Junior doctors on the picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital, London, during their continuing dispute over pay, June 27, 2024
SIR KEIR STARMER was warned today against repeating Rishi Sunak’s mistakes as 25,000 junior doctors began a five-day pay walkout across England, threatening further strike action this summer.
The British Medical Association (BMA) members hit out at the Labour leader’s “lies” over NHS funding as they staged their 11th walkout since March last year, including at the Friarage Hospital close to the Prime Minister’s constituency in North Yorkshire.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said he would not grant the BMA’s demands for real-terms pay restoration in one go as it would mean any “trade union worth their salt” would ask for the same the following year.
But with the dispute now in its 20th month, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairman Rob Laurenson said: “Keir Starmer would do well not to repeat the mistakes of Rishi Sunak, and to empower his health secretary to negotiate in good faith.”
He welcomed Mr Streeting describing pay negotiations as a “journey, not an event,” saying the union was happy to negotiate a multi-year deal.
But he added: “The truth of the matter is a doctor starts with £15 an hour and we are asking for doctors to be paid about £21 an hour — that is affordable.
“The government has spent £3 billion on strikes and pay restoration costs £1.3 billion — again if an incoming government under Keir Starmer wants to continue lying then it looks like strikes will have to continue as well.”
His committee co-chairman Dr Vivek Trivedi warned that as the current strike mandate ends on September 19, “if talks do not move in a timely manner, then of course our members would expect us to call for strike action.”
LABOUR headquarters was blockaded by green campaigners today in protest at the party’s ties to major polluters.
Fifty activists from Stop Polluting Politics blocked both entrances to the office in London, arguing that funding from polluting corporations is to blame for Labour’s abandonment of its green investment promises.
Protesters chanted: “Labour, come off it, put people over profit” and carried banners reading: “Labour: Party of the People Polluters.”
Labour has received £41,600 from donors that are linked to pollution, including £9,600 from aviation giant Airbus and £12,000 from biomass corporation Drax since 2019.
Drax owns the largest single source of carbon emissions, a wood-burning power station, in Britain.
And Labour has stuck with Graham Stringer as a parliamentary candidate in Manchester despite his record as a climate change denier associated with the Global Warming Policy Foundation, with which shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves also has links.
Sam Smith, a spokesman for the group, said: “Allowing polluters to sponsor major political parties is as destructive as having tobacco companies fund research on smoking and public health.
A screenshot of a Conservative advert on Meta during the 2024 general election campaign. Credit: Conservatives / Meta
The party has pumped out hundreds of adverts falsely stating that Labour would introduce a “national ULEZ”, and pay per mile charges.
The Conservative Party has reached millions of people with digital adverts that falsely claim Labour would impose new taxes on drivers.
In recent days the Tories have launched hundreds of new online adverts falsely claiming that Labour would introduce a nationwide ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) that would charge people for using highly-polluting vehicles.
Labour’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced and recently extended the capital’s ULEZ, which only applies to around 10 percent of vehicles, but the party has no plans to roll out the scheme to the rest of the country.
New analysis by advertising experts ACT Climate Labs, shared with DeSmog, finds the Tories have spent tens of thousands of pounds since the start of the general election campaign on digital adverts, which have appeared on the likes of Google, Facebook and Instagram, attacking climate and anti-pollution policies.
“Unfortunately, the Conservative leadership has increasingly used environmental and climate policies as collateral damage lately, in an attempt to secure more support for the party,” Sean Buchan, intelligence lead at ACT Climate Labs, told DeSmog.
“Clearly, it is not working – in fact, poll after poll shows us that Conservative voters, along with the vast majority of Brits, want climate action.
“However, the ripple effects of these adverts may last well beyond 4 July. The climate movement needs to ensure the public is seeing pro-climate messaging that truly speaks to them, through creative and local campaigns, and where possible with multi-channel advertising of its own.”
One Tory advert on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) read: “This is not a test. Keir Starmer will force pay per mile driving, costing you £THOUSANDS [sic] a year.”
