that Andy Burnham takes over as UK’s Prime Minister imminently or actually over the weekend. I wonder if anything will change. Will he call a snap election so that he gets up to five instead of up to three or so years? Watch out for new speech bubbles …
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned his successor, outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for once again falsely stating that the party was “institutionally antisemitic” under his leadership.
At his last prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Starmer recalled his time in the House of Commons as opposition leader.
“We had just lost the 2019 general election, which nearly broke my party,” he said. “We were found to be institutionally antisemitic. I picked up our party. I turned it round. I made a promise to rip antisemitism out of my party and I did.”
Responding to the comments, Corbyn told Middle East Eye: “The prime minister today falsely claimed that Labour was found to be ‘institutionally antisemitic’ under my leadership. There was no such finding, and Keir Starmer should have the decency to correct the record.”
“This is the second time in recent weeks he has made a false allegation about the Labour Party under my leadership (last time about an invented financial bankruptcy) to bolster his own dismal record,” Corbyn said.
“Misrepresentations and broken undertakings are unfortunately part of a pattern under his leadership, leading to the collapse of public support that has brought his premiership to an end,” the parliamentary leader of Your Party said.
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Article continues at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/corbyn-condemns-starmer-once-again-falsely-claiming-labour-was-institutionally-antisemitic
Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage amassed £2.3 million in income and gifts during his first two years in Parliament, DeSmog can report.
On 7 July, Farage announced that he would be resigning as Clacton’s MP in order to trigger a by-election. The Reform leader has been under investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner over the £5 million undeclared gift that he accepted from billionaire crypto investor Christopher Harborne, the party’s biggest donor, before the 2024 general election.
DeSmog’s calculations indicate that, during his two years as Clacton’s MP, he accepted more than £2.3 million in external income and gifts, including over £720,000 from the right-wing broadcaster GB News, and more than £770,000 from the metals trading company Gold Bullion. That’s equivalent to £3,151 a day, or £22,000 a week.
Farage’s declaration of interests also shows that he received at least £85,000 in gifts from Harborne, as well as more than £39,000 from convicted fraudster George Cottrell, who also gave undeclared gifts and support to Farage in the year prior to the 2024 election.
The £2.3 million received by Farage has been on top of his roughly £98,000-a-year public salary. DeSmog revealed last week that Farage has only mentioned Clacton twice in Parliament during the past year.
“The government urgently needs to impose tougher limits on MPs’ second jobs,” Kamila Kingstone, a senior campaign lead at Spotlight on Corruption, previously told DeSmog, “so that the public can be confident that their representatives are working in the public interest rather than to line their own pockets.”
Farage’s plan to reset the narrative by forcing a by-election – his attempt to prove that voters are on his side – appears to have backfired. All the major parties have withdrawn from the contest, leaving the Reform leader to fight the by-election against Count Binface, a comedian dressed as a space-travelling bin.
Public concern over the gifts Farage has received from donors also appears to be growing. New polling from YouGov found that 40 percent of Reform’s own voters see Farage as sleazy, matched by 73 percent of the public as a whole.
Public First polling also shows that 44 percent of voters disagree with Farage that he is a victim of the political establishment, compared to 28 percent who believe he is.
“Nigel Farage is a multi-millionaire who is out for himself and working for the interests of his super-rich friends,” a Green Party spokesperson previously told DeSmog. “His whole career has been focused on personal gain and public division.”
DeSmog revealed in April that over 70 percent of Farage’s personal benefactors are based abroad – including Harborne, the Thailand-based crypto investor who has gifted flights and accommodation to Farage worth £85,453 since July 2024.
Meanwhile, Reform’s policy positions seem to align closely with the interests of its donors.
Farage has lobbied against regulation of the crypto industry, promising a UK “crypto revolution” if he becomes prime minister, and has shares in digital treasury company Stack BTC. He is due to speak at a crypto-backed conference this week, despite the furore over his gifts from crypto billionaires.
As revealed by DeSmog, Reform has also accepted £24 million from oil and gas interests while denying basic climate science and advocating for the dramatic expansion of fossil fuel production.
The government is currently considering how to reform the political finance system to limit the influence of major donors on UK democracy, with a growing number of MPs calling for a cap on the amount that can be donated by any one individual or organisation. Reform has been lobbying for the rules to remain the same.
Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.
