On 20 April, Keir Starmer stood before parliament and attempted to justify making Peter Mandelson our ambassador to the US. While it was always inexcusable to hire the twice-disgraced Mandelson, the situation has looked even worse recently. As we now all know, Mandelson failed his security vetting but ended up in the position anyway. Starmer wants us to believe he had no idea about the failed vetting, but few do. Now, it looks like his ministers – namely Ed Miliband have begun to accept that the situation is unsalvageable for the PM:

There appears to be something going on this morning. Labour MPs are starting the process of uncircling the wagons. https://t.co/G4Vh43lFtG

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) April 21, 2026

Terminal mistakes, as Miliband points out

In the clip above, Miliband does not say that he thinks Starmer should go. What he does do is provide next to no defence for the situation that Starmer has created. He also just looks miserable and defeated, adding to the impression that the party is over and it’s time for everyone in the Starmer government to go home.

The clip begins with Sophy Ridge putting the following to Miliband:

SOPHY RIDGE: My argument isn’t that it was rushed [Mandelson’s appointment]. My argument is that Keir Starmer knew this stuff before, right? We knew that Mandelson had been sacked twice. We knew that he had a relationship with a convicted paedophile. We knew that he had a lobbying company with links to Chinese firms, right? We knew this stuff.

ED MILIBAND: So you’re saying he should never have been appointed?

SOPHY RIDGE: Yeah.

ED MILIBAND: And I agree with you.

SOPHY RIDGE: But that’s Keir Starmer’s fault, isn’t it? Not Ollie Robbins’ fault.

ED MILIBAND: Well, yeah, and he said that.

SOPHY RIDGE: But look who’s lost their jobs, right? The chief of staff has lost a job. Olly Robbins has lost his job. The head of the Civil Service has lost his job. The director of communications has lost his job. Should Keir Starmer lose his job? He was the one who made the error, as you admit.

ED MILIBAND: Well, I don’t think so, no. Obviously, I don’t, because I think prime ministers make errors. Prime ministers are fallible. Prime ministers are human.

We’re interjecting here to note that we’ve seen no evidence that Starmer is human. Conversely, we’ve seen a great deal of evidence supporting the fact that he’s fallible.

Miliband continued:

ED MILIBAND: I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010. But people make mistakes. And, you know, the point about mistake is, do you fess up to it and say, ‘yeah, I made an error?’

The issue isn’t that he made a mistake; the issue is that he made the sort of mistake only a highly incompetent person could make.

In other words, he’s not fit to be PM.

Ministers plural

Ridge later asked:

SOPHY RIDGE: What went through your mind when you saw he’d been appointed as US ambassador?

ED MILIBAND: Well, that it could blow up. That it could go wrong.

SOPHY RIDGE: Did you say that to anyone?

ED MILIBAND: I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment. And I said I was worried about it. I do want to say one thing, though, which is-

SOPHY RIDGE: What did David Lammy say then?

ED MILIBAND: Well, I think he was worried about it, too.

So now we have two ministers who are on the record as having had the foresight which Starmer lacks.

Unless Lammy comes forward to dispute Miliband said, obviously, although we can’t see him doing that at this point.

Clearly, the writing is on the wall.

Familiarity

Miliband also said:

ED MILIBAND: Peter Mandelson was a very familiar figure in the sort of 30-year history of the Labour Party, and it’s almost like that familiarity… It’s almost like his flaws and so on just got almost sort of faded into the background, and that was obviously wrong.

Another way of looking at this is that Peter Mandelson and politicians like him have normalised the Labour Party having zero moral centre.

You could also say this makes the argument for individuals not having political careers which span decades. While it’s true some politicians are still representing their constituencies many years in, other grandees are clearly just settling scores and enriching themselves.

Dead duck – and Miliband is not the only one showing it

Miliband isn’t the only Labour politician putting some distance between himself and Starmer. On Monday 20 April, MPs actually put physical distance between themselves and the PM:

Labour whips have noticed too.

Message sent to MPs: "If any [parliamentary private secretaries] are able to head back to the chamber, benches are looking quite empty." https://t.co/GwD8NfTZuw

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— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) April 20, 2026

And the issues go beyond Mandelson too:

Labour MP Sarah Champion tells the Today programme: “I’ll be honest with you, people don’t like Keir on the door. But it’s not about this Mandelson thing, they don’t like him personally.”

— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) April 21, 2026

Because of his many scandals, Starmer entered the beginning of the end of his career within months of taking office.

We’re now at the end of the end, and after Labour get wiped out in the local elections, the party will soon replace him.

Featured image via Sky News

By Willem Moore

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A senior member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) reportedly walked up to a fellow member opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and said “all Palestinians are terrorists”. And this instance of vile racism adds to other examples in the RCN of discriminatory attitudes towards people suffering war crimes in occupied Palestine.

Racist member spat bile before ‘walking off smiling’

The Canary spoke to Anna Pichierri, the healthcare worker who was on the receiving end of this disgusting comment. And she shared with us the statement she made to the independent regulator for nursing – the Nursing and Midwifery Council – about the incident.

This states that, at the 2025 RCN Conference, senior union member Karen Lesley Sanders came up to Pichierri – a participant in the Nurses for Palestine group – as she was holding a placard saying ‘Nurses against Genocide’. According to Pichierri, Sanders:

walked over to me and shouted “Nurses against terrorists”

She asked what Sanders meant by that. And Sanders:

said smiling “All Palestinians are terrorists” and as she was walking away I asked to see her name and she proudly held up her lanyard and after saying loud her name she said to me I know you and she then walked off in the building smiling.

Pichierri said this:

hit me very hard. I was in shock, and I was hurt personally and felt pain for others around it. The comments were racist, and this is not something I would expect any nurse to say let alone a senior member of the Royal College of Nursing.

Sanders is a senior lecturer and has had numerous roles within the RCN. These include a role on the union’s Trade Union Committee and even as chair of its “Ethics Forum Steering Committee“. She has also written in several union publications.

The Canary sought comment from Sanders, but had received no response by the time of publication. RCN London, meanwhile, declined to comment on the incident.

The day before, meanwhile…

That wasn’t the only concerning event at the 2025 congress, though. Because the day before, Pichierri told us:

There was a sign painting studio and the artist in charge was very supportive of the Palestinian cause and let a few of us start to write placards on the genocide. Definitely that was not what the congress leadership wanted.

She later joined a short march inside the conference hall, holding one ‘nurses against the genocide’ placard herself and handing over two more to other people. But this behaviour seemed to rattle some senior members. Because as Pichierri said:

At some point the chair of the congress quickly walked up to me and literally snatched the placard from my hand, quickly moving up the podium

RCN and Palestine

The RCN also displayed hypocrisy by donating money to Ukraine while failing to do the same for Palestine.

As the Canary reported previously, Nurses for Palestine have co-produced a report accusing the union of investing in companies complicit with Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid. This would be a breach of its own ethical and professional codes of conduct.

The RCN has insisted that it doesn’t invest directly in arms companies or firms committing “ethically unacceptable” acts. It has also expressed ‘grave concern’ about Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.

Nurses for Palestine would like to see the union express similar concern about the vile anti-Palestinian racism at the 2025 congress. Because it should have no place in any trade union, let alone one that is fully aware of the genocidal devastation Israel’s war criminal leaders have submitted Palestinians to in the last three years.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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Over 120 former US military personnel have occupied the Cannon House Office Building of the US Congress, in a demonstration against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its joint war with the US on Iran.

US veterans take action

The US Veterans against Genocide group, some of them holding folded US flags signifying fallen comrades or loved ones and others wearing keffiyehs, stood silently:

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A post shared by Canary (@thecanaryuk)

Yet despite the protest being peaceful, authorities came in and began arresting them:

The building, often referred to as the ‘Old House Office Building’, is the oldest office in the congressional complex and links by tunnel to the Capitol.

In September 2025, five US Veterans against Genocide members were jailed after blocking a key road outside a US military base. Others have resigned reserve posts in protest against the genocide and, more recently, the illegal US-Israel attacks on Iran. The group demands the end of all arms shipments to the genocidal colony:

By Skwawkbox

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Nigel Farage has run multiple political parties which have sought to demonise migrants. This began with UKIP, which was followed by the Brexit Party, which morphed into Reform UK.

