Politics

Newslinks for Sunday 15th February 2026

Published

5 hours ago

15 February 2026

Labour rebels line up Healey to challenge Starmer

“Labour rebels are lining up John Healey, the Defence Secretary, as a “unity candidate” to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership, The Telegraph understands. A rising number of backbenchers believe Mr Healey would draw support from both the Right and Left of the parliamentary party. Some on the moderate wing of the party believe that Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has become too “toxic”, particularly following his decision to publish his WhatsApp messages with Lord Mandelson. Meanwhile, allies of Angela Rayner admit it will be difficult for her to run in a leadership contest while HMRC continues its investigation into her tax affairs. It comes amid a push from within the party to steer Labour in a different direction to the one piloted by Morgan McSweeney, who quit as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff this month over the Mandelson scandal.” – Sunday Telegraph

Badenoch calls Starmer a ‘lame duck PM’ — and worse – Sunday Times
Will Starmer shift to the left? – FT
I will lead Labour into election PM says – Sun on Sunday
The moment Starmer’s colleagues lost all confidence in him – Sunday Express
Unions and Labour MPs call on Starmer to end ‘narrow factional agenda’ – Observer
Miliband plots pact with Green Party leader – Mail on Sunday
Burnham hatches new plan to become MP – Mail on Sunday
Mandelson seen for first time since Epstein revelations – Sunday Telegraph
Did Mandelson lean on BBC to drop probe into his links to Russia? – Mail on Sunday
Labour activists paid for smear campaign against journalists – Sunday Times
PM backing Cabinet Secretary frontrunner ‘because she’ll suppress the release of private Mandelson messages’ – Mail on Sunday
Starmer urged to go slow on replacing ousted head of civil service – FT
PM’s hiring mistakes create a culture of drift – FT

Comment

>Today:

Starmer surrenders to EU net zero rules

“Sir Keir Starmer has drawn up plans under which the UK will ramp up its net zero targets and cede control over its energy policy as part of closer alignment with Brussels. A memorandum, published by the Cabinet Office earlier this month, spells out the price that the UK is willing to pay to reset relations with Europe. This includes a “dynamic alignment” of British law with EU rules on “the promotion of renewable energy”, which would require the UK to decarbonise – not just electricity, but also heating and transport, rapidly. In practice this could see net zero targets doubled, potentially leading to draconian measures such as reducing meat consumption and restrictions on flying, wood fires and driving.” – Sunday Telegraph

Weak Starmer has been forced into an unthinkable betrayal – Sunday Telegraph
Reeves’ Brexit betrayal on customs union ‘will cost Britain £40bn a year’ – Sunday Telegraph

Cancelling elections is an abuse of power, High Court to hear

“Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to cancel local elections is an abuse of power that threatens the foundations of British democracy, the High Court will hear. In a legal challenge to the decision to cancel some of May’s elections, lawyers acting for Reform UK will argue that Labour acted out of political interest to deny 4.6 million people the right to vote. In court documents seen by The Telegraph, they claim it is “patently irrational” to postpone elections in peacetime and that it “stands in contradiction to the basis of the country, namely democratic rights and the basis of individual rights”. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, is expected to appear at the High Court for both days of the hearing next Thursday and Friday.” – Sunday Telegraph

Labour warned by electoral watchdog boss that council elections must go ahead – Mail on Sunday
Reform leader’s popularity dips as party surges in polls – FT
Farage’s right-hand man publishing book on how to launder money – Sunday Telegraph

Comment

Russia killed Navalny with frog toxin, UK and four European allies claim

“Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was killed by dart frog poison administered by the Russian state two years ago, a multi-intelligence agency inquiry has found, according to a statement released by five countries, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The US was not one of the intelligence agencies making the claim. Navalny died in a remote Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence. Samples from his body were secured before his burial and sent to the laboratories of two countries. The UK, describing the poisoning as barbaric, said it would be reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as a flagrant violation by Russia of the chemical weapons convention (CWC).” – Observer

Putin’s frog poison hit on Navalny reveals his secret chemical weapons – Sunday Telegraph
Starmer calls for western alliance to be ‘remade’ – FT
Ukraine wants 20-year US security guarantee to sign peace deal – Observer

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Other political news and comment

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How Your Fridge Should Be Organised: Explained

Published

7 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

How Your Fridge Should Be Organised: Explained

When you come home after doing The Big Shop, the temptation is to shove everything into the fridge and deal with it later. Or not at-all. It doesn’t matter, right? As long as it’s not too cramped and it’s all in there, fair is fair?

