The Carlton Club has donated more than £1m. (Image: Alamy).
Exposed: The loophole that AfD-linked billionaires, hard Brexiteers and other anonymous donors use to bankroll politicians
‘Loophole’ is a strange word. It sounds small, almost insignificant – a minor technicality.
But when it comes to funding British politics, loopholes are anything but trivial.
Our election laws are riddled with ‘loopholes’. Foreign billionaires can donate via UK shell companies. Political parties can accept the proceeds of crime.
But perhaps the most dangerous — and least understood — loophole is how donors funnel money into British politics through shadowy groups called ‘unincorporated associations’.
Unincorporated associations don’t need to have a formal structure, file accounts or even say where their money comes from. Crucially, it’s perfectly legal for foreign money to be channelled through them.
New analysis by Democracy for Sale has found that over the past two decades, more than £60 million has flowed into British politics through this little-regulated route.
Transparency campaigners and senior political figures are now calling for urgent reform — and for this loophole to be closed in the Elections Bill, expected in the coming days.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Federal agents block people protesting an ICE immigration raid at a nearby licensed cannabis farm on July 10, 2025 near Camarillo, California. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops,” said an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ordered the Trump administration to stop carrying out indiscriminate immigration raids in the city and its surrounding areas, citing its use of “unconstitutional tactics,” including racial profiling and denying the right to an attorney.
Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote that there is a “mountain of evidence” that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents are “indiscriminately rounding up numerous individuals without reasonable suspicion” in violation of the Fourth Amendment during their “roving patrols” in the region.
She issued two temporary restraining orders against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). One bars agents from targeting individuals based on race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or English with an accent; presence in specific locations such as bus stops, car washes, or agricultural sites; or type of employment. The second requires DHS to provide access to attorneys for those who are arrested.
The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other local legal organizations on behalf of five plaintiffs who said their rights were violated by immigration agents.
According to the complaint:
The raids in this district follow a common, systematic pattern. Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from. If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody.
In these interactions, agents typically have no prior information about the individual and no warrant of any kind. If agents make an arrest, contrary to federal law, they do not make any determination of whether a person poses a risk of flight before a warrant can be obtained. Also contrary to federal law, the agents do not identify themselves or explain why the individual is being arrested.
Two of the plaintiffs were U.S. citizens.
One of them, a dual U.S. and Mexican citizen, said he was questioned and detained by unidentified officers on three separate occasions while working at a car wash in Orange County. Agents insisted that his passport was fake and repeatedly asked if he was American.
Another U.S. citizen was told he was arrested because he “looked like an illegal alien.” Agents with military-style rifles and handguns repeatedly asked him, “What hospital were you born at?” When he could not answer the question, an officer grabbed him and shoved him against a metal fence. After he showed the officers his Real ID, he says they took it and never returned it to him.
“No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops,” said Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.
“While it does not take a federal judge to recognize that marauding bands of masked, rifle-toting goons have been violating ordinary people’s rights throughout Southern California, we are hopeful that today’s ruling will be a step toward accountability for the federal government’s flagrant lawlessness that we have all been witnessing,” he added.
Since early June, Southern California has been the epicenter of the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” push, with thousands of immigrants detained—often by unidentified, masked agents—in sweeping raids that have traumatized Latino communities across the state.
Despite the administration publicizing the arrests of violent criminals, the vast majority of those arrested have no criminal history. More than 1,500 people have been disappeared, the ACLU said last week, “in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration.”
“Due process, access to counsel, dignity, and respect were not afforded to our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors as ICE plowed through our community in their obsessive, racially motivated quest for quotas,” said Angelica Salas, executive director at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). “No one is above the law, and today’s decision reaffirms that President Trump and all its immigration enforcement apparatus must follow the Constitution.”
For the second week running, demonstrators were arrested for holding signs reading ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’ in Parliament Square today, with others expected to take part in later actions across the UK.
Expressing public support for Palestine Action is now a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act following the group’s proscription by home secretary Yvette Cooper. It is the first time anti-terror law, designed to ban groups like Al Qaida and Isis, has been used to designate a domestic, non-violent direct action group a terrorist organisation.
The action, organised by Defend Our Juries, aims to challenge that proscription. Further such actions are set to take place in Bristol, Manchester and Cardiff. An independently organised demonstration is also being held in Derry, and one man took ‘solo action’ by posing with a sign in the market town of Kendal in Cumbria.
One man took action alone in Kendal. (Credit unknown.)
Bill, a 76-year-old university lecturer, told Novara Media he was participating in the London action because he disagreed “with this government’s definition of a terrorist”. “I might as well call you a red bell pepper, and now you have all the legal rights of a red bell pepper,” he said. Asked how he felt about the prospect of a charge under the terrorism act, he replied, “it’s all an adventure.”
Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Eternity C sinking after it was attacked by Ansar Allah at sea. Photo: Ansar Allah Media Center
The two strategic operations are part of an escalation by the Yemeni resistance group against the Israeli occupation, in response to its continued genocide in Gaza.
The Ansar Allah-led Yemeni armed forces escalated their operations in the Red Sea last week against merchant vessels that violated the movement’s previously declared naval blockade by docking in the ports of occupied Palestine.
“Magic Seas”
The Yemeni Armed Forces’ spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced in a televised speech on Monday, July 7, that Liberian-flagged Greek-operated cargo ship “Magic Seas” was struck, one day earlier, by two unmanned boats, five ballistic and cruise missiles, and three drones.
Saree added that the attack sank the ship, but the Yemeni Forces allowed its crew to safely evacuate.
“Eternity C”
On Wednesday, July 9, Ansar Allah released a video of an attack launched Monday on Liberian-flagged bulk carrier “Eternity C”, as it made its way to the occupied Palestinian city of Umm al-Rashrash (also known as Eilat).
Repeated warnings and calls by Ansar Allah’s naval forces for the crew to evacuate the vessel prior to the attack were heard at the beginning of the video. However, the ship continued sailing towards the port, ignoring the instructions.
Saree confirmed that “Eternity C” completely sank after it was targeted with an unmanned surface vehicle, and six cruise and ballistic missiles. He also pointed out that a special unit from the Yemeni naval forces moved to rescue several members of the vessel crew, who were provided with medical care and transported to a safe location.
According to media reports, the crew consisted of 25 members, four of whom were killed in the attack, 10 were saved after a 48-hour rescue operation, while 11 are still missing, including six who are believed to be taken by Ansar Allah to an unknown location.
Ansar Allah hits Ben Gurion Airport and vows to continue maritime blockade until Israel ends Gaza genocide
The recent escalation of Ansar Allah’s attacks has not been limited to the ban on Israel’s maritime navigation. Yemeni missiles have continued to target strategic sites in the depth of the territories occupied by Israel.
On Thursday, July 10, the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a strike on the Israeli occupation’s Lod Airport (known as Ben Gurion) using a Zolfiqa precision ballistic missile.
Ansar Allah confirmed the success of the operation in a statement, noting that it resulted in halting air traffic, and driving millions of panicked Israeli settlers into shelters after air raid sirens sounded in over 300 towns and cities occupied by Israel.
The Yemeni resistance movement vowed to expand their operations by targeting more military and strategic Israeli sites inside occupied Palestine, while persisting with a maritime blockade on Israeli ports, until “the crimes of the Zionist entity in Gaza are brought to an end.”
