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British opposition leader claims Israel fighting ‘proxy war on behalf of the UK’ in Gaza

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Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch gives a speech in London, England, on May 19, 2025. [Photo by Peter Nicholls/Getty Images]

UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Israel is fighting a “proxy war on behalf of the UK” in Gaza, drawing parallels between the conflict and Ukraine’s war against Russia, Anadolu reports.

In an interview with Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Badenoch made the controversial statement while defending Israel’s ongoing genocidal attacks on Gaza.

The comments come amid mounting international criticism of Israel’s actions and a sharp diplomatic fallout.

Badenoch was responding to a joint statement this week by France, the UK, and Canada, which called on Israel to halt the “intolerable” human suffering in Gaza. The trio warned that unless action is taken, “further concrete actions” would be implemented in response.

Following the statement, the UK government suspended free trade negotiations with Israel on Tuesday.

When asked whether she believed Netanyahu’s language was justified, Badenoch responded: “I’m not here to police the language of the prime minister of Israel. Who funds Hamas? Iran… an enemy of this country. Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK, just like Ukraine is on behalf of Western Europe against Russia. We have to get serious!”

READ: UK’s top mosques to PM: end the siege on Gaza, stop arming Israel, recognise Palestine

Phillips pressed her on whether she was equating Israeli attacks on Gaza with Ukraine’s defense against Russia.

“Israel is fighting a war. It is not for me to police exactly how they are doing that,” Badenoch said. “It is not a genocide, as people are saying.”

Phillips challenged her again, suggesting, “This morning it doesn’t sound like you’re criticizing anything that the Israelis do.”

“That’s not true,” she replied. “I have criticized things before, but right now there are 58 hostages who have not been returned home.”

Israel has kept Gaza crossings closed to food, medical, and humanitarian aid since March 2, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis in the enclave, according to government, human rights, and international reports.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 53,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against defenseless civilians in the enclave.

READ: UK suspends trade talks with Israel over Gaza offensive

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch explains her reality that the Earth is flat, the Moon is made of cheese and that she was born from Unicorn horn dust
UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch explains her reality that the Earth is flat, the Moon is made of cheese and that she was born from Unicorn horn dust

Continue ReadingBritish opposition leader claims Israel fighting ‘proxy war on behalf of the UK’ in Gaza

Vote Labour for Genocidal Mass-murder like the Nazis did

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.
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.
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.
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.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Vote Labour For Genocide.

Continue ReadingVote Labour for Genocidal Mass-murder like the Nazis did

Revealed: The areas where more than half of disabled people could lose their benefits

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/benefit-cuts-pip-dwp-labour-disabled-people/

Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Image: Flickr/ Alecsandra Dragoi/ Treasury

Labour’s disability benefit cuts will impact an estimated 800,000 people, of whom half will lose their PIP entirely

More than half of disabled people with daily living needs in parts of England and Wales could lose their benefits under the government’s welfare cuts, the Big Issue can reveal.

Analysis of data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which was published in response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling, shows that at least half of all current claimants of the personal independence payment (PIP) daily living allowance in ten constituencies could lose this benefit under the government’s plans, which MPs are set to vote on next month.

These include highly deprived Labour seats such as Tipton and Wednesbury and Wolverhampton South East – the constituency of senior cabinet minister Pat McFadden. Meanwhile the least affected constituencies tend to be those with much lower deprivation levels such as Guildford – although even here, more than a third of PIP daily living claimants are at risk from the cuts. 

The most exposed constituency is Boston and Skegness, where 52% of claimants are at risk. The seat is represented in parliament by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice. Polling for the Big Issue recently found that 68% of Reform voters believe Labour is failing on poverty.  

…

The DWP’s dataset is detailed, showing what proportion of current PIP daily living claimants with each type of disability scored under four points in all daily living assessment categories, putting them at risk from Labour’s plans:

  • There are 97 seats where at least 80% of PIP daily living claimants with arthritis are at risk, peaking at 87% in Derbyshire Dales
  • Almost three-quarters of claimants with cardiovascular disease in North Cotswolds could lose out under the cuts
  • More than 70% of claimants with multiple sclerosis and neuropathic diseases in Lewisham East and Sheffield Heeley are exposed to the rule change

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published an interactive breakdown of the figures by constituency, though not including figures for the overall PIP caseload in each seat.