Said parties have generally focussed on recent and first generation migrants, whether it was the Polish EU workers demonised by UKIP, or the refugees hounded by Reform UK. Farage himself would tell you he doesn’t have a problem with people of other ethnicities or cultures; his problem is with Britain losing its character (a character he refuses to acknowledge has never been static, and has notably been shaped by constant migratory influxes from the Romans onwards).

In politics, a ‘dog whistle’ is when a politician says one thing understanding their supporters will hear something else. In his case, Farage talks about ‘immigrants’ but his supporters think ‘Muslims’ or ‘Blacks’.

The problem for Farage is that he wants to replace the Tories as the ‘big tent’ party of the British right; i.e. he wants to appeal to both diehard racists and liberal conservatives (with the latter being people who are racist in many senses, but aren’t solely driven by hatred).

This is why we’re now seeing confusing stuff like the following:

NEW: Nigel Farage says X is now becoming “a very unpleasant place” due to a rise racist accounts and content

Reform leader says that many of his ethnic minority candidates are experiencing huge levels of abuse

— Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) April 20, 2026

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It’s also why we now have political parties to Farage’s right which are more clearly following through on Reform’s racist dog whistles.

A very dangerous place

Farage made his comments at a press conference on Monday 20 April:

The online abuse on X that our minority candidates are receiving is utterly appalling in every way.

If it was happening to any other candidates from more established parties in the sense of their age, you would all be in total uproar

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The problem with this is that minority candidates from the established parties have faced racist abuse on X/Twitter for years. Further to this, many of them have experienced racist abuse from people who identified themselves as Reform supporters (many of whom have moved on to support Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain).

Farage added:

It really, really is bad.

X is now becoming a very unpleasant, very dangerous place.

As people have noted, Farage has brought this on himself (or, to be specific, he’s brought it on his candidates):

“Becoming”.

Reform UK’s refusal to counter its own supporters hate and racism is a huge part of the problem that’s existed for years. pic.twitter.com/qBSyWYlbug

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) April 21, 2026

Patterns with Farage and Reform

To be clear, it’s not just first generation migrants who Farage attacks. Recently, he lost his mind because British Muslims were being visibly Muslim in Britain:

What we witnessed in London at the historic Trafalgar Square, in a country built on Judeo-Christian values, was a group of people attempting dominance over our capital city and our culture.

We are not going to surrender everything that was built over centuries and defended at… pic.twitter.com/LcHx0ut1xo

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) March 19, 2026

In other words, the racists who supported Reform weren’t wrong to think he agreed with them. And it was predictable that they would feel personally betrayed when he began promoting candidates who weren’t white Brits like themselves.

Another recent example of this was when Reform backed Laila Cunningham as their candidate to become the next mayor of London. As we reported at the time:

Recently, nearly three dozen people from Nigel Farage’s past came forwards to allege that he was a strident, Nazi-style racist as a younger man. Farage alternated between denying the comments, claiming he didn’t mean them in a bad way, and then denying them again. As we covered, an insider claimed Farage wouldn’t admit to or apologise for the racism because he’d be telling his supporters ‘you’re all guilty too‘. Now, he’s doing just that.

Specifically, Farage is calling out the racists who are abusing Reform UK’s Muslim mayoral candidate. The problem is that many of these people are the party’s ideological bedfellows, including a founder of the Brexit Party:

I will never vote for her for : she is not English and she is a Muslim. https://t.co/9IShOHTshY

— Catherine Blaiklock (@blaiklockBP) January 7, 2026

This was the moment when many Reform supporters became publicly hostile towards Farage.

Contradictions

For years, the Tories held together an alliance which included both ardent racists and liberal conservatives. Now, that base has split in two, with the majority of the diehard racists in Reform, and the majority of the One Nation Conservatives staying put:

POLL | Reform lead by 4pts

Ref: 26% (-1)
Lab: 22% (+1)
Con: 17% (=)
Grn: 15% (=)
Lib: 11% (-1)

— Seats —
Ref: 288
Lab: 124
Lib: 76
SNP: 47
Grn: 44
Con: 36
Plaid: 10

Poll: @OpiniumResearch, 15-17 Apr (+/- vs 20 Mar) pic.twitter.com/uQyb0DPblv

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 18, 2026

Farage clearly wants to rebuild that alliance, but he risks splitting his own vote, with Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain Party sweeping up the voters who want to go all the way.

