The Labour government is floating another vicious programme of sweeping cuts to disabled people’s welfare.

However, the public could be forgiven for not knowing about these because nowhere in the media or wider sociopolitical disability discourse is anyone talking about them like this is what they are.

Notably, while the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has meted out devastating cuts to Universal Credit’s health element, and gears up to once again target personal independence payments (PIP), it has also been colluding with the Home Office to strip hundreds of thousands of migrants of access to welfare. This includes those very same disability benefits.

The lack of recognition that these hostile environment plans represent welfare cuts exposes a glaring gap in discussions around disabled people’s rights. Crucially, it brings into focus the gaping hole in disability justice communities’ acknowledgment that migrants’ rights are disability rights — and that these are inextricable.

Disability is attacked under immigration reforms

It was mid-July when Times home affairs editor, Matt Dathan, broke his ‘exclusive’, setting the stage for Labour’s callous immigration reforms.

Under disgraceful plans Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood published for consultation in November, and which closed in February, the Labour government wanted to increase the time migrants spend in immigration limbo before being eligible to apply for permanent residence.

Government mouthpiece Dathan, who was blatantly spoon-fed the scoop directly from a Home Office source,  laid out the prospective ‘compromise’ option.

Specifically, the report detailed how the Labour government is weighing up exemptions to its plans for certain groups of migrants. In particular, people who arrived in the UK post-2021 would be exempt from its manoeuvres to double the time it takes to qualify for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

The proposal sits amid a wider programme of anti-immigration reforms.

As the Times reported, over 80 Labour MPs have called on Burnham to scrap Mahmood’s shameful policies. The ‘compromise’ option would therefore be one way that the newly-minted prime minister could persuade prospective rebel MPs to back the broader catalogue of reforms.

But if Labour follow through on any version of these vile plans, they will represent nothing short of catastrophic welfare cuts.

Where was the disability rights community?

The story went viral enough that X made it one of the day’s news explainers. It lingered about the site for the next couple of days.

However, since then, the news seems to have prompted zero fanfare from disability rights groups. Among the most prominent disability rights charities, and Deaf and disabled people’s organisations (DDPOs),  there was tumbleweed.

On X, it appears not one even reposted Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s rebuttal of Labour’s callous proposals. This is despite it garnering over 600 reposts and more than 2.3 million views (at the time of writing).

Yet, it’s abundantly clear that these immigration policies will hit disabled migrants the hardest. So where has the disability rights community been on these de facto sweeping benefit cuts?

Who does the disability rights movement represent?

DDPOs and disability rights charities have run longstanding campaigns against cuts to PIP, Universal Credit, Access to Work, and Motability. Explore any of their social media accounts and you’ll see a consistent stream of opposition to Labour’s shameless welfare policies.

Disability and benefits-focused outlets have run countless stories on these too.

The simple fact of the matter is, migrants, siloed by the state immigration system into different categories of citizenship ‘deservingness’, are members of the disabled community. That seems like an obvious thing to say but when it comes to conversations around what constitutes immediate disability justice battlegrounds, the fight against the hostile immigration system isn’t usually among the first disability rights groups put forward.

There are some likely reasons for this and it largely revolves around who the disability rights movement includes, and more to the point, who it excludes.

Black disability justice activist Dara Baldwin’s seminal novel To Be a Problem: A Black Woman’s Survival in the Racist Disability Rights Movement maps the racism inside the disability rights movement in the US. In this, Baldwin underscores how the predominantly white make-up of disability non-profits, especially where leadership was concerned, has meant that groups have failed to incorporate issues that impact multi-marginalised disabled people.

Of course, the PIP cuts will likely impact multi-marginalised — in particular, disabled people — the hardest. But there’s no moving away from the fact that, because it affects what will invariably be the largely white membership of these groups, they have prioritised this issue.

In other words, the PIP cuts are enough of a white disabled people’s problem that they get attention and focus.

When disability and migrant rights groups collaborate

None of this is to say that DDPOs and disability rights non-profits have entirely ignored migrants in their advocacy and activism. They haven’t.

Groups like Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Direct Action Network for Disabled People (DAN) have long stood in solidarity with migrant members of the disabled community.

In the UK today, DDPOs and even some disability charities have been engaging in coalition building with migrants’ rights groups. For instance, multiple DDPOs like DPAC, WinVisible, and non-profits such as Disability Rights UK and Inclusion London, among others, are members of the Disability and Migration Network (DAMN).

The coalition includes migrants’ rights groups like Migrants’ Rights Network, Migrants Organise, and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI).

Through DAMN, these groups have come together to fight both the hostile welfare and immigration systems.

In 2025, they hosted a Disability and Migration Justice conference. This unpacked the similarities of experiences of marginalisation for disabled people and migrants in the UK today.

