Category Archives: POLITICS

Senior Labour MP Accuses Trump Of ‘Undermining Free Speech’ After Starmer Ally Banned By US

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A senior Labour MP has hit out at the Donald Trump administration after an ally of Keir Starmer’s top aide was banned from the United States.

Imran Ahmed is one of two British anti-disinformation campaigners whose US visas are being revoked.

Ahmed, who is also a former adviser to cabinet minister Hilary Benn, is chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which was set up in 2017 by Morgan McSweeney, who is now the No.10 chief of staff.

He has been sanctioned along with Clare Melford, another British-based executive who runs the Global Disinformation Index.

In all, five Europeans have been banned after Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, accused them of leading “efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose”.

In a post on X, he said: “The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

But Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP and chair of the Commons technology committee, said: “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek.

“We desperately need a wide ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people.

“Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee’s inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content, and he was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability.

“Banning him won’t shut down the debate, too many people are being harmed by the spread of digital hate.”

A UK government spokesperson said: “The UK is fully committed to upholding the right to free speech.

“While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the Internet free from the most harmful content.

“Social media platforms should not be used to disseminate child sex abuse material, incite hatred and violence, or spread fake information and videos for that purpose.”

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Yet Another U-Turn As Labour Backs Down Over Farmers’ Inheritance Tax

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The government has U-turned on its plans to launch an inheritance tax raid on farmers.

After months of intense backlash and protests in Westminster, Labour has increased the threshold – the point at which inhertance tax would apply on large farm estates – from land worth £1 million to those worth £2.5 million when it is introduced in April.

The new plan will also permit spouses to pass on £5 million of assets between them before they have to pay the inheritance tax.

This means the total number of estates impacted will drop from 375 to 185 – and the U-turn could cost around £130 million.

It comes after prime minister Keir Starmer told a Commons committee hearing last week that he had been told of farmers with terminal illnesses who were planning to kill themselves before the new rules came in to avoid the tax.

Environment secretary Emma Reynolds claimed the government’s change of heart came about after listening to those within the agriculture community.

She said: “Farmers are at the heart of our food security and environmental stewardship, and I am determined to work with them to secure a profitable future for British farming.

“We have listened closely to farmers across the country and we are making changes today to protect more ordinary family farms. We are increasing the individual threshold from £1m to £2.5m which means couples with estates of up to 5m will now pay no inheritance tax on their estates.

“It’s only right that larger estates contribute more, while we back the farms and trading businesses that are the backbone of Britain’s rural communities.”

But the new U-turn has caused frustration from those within Labour, too.

One MP told HuffPost UK: “Another hill we’ve been forced to climb only to be marched back down again. This government is like being stuck in a room with ‘The Thick of It’ on repeat.”

A rural Labour MP said the government had been “dragged along to do the bare minimum”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described the U-turn as a “big win for the Conservative Party’s campaign against Labour’s Family Farm Tax.”

She added: “This fight isn’t finished. Other family businesses are still affected by Labour’s tax raid, and we will keep pushing until the tax is lifted from them too. But today is an important win, and proof that standing up for what’s fair, even when the odds are against us can make a real difference.”

Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice also pounced on the government’s flip-flopping.

He said: “Labour’s tax raid on family farms has already been a disaster for the sector, plunging countless farmers into despair, with heartbreaking reports of some taking their own lives in order to save their farms for future generations.

“This cynical climbdown – whilst better than nothing – does little to address the year of anxiety that farmers have faced in planning to protect their livelihoods. Even with the raised threshold, many family farms will still face crippling bills. With British agriculture hanging by a thread, the government must go further and abolish this callous farms tax.”

The Lib Dems’ rural affairs spokesperson, Tim Farron, said: “It is utterly inexcusable that family farmers have been put through over a year of uncertainty and anguish since the government first announced these changes.

“Liberal Democrats were the first to call out and oppose the unfair family farm tax in last years Budget and we have been proud to stand alongside our farming communities to campaign against it ever since. This concession has been hard won, and I am so grateful to all the farmers who have fought tirelessly to achieve this.

“This is about justice and security – if we undermine British farming then we also undermine our ability to provide us with the food we need to keep us secure in an uncertain world.

“Yet many family farms will still find themselves financially crippled and barely making the minimum wage.

“We demand that the government scraps this unfair tax in full and if they refuse to, Liberal Democrats will submit amendments in the new year to bring it down.”