The troubling thing is that regardless of where these voters end up, there’s clearly an appetite for far-right politics.

This is why we need politicians who can clearly show what’s actually making us all poor – namely the widening gap between everyday people and the billionaire class which is absorbing more and more of this country’s wealth.

.@faizashaheen: "I support the Greens.. everyone sees the rot in the political system, typified by Mandelson.. no politician is delivering for people.. lots of people are turning to the Greens.. we want to live in a country where we care for each other, where change does happen" pic.twitter.com/ECXSwZKkOC

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 19, 2026

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By Willem Moore

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Olly Robbins was appointed as Foreign Office permanent secretary in January 2025 (Alamy)

4 min read9 min

Former Foreign Office permanent secretary Olly Robbins has said No 10 had a “dismissive approach” to Lord Peter Mandelson’s vetting.

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Speaking to MPs on Tuesday morning, Robbins said there was “no interest in whether, only interest in when” Mandelson would be appointed to his role.

Robbins was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week after The Guardian reported that Mandelson had not cleared the UK Security Vetting (UKSV) procedure for appointment as US ambassador in late January 2025, before starting the role in February 2025.

According to the newspaper, the decision to overrule the UKSV was made by the Foreign Office without the knowledge of Starmer or other senior cabinet ministers.

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Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday morning, Robbins said the UKSV felt the Mandelson case was “borderline” and was “leaning towards recommending that clearance be denied”, but that the Foreign Office deemed the risks manageable.

He sought to stress that Mandelson did not ‘fail’ vetting.

However, in evidence that will likely put more pressure on Starmer’s judgement, Robbins said the Foreign Office had faced “constant pressure” from the No 10 private office to process Mandelson’s appointment as soon as possible, but refused to name any individual officials.

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The former Foreign Office chief said that when he started as permanent secretary, there was “already a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson would be appointed as the UK’s ambassador in Washington and that “he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible”. 

“He [Mandelson] had been given access to the building,” Robbins said, adding that he had also been given access to “higher classification” briefings before being formally appointed.

He said that the handover briefing he received when he started his role showed a “generally dismissive attitude” to Mandelson’s vetting clearance.

“The focus was on getting Mandelson out to Washington quickly,” he continued.

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“Despite an atmosphere of pressure, the department completed developed vetting to the normal, high standard, because the vetting process is not there to determine fitness for office or reputational risk. It’s there to protect national security.”

However, he said it would have been “very difficult indeed” to block Mandelson’s appointment on security grounds once the vetting process had concluded, given it had already been publicly confirmed.

Robbins said the Cabinet Office took the position that it was unnecessary to vet Mandelson at all, but that the Foreign Office insisted and “put its foot down”.

Robbins’ comments come after Starmer telling the Commons on Monday that it “beggars belief” that the Foreign Office withheld information over issues in Mandelson’s vetting and that neither he nor his cabinet were informed prior to Mandelson starting the job.

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“That is not how the vast majority of people in this country expect politics, government or accountability to work.”

Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson to the role despite being aware of his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has put significant pressure on his leadership.

Mandelson, who was a key figure in the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is currently being investigated by the police over allegations that he leaked confidential government documents to Epstein while in office.

Speaking this morning, Robbins said UKSV’s primary concerns with Mandelson’s appointment did not relate to Epstein.

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The former chief civil servant also revealed that he was asked to find an ambassadorship role for former No 10 comms chief Matthew Doyle.

He added that he was asked not to tell Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper about the request, and that he found it uncomfortable.

“It was, to be honest, hard to find something that I thought might be suitable, but I also felt quite uncomfortable about it, and I kept giving advice that I thought this would be very hard for the office, and was hard for me, personally, to defend,” he said.

Doyle, who was appointed as a life peer by Starmer in December, was suspended from Labour’s parliamentary party in February of this year over his past association with a convicted sex offender.

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A US security contractor modified UK-operated spy planes before they began flying over Gaza from Royal Air Force (RAF) facilities in Cyprus. The modifications included surveillance and air traffic control technology. The UK has previously claimed the flights were to support hostage rescue.