Then, in March 2026, Praxis, a migrants’ rights charity and member of DAMN, organised a mass lobby against the government’s earned settlement plans. Multiple disability rights groups attended.

Acts of solidarity vs intersectional disability rights issue

DAMN also published a statement against the government’s immigration plans and have encouraged the public to contact their MPs. Doing this acknowledges that the disabled community needs to step up on migrants’ rights.

However, there’s still a sense that migrants’ rights issues are separate from disability rights concerns rather than overlapping.

Compared to the energy and resources these groups have directed towards other attacks on disabled people’s rights, they still treat the hostile environment as a peripheral, solidarity-based issue.

These welfare cuts are a constant talking point across their social media and websites. The same cannot be said of these immigration-reforms-come-welfare cuts.

Silent on the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act

Of course, Labour’s latest hostile environment plans are an expansion on the shameful immigration policies that already exist. It’s not the first time the disability rights community has failed to centre the migrant disabled community.

DAMN founder and academic Rebecca Yeo, and sociologist Robel Abay Afeworki, have highlighted how disability charities and DDPOs were silent when Tony Blair’s New Labour government waved through the racist 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act. The Act codified in law that some migrants would have ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’, which is as it sounds.

It bars certain migrants (including asylum seekers) from accessing certain benefits and denies them access to local authority housing.

Not only did this mean that disabled migrants would have no access to the welfare safety net, but removing that support is in itself, a disabling act. It left disabled migrants without vital resources to navigate a structurally ableist and disablist society.

In withdrawing those resources, it prevents migrants (both disabled and non-disabled) meeting even their basic essential needs. It pushes them into poverty, homelessness, and deteriorating health. The result, on top of all this, was physical and mental disablement for many migrants navigating an abusive system.

Migrants’ rights are disabled people’s rights

Disability rights groups haven’t stayed silent this time. However, the government’s latest attack on migrants requires more than solidarity. This moment demands recognition that the immigration system itself is a key disability rights front.

Labour’s current proposals — from racist, ableist welfare cuts to ramping up the disabling hostile environment — will now be the community’s biggest test of its commitment to collective liberation.

Featured image via the Meteor

By Hannah Sharland

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Now that Keir Starmer has gone, the much anticipated ‘Burnham Bounce’ seems to have materialised. If Andy Burnham can keep this momentum going for Labour, it will be bad news for Reform UK and the Green Party.

BREAKING | Labour surge to poll LEAD (!)

Lab: 28% ( +4 )
Ref: 24% ( -2 )
Con: 22% ( – )
Lib: 12% ( +1 )
Grn: 8% ( -3 )

{ Seats }
Lab: 246
Con: 128
Ref: 115
Lib: 72
Nat: 59
Grn: 8

Poll: More in Common, 24-27 Jul (+/- vs 22 Jul) pic.twitter.com/AkKoPyIlQf

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) July 27, 2026

Labour turns a corner

The above poll is from More in Common. For reference, this was where their polling had Labour in May — just  weeks after Starmer’s government suffered the disastrous local elections:

Reform UK extend their lead to 10 points in this week’s voting intention, as Labour drop back 3 points.

REF UK 30% (+1)
LAB 20% (-3)
CON 19% (+1)
GREEN 13% (+3)
LIB DEM 12% (-1)
OTH 3% (nc)
SNP 3% (nc)

N = 2111 | Fieldwork 22-25/5 | Changes w/ 18/5 pic.twitter.com/58WJP5JrAV

— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) May 27, 2026

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Speaking of the local elections, this was how things went for Labour:

BREAKING: Final Local Election Results 2026

Seats / councils

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RFM: 1453 (+1451) / 14 (+14)
LAB: 1068 (-1496) / 28 (-38)
LDM: 844 (+155) / 15 (+1)
CON: 801 (-563) / 9 (-6)
GRN: 587 (+441) / 5 (+5)
OTH: 245 (+43) / 1 (+1)
RES: 36 (-31)

64 NOC councils (+23)

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 9, 2026

And this was how things went for Labour earlier in the year in the Gorton & Denton by-election:

BREAKING: The Green Party has won the Gorton and Denton by-election from Labour

GRN: 14,980 (+10,170)
REF: 10,578 (+5,436)
LAB: 9,364 (-9,191)
CON: 706 (-2,182)
LD: 653 (-746)

Changes w/ 2024

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) February 27, 2026

Clearly, things were not going well for Labour under Starmer. The question was whether the party’s fortunes would improve under another leader.

While we still have doubts about the long-term viability of the Burnham project, it’s obvious he’s doing enough to win back voters right now. He’s also doing it at a time when Reform UK and Nigel Farage are facing multiple ongoing scandals, including:

• Multiple investigations into a £5m ‘gift’ Farage received from a crypto billionaire
• Accusations Farage is shilling for crypto on behalf of his donors
• Questions over three houses Farage seemingly failed to declare
• Failure to declare financial support from convicted fraudster Posh George in the run-up to the 2024 election

Our problems with Reform go well beyond the financial issues too. This is a far-right party that has normalised anti-migrant hatred among a significant portion of the electorate. Reform proved so successful on this front that Starmer’s Home Office began copying Farage’s homework, with Burnham continuing that trend.