Well, no. It turns out that actually, the way that you organise your fridge could be putting your health at risk and the positioning of foods contributes to their longevity and how safe they may be to eat.

Who knew it was all so complex?

How to organise your fridge properly

Meat

According to Essential Food Hygiene, you should always place raw meat at the lowest possible level to avoid drips contaminating other food that’s beneath the meat and potentially causing illness once consumed.

It should be kept in leak-proof packaging and if they’re packed in clingfilm, particularly if they’re thawing, meats should also be on a plate.

Fruit and vegetables

Before putting fruit and vegetables in the fridge, be sure to check that they’re best refridgerated and not kept at room temperature. Then, Electrolux advises: “Don’t cut them before putting them in the refrigerator, since cut-up vegetables and fruits will rot more quickly. Only remove roots and stems, but keep the remainder of the cutting for when you’re cooking.

“If you’re planning to use the vegetables very soon, you can cut them first and keep them in a container inside your refrigerator’s crisper. However, you should be aware that they will not keep as long.”

Cheese

Cheshire Cheese Company advises: “As a rule of thumb, once you’ve cut into a wheel of cheese or unwrapped a block of cheese from its packaging, the best way to preserve opened cheese is to store it in the refrigerator.

“You can wrap it in plastic or wax paper. If it’s got a strong smell or will be in the fridge with other foods with strong odours, it can be a good idea to put it in an airtight container with a lid.”

Cheese is often best stored in the centre of the fridge or the crisper drawer but for softer cheeses, be aware that they go bad quite quickly and check for mould before eating from an open soft cheese packet.

Sauces

Tefal advises: “It’s generally a good rule to follow that creamy dressings deserve some shelf space in your fridge as they can contain eggs, cheese and other ingredients that need to be chilled. In comparison, oil and vinegar-based dressings are safe to hang out in your cupboard.”

Eggs

While many of us have a handy egg tray in our fridge door, the egg experts at Geldard Farm Eggs advise: “Many refrigerators have an egg tray in the door, but this isn’t the best place for storage. The temperature in the fridge door fluctuates due to frequent opening and closing, which can reduce egg freshness.

For optimal storage, keep eggs:

In their original carton to protect them from absorbing odours and moisture
On a middle or lower shelf where the temperature is most stable
Away from strong-smelling foods like onions and garlic – eggshells have tiny pores that strong smells can seep into over time

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Polanski slams authoritarianism, live with Trevor Phillips

Published

28 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Polanski slams authoritarianism, live with Trevor Phillips

Zack Polanski has appeared on the 15 February edition of Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. If you’re unfamiliar with Phillips, he has a decades’ long history in Labour Party politics. As such, it wasn’t surprising to see him denying the creeping authoritarianism which is happening under Keir Starmer’s government:

Phillips “This is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things they say”@ZackPolanski: 2,700 people have been arrested for holding up signs
And well done to Zack for challenging Phillips smear that ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is antisemitic pic.twitter.com/fuEDYQJa9K
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

Labour liar, pants on fire

In the clip above, Phillips says:

In the press release today, you talk about a ‘Big Brother Britain’. I’m assuming that you’re talking about George Orwell’s oppressive state rather than the telly programme. Isn’t this going over the top a bit? I mean, this is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things… they say, at least not very often.

If you’re a regular reader of the Canary, you’ll know this is complete horseshit from Phillips. Thankfully, Polanski explained why for us:

Well, I think we’re spiralling down that road. First of all, we saw 2,700 people potentially imprisoned, some of them waiting trials, a lot of them for holding up signs saying, I oppose a genocide. We have seen a genocide happen in Israel now for the last couple of years.