Cyprus air base in the spotlight again

Zeteo found documents confirming the modifications made by the US-based Sierra Nevada Corporation through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).

"UK surveillance flights over Gaza were conducted with more US involvement than previously known."@jason_paladino and @tobyburns1 reveal UK missions over Gaza used US contractor spy planes equipped with military tracking and surveillance tech. pic.twitter.com/wbDE0pNiKv

— Zeteo (@zeteo_news) April 19, 2026

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As Zeteo reported on 19 April:

Lawmakers in the UK, UN officials, and human rights attorneys have expressed concerns that the intelligence could have been used by Israel for its military operations in Gaza, which have resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths and have been classified as genocide by both a United Nations investigative panel and a leading association of genocide scholars.

The presence of UK-run spy flights from Cyprus became known by accident after a pilot apparently failed to turn off his transponder meaning the aircraft could be tracked on air traffic platforms:

On 28 July 2025:

A pilot employed by the Nevada-based defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation seemingly forgot to disable a device that broadcasts flight details live during a surveillance flight over central Gaza, as first reported by Palestine Deep Dive (PDD).

That error led to it being:

revealed that the plane, a highly modified Hawker Beechcraft Super King Air 350ER, circled for hours over central Gaza on the same day that multiple Israeli airstrikes killed at least 23 Palestinians in the same area, including women and children. The aircraft watched Gaza from above, using the callsign “CROOK12.”

It was then found by our friends at Declassified UK that:

another aircraft, owned by the same company, had also flown surveillance missions over Gaza months earlier.

That plane went by the callsign Crook 11.

Zeteo said both ‘Crook’ aircraft:

are owned by Straight Flight Nevada Commercial Leasing LLC, a Nevada-based corporation, according to the FAA registration documents.

Military contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation owns Straight Flight.

Crook 11 over Gaza

Zeteo found FAA documents showing the plane was fitted with a multi-platform anti-jam GPS navigation antenna (MAGNA) system. US defence firm Mayflower Communications says MAGNA-F is the:

latest federated and affordable GPS Anti-Jam solution.

Declassified reported on 12 August 2025 that in late 2024:

two surveillance aircraft operating from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s military base on Cyprus, circled close to or over Gaza.

The aircraft, one of which was Crook 11, “circled over Nuseirat refugee camp”. Hours later:

On the evening of 12 December 2024, Israel bombed the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza without warning.

Declassified said:

More than 30 Palestinians were killed and over 50 wounded. Entire families died, their names posted online within minutes.

Active British involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza has endured under a veil of state secrecy. Yet bit by bit a fuller picture of the UK is emerging. That picture isn’t simply one of complicity. It is one of active support for what looks like the crime of the century so far.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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Tottenham Hotspur has spent years acting like they were too strong and too well run to ever be pulled into a relegation fight. Yet, with five games left in the 2025–26 Premier League season, Spurs are in the bottom three, win-less in 2026, and suddenly living week to week.

Sky Sports summed up the headline stat: Spurs are “the Premier League’s only side yet to win in 2026,” a run that has turned from bad form into a full-blown emergency.

Tottenham coach De Zerbi arrives with an urgent message

Roberto De Zerbi has walked into a crisis after his side took the lead twice against Brighton but failed to win. The coach didn’t dress it up.

He told Sky Sports:

We have to be stronger than this result, we have to move on and prepare the next game against Wolverhampton and to try to win the game.

That is not the tone of a coach planning calmly for next season. It is the tone of someone trying to stop the damage before it becomes permanent.

How Spurs got here: ‘catastrophic decisions’  

This drop toward danger did not start with De Zerbi. It is the result of months of instability and key calls that have gone wrong.

The Independent said Spurs are “staring into the abyss” after “catastrophic decisions” turned a season that was meant to push forward into one sliding fast in the wrong direction.

The Tudor Interlude made it worse, not better

Thomas Frank’s early optimism faded and his dismissal was sold as a reset. Instead, it exposed bigger problems above the pitch. Igor Tudor came in with a “firefighter” reputation but lasted only 44 days.