Burnham’s problems go deeper than this too, as we’ve reported:

• Burnham backs ‘conditional’ welfare support in first PM interview
• Burnham’s ‘new’ cabinet packed with friends of genocide
• Useless Burnham has sacked off renationalisation

It also seems clear that the moderate tinkering Burnham is proposing won’t notably change people’s lives. This will ultimately be a problem because people’s quality of life has dropped significantly over the past few years, and unless that reverses, people will continue to rebel against the government of the day.

Contrary to all this, Burnham could potentially find a project that wins enough support to secure another election. The much-needed National Care Service he’s currently hinting at could be such a project. It could also be another of his many U-turns.

2029

The More in Common poll isn’t the only one showing a Burnham Bounce (or a Reform recession). Check out this from YouGov:

NEW | Labour / Reform tied

Lab: 22% ( +1 )
Ref: 22% ( -1 )
Con: 21% ( +1 )
Grn: 13% ( – )
Lib: 11% ( -3 )

{ Seats }
Lab: 162
Con: 158
Ref: 142
Lib: 71
Nat: 59
Grn: 24

Poll: YouGov, 26-27 July (+/- vs 23 July) pic.twitter.com/w4Vqri3dKO

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) July 27, 2026

For reference, this was where YouGov had the parties after the local elections:

POLL | Reform surges to 11pt lead

Ref: 28% (+3)
Con: 17% (-)
Grn: 16% (+1)
Lab: 16% (-2)
Lib: 13% (-1)

{ Seats }
Ref: 333
Lib: 85
Grn: 73
Con: 53
SNP: 46
Lab: 20
Plaid: 11

Poll: @YouGov, 10-11 May (+/- vs 5 May) pic.twitter.com/dUXtyp1md8

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) May 12, 2026

You can’t read too much into any given poll and pollsters can’t predict the future. What they can do, however, is demonstrate the shifting fortunes of the political parties. And clearly, in this moment, people are drifting away from Reform and the Greens and over to Labour.

We’ve got doubts about Burnham’s ability to maintain this, but if he can pull off the National Care Service, he could certainly last far longer than his predecessor.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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Lord Glasman at a rally outside the US Embassy in London, calling for the end of the Islamic regime in Iran (Amanda Rose/Alamy)

3 min read1 hr

Exclusive: Labour peer Maurice Glasman wrote and recorded a song dedicated to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, in support of his exiled dynasty returning to power.

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Pahlavi, the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was designated Crown Prince of Iran in 1967 before the monarchy was abolished during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Following the death of his father, Reza Pahlavi declared himself Shah of Iran. 

Having lived in the US as a dissident in exile since the revolution, Pahlavi is a prominent critic of the Iranian government and called for the recent protests that led to a brutal crackdown. 

He campaigned to step up to become the new leader of Iran, but after Ali Khameini’s assassination in US-backed Israeli strikes did not result in regime change, Khameini was succeeded by his son Mojtaba as Supreme Leader.

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Pahlavi has said he would like to lead a transition in Iran to a new democratic government, declaring: “I’m not the destination, I’m a bridge to the destination.” 

Lord Glasman, who told PoliticsHome he “supports the people of Iran in their uprising against the revolutionary regime”, has met Pahlavi four times on recent occasions.

The pair met for the first time earlier this year, PoliticsHome understands, when they had lunch at a restaurant in Paris. There, Glasman played Pahlavi his song via a portable speaker.

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Titled “The Shah is Back”, the tribute to Pahlavi condemns Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei as “tyrants” and calls on Iranians to “believe it, the Shah is back”.

Protesters against the Islamic Republic have chanted “Pahlavi will return” and similar. Glasman’s song includes the slogan “Javid Shah” (Long live the Shah).

A jazz enthusiast, Glasman is a trumpeter and played all of the musical instruments used in the song, as well as singing it.

The Blue Labour founder brought Pahlavi into Parliament for meetings in June, last month.

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Below are the lyrics of Glasman’s song and his recording.

To everyone living and everyone dead

To everyone frazzled and frightened, alone in their bed

To everyone stranded, their hearts still unpacked

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Let it all go, let it flow, the Shah is back

Let it all go, let it flow, the Shah is back

 

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To everyone slandered, to everyone sacked

To everyone frozen and fearful and under attack

To everyone longing for something they lack

 

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Leave it, don’t grieve it, believe it, the Shah is back

 

Khomeini, Khameini, giants of infamy, tyrants of murdering men (Yazid!)

