Suella Braverman named new Conservative Friends of Israel parliamentary chair

Former home secretary Suella Braverman has been unveiled as Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI)’s new parliamentary chair in the House of Commons.

Braverman, MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, whose husband Rael is Jewish and recently defected to Reform, said she was “honoured” to be taking on the new role and that: “There has never been a more important time to be a friend of Israel”.

Describing CFI’s work as “critical”, Braverman said: “The new Labour government's actions are harming the vital UK-Israel relationship and we will continue to hold the government to account at every turn".

CFI’s Honorary President Lord Polak CBE said he was “thrilled” to have Braverman join CFI’s top team.

He added: “She will lead CFI's new Parliamentary Group from the front, bringing her invaluable experience as a former Home Secretary and Attorney General. Suella's support for Israel is well established and we are delighted to welcome her to this new role".

In 2023, Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary by then-prime minister Rishi Sunak for questioning the Metropolitan Police’s approach to pro-Palestine protests and said in an article in the Times in November that year that they were being treated leniently compared to far-right protests.

She also referred to pro-Palestinian protests in the aftermath of October 7 as “hate marches”.

During the last general election campaign, she told the JC in an interview that the rise of antisemitism in the UK made her “ashamed to be British”.

She also slammed the Metropolitan Police and Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley for what called their “wholesale strategic failure” in dealing with the marches, saying: “We've got a situation where extremism is a real feature of British life today”.

Last week, her husband Rael made headlines for leaving the Conservative Party and joining Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

She told the JC at the time that she did not have any plans to follow him: “My husband and I have a healthy respect for each other’s independence—he doesn’t tell me how to do my job, and I don’t tell him how to pick a political party.”

Braverman first visited Israel on a CFI delegation in 2015, shortly after she was first elected as an MP.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Pickles will continue in his role as CFI's House of Lords chair.