Labour Friends of Israel’s annual conference reception was addressed by several senior members of the Cabinet last night, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor.
Attendees and speakers also heard from two Israeli hostage family members, Noam Safir and Sharone Lifschitz, whose respective grandfather and father have been held hostage by Hamas for almost a year now.
The reception, the first to take place under a Labour government since 2009, hit its 700-person venue capacity within minutes of the doors opening to delegates attending Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.
In her speech, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner thanked LFI for its work “campaigning on behalf of a two-state solution, peace and coexistence” and “fighting the evils of antisemitism”.
She also reflected on meeting a group of Israeli hostage families visiting the conference with LFI and the Hostage Families Forum. “Britain”, she declared, “stands with you and by you in your campaign to free your loved ones and all the hostages being held by Hamas”.
Rayner attended the reception on behalf of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who left the conference on Tuesday afternoon to attend the UN General Assembly in New York.
The reception was also addressed by senior Cabinet members and former LFI vice-chairs Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden and Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle.
In her speech, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves – a former LFI vice-chair – thanked LFI for its “critical work” and made clear that the “fight against antisemitism must continue” at home and around the world.
In his remarks, newly-appointed LFI parliamentary chair Jon Pearce MP paid tribute to his predecessors Steve McCabe, Dame Louise Ellman and Joan Ryan, and declared that “there has never been more important time for the shared ambitions of LFI and our new Labour government”.
The reception was also addressed by Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, former LFI chair Louise Ellman, LFI lay chair Adrian Cohen, and LFI director Michael Rubin.