Khomeini, Khameini, you had it in for me, shooting us time and again

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To everyone blinded and everyone tried

To everyone stuck in their bedroom with something to hide

To everyone scratching and starting to crack

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Leave it, receive it, believe it, the Shah is back

He lived in your heart form the start, the Shah is back

 

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Javid Shah! Oh, he’s coming back to heal it 

Javid Shah! I know that you can feel it

Javid Shah! As it was, so it will be

Javid Shah! True nobility

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Javid Shah! Javid Shah! 

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Activists celebrated Pret A Manger’s 40th birthday by dumping a 6 foot birthday card filled with angry messages from customers outside its HQ. In the past four weeks, Pret has received 2,200 comments on its social media accounts about “frankenchickens” amidst the ongoing animal welfare controversy.

The backlash follows Pret’s decision earlier this year to push back its 2018 commitment deadline to stop using fast-growing chicken breeds from 2026 to 2032 – a 14-year delay from its original commitment.

No progress at Pret

Compassion in World Farming’s Chickentrack confirms Pret has made 0% progress on phasing out frankenchickens.

Campaigners argue that Pret is ‘ignoring’ its customers’ concerns, as the high-end chain hasn’t replied to a single comment criticising its stance. 74,000 people have signed a pledge to take a break from Pret until it delivers on its promise to stop selling fast-growing breeds of chicken, known as frankenchickens.

Connor Jackson, chief executive of Anima, said:

The fact that Pret appears to be abandoning their responsibilities to animal welfare has rightly shocked customers. And now they appear to be ignoring customers as well. Understandably, I think this silence has only strengthened people’s concern and anger.

Campaigners from Anima have taken a car-sized, animatronic frankenchicken replica to Pret stores across London. The group has protested at 60 individual Pret stores since the campaign began.

Fast-growing “frankenchickens”, bred to reach slaughter weight in just 35 days, can suffer chronic pain, deformities and heart failure as their bodies struggle to keep pace with their engineered growth rate.

Around 1.1 billion are reared for slaughter in the UK each year, and the RSPCA has named fast-growing broiler breeds the most serious animal welfare problem in the country.

The Anima campaign has drawn support from broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham, who has criticised the reversal of Pret’s pledge.

Meanwhile, Project Slingshot, a campaign backed by Joanna Lumley, Paul McCartney, and comedians including Sara Pascoe, Diane Morgan and Kerry Godliman, is running parallel London Underground advertising highlighting the suffering of fast-growing chickens and criticising Pret on social media and on its website.

Anima says it will continue to campaign about Pret until the company commits to a credible, near-term plan to transition away from fast-growing breeds.

Featured image via Anima

By The Canary

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Israel’s former prime minister, Naftali Bennett has said he will declare US ally Qatar to be an “enemy state” if he succeeds in replacing current Benjamin Netanyahu this autumn.

The far-right politician also told Bloomberg he wants to start a war on Turkey. Bennett, who used to be Netanyahu’s chief of staff, clearly thinks Israel is not waging war on enough of his neighbours.

Qatar was trying, at the request of the US, to facilitate a peace deal between Israel and Hamas when Israel bombed the capital city, Doha, to try to murder the Palestinian negotiators.

Bennett has boasted of how many Palestinians he has killed, says he will never allow a Palestinian state and dismissed objections to Israel’s starvation blockade of Gaza. He appears to think Qatar trying to help bring peace is hostility.

Israel ex-PM: Every accusation is a confession

In a classic ‘every accusation is a confession’ speech, Bennett told an Israeli ‘security’ conference that Qatar is an “antisemitic cancer” that wants to destroy Israel. He added:

[Qatar is] a violent antisemitic cancer that is spreading metastases to the West and even to the office of Israel’s prime minister, with the aim of destroying the State of Israel…[and has conducted] a powerful global influence operation that may have caused Israel very major damage.

If “powerful global influence campaign” sounds familiar, Israel has massively increased its propaganda budget and boasted of running a 60,000-strong influence operation to counter outrage at its Gaza genocide.

Bennett also claimed that Qatar “directly” funded the Gaza resistance group, Hamas. In fact, Israel “approved and encouraged the transfer of Qatari funds into Gaza to prop up Hamas” as a tactic against rival Palestinian group Fatah.

Failing election campaign

Qatar dismissed Bennett’s comments as an attempt to revive a failing election campaign. Pointing to Qatar’s involvement in regional peace negotiations, an official at the country’s embassy in the US said that Bennett was:

spread[ing] disinformation about Qatar in an attempt to further his own political ambitions.

Featured image via Gil Cohen-Magen/ Pool via Reuters

By Skwawkbox

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A newborn baby girl, just 45 days old, has survived an arson attack on her home in the occupied West Bank, carried out by ‘Israeli’ settlers.

On 24 July, the village of Urif, south of Nablus, was hit by a large-scale settler attack, following a deadly confrontation in the nearby village of Tal.

