Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy gives a press conference in Abuja on 4 November, 2024 (AFP/Kola Sulaimon)
Scottish National Party MP Chris Law accuses David Lammy of exposing UK to ‘significant risk’
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been warned that the UK as a state, “alongside individual ministers and government officials as individuals”, is at “significant risk of future legal action for complicity in acts of genocide”.
In a letter to Lammy on Monday, seen by Middle East Eye, Scottish National Party MP Chris Law accused the foreign secretary of failing to “demonstrate any responsibility of the UK government to prevent genocide”.
“Do you accept that the UK’s obligations [under the Genocide Convention] should have been triggered from the moment the government became aware of a serious and imminent risk that genocide could be perpetrated,” Law asks in the letter.
The Scottish politician goes on to accuse the foreign secretary of appearing to “diminish the very definition of genocide”, after Lammy suggested last month in parliament that Israel’s actions in Gaza do not constitute genocide because fewer than millions of people have been killed.
Lammy said that terms like genocide “were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term.”
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves hosting an investment roundtable discussion with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and members of the BlackRock executive board at 10 Downing Street | Frank Augstein – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Jonathan Reynolds told the investment bank that he looked forward to working together to “change the face of our UK”
Senior executives from BlackRock, one of the world’s most controversial companies, last week sat down opposite Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves in Downing Street.
The government’s laser-focus on private investment as the key means of driving economic growth has inevitably led to a reliance on the world’s big money machines, such as BlackRock. But this is a relationship that Labour initially developed in opposition – and which has only become cosier since the party entered government.
The meeting on Thursday between Starmer, Reeves, investment minister Poppy Gustafsson and several members of BlackRock’s board was not the first time that senior figures from the world’s largest asset manager have met with ministers in recent months.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also made a star turn at Labour’s investment summit in October and posed for pictures with the prime minister when he visited New York in September. Senior BlackRock figures also attended a summer reception for business leaders at No 10, as openDemocracy revealed previously.
‘On a personal note’
As Starmer’s cabinet ministers were appointed in July, hundreds of companies contacted them to offer their congratulations, pitch their value to the government, and request meetings. Inevitably, some had more success than others in obtaining access to their targets. BlackRock was one of them.
With around $10tn (yes, trillion) under its management, BlackRock is among the most powerful financial institutions on the planet. To many, it is also among the most “evil”, because it continues to pump billions into fossil fuels and arms companies, and its reach extends into almost every aspect of the economy and society.
At 5pm on Monday 8 July, a managing director at the investment giant emailed Jonathan Reynolds, who’d been appointed the UK’s new secretary of state for business and trade just a few days earlier.
“Dear Secretary of State,” the executive wrote, “on behalf of all of us here at BlackRock, please find attached a formal letter of congratulations from myself and our UK Chair, Sandra Boss.
“And may I add, on a personal note, it is a pleasure after all these years to address you as such!”
The BlackRock executive was Anthony Manchester, a former senior civil servant who held roles across various government departments between 2001 and 2015, including the Treasury and Cabinet Office.
The attached letter began with the same pleasantries and congratulations expressed by Manchester, before highlighting BlackRock’s broad range of clientele and the scale of their footprint across the breadth of the UK economy, name-dropping British Airways, Rolls Royce and AstraZeneca as investments.
Next came the key point:
“As you know, we also share the government’s view that infrastructure investment can play a critical role in improving economic growth and productivity. We believe infrastructure is poised to become one of the fastest-growing segments in private markets globally.
“As our Chairman and CEO Larry Fink has recently written, private capital market financing, combined with policy pragmatism, are necessary to meet countries’ infrastructure needs and thereby enhance economic growth and productivity.
“We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our work on funding the projects and enterprises that drive the economy and building the UK’s case as an investment destination. We will work with your team to get this meeting in the diary.
“Until then, congratulations once again on your appointment.”
Cutting through the corporate glaze, we can roughly understand the point being made here. In effect, BlackRock is highlighting that Labour’s entire political project rests on the willingness of companies like BlackRock to plough private capital into the foundational components of our society (and extracting massive profits in the process).
Reynolds’ reply to BlackRock, when it eventually came in August, gushed with praise for the firm and the wider financial services sector.
“Partnership with the Financial Services sector will be critical to developing and delivering on our industrial strategy and supporting small businesses. The sector underpins UK investment and trade, and its continued success is critical to lay the strong foundations for economic growth that this country needs.”
Reynolds added: “I would like to thank you for your long-standing investment in the UK, and partnership in driving growth, jobs and innovation. Blackrock has an impressive reach driving investment into the UK across sectors of our economy and your work is vital to economic growth. Funding our priority projects and investment in infrastructure is an important part of this…”
“We do not underestimate the importance of the UK’s Financial Services sector to the wider economy, or its potential to help deliver social value and the clean energy transition. To succeed we need everyone to play their part. I am looking forward to working with you in this common endeavour of national renewal.
“Together, we will change the face of our United Kingdom for the better.
“Thank you for your kind offer to meet. I would be delighted to accept this invitation. My Private Office will be in touch with you to arrange a suitable time. Thank you once again for writing and I look forward to working with you.”
‘Getting BlackRock to rebuild Britain’
In the asset management space, BlackRock has historically been a fairly hands-off investor, the bulk of its holdings being significant but typically not controlling shares in many of the world’s biggest companies – generally between 5-10% – according to Brett Christopher’s survey of the industry, Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Rule the World.
