Labour politicians under investigation for ‘Friends of Israel’ trip

Two Labour MPs are being investigated by parliamentary authorities after failing to declare an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel on time.

Peter Prinsley and Cat Eccles joined a “solidarity” visit funded by Labour Friends of Israel in May.

The group is funded by anonymous donors and was described as a “lobbying organisation” by one of its former directors.

Now, an official probe has been announced by parliament’s standards commissioner, after Declassified revealed the MPs had not mentioned the trip in their register of interests.

A third MP, Kevin McKenna, was also reported for failing to declare the trip. But the standards commissioner has not announced any inquiry against him.

During their trip to Israel, the MPs posed for photos with Israeli president Isaac Herzog, whose genocidal comments have been cited in an International Court of Justice report.

Speaking after the October 7 attack, Herzog said that an “entire nation” was responsible.

The delegation also met Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel, leader of the opposition Yair Lapid and IDF reserve major general Yair Golan.

Records show that two of the MPs who went on the trip had already added it to their register of interests, stating that it was worth up to £2,600 per person.

But the strict deadline for declaration appeared to have been missed by the other MPs.

When questioned by Declassified earlier this month, a Labour Party spokesperson blamed the omission on an “administrative error”, adding: “All relevant declarations have now been made.”

But the spokesperson did not explain how the same “administrative error” was made by all three MPs, and declined to comment on whether this claim was misleading.

Slap on the wrist?

Prinsley and Eccles, who represent the constituencies of Bury St Edmunds and Stourbridge respectively, will now be investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner.

However, penalties for breaching the rules are famously weak.

Similar cases in the past have resulted in MPs making a written apology, while their register of interests is annotated to show that the interest has been the subject of an inquiry.

The Labour MPs are just the latest politicians to face a parliamentary inquiry triggered by Declassified’s reporting.

Earlier this month, a separate probe was launched into Conservative MP Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst in his capacity as chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Defence Technology.

It came after Declassified revealed the group had accepted money from an arms company owned and controlled by the Israeli government.

And, last month, we revealed that the standards commissioner himself had previously voiced support for Israeli military action in Gaza.

He also once implied that any Israeli who refused to serve in the IDF was “a coward and a parasite”.