Further Civilian Casualties ‘Entirely Likely’ In Gaza, Tory Minister Admits

Posted on 22/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Further civilian casualties are “entirely likely” in Gaza as Israel continues its campaign to destroy Hamas, a government minister has admitted.

Robert Jenrick called on Israel to “surgically” attack the Palestinian militant group amid fears of a humanitarian disaster in the region.

But he conceded that more civilians will probably be killed as the conflict continues.

More than 1,400 Israelis were killed after Hamas launched an assault on the country two weeks ago.

An estimated 4,300 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza.

Appearing on Sky News this morning, immigration minister Jenrick said: “We have confidence that Israel will take all the steps that it can in the circumstances to avoid civilian lives being lost.

“But the real tragedy here is that Hamas, who started this war by committing those appalling, barbaric atrocities in Israel deliberately enmesh themselves with the civilian infrastructure in Gaza, using innocent Palestinians as hostages to their own political aims.

″And so it is entirely likely that more civilian lives will be lost in this appalling conflict, but we have to defend Israel’s right to secure its borders, to release the hostages and bring a degree of security to its situation.

“What we need Israel to do is to surgically degrade and eradicate Hamas and their unfrastructyre in the Gaza Strip so that Palestinians can be free from Hamas and Israel can have the security that it needs.”

‘You’re Not Doing Very Well, Are You?’: Robert Jenrick Roasted By Trevor Phillips On Tory Record

Posted on 22/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick was left squirming on Sky News as he was presented with proof of the government’s failures.

Presenter Trevor Phillips told him “you’re not doing very well” on the five pledges Rishi Sunak made to voters at the start of the year.

The prime minister vowed to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting lists and stop the small boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel.

But Jenrick was shown a graphic demonstrating how the government is failing on four of them.

Inflation is still running at 6.7%, debt and waiting lists have gone up and the government is nowhere near stopping the boats.

Phillips said: “That [small boats] pledge does not say stop 10% of small boats, it says stop small boats. You’re not doing very well really, are you?”

Jenrick replied: “I’m not pretending this is job done, I’m saying our plan is beginning to work.

“We’re around a quarter reduction now in small boats compared to last year, and if you compare that to Italy and much of Europe, small boat arrivals are up by 100%.

“If you look at the number of Albanians coming illegally to the UK, down by 90%. If you look at the number of people who are being returned who shouldn’t have come here, up 75%.”

He added: “On this area we are delivering. There is clearly a long way to go.”

Donald Trump Promises 100% Evidence Of 2020 Fraud — With A Racist Dogwhistle

Posted on 21/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Donald Trump just became his own hypeman in the trials he faces for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The ex-president promised yet again on Friday to produce irrefutable evidence in court that he got robbed of a victory after lying about his election loss for three years.

“Massive information and 100% evidence will be made available during the Corrupt Trials started by our Political Opponent,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We will never let 2020 happen again. Look at the result, OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED. MAGA!!!”

Trump even threw in what many people identified as thinly veiled racism.

“Does anyone notice that the Election Rigging Biden Administration never goes after the Riggers, but only after those that want to catch and expose the Rigging dogs,” he said.

Following a similar statement about “riggers” in August, critics, including his former communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, accused the ex-president of using a racist dogwhistle to appeal to bigots. “Riggers,” of course, is just a letter away from a heinous slur.

We’ve been here before with Trump and his promises to verify his baseless claims of a stolen election. He recently announced a press conference to present a “CONCLUSIVE” report that would lead to “a complete EXONERATION.” But he canceled it.

Trump can’t really cancel a trial, so maybe we’ll see that purported evidence after all. Promises, promises.

In the meantime, potential legal jeopardy mounted for the autocratic ex-president and current Republican presidential front-runner. Trump’s co-defendants Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro both pleaded guilty in the Georgia election conspiracy case and agreed to testify against their alleged accomplices, which would include Trump.

Exclusive: BBC Director General Tim Davie To Speak At Private Meeting Of Tory MPs

Posted on 20/10/2023 by Boris Clair

BBC director general Tim Davie is to be grilled at a private meeting of Tory MPs, HuffPost UK can reveal.

In a highly unusual development, he will address the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers next Wednesday.

Committee chairman announcement Davie’s appearance in an email to Tory MPs which has been seen by HuffPost UK.

SCOOP: BBC director general Tim Davie will address the next meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.

To say this is highly unusual would be an understatement. pic.twitter.com/hcJd8pgeOu

— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) October 20, 2023

It comes amid the ongoing row over the corporation’s refusal to describe Palestinian militant group Hamas as terrorists.

However, it is understood Davie’s appearance at Committee Room 14 in the House of Commons was arranged in July, before the controversy.

