this was consistent with her public alignment with international humanitarian law at that time. She signed motions criticising settlement expansions and called for a meaningful two-state solution. In interviews at the time, she was at that point therefore seemingly urging Britain to stand up for Palestinian human rights, not turn a blind eye to their suffering. But was she really working so hard for the sake of Palestine?
Declassified UK’s investigation into LFPME later highlighted that while the group lacked the institutional power of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), it was at least an active parliamentary forum until 2019. Nandy’s chairmanship offered the group a degree of credibility, and her involvement signalled that parts of the party still maintained an internationalist, human-rights-centred position on Palestine.
However, even then, there were signs of disengagement. Critics inside LFPME accused Nandy of failing to recruit new members or expand the group’s influence. By late 2019, LFPME was stagnating, leaving it vulnerable to the political purges of the Starmer era. Some now argue that this was a conscious decision: Nandy, already positioning herself for future advancement, she was running for Labour leader herself, seemed unwilling to risk her political capital by strengthening a group that might later become a liability. With hindsight, her lack of energy in defending LFPME appears less like negligence and more like an early step in her careerist repositioning.
Nandy’s political shift must also be understood within the context of Labour’s dramatic reorientation under Keir Starmer when he defeated her to become Labour leader. The party’s reliance on wealthy donors quickly came back as avowed Zionist Starmer quickly began implementing the purge of the left—many of those donors linked to pro-Israel lobbying networks.
Another Declassified UK investigation that took place in 2024 revealed that half of Starmer’s Cabinet has received funding from pro-Israel donors by that point, a dramatic shift from Corbyn’s tenure, when union support and small donations from ordinary people dominated Labour’s finances. High-profile figures such as Trevor Chinn have played a decisive role in shaping this environment, funding candidates aligned with Labour Friends of Israel and marginalising those sympathetic to Palestine.
Lisa Nandy has herself reportedly received around £52,000 from pro-Israel-aligned donors, a significant sum that she had accepted symbolising her political loyalties. While not the largest recipient, her donations represent more than money; they mark a strategic alignment with the party’s new orthodoxy. Under Starmer, outspoken advocacy for Palestinian rights has become career suicide. MPs such as Zarah Sultana and Andy McDonald have faced disciplinary action, or political isolation for mild criticism of Israel. In contrast, those who demonstrate loyalty to pro-Israel positions—by staying silent on Gaza or, in Nandy’s case amongst others, as that Declassified UK article implies, actively attacking pro-Palestinian voices—have been rewarded with Cabinet positions and donor backing.
This donor influence has also reshaped Labour’s internal factions. LFPME, not perfect, but a functional pro-Palestinian group, has been allowed to wither into near-total dormancy. In contrast, Labour Friends of Israel remains active and well-funded, hosting events with senior ministers and boasting growing influence in shaping policy. Nandy’s career shift mirrors this institutional shift, reflecting how the party’s internal balance of power has been bought and paid for by donors.
And nowhere is Nandy’s transformation clearer than in her selective outrage over media impartiality.
When the Centre for Media Monitoring published its report last month, revealing that the BBC devoted thirty-three times more coverage per fatality to Israeli deaths than to Palestinian ones, Nandy did not utter a word. She made no public statement, despite her ministerial responsibility for cultural and media oversight. The CfMM report also noted systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians through language, with Israeli victims described as having been “killed” while Palestinians “died.” This finding should have prompted scrutiny, yet Nandy chose silence. Her inaction cannot be explained as oversight; it reflects a deliberate choice to avoid criticising a bias that aligns with pro-Israel interests.
By contrast, her outrage over Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance was immediate and aggressive. When the punk band led a crowd in chanting “Death to the IDF,” the BBC aired the performance live, dodging Kneecap’s performance. Nandy called it “a catastrophic failure,” questioned why no senior staff had faced disciplinary action, and hinted at the need for sackings. For Nandy, a single broadcast of an anti-IDF chant warranted fury, while systemic underreporting of Palestinian deaths did not even merit comment.
