Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove referred Tory donor firms to Covid ‘VIP lane’
Exclusive: Judge slams “most unsatisfactory” Cabinet Office and orders release of names of ‘VIP’ firms to Democracy for Sale reporter – after *four year* wait.
The government has lost a long-running legal battle to block the release of information on companies referred to the lucrative ‘VIP lane’ for Covid contracts.
Firms linked to Conservative donors and party figures received over a billion pounds in PPE contracts during the pandemic after referrals from Tory ministers, MPs, and officials.
Companies in the VIP lane were ten times more likely to be given contracts, yet over half of the PPE they supplied was unusable.
In February 2021, Democracy for Sale reporter Jenna Corderoy filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking the names of all companies referred to the VIP lane and those who recommended them, including MPs and members of the House of Lords.
Months later, a court ruled the VIP lane was “unlawful,” and the government released the names of companies that secured contracts.
However, the identities of unsuccessful bidders and their political referrers remained secret, keeping the public in the dark about how politicians had helped politically-connected VIPs to seek public contracts.
For four years, the government resisted full disclosure, arguing it should not have to reveal how the VIP lane operated.
Corderoy took the case all the way to an information tribunal, where Judge Foss has now ruled that the government has 35 days to give Democracy for Sale the names of all unsuccessful companies.
Wednesday’s spring statement has been overshadowed by where the cuts are due to fall, with some departments asked to model cuts of up to 11%. Photograph: pxl.store/Alamy
‘You can’t cut your way to growth,’ says PCS head as Reeves confirms move to cut administrative costs by 15% by 2030
Rachel Reeves’s planned cuts of £2bn to government departments will hit frontline services from jobcentres to HMRC phone lines and efforts to cut the asylum backlog, a union has said.
On Sunday the chancellor confirmed plans to seek a 15% reduction in admin costs across Whitehall, amounting to about £2bn a year, by the end of the decade. She said this would also result in about 10,000 job losses in the civil service, although this was not a target.
As she prepares to give her spring statement on Wednesday, Reeves is under pressure to balance the books in line with her fiscal rules, meaning some departments are in line for spending cuts to avoid more tax rises or higher borrowing.
But the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) warned her that there would be consequences for public services after 15 years of underfunding by the Tories.
Fran Heathcote, the general secretary of the PCS, said: “You hear that every day from the public, that they wait too long on the phone when they try to make tax payments, jobseekers rushed through the system in just 10 minutes because there aren’t enough staff to see them, victims of crime waiting until 2027 to have their cases heard in the courts as well as the backlog in the asylum system which results in additional hotel costs.
“The impact of making cuts will not only disadvantage our members but the public we serve and the services they rely on. We’ve heard this before under Gordon Brown when cuts were made to backroom staff and [the] consequences of that were chaos.”
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a rally on March 21, 2025 at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) stands next to him. (Photo: Chet Strange/Getty Images)
“The American people will not allow Trump to move us into oligarchy and authoritarianism. We will fight back. We will win,” said Sanders.
On the heels of record-breaking attendance at a “Fighting Oligarchy” event in Tempe, Arizona earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York held a rally in Denver, Colorado on Friday evening that drew more than 34,000 people—making it largest event that Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez have ever held.
Sanders, an Independent, wrote on social media on Friday that the turnout is a sign that “the American people will not allow Trump to move us into oligarchy and authoritarianism. We will fight back. We will win.”
According to Anna Bahr, Sanders’ communications director, the senator’s largest rally prior to Denver took place in Brooklyn, New York in 2016, when he was running for president.
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, wrote online that “something special is happening… Working people are ready to stand together and fight for our democracy. Thank you Colorado!”
At the rally, which took place at Denver’s Civic Center Park, the two lawmakers hit on the same themes they spoke about in Arizona.
“The American people are saying loud and clear, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society,” Sanders said, according to Colorado Public Radio. “We will not accept the richest guy in the world running all over Washington, making cuts to the Social Security Administration, cuts to the Veterans Administration, almost destroying the Department of Education—all so that they could give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%.”
“If you don’t know your neighbor, it’s easier to turn on them,” said Ocasio-Cortez, per CPR. “That’s why they want to keep us separated, alone, and apart. Scrolling on our phones thinking that the person next to us is some kind of enemy, but they’re not.”
Sanders launched his “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour in February, with the aim of talking to Americans about the “takeover of the national government by billionaires and large corporations, and the country’s move toward authoritarianism.”
The series of “Fighting Oligarchy” events have been taking place as some Democrats have gotten an earful at town halls back home, where constituents have come out to implore them to do more to counter efforts by the Trump administration.
Earlier in the day, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders also held a rally in Greeley, Colorado—which is represented by Republican Gabe Evans in the House of Representatives—which drew more than 11,000 people.
Semaforreporter David Weigel, who attended both the Greely and Denver rally, posted online that at the Greeley rally it wasn’t easy to find people in the crowd who had voted for Sanders in the 2020 presidential primary. Weigel also wrote that the Sanders team told him that half of the RSVPs to the rallies were not from the lawmaker’s supporter list.
Eric Blanc, an assistant professor the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, wrote on Bluesky on Saturday that it is “pretty remarkable how AOC and Bernie have become leaders not just of lefties, but of the Democratic Party’s mainstream liberal base.”
While its dangerous that “establishment liberals” are yielding to Trump, he wrote, “the silver lining is that this has enabled anti-corporate forces such as labor unions and AOC-Bernie to set the tenor of Resistance 2.0.”
