Top Labour official married to lobbyist for Israeli arms firm

The Labour Party’s general secretary is married to a lobbyist for an Israeli arms firm, Declassified can reveal.

Pearson Engineering is based in England, but is part of Israel’s state-owned arms giant, Rafael.

The company makes a range of military equipment and has been the subject of several pro-Palestine protests.

Records show that it has recently hired a lobbying agency called Anacta UK, which is run by former political adviser Teddy Ryan.

Ryan was a senior director of the Labour Party until last year – and is married to the party’s general secretary, Hollie Ridley.

Ridley is seen as “entirely loyal” to the prime minister, having joined Labour as a trainee organiser in 2011 and risen up the party ranks.

Anacta is an arm of Australian firm Anacta Strategies, co-founded by David Nelson who was hired by Keir Starmer to help run its general election campaign last year.

The company has been described as the “first Starmerite lobbying firm” and says it is “designed to help businesses navigate the policies, politics and personalities of the UK’s national, regional and local governments”.

As managing director, Teddy Ryan also owns shares in Anacta UK.

The register of British public affairs companies suggests that it signed up Pearson Engineering as a client over the summer – joining other clients like Sky Group Limited and Aviva PLC.

Pearson Engineering is chaired by Labour peer Lord Hutton and owned by Israel’s finance ministry, which is run by a far-right politician who is under UK sanctions.

The firm announced a £40m gross profit last year, saying that it “designs and manufactures a range of counter mine, counter IED [Improvised Explosive Device] and mine clearance equipment, as well as combat engineering equipment that increases the capability of armoured fighting and engineer vehicles.”

Labour’s “entanglement” with Israeli arms firms was last night condemned by Philippa Whitford, a former SNP politician and breast cancer surgeon, who worked in Gaza and is now a trustee of Medical Aid for Palestinians.

She told Declassified: “There are far too many examples of UK government policy decisions being heavily influenced by lobby groups, whether on behalf of the wealthy, private health firms or arms companies.

“As we face the appalling suffering in Gaza every day, it is particularly egregious to see the Labour Party’s entanglement with Israeli arms firms such as Rafael”.

Anacta did not respond to Declassified, while the Labour Party refused to comment.