Former footballer Tim Sherwood’s description of Tudor’s exit captured the mood around the club, saying he was removed after the Premier League “smacked him in the mouth”.

Home comforts have disappeared  

The Spurs’ squad now looks fragile. Injuries have piled up, confidence has drained away, and even their home form — normally a safety net — has collapsed.

The Independent noted that Spurs’ only home league win in their first four matches came against Burnley, and that the decline accelerated after that. The same report recalled how Frank’s call for fans to “get behind us” before Chelsea ended badly, with the performance labelled one of the worst of the season.

Fans have had enough of false dawns

Spurs supporters have seen rocky spells before, but this one feels different because the club’s identity has faded. Even the style that once made Tottenham easy to admire has been replaced by nervous football and weekly damage control.

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay described Spurs as “hollow, confused and in deep trouble”. He points to mismanagement and a run of “stupid” decisions that left the club exposed when it could least afford it.

Five matches to save the season and the club’s status  

Spurs are two points from safety with five matches left. That is close enough to escape, but also close enough for one more bad run to finish them.

Relegation would hit on every level: money, reputation, and the ability to keep top players. The New York Times’ Athletic has reported on the potential “cost of relegation”, including wage cuts, sponsorship renegotiations, and the risk of losing key players for reduced fees.

But none of that matters if Spurs do not do the basic thing first: win enough games to stay up.

The clock is ticking  

Tottenham still have enough talent to survive. They also have a manager speaking like someone who understands exactly what this fight requires. What they do not have is time.

Five games remain for Spurs to change the story. If they do not, the club that spent years insisting it belonged with the elite may end up where it has tried hardest not to look: the Championship.

Featured image via Manchester City FC

By Faz Ali

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The UK Government must stop hosting US nuclear weapons, campaigners have told the Canary, after President Trump issued a veiled threat to nuke Iran.

‘A whole civilization will die tonight…’

Trump faced increasing pressure from countries reliant on the transit of fossil fuels and other commodities across the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait has been effectively closed to traffic from countries aligned with the US and Israel. In response, the US president issued a direct threat to commit genocide against Iran.

On 7 April 2026, President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform:

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?

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We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

Also on 7 April, US Vice-President JD Vance said the US military has “tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use” against Iran.

The statements from the president and vice-president were widely viewed as veiled threats to use nuclear weapons against Iran.

In response, the US-based non-governmental organisation called Nuclear Threat Initiative said:

While it is difficult to predict how the conflict in Iran will unfold, it is critical to reiterate that nuclear weapons have not been used in war in more than 80 years and it would be a monumental mistake to take this record for granted.

UK Government remains committed to hosting Trump’s nukes

Meanwhile, ministers continue to affirm the UK Government’s commitment to hosting US nuclear weapons in the UK under the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) Dual Capable Aircraft (DCA) nuclear mission.

On 4 March 2026, Ministry of Defence (MOD) minister of state Luke Pollard said:

The United Kingdom is purchasing at least 12 F-35A aircraft. The aircraft will allow the UK to participate in NATO’s Dual Capable Aircraft (DCA) nuclear mission.

The nuclear weapons allocated to the NATO DCA nuclear mission are United States (US) nuclear weapons and the US retains control and custody over them.

NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept states that the strategic nuclear forces of the Alliance, particularly those of the US, are the supreme guarantee of the security of the Alliance.

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And on 19 March 2026, MOD minister of state Lord Coaker said:

The United Kingdom will purchase 12 F-35A aircraft and join NATO’s Dual Capable Aircraft (DCA) nuclear mission.

This is not a decision to acquire a second sovereign delivery system, and the nuclear weapons allocated to the NATO DCA mission are United States nuclear weapons which remain under US custody and control.

After Trump’s veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran, an MOD spokesperson told the Canary:

We are responding to the Iran crisis with calm, level-headed leadership.

Our commitment to Britain’s nuclear deterrent is absolute. It protects us every moment of every day.

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Through the Strategic Defence Review we are stepping up in Europe and alongside assigning our nuclear deterrent to the defence of NATO we will join NATO’s Dual Capable Aircraft mission, keeping Britain safe at home and strong abroad.

UK should cancel decision to host US nukes due to Trump’s threats – CND

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), according to its website, campaigns:

to rid the world of nuclear weapons – the most powerful and toxic weapons ever created, threatening all forms of life.