Israeli settlers inflict violence on village

Around 150 armed illegal ‘Israeli’ colonists stormed Urif, opening fire on residents, throwing stones, and conducting a wave of arson which saw homes, balconies and community halls go up in flames.

Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian homes, businesses, and a Palestinian-owned quarry during raids on the village of Urif, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank pic.twitter.com/2nPmToZD3g

— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) July 27, 2026

Israeli settlers set fire to homes and businesses in and around the village of Urif, south of Nablus. pic.twitter.com/y6HYySJk7Q

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) July 24, 2026

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Settlers attempt to burn residents alive

While Palestinian infant, Lana Shahada, was asleep, these settlers launched a surprise attack on her family’s home. They surrounded the house, locked all the doors and then threw Molotov cocktails and other flammable materials through the windows.

The house caught fire, and so did the girl’s room, but Lana miraculously escaped death as her family managed to pull her from the smoke and flames.

While Lana and her mother escaped the burning house, settlers pelted them with stones. Israeli occupation forces (IOF) were present throughout the incident but did nothing to stop the attack.

Embracing his smiling granddaughter, Fawzi Shahada recounted the terror attack in the video below.

In the middle of her room, a grandfather holds his infant granddaughter, who survived what could have been a certain death after Israeli settlers set her family’s home on fire in the village of Urif, south of Nablus. pic.twitter.com/3DBcbfiWPJ

— Government Communication Center (@pal_gcc_en) July 25, 2026

Years of violence but no action taken

Urif village has been a frequent target of coordinated ‘Israeli’ settler violence, primarily originating from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar. The settlers living here are notorious for their frequent violent attacks on Palestinians and their property.

Their presence has not only transformed the daily life of Urif’s residents but also those living in other nearby villages such as Burin, Huwara and Madama.

Although the violence has been documented for more than a decade, no action has been taken against these terrorists.

According to organisations such as Yesh Din, the occupation grants de-facto immunity to the perpetrators of this violence. This serves a broader strategic policy to dispossess Palestinians and push them off their lands, so nearby settlements are able to expand.

The Israeli occupation — the government, the military, the police and the judiciary — greenlight this violence, of course.

Lana Shahada’s survival should not obscure the real story — that of a Palestinian baby who was nearly burned alive in her own home, in a village that for years has suffered repeated settler attacks.

Urif’s residents are living through a system that shields the attackers, normalises the violence, and leaves families to face the flames alone. There is an urgent need for accountability and justice.

Featured image via Shehab News Agency

By Charlie Jaay

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The pantomime of cruelty known as greyhound racing is slowly fading away, emitting a death rattle that matches the unpleasantness of what preceded it.

New Zealand has now banned the sport and Auckland’s Manukau Stadium held its final parade of sadism on 26 July. The country will permit no further greyhound racing after 1 August.

One supporter was finally prepared to offer some transparency into the notoriously opaque sport, telling activists who oppose the cruelty:

On Monday we’re gonna blow all our dogs away. Fuck you.

Owners of greyhounds abused for racing have been found to massacre their dogs in vast numbers, a practice known within the barbaric industry as ‘wastage’.

Edward Rennell, CEO of Greyhound Racing NZ, told reporters that the man who made the comments in this case was not actually a “licensed owner, so there were no dogs in his care”. His willingness to revel in the so-called sport’s reputation for cruelty is telling, however.

Greyhound racing vet reveals ‘barbaric’ treatment

Meanwhile in neighbouring Tasmania, a state of Australia, a vet has given extraordinary insider testimony into the horrific suffering endured by racing greyhounds.

Dr Alex Brittan is the former chief veterinary officer for Greyhound Racing New South Wales, another Australian state, located on the nation’s east coast.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) about his period in the role, Brittan said:

…what I learned during my time there was, on a personal level, heartbreaking. On a professional level, pretty devastating.

He continued:

Huge amounts of dogs are being produced. They’re being housed in appalling conditions. They’re raced at a frequency that is barbaric. Their injuries are, aside from a hit-by-car injury, they’re some of the most extreme and appalling injuries you can possibly imagine. The injury rates continue to go up. The death rates continue to go up.

And then once the dog has finished its athletic career, it’s supposed to be rehomed to a domestic couch. And this is something industry would have us believe is happening, but it’s not. The numbers don’t lie.

The number of dogs that aren’t rehomed are classified as backlog, and they tend to live out their lives in commercial kennels, akin to being in solitary confinement with no hope of ever being rehomed.

The ABC host asked Brittan why Tasmania doesn’t terminate the vile practice when it has the legal right to do so, and 70-75% of the population oppose the ‘sport’. Brittan’s answer was simple:

Money talks.

