Tories
Labour front bench takes £650k from health privateers – more than Tories
Starmer and co rake in cash from private health donors – twenty-five percent more than the Tories
Keir Starmer and his front bench MPs have taken almost £650,000 from private health companies, according to a compilation of their declarations of MPs’ interests.
The totals accepted by MPs in Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet between 2020 and 2023 are:
- Keir Starmer £157,500
- Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting £193,225
- Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper £231,817
- Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves £14,840
- Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner £50,000
- Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy £1,640
- Total £649,022
Figures compiled by David Powell
The total accepted by Labour beats similar donations to the Tories by around twenty-five percent. Starmer and his health spokesman Streeting have vowed to extend the use of private companies for NHS services if Labour gets into government, while promising further austerity and refusing to say they will increase NHS funding to meet need, or increase wages for NHS staff, instead saying – just like Tories – that the NHS must ‘reform’ to be ‘sustainable’.
Both are also fully committed to the ‘Integrated Care’ programme of health rationing and incentivised cuts through withholding care – a direct import from disastrous US healthcare – that is wrecking the NHS even more thoroughly that previous Tory ‘reforms’.
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ICJP presents ‘first tranche’ of evidence to Met of collusion by UK officials in Israeli war crimes
Individuals, including 4 government ministers, 9 UK citizens fighting for IDF and others, accused in criminal complaint of complicity in war crimes against Gaza
The ICJP’s solicitor advocate announcing the news today
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has announced that it has presented the Metropolitan Police with a dossier of evidence against UK citizens accused of collusion in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. The ICJP announced in October that it would be prosecuting both Tory ministers and Labour MPs who have supported Israel’s genocide, or incited war crimes, against Palestinians. Israel has so far killed almost thirty-three thousand Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children.
Those incriminated in the dossier, who are not yet being named for legal reasons, include four government ministers, nine UK citizens fighting for the Israeli military against Gazans and others – among whom are likely to be leading Labour MPs who have supported and given cover for Israel’s ‘right’ to commit its crimes against Palestinian civilians.
The ICJP’s solicitor advocate told a press conference today that the evidence was merely the ‘first tranche’ of what the group will be presenting to the authorities and that the ICJP expects a full and thorough investigation, in accordance with UK law. Israel is currently facing accusations of genocide before the International Court of Justice.
Unsurprisingly, news of the dossier of evidence of criminality appears to have been entirely ignored by the UK ‘mainstream’ media.
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Galloway makes ‘unity offer’ to Corbyn ‘to prevent socialist split’
George Galloway, left, at WPGB’s recent annual general meeting
Amid press speculation that Jeremy Corbyn may launch a new party or movement to challenge Starmer’s right wing, pro-Israel ‘Labour’ in this year’s general election, former Respect MP and pro-Palestine campaigner George Galloway is offering what insiders in his party are terming a ‘truce’ to Corbyn and his movement. Skwawkbox understands that Galloway is tabling a motion which, if passed, will raise the potential for Galloway and former Labour MP Chris Williamson’s Workers Party (WPGB) to cooperate with Corbyn’s project, in the hope of avoiding a split in the socialist vote at the General Election.
The motion will be tabled by Galloway at the party’s ‘Members Council’ in Birmingham on Saturday 20 January, reaffirming the party’s commitment to avoiding unnecessary electoral clashes with other left groups, a proposal the Workers Party originally put to TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) in 2022 and which remains in place.
Keir Starmer’s extreme authoritarianism, commitment to expanding NHS privatisation and support for Israel’s genocidal policies make him as great a threat to the life and liberty of British people as the Tories – and many would argue greater.
Galloway’s supporters say the move is being made in the hope that a united socialist movement could dent Starmer’s chances of forming a majority at General Election 2024. According to the Labour right’s own workings, Starmer needs a 1997-scale swing from the Tories to secure a majority of 1 at the election. Starmer’s allies have also quietly admitted that they expect Labour to lose seats at the election over the issue of Palestine, while even mainstream pollsters are indicating that Labour’s “20 points ahead” lead is very likely to shrink, potentially thwarting Starmer’s hopes for a majority. Preventing a split amongst socialists could therefore prove decisive in stopping Starmer’s worrying and dishonest regime from taking power.
Previously, the best chance of ousting Starmer from the Labour leadership was in 2021’s Batley and Spen By Election, which was won by Starmer ally Kim Leadbetter by just three hundred votes after a disgracefully Islamophobic campaign. Leadbetter went on to vote against a ceasefire in Palestine during a parliamentary vote. Many in Labour’s left-leaning Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) chose to campaign for Leadbetter and Starmer’s victory. Had the result gone the other way, it’s likely that Starmer would have been forced out.