Asked why he had been invited to attend the meeting, a 1922 Committee source said: “We thought it would be interesting.”

Labour shadow minister Justin Madders said: “If the Director General of the BBC wants to talk to MPs he should talk to all of them of all parties, not just some.”

High-profile figures, including tech billionaire Bill Gates, have spoken to the 1922 committee before.

But Davie’s appearance is controversial because he is a former Tory Party member and twice stood for election as a Conservative councillor in the 1990s.

Many Tory MPs are also highly critical of the BBC’s political coverage, which they believe has a left-wing bias.

BBC sources said Davie meets a range of people as part of his role and will be meeting Labour parliamentarians in the coming weeks.

But Labour sources said there were no plans for him to address a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Security minister Tom Tugenhadt criticised the corporation’s reporting of the Al-Ahli hospital blast in Gaza City during an interview on BBC Breakfast yesterday.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) by BBC World said: “Hundreds of people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.”

Israel has denied responsibility for the carnage, which it has blamed on a misfiring rocket by the Hamas militant group.

US president Joe Biden was due to meet with Arab leaders in the region, but those talks were cancelled in the wake of the blast.

Tugenhandt was asked by presenter Charlie Stayt who the UK government thought was responsible for the hospital deaths.

He said: “We’ve seen some pretty wild speculation and some rushing to headlines in recent days.

“This is first and foremost a human tragedy. We know that some people have been killed there and we also know that the Al-Ahli hospital was offering a service to Palestinian civilians that is incredibly needed at the moment.

“However, the reporting that we’ve seen in recent days has already had a major cost. President Biden was due to meet with Arab leaders, including probably Mahmood Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, and to begin the conversations that could have led to peace.

“Those talks have been stopped – perhaps only pushed back, we hope – and that in itself as a cost. But we’ve also seen the destruction of a synagogue in Tunisia and sadly we’ve seen raising tensions in the United Kingdom.

“This is one of those moments where wild speculation, fast and loose reporting, has real costs and consequences and I’m not going to engage in it.”

Ukraine’s Activity In 1 Occupied Territory Has Russian Sources ‘Concerned’

Posted on 19/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Russian sources are “concerned” over Ukraine’s activity in the occupied region of Kherson, according to a US think-tank.

The Ukrainian oblast of Kherson was illegally annexed by Moscow in September 2022 – but a flurry of military activity in the region is causing a stir as Kyiv fights to retrieve the land.

Last weekend, Russia shelled Kherson alone more than 200 times, according to the regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also confirmed that these attacks had disrupted the region’s electricity and water supply.

But Ukrainian forces are now said to be crossing the region’s part of the Dnipro river – where one bank is controlled by Ukraine, the other by Russia – according to a prominent Russian military blogger named as “Rybar” by Sky News.

In its most recent update, the think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) explained that these worries are becoming more widespread.

It said: “Russian sources expressed pronounced concern about ongoing Ukrainian activity on the east bank of Kherson Oblast and framed these activities as part of a potential larger Ukrainian operation.”

Ukraine has previously struggled to reclaim any of this area.

Rybar claimed on Tuesday night that Ukrainian formations near the destroyed Antonisky bridge had moved forwards, and occupied a village.

Increasing its presence on the other side of the river would enable Kyiv to send troops, tanks and artillery across, and apply more pressure to the Russian forces on that long frontline.

The Russian ministry of defence has acknowledged Ukrainian operations too, according to ISW, claiming they stopped four Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups near Kherson City.

ISW also reported: “The milblogger reacted to the reported [Ukrainian] assault on the night of October 17 to 18 by accusing the Russian MoD of not taking the threat of a Ukrainian crossing seriously.”

In another indication that Ukraine’s progress in Kherson is troubling Moscow, the Russian president Vladimir Putin recently described Ukrainian activity in Kherson as the “next counteroffensive”.

But, as ISW noted, the Russian president has also “continued his typical rhetorical line by painting all Ukrainian offensive operations as a failure”.

The think tank has a policy of not forecasting Ukrainian actions though, so it did not speculate over the possibility that Kyiv will launch an offensive over the Dnipro river any time soon.

Still, ISW added: “It is noteworthy that prominent and generally reliable Russian sources are discussing Ukrainian activities on the east bank as occurring at a larger scale than previously documented.”

Can The Tories Defy The Polls And Hold On In Today’s Crucial By-Elections?

Posted on 19/10/2023 by Boris Clair

The world’s attention has understandably been focused on the Middle East in recent days, and is likely to remain so for some time to come.

But two by-elections on Thursday have the potential to be much more politically significant for Rishi Sunak.

The Tories are defending two nominally safe seats, in Mid Bedforshire and Tamworth.

