Conservative Party Took £1.3 Million From JCB While Badenoch Opposed Israeli Settlement Sanctions

The Conservative Party has accepted at least 39 separate donations from the JCB group of companies since Kemi Badenoch became leader, totalling more than £1.3 million, according to an investigation by Declassified UK. Most of the money went to the party's central office, with the remainder split between regional offices and individual Conservative politicians.

JCB has repeatedly appeared on United Nations reports identifying companies with links to the "supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements" in the occupied West Bank. The UN has also accused the firm of supplying equipment used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and property, and the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops. A UN report published last month described JCB as having a "direct linkage" to "actual or potential adverse human rights impacts."

The donations continued even after a 2021 finding by a UK government watchdog that JCB "did not take any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind despite being aware of alleged adverse human rights impacts." Shortly before Badenoch took over party leadership in 2024, Amnesty International publicly called on the Conservatives to "urgently review" all further donations from the company, describing JCB as a "key supplier of machinery used in this systematic violation of human rights."

Rather than distancing the party from the firm, Badenoch did a photoshoot in April driving one of JCB's diggers, and the company has a stand at the party's annual conference in Birmingham this week, according to Declassified.

The donations sit alongside Badenoch's public opposition to new UK sanctions targeting companies that finance and facilitate illegal settlements. "The wrong decision has been made," she said of the sanctions, adding she did not believe they were "the right way to sort out the problem of settler violence or settler expansion." She reportedly held "crisis talks" with Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, after the announcement.

"JCB's products have been used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and the expansion of illegal settlements. That makes them part of the machinery of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and that cannot be ignored," said Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK's economic affairs director.

Frankental said the government's commitment to act against settlement-facilitating companies "must include companies whose products are used in the expansion of settlements or the demolition of Palestinian homes," and argued JCB should at minimum be excluded from public contracts.

Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions said his organization has campaigned against JCB's role in settlements for years, including demonstrations outside dealerships and letters to company owner Lord Bamford. "From our perspective, Bamford is about profit rather than ethics to promote the good of humanity," Halper said.

Labour's former shadow chancellor John McDonnell called the donations "blood money" and said Badenoch "must give back the donations from JCB, now its role in the West Bank has been so widely exposed."

JCB has previously rejected its inclusion on the UN list, stating it is not involved in the occupied Palestinian territories and has not enabled or profited from settlement growth. JCB and the Conservative Party did not respond to requests for comment from Declassified UK.