In yet another reminder of capitalism’s guarantee of creating concentrations of wealth and power that undermine democracy, the vet said:

Ten per cent are for it [greyhound racing]. And it’s that 10% which are leading the charge and bending the government’s desire to do what’s right for the animal and instead do what’s right for the gambling industry. The size of the gambling industry is something that flabbergasted me.

There’s $9.6 billion…[that] gets waged on greyhounds every year in Australia. It’s about a $40 billion a year churn when you take in the horses and the trots as well. So it’s a massive, massive industry.

Only Australia, England, the Republic of Ireland, the north of Ireland and the US still permit greyhound racing. Anglophone countries have a tendency to pass themselves off as a civilising force, yet often reveal themselves to be among the least civilised places on Earth.

English campaigners rally for end to greyhound cruelty

Scotland and Wales took a step away from that this year when both banned the activity within a day of each other in March. English campaigners want their government to follow and stepped up their efforts with a march on 25 July, marking 100 years since the first greyhound race.

At the march, campaigners highlighted the immense “scale of pain and suffering greyhounds have faced at the hands of the greyhound racing industry”.

Quoting figures from the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), the governing body for greyhound racing, a statement from the League Against Cruel Sports said:

The trackside death toll has now reached 1,518 since 2017 when figures were first published, and the same figures show a shocking 38,816 injuries suffered by racing greyhounds during that period.

Large majorities supported the ban in Scotland and Wales. Polling across Britain and the north of Ireland in 2022 showed only 4% of people take an interest in the tormenting of greyhounds. Just 14% felt it important to British culture, and 81% prioritised the wellbeing of the dogs over the limited number of jobs the industry creates.

The signs of Andy Burnham being a different sort of prime minister are not promising. However, if he’s looking for low hanging fruit to signal a change of tack, a good place to start would be to ban cruel bloodsports like greyhound racing.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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Independent MP Adnan Hussain has demanded action from the UK government after London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan admitted Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Khan is supported in his demand by at least nine other parliamentarians.

International law requires International Criminal Court (ICC) member states take every available action to prevent genocide. The Starmer government contorted itself shamelessly to strenuously deny the genocide. New PM Andy Burnham has shown similar evasiveness.

But Khan’s admission, coming from one of the Labour party’s most senior representatives, puts the Burnham government firmly on the legal hook. Quoting Khan’s recent speech, Hussain made the point emphatically below.

MP for Blackburn instigates letter

We, the undersigned Parliamentarians, note the recent public statement by the Mayor of London that genocide has been committed in Gaza and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears responsibility. Whatever individual Members’ views may be, it is of profound constitutional and political significance when such a senior elected figure within the governing party publicly reaches this conclusion.

The question before the United Kingdom is no longer simply one of rhetoric, but of legal obligation.

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The United Kingdom is a State Party to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The International Court of Justice made clear in its 2007 judgment in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro that the obligation to prevent genocide is one of conduct, not merely of reaction. A State’s duty arises when it learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide may be committed. States are not entitled to remain passive until the conclusion of lengthy judicial proceedings before taking reasonable measures within their power to prevent the crime.

If senior representatives of the governing party now believe that genocide has occurred, or that there exists compelling evidence that genocide has been or is being committed, then the United Kingdom must ensure that its actions are consistent with its obligations under international law.

Accordingly, we call upon the Government to:

• Publicly set out its legal assessment of the United Kingdom’s obligations under the Genocide Convention in light of the current evidence and recent statements by senior public figures,

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• Use every diplomatic, political and economic means reasonably available to the United Kingdom to help prevent further atrocities.

• Support all lawful international mechanisms for accountability, including proceedings before the International Court of Justice concerning allegations of genocide and the work of the International Criminal Court in investigating alleged international war crimes.

• Fully comply with the United Kingdom’s obligations under the Rome Statute, including cooperation with any valid arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court

• Ensure that no arms exports, military cooperation or other forms of assistance expose the United Kingdom to the risk of contributing, directly or indirectly, to serious violations of international law, including genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity

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• Review the United Kingdom’s diplomatic, economic and defence relationship with Israel to ensure that it reflects the same principles and standards that the United Kingdom has consistently applied where other states have been credibly accused of the gravest international crimes, including through economic sanctions and other restrictive measures.

This is not a question of treating one state differently from another. It is a question of applying the principles of international law consistently, irrespective of the identity of the state concerned or its allies.

The United Kingdom has long claimed to uphold a rules-based international order. That commitment has meaning only if the same legal standards are applied universally, without fear or favour. Where there exists a serious risk of genocide, the duty to prevent is engaged. Where credible allegations of international crimes are made, accountability must be pursued. Where international courts exercise lawful jurisdiction, their processes must be respected.

History will judge not only those who committed atrocities, but also those states that possessed influence and failed to use it. The United Kingdom must now demonstrate that its commitment to international law is measured by its actions as well as its words.