To add some specificity, the signs in question said this:

I oppose #GenocideInGaza I support #PalestineAction https://t.co/6j08nAMQNS
— Steve Mackie (@1SteveMackie) February 14, 2026

The government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, which allowed them to arrest those who support the group. The people who held these signs got arrested for speech, albeit in written form.

As we reported on 13 February, a court has now overturned the proscription. Polanski also touched on this:

“The govt have been completely shamed in court & I’m proud the entire Green MP group all voted against proscription of Palestine Action”@ZackPolanski on the high court declaring the proscription unlawful pic.twitter.com/XUqaelUN8o
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

Back to the interview, Phillips responded:

No, that’s not the signs that they’re being arrested for. It is signs which say things like, from the river to the sea, a sign which imply elimination of the State of Israel, which are at some sense antisemitic and intimidating.

This simply isn’t true; Trevor Phillips is a fucking liar.

He’s not just any liar, either; he’s a liar who picked Peter Mandelson of all people to be the best man at his wedding.

The 2,700 in question relates to those arrested for supporting Palestine Action. Additionally, the ‘River to the Sea‘ chant is a call for the Palestinians to no longer be contained in an open air prison — not anything else.

Polanski responded:

Well, as a Jewish person, I don’t find that antisemitic. And in fact, Benjamin Netanyahu himself has used that phrase.
I’m one of only five people in British history who have been Jewish and lead a political party. So antisemitism needs to be taken really seriously in the same way that Islamophobia or any form of racism or hate crime needs to be taken seriously.
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But criticism of the Israeli government, I would say, is a moral responsibility when we’re seeing what they are doing to innocent people day in, day out. And our government is not just complicit in that. They are actively enabling it.
So for people who are protesting against the genocide, I would say those people are actual patriots of this country who are saying, let’s have a world where we make sure we’re standing for human rights.
It’s not just Palestine action, though, by the way. We’ve seen authoritarianism over the prime minister wanting mandatory ID cards. We’ve seen the authoritarianism of scrapping jury trials. Pattern over pattern shows that Keir Starmer is a deeply desperate caretaker prime minister who is clinging on to power by trying to crush dissent.

Things took a turn for the ridiculous later on, by the way:

So Phillips moved from talking about thousands of people arrested under terrorism legislation for holding up signs to criticising the idea that the UK is becoming an oppressive police state & then declaring the solution to fly tipping is more surveillance. He really is woeful.
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

In bed

As Novara’s Aaron Bastani highlighted, the New Labour types have a lot of support in broadcast media:

The press broadly backs the Tories. But why does the Labour right get such easy treatment from broadcast media?
The answer is political sympathies. Just look at who is married to who. TV news, and New Labour, until recently, went together like sun and shadow. pic.twitter.com/zwPZJOkUNl
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 5, 2026
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Haven’t seen many/any videos of the broadcast media harassing Mandelson outside his house. Was constant during Corbyn leadership – and indeed for some time after.
I’d say ‘curious’, but it’s because basically the whole of broadcast media (except GB News) swings New Labour.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 10, 2026

Phillips perverting reality as he did above is a clear example of this.

Featured image via the Canary

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Reform UK’s poverty plan is to pretend it doesn’t exist

Published

35 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Reform UK's poverty plan is to pretend it doesn’t exist

If you’re wondering how Reform plan to tackle poverty, we now have an answer to that. The plan is to deny it even exists

Zia Yusuf claims that “real poverty does exist in this country.”
@TrevorPTweets challenges Reform UK’s head of policy on his comments ⬇️#TrevorPhillips https://t.co/LFPXoeri6h pic.twitter.com/lqN76RkQ1q
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 15, 2026

Denial

In the clip above, Zia Yusuf says:

So firstly, it’s really important people understand when the term poverty is used primarily by left-wing politicians, let’s define that term. It is… a relative term, which means that you could literally – this is a mathematical fact – you could increase everybody’s incomes tenfold and that statistic would stay the same.

Oh my god, shut the fuck up, you oily, little nerd.

‘I can tell you mathematically what poverty is‘.

