Tag Archives: labour party

Jon Stewart Slams Labour Party For Ousting Candidate Who Liked A Tweet Quoting His Israel Skit

Posted on by
Reply

Jon Stewart had some choice words for the Labour Party this week.

The former Daily Show host, who returned to the program last year after stepping away in 2015, expressed outrage on Wednesday after Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen was suspended from her post for “liking” a tweet that linked to a 2014 Daily Show segment about Israel.

“This is the dumbest thing The UK has done since electing Boris Johnson… what the actual fuck,” Stewart wrote Wednesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in response to a tweet from Mehdi Hasan.

“Hey @jonstewart,” Hasan’s tweet read, “not sure if you’re following the Jon-Stewart-related news out of the UK but Labour parliamentary candidate and Muslim woman @faizashaheen has just been suspended tonight from the Labour Party for liking on Twitter this old Israel video sketch of yours.”

Shaheen joined Labour in 2015 and became a star of their parliamentary constituency in London’s Chingford and Woodford Green constituency in 2018.

The economist, who hoped to roll back conservative welfare reforms, was endorsed in 2019 by actor Hugh Grant.

Those ambitions stalled on Wednesday when, following weeks of door-to-door campaigning with her newborn baby, Shaheen learned via email that the Labour Party had dropped her, after the Jewish Labour Movement flagged her social media activity as allegedly antisemitic.

The Daily Show clip showed Stewart trying to discuss Israel when his colleagues ― in a parody of furious defenders of Israel and Palestinians alike ― repeatedly shouted him down, accusing him of being a “self-hating Jew,” a “Zionist pig” and various other epithets.

Labour Party candidate Faiza Shaheen, seen here campaigning in 2019, is now blocked from running in this year's election.
Labour Party candidate Faiza Shaheen, seen here campaigning in 2019, is now blocked from running in this year’s election.

Nicola Tree via Getty Images

Shaheen “liked” a May 12 tweet from Substack writer Philippe Lemoine that linked to the Daily Show clip. In the tweet, Lemoine wrote: “Every time you say something even mildly critical of Israel, you’re immediately assailed by scores of hysterical people who explain to you why you’re completely wrong, how you’re biased against Israel.”

Lemoine’s tweet also suggested that the people who harshly condemn any and all criticism of Israel are “not just random people,” but are “mobilised by professional organisations” ― a claim reminiscent of various antisemitic conspiracy theories, which Shaheen acknowledged on Wednesday during an appearance on BBC Newsnight.

“I know what’s wrong with it, of course ― the line that’s there about the, you know, they’re in ‘professional organisations,’” she told presenter Victoria Derbyshire. “It plays into a trope, and I absolutely don’t agree with that and I’m sorry about that.”

“I’m just in a bit of a state of shock, to be honest,” Shaheen said elsewhere on the program. “I’ve worked that seat for a long time. I just had a baby. I went back, I had a C-section. I was on doors, knocking, six weeks after my baby was born … Suddenly, I’m out campaigning and my phone’s blowing up.”

Last year, Scream star Melissa Barrera was fired from an upcoming installment in the slasher series after making pro-Palestinian statements that drew accusations of antisemitism. Oscar-winning director Jonathan Glazer, who is Jewish, was also the object of widespread condemnation after he criticised Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza.

Share Button

Tories Shamed Over UK’s Polluted Water Supply: ‘They Turned A Blind Eye’

Posted on by
Reply

The Conservatives have been torn apart by a Labour MP after thousands were impacted by a parasite in their water supply last week.

Approximately 16,000 households and businesses in Brixham, Devon, have been urged to boil their water before use after traces of cryptosporidium were found and some people were hospitalised with the bug.

South West Water has promised to pay £3.5m in compensation to customers impacted by the diarrhoea-inducing parasite – but others are still holding the government responsible.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, shadow minister Emma Hardy said: “Another day, another example of the depths of failure that this government have taken us.