CND general secretary Sophie Bolt told the Canary:

Trump’s veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against the people of Iran has shocked the world and exposed his total contempt for human life – and all forms of life. Threatening to wipe out an entire civilisation is not a negotiation tactic. It is a war crime that risks the entire world.

The British government must now end its so-called ‘special relationship’ with the US.  Fundamental to this is ending Britain’s nuclear dependence on the US. This means Britain must scrap its nuclear weapons system: the current Trident nuclear-armed submarines and the new generation of ‘Dreadnought’ submarines.

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The US is deeply integrated with these systems, both in terms of leasing Britain the Trident missiles, the design of the nuclear warheads as well as the joint development of Britain’s new nuclear warheads at Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).

Bolt described the decision by the UK Government to host US nuclear weapons as “disastrous”. She continued:

At a time of increasing nuclear risks, the British government should be reducing the nuclear risks to its population, not increasing them.

Far from keeping the British population safe and supporting national security, hosting US nuclear weapons risks dragging Britain into illegal wars that could go nuclear. And it puts us a target on all of us.

Having US nuclear weapons here in the UK undermines our safety by making a nuclear attack on us more likely. In a nuclear conflict, it is probable that Lakenheath would be targeted, followed by strikes on cities across the country. These US/NATO bases actually outsource the nuclear risks to countries that host US nuclear weapons.

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Bolt added that CND has been campaigning against the UK’s purchase of the US-made F-35A nuclear-capable fighter jets since June 2025, when Keir Starmer announced the decision to purchase them:

Not only does it increase the risk of nuclear weapons being used, but it ties Britain even more closely to the Trump administration. These jets have been designed specifically to launch US nuclear bombs.

Whilst Britain will be paying for the jets, it is Trump who will decide where and when the nuclear bombs will be used. Given Trump’s terrifying actions over Iran, it is clear that Britain should cancel the deal now.

According to Bolt, CND has been working with a “powerful alliance” of politicians, trade unions and civil society organisations to reverse the decision. CND have also commissioned legal opinion showing that the purchase “breaches the British government’s obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk saw its operations shut down on 7 April by a group of activists seeking to raise awareness of the UK’s complicity in the Iran conflict, and demanded that the UK government immediately prohibits the use of UK bases by the US.

CND has also organised protests at RAF Marham where the jets will be stationed, and is working with MPs to secure a debate in parliament.

UK should ‘act quickly to disentangle ourselves from the US military’ – Green peer

Green Party peer Jenny Jones told the Canary:

When a US President, with a huge nuclear arsenal, talks about ending a civilisation, we have to ring alarm bells and question whether we want anything to do with such threats.

Trump is a bully and he will keep getting away with more and more extreme actions until the world says no. Spain have done it over the attack on Iran and the UK could join them in stopping all US military flights from UK bases.

We should also stop hosting any US controlled nuclear weapons as part of the NATO Dual Capable Aircraft (DCA) nuclear mission. We need to act quickly to disentangle ourselves from the US military machine and have stronger links with our European allies instead.

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Existence of US nukes in the UK makes ‘government complicit in his war crimes’

A Lakenheath Alliance for Peace (LAP) spokesperson told the Canary:

President Trump’s comment is obscene and irresponsible. His administration’s ‘tools’ of mass destruction currently lie securely on UK soil making our government complicit in his war crimes, should he embark on wanton destruction.

The US and UK governments have a long standing policy of neither confirming nor denying the location of their nuclear weapons. The LAP spokesperson continued:

Our campaign has successfully highlighted our UK government acquiescing to the pressure from US to site nuclear bombs despite huge opposition to having such weapons on our airbases.

This has not been a democratic decision and the arrogant posturing of POTUS (President of the United States) shows exactly why such weapons should not exist and be in the hands of anybody let alone the only country that has deployed them before in our living memory.

The mistake to strike Japan with nuclear weapons is a blot on the record of our human history. A racist ‘experiment’ that brought horrific misery for generations.

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The US has taken the UK into immoral and illegal aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza. No civilisation is safe from the ‘war business’ of America. This shows clearly that it matters not who is in power as president, as each successive administration has continued the project of imperial wars of expansion.

