Streeting accepted donation from fraudster-linked think tank

Labour Defence Secretary Wes Streeting accepted a £30,000 donation from a think tank linked to convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.

David Lawrence

David Lawrence was the co-founder and treasurer of Labour for the Long Term (LLT). But just days before setting up the think tank, Lawrence received a £500,000 “gift” from Bankman-Fried. In 2024, the “crypto king” was jailed for 25 years in an $11 billion fraud case.

Lawrence previously worked as a parliamentary assistant to former Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy. Last February, Lammy held an “off the books” meeting with serial lobbyist Trevor Chinn, who has also made cash donations to Streeting in recent months.

In November 2023, Lawrence stepped down as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Basingstoke, officially citing personal reasons. But I’ve been told that a source close to his campaign claimed the real reason was the impending release of court documents linking him to convicted fraudster Bankman-Fried.

When questioned in December 2022, LLT refused to disclose the identities of its funders, describing donors simply as:

UK citizens who support the Labour Party.

American entrepreneur Bankman-Fried was not mentioned in their response.

‘Entirely plausible’ Labour knew

On an archived version of LLT’s website, Wes Streeting is listed first amongst their parliamentary supporters. Also listed were former party chair Anneliese Dodds; Labour Friends of Israel supporter Fleur Anderson; Andy Burnham’s Trade Envoy to Ukraine, Alex Sobel; and a smattering of Labour Party peers.

In August 2022, just over a month after Bankman-Fried’s £500,000 payment to Lawrence, Streeting accepted a £30,000 donation from LLT. He used it to hire Thomas Gardiner as a policy adviser. Gardiner went on to become a key member of Streeting’s team.

According to a Labour source I spoke to, it is “entirely plausible” that the party knew about the Bankman-Fried connection to LLT. This seems to be backed up by further claims this week that, at the time of the donation to Streeting, other Labour shadow ministers had been advised against accepting money from the think tank.

Who owns Streeting?

After being appointed by Burnham as Labour’s Defence Secretary, Streeting is now responsible for national security and armed forces operations, but new revelations about the donations he has been willing to accept throw his judgement into doubt.

This year has been particularly lucrative for Streeting. On June 19th, he accepted a £20,000 donation from Daniel Luhde-Thompson, a strategic adviser at Quadrature. Quadrature now hold one million shares in IOF-linked surveillance firm Palantir, a holding currently worth over £86 million, and Palantir now has a £330 million contract with the NHS.

On that very same day in June, Streeting accepted £12,000 from Trevor Chinn. Burnham’s new Defence Secretary claims to be an opponent of Israeli settlements, but Chinn, one of his most consistent donors, is President of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, which acts as the sole British organiser of so-called “Birthright Israel” trips and regularly promotes “excursions” into illegally-occupied lands.

This year, Streeting has also accepted two payments from Mike Craven, a former adviser to Tony Blair: £5000 on July 10th and another £5000 on May 16th. Craven has also funded Hamish Falconer, Burnham’s current Minister for Europe, and Josh Simons, the Labour MP who “gave up” his seat for Keir Starmer’s successor.

In 2024, Streeting held onto his own parliamentary seat by just 528 votes after an insurgent campaign by British-Palestinian independent candidate Leanne Mohamad. Now, with growing scrutiny into who funded his own campaign, it is unclear how long Streeting will be able to hold on to his seat in the cabinet.

Featured image via the Canary

By Jody McIntyre

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