This false claim – Labour doesn’t intend to introduce pay per mile charges – was seen between 150,000 and 175,000 times, costing between £1,000 and £1,500.
During the London mayoral election in May, the Conservatives claimed that Labour would introduce pay per mile road charges in the city, despite Khan having publicly ruled out the policy. A Tory leaflet featuring the claim was reported by Labour to the Crown Prosecution Service, with the party saying it may have broken election law.
While serving as chancellor, now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly said he was “very interested” in introducing a national pay per mile scheme.
“Voters are badly served by any party which repeatedly spreads misinformation or disinformation online,” said former Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, director of the campaign group Unlock Democracy. “If parties cannot commit to accurate advertising on a voluntary basis, bringing political ads under advertising rules may provide the only solution.”
ULEZ Blitz
Another Meta advert from the Conservatives, costing between £400 and £499 and gaining upwards of 50,000 impressions, claimed “Keir Starmer will force a local ULEZ near you”.
The party is now pumping out hundreds of similar adverts spreading this claim, each tailored to a local constituency, estimated to be costing up to £65,000. “With his supermajority, Keir Starmer could steamroll through plans to introduce a ULEZ near you,” the adverts state.
The Tory campaign has been warning voters against handing Labour a large majority, despite the size of a government’s majority making little difference to its ability to pass legislation.
“The Tory strategy of the last few weeks has been to focus on their core supporters, as well as those who might vote Reform, so these ads are another thing designed for them,” Sam Jeffers, executive director of the advertising monitoring platform Who Targets Me, told DeSmog.
The Tories have also paid for a Google advert attacking Labour’s decarbonisation plans, which has been viewed more than five million time, costing between £25,000 and £30,000. The advert features an “explainer” video on how much a Labour government would allegedly cost households, with decarbonising the electricity grid the first cost named.
Labour plans to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030, while the Conservatives have pledged that 95 percent of the UK’s electricity will be generated by low-carbon sources by 2030, achieving full decarbonisation by 2035.
Political parties have spent huge sums on digital adverts during the campaign so far. As of 25 June, the Tories and Labour combined had spent over £3 million on Meta adverts that had gained an estimated 400 million impressions.
“Advertising blasts like this – especially when micro-targeted – can have a significant influence on people’s thoughts and behaviours,” said Buchan.
“In an increasingly fragmented media environment, digital advertising can be a fantastic way to target hard-to-reach people with your message. In an election where honesty is at a premium, it’s very concerning to see so much money – up to £70,000 on the adverts we’ve counted – spent on such spurious claims.”
The situation remains unclear. Just Stop Oil have issued a press release saying that at least 15 people have been arrested at the organised soup event and at their homes. I noticed the number increase from 14 to 15 at about 10a.m. today and the press release url refers to 13.
28/6/24
While the situation still remains unclear, it appears that there was a huge police operation to arrest just Stop Oil supporters across England last night and the number arrested continues to increase.
The arrests took place in London, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Essex, Manchester, Surrey, Sussex, Norfolk and West Yorkshire on suspicion of planning to disrupt airports this summer.
It comes after six members of the group, some described as being ‘key organisers’ were arrested in Hackney, in east London last night.
They were at an event at Haggerston Community Centre, promoted by Just Stop Oil as: ‘From Roads to Runways – A Just Stop Oil Talk’.
Officers had warned the eco-activists are planning to disrupt airports and holidaymakers over the summer, saying the arrests were made under a section of the Public Order Act which makes it illegal to conspire to disrupt national infrastructure.
One Just Stop Oil source said the arrests were “pathologically evil”.
The number, they said, is likely to be higher as there are other members that they “are struggling to reach”.
Home visits are understood to have been made in cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Norwich and Oxford.
Arrests were made under Section 7 of the Public Order Act, which was passed by parliament at the start of 2023, preventing the conspiracy, planning and preparation for certain disruptive activities.