Think of an industry, then think of the top companies within it, and there’s a fairly good chance that BlackRock has shares in it. Christophers notes that, as a proportion of its overall holdings, investments placed in infrastructure – things like the electricity grid, water systems, and toll roads – were relatively small.
But in January this year, the firm announced it would purchase Global Infrastructure Partners, which controls around $170bn worth of assets worldwide, including Gatwick Airport and Hornsea 1, a project to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm in the North Sea. This purchase, which was completed last month, reportedly makes BlackRock the second largest asset manager in the infrastructure space, after ‘the vampire kangaroo’, Macquarie.
Critics will argue that when asset managers own significant chunks of infrastructure, their priority is their investors (including sovereign wealth funds and pension funds), rather than society, or even the planet. The primary purpose of infrastructure, the argument goes, becomes the generation of profit, rather than providing a working, reliable service. In practice, this might mean cutting investment while raising prices.
BlackRock and its ilk buying up the UK’s infrastructure would be controversial enough, but the way in which Labour is seeking to encourage this process is even worse. Writing in The Guardian ahead of the general election, economist Daniela Gabor said Labour’s plan for getting back into government amounted to: “get BlackRock to rebuild Britain”.
She wrote: “Labour’s strategy raises a bigger set of questions about the type of state we want. Starmer’s vision for government-by-BlackRock reduces the question of state capacity to ‘how do I get BlackRock to invest in infrastructure assets?’ This model involves the state in effect subsidising the privatisation of everyday life.”
In simple terms, the government’s plans to use public funds to ‘derisk’ private investment means that the taxpayer takes on much of the risk involved, while the private sector stands to reap most of the benefits. This is particularly true of essential infrastructure, which the government cannot let fail and so must step in to cover losses in the event that something goes wrong.
Gabor continues: “This doesn’t only make it harder to bring public goods back into public ownership; it also allows big finance to tighten the grip on the social contract with citizens, and to become the ultimate arbiter of climate, energy and welfare politics, which will have profound distributional, structural and political consequences.”
Immediately after the Downing Street meeting yesterday, Starmer took to social media to trumpet his sitdown with BlackRock. His message echoes the tone and substance of BlackRock’s letter to Reynolds months prior.
He wrote that the government’s mission, to “deliver growth, create wealth and put more money in people’s pockets” can “only be achieved by working in close partnership with businesses and investors”.
The prime minister continued: “BlackRock has a big footprint in the UK, and supports thousands of jobs across the country. Their insight on how we can put the UK on the world’s stage as a top investment destination and turbocharge growth is invaluable. Delighted to welcome them to Downing Street today to continue my government’s partnership with leading businesses.”
Exactly which people’s pockets are about to be filled with more money remains unclear.
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.
PROTESTERS descended on Westminster today to demand that the government stop using taxpayers’ money to bankroll the destruction of forests.
More than 100 environmental activists from groups including Axe Drax, Fossil Free London and Greenpeace gathered outside the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, calling for an end to the vast subsidies granted to the Drax biomass power plant.
The North Yorkshire plant is Britain’s largest carbon emitter, yet receives almost £1.5 million a day for burning biomass wood chips, a fuel source that Drax claims is “carbon neutral.”
As part of the action, a choir celebrated Christmas trees in song and handed out origami trees to civil servants entering the building.
Four people dressed as tree-like creatures representing the millions of trees burned by Drax presented the department with a Greenpeace petition, bearing the signatures of over 120,000 people, calling for an end to the subsidies.
The power plant burned six million tonnes of wood pellets last year, equivalent to about half a billion Christmas trees.
In February, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that Drax had continued to burn wood from rare primary forests in Canada, after the programme first made the discovery two years ago.
The plant was then forced to pay £25 million to Ofgem for failing to provide adequate data on the type of wood it sources.
People take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in central London, November 30, 2024
‘We gather at the gravest of times’
AT LEAST 150,000 Palestine solidarity protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday to repeat their call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arms sales to Israel.
This was the 22nd national protest organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), CND, the Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al Aqsa and the Palestine Forum in Britain.
Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas staged an attack on October 7 2023, during which 1,139 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s invasion has now killed over 44,000 people, more than half of them women and children, with aid groups warning that the death toll is likely to be far higher.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Opening the rally outside Downing Street, PSC chair Louise Regan reminded protesters that “we gather at the gravest of times,” as the death toll in Gaza continued to rise with women and children making up the majority of those killed.
“British complicity and its refusal to end all arms sales to the Israelis is a disgrace.”
…
Ambassador Zomlot welcomed the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant.
“These war criminals must be arrested. Their place is behind bars. Arrest them!”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK 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.
WELFARE AUSTERITY: (L to R) Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall; Keir Starmer
DIANE ABBOTT MP condemns the government’s vicious attack on benefits that callously denies the pandemic’s impact on the working class while pushing vulnerable people into unsuitable work through punitive measures
THERE is now overwhelming evidence that the government is reimposing austerity measures. This is true in relation to income tax, public spending after next year, higher energy bills, bus fares and other prices determined by government.
But perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of austerity has been the planned cuts to the welfare bill.
Yet Keir Starmer, Liz Kendall and a host of other ministers have done their best to dispel any complacency on this issue. People who are on welfare, for whatever reason, are in the government’s firing line.
Their attack has two prongs. The first is that there is a blanket assertion that the welfare bill is “too high” and the second is that they will crack down on benefit fraud. Deliberately or otherwise, it is clear that these two issues are closely connected.
Promising “radical reforms to get Britain working,” in a recent article, Starmer went on to say, “In the coming months, Mail on Sunday readers will see even more sweeping changes. Because make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”