The Workers party is led by George Galloway, with former Labour MP Chris Williamson, Aslef Vice President Andy Hudd, and former Ambassador Peter Ford acting as Deputy Leaders. The party has announced its intention to stand in up to 50 seats in the forthcoming General Election. Galloway is the party candidate in the 2024 London Mayoral contest.
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Starmer ‘didn’t know’ re sub-postmasters, ‘wasn’t involved’ on Savile. What DID he do as DPP?
Analysis: CPS prosecuted at least 27 people – and as many as 38 – running post offices during Horizon scandal – it strains credibility to claim he knew nothing
Labour has claimed that none of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutions of innocent sub-postmasters went ‘to [Keir Starmer’s] desk. Starmer himself has now told reporters that he knew nothing about any of the cases:
I wasn’t aware of any of them. I think there was a small number within a 20-year window, that’s all I know. I don’t even now – I think the CPS are helping with inquiries – how many of those may or may not have involved Horizon.
There were at least twenty-seven and as many as thirty eight cases.
One such case that definitely happened under Starmer’s tenure as CPS head was the prosecution of Seema Misra, who was jailed for fifteen months in 2010 – on her son’s tenth birthday – for fraud that she never committed. She was pregnant when she was prosecuted and jailed – and her conviction was only quashed in 2021. The prosecution did not disclose to the court that the Post Office knew the Horizon system was faulty and had at least forty examples of the system causing shortfalls at Post Office branches.
When the scandal of serial rapist Jimmy Savile broke and Starmer was attacked for not prosecuting him, Keir Starmer did not personally deny he had been involved in the decision not to prosecute Savile, instead allowing mouthpieces – including Tory MPs – to say he was not aware of it, insisting that we believe that he ran the CPS and was never asked for his view on whether to prosecute the offender who was, at the time, Britain’s highest-profile entertainer.
Starmer boasted of his role in prosecuting former government minister Chris Huhne and promised the US he would ‘do everything’ to secure the extradition of autistic hacker Gary McKinnon – yet supposedly was not consulted by his subordinates about Savile.
The CPS claimed it had destroyed all records relating to the decision not to prosecute Savile. The CPS also claimed that it had destroyed all records relating to prosecution of Seema Misra.
We are asked to believe that Starmer was not involved in the Savile decision, was not involved in or consulted on any CPS Post Office cases – was not even aware of their existence – despite them taking place while he ran the CPS and despite revelations, a year before the Misra case, in the press about the known, widespread issues with the Horizon system causing false ‘shortfalls’ in Post Office branches.
As Labour leader, Starmer has covered up a whistleblower’s allegations of ‘sadistic’ and ‘criminal’ exploitation of vulnerable domestic violence victims by a Labour staffer who was the lover of the MP she was working for. That MP, Khalid Mahmood, did not dispute a victim’s sworn evidence in whistleblower Elaina Cohen’s successful tribunal for wrongful dismissal – and confirmed under oath that Starmer and Labour general secretary David Evans were fully and repeatedly aware of the allegations.
Starmer also sheltered at least two alleged sex pests in his Shadow Cabinet and re-admitted racist and sex harasser MP Neil Coyle back into the parliamentary party, as well as Mike Gapes, the right-wing former MP who defended fellow right-winger Ian McKenzie after McKenzie tweeted about the rape and beheading of Thornberry herself, and former MPs who defended him. He is a creature of the Establishment and sides with it every time.
What the hell was he doing while he was boss of the CPS if he didn’t know about the highest profile cases and wasn’t consulted on the widest miscarriage of justice in British legal history? This site does not believe it is credible.
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Trickett tables motion demanding disclosure of government legal advice on Gaza genocide
Left-wing Labour MP Jon Trickett has tabled a parliamentary ‘Early Day Motion’ (EDM) demanding that the government reveal the advice its legal experts have given it over Israel’s war crimes and South Africa’s powerful and thorough genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The motion reads:
That this House understands that questions have been raised internationally about the legality of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza; recognises that in November 2023 UN experts raised the alarm about the risk of genocide in Gaza; highlights the UN General Secretary’s reasons for invoking Article 99 that there is a high risk of total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza, which would have devastating consequences; further highlights his comments to the Security Council that international humanitarian law includes the duty to protect civilians and to comply with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution and that the laws of war also demand that civilians’ essential needs must be met, including by facilitating the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian relief; notes the Spanish Prime Minister’s comments that he has serious doubts that Israel is complying with international humanitarian law; further notes the letter signed by prominent Israeli public figures to the Attorney General in December 2023 which said there have been explicit calls to commit atrocious crimes against millions of civilians, providing evidence of the discourse of annihilation, expulsion and revenge; acknowledges the case South Africa has brought to the International Court of Justice claiming Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is tantamount to genocidal actions; and calls on the Government to publish in full the legal advice it has received from its law officers regarding the situation in Gaza, particularly in the run up to UN votes, and the legality of the UK export licensing of arms to the Israel.