Lakenheath Alliance for Peace will continue to campaign against the drive to war, increased militarisation and the return of US nuclear weapons to UK soil.

Trump’s unpredictable swings – from attempting reconciliation with Iran, to threatening attacks against its civilian infrastructure – means we are likely to see more words and actions from the US president that put the UK Government’s decision to host his nuclear weapons under increasing pressure.

By Tom Pashby

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The GOP’s escalating infighting over immigration now has a pair of PACs lining up millions of dollars on opposing sides of Republican primaries across the country.

The dueling pledges turn a congressional fight over Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s (R-Fla.) Dignity Act into an electoral proxy war between hardliners and moderates over how far the Republican Party should go on immigration reform. It’s putting the bill’s 20 House GOP co-sponsors in the spotlight.

The Homeland PAC, backed by immigration-restrictionist Republicans, launched last week in an effort to primary some of those co-sponsors. Meanwhile, American Business Immigration Coalition Action, a pro-immigration group, secured $1.2 million to protect them through its Building America’s Economy PAC and hopes to raise $5 million in total, according to plans first shared with POLITICO.

The Dignity Act, a bipartisan bill, has faced an onslaught of criticism from conservative MAGA influencers and allies of President Donald Trump, who view it as a nonstarter. While the bill doesn’t create pathways to citizenship, it would allow millions of unauthorized immigrants to eventually gain work permits and remain in the U.S. legally.

Republicans like battleground Reps. Gabe Evans (Colo.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) have signed onto the bill. But critics pan it as “amnesty” and signal that the future of the Republican Party hinges on this debate.

“Donald Trump is not going to be around forever,” said Ryan Girdusky, the GOP strategist behind Homeland PAC. “The goal is to focus and to put our efforts into the future, and make sure Republicans know that the demand for stronger borders and for reforms to legal immigration and illegal immigration means something. We are not going to roll over and go back to business as usual.”

The clash is playing out as the White House recalibrates its own message on immigration amid plummeting public perception. The administration has shifted away from using the phrase “mass deportations” in public messaging and says it is focusing on deporting the “worst of the worst.”

“Extreme-right internet influencers have escalated their attacks, and we want to ensure the leadership on commonsense immigration reform are protected,” said Rebbeca Shi, CEO of ABIC Action, whose PAC is seeking to defend Republican co-sponsors of the Dignity Act.

Salazar has defended her bill, saying it offers workers “dignity.” But former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called it the “screw American workers” bill. Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly said the bill “is not going to go over well with the GOP base, with the America Firsters.” And conservative members of Congress, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), slammed the bill as a betrayal to Trump’s base.

Girdusky, whose Homeland PAC is dedicated to “ending the career of every Republican who supports amnesty and sells out the American people on immigration,” won’t reveal which specific lawmakers he’s targeting or how much money he plans to spend. Several of the Dignity Act’s cosponsors are retiring or represent competitive districts, but Girdusky said his group will focus on those in safe-red seats with primary challenges.

“If any of these members have a change of heart and say, ‘Wow, this is actually a terrible bill for American workers and for the border and enriches human traffickers, I’m going to drop my support of it,’ I’m not going to challenge them in a primary,” he said.

Several hardline immigration groups have jockeyed for influence with the Trump administration, hoping to convince the president to keep his promise to enact the largest deportation initiative in history. But leaning into such an approach risks turning off voters, many of whom disapprove of the president’s handling of immigration so far.

New results from The POLITICO Poll shows that Americans’ views of Trump’s deportation campaign remain broadly negative in the three months since its enforcement surge in Minneapolis. Half of Americans, including one quarter of Trump’s 2024 voters, said his deportation campaign is too aggressive.

Shi said her group will defend the Dignity Act’s cosponsors — both Republicans and Democrats — in primaries, as well as Republicans who voted to reinstate temporary protected status for Haitians last week. She believes signing off on a bipartisan immigration reform bill like the Dignity Act would be a smart political move for the White House ahead of the midterms.

“The White House is very sensitive to the polling on this, and the numbers haven’t changed since Minneapolis,” Shi said. “That’s why the next logical step to win in November is to actually have solutions.”

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