It is no exaggeration to say that, were the Conservatives to lose both of them, the party could swiftly go into meltdown.

In Mid Beds, the Tories are defending a 25,000 majority, while in Tamworth, the party won the seat in 2019 by 20,000 votes. On paper at least, they should be unassailable.

But given the government’s unpopularity, and the circumstances which led to the by-elections, both Labour and the Lib Dems still hold out hopes of causing an upset.

The contest in Mid Bedfordshire has been caused by the resignation of Nadine Dorries after she was denied the peerage promised to her by Boris Johnson.

In Tamworth, meanwhile, sitting MP Chris Pincher quit amid allegations of sexual misconduct which saw him suspended from the Commons for eight weeks.

Tory hopes of hanging on in Mid Beds have been boosted by an extraordinary war of words between Labour and the Lib Dems.

Both parties insist they are best placed to win, leading to the very real possibility of the anti-Tory vote being split, thereby allowing Conservative candidate Festus Akinbusoye to get elected.

Tamworth is a straight shoot-out between the Tories and Labour, who are odds-on favourites with the bookies.

Nevertheless, Labour insiders insist the prospect of winning either seat is a “moonshot”.

One shadow cabinet member told HuffPost UK: “They’re two very safe Tory seats and it would take a miracle for Labour to win either. Mid Beds is a genuine three way split, but still a real long shot.”

Shadow science, innovation and technology secretary Peter Kyle, who is Labour’s campaign co-ordinator in the seat, said: “I think objectively anybody looking at all of the campaigns would rather be in our position than the others, but this is unlike anything I’ve experienced and uncertainties are constantly lurking.”

But another Labour MP said: “Mid Beds is the Tories for the keeping – no chance of that turning red.

“And to be quite honest, we don’t need it anyway. It’s not a target seat of ours and this isn’t a general election. If anything, it’s amusing that the Tories will frame it as a big win when all they’ve done is keep a seat that is already theirs.”

Labour sources insist winning in Tamworth – where Pincher received 68% of the vote at the last election – would be an even bigger achievement than the party’s stunning victory in Selby and Ainsty in July.

But a senior Tory MP told HuffPost: “I reckon our chances are poor in Tamworth because of how grim Chris Pincher’s reason for leaving was. I think people will punish the party for what he did and vote against us as a protest for all the sleaze we’ve seen in recent years.”

And a Labour MP said: “We do feel good about Tamworth. We know we have the power to overturn such huge majorities, as we’ve done it before.

“This seat in particular often reflects wider politics. It was Labour under Blair and Brown, Tory after that. And now, reflecting how well Labour are doing in the polls, I think that trend will continue.“

Defeat for the Tories would be as much of a psychological blow as an electoral one.

It’s the constituency of former Conservative prime minister Robert Peel, who in 1834 published the Tamworth Manifesto, which paved the way for the modern-day Tory Party.

One Labour MP dispensed with the usual pre-by-election caution and predicted a glory night for the party.

We’ve got both seats in the bag,” the MP said. “It doesn’t matter where the constituency is, or its history – the public want a change and are fed up of Tory lies.

“Their loyal voters are doubting them too, and we will see that on Thursday.”

Robert F Kennedy Jr Is Destroying Donald Trump’s Election Chances, Poll Says

Posted on 18/10/2023 by Boris Clair

But an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll released on Tuesday offered an early prediction: Biden would beat Trump by 7 percentage points when Kennedy is factored in.

If the election were held today, Biden would snag 44% of the vote to Trump’s 37%, followed by Kennedy’s 16% with 3% undecided, according to the survey.

Kennedy, whose anti-vaccine views appeal to some conservatives, is simply siphoning off more votes from Trump than Biden.

With the political scion on the ballot, Biden loses 5 percentage points among Democrats while Trump loses 10 points among Republicans, according to the poll.

Kennedy, who has received significant air time on Fox News and other conservative outlets, has been denounced by his own family, but come November 2024, he might just end up a darling for Democrats anyway.

“Although it’s always tricky to assess the impact of a third-party candidate, right now Kennedy alters the equation in Biden’s favour,” Lee M Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, said. “What this does speak to, however, is that about one in six voters are looking for another option, especially independents.”

The poll, conducted on October 11 among 1,313 American adults, shows Biden leading Trump by 3 percentage points in a head-to-head contest.

Inquiry Needed Into What Boris Johnson Knew About Peter Bone Allegations, Say Lib Dems

Posted on 17/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Boris Johnson’s decision to make Tory MP Peter Bone a minister despite an ongoing inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct must be formally investigated, the country’s most powerful official has been told.

Bone faces a six-week suspension from the Commons and losing his seat in a by-election after a Westminster ethics watchdog found he bullied and sexually harassed a member of his staff.

