Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Responding to Labour’s announcement on energy and security, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:
“The road to national energy security must lead to real change – a turn away from fossil fuels and a massive investment in renewable energy generation and energy saving programmes like home insulation delivered through local authorities right across the country.
“Anything less – and Labour is offering much less – will leave people with higher bills and do nothing to solve the climate crisis that is leaving communities up and down the land vulnerable.
“It is Labour’s lack of ambition and refusal to make the real change needed that is leaving us all less secure.
“Compared to Labour’s original commitment to spend £28bn a year on green investment, Labour plans to spend just £8.3bn over the course of the parliament.
“That is nowhere near enough to deliver energy security.
“Labour’s targets focus on the electricity supply. However, to achieve net zero we need to see the electrification of home heating. This aim was ditched when Labour cancelled its £28 billion investment pledge.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer at the launch of Scottish Labour’s General Election campaign at City Facilities in Glasgow, May 24, 2024
LABOUR campaign chiefs are scrambling to shore up support in some of the party’s safest seats as fears grow of a collapse in its vote among Muslim communities.
Deep alienation over party leader Sir Keir Starmer’s pro-Israel position on Gaza has meant campaign resources being sent to seats with huge Labour majorities on paper, notwithstanding Labour’s 20-point lead in the polls.
Labour has been telling activists that “we need your help to hold this seat” in at least 16 constituencies with large Muslim electorates currently held by the party.
Labour remains mired in candidate chaos, with a complaint of sexual harassment laid against one controversial rightwinger, while another was chased out of the constituency he was imposed upon.
Seats the Labour hierarchy regard as vulnerable include Leicester South, held by shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth, Birmingham Ladywood, where the sitting member is shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and Stepney & Bethnal Green, represented by frontbencher Rushanara Ali.
All face strong challenges from independent pro-Gaza candidates rooted in their communities.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow defence secretary John Healey at the Fusilier Museum in Bury in Greater Manchester, while on the General Election campaign trail, June 3, 2024
BRITAIN will be “fit to fight” under Labour, party leader Sir Keir Starmer said today in a renewed commitment to militarism.
The Labour leader also toughened up his commitment to spending far more on arms, saying that under Labour the military budget would aim to reach 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product “as soon as possible.”
And he both pledged to keep the Trident nuclear weapons system, building four new nuclear-armed submarines with one always ready to launch missiles, and that he would be ready as prime minister to use it.
“The most important thing is that I voted in favour of a nuclear deterrent,” Sir Keir said.
“And my commitment to the nuclear deterrent is absolute.
“Britain will be fit to fight within the first year of a Labour government.
“We will carry out a new Strategic Defence Review. We are absolutely committed to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence as soon as possible.”
…
Jeremy Corbyn, fighting for Islington North as an independent, said: “Nuclear weapons are a profound and existential threat to humanity. Instead of investing in weapons of mass destruction, we should be investing in our schools, hospitals and housing to ensure everyone can lead a happy and healthy life.
“That is what real security means.”
Independent candidate Andrew Feinstein, who is challenging Sir Keir in his own north London constituency, warned that “every single taxpayer’s pound spent on weapons is a pound not spent on our crumbling schools, on reducing NHS waiting lists, on tackling the housing crisis, spiralling rents and the inability of hard-working families to pay the bills.
“Nearly 40 per cent of children in this constituency are living in poverty. That’s over 12,000 children.
“Yet Keir Starmer continually tells us he can’t commit to money for them, just money for more bombs and endless wars.”
Labour called on to pledge to take outsourced NHS services in-house during first term
Labour has been told it will have a ‘historic opportunity’ to reverse NHS outsourcing in its first term, if the party wins the general election.
Assuming Labour takes office on July 5, campaign group We Own It has laid out a plan for Labour not to renew private NHS contracts which are set to expire in the first term of the next government, as analysis has found a huge majority of contracts will need renewing over the next four years.
Based on an analysis of NHS contracts, data has shown that the next government will inherit 7,452 contracts, worth a total of £29.1bn, between for-profit private companies and local, regional and national NHS entities in England.
The public ownership campaign group found that 93.7% of these contracts are scheduled to expire before July 2029, worth £19.7bn, leaving the next government with the choice of whether to bring these services back into the NHS.
Over £1bn is the estimated profits private companies stand to make from all NHS outsourcing contracts the next government will inherit, according to public sector procurement specialists Tussell. This money could help hire over 27,000 NHS nurses, or cover the cost of knee replacement surgeries for over 71,000 NHS patients, We Own It argued.
Professor of Accounting at the University of Edinburgh, Christine Cooper, said: “The evidence suggests that measures to bring back outsourced contracts would enable better public services at lower cost.
“Whether to outsource to the private sector is no longer a question of ideology, it is a question of economic interest and empirical evidence.”
He also announced that he will be standing to be an MP in Clacton
In a bizarre twist in the 2024 general election campaign, the Reform party has announced it is changing its leader less than five weeks before polling day.
In an emergency press conference, the party’s then leader Richard Tice announced that the party’s honorary president Nigel Farage would be taking over from him.
Tice told the press conference: “As people know, I wanted Nigel to be able to give as much energy and effort, commitment to this campaign, as he felt able to do.”
He went on to add: “I thought well actually, what I really want to do is to invite Nigel Farage to become leader of Reform UK.”
After being introduced by Tice, Farage took the stage to say: “Richard is more than happy for me to put my head and shoulders firmly over the parapet and take the flack. So I’m coming back as leader of Reform UK, but not just for this election campaign.”
Farage then said that he will be leader of Reform for the next five years.
At the press conference, Farage also announced that he will be Reform UK’s parliamentary candidate for Clacton, the only seat that his former party UKIP won in the 2015 general election.
