UK state cruelty leaves political prisoner in need of ‘urgent medical care’
Commons leader vow to raise hunger striker prison move with Lammy branded ‘too little too late’
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy speaking during the launch of the Government’s anti-corruption strategy at home and abroad to strengthen national security and drive growth, at Mansion House in London, December 8, 2025PALESTINE ACTION supporters expressed disgust that it took a hunger striker “to be on the brink of death” before the Commons leader would raise the issue of a prison move with Justice Secretary David Lammy today.
Sir Alan Campbell said that he would raise the possibility of moving Heba Muraisi to be closer to her disabled mother after Labour MP Barry Gardiner urged him to act.
The 31-year-old, who is Mr Gardiner’s constituent, is currently being held at HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire 200 miles away from her mother’s home.
Mr Gardiner said that she is “close to death, because she has been on hunger strike protest for 67 days” and had asked if she could be moved to HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, as it will be easier for her disabled mother to visit.
“Delays in the courts system mean that one of my constituents has been in prison awaiting trial on remand for over a year,” he added.
“I plead with the leader of the house to let common sense and humanity prevail, to urgently intervene, to agree the transfer and also to consider allowing her release on bail to her family home in my constituency.”
Sir Alan said: “I will not only draw it to the attention of the Justice Secretary, but to make sure that he gets the assurances that he and the family need.”
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/commons-leader-vow-raise-hunger-striker-prison-move-lammy-branded-too-little-too-late
A generation at risk: Labour’s proposed war on disabled youth
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/generation-risk-labours-proposed-war-disabled-youth
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
IN A MOVE that has sent shockwaves through disabled communities across the country, the Labour government is considering a policy that would slash vital financial support for young disabled people aged 18 to 21.
As the campaign group Benefits and Work has pointed out, “One of the proposals in the Pathways to Work green paper was to delay access to the UC [universal credit] health element until age 22, meaning that younger people would not be eligible. The claim is that this would make it less likely that young people would be trapped in a life on benefits. The proposal is pencilled in for 2027/28.”
This has sparked a firestorm of criticism from disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), which warn of a “devastating financial impact” that will push a vulnerable generation further into poverty and away from the very employment opportunities the government claims to be promoting.
The government’s rationale for this drastic measure is to prevent young people from being “trapped in a life on benefits.” However, this narrative has been widely condemned as a gross misrepresentation of the reality faced by young disabled people.
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/generation-risk-labours-proposed-war-disabled-youth
‘Go back home’: Farage schoolmate accounts bring total alleging racist behaviour to 34
[Guardian] Exclusive: Dulwich college contemporaries say Reform leader often used antisemitic language and racial epithets
Thirty-four school contemporaries of Nigel Farage have now come forward to claim they saw him behave in a racist or antisemitic manner, raising fresh questions over the Reform leader’s evolving denials.
One of those with new allegations is Jason Meredith, who was three years below Farage at Dulwich college, a private school in south-east London. He claims that Farage called him a “paki” and would use taunts such as “go back home”.
Meredith, 58, who is of Anglo-Indian heritage and has lived in Switzerland where he works as a product manager since 1999, said it was support for anti-racism that motivated him to come forward.
He told the Guardian: “What really irked me was the denial [by Farage] of being racist.”
“The word ‘paki’ was bandied by him – by Farage – there was kind of an entourage, if I remember right, hangers on,” Meredith said. “‘Go back home.’ The taunts is something I remember, the word ‘paki’, ‘go back home’ being used, certainly more than once. Simple taunts like ‘Jason is a paki’. I was 15, 16, something like that.”
Meredith is one of several contemporaries to have alleged to the Guardian they were victims of targeted abuse by Farage, who has come under sustained pressure from politicians belonging to various parties to “own up” and apologise. So far, Farage has refused to do so.
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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/08/go-back-home-farage-schoolmate-accounts-bring-total-alleging-racist-behaviour-to-34
Minister admits jury trials would be curbed regardless of courts crisis
The government would still curb jury trials even if the criminal courts were not in crisis, the courts minister revealed yesterday – as MPs demanded yet again to see the impact assessment for the proposal.
When the plan to axe a quarter of jury trials was announced last month, justice secretary David Lammy said the reforms were necessary ‘to tackle the emergency in our courts’.
Defending the proposals in a Commons debate yesterday, courts minister Sarah Sackman said: ‘People ask me, “Sarah, would you be doing this if there was not a crisis in our courts?” I say yes, because we need a better system. One in which courts, not criminals, triage cases.
‘We need a system that makes better use of jurors’ time and ensures that someone accused of shoplifting is not in the same queue as a victim of another crime. No one has had the guts to take on a programme of reform of this scale, but this government have the guts. The Conservatives had 14 years to fix the system, but they ran it into the ground. We make a different choice, we are bringing forward change.’
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Article continues at https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/minister-admits-jury-trials-would-be-curbed-regardless-of-courts-crisis/5125535.article