“They Are Not Criminals”: Jeremy Corbyn Speaks Out on Hunger Strikers Held Without Trial
Keir Starmer is prepared to let Palestine hunger strikers die
Morning Star Editorial: Unrestricted corporate profiteering, not over-regulation, is ruining this country
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves takes part in a townhall session at the Calthorpe Community Gardens in London, December 18, 2025…
The State of Regulatory Enforcement in the UK report by Good Jobs First is essential reading because it shatters the self-serving myth that Britain is held back by over-regulation.
Rather, recent governments have combined significant relaxation of the rules with systematic underfunding of supervising agencies: the Health & Safety Executive has lost 45 per cent of its budget since 2010, the Environment Agency 50 per cent.
The result is corporate impunity. Companies that break the rules — whether on safety, workers’ rights, pollution or anything else — are unlikely to be caught.
When they are — and the privatised water sector is one of the few where fines have risen in 2024-25 — the nature of corporate investment incentivises continued rule-breaking. This year we’ve seen international creditors threaten to collapse Thames Water if their money is used to pay fines it received for breaking the law.
Good Jobs First has exposed how prevalent non-enforcement of the rules is across the entire economy.
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Unrestricted corporate profiteering is making Britain an ever dirtier, more dangerous and more expensive place to live.
Significant expansion of public ownership and investment in regulatory agencies to give them the means to punish bad actors is the only solution: it requires a radical change of direction from the next PM.
Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unrestricted-corporate-profiteering-not-over-regulation-ruining-country
Corporate abuses run rampant amid health and safety law’s collapse
A general view of the Houses of Parliament in LondonReport shows enforcement hits new lows under Labour
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The data showed a steep drop in regulatory penalties for abusive employers in workplace safety, consumer protection, as well as financial and environmental offences.
This steep decline follows a government request earlier this year, asking regulators to ease actions against businesses in the hopes of stimulating economic growth.
PM Sir Keir Starmer’s government sent out letters to 17 regulators telling them to relax rules for companies across several key sectors.
In response, environmental agency enforcement continued its decades-long decline in 2025, while the Financial Conduct Authority saw a drop of nearly £600 million in penalties compared with 2024.
The report also showed that successful outcomes at employment tribunals went down this year, while the number of cases waiting to be heard have increased dramatically, with many being scheduled for 2027 or 2028.
Levels of enforcement from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also dropped, the think tank found.
Reacting to the report, Green MP Sian Berry told the Star: “This report lays bare a catastrophic weakening of the rules that protect people and the planet.
“When environmental enforcement collapses, polluters get a green light to poison our rivers, trash our air and destroy habitats with impunity.
“The decades-long decline in Environment Agency enforcement, alongside falling financial penalties, is not an accident; it is the result of political choices.
“This is a clear failure of the Labour government to stand up to corporate power.
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Gaza civil defense continues search for bodies under rubble in Khan Younis
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Civil defense teams in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis are continuing efforts to recover the bodies of Palestinians trapped beneath rubble following Israeli attacks, as the Gaza Strip remains under blockade, Anadolu reports.
The bodies of those killed in the strikes and left buried under collapsed buildings throughout the war are being searched for by civil defense crews using heavy machinery.
Remains recovered after prolonged periods beneath the rubble, including dismembered body parts and bones, are being collected by the teams for later identification.
Israel has killed nearly 70,700 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 in Gaza since October 2023 and reduced the enclave to rubble.
According to the latest data from Gaza’s Government Media Office, the conflict has resulted in the complete destruction of 268,000 housing units, with 148,000 severely damaged beyond habitability and 153,000 partially damaged.
A ceasefire agreement brokered between Hamas and Israel on October 10 of last year halted large-scale military operations. However, reports indicate that Israel continues demolitions in areas under its control, and the Israeli military has been accused of hundreds of violations of the agreement, including bombardments and killings.
READ: 30 bodies recovered from Palestinian family under destroyed home in Gaza
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UN chief warns Gaza hunger gains are ‘fragile’ as 1.6M still face extreme food insecurity
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday warned that while famine in the Gaza Strip has been averted, the humanitarian situation remains extremely fragile, with more than 75% of the population facing acute food insecurity and critical risks of malnutrition, Anadolu Agency reports.
“Famine has been pushed back. Far more people are able to access the food they need to survive,” Guterres told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York. “Gains are fragile, perilously so.”
He said 1.6 million people in Gaza, more than 75% of the population, are projected to face “extreme levels of acute food insecurity and critical malnutrition risks.”
“And in more than half of Gaza, where Israeli troops remain deployed, farmland and entire neighborhoods are out of reach. Strikes and hostilities continue, pushing the civilian toll of this war even higher and exposing our teams to grave danger,” he said.
Guterres also renewed calls for “a durable ceasefire,” saying: “We need more crossings, the lifting of restrictions on critical items, the removal of red tape, safe routes inside Gaza, sustained funding, and unimpeded access, including for NGOs.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released its news findings on Friday, noting that famine conditions in the enclave have been temporarily offset following a reduction in hostilities and improved access for humanitarian and commercial food deliveries. The latest report, however, warned that the overall situation in Gaza remains critical.
The UN chief also touched on Israel’s refusal to move onto the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan until the return of the remains of a final deceased hostage.
“It is essential to move to phase two, and I don’t think that we should have any pretext to avoid it,” said Guterres.
“It’s very important to move with the peace process as a whole. And it’s not only phase two. It’s to make sure that phase one, and namely the ceasefire, are fully implemented,” he added.
READ: Egypt, Russia stress need to sustain Gaza ceasefire agreement
ICJ ruling on occupied West Bank ‘must be implemented’
On the situation in the West Bank, Guterres warned that “we cannot lose sight of the rapidly deteriorating situation” in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
He stressed that Palestinians face “escalating Israeli settler violence, land seizures, demolitions and intensified movement restrictions.”
“Tens of thousands have been displaced following operations by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank,” he added.
Guterres emphasized that provisional measures indicated by the International Court of Justice “are binding and must be implemented.”
He also reaffirmed his support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), calling it “an indispensable role in serving the Palestinian people.”
Saying that the crisis in Palestine is “born of human decisions,” the UN chief urged for an end to “perverse and prolonged suffering.”
“Palestinians need a horizon of hope. The ceasefire must be implemented in full. The endless cycle of violence must be broken,” he said.
READ: WHO chief says over 10,600 patients evacuated from Gaza, warns many still waiting
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