Tory MPs have spoken in the Commons to try to dismiss South Africa’s case as having ‘no legal merit’ – farcical when the ICJ, by accepting the case, has already decided that Israel has a case to answer. The disclosure of the government’s legal advice would be expected to reveal that the Tories have been told the same by their own lawyers – which means the government will fight to avoid it and broad support among MPs for the motion is vital to increase pressure.
Since it was tabled yesterday, only eighteen MPs have signed. Use theyworkforyou.com to contact your MP and tell them to support the motion.
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Video: Starmer supports UK hitting Houthis trying to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Red Tory ‘leader’ backs Shapps plan to stop Yemeni de facto government attempt to block trade shipping to pressure Israel into ending mass slaughter
‘Zionist without qualification’ Keir Starmer has said that he supports the Tory government’s plan to use UK military forces to stop Houthis – the de facto government in a large part of Yemen – blocking Israeli-bound shipping, a measure the Yemenis are taking, with considerable economic impact, to try to pressure Israel into ending its genocide in Gaza.
Starmer told Sky News that he backs Defence Secretary Grant Shapps – far from the first time he has supported the Tories at a cost of innocent lives:
Yet again, while many of the world’s developing nations and the vital BRICS bloc are backing the prosecution of Israel for its crimes, the oppositionless UK is on the wrong side of world events and backing a genocidal regime that has slaughtered more than 30,000 people, more than ninety percent of them innocent civilians and more than two thirds women and children.
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Government funding pro-Israel ‘charity’ to fight support for Palestinians in schools
‘Solutions not Sides’ literally ‘both-sidesing’ Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing – but has been linked to pro-Israel lobby and receives most funding from UK government and lobby groups
The UK government and pro-Israel lobby groups are funding a UK-registered charity to indoctrinate schoolchildren against recognition of Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
‘Solutions not Sides’ (SNS) has received increasing amounts of cash to carry out literal ‘bothsidesing’ of the grossly asymmetrical situation in Palestine, treating Israel’s occupation, apartheid, oppression and now mass-murder of Palestinians as equivalent to Palestinian resistance.
The charity’s website claims to run a ‘non-partisan programme’ to ‘prepare students to make a positive, solutions-focused contribution to debates on Israel-Palestine’. However, its ‘Mission & Values’ page states that it opposes ‘advocacy’ and ‘partisan solidarity'(!) a value that rules out support for the Boycott Divestment and sanctions campaign, rejects ‘blame culture’ and believes that:
both sides bear responsibility for bringing about a resolution to the conflict.
Israel is currently engaged in mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians and is making plans for the deportation of Gazan Palestinians to Egypt, the Congo and other African destinations. It faces allegations brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa of what experts consider to be a ‘textbook case’ of genocide. The victims of war crimes clearly do not ‘bear responsibility’ for ending the crimes – and minimising Israel’s guilt for its illegal actions and Palestinian suffering while treating Palestinians’ acts of resistance as equivalent is inherently partisan. In this context, the group’s claim to be fighting Islamophobia as well as antisemitism looks like mere window dressing.
According to Palestine is still the issue and 5Pillars, SNS has its origins in – and receives around thirty percent of its funding from – ‘One Voice’, a billionaire-funded pro-Israel lobby group. SNS has been backed by pro-Israel groups, as well as figures well-known from their eager participation in smears of the left.
An attempt by Palestine Declassified to visit the SNS office to obtain comment on analysis of SNS’s activities found that no one was based at the charity’s registered address. It did not respond to the programme’s requests for comment.
Campaigners are asking teachers and parents to complain to schools urgently if this group is brought in.
