Political Audit - Waitrose

Domain: Political - Political Entity scope: Waitrose & Partners (the UK supermarket brand); its parent the John Lewis Partnership (JLP, employee-owned) is flagged throughout as parent-level; John Lewis & Partners (department stores, JLP sibling brand) is documented and attributed at sibling level except where JLP-level acts are directly relevant to Waitrose. Compiled: 2026-06-26 Method: Live web search only

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Waitrose & Partners is the supermarket trading division of the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), the UK’s largest employee-owned business. JLP is held in trust on behalf of its approximately 70,000 employee-Partners; there are no external shareholders and no stock-market listing.¹ The Partnership operates under a written Constitution first produced by founder John Spedan Lewis - one of very few UK businesses governed by such a document - establishing three co-equal governing authorities: the Partnership Board, the Chairman, and the Partnership Council (58 directly elected Partners who hold the Chairman to account).²³

In September 2024, Jason Tarry was appointed JLP’s seventh Chairman, succeeding Dame Sharon White.⁴ Tarry (33 years at Tesco, latterly UK & Ireland CEO) chairs both the Partnership Board and the executive team; the previously separate CEO role was absorbed into the Chairmanship by early 2025.⁵ Since 2025 JLP has been managed as a single integrated business, eliminating separate divisional boards and Managing Directors for Waitrose and John Lewis.⁶

Waitrose’s primary mission is retail grocery. No formal political mission or state-engagement mandate is expressed in publicly available JLP corporate documentation; the Partnership frames its purpose around Partner wellbeing, ethical trading and long-term sustainability.⁷

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Jason Tarry (Chairman, from September 2024): No public statements by Tarry on Israel, Palestine, or the Gaza conflict have been identified in live searches as of June 2026; his public communications focus on business strategy and financial recovery.⁴

Dame Sharon White (Chairman, 2020–early 2025): White’s public profile centred on ESG commitments, financial restructuring, and employee welfare. No statement by White on Israel-Palestine or the Gaza conflict has been identified.⁸

JLP Leadership Team: No individual at JLP or Waitrose level has been identified making public statements on Israel/Palestine, donating to Israel-related political causes, or holding directorships in Israeli companies or Israeli government-linked bodies.⁶

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Waitrose operates exclusively in the United Kingdom. It has no stores, logistics facilities, or offices in Israel, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, or any other occupied or contested territory.⁹ The conflict-relevant dimension arises in the supply chain, not operations: Waitrose has been documented sourcing produce from Israeli farms and from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank (see Internal Governance below, and the Economic audit). This is flagged here for completeness; its primary domain is Economic.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Royal Warrant: Waitrose & Partners holds a Royal Warrant as Grocer and Wine & Spirits Merchant to the Royal Household - a state-adjacent commercial recognition, not a policy alignment.¹⁰

“Taste of Israel” brochure (February 2015): Waitrose distributed a paid advertising supplement entitled Taste of Israel in its in-house magazine Waitrose Kitchen, produced and funded by the Israeli Government Tourist Office (IGTO). The brochure described Palestinian and Arab dishes (hummus, falafel, za’atar, tahini, kibbeh, shakshuka) as Israeli and referenced Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as within Israel.¹¹ This is the single most-documented Waitrose act with a state-partnership dimension in this domain. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) filed a complaint with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA had previously upheld a separate complaint against the IGTO over a different travel advert implying the Old City of Jerusalem was Israeli territory; however, no published ASA ruling specifically adjudicating the Taste of Israel / Waitrose brochure complaint has been identified in live searches.¹²¹³ Waitrose’s response was that “the ad pamphlet wasn’t written or produced by us” and that the issue was no longer in stores; it declined to engage further, deleted critical comments from its Facebook page, and blocked at least one Palestinian commentator (Ayman Abuawwad, a PSC executive-committee member) from posting.¹¹¹² No comparable state-promotional episode involving Israeli government bodies has been identified after 2015.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

UK government lobbying: No evidence has been identified of Waitrose or JLP lobbying the UK government on Israel-Palestine trade policy or any instrument related to occupied territory. JLP has submitted parliamentary written evidence on corporate-governance topics unrelated to the conflict axis.¹⁴

UK government call for settlement-import ban: In December 2024 the ICJP wrote to DEFRA Secretary of State Steve Reed MP requesting legislation prohibiting the import and sale of products from illegal Israeli settlements.¹⁵ No JLP/Waitrose submission or counter-representation to government on this question has been identified.

Trade associations: No evidence has been identified of Waitrose or JLP financing, joining, or directing any pro-Israel lobbying body or political campaign fund connected to Israeli interests.