“I cannot believe that I am about to say this, but after 14 long years of Conservative rule, in 21st Century Britain, our water is no longer safer to drink.

“The government will of course be flailing around, desperate for someone else to blame, but this crisis is theirs.”

She called for the government to take responsibility for the ongoing issue, blaming them for weakening regulations around the UK’s Victorian-era sewage system.

“They turned a blind eye and left water companies to illegally pump a tidal wave of raw sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas,” Hardy said.

The Labour MP recalled that her party had warned the Conservatives last week about the health implications of the UK’s contaminated water.

She said: “Is this an example of their plan working? Is this what they think success looks like? And now this, the icing on the cake of failure – a parasite outbreak in Brixham, with South West Water?”

More than 100 people have reported symptoms and two others, including a 13-year-old boy, have been admitted to hospital.

“This is appalling. Enough is enough,” Hardy said.

She called for the government to put the water companies under special regulations, to make law-breaking bosses face criminal charges and for company bonuses to stop until the crisis is addressed.

Concerns about the cleanliness of UK water has been a pressing concern for some years now.

According to Surfers Against Sewage, there were more than 584,000 discharges of raw sewage into UK waterways last year alone – and 75% of UK rivers pose a serious risk to human health.

Share Button

‘Keir Starmer’s Going To Kick Me’: Wes Streeting Embarrassed After Forgetting One Of Labour’s 6 Pledges

Posted on by
Reply

He said: “Economic stability, cut NHS waiting lists, 6,500 extra teachers, Secure Border Command, Great British Energy and … what’s the one I’ve missed? I’ve put them out of order.”

As Kuenssberg and her other guests laughed, Streeting pulled a card containing the pledges out of his jacket pocket and said: “Crack down on anti-social behaviour.

“The annoying thing is I was preparing for that question and I still fluffed it. I might as well just go home now.”

Asked about his gaffe while appearing later on LBC, Streeting said: “Don’t even go there. You have no idea how hard I’ve been kicking [myself].

“I knew that question would come up, you spend time preparing for it, in the moment I had a total brain freeze. I think Keir Starmer is going to kick me on Monday.”

Share Button

Wes Streeting Rejects Archbishop Of Canterbury’s Call To Axe Two-Child Benefit Cap

Posted on by
Reply

Wes Streeting has rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s call for the “cruel” two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.

The shadow health secretary said that although he personally opposed the policy, he could not promise that an incoming Labour government would end it.

The two-child cap was brought in by the Tories as part of their efforts to slash the welfare bill.

It means that families only receive Universal Credit or child tax credit payments for the first two children they have.

Welby told The Observer: “The two-child limit falls short of our values as a society. It denies the truth that all children are of equal and immeasurable worth, and will have an impact on their long-term health, wellbeing and educational outcomes.

“Shamefully, children from ethnic minorities and homes where someone is disabled are most affected.

“Children should grow up in families and households where they can flourish and be supported to find their place in the world. Yet the two-child limit prevents many from accessing the resources they need.

“This cruel policy is neither moral nor necessary. We are a country that can and should provide for those most in need, following the example of Jesus Christ, who served the poorest in society. As a meaningful step towards ending poverty, and recognising the growing concern across the political spectrum, I urge all parties to commit to abolishing the two-child limit.”

Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning, Streeting said he “really welcomed” the Archbishop’s intervention, but could not commit to agreeing to his request.

He said: “One of the consequences of the Conservatives’ disastrous
handling of the economy is the public finances are in a mess and there are harder choices to make.

“So unless and until I can sit on your programme and say we will do X by funding it through Y, that’s not a commitment I’m able to make today.”

Streeting added: “I voted against the two child limit, so by definition, I wish it
wasn’t there. But as we’ve seen across the board, it’s a lot easier to get rid of stuff that is to put stuff back.

“And that’s the frustrating thing about the vandalism we’ve seen through
14 years of conservative government.”