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Signed

Adnan Hussain MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
John McDonnell MP
Lord John Hendy
Ayoub Khan MP
Shockat Adam MP
Iqbal Mohammed MP
Richard Burgeon MP

Admission from London mayor

It’s not Khan’s first use of the word ‘genocide’ relating to Gaza but, perhaps stung by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stating that he wanted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu arrested, Khan strengthened his language.

Last week, he triggered a deranged Israel lobby meltdown by saying that no one can credibly deny Israel’s genocide:

It’s inescapable to draw the conclusion in Gaza we are seeing before our very eyes a genocide.

Hussain is absolutely right: the UK government must stop evading its legal obligations — or admit it is merely a failed-state poodle to the US and Israel.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Andy Burnham holds a National Economic Council meeting at No 10 North at Heron House in Manchester, July 24, 2026 (Christopher Furlong/Pool Photo via AP/Alamy)

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Exclusive: Andy Burnham has been urged by a new group of Labour MPs to defy “orthodox economists” and invest billions in creating and sustaining one million production-based jobs in Britain.

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The demand comes from the first policy paper of the newly launched Reindustrialisation Research Group (ReRG).

Currently counting 44 Labour MPs as members, it aims to emulate the European Research Group (ERG), which brought Eurosceptic Tories together and wielded considerable influence under the last Conservative government.

The ReRG’s inaugural research paper calls on Burnham’s government to create an additional one million jobs in production-based industries above their current level over the next decade, telling the new Prime Minister to prioritise not just the “Makerfield test” but also the “Maker-things test” to deliver a new political economy.

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It argues that Britain’s “most vulnerable neighbourhoods are concentrated in deindustrialised areas and coastal communities” and that governments have “tried repeatedly to reverse this decline through an exclusive focus on services and the knowledge economy, but these sectors have failed to help places recover”.

“This is not just nostalgia,” the working paper argues. “Britain has badly miscalculated in giving up on physical production.”

While it briefly considers proposing the target of an absolute output for production, the idea is dismissed in favour of a jobs target, stating: “Although people want growth, whether they care about a particular absolute level of growth is questionable.”

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The ReRG paper concedes that creating and sustaining one million production-based jobs would necessitate high levels of investment – at least a doubling of the level currently spent annually – because these have “a much higher level of capital intensity than the service sector”.

“This will require creating at least an additional £645bn of capital stock over the next decade into the production sectors of the economy,” it specifies. “This also does not include the tens of billions that will need to be invested in the workforce as well as supportive infrastructure to enable the flow of goods.”

The group is clear that the private sector would not be able to achieve this alone, concluding: “The state will have to take an active role in providing this capital through a range of measures from capital grants, subsidies and tax credits, asset and land transfers, matched investment, loan guarantees and equity investment.”

Burnham has promised to prioritise reindustrialisation in government, including as part of his “reset”. He vowed in his first key speech after winning the Makerfield by-election to “support every region to set clear and credible industrial ambitions – and provide the support to achieve them”.

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Andy MacNae, Labour MP for Rossendale and Darwen and convenor of the ReRG, told PoliticsHome: “It’s so exciting to see the Prime Minister calling for reindustrialisation. This is how we can cut bills, improve our national security and bring back good jobs to seats like mine.

“This won’t be easy – orthodox economists are dismissive of British industry’s potential. That’s why the government must set a bold target for reindustrialisation, as our paper today suggests. Only then will the system change.”

Jonathan Brash, Labour MP for Hartlepool and a founding member of the ReRG, wrote in an op-ed last week: “We have redistributed wealth rather than creating it. We have expanded welfare while shrinking productive capacity. We have concentrated investment in already successful places while asking everyone else to be patient. It has not worked…

“We need a new political economy that makes more things, in more places, with more British workers.”

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ReRG officers Connor Naismith and Yuan Yang were among those appointed to government by Burnham as new parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) on Monday.

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In June 2026, Krauatungalung Elder Djuran Bunjileenee Uncle Robbie Thorpe appealed to the Victorian Supreme Court in Australia as part of a genocide court case. The accused? King Charles III as the UK Crown representative.

It is one of a series of court cases Uncle Robbie has filed. Another is a trespassing case brought against Margaret Gardner, the governor of Victoria.

Governor’s trespass

Uncle Robbie stands in front of the Victorian Magistrates’ Court in trousers and a North Face jacket. As I step onto the curb, he holds an arm out for a hug and warns me against being mown down by cyclists. It’s the first time we have met.

He is waiting for the Victorian Governor General, King Charles III’s representative, to attend court on a charge of trespassing. Margaret Gardner had not scaled Government House’s fence; she walked in after being appointed. But the House is on land that has never been ceded.

Uncle Robbie said:

We’ve charged her with trespass and attempting to evict her from what they call Government House, which is in the Botanical Gardens.