You sound like a Star Trek android, and not the good one.

We can tell you what poverty is, Zia, because most of us here at the Canary have experienced it.

Poverty is not having enough to get by.

Poverty is watching your outgoings outpace your incomings.

Poverty is spending hours a week figuring out how to make the money go around.

Poverty is constantly worrying about bills and life choices.

Poverty is fear and anxiety.

Poverty is the feeling that things will only get worse.

Yusuf thinks it’s a mathematical equation, because he has no idea what the fuck he’s talking about; he’s just another ex-Tory, ex-Goldman Sachs rich boy who wants to gut the welfare state to give his billionaire mates handouts.

Too much will never be enough for these people.

They will take more than they can ever spend, and they will shit, and piss, and moan as they bite the hand that feeds them.

Yusuf continued:

But the most important thing is that Reform, we are fiscally prudent, and we wanted to make sure anything we announced was going to be fiscally neutral.

“Fiscally prudent”, is it?

If you’re familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm, start imagining the end credits now as you read the following headlines:

Reform have totally let the cat out of the bag about who they are.
Zia Yusuf lecturing that poverty and peoples everyday struggles with rising bills and rent is exaggerated.
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A party of the failed status quo, funded and representing big corporate interests. https://t.co/G000aCvbLl
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) February 15, 2026

Social bullshittery

Phillips asked Yusuf if poverty measures are all made up, to which Yusuf responded:

No, it’s worse than that, because real poverty does exist in this country, Trevor. And absolute poverty does exist in very, very small pockets. If you actually want to do the right thing for as many people as possible in this country, then you need to create social mobility. That has been crushed by the Tory government and now this Labour government.

To be clear, ‘social mobility’ is not the phenomenon in which everyone becomes more affluent. It’s the phenomenon in which some working class people land middle class jobs. This is great for sly politicians like Yusuf, because it allows them to point at the fortunate few and say:

See – it is possible for you layabouts to earn more — anyone on poverty wages is just lazy.

If you’re old enough, you will remember the UK’s middle class did indeed expand in the 90s. Social mobility was happening on a larger scale, and we got the ‘lower middle class’ — i.e. working class families who could afford to alternate between taking their kids on holiday to Menorca and Butlin’s Pwllheli (if that seems oddly specific, I’m talking from experience).

This phenomenon happened because we took advantage of the cheap labour of countries like China, allowing us to live beyond our previous means. We could have locked in that progress, and ensured the country’s wealth was evenly distributed. We didn’t do that; instead we got runaway capitalism, with the rich claiming more wealth and authority, and the rest of us losing our rights and purchasing power.

Now, we’re at a point where social mobility can’t happen because even the middle class are fucking struggling. Tinkering around the edges or making savings here or there won’t cut it; we need to hobble the billionaire class, and we need to rob them of their power and influence.

Only then can we have a society in which people can live day to day without dreading tomorrow.

Bootstrapping

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps‘, but did you know where it comes from? As Useless Etymology report:

The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” originated shortly before the turn of the 20th century. It’s attributed to a late-1800s physics schoolbook that contained the example question “Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his bootstraps?”
So when it became a colloquial phrase referring to socioeconomic advancement shortly thereafter, it was meant to be sarcastic, or to suggest that it was an impossible accomplishment.

It’s literally impossible for everyone in a capitalist system to be well off and content, because it’s a tornado designed to pull everything up to the top.

In other words, beware of geeks bearing false grifts.

Backlash to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is putting vulnerable Republicans in a tough spot, forcing them to shift their tone to appease frustrated Hispanic voters — or risk losing key battleground seats.

It’s a delicate pivot for Republicans in South Texas, who spent years taking a hardline approach on immigration and flipped historically blue districts in the process.

Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, representing a majority-Hispanic district, has gone from calling for mass deportations to focusing on the “worst of the worst.” In lieu of expediting removals, she wants to create new visa categories for undocumented workers to fill jobs in construction and agriculture. And instead of slamming the Biden White House for its “border failure,” she’s setting up private meetings at the Trump White House to plead for temperance in immigration enforcement.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district shares hundreds of miles with Mexico, wants his party to talk more about the border, and said he plans to “continue to advocate that the Republican Party needs to focus on convicted criminal illegal aliens” amid broad outrage over deportations of undocumented people with no proven risk to public safety.