SodaStream and Ahava (JLP / John Lewis - parent/sibling attribution). For the record: following sustained PSC/BDS campaigning, John Lewis & Partners (department stores) removed SodaStream from its shelves by July 2014, and had ceased stocking Ahava (manufactured in the Mitzpe Shalem settlement) in 2008; the company characterised both as commercial decisions.¹⁶¹⁷ These concern the John Lewis sibling brand, not Waitrose.

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

Gaza / October 2023 onwards - no public statement identified: No Waitrose or JLP corporate statement addressing the Gaza conflict since October 2023 has been identified in live searches. The Grocer noted all major UK supermarkets, including Waitrose, were conspicuously silent on the Gaza crisis, in contrast to publicly stated positions on other humanitarian crises such as Ukraine.¹⁸

Boycott campaign response (May 2024): During a coordinated PSC supermarket boycott day in May 2024, a Waitrose spokeswoman stated that branches reported “business as usual with no impact on trade.”¹⁹ This is the only on-the-record Waitrose statement identified post-October 2023 touching on the Israel-Palestine dimension.

“Buycott” counter-campaign: The Jewish Chronicle reported a “Buycott” counter-campaign in 2024 urging supporters to spend at Waitrose and Morrisons in response to the PSC boycott. No Waitrose endorsement of or engagement with this counter-campaign has been identified.²⁰

Co-op comparison: In May–June 2025 Co-op members voted 73% in favour of ceasing to stock Israeli produce, and Co-op announced it would phase out approximately 100 Israeli products.²¹ Waitrose has made no equivalent public announcement, though Ethical Consumer noted Waitrose had quietly ceased Medjoul-date sourcing from Israel (confirmed to Ethical Consumer directly) and that many Israeli products were marked out-of-stock on its website - no public statement to this effect has been made.²²

Activist in-store action: In December 2023, members of the Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid removed settlement produce from Waitrose shelves; in 2024–2025, activists in Preston/Chorley removed avocados, hummus and dates from a Waitrose branch.²³²⁴ UK Lawyers for Israel documented Waitrose goods defaced with “Boycott this Brand” stickers (activist material).²⁵ No Waitrose public response beyond the May 2024 “business as usual” statement has been identified.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

JLP Constitution and political neutrality: The JLP Constitution frames governance around employee welfare, commercial success, and democratic accountability to Partners - not positions on external state conflicts. No provision mandating or prohibiting positions on foreign conflicts has been identified in the publicly available constitution.²⁶

Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice (RSCOP): JLP publishes an RSCOP mirroring the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code.²⁷ In 2013, PSC characterised correspondence with JLP’s then-head of sustainability as revealing that commercial considerations would override sourcing ethics on settlement goods.²⁸

Settlement-produce labelling policy: Waitrose has publicly stated that any product labelled “from Israel” is sourced within internationally recognised (pre-1967) borders, with West Bank produce labelled as such.²⁹ War on Want disputed the framing in 2010, citing Achva halva (Barkan settlement) whose settlement origin was labelled but not foregrounded.²⁹ Waitrose stated it had stopped sourcing own-brand herbs from Israeli settlements, framing the decision as “purely commercial” (2014).³⁰

Duchy Organic Medjoul dates: The “Duchy Organic” own-brand was documented in 2019 selling Medjoul dates sourced from Israel.³¹ Waitrose subsequently told Ethical Consumer it no longer sources Medjoul dates from Israel (now USA and Morocco); the timeline of the change has not been publicly announced.²²

Sabra hummus: Sabra-branded hummus remained listed on the Waitrose website as of searches in 2025. Its Israeli-ownership dimension has lapsed: Strauss Group divested its 50% stake in Sabra to PepsiCo in November 2024, so Sabra is now wholly PepsiCo-owned and no longer Israeli-domiciled (see Economic).²²

Social-media content moderation (2015): During the Taste of Israel controversy, Waitrose deleted critical comments from its Facebook page and blocked Ayman Abuawwad, a Palestinian PSC executive-committee member, with pro-Israel comments reportedly left intact.¹¹³² No subsequent Waitrose social-media policy statement addressing this episode has been identified.

ICJP legal notice (October 2024): Waitrose & Partners is one of eight UK supermarket chains that received a formal legal notice on 30 October 2024 from the ICJP, requiring it to clarify within 14 days which settlement products it stocks, what steps it is taking to end their sale, and what due-diligence procedures exist to prevent mislabelling.³³ No Waitrose public response has been identified in live searches as of June 2026.³⁴

End Notes