Share Button

Rishi Sunak’s ‘Hung Parliament’ Prediction In Tatters As Labour Takes 30-Point Poll Lead

Posted on by
Reply

Labour has taken a 30-point opinion poll lead over the Tories – just days after Rishi Sunak said the UK was heading for a hung parliament.

YouGov put support for Keir Starmer’s party on 48%, with the Conservatives on just 18%.

Reform UK are just five points behind the Tories on 13%, with the Lib Dems on 9% and the Greens on 7%.

It is the biggest lead Labour has enjoyed since Liz Truss’s disastrous time as prime minister.

The poll is yet another hammer blow for Sunak, who is still reeling from Natalie Elphicke’s shock defection to Labour yesterday.

Earlier this week, the PM said last week’s local elections – in which the Tories lost nearly 500 council seats – “suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party”.

But according to the Electoral Calculus website, Labour would have a 452-seat majority if the YouGov poll was replicated at the general election, with the Tories left with just 13 seats.

Announcing his decision on X (formerly Twitter) he said: “The time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to fight for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon.”

Share Button

Tories On Course To Win Fewer Than 100 Seats At The Election, According To New Mega-Poll

Posted on by
Reply

The Tories are on course to win fewer than 100 seats at the next election, according to a new mega-poll.

The Survation survey for the Best for Britain campaign group says Labour is set to win a landslide 142-seat majority on a catastrophic night for Rishi Sunak.

The poll of 15,000 people puts Labour on 45% overall, with the Conservatives on 26%, the Lib Dems on 10% and Reform UK on 8.5%.

But a seat-by-seat analysis of the findings leaves Labour with 468 MPs, the Tories on 98, the SNP on 41 and the Lib Dems on 22.

Cabinet big-hitters Penny Mordaunt, James Cleverly and Grant Shapps are among the high-profile Conservatives who would lose their seats if the poll is correct.

Even Sunak himself, along with Claire Coutinho, Michelle Donelan, Oliver Dowden and Michael Gove, are at risk as the Tories face total meltdown.

The party would also be left with no MPs in Scotland or Wales, according to the poll.

Although the poll predicts Reform UK will not win any seats, the right-wing party is set to take support from the Tories in seats across the country.

Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, said: “With the polling showing swathes of voters turning their backs on the Tories, it’s clear that this will be a change election.”

The findings will pile yet more pressure on the prime minister amid mounting speculation that he could be ousted by Tory MPs even before the election takes place.

Polling experts have predicted the party will lose 500 seats at the local elections on May 2, a result which could trigger a wave of no confidence letters being sent in to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.

It has been suggested that Sunak could call an election for June or July in an attempt to see off any challenges to his leadership.

Share Button

Rishi Sunak Corrected By Community Notes On X 25 Times, Report Finds

Posted on by
Reply

Rishi Sunak has been publicly corrected on 25 different occasions for his misleading posts on social media, according to a new report.

The research, conducted by pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain and first reported by The Independent, also found that the Conservative Party is almost five times more likely to be corrected than Labour.

Best for Britain came to that conclusion by comparing the number of community notes added to posts on X (formerly Twitter) from the prime minister, cabinet ministers and the official Conservative account to their opposition counterparts.

What are community notes?

Community notes are a feature in the social media platform which were added in January 2023 to allow other X users to add context or clarifications to posts.

Users who sign up to be “contributors” can add notes to posts offering different points of view. If enough of these notes are rated as helpful by fellow contributors, it will appear below the post in question as a community note.

According to X, “community notes aim to create a better informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts”.

How many times have the Tories and Labour been corrected in this way?

Best for Britain found 73 community notes attached to government accounts in total, compared to 15 from official opposition accounts.

Twenty-six of those posts were attached to the Conservative Party’s official account, and 25 were from the PM who vowed at the start of his premiership to lead with “integrity, professionalism and accountability”.

