BICOM

Jeremy Corbyn has been reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after a complaint that he failed to declare a visit to meet Hamas leaders in 2010.

Israeli news channel i24 News reported that between 5 and the 9 November 2010, the Labour Leader visited Israel and the West Bank with the lobby group Middle East Monitor and met two groups of Hamas officials. Mr Corbyn did not declare in the Commons register of members interests that the visit was funded by Middle East Monitor and another group, Friends of Al-aqsa. At the time the minimum threshold for gifts to be declared was £660. Another MP who went on the same visit declared it in the register and stated that it cost £927.

A report by Middle East Monitor, uncovered by i24 News, said that Corbyn met three senior Hamas members, Ahmad Attoun, Khaled Abu-Arafah, and Muhammad Totah. According to the report, Corbyn also visited the wife of a man convicted of spying for Hezbollah, whom the report called a “political prisoner”. There is no record of him meeting any Jewish Israelis.

After the visit, Corbyn wrote in his Morning Star column: “It is time to bring those Israelis who committed crimes against humanity to account and to end the EU Israel Trade Agreement while the occupation and settlement policy continues.”

A Labour party spokesperson said: “Jeremy has a long and principled record of solidarity with the Palestinian people and engaging with actors in the conflict to support peace and justice in the Middle East. That is the right thing to do.”

The Conservative MP Andrew Percy reported the matter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standard and said: “Whether the trip was properly declared or not, this visit was a further example of Mr Corbyn’s apparent indulgence of extremists such as Hamas. We are repeatedly told that these visits are to promote peace bu in truth they do the exact opposite by giving credibility to the most extreme elements of just one side of this conflict. Mr Corbyn has clearly picked a side in this conflict and it is most certainly not the side of peace.”