A Labour councillor who has admitted being a paedophile was joined on the campaign trail by Keir Starmer and eight ministers, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The Prime Minister said it was ‘great’ to back Liron Velleman, who this week admitted child sex offences. Chancellor Rachel Reeves campaigned for Velleman as recently as 2022, highlighting him as ‘brilliant’.
Sir Keir has deleted a social media post showing he campaigned for Velleman – who worked for anti-racism group Hope Not Hate and advised on the Online Safety Bill – to be elected as a councillor in 2018.
The then-shadow Brexit secretary tagged him in an X post seen by the Mail that said: ‘Great to campaign with you [Velleman] – you deserve to win. Good luck!’
Velleman sent online messages to somebody he thought was a 13-year-old girl, asking to see her in school uniform and if she was ‘home alone’. He also sent a lewd video and asked to see the girl in her underwear.
He was actually messaging a police officer conducting a sting operation, Highbury Corner magistrates’ court heard this week.
Photographs show four now Cabinet ministers campaigning for Velleman in 2022, when he was elected in Barnet, north London. Then shadow chancellor Ms Reeves described him as ‘brilliant’ at a Labour Friends of Israel event that November.
And in April that year, Shabana Mahmood shared a picture on X of her with Velleman with the comment: ‘Brilliant to be out campaigning in Whetstone ward in Barnet yesterday for [Velleman].’
Labour councillor Liron Velleman, who has admitted being a paedophile,was joined on the campaign trail by Keir Starmer and eight ministers, the Daily Mail can reveal
Chancellor Rachel Reeves (far right, pictured next to Velleman) campaigned for him as recently as 2022, highlighting him as ‘brilliant’
Velleman, 30, (second from left), who quit his role as a councillor with no explanation in April last year, has also been pictured with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
The Home Secretary, Chancellor, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, courts minister Sarah Sackman KC, victims minister Alex Davies-Jones, employment minister Diana Johnson and school standards minister Georgia Gould all also campaigned for him that year.
None were ministers at the time but some were in the shadow cabinet, including Sir Keir and Ms Reeves. Velleman, 30, who quit his role as a councillor with no explanation in April last year, has also been pictured with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
There is no suggestion the PM, Sir Sadiq or any minister knew of the offences when they endorsed him. Labour condemned his ‘sickening crime’ last night and said ‘nobody could be aware of his future conduct’.
But Tory MP Jack Rankin said: ‘Starmer pledged to tackle violence against women and girls, yet sex offenders threaten to be the defining issue of his premiership.’
Velleman pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch or look at an image of sexual activity. The offences were committed in December 2024.
He will be sentenced at a later date after the prosecutor argued it was too serious to be dealt with by magistrates.
It comes in the same week the PM was engulfed in a crisis over handing a peerage to former communications chief Matthew Doyle despite knowing he had remained friends with another Labour councillor charged with child sex offences.
It is understood Labour immediately suspended Velleman when it was notified of his arrest.