Pro-Israel group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) has unveiled three new vice-chairs to its parliamentary leadership.
They include Damien Egan, a former Mayor of the London borough of Lewisham – who is Jewish and whose husband is Israeli – who was elected at a by-election earlier this year and re-elected to the constituency of Bristol North East at the general election, has also been appointed.
They also include two MPs elected at the 2024 general election, as part of Labour’s landslide victory.
Mike Tapp – a former soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before entering politics – who represents Dover and Deal in Kent.
And Jo White – a former district councillor and wife of Lord Mann, the government’s antisemitism adviser – who represents Bassetlaw in the East Midlands, a seat held by her husband between 2001-2019.
They will join long-serving LFI officers, Lords chair Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, vice-chair Sharon Hodgson MP and chair Jon Pearce MP, also of the 2024 intake of MPs, who became the group’s chair earlier this year.
Pearce said he was “delighted to welcome some of the most talented MPs elected for the first time this year”.
He added: “I look forward to making the case for a two-state solution and those working for peace, supporting greater regional security and prosperity, and promoting the vital UK-Israel bilateral relationship. LFI will continue to be a constructive, balanced voice in parliamentary debates that too often produce more heat than light”.
LFI’s director Michael Rubin told the JC that: “At a time of unprecedented pain and suffering across the Middle East region, it is more important than ever that able to articulate how the UK can play a constructive role towards peace and champion our party’s historic ties of friendship to Israel and the Jewish community.”
He went on: “I am delighted that LFI will have our new honorary parliamentary officers to support us in this task.”
Both Tapp and Egan have visited Israel and the Palestinian territories on LFI-organised delegations.