Her interventions over Gaza documentaries further underscore this hypocrisy. The BBC pulled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone after admitting it had failed to disclose that the child narrator’s father was a Hamas official. Nandy seized on this breach to demand accountability. Yet she expressed no concern over accusations of political censorship following the delayed broadcast of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which was ultimately moved to Channel 4 after intense internal resistance and an open letter signed by over six hundred public figures. Her actions show a consistent pattern: defence of Israel’s image is paramount, while Palestinian suffering is treated as a footnote.
The scandal surrounding a leaked briefing note exposed Nandy’s alignment with pro-Israel lobbying even more starkly. According to The National, an aide in Nandy’s office drafted a memo ahead of her meeting with Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely describing the BBC as “institutionally antisemitic.”
Although Nandy did not publicly repeat this inflammatory claim, the fact her office prepared it reveals a troubling readiness to adopt pro-Israel talking points wholesale. It also raises questions about political intimidation. Branding the BBC as “institutionally antisemitic” is not a neutral statement; it is a direct threat, designed to pressure the broadcaster into further self-censorship.
The choice of meeting partner adds further context. Hotovely herself is one of Israel’s most controversial diplomats, she’s an absolute harridan who should have been expelled from this country long ago in my view, known as she is for defending settlement expansion and denying the existence of a Palestinian national identity. Meeting her under the shadow of such a memo underscores how closely Nandy has aligned herself with Israel’s hardline positions.
Of course the implications of Nandy’s transformation stretch beyond her personal reputation. Labour is already facing a crisis of credibility. Younger voters, progressives, and Muslim communities—many concentrated in key Labour constituencies in areas such as Birmingham, Bradford, and Leicester—are increasingly alienated by what they see as the party’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. The Funding the Future blog of economist Richard Murphy summarised this growing anger succinctly with the line: “the fact that Labour sides with genocide will not be hidden from view.”
Polling consistently shows that British public opinion, particularly among younger demographics, is increasingly sympathetic to Palestinians. Starmer’s Labour, however, is moving in the opposite direction, prioritising donor approval over public sentiment.
The BBC, too, is suffering from this new political reality. Already accused by both left and right of bias, the broadcaster now risks becoming paralysed by fear of political backlash. Internal protests over the pulling of Gaza documentaries, resignations from staff frustrated at editorial interference, and declining public trust all point to a deepening crisis. Nandy’s interventions, far from defending impartiality, have contributed to this climate of intimidation, reinforcing the perception that the BBC’s primary role is to appease political elites rather than inform the public.
Lisa Nandy’s move from Palestinian advocate to pro-Israel enforcer is not just a personal hypocrisy; it symbolises the moral collapse of Starmer’s Labour. Her journey reflects a broader shift in which donor influence dictates political positions, media independence is eroded, and humanitarian principles are sacrificed for career advancement.
The Nandy who once spoke out against arms sales to Israel has been replaced by a minister who will defend Israel’s image at almost any cost, even if that means undermining public broadcasting and let’s face it, the BBC can do that itself without her help. Her silence on Palestinian suffering and her willingness to adopt lobbyist rhetoric show how far she has strayed from the values she once claimed to hold, with more people of the view she never really held them in the first place and like Keir Starmer she operates more on the logic of ‘if you don’t like these principles, I have others.’
For Labour, this raises an existential question: how much longer can it trade principle for power without losing the trust of the very voters who have sustained it for generations? For the BBC, the stakes are equally high. If political intimidation continues unchecked, They have no more future than polling indicates this Labour government does.
In the end, Nandy’s story is not just about one politician’s ambition; it is about a party and a political system where the truth—about Gaza, about Israel, and about Britain’s role in enabling injustice—became the first casualty.
For more on how growing anti-Zionism sentiment is building against Labour these days, notably coming from Jewish people themselves, do check out this video recommendation out here as your suggested next watch.
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