Exclusive: Martha Dalton worked closely with Burnham’s team on byelection that secured his return to parliament
A recent lobbyist for the controversial $450bn US tech company Palantir played a senior role in helping Andy Burnham become prime minister, it has emerged.
Martha Dalton, whose company Lodestone worked for Palantir in 2024 and 2025, campaigned for Burnham in the Makerfield byelection that secured his return to parliament. She worked closely with his team on strategic communications and rebuttals, and was among supporters who clapped him into Downing Street in July.
Lodestone, which Dalton co-founded, worked for Palantir on projects including promoting its software at events in parliament where its engineers demonstrated AI-powered systems for use in British public services to MPs.
Dalton previously worked on the autumn 2025 deputy leadership campaign for the current education secretary, Lucy Powell, a few months after Lodestone stopped working for Palantir.
Her role emerged as Palantir fights to retain its £330m contract with NHS England to run the federated data platform, a national medical data system.
The United States Postal Service logo is displayed on a USPS mail collection box on September 18, 2026 in San Gabriel, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“In every state, a day’s delay in delivery means that if mail voters wait until the last day or two before the election to mail their ballot… they could be disenfranchised.”
An analysis published Friday by Democracy Docket warned that “tens of thousands” of voters across the US face “risk of disenfranchisement” thanks to actions being taken by the United States Postal Service.
The analysis, written by veteran election reporter Jim Saksa, points to a new USPS policy known as Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) that “will eliminate evening mail pickups from post offices more than 50 miles away from a regional processing facility, most of which are located in major urban areas.”
For people who live in these areas, ballots sent on Election Day will be postmarked and delivered at least a day later than in previous election years, thus making it ineligible to be included in final election tallies.
“In every state, a day’s delay in delivery means that if mail voters wait until the last day or two before the election to mail their ballot,” Saksa explained, “they could be disenfranchised.”
Saksa reported that this policy is currently active in “about 42.5% of all ZIP codes” in the continental US, and is scheduled to eventually take effect in around 70% of all ZIP codes. No additional ZIP codes are expected to be added between now and election day.
Saksa also said that voters concerned about their ballots not being counted should deliver them in person to their local post office, where they can ask an employee to postmark it.
President Donald Trump has tried for the last several months to use USPS to meddle with states’ mail-in voting systems.
In March, the president signed an executive order that instructed the United States Postal Service to not deliver ballots in any states that have not given the federal government access to their voter lists.
The US Supreme Court last month rejected Trump’s efforts to interfere with mail-in voting, allowing states to continue sending ballots to voters as they’ve done in past elections.
Even with the Supreme Court loss, however, the president’s repeated attacks on voting by mail has had a major impact on the 2026 midterm elections.
An NBC News poll released in September showed that just 23% of Democratic voters said they planned to vote by mail this year, a double-digit drop from 2024 when 34% of Democrats said they were voting by mail.
In an interview with Politico published Thursday, Quentin James, founder and president of The Collective Political Action Committee, said Black voters have been expressing concerns about sending in their ballots for fear that Trump will order USPS to not deliver them.
“I think there’s confusion,” James said. “We know that the president has spent six months talking about changing the rules regarding mail-in voting, and a lot of folks are concerned about their ballot being secure.”
Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg also told Politico that her group is “absolutely hearing concern” about the mail voting process this year.
“But more importantly,” Greenberg added, “what we’re hearing is people trying to figure out what they can do and how they can organize locally in order to protect elections.”
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its accompanying strike group are seen in a January 25, 2020 photo. (Photo by US Navy Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Anthony Rivera)
“Either they’ll do something very proper and smart, or they won’t be around very long,” Trump said of Iran’s government.
The Pentagon is preparing to dramatically expand the American military presence in the Middle East as President Donald Trump weighs renewed attacks on Iran, with thousands of additional troops and a third aircraft carrier being readied for deployment, even as the conflict he has repeatedly declared “over” or “won” threatens to erupt into a new and potentially broader phase.
The Washington Postreported Thursday that the Pentagon is preparing options that could put as many as three US aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships in the Middle East.
According to The Associated Press, around 9,000 additional sailors and Marines are being dispatched aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group. The buildup could push the number of US personnel in the region above 20,000 by late October.
