Israel spent £50k flying members of Reform UK out for tours designed to win their political support and whitewash the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Declassified UK has reported. With the far-right party still top of opinion polls and in the running to form the next government, Israel appears to have made a significant effort to court Reform members. Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, went to Israel in September 2025 with £6,500 of funding from the newly formed Reform Friends of Israel, The National has reported. The trip was enough to convince him that reports of famine in Gaza were a “blatant lie” despite him visiting at a time when the IPC was warning that 470,000 people in the enclave – 22% of Gaza’s population – were at imminent risk of starvation. Shortly after, in November 2025, another cohort of Reform figures embarked on a six-day trip to Israel, including Tice’s chief of staff Ryan Powell and then Reform UK party chairman David Bull – who called the visit “life changing”. “I now understand the situation that Israel finds itself in and Reform UK will always stand with the Israeli people,” Bull said. This time the cost of the visit was covered by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which paid Jerusalem-based firm Conexión Israel more than £50,000 to arrange the delegation’s trip. The party’s itinerary included a visit to the illegally occupied Golan Heights, which are considered part of Syria by the UK government. The group also stopped by Israel’s police headquarters, which are overseen by national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right figure sanctioned by the UK for “repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian civilians”. Among the group were Lancashire county council leader Stephen Atkinson, London assembly member Alex Wilson, Reform UK board member Gawain Towler and Rafaella Stefani, another member of Tice’s parliamentary staff. In their parliamentary expenses, Atkinson and Wilson both declared that Israel’s foreign ministry had spent £4,861 each on their visit. The Reform delegates returned vocal in their support of Israel and dismissing protests against genocide as “naively propping up a terrorist ideology”. Andy Kalil, a member of the public who organised a petition that led to a debate in parliament last week on Israel’s political lobbying, said: “Delegates were shown sites highlighting Israel’s security concerns, but not the devastation in Gaza. That’s not a balanced fact-finding visit.”

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