DEMANDS are mounting for an independent inquiry into the huge cash fund that Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) receives from the Israeli government to spend on influencing opinion within the party.

In a secret recording that emerged last week, Israeli embassy official Shai Masot confirmed that LFI had access to a staggering £1 million from his government to spend on all-expenses-paid jaunts to Israel for sympathetic Labour MPs and students.

Glyn Secker, secretary of Free Speech on Israel, said there had been “a close association between the Israeli embassy and Labour Friends of Israel over many years” and that allegations of antisemitism against Palestinian rights campaigners were raised to discredit Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The money has been an important way in which the Israeli government has “influenced opinion in both Labour’s student body and within Parliament,” he added.

Mr Secker called for an immediate inquiry into the Labour Party’s relationship with the embassy, particularly the relationship between officials of the Jewish Labour Movement and Mr Masot, and a separate inquiry into LFI’s controversial cash fund.

He said: “If you’re being offered an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel, you’ll be taken around the country and get a very jaundiced perspective of the occupation — and it will influence opinions.”

A spokesman for LFI said that claims made after Mr Masot was caught on camera are “not only totally untrue, they are utterly ridiculous.”

He added: “This conversation was about a visit openly arranged, advertised by and paid for by the Israeli embassy. It had nothing whatsoever to do with LFI delegations.”

Mr Secker also called for chair of Jewish Labour Jeremy Newmark to make minutes and records of meetings and conversations with Mr Masot and Israeli embassy staff available to the public. Mr Newmark was photographed with Mr Masot at last year’s Labour Party conference.

The scandal revealed that there was a “very powerful campaign within the Labour Party accusing supporters of Palestinian human rights of anti-semitism,” according to Mr Secker.

He said zionists had “fomented allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party to attack the left and supporters of Corbyn.”

Mr Secker told the Star: “This is, firstly, because Corbyn has always been a supporter of Palestinian human rights and, secondly, to discredit the rise of the left within Labour while trying to take him down politically.”

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