The Conservative Party took £1.3m in donations from a business linked to the destruction of Palestinian villages – before opposing new sanctions on Israeli settlements last month.

The party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, spoke out against the sanctions, which the government says will target companies that finance and facilitate illegal settlements in the West Bank.

“The wrong decision has been made,” she said . “I don’t think that this is the right way to sort out the problem of settler violence or settler expansion.”

Following the sanctions announcement, she reportedly held “crisis talks” with Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar.

But Declassified can reveal that, under her leadership, the Conservatives have accepted at least 39 separate donations from the JCB group of companies, totalling more than £1.3m.

Most went to the party’s central office, while the rest went to regional offices and individual Conservative politicians.

The digger firm has been consistently identified by the United Nations as having links to the “supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements”.

The UN has also accused the company of supplying equipment for the demolition of houses and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops.

The latest UN report, published last month, also accuses JCB of having a “direct linkage” to “actual or potential adverse human rights impacts”.

Shortly before Badenoch became leader of the Conservatives in 2024, Amnesty International called on the party to “urgently review” all further donations from JCB.

The human rights group described the company as a “key supplier of machinery used in this systematic violation of human rights,” adding that it has “failed to take effective action”.

In 2021, a UK government watchdog also found that JCB “did not take any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind despite being aware of alleged adverse human rights impacts”.

But far from stopping the donations, Badenoch has doubled down on her party’s cosy relationship with JCB and even did a photoshoot in April driving one of the company’s diggers.

JCB has a stand at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham this week.

RELATED

Do Andy Burnham’s sanctions on Israel go far enough?

READ MORE

Sanctions

Labour’s former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, described the donations as “blood money”.

He told Declassified : “Badenoch must give back the donations from JCB, now its role in the West Bank has been so widely exposed.”

Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s economic affairs director, said: “JCB’s products have been used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and the expansion of illegal settlements. That makes them part of the machinery of ethnic cleansing and apartheid – and that cannot be ignored.

“No UK entity – political party or otherwise – should ignore JCB’s continuing appearance on the UN database of companies involved in activities affecting Palestinian rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Frankental added: “The government’s commitment to act against companies that facilitate Israeli settlements must include companies whose products are used in the expansion of settlements or the demolition of Palestinian homes.

“At a minimum JCB should be excluded from public contracts until it ends its role in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.”

Jeff Halper, director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), said his organisation has campaigned on JCB’s involvement with Israel’s illegal settlements for years.

ICAHD UK members demonstrated outside its dealerships and headquarters, wrote letters to Lord Bamford, who owns the JCB group of companies with his family, and asked MPs to call him to account.

“Despite our pleas to Bamford regarding how his machines are used to severely harm Palestinian families and cause long-term trauma, there has never been any response,” Halper told Declassified .

“From our perspective, Bamford is about profit rather than ethics to promote the good of humanity.”

JCB and the Conservative Party were asked to comment and did not respond.

However, JCB has previously rejected its inclusion on the UN list, saying it is not involved in, nor does it have business operations in the occupied Palestinian territories, and has not enabled or profited from the growth of Israeli settlements.

The post Tories took £1.3 million from firm linked to Israeli settlements appeared first on Declassified UK .