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No, Labour Has Not Said It Might Delay The Next General Election

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The Labour Party chair sparked a row on Sunday with her response after she was asked on live TV if the government would delay the next general election.

The government is currently facing intense backlash over offering to postpone local in 63 councils next year.

Ministers claim this would help local authorities who are struggling with the administrative effort of setting up a voting system while also implementing Labour’s plans to abolish two-tier councils.

However, that would mean some local authorities will have been in place for up to seven years without facing voters.

Critics claim this delay is politically motivated, and that Labour is hoping Reform will fall in the polls by the time these councils actually go to the ballot box – although the government has rejected such allegations.

Sky presenter Trevor Phillips asked Labour chair Anna Turley on Sunday if Labour intended to postpone the next general election beyond 2029, too.

But doing so would require breaching the law.

Turley immediately said: “No, not at all. We are undertaking the biggest change to local government in 50 years and that takes time.”

But Phillips pushed: “If I were interviewing someone in Latin America or Africa, and they said to me what you’ve just said to me, you’d already be saying, ‘banana republic,’ speechifying about the dangers of authoritarianism.”

He then suggested Labour could use its plans to also reform the House of Lords as a reason to “put off a general election in 2029”.

Turley said: “We’ve still got a huge amount of elections coming up this year in Scotland, in Wales, all of London, we’ve got a huge amount of elections coming up in May…”

Phillips said: “So even if things are difficult and there is reorganisation of Westminster, as I say, you promised to get rid of the House of Lords, there is going to be no delay on general election?”

She said work to get rid of hereditary peers is ongoing, and general elections “always come at the decision of the prime minister”.

The presenter replied: “What I’m not hearing is that this Labour government can’t see any circumstances by which you would choose to do what you’ve done in local authorities and delay a general election, which, I’ve got to say, I’m finding surprising, that you can’t just say, ’no general election will go beyond the five-year term.”

She replied: “Of course a general election will come.

“The House of Lords isn’t elected. So I’m a bit confused as to why House of Lords reform would impact on a general election. There are no plans for a change to the general election.”

Her comments sparked major backlash from political opponents, with ex Tory prime minister Liz Truss calling her remarks “sinister” and Conservative MP Alicia Kearns wrote on X: “Either there is a terrifying reality where they’ve discussed delaying it… or Turley is terrified she won’t take the ‘right line’ and be punished… which is everything the public hates.

“This was simple. There was only one answer: of course we won’t delay the next general election. And they better not.”

But Turley also later told Times Radio this had been a “misunderstanding”.

“He was talking about House of Lords reform, which is not going to affect the general election at all,” she said. “There’s no change to the general election.

“The law is very clear. We will have a general election by 2029. That won’t change. I’m not quite sure where he was going with that, I’m afraid.”

Governments can call snap elections before their five-year term is up but they cannot extend their time in office beyond that, according to law.

The maximum time a parliament can sit is five years from the day on which it first meets.

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Keir Starmer Calls Out Donald Trump’s ‘Quiet, Piggy’ Insult

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Keir Starmer has just claimed he would “call out” someone for using Donald Trump’s “quiet, piggy” insult.

The prime minister was on ITV’s Loose Women to promote the government’s new scheme to halve violence against women and girls by calling out misogyny when panellist Myleene Klass asked Starmer about the US president’s remarks.

She said: “You know someone very close, one of our closest allies shall we say, recently used the language – ‘quiet, quiet, piggy’. Would you allow for someone to speak to your daughter, your wife, your colleagues in the way that Trump spoke to a female journalist?”

The US president caused an international stir in November when he insulted a female reporter after she asked about his name being mentioned in newly released emails sent by the dead convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The prime minister replied: “No, I wouldn’t. I absolutely wouldn’t.”

“Would you class it as misogyny, is that something you would be looking at?” Klass asked.

“I would call it out,” he said. “But I would also say, part of the stuff we’re doing with teenagers is talking about behaviours they might not think are problematic but in fact are.”

Klass said: “It’s not just online, they’re learning from the top.”

Starmer has been in a precarious diplomatic situation ever since Trump returned to office at the start of the year.

He has tried to maintain the strong international relationship between the US and the UK while dodging over their ideological differences.

The prime minister has also tried to call out misogyny repeatedly in recent weeks, saying his female cabinet colleagues such as chancellor Rachel Reeves had been victim to it.

Meanwhile, Trump has been accused of ratcheting up his insults towards female reporters in recent weeks, angrily claiming one was “stupid” in November and another is “ugly, inside and out”.

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