Andrew Feinstein

Andrew Josef Feinstein ( ; born 16 March 1964) is a South African former politician, economic advisor and investment banker, now activist, political consultant, filmmaker, campaigner and author, who specialises in the investigation of the arms trade and the corruption that accompanies it. He is the executive director of the small non-profit Shadow World Investigations, and serves on the board of Declassified UK.

Feinstein was elected in South Africa's first democratic elections following the abolition of apartheid and served as a member of parliament from 1994 to 2001 as a member of the ruling ANC party. He resigned his parliamentary seat in 2001, in protest against the ANC government's handling of the South African Arms Deal and exclusion of the Special Investigating Unit from the resulting anti-corruption probe. He then worked as an investment banker, and later became an investigative author and campaigner.

A former member of the UK Labour Party, Feinstein unsuccessfully stood against Keir Starmer in the 2024 general election in his constituency Holborn and St Pancras.

Biography Early life and education Andrew Feinstein was born in Cape Town to Viennese Holocaust survivor Erika and Ralph Josef Feinstein, who emigrated to South Africa from London after World War II and whose views have been described as "liberal Zionist". In September 2000, the auditor-general Shauket Fakie reported irregularities in the arms deal's primary contracts to the SCOPA and recommended a special investigation of the awards made to subcontractors.

He chaired the London-based charity Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign, and wound down in February 2016. Feinstein's deputy was Oliver Phillips of the Britain–Zimbabwe Society.

Feinstein's 2007 memoir After the Party criticised the political culture of the ANC and was reported to "present the ANC itself as the problem",

By 2021, he became an associate in Greg Power's London-based political consultancy non-profit Global Partners Governance (described in 2014 as "a privileged contractor to the Foreign Office for consulting missions in the Middle East" ), after featuring in the organisation's podcast in 2017.

In early 2025, Feinstein joined the board of Declassified UK, an investigative journalism website set up in 2019 by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis to cover the UK's role on the international stage.

Feinstein has filed parliamentary submissions of evidence in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and multiple European, Middle Eastern and African countries.

Political involvement in the United Kingdom Labour Party Shortly after arriving in the United Kingdom, Feinstein rejected proposals to join the Labour Party and run as its candidate for the parliament. He launched his campaign, which he described as community-driven, on 21 May, and received active support from members of the left-wing party Collective founded by Karie Murphy. In the general election on 4 July 2024, Feinstein finished second, with 7,312 votes to Starmer's 18,884.

Off the back of his electoral campaign, Feinstein built the Camden Community Alliance, a grassroots movement and local pressure group launched by November 2024, for which he acts as "the face" and which has struck partnerships with Jamie Driscoll's Majority and with the grassroots union alliance Acorn International.

In September 2025, Feinstein launched his 2026 local elections campaign for a seat in the Camden London Borough Council under the banner of the Camden People's Alliance in coordination with both the Green Party and Your Party, with the Gaza war and affordable housing as key concerns.

Collective and Your Party During the private meetings of Collective in the autumn of 2024, Feinstein emerged alongside Jeremy Corbyn, Lutfur Rahman and Salma Yaqoob as one the proposed leaders of a new left-wing political formation, later known by the interim name of Your Party. In September 2024, Feinstein's faction sought to delay the formation of a new party. and as a challenge to Karie Murphy's leadership in Collective.

Feinstein has praised the organising strategy of the Workers' Party of Belgium, which he said developed "from a little grouping – some might even say a cult" by cultivating community presence and local investment. Four years after they first met, on 18 December 1993, they were married in King's College Chapel, Cambridge holding further celebrations a few days later with Simone's family in Bangladesh. The couple, who live in Primrose Hill,

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