Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) have announced Mid Buckinghamshire MP Greg Smith as their new parliamentary chair in the House of Commons, replacing Suella Braverman following her departure to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Elected in 2019, 46-year-old Smith – who also serves as shadow transport and energy minister – said it was “an honour to take on this important role alongside my constituency and front-bench duties”.
He continued: “The UK-Israel partnership symbolises a shared commitment to democracy, security and tolerance in a world where these values are threatened like never before. I look forward to working closely with the excellent CFI team.”
He was welcomed by Jeremy Brier KC, chairman of CFI board of directors, who said he had been “a principled and intelligent voice in support of the UK-Israel partnership ever since he arrived in Parliament.”
Former cabinet minister Lord Pickles, CFI Parliamentary chairman in the Lords, said that: "Greg's energy and dedication to strengthening UK-Israel ties make him the ideal choice to lead CFI in the Commons. I look forward to working closely with him in this important work."
And Lord Polak, CFI’s honourary president, said he was "thrilled” to see Smith, a former CFI vice chair, being appointed.
"His track record as a Vice-Chair and his unwavering support for Israel will ensure CFI continues to thrive as a voice for friendship and cooperation with Israel,” Polak added.
In Parliament, Smith has previously raised the issue of Palestinian incitement against Israelis and urged the government to take the issue of anti-Israel hate in Palestinian textbooks seriously.
Following an urgent question on Gaza in October, Smith called for the release of hostages and the complete disarming of Hamas and their removal “from all governance in Gaza”. He also said that there must be “a widespread deradicalisation programme to undo the damage done by innocent children in Gaza being taught in their textbooks, some of which were funded through the Unrwa — an uncomfortable truth — to hate Israel and Jews”.
Smith’s appointment comes after Suella Braverman left the Conservative Party on Monday.
The former home secretary, whose husband Rael is Jewish, attacked her party’s record in government.
“As home secretary I told the prime minister that we needed to ban the hate marches, that the Met commissioner was failing the Jewish community and that two-tier policing was damaging public confidence.
"I warned that someone would be killed. I was blocked and ignored. And then I was sacked for speaking the truth,” she said at a press conference.
Braverman was sacked by Rishi Sunak in November 2023 after accusing the Metropolitan Police in a piece published by The Times of "playing favourites" in the way it policed protests.
She argued that “right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law”.
Speaking at the Reform UK press conference on Monday, Braverman said ignoring the problems she had highlighted had resulted in disastrous consequences.
“What happened two years later? Jews were murdered in the streets of Britain because of out of control antisemitism and complacent policing,” she said, referring to the deadly terror attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation last October.
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