He wants justice:

There’s a whole story around that: the Botanical Gardens was actually a former Aboriginal reserve – land for Aboriginal people. We want to get to the bottom of how that changed out of our hands and how it’s now a Government House. People should look at a thing called the Lettsam Raid of 1842 and you can see what’s happened.

Australia is still a colony

On the face of it, Australia has a Parliament, a Constitution, and a Prime Minister. But there were several colonies until they were federated in 1901.

Since Federation, the national story has been one of an independent nation. But Governor-Generals, representing the UK Crown, still have the power to dissolve state and federal parliaments and dismiss elected leaders.

There has been no Treaty signed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, despite former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s 2008 apology.

Throughout the history of Australia’s colonies and federation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were massacred, their children removed and their rights restricted. It took a 1967 national referendum to consider them humans and Australian citizens. Prior to that, they were classed as fauna. But harm continues.

In 2023, Uncle Robbie started a private prosecution case against King Charles III.

The failure of Australia’s legal system

The Magistrate’s Court of Victoria ruled that it could not prosecute the case. Why? The Australian Attorney-General has the power to veto any case prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In February 2024, Gunnai Gunditjmarra and Djab Wurrung woman Senator Lidia Thorpe tabled amendments to Australia’s federal Criminal Code Bill to repeal the Australian Attorney-General’s veto power. The second reading was negatived in 2025.

The Magistrates’ Court told the Supreme Court of Victoria during an appeal in July 2024 that they didn’t have the necessary jurisdiction for the case. Uncle Robbie told the courts that Australia has not fully implemented the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

In February 2025, Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards dismissed Thorpe’s judicial review application.

Justice Richards found that Victorian common law could not cover genocide and that First People’s sovereign law could not be applied by the Magistrates’ Court. While genocide is recognised in the Commonwealth of Australia’s Criminal Code, the Australian Attorney-General consent roadblock still applied.

The appeal and the case for genocide

Uncle Robbie has since appealed. He argued that the Attorney-General consent requirement is inconsistent with international law and Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act. He added that section 10 of the Act, “Rights to equality before the law”, should be read as not needing the consent.

He also argued in court that Australian sovereignty was not legitimate as settlement occurred without treaty or consent with First Nations in Australia.

He said:

Captain Cook never got consent. If you never got consent, this is an illegal occupation, and your courts and your laws are invalid.

The Victorian Attorney General’s representative Counsel for the Respondent Liam Brown SC argued that much of the appeal grounds brought up procedural concerns. Brown added that the Crown could not apply international law through Australian courts if it was not part of common law or legislated into domestic law.

Uncle Robbie was not surprised by this. He told me:

We know Australia’s unable, unwilling, and reluctant to deal with these issues. We’re talking about the most heinous of all known crimes, genocide, premeditated. Everyone knows it was an unprovoked attack on Aboriginal people. What did we do to the British to deserve that? And on that basis, it doesn’t give you authority. It doesn’t give you a right to operate. You can’t occupy our land.

Uncle Robbie also sought to add the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the United Nations Secretary General and the UK Prime Minister to the case. He requested that reports be provided from the Closing the Gap project and the Yoorook Justice Commission, alongside a report on historical records as proof of ongoing harm and genocide.

Decision reversed

On 12 June 2026, the Victorian Court of Appeal reserved its decision. Uncle Robbie is still waiting to hear back.

Now he’s turned his sights on Gardner, who did not turn up to attend court for the trespassing case. Instead, Executive Director for the Office of General Counsel Victoria and General Counsel Miriam Holmes attended in her stead.

The first Magistrate asked the lawyers to step out and discuss a schedule to reappear. After an hour in the lobby, they went back in to speak to a new magistrate.

They decided that Uncle Robbie will head back to court for the trespassing case on 20 August 2026 to see if Gardner does attend in person with a hearing set for October. That allows Uncle Robbie enough time to collate evidence from Elders and community for the case.

Taking it global

I asked Uncle Robbie what the next steps are for the genocide case. He told me the plan is to exhaust what they can do in Australia and then go to the International Courts:

It just can’t be internal courts. We know they’re totally biased. So we’re not going to get any justice from that. So that’s why we need to take it to the international court, for whatever that’s worth, and test that out.

Senator Lidia Thorpe has already emailed 21 United Nations member states on 24 June 2025, asking for help to stop and prevent ongoing genocide.

Uncle Robbie said that First Nations in Canada are already interested:

They’ll be keeping an eye on what we’re doing here. I think Australia’s very vulnerable in terms of moral, ethical, or legality here.

And if he got a ruling on genocide?

That would be an international war crimes trial.

In the meantime, he will continue the fight for Aboriginal sovereignty, one court case at a time. If only to show how Australia’s legal system fails to deliver justice for its First Peoples.

Featured image via Crime Scene Australia

By Marisa Wikramanayake

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