“Because today’s anti-Trump resistance is more focused on economic concerns, more rooted in labor unions, and more anti-billionaire, it has the potential to sink much deeper roots among working people and, in so doing, to definitively overcome MAGA,” wrote Blanc.
The spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree giving a press conference.
The two resistance movements launched their attacks after Israeli warplanes killed hundreds of Palestinians in the span of a few days.
Yemen’s Ansar Allah announced on Thursday, March 19 that its armed forces targeted Ben Gurion Airport with a Palestine 2 hypersonic missile, affirming that the operation “successfully achieved its objective.”
On Friday, March 21, Ansar Allah announced that its forces carried out yet another strategic operation, targeting an Israeli military site south of the occupied city of Jaffa. The movement reaffirmed that its operations, alongside the blockade on Israeli navigation, would continue until Israel halts the aggression against Gaza and lifts the siege on the war-torn enclave.
Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv on Thursday, March 20, and the coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday, March 21. The rockets and missiles launched from Yemen and Gaza reportedly disrupted flights at Ben Gurion airport.
In the early hours of Saturday, March 22, Ansar Allah announced the targeting of Ben Gurion Airport for the second time within 48 hours, as well as a number of warships affiliated with the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman.
Ansar Allah further warned all airlines that “the so-called Ben Gurion Airport has become unsafe for air traffic and will remain so until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted.”
Both Ansar Allah and Hamas confirmed in statements that their attacks on the cities occupied by Israel were carried out in retaliation for Israel’s renewed genocidal aggression on Gaza that has left over 700 people dead and more than 1000 injured since Tuesday, March 18.
With the toll of the renewed aggression, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the Gaza strip since October 2023 has surpassed 49,617.
Yemen’s attacks on Tel Aviv prove that Gaza is not alone: says Abu Obaida
The spokesperson of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaida, issued a statement via his Telegram channel on Thursday, praising Ansar Allah for their continuous support to the people of Gaza.
“We salute our loyal brothers in Yemen for their honorable stance and direct support for their brothers and sisters in Gaza, despite the heavy price they pay for their unwavering commitment to Al-Aqsa and Palestine,” Abu Obaida wrote.
“Today, Yemeni missiles intersected with those from Gaza in the skies over Tel Aviv, reaffirming that Gaza is not alone.” He added.
Furthermore, Al-Qassam’s spokesperson urged the free people of the Arab and Islamic nations “to engage in the battle to defend Al-Aqsa and to continue their support for Gaza, to break the back of the criminal zionist enemy and force it to halt its aggression.”
Hamas reaffirms that ceasefire talks are underway
Although Al-Qassam launched retaliatory attacks on Israel, Hamas reaffirmed on Thursday that it is still committed to the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
“Talks are underway with mediators to stop the aggression against our people and pressure the (Israeli) occupation to adhere to the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou said in a statement.
“We are working with mediators to permanently spare our people war and to ensure the occupation’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” Al-Qanou added.
Mahmoud Khalil, featured here in “The Encampments”, was a leading student activist in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment while studying at Columbia
A new independent film about the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University aims to shift the media narrative regarding the movement for Palestine
A new documentary chronicling the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University will premier at the CPH:DOX Film Festival in Copenhagen on March 25, 2025. “The Encampments,” a film produced by BreakThrough News and Watermelon Pictures, “challenges the dominant media narrative by revealing the true spirit of the encampments—what it felt like to be there, the emotions that fueled the students, and what motivated their drastic action,” said directors Kei Pritsker and Michael T Workman.
The film was produced by nonprofit media organization BreakThrough News, Grammy-award winning musician Macklemore, and Watermelon Pictures, a production company focusing on Palestinian-centered films.
“This is more than a student protest—it’s a generational struggle for justice,” said Macklemore. “Students have always led the charge for justice, from the sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement to the campus protests against South African apartheid. They’ve never been on the wrong side of history. The encampments that started at Columbia are part of that legacy, inspiring millions of people around the world. The film ensures the students in US and Gaza are heard, their actions are remembered, and the fight for Palestinian liberation continues.”
Presenting: THE ENCAMPMENTS, by @watermelonpicturesco, @Macklemore & BreakThrough.
Only in theaters March 28th (NYC) with a nationwide expansion to follow.
The release of “The Encampments” comes shortly after the release of the pro-Israel documentary “October 8,” backed by actress Debra Messing. “October 8” gives a Zionist perspective on the events of October 7 as well as the subsequent movement for Palestine, focusing on the allegations of anti-semitism against said movement.
“The Encampments” aims to provide an alternative view to the mainstream dominance of pro-Zionist narratives, highlighting the student movement for Palestine at Columbia from the perspective of the students themselves. Many of the most prominently featured students in the film, such as recent graduate Mahmoud Khalil, have faced severe state repression due to their activism. Khalil was detained on March 8 by immigration authorities, based on his protest activity, and continues to be imprisoned at the notoriously violent ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
The Trump administration has aimed to make an example out of the students who took a brave stand in solidarity with Palestine at Columbia University, issuing a letter demanding that the university sanction protest in a variety of ways or else lose USD 400 million in federal funding. Columbia has complied with these demands—expelling, firing, suspending, or revoking the degrees of 22 students over alleged involvement in pro-Palestine protest activity. This includes the president of the graduate student union at the university, Grant Miner, also prominently featured in the film.
The film will also be playing at the Angelika Film Center in New York City from March 28-April 2.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
