THE LABOUR Friends of Israel group has trebled the number of parliamentary supporters backing its work, as moderate MPs rebelled against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party.

More than 65 MPs have pledged to back the group — more than when Labour was led by pro-Israel Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

LFI will also announce a rebranding at next week’s party conference, styling itself “Labour Friends of Israel: For Israel, For Palestine, For Peace”, alongside a campaign to back an international fund raising money for coexistence projects helping Israelis and Palestinians work together.

A Young LFI group will be launched in the autumn, as well as a new website. The intention, the group said, was to attract grassroots supporters as well as politicians.

One senior figure said moderate Labour MPs were showing their opposition “against those who want to demonise Israel”.

LFI was left depleted LFI supporter Rupa Huq after the 2015 general election when key figures including Ed Balls and Jim Murphy lost their seats. Among the leading names who have now agreed to support the group are Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Andy Burnham, the Shadow Home Secretary. Former frontbenchers Angela Eagle and Chris Leslie have pledged their backing, as has Jess Phillips, the non-Jewish MP who has suffered anti-Zionist abuse and who resigned from Labour’s shadow education team in June. Rupa Huq, who was criticised for appearing to support antisemitic remarks in April, was one of a number of figures who approached LFI to offer her support. Three new-vice chairs will be revealed by the group — MPs Sharon Hodgson, Pat McFadden and John Spellar. Jennifer Gerber, LFI director, said the tripling of supporters “demonstrates that within the parliamentary Labour Party there is a solid bloc of members who both support a two-state solution and oppose the effort to delegitimise and demonise the state of Israel”.