In the first week of January, Sunak was rebuked three times for posting misleading claims about clearing the asylum backlog, suggesting tax was cut, and claiming responsibility for halving inflation.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer has accrued four community notes in the same period while the Labour account has seven.

David Lammy was the only shadow minister to receive more community notes than his counterpart, David Cameron – Lammy has two, while the foreign secretary has none.

The group’s CEO Naomi Smith said the findings “shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially in an election year where lack of trust can feed dangerous populism”.

“A government that the public can’t trust to act with integrity and transparency – both essential for liberal democracy – is a government that shouldn’t be in power,” Smith continued. “We need a general election and our polling shows that the public want it now.”

Share Button

Diane Abbott’s Hopes Of Getting The Labour Whip Back Have Been Dashed By Keir Starmer

Posted on by
Reply

Diane Abbott’s hopes of getting the Labour whip back appear to have been dashed by Keir Starmer.

The Labour leader said it was right to “support” the MP after the Tories’ biggest donor, Frank Hester, was alleged to have said she made him “want to hate all black women” and “should be shot”.

However, Starmer said that should not be “conflated” with the anti-Semitism accusations Abbott faces over a letter she sent to The Observer which said that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people have never been “subject to racism”.

She later apologised “unreservedly” for any “anguish” and said she withdrew the comments, but remains under investigation by the Labour Party.

Senior figures – including Ed Balls and John McDonnell – have called for Abbott to have the whip restored.

But on BBC Radio 2 today, Starmer insisted “that was for an entirely different issue” from the Hester row.

“That was allegations of anti-Semitism in relation to a letter, which is subject to an ongoing investigation which is separate from me,” he said.

The Labour leader said the party “must support” Abbott and insisted she was a “trailblazer” as parliament’s first black female MP.

Presenter Jeremy Vine then said: “In some countries there would be a statue of her, and yet she may not be able to fight her seat in the next election if you don’t hurry up and resolve this.”

But Starmer said: “All I’m saying is the abhorrent language used by the Tory donor about Diane Abbott is abhorrent, needs to be called out, the money needs to be returned. That’s one thing.

“There is a separate issue, which is Diane’s own language, which is subject to a different procedure. I don’t think we can conflate the two at this stage.”

HuffPost UK revealed yesterday that there was no imminent prospect of Abbott returning to the Labour fold.

But deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner later said she wanted to see the MP re-admitted to the parliamentary Labour party.

She said: “Personally, I would like to see Diane back but the Labour party has to follow its procedures.

“And for me, that is the most important thing – that we have made sure our party is fit to govern by making sure we have got complaint procedures that are robust and people can have confidence in.”

Share Button

Cabinet Minister Slammed For Saying ‘Move On’ Over Frank Hester’s Dianne Abbott Comments

Posted on by
Reply

A cabinet minister has been condemned after he said people need to “move on” from a race row engulfing the Tory Party’s biggest donor.

Frank Hester, who gave the Conservatives £10 million last year, reportedly said Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

But work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said that while the remarks were “inappropriate”, it was not “a gender-based or a race-based comment”.wes

He added: “He has apologised and I think we need to move on from that.”

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said Stride’s response showed the Tory Party was “rotten to its core and unfit for office”.

Former Tory adviser Sam Freedman said: “This line is so appalling that it can only be in use because Hester is demanding that they stick to his line.

“Mel Stride is not a stupid person. There is no way he thinks this is a good or reasonable line.”

Asked if the Tories should hand back the money Hester gave them, he said: “We can’t cancel anybody from participation in public life, or indeed donating to parties because they said something intemperate and wrong in their past.

“It’s not my decision, but I do welcome those who support the Conservative Party to ensure that we have Rishi Sunak – our first Hindu prime minister.”

Share Button

Why Labour – And Quite A Few Tories – Still Believe The General Election Will Be On May 2

Posted on by
Reply

There is a popular GIF currently doing the rounds in Labour WhatsApp groups.

