Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Reacting to Israel’s escalating action in Lebanon, Dr Ellie Chowns MP said:
“Israel’s escalating military campaign in Lebanon has already killed thousands of people, displaced more than a million from their homes, and destroyed vital infrastructure, displaying an indefensible disregard for civilian lives and international law.
“This cannot continue. The UK must put an end to the impunity that has enabled and emboldened the Israeli Government on the world stage. The Green Party repeats our calls for the UK Government to end all arms sales to and military cooperation with Israel, to drive independent investigations into war crimes and support justice mechanisms for victims, and to impose sanctions on Netanyahu and all other government officials responsible for breaches of international law.
“The people of Lebanon – like the people of Palestine, Iran, and Israel – deserve to live in safety and peace, not to have their human rights used as bargaining chips which can be disregarded without consequence. The UK must stand on the side of international law and justice, and act now to help prevent further atrocity.”
“Netanyahu’s directive to expand Israeli military control over 70% of the Gaza Strip is horrifying, constituting a grave breach of the ceasefire if carried out and a blatant disregard for the rights and lives of Palestinian civilians already enduring unimaginable suffering.
“This plan will not serve to strengthen the path to security or peace in the region. It will only drive yet more families from their homes, further restrict the delivery of aid, and deepen a humanitarian crisis in a territory already devastated by war, famine, and genocide. The people of Gaza cannot be squeezed into an ever-smaller space and expected to survive without proper access to food, water, shelter, and medical care.
“The UK Government must act immediately: unequivocally condemn any attempt to seize more territory or ethnically cleanse Gaza, insist on full compliance with the ceasefire and international law, and demand unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza at scale. It must also halt all arms sales to and military cooperation with the Israeli Government, drive independent investigations into war crimes, and impose sanctions on government officials responsible for breaches of international law.
“The continued expansion of military control and the forced displacement of Palestinians cannot be allowed to become normalised. The UK must stand up for international law, human rights, and the protection of civilians – not further impunity for perpetrators of war crimes.”
Labour lost almost four times as many voters to the Greens than to Reform UK
Just 46% of 2024 Labour voters who voted in this May’s council elections were loyal to the party, with more switching to the Greens (22%) than Reform UK (6%)
55% of voting 2024 Conservatives stuck with their previous choice, while a third instead voted for Reform UK
Those who voted Reform UK are particularly likely to say they made their choice because of the performance of the national government
Four in ten Labour and Lib Dem voters say wanting to stop another party from winning was one of the top reasons they voted the way they did
…
Our new data suggests that just 46% of 2024 Labour voters who voted at the 2026 local elections stayed loyal to the party this time around, with roughly one in five (22%) instead backing the Greens and around one in six (16%) voting for the Liberal Democrats. Smaller numbers switched to Reform UK (6%), the Conservatives (5%), or independents, local groups and minor parties (5%).
These figures are in line with analysis of the results data at ward level, which suggest that the Greens did better the more Labour fell back. Labour’s almost 4:1 ratio of voters lost to the Greens versus defecting to Reform UK is significantly greater than we see in our nationwide polling, but this will be driven in part by the high concentration of urban, Green-friendly areas up for election on 7 May.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
My Green colleagues and I are so incredibly disappointed in this King’s Speech, but it’s not a surprise. In the wake of a devastating set of local election results for the Labour Party, the Prime Minister and the government should have used this opportunity to lay out an urgent, transformative, progressive programme to redistribute wealth, tackle the nature and climate crisis and make life affordable for everyone.
My Green colleagues and I will seek to amend the government’s plans to include the urgent action needed to bring down people’s bills – rent controls, nationalising water, freezing energy prices, and taxing wealth. We need to see these measures despite the Labour Party’s drama, and even if there’s a different Prime Minister this time tomorrow!
I’m disappointed that instead of using this opportunity to get behind the Green Party’s demands, the government has laid out more of the same fiddling around the edges. There’s some positive movement on democratic reform and EU alignment, but also worrying double-downs on airport expansion and their cruel, unworkable immigration policy.
I was elected to give a voice to a politics that represents everyone. This is the first King’s Speech I have been in Parliament to hear, and I haven’t heard anywhere near enough to make meaningful changes to people’s lives. It’s a missed opportunity, it’s disappointing, and it’s out of touch. The people of this country deserve so much more.
The amendment will include:
Freezing energy prices in July to stop them going up by over £300
New powers to control rents
Funding for councils to buy existing homes from private landlords
Water utilities to be brought back into public ownership
Free bus passes for under 22s
Universal free school meals
Further measures to tax fossil fuel companies and the extreme wealth of billionaires and multimillionaires
Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Plus, the firm’s former boss Varun Chandra is entitled to six-figure payout, despite working for Starmer
A secretive corporate intelligence firm with close ties to the government saw its UK revenues surge by 30% in the first financial year after its managing partner left to become Keir Starmer’s most senior business adviser, openDemocracy can reveal.
Varun Chandra left Hakluyt & Company, a Mayfair-based firm that provides strategic advice to some of the world’s largest corporations on navigating governments and geopolitical risk, to join Starmer’s government in July 2024.
In January the following year, Hakluyt lost another senior staff member to the government: embattled former civil servant Olly Robbins quit as the firm’s lead on Europe, the Middle East and Africa to join the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Despite these top personnel losses, Hakluyt’s UK business grew by 30% in the year to July 2025, according to our analysis of its financial records. This is its second-highest rate of annual growth in the UK in the six years since it started publishing regional breakdowns of its turnover.
The financial records also reveal that Chandra’s multimillion-pound stake in Hakluyt entitled him to a payout of around £112,000 last year, while he was serving at the heart of Downing Street. In 2024, it was reported that Chandra would get rid of his shareholdings in the company in order to join the government.
openDemocracy understands that Chandra’s shareholding is now around half its original size, in line with an agreement that will see the firm gradually buy back his shares at their July 2024 value.
