This week, the Starmer administration voted to get rid of jury trials, a right enjoyed by British citizens for over…

This week, the Starmer administration voted to get rid of jury trials, a right enjoyed by British citizens for over 800 years. But my investigations reveal THREE pro-Israeli lawyers pushing for the change. Here are their names:🧵

Keir Starmer initially appointed Sarah Sackman as Solicitor-General. Now, she is Labour’s Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services. But Sackman previously worked as a judicial clerk at the Israeli Supreme Court.

Sackman’s grandfather Solomon Seruya worked for the United Israel Appeal, which is responsible for “the allocation + oversight of funds raised…on behalf of Israel”. Their primary objective is “to assist immigration to Israel”. Chairs have included Epstein-associate Les Wexner.

Despite being a citizen of Gibraltar, Seruya served as an Israeli Ambassador and “maintains a home” in occupied Jerusalem. Labour’s Minister for Courts Sarah Sackman has relatives likely to have served in the Israeli military and “travels to Israel on a yearly basis”.

For nine years, Sackman was the vice-chair of the pro-Israeli Jewish Labour Movement. The JLM states that one of its aims is “to promote the centrality of Israel in Jewish life”. In 2015, Sackman said: “The issue of Israel is something that is deeply personal and emotional.”

In May 2024, Sackman opposed ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu + Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, saying: “I trust the Israeli people to hold their leaders to account”. 65% of Israelis opposed criminal prosecution for IDF soldiers suspected of gang rape.

Sackman has received tens of thousands of pounds from lobbyists Jonathan Mendelsohn, Gary Lubner, Stephen Grabiner, Michael Sternberg, Jonathan Kestenbaum and Trevor Chinn. This week, she described the bombing of 165 Iranian schoolgirls as “a reality of war”.

Sackman was also funded by Labour Together, the corrupt outfit of Morgan McSweeney fame. Before joining the Labour Party, Morgan McSweeney spent time living in Sarid, an Israeli colony. Labour MP Luke Akehurst called McSweeney a “pivotal figure” and “solid supporter of Israel”.

Sarah Sackman worked at Matrix Chambers alongside Richard Hermer, a close friend of Starmer and his pick for Attorney General. Hermer served with Starmer at Doughty Street Chambers and donated to his 2020 leadership campaign. Hermer also has “dear family members” in the IDF.

Hermer previously stated: “I actively support a range of Israeli organisations.” He grew up in “blue-box” family that raised money for the Jewish National Fund, the largest builder of Israeli settlements. JNF patrons include Benjamin Netanyahu and Tony Blair.

Hermer is also a former officer for the Union of Jewish Students. Former UJS activist Adam Schapira stated that the group is directly funded by the Israeli embassy in London. Yair Zivan, a campaigns officer for UJS, later become a press officer for the Israeli military.

Last September, Hermer said: “The rule of law is under threat from populists, whose ineffective solutions would harm working-class people.” He has also stated: “The starting point is this: there is no absolute right to a jury trial in this country.”

In 2020, now Justice Secretary David Lammy said: “Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea. You do not fix the backlog with trials that are widely perceived as unfair.” In 2017, Lammy stated that juries “act as a filter for prejudice”. Now, he wants to get rid of them.

In 2024, Lammy received over £150,000 in “gifts and donations”, more than any other Labour cabinet minister. The largest contribution was from Labour Together. Lammy dismissed calls for an investigation into the activities of the now-disgraced Morgan McSweeney as “muckracking”.

McSweeney was the protegé of Epstein-informant Peter Mandelson. Mandelson once said about McSweeney: “I don’t know who and how and when he was invented, but whoever it was…they will find their place in heaven.”

Last February, Lammy had an “off-the-record” meeting with former Labour Together director + life-long Israel lobbyist Trevor Chinn. In 2012, they travelled together on a Labour Friends of Israel-funded trip. Chinn used Labour Together to propel McSweeney + Starmer into power.

In 2014, Chinn donated £30k to Lammy’s London mayoral campaign. The campaign was led by David Mencer, a LFI director who later became a spokesperson for the Israeli government. In the 90s, Mencer worked for a number of Labour shadow ministers after volunteering for the IDF.

Lammy’s mayoral campaign was also funded by Jonathan Goldstein, a Chelsea FC co-owner who personally hosted Keir Starmer in a Stamford Bridge box. As head of the Jewish Leadership Council in 2017, Goldstein said that he would “make the community louder and prouder on Israel”.

Goldstein also chairs the Chief Rabbi’s Trust, “overseeing planning + fundraising efforts”, and is a trustee of the Ronson Family Foundation. He describes the Ronsons as “a very strong influence” on him who are “driven for the cause of the Jewish people in Britain + in Israel”.

In April 2025, Lammy secretly met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in London. The Foreign Office refused to give details of the meeting, saying: “We believe, if viewed, it could…damage our relationship with Israel.”

Lammy’s financial backers also include Lady Woodford-Hollick, the wife of Labour peer Clive Hollick. Clive Hollick was another funder of Labour Together + previously a special adviser to Epstein-associate Peter Mandelson + long-standing Labour Friend of Israel Margaret Beckett.

In November 2023, Lammy registered a £70k “gift” from South African-born lobbyist Gary Lubner. Lubner has given Starmer’s Labour over £6 million, financed McSweeney’s Labour Together, and bankrolled a slate of Labour MPs that included McSweeney’s wife, Imogen Walker.

In a time of increasing attacks on our ability to speak freely, independent journalism is a valuable tool we still have at our disposal. Please consider contributing if you value what I do: crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-my-j… Follow @jodymcintyre_ for more exposés of the Labour government.