A former Israeli intelligence officer, who is still working for Labour in the election campaign, spied on a UK electoral reform group.

What more can you say other than: this is the depths to which Labour will sink to stop electoral reform.

A former Israeli spy hired by Keir Starmer in 2021 when the ex-agent briefly infiltrated an electoral reform group is still working for Labour in the current election campaign, an in-depth media investigation has revealed.

The 1700-word report by investigative reporter Asa Winstanley appears today (2 July) in a respected online publication known as THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA. You can read Winstanley’s full expose here.   

Back in 2021, Winstanley broke the story of how Assaf Kaplan, a former intelligence analyst in Israel’s cyber warfare unit,(pictured above in EI photos) had been hired by the UK Labour Party as a “social listening and organising manager.” Kaplan still works for Labour and and spoke at a January 2024 event put on by the Jewish Labour Movement.

In February 2021, Kaplan slipped unannounced into the private Facebook group of the cross party/ no party campaign group of electoral refrom activists called GET PR DONE! 

But a vigilant group moderator, who had read Winstanley’s original report about Kaplan, alerted other moderators and Kaplan was rapidly expelled just before another moderator grabbed a screenshot of Kaplan’s unwelcome membership (see below).

Todays’ report by Winstanley is the first account of what Kaplan was actually doing as a “social listening manager” for Labour. At the time, Kaplan also infiltrated a larger Facebook group called THE LABOUR PARTY FORUM.

Screenshot from Feb. 2021 of Kaplan as a new “member” of GET PR DONE!

NO WONDER STARMER HATES PR

“Back in 2021, there was some hope Starmer and Labour would support a change to a far fairer proportional representation (PR) voting system,” said Alan Story, co-founder of the electoral reform group and editor of THE LEFT LANE Substack. “Now there is no hope. Just last week Starmer praised the archaic first-past-the-post voting system as still ‘the right system’ if he becomes Prime Minister.”

Recent opinion polls show that Labour may get less than 40% of the vote on 4 July, but win up to 70% of the seats in the House of Commons. Under PR, seats won match votes cast.

“Not only does Labour’s leadership snoop on its own members, but it is prepared to snoop and report on electoral reform activists from other parties, such as the Lib Dems and the Greens or from no party, who want to build a new voting system that is fair to all voters. Three years later I am still repulsed by the memory of what Kaplan did for his Labour Party masters,”said Story.

“It was a bit bizarre he joined us under his own name.”   

According to the description of Kaplan’s post, his job was to “help to move the social media listening framework of the party to be laser-focused on those we need to win over to form the next government.” 

Winstanley’s article reports that Labour threatened legal action in the past 48 hours against THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA.

“Labour is not even the government yet and we are already seeing Starmer’s authoritarian mind-set,” added Story.  

Founded in 2021, THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA is an independent online news publication and educational resource focusing on Palestine, its people, politics, culture and place in the world.

We urge readers to send a donation to this publication here. It has a lot of important work to do in its award-winning reportage of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

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Fancy attending a post-election discussion on Zoom?

Then you are invited to THE LEFT LANE’s Open Mic session on 5 July at 5:00 p.m.

By 10:00 on the morning of 5 July, the 2024 election and its results will be history. So what comes next? You are invited to join a 60 minute-Zoom session at 5:00 p.m. on 5 July to discuss the election.

There should be plenty to talk about. No “big name” speakers, just a good discussion and debate (we hope) among progressives and activists about the impact and meaning of the election.

Here is how to get the Zoom link: 1) Send an email to: theleftlanepolitics@gmail.com; 2) Put: “5 July Zoom” in the subject line; 3) We will send you the link. Deadline for requests: 12 noon on 5 July.   

PS: We will be talking about a lot more than former Israeli spies on Friday at 5:00 !

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Edited by Alan Story, THE LEFT LANE is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber:  http://theleftlane2024.substack.com/subscribe

You can reach us at: theleftlanepolitics@gmail.com

You can read all previous columns of THE LEFT LANE here: