Andy Burnham’s choice of Andy Slaughter as Solicitor General has plunged the new Labour government into controversy, after photographs resurfaced showing the minister posing alongside senior Hamas-linked figures during a 2010 visit to Jerusalem.
The appointment, one of Burnham’s first major legal picks since taking office, has already drawn accusations that Labour failed to properly vet a minister who will now hold significant sway over prosecution decisions involving proscribed terrorist organisations, including Hamas itself.
The images, which appeared in a now-deleted report published by Middle East Monitor (Memo), show Mr Slaughter and Jeremy Corbyn photographed with Mohammed Totah, Ahmed Attoun and Khaled Abu-Arafeh during a trip that ran from November 5 to 9, 2010. The £927 visit was funded by Friends of Al-Aqsa and Memo, and according to the Memo report, the delegation held talks with representatives from across the Palestinian political divide, including figures from both Fatah and Hamas.
All three men pictured with Mr Slaughter and Mr Corbyn had known ties to Hamas. Mr Totah and Mr Attoun had won seats on the Palestinian Legislative Council on a Hamas-affiliated list, while Mr Abu-Arafeh had served as Jerusalem affairs minister under the Hamas government. Mr Attoun was later detained by Israeli forces and exiled to the West Bank in 2011, and Mr Totah and Mr Abu-Arafeh were arrested in 2012 following an 18-month standoff at a Red Cross facility in East Jerusalem, where they had taken refuge to avoid arrest.
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, condemned the appointment as a “disgrace,” saying it “beggars belief” that Labour had handed Mr Slaughter the final say on proscription decisions and control of the government’s legal department. Timothy argued Mr Slaughter had shown sympathy for Hamas and should have no place in government.
The row has been compounded by claims that Mr Slaughter took a separate, undisclosed trip to Gaza between March 5 and 8, 2010, as part of the Britain-Palestine all-party parliamentary group. During that visit he reportedly met Hamas justice minister Faraj al-Ghoul and Dr Ahmed Yousef, then deputy foreign minister for Hamas and a close adviser to the group’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, between 2006 and 2014. Mr al-Ghoul was killed in an Israeli strike last year.
Shortly afterward, Mr Slaughter wrote in The Guardian that dialogue with Hamas, given its electoral mandate, was necessary to move past the political deadlock. Critics have pointed out that while his register of interests lists other visits to Gaza and the West Bank, no entry appears for the early 2010 trip, despite parliamentary rules of the time requiring MPs to declare gifts or benefits worth more than £660.
Further scrutiny has fallen on Mr Slaughter’s record after it emerged he was among just four Labour MPs who voted against the party’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in 2018.
Hamas’s military wing has been proscribed in the UK since 2001, with a full ban covering the entire organisation imposed in November 2021. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, offering support to a proscribed organisation can result in a sentence of up to 14 years, underscoring the scale of the powers now resting with Mr Slaughter in his new role.
Responding on behalf of the Attorney General’s office, a spokesman said ministerial appointments go through careful vetting by the Prime Minister, and that Mr Slaughter would fulfil his responsibilities with due political impartiality. The spokesman added that the Solicitor General has consistently condemned Hamas’s actions and remains a long-standing advocate of a two-state solution.
Mr Slaughter has been approached for comment. Labour has not said whether Sir Keir Starmer or Mr Burnham’s team reviewed the minister’s past conduct before confirming the appointment.