The Roosevelt is being sent to relieve the USS George Washington, while a third carrier, the USS George HW Bush, is also already in the region.
The new deployment plans come as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran remains stalled, and as Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume large-scale military action—including the total annihilation of the nation of over 90 million people—after the November midterm elections.
“Either they’ll do something very proper and smart, or they won’t be around very long,” Trump said of the Iranian government Thursday in Denton, Texas. “Frankly, I hate to see that, but they won’t be around very long.”
Iran, meanwhile, has reportedly begun preparing for a more expansive retaliation should the United States launch another major attack in the illegal US-Israeli war of choice against the Middle East nation.
Hamidreza Azizi, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Reuters Thursday that the Iranian government seems “determined not to respond symbolically to a symbolic move and instead to escalate in the hope of reestablishing deterrence.”
Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump—the president’s daughter-in-law—warned during a Wednesday interview with British journalist Harry Cole that the increasingly protracted Iran War could not only tarnish Trump’s legacy, but could also cost Republicans next month’s midterm elections.
“Well, it’s possible,” Trump—who campaigned as the “peace president” on a promise of no new wars—said of the midterm risks Thursday on his way to Texas, before adding that “it should help because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
The intelligence consensus of every US administration since former President George W. Bush—including during both of Trump’s terms—has been that Iran has not been trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
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Lajes Air Base on Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal [Photo/Wikipedia]
Portugal’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an inquiry into the legality of US military use of Lajes Air Base ahead of its war against Iran, according to media reports.
The inquiry follows a complaint filed by the Left Bloc in April, which called for an investigation into whether the use of the base violated domestic and international law, broadcaster RTP reported Friday.
The party then asked the Attorney General’s Office to investigate whether the use of the base complied with the law, arguing from the outset that it constituted a “gross violation of International Law.”
The coordinator of the Left Bloc, Joss Manuel Pureza, stated at the time that “either the Government” was “in agreement with the gross violation of International Law and Portuguese Law,” or it lacked the “political backbone” to “remove itself from illegality.”
Pureza also questioned the position taken by Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, who has denied any violation of the agreement between Portugal and the US regarding the military use of Lajes or of International Law.
“I suppose that, moreover, Minister Paulo Rangel himself doesn’t believe what he’s saying. Because saying that the Lajes Air Base isn’t being used for aggressive purposes is pure fabrication. Saying that the Lajes Air Base agreement is being fulfilled is another fabrication.”
According to the report, Pureza believes it is necessary to wait for the conclusions of the inquiry, but understands that, “by taking this step,” the Public Prosecutor’s Office acknowledges that “there is merit” in the complaint filed by the party.
Ed Miliband claims that he and Andy Burnham have reformulated Blair’s triangulation strategy. Their new formulation entails acknowledging that they were wrong on Israel and Palestine but entails doing absolutely nothing about it and continuing exactly the same policies hoping that you’re too stupid to notice.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
A United States flag waves in front of the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C., United States, on September 24, 2025. [Yasin Öztürk – Anadolu Agency]
US President Donald Trump’s senior national security officials gathered on Friday at Camp David for closed-door discussions on the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen, Axios reported.
Citing three American officials, Axios said Vice President JD Vance presided over the undisclosed meeting, which ran for hours. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, special envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine also took part.
One official said issues were settled or discussed at length.
With talks stalled, Trump is weighing a return to large-scale combat operations against Iran. The Pentagon, according to the Wall Street Journal, is preparing to send a third aircraft carrier strike group and additional Marine ships to the Middle East, adding up to 10,000 troops.
The WSJ, citing US officials, said the forces are expected to arrive by the end of November.
Trump earlier said he could resume strikes on Iran after the midterm elections in early November if no deal is reached.
Meanwhile, Riyadh is urging Washington to join airstrikes on the Houthis, the rebel group fighting government forces in Yemen since 2014, ahead of a planned offensive. Trump has been reluctant, though officials said he could reverse course.
Ed Miliband claims that he and Andy Burnham have reformulated Blair’s triangulation strategy. Their new formulation entails acknowledging that they were wrong on Israel and Palestine but entails doing absolutely nothing about it and continuing exactly the same policies hoping that you’re too stupid to notice.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
