This article is part of a series looking at the British media’s smear campaign against the Green Party in the May 2026 elections

On 15 April, we reported that Labour gasbag Steve Reed was accusing the Greens of antisemitism. This was despite the antisemitism smear perpetrated by the Labour right having lost any impact. It was also despite Reed having antisemitism accusations of his own.

Since then, Reed has doubled down on the slanderous accusations. The result has been more criticism of Reed and still no impact on the Greens:

Steve Reed would not be allowed to join the Green Party due to known past antisemitic views. https://t.co/3ogOSN7LTY

— Dr Iain Darcy (@doctoriaindarcy) April 20, 2026

Smear merchant

To be clear, when we describe Reed’s actions as an ‘antisemitism smear‘, what we mean is that he’s concocting allegations for political purposes.

In the video above, an unsettlingly wide-eyed Reed talks about an alleged antisemite who was “exposed” by the Spectator – a right-wing shitrag.

According to Reed, this candidate posted a meme which featured a venomous snake wrapped around the world. Reed highlights that this snake had the Star of David on it. What he fails to mention is that the snake is actually wrapped in the Israeli flag – a flag which prominently displays the Star of David.

Reed fails to mention this, of course, because there’s obviously a big difference between criticising Israel and criticising Judaism.

A person can still take offence with criticism of Israel if they like, although fewer are choosing to do so. This is especially the case since Israel kickstarted the war on Iran, with disastrous consequences for the global economy.

Reed faces pushback

People laid into Reed for his latest intervention, anyway. Ex-BBC employee David McNab said:

Still banging the ‘any criticism if Israel is antisemitic’ bs I see