…

See the original article at https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/benefit-cuts-pip-dwp-labour-disabled-people/

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.

Continue ReadingRevealed: The areas where more than half of disabled people could lose their benefits

What ACTUAL Genocide Experts Say about Gaza

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.
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.
Continue ReadingWhat ACTUAL Genocide Experts Say about Gaza

Institute of Economic Affairs Under Investigation by the Charity Commission

Original article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

A DeSmog collage. The Institute of Economic Affairs has its headquarters on Lord North Street, Westminster. Credit: Des Blenkinsopp (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The regulator has opened a case against the Tufton Street group.

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) pressure group, which campaigns against clean energy policies, is being investigated by the charities regulator.

The Good Law Project (GLP), a legal advocacy group, yesterday announced that it had been successful in forcing the Charity Commission to open a “regulatory compliance case” against the IEA.

A Charity Commission spokesperson told DeSmog: “We can confirm that, following an internal review, we have opened a regulatory compliance case to assess potential regulatory concerns about the Institute for Economic Affairs.

“Our case will examine the trustees’ management of perceptions of potential political bias, perceptions of a potential lack of transparency around funding, and perceptions that the charity may have pre-determined policy positions which would not be in keeping with its charitable purposes to advance education.”

The IEA is registered as a charity, and the regulator states that “political activity must not become the reason for the charity’s existence.”

In 2018, Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit Unearthed revealed that the IEA had received funding from oil major BP every year since 1967. In response to the story, an IEA spokeswoman said: “It is surely uncontroversial that the IEA’s principles coincide with the interests of our donors.” 

The IEA also received a £21,000 grant from U.S. oil major ExxonMobil in 2005.

However, the IEA does not publicly declare its donors, and it’s not known if the pressure group has received funding from BP or ExxonMobil in more recent years.

The IEA has extensive influence in politics and the media. It was pivotal to Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership as prime minister, and has boasted of its access to Conservative ministers and MPs.

The IEA is a prominent supporter of the continued and extended use of fossil fuels. The group has advocated for the ban to be lifted on fracking for shale gas, calling it the “moral and economic choice”. The IEA has also said that a ban on new North Sea oil and gas licences would be “madness”, has criticised the windfall tax imposed by the UK on fossil fuel firms, and said that the previous government’s commitment to “max out” the UK’s oil and gas reserves was a “welcome step”.

The IEA is part of the Tufton Street network – a cluster of libertarian think tanks and pressure groups that are in favour of more fossil fuel extraction and are opposed to state-led climate action. These groups are characterised by a lack of transparency over their sources of funding. 

The Charity Commission initially rejected the GLP’s complaint about the IEA, which was lodged in March 2024 and backed by MPs from the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish National Party. The Charity Commission rejected the complaint after just 12 days.

However, after the GLP threatened formal legal action against the Charity Commission for failing to properly consider the evidence against the IEA, it has agreed to open a compliance case.

“We welcome this screeching u-turn from the Charity Commission who raced to clear the IEA last year,” said Good Law Project’s executive director Jolyon Maugham.

“It shouldn’t have taken the threat of legal action to force the regulator to do its job. The IEA’s activities are the polar opposite of public benefit and we’re now urging the Charity Commission to go further in its investigation.”

However, it’s unclear what action, if any, will be taken against the IEA if the regulator finds it in breach of charity rules. A previous case brought against the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) – the UK’s leading climate science denial group – didn’t lead to any meaningful sanctions against the Tufton Street group.

The GLP accused the GWPF of breaching charity law by spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on one-sided research attacking climate science, and by funding the lobbying activities of its campaign arm Net Zero Watch. However, the Charity Commission asked the GWPF to make only minor changes to its ownership structure and output.

An IEA spokesperson said: “We have received a letter from the Charity Commission and will be responding to them thoroughly in due course.”

Original article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

Open Democracy: Think tanks helped Liz Truss crash the UK economy

Continue ReadingInstitute of Economic Affairs Under Investigation by the Charity Commission