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In middle of Gaza genocide, 12 UK universities sign new research partnerships with Israel
Deaf ear to the suffering of Palestinian civilians as UK government gives away cash to incentivise partnering with Israel
Twelve universities across the UK have applied for and accepted government grants to undertake ‘a range of ‘mobility projects focussed on innovation and entrepreneurial skills development’ in partnership with Israeli universities.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is handing out the cash to pay for researchers to ‘hone their expertise via international collaboration’ with a focus on ‘entrepreneurship and Technology Readiness Levels’ (TRLs) ‘, according to the Universities UK website. The cash will also fund researchers to travel to Israel and will ‘further links with the Israeli ecosystem through existing research and innovation collaborations and open the door to new opportunities’.
At a time when students and activists around the world are demanding a boycott of Israeli products, services and institutions, the universities below have taken the cash – some of them twice:
- Aston University – Weizzman Institute of Science and Bar-Ilan University
- Edge Hill University – Tel Aviv University
- Queen Mary University of London – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University
- Royal Veterinary College – Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Teesside University – Tel Aviv University
- UCL – Tel Aviv University
- University of Exeter – Tel Aviv University
- University of Greenwich – Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- University of Kent – Technion
- University of Leeds – Tel Hai College
- University of Plymouth – Technion
- University of Surrey – Bar-Ilan University
The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement has described Israeli universities as working closely with the Israeli state to develop weapons and systems that can be used to oppress and kill Palestinians:
Israeli universities are major, willing and persistent accomplices in Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.
They are involved in developing weapon systems and military doctrines deployed in Israel’s recent war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza, justifying the ongoing colonization of Palestinian land, rationalizing gradual ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians, providing moral justification for extra-judicial killings, systematically discriminating against “non-Jewish” students, and other implicit and explicit violations of human rights and international law.
To end this complicity in Israel’s violations of international law, Palestinian civil society has called for an academic boycott of complicit Israeli academic institutions. Refusing to normalize oppression, many academic associations, student governments and unions as well as thousands of international academics now support the academic boycott of Israel.
As Skwawkbox revealed yesterday, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting last week promoted – and visited in 2022 – an Israeli data company with close links to the Israeli military that is processing NHS test results. The founder of the firm is a ‘tech entrepreneur’ who has spoken and written about the importance of technology in fighting ‘terrorism’. Yet another occasion where the ‘Labour’ front bench is completely aligned with the views and behaviour of the Tories they are supposed to be opposing.
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Video: Amnesty shows Israel killed journalist, maimed another, in Lebanon
Warning: distressing footage – forensic examination of footage from 13 October attack, on Lebanese territory, on clearly marked journalists, shows Israeli tank fired once, then again less than a minute later; Amnesty calls for war crime investigation
Detailed analysis by Amnesty International of footage surrounding a 13 October attack on a group of clearly marked journalists shows Israeli tank crew knowingly fired two shells, less than a minute apart, at the group as they filmed in southern Lebanon. One journalist was killed and the other lost her leg in the needless and deliberate assault.
Amnesty has now published its findings under the title “Deadly Israeli Attack on Journalists In Lebanon Must be Investigated as a War Crime”:
Israel has relentlessly bombed schools, hospitals, news offices and homes in Gaza, killing thousands of civilians, mostly women and children – and at least sixty-eight journalists, more than were killed in any other conflict since 1990. Now it has been shown to have committed another wanton Lebanon attack on journalists doing their job, taking another life and wrecking more. The far-right Israeli regime is out of control and flouting international law, while lying wildly and incompetently to try to salvage its public image.
The same story has been seen time and again, including the murder of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, targeted last year as she covered an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in West Bank.
Despite this, western politicians continue to cover for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals – and UK journalists appear to be ignoring the murder of their colleagues.
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Video: Corbyn challenges Cameron over refusal to deny UK troops are operating in Gaza
Former Labour leader demands answers over dodging of Commons question
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has written to Foreign Secretary David Camerona over the refusal of his underling to say that UK troops are not operating on the ground in Gaza in support of Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. In his letter, Corbyn notes the hideous death toll of Palestinian civilians and Israel’s blatant war crimes in Gaza – and demands an answer from Cleverly to his question about the involvement of UK military personnel:
Any UK troops in Gaza are likely to be using Israel-made equipment to help Israel carry out its bombing: in 2021, the UK government awarded a £103m contract to Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems to provide laser-marking systems.
Tory PM Rishi Sunak has already sent UK ships to the seas off Gaza to provide logistical support to Israeli bombers and troops, but the direct involvement of UK forces in the targeting and killing of civilians would be a major scandal. UK special forces have often operated to provide laser guidance for bombs and Israel’s mass bombing has killed well over 15,000 civilians, around half of them children.
Cameron is likely to copy his minion and dodge the question.
An earlier version of this article mentioned former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
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