It shows Justin Timberlake miming for the camera in the video for the NSYNC song It’s Gonna Be Me.

The commonly misheard lyric, however, has been changed to ‘It’s Gonna Be May’ to indicate when they think the general election will be. Yes, that’s what passes for humour in the Westminster village.

Despite all of the apparent evidence that it won’t be, senior Labour figures firmly believe the country will be asked to go to the polls on May 2, coinciding with the local council elections being held on the same day.

With the party miles ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls, it’s easy to see why they want Rishi Sunak to get on with it.

But a surprising number of Tories also think that the PM should name the date for a little over seven weeks’ time.

The doctored Justin Timberlake lyric has become a popular gif in Labour circles.
The doctored Justin Timberlake lyric has become a popular gif in Labour circles.

If he does plump for May 2, the prime minister is going to have to get a move on and announce it.

Parliament would need to be dissolved by midnight on March 26, but time would be needed before then to deal with any outstanding legislation – a process known in the jargon as “wash up”.

One theory doing the rounds is that Sunak will wait until his flagship Safety of Rwanda Bill is passed by the MPs before firing the starting gun on the campaign.

“We’ve been working on the basis he’ll get the lectern out in Downing Street at lunchtime on Saturday, March 23, by which time the Rwanda Bill will be done and so there won’t be much else to wash up,” one senior Labour figure told HuffPost UK.

One Tory MP said he believed the PM would name the date even earlier.

“I’m convinced it’ll be on May 2,” he said. “My guess would be he does prime minister’s questions on the 20th and then calls the election at 3pm that day.”

Rumours abound that ministerial diaries have been cleared for April to leave them free to campaign, while the Tory whip – which tells the party’s MPs about upcoming Commons business – only goes up to the 19th of that month.

A Conservative proponent of a May poll told HuffPost UK: “I think we’ve got a few favourable winds at our back right now and Labour are in a bit of a mess, so May is a better option than October.

“It comes down to two questions: do you want the Conservatives or Labour to run the country, and who do you think has the best plan for the future.

“The truth of the matter is you’ve seen another tax cut in the Budget, while Labour are coming forward with more spending plans that will mean more taxes.

“We’ll also have got the Rwanda bill through, so that is where our strategic advantage lies – despite what the polls say.”

It is difficult to ignore the polls, however. Ipsos put support for the Conservatives at just 20% last week, while another poll yesterday had the Tories on 18%.

There are some Tories who think things could get even worse as the year goes on.

A former minister said: “The local elections in May will be really bad and cause lots of internal trouble for Rishi, so the way to avoid that is by having a general election on the same day.”

A Tory aide added: “He definitely has to go in May. It will only get worse the longer it limps on.”

Rishi Sunak has a big decision to make.
Rishi Sunak has a big decision to make.

WPA Pool via Getty Images

While Sunak has said his “working assumption” is that the election will take place towards the end of the year, he has also been careful not to rule out a May election, demonstrating that it is still in the mix as a possible date.

Given their healthy poll lead, Labour are understandably keen to get on with it.

“Staff in party HQ are being told every day that May is still alive,” said one Labour insider. “If the Tories don’t go for it, what is the point of them? It’ll just look like they’re sitting there waiting for something to turn up, rather than actually running the country.”

A Labour shadow cabinet member said: “We’ll also have another summer of small boat crossings, which would be a terrible election backdrop given Sunak promised to stop them.

“I just think he will conclude its better politically to go now rather than wait till the autumn.”

One leading pollster warned that going to the country now would be an act of “self-immolation” for the Tories, and that the PM might as well wait until the autumn in the hope that the political outlook is a bit brighter.

But the truth is that Sunak has now entered the zone where there are no good options.

Ripping the plaster off and going for May may be marginally preferable to the slow, lingering political death of an October or November poll.

Either way, a thumping Conservative defeat seems all-but inevitable.

Share Button