The Lib Dems have demanded Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, access Johnson and Liz Truss’ emails and text messages about the Wellingborough MP to avoid a “Conservative Party cover up”.

In one incident, Bone “trapped” a young male employee in a Madrid hotel room and indecently exposed himself.

Bone was found by the independent expert panel inquiry to have “verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” the man, who was in his early 20s.

He has denied the allegations. In a statement Bone said: “None of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place. They are false and untrue claims. They are without foundation.”

A complaint was first raised about the behaviour in 2015 when David Cameron was prime minister and again in 2017 when Theresa May was in No.10. The Conservative Party opened an investigation in 2018.

Bone, who was first elected in 2005, has spent the majority of his career as a backbencher.

But in July 2022, Johnson appointed Bone to the job of deputy Commons leader. It involved handling how complaints of bullying in parliament are dealt with.

When Liz Truss’ became PM, she sacked Bone and abolished the role entirely.

Christine Jardine, the Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson, said on Tuesday: “We need an urgent inquiry to understand what Conservative ministers knew about the allegations against Peter Bone when these complaints were made.

“Boris Johnson must also be held accountable for his decision to appoint Peter Bone as deputy leader of the Commons despite the complaints made against him.”

She added in a letter to Case: “There are serious questions to be answered about what Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and other Conservative ministers knew about these allegations including when Peter Bone was appointed to a ministerial position.

“It is therefore crucial that any inquiry has full access to communications sent by Johnson and other ministers at the time, including emails, text messages and other electronic and written correspondence.”

Asked if an inquiry would be launched into Bone’s appointment as a minister, Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said: “I am not aware of any plans for that, no.”

Bone has been one of most notorious backbenchers for many years, and often a thorn in the side to his own party leaders. An unashamed eurosceptic, he had described Ukip as a “good thing for British politics”. And also called the idea of introducing same-sex marriage “completely nuts”.

Liz Truss Wants To Have Another Go At Delivering A Budget

Posted on 16/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Former prime minister Liz Truss is to challenge Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt with her own alternative Budget.

Her proposal will be pitched as one that rails against “conventional thinking”, and will be presented to the government as an alternative to the chancellor’s plans.

The report outlining Truss’s suggestions will be released one week before Hunt delivers his autumn statement on 22 November.

Called the “Growth Budget”, her suggestions are expected to propose similar ideas to those she announced while in office, including tax cuts and changes to corporation tax, income tax and national insurance.

It is also expected to include ideas about how the “tourism tax” could be dropped by bringing back VAT-free shopping.

At the Conservative Party conference this month, Truss made a speech calling for tax cuts to “make Britain grow again”.

Truss told the conference that she wanted to see the Conservative Party become the “party of business again”, and for the government to stop “taxing and banning things” and instead “build things and make things.”

David Lammy Says It Is ‘Right’ That Labour Politicians Avoid Palestine Protests

Posted on 15/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has said it is “right” that Labour MPs do not attend protests about the Israel-Hamas war.

Labour MPs and councillors were sent emails from the party leadership, “strongly advising” them not to attend any protests or rallies.

Thousands of people took part in a pro-Palestine march in the centre of London yesterday, with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn among those who addressed the crowds.

It came amid the ongoing conflict sparked by last weekend’s attacks on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

On the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Lammy said Labour politicians should be “careful and cautious” about who they appear alongside.

He said: “It’s important that as we want to be the next government, that people do not share platforms with people who do not share Labour values, that they’re careful and cautious.

“And we’ve seen Labour members of parliament exercise that caution over the last few days and I think that must be right.”

Presenter Victoria Derbyshire said: “So are you saying because again, I want to be clear. If you’re a Labour MP or Labour councillor, you shouldn’t go for example, to a pro-Palestinian rally?”

Lammy replied: “If you’re a Labour MP, you should always be careful whom you share platforms with at this moment, and you should be very careful that you do nothing to drive division in our communities.

“There’s a rise in anti-semitism, there’s a rise in Islamophobia in our country as I speak. In a position of responsibility, you do everything to minimise those who sew division.”

The Labour party under Keir Starmer have been keen to banish any remnants of anti-semitism that was associated with the party under its former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Querying whether or not the guidance given to Labour MPs and councillors applied to protests supporting both sides of the conflict, Derbyshire said: “And are you saying they can’t go to a pro -srael rally?”

Lammy said: “Guidance has gone out. It’s very clear what that guidance is.

“People have a right to protest in our country. It’s a right we defend because we’re a democracy, justice. We defend the rule of law and international law. So people have the right to protest.

“We as leaders in our community should be very judicious and careful. I think this time, that’s the right thing to do. And it’s particularly the right thing to do if you hope one day to be the government.”

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