Like other Republicans, they are trying to slowly distance themselves from the massive immigration crackdown that has quickly become political kryptonite for the GOP — but without being seen as disloyal to the president or undercutting their previous positions.

“President Trump made a promise, and he’s kept that promise by securing the border. That was stage one,” De La Cruz said in an interview. “Now we’re at stage two, which is having a conversation of true immigration reform.”

Republicans’ efforts to change the conversation will test their ability to maintain, or even extend, Trump’s 2024 gains with Hispanic voters — and play a pivotal role in the fight for control of Congress in November. A slew of polls in recent weeks has shown many Hispanic voters across the country, repulsed by the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign, are souring on the Republican president they supported to a historic degree in 2024.

It’s a warning the White House appears to be taking seriously. In recent weeks, after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis, the White House has signaled openness to paring back its deportation operation. On Thursday, border czar Tom Homan announced the administration’s massive immigration surge in Minneapolis would come to a close.

Latino voters’ embrace of Trump was a political earthquake, and South Texas was the epicenter.

De La Cruz’s district — which sprawls from the Rio Grande Valley on the U.S.-Mexico border up to the San Antonio suburbs — was represented by a Democrat in Congress for 120 years before De La Cruz won her seat in 2022. In 2024, Trump romped to an 18-point victory.

The 15th Congressional District was among those redrawn by the Texas legislature’s redistricting gambit last year, offering De La Cruz an even more favorable electorate. But that bet relies heavily on Hispanic voters sticking with the GOP: Nearly 80 percent of the district identifies as Hispanic or Latino, and if those voters flip back to the Democratic Party or stay home, it could erase much of the new map’s intended friendliness to Republicans.

“With the border secure and Latinos responding to ICE raids and government overreach, the districts that Republicans thought were their future a year ago are likely to be their undoing,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who is a frequent critic of Trump. “Hard to find another situation in the past 50 years where a political party has squandered a generational opportunity like this.”

Flipping De La Cruz’s district is a top objective for House Democrats this cycle, who are salivating at the prospect of winning back Latino voters. She’ll face either Bobby Pulido, a Tejano music star with widespread name ID recruited by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or Ana Cuellar, an ER doctor who has an impressive penchant for fundraising.

Local Republicans have begun sounding the alarm.

Daniel Garza, president of the LIBRE Initiative, a grassroots conservative group based in South Texas, said “Biden’s border chaos” was directly responsible for Texas Republicans’ victories in recent election cycles, including De La Cruz’s, but that moving toward the other extreme — a harsh crackdown — could again dissuade Hispanic voters who might otherwise support the GOP.

“We don’t have to be a nation that has to decide between an ‘everybody-in’ or an ‘everybody-out’ approach,” Garza said. “I honestly feel that the counties across the entire Texan border shifted to the right because of the border chaos. … But this sort of everybody-out approach, I think, is also causing some reflection.”

The immigration crackdown has wreaked havoc for the area’s business community. Greg LaMantia, who runs a major beer wholesaler in the region, said his company’s sales are down as a result of the raids. “You have people that are legal that are scared to death to get caught up in this fiasco and deported,” said LaMantia, who voted for Trump and has donated recently to both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. “It’s caused sales to go down, no doubt about it. It’s chaos.”

Daniel Guerrero, CEO of the McAllen-based South Texas Builders Association, said rampant ICE activity has sent a shiver through the construction industry, leading to massive delays. He said ICE is notorious for following concrete trucks to job sites, then apprehending workers as they begin pouring a foundation, leaving half-poured concrete slabs.

“The sentiment is pretty clear across the table, that nobody really expected this magnitude of enforcement,” said Guerrero, who voted for Trump and De La Cruz in 2024.

He said the Hispanic Trump supporters he knows are souring on this administration, an observation supported by recent polling. In the latest warning sign, Latino voters helped a Democrat flip a reliably red seat in Fort Worth last month. Taylor Rehmet, who picked up a state Senate seat in a special election, won about 4 out of 5 Hispanic votes across the district, a massive 26-point improvement over Kamala Harris in 2024.

Many Republicans are trying to steer the discussion around immigration to focus on how border crossings have dropped to historic lows under Trump — which they hope will remind Hispanic voters why they should stick with the GOP.

“The Hispanic population gives President Trump and Republicans a lot of leeway with just how bad things were before and where they’re at now,” said Gonzales, whose sprawling border district is majority Hispanic. “They have a lot of leeway to get a lot of runway, if you will.”

De La Cruz successfully ran in 2024 on deportations and the “worst border security crisis in our nation’s history.” Now she’s proposing a new visa category, H-2C, allowing employers like those in construction and hospitality to hire foreign workers. She also introduced legislation which would expand the H-2A visa category for seasonal agricultural workers.

In recent weeks, De La Cruz said she has taken constituents to meet with the Labor Department, the White House and House Speaker Mike Johnson, pitching them on her bills and encouraging the administration to change its tact on immigration enforcement.

“There’s limited resources, period. And we want those limited resources to be focused on the worst of the worst, the criminal immigrants that have come in,” De La Cruz said. “We have legal immigrants in our district who have work visas that they don’t want to go out to work because some may have fear about the process that is currently being administered.”

But De La Cruz’s shift in messaging has simultaneously earned skepticism from some industry leaders and frustration with the base, underscoring the political tightrope she must walk until November.

Guerrero, the construction nonprofit leader, said he sensed political opportunism in De La Cruz’s newfound interest in helping his industry.

“People feel abandoned because you never showed face, and now that there’s an actual crisis, you want to show face?” Guerrero said. “It’s like, dude, it’s a little too late, man.”

The MAGA base, meanwhile, doesn’t love the shift, either. Patricio County GOP Chair Rex Warner thinks De La Cruz has become too soft on deportations. “I align with some of it, but very little,” he said.

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Nigel Farage Corrected 5 Times While Defending Jim Ratcliffe

Published

2 hours ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Nigel Farage Corrected 5 Times While Defending Jim Ratcliffe

Nigel Farage was fact-checked four times in a toe-curling interview over Jim Ratcliffe’s controversial claim that the UK is being “colonised” by migrants.

Ratcliffe, the billionaire co-owner of Manchester United, triggered major backlash last week when he said: “You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits, and huge levels of immigrants coming in.

“The UK is being colonised by immigrants.”

He claimed: “The population of the UK was 58 million in 2020. Now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million.”

Ratcliffe offered a limited apology on Friday, saying he was “sorry that my choice of language has offended some people in the UK an Europe”.

But, he insisted it was still “important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration that supports economic growth”.

Speaking to Sky News, Farage defended Ratcliffe – who has previously described the Reform party leader as “intelligent” – saying he had only pointed out a “fact” that 12 million people have come into the country.

But presenter Matt Barbet corrected Farage: “Well, he got the dates wrong didn’t he?”

Farage admitted: “He said 2020 but he meant 2000. Since 2000, 12 million people is the population increase in Britain. Over 85% of that is the direct impact of immigration. That’s a fact.

“There are nine million living in Britain on benefits of some kind, although some of them in work benefits.”

Barbet cut in with a second correction: “Most of them are in work benefits, actually.”

Farage also alleged that Ratcliffe had only withdrawn the use of the word “colonised”, not the overall sentiment.

Asked about his use of that loaded term, Farage said: “I think it’s probably in the dictionary definition correct – but perhaps people aren’t quite ready for that.”

“It has historical overtones though doesn’t it?” Barbet said. “I want to ask you about the language, the rhetoric. People using words like that, people referring to Enoch Powell’s speeches, is that overshadowing having a considered debate on immigration?”

Farage said: “It’s just one word. Everything he said was right. One word can be used in a different context.”

The MP for Clacton claimed the Office for National Statistics (ONS) census also shows a million people can’t speak any English.

But Barbet pointed out: “It says they aren’t speaking good English. That doesn’t mean there’s a million who aren’t speaking any English at all.”

“Five million don’t speak good English,” Farage insisted. “A million don’t speak English at all. Those are the census facts we got a couple of years ago.”

Barbet then pointed out that Ratcliffe himself is an economic migrant as he lives in Monaco.

“He’s a tax migrant,” Farage replied.

“He’s an economic migrant then, isn’t he?” Barbet replied, but Farage dodged the comment by claiming Ratcliffe is not claiming social security.

“He’s spending lots of money in Monaco employing people and spending money on the high street,” the Reform Party leader said.

“Actually, Nigel Farage, he’s cut hundreds of jobs here in the UK, in Grangemouth,” Barbet said, with a cutting fifth correction. “He wanted to build Ineos Grenadier car in Wales, you know where it’s built now? It’s built in France.”

Farage just blamed the “moronic energy policy” put in place by Labour and the Tories.

.@MattBarbet asks Reform UK ‘s Nigel Farage whether Jim Ratcliffe was “right to apologise” for saying Britain has been “colonised by immigrants”.
Watch the full interview live on Politics Hub ⬇️https://t.co/x4wJcskjGb
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 12, 2026

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Labour Together implicated in another spy story

Published

2 hours ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Labour Together implicated in another spy story

‘Labour Together’ — the sabotage outfit that brought down Jeremy Corbyn and conned Labour members into choosing Keir Starmer — paid investigators to spy on, and smear two Times journalists. Unsurprisingly, the pair — Harry Yorke and Gabriel Pogrund — have publicised their experience as unique.

@Gabriel_Pogrund and I were the subject of a disgraceful smear campaign — just for doing our jobs
I’m proud that The Sunday Times is calling it out on the front page tomorrow
Labour activists paid for smear campaign against journalists https://t.co/Uw9UjNJtzm
— Harry Yorke (@HarryYorke1) February 14, 2026
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Labour Together pursues journalists

The Sunday Times, which covered the story, reported that:

The group that helped to get Sir Keir Starmer elected as Labour leader hired lobbyists to investigate the personal, political and religious background of a Sunday Times journalist behind an article about secret donations that funded its work.
Labour Together paid £36,000 to Apco, a US public affairs firm, to examine the “backgrounds and motivations” of reporters behind a story before the general election.
The aim was to discredit The Sunday Times’s reporting by falsely suggesting its journalists might be part of a Russian conspiracy or had relied on emails hacked by the Kremlin.
Apco produced a 58-page report including almost ten pages of deeply personal and false claims about Gabriel Pogrund, the Sunday Times Whitehall editor. He and Harry Yorke, the newspaper’s deputy political editor, were named as “persons of significant interest”.
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Old news

But Pogrund and Yorke only stand out for being the only ‘mainstream’ hacks known to have been targeted by Labour Together. The pressure group was formerly run by disgraced Starmer adviser Morgan McSweeney and other ‘red Tories’ in Starmer’s faction. But these latest revelations and labour Together’S spying activities is not new — not in any real sense. Their not-so-covert operations have been in the public domain for months.

In fact, news of the spying broke on the Canary in September 2025. McSweeney’s outfit set investigators on Paul Holden, the author of The Fraud. This exposes Labour Together’s dark tactics and Starmer’s dishonesty. Furthermore, the book has been serialised by the Canary.

Labour Together did the same to Andrew Feinstein, the author and former Mandela government minister. He stood against Starmer in the 2024 general election and decimated his majority. Moreover, it did the same to journalists John McEvoy, Khadija Sharife and Peter Geoghegan.

Labour Together’s spies targeted Pogrund for being Jewish — ironic given their weaponisation of supposed ‘Labour antisemitism’ against Corbyn and the left. But they did the same to the Jewish Feinstein. They smeared Pogrund and Yorke as being linked to Russia — they’d done the same to Feinstein and Holden.

In fact, not even the ‘news’ about Yorke and Pogrund is new. The Canary reported it last week. No wonder McSweeney and his cadre are scared of the Canary. They have tried and failed to destroy it while Corbyn was still leading Labour.

Featured image via the Canary

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