Jeremy Corbyn addresses supporters outside Islington Town Hall, north London, after handing in his nomination papers for the General Election on July 4, June 5, 2024
Praful Nargund, who is bidding to unseat Mr Corbyn, is a private health entrepreneur and has said privatisation is needed in the NHS
LABOUR’S imposed candidate in Islington North, Praful Nargund, has refused to attend hustings organised by Keep our NHS Public, forcing their cancellation.
The move is no surprise since Mr Nargund, bidding to unseat Jeremy Corbyn, is a private health entrepreneur who has said privatisation is needed in the NHS.
The no-hope Tory candidate for the seat also decided to duck the debate, forcing its cancellation.
Mr Corbyn, by way of contrast, spoke to hundreds at a rally in support of the NHS held in the constituency at the weekend.
Canvassing reports indicate massive support for the former Labour leader, particularly in the working-class areas of the constituency.
And in neighbouring Holborn and St Pancras, held by Mr Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader, independent challenger Andrew Feinstein is outgunning Sir Keir Starmer on the streets.
Reform UK chairman Richard Tice (left) and party leader Nigel Farage launch ‘Our Contract with You’ in Merthyr Tydfil while on the General Election campaign trail, June 17, 2024
REFORM started targeting Labour “red wall” voters today as the hard-right party launched its reactionary election manifesto in Wales.
The party’s owner and leader Nigel Farage went to Merthyr Tydfil, once represented by Labour pioneer Keir Hardie, to tell voters that “Labour is not very different to the Conservatives … it is just more incompetent.”
And he restated his aim of being the main challenger to Labour for government by 2029, likely date of the next general election following July 4.
The nationalist party’s platform is anti-migrant, opposed to climate action and supportive of NHS privatisation while cutting foreign aid and leaving the European Court of Human Rights.
It aims to take advantage of muted enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour in working-class communities by rekindling the Brexit divisions it skilfully exploited in 2019.
Reform’s increasing prominence in the general election comes as the Tory Party’s campaign looks on the verge of expiring.
Youth Demand protest on Labour’s campaign bus, Wrexham 15 Jun 2024.
Three Youth Demand supporters have disrupted Keir Starmer’s election battle bus. They are demanding a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the incoming UK government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.
At around 9:15am the group climbed onto the battle bus as it was parked up for Labour’s campaign rally in Wrexham. The group stood on the roof of the bus holding Palastinian flags and a banner reading ‘Youth Demand an End to Genocide’. They could be heard chanting “Keir Starmer you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”.
One of those taking action this morning is Jazz, 22, a support worker from Manchester who said:
“I cannot remain silent whilst our government continues to fuel genocide in Palestine and with the climate crisis. Both the Tories and Labour have shown that they don’t give a shit about those suffering in Palestine and in the global south. Their lack of humanity is disgusting.
By voting Labour you are still voting for a party that refuses to stop buying and selling weapons with Israel. We refuse to inherit a world of suffering, Labour will not get away with their inhumanity. We cannot vote our way out of this – we must act!”
Also taking action is Chester Powell, 23, a student from Leeds, who said:
The Labour Party refuses to call for an end to the buying and selling of arms with Israel, arms that are being used to enact a genocide. We can’t vote our way out of this problem so I’m taking part in civil disobedience to force necessary change.
How can I have a hope for the future when the people in power only seem to be concerned with winning the next election. I can’t have hope that either of the major parties have any interest representing ordinary people over big business. Neither seems to show any empathy for the Palestinians as they are slaughtered in the thousands, so young people like myself must show them what having a spine looks like.”
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
The man who wants to be foreign secretary is reassuring elite audiences that UK foreign policy will not seriously change under a Keir Starmer government – a strategy confirmed in Labour’s election manifesto.
David Lammy and Keir Starmer in Normandy. (Photo: Labour Party / Flickr)
“Labour has been clear throughout this conflict that international law must be upheld”, David Lammy recently told parliament, referring to Gaza.
The opposite is the case: Keir Starmer, Lammy himself and other Labour figures, have largely given Israel a free pass in committing whatever crime it wants in Gaza free from any censure by Labour.
Starmer said last October that Israel has the “right” to cut off water and power from Gaza.
Then last month, the Labour leader repeatedly refused to say in an interview with Channel 4 if he would enforce the arrest warrants for Israeli ministers being sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Lammy, who is a lawyer like Starmer, also appears to have a problem seeing where international law needs to be upheld.
Lammy has not overtly supported the ICC prosecutor’s call to arrest Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant. Rather, he has told MPs that the ICC’s decision to seek warrants “is an independent matter for the court”.
Last October, after Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, killing over 50 civilians, Lammy stated that “it’s wrong to bomb a refugee camp but clearly if there is a military objective it can be legally justifiable. It’s for Israel to explain its actions”.
But Lammy did do something remarkable recently. On 27 May, he nearly condemned Israel directly.
He said: “We condemn the appalling strikes on a supposed ‘safe zone’ in Rafah. The Labour Party have opposed an Israeli offensive in Rafah for months.”
As far as I can tell, this was the first time Lammy has condemned Israel after nearly eight months of slaughter in Gaza.
Ceasefire
A month into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Lammy abstained on the British parliament’s vote calling for a ceasefire. He also indicated that shadow ministers who voted in favour of the motion would have to resign.
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Why are Lammy and Labour so supportive of Israel, despite the extent of its atrocities and British public opposition to the attacks on Gaza?
One reason is that Lammy is Washington’s man in Labour and cannot be seen to upset policy-makers in the US who consistently facilitate Israel’s onslaught on Palestinians.
Lammy has constantly signalled that Labour foreign policy under his leadership will deviate little from Washington’s priorities, and he has been a regular visitor to a string of elite, establishment fora in the US.
The other reason is that Lammy is, like 20 percent of his fellow Labour MPs, a recipient of funds from the Israel lobby. Since becoming an MP in 2000, he has accepted donations from the Israel lobby on numerous occasions, the value amounting to £32,550, Declassified has found.
Lammy is also a supporter of the Labour Friends of Israel group, which works to promote the interests of Israel within the Labour Party.
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Lammy’s strategy has also been on show in his recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine, a publication of the US establishment think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Lammy refers in his article to Israel as one country he sees as a “vital partner” for Britain. This, after it has murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians and is accused of genocide.
Lammy is being advised by Ben Judah, a former columnist at the Jewish Chronicle and senior figure at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based establishment body that “galvanises US leadership” in the world.
Don’t expect serious foreign policy change under Labour or any real commitment to human rights or international law, even when lawyers are in office.
PALESTINIAN campaigners launched a Vote Palestine campaign today to make justice for the country a core issue in the upcoming general election.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has crafted six questions for parliamentary candidates, which constituents can electronically send to their local prospective MPs.
The questions outline concrete actions for candidates to commit to if elected.
They cover calls for an immediate ceasefire, restoration of funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an arms embargo, support for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court to uphold international humanitarian law, suspending trade agreements with Israel and protecting the right to protest, boycott and divest from companies that are complicit in violations of international law.
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PSC director Ben Jamal said: “The last eight months in Gaza have led to a generational shift in attitudes to Israel — a state that not only occupies Palestine and practices a system of apartheid against Palestinian people, but is now committing a genocide with appalling new chapters being seen every day.
“And this continues with the complicity of UK political leaders who have failed to advocate for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, failed to halt arms exports, and continue to provide political support to Israel.
“Candidates who normalise massacres, who greenlight genocide, or who endorse a system of apartheid, should not expect support from voters who believe that human rights and international law should be upheld.”
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.
