On June 28th, unelected Prime Minister Andy Burnham appointed Bridget Phillipson as the new Labour Party chair. What many in the mainstream media did not report, however, is Phillipson’s connection to Stuart Roden, a lobbyist with links to Israeli intelligence.
Stuart Roden
In 2023, Phillipson registered two £40,000 donations from Roden, the co-founder of Hetz Ventures, a Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm he set up with London-born former Israeli intelligence officer Judah Taub. According to a Declassified UK report, Roden’s Hetz firm employs:
an array of former Israeli soldiers, many of whom have served in elite intelligence units.
Last year, leaked diaries revealed that Roden had been conducting private meetings with then Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotolevy, and Phillipson is not the only recent Burnham appointment he has bankrolled.
Lisa Nandy
Labour MP Lisa Nandy, who also held “secret” meetings with Israeli ambassador Hotolevy, received a £40,000 in-kind donation from Roden in 2024, as well as a policy adviser paid for by serial pro-Israeli financier Trevor Chinn the year before. Now, she is Burnham’s Culture Secretary.
After a Freedom of Information request into Nandy’s meeting with Hotolevy, the Labour government refused to provide further details. Instead, Nandy’s department said that they would prioritise:
protecting relations between the United Kingdom and Israel.
Luke Akehurst
For at least two years, Phillipson was benefitting from quarterly payments from Chinn, again for “staffing costs”. During her deputy leadership bid in 2025, she also received support from Labour First, a group run by ex-Israel lobbyist and now Labour MP Luke Akehurst.
Akehurst, who has also been funded by Roden, was quick to celebrate Burnham’s appointment of his “friend” Phillipson as party chair. Former Israeli embassy officer Shai Masot once described Akehurst as:
one of the best on the inside … of the [Labour] party.
ELNET UK
In 2023, lobby group ELNET UK paid for a member of Phillipson’s staff to visit occupied Palestine. Described in financial disclosures as a “study tour”, they were accompanied by Akehurst. A staffer for Burnham’s new Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, also travelled with the group.
ELNET lists the Israeli Foreign Ministry as one of their “partners”. A 2024 trip organised by the lobby group was led by Jeffrey Epstein “pal” and disgraced ex-Labour peer Peter Mandelson. Mandelson described Burnham’s new chief of staff, James Purnell, as “one of my boys”.
Other donations
In October, Phillipson received £40,000 from megadonor David Sainsbury and £15,000 from his daughter, Francesca Perrin. Phillipson has also admitted to accepting £14,000 in donations from Waheed Alli, Keir Starmer’s largest personal donor, for “lobby journalist” events.
In 2022, Phillipson accepted £15,000 from ex-Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy. Earlier this year, Murphy’s Arden Strategies lobby firm was caught offering companies access to a VIP dinner with “top advisers” to Starmer and Rachel Reeves in exchange for £30,000.
In the run-up to the 2024 general election, Arden helped raise funds for more than 30 Labour Party candidates. Their clients include arms manufacturer Northrop Grumman, which supplies weapons components to the Israeli military.
In November, Phillipson stood for deputy leader of the Labour Party. She received another £10,000 for her campaign from Murphy, a former director of Labour Friends of Israel. In 2015, Murphy promised to:
support Israel long after my political career is over.
Coup complete
In October 2024, Phillipson posted a short update on her personal website titled:
Good to meet with Andy Burnham.
At the time, Starmer had only been Prime Minister for three months.
Now, just two years later, Burnham has ousted Starmer and Phillipson is Labour Party chair. The Burnham coup is complete.
Featured image via Manchester Evening News.