While his stake is still being reduced, Chandra is eligible for annual payouts. Both Number 10 and Hakluyt both declined to comment on whether he accepted the money.
Our findings led Green Party leader Zack Polanski to call for an investigation into Labour’s relationship with Hakluyt & Company.
“This is yet another revelation raising serious questions about Labour’s cosy relationship with big business,” Polanski said. “Bringing a senior figure from an elite corporate intelligence firm into the heart of government is deeply concerning.
“When companies built on privileged access to political and regulatory insight appear to benefit from close ties to those in office, it undermines public trust.
“The public deserve proper answers. Labour’s relationship with Hakluyt, before and after the election, should be investigated. The revolving door between big business and Westminster is still spinning – and it’s a system a Green government would work to dismantle.”
Growing links to government
Hakluyt & Company is an elite corporate intelligence and strategic advisory firm founded by outgoing MI6 operatives in the mid-1990s, which serves some of the biggest companies in the world across most sectors, and works with major private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds.
The firm has developed an unrivalled network of thousands of contacts, having hired from the top ranks of government, intelligence services, banking and industry over the past three decades. It uses this vast network to produce reports for its clients, often on highly sensitive issues involving political and regulatory matters.
But rarely has the company had such a close connection to a sitting government as it enjoys under Starmer’s Labour.
Hakluyt reportedly worked unpaid with the party when it was in opposition before the 2024 election, helping its leadership to connect with the corporate elite, particularly in finance and tech.
A Harvard Business School case study written about Hakluyt, based on extensive internal access through 2023 – and whose author took up a paid role with the firm after its publication – noted Chandra’s close relationship to Labour’s leadership, and that colleagues widely expected him to pursue a career in government.
After Labour’s win, Chandra, the company’s managing director, was appointed Starmer’s top business adviser, and his influence has only grown since. He was recently appointed US trade envoy and has been involved with US trade talks, despite having worked for several years in Hakluyt’s US offices, where his clients likely included American big tech and finance firms.
Last year, Oliver Robbins also left Hakluyt to rejoin the civil service after a six-year hiatus, taking up the most senior civil service position in the Foreign Office in January 2025. Months earlier, it had been reported that Robbins had also applied to become cabinet secretary, the most senior civil service role in government.
Before joining Hakluyt in 2023, Robbins had worked at Goldman Sachs and, before that, was the government’s deputy national security adviser and Europe adviser. He maintained contact with senior government officials while at Hakluyt, meeting with the top civil servant at the Department of Business and Trade, Gareth Davies, on several occasions, as well as current cabinet secretary Antonia Romeo and officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, according to government transparency releases.
As Hakluyt’s connections to the government have grown, so has its business in the UK.
Accounts published this month show the firm turned over almost £150m last financial year, of which more than £60m was attributed to its UK operation. This was up from just over £130m turnover in 2024, with around £46m of that from the UK.
The company’s overall profits also increased, from £20m to £24m, though the firm does not publish a regionalised breakdown of its profits.
The last financial year is the only year in the past six where Hakluyt’s growth in the UK and Europe has significantly outpaced that in the US, and the only year in which it has significantly grown as a share of overall revenue.
Asked whether the firm has sought or received information from either Chandra or Robbins since they left the business, Hakluyt declined to comment. Downing Street sources pushed back against any suggestion that Chandra had shared information with the firm since leaving. openDemocracy reached out to Robbins for comment but had not heard back at the time of publishing.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Office has a thorough process on declarations of interest for special advisers to ensure any conflicts of interest are properly managed and mitigated, including through recusals where appropriate.
“While we do not usually comment on individuals, Varun Chandra resigned from his position at Hakluyt and has made all relevant declarations as part of this process.”
‘Weak lobbying rules’
As Hakluyt is not a consultant lobbyist, it is not required to publish a list of clients, despite maintaining regular contact with top-ranking officials across government and previously meeting with ministers, including with its clients.
The now-defunct ‘revolving door’ watchdog Acoba commented that this makes it impossible to assess potential conflicts of interest when people move between government and the company.
Though it is not strictly a lobbying firm, like many firms operating in the wider consulting and advisory industry, some of Hakluyt’s work brings it into contact with the government in a way that resembles lobbying.
Hakluyt was investigated by the lobbying watchdog last year over meetings hosted by Chandra with Conservative ministers dating back to 2022. The watchdog found its activities did not meet the statutory definition of consultant lobbying – a narrow definition with a number of exemptions, including for companies that carry out lobbying which is “incidental” to their primary business.
Kamila Kingstone, programme lead at Spotlight on Corruption, is one of many campaigners who has called for far-reaching lobbying reform, including an overhaul of the current consultant lobbying definition.
“Despite representing clients’ interests, the fact that Haklyut can meet senior officials without having to register as a consultant lobbyist shows yet again the weakness of the lobbying rules,” she told openDemocracy.
“There are serious risks that Haklyut could be financially benefiting from the revolving door between itself and the government. And there are serious questions to answer about how Varun Chandra’s conflicts of interest are being managed and mitigated.”
Kingstone also highlighted the government transparency rules, which mean special advisers, even those with significant influence like Chandra, do not have to declare their meetings with external companies.
“This story highlights the most glaring loophole, that meetings with special advisers do not need to appear in transparency releases or the lobbying register so the public do not know who is meeting some of the most influential people in government,” she added.
“With the Ethics and Integrity Commission conducting a review of lobbying rules, the government needs to get a grip on the dire state lobbying transparency in the UK before the next scandal breaks.”
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.Keir Starmer confirms that he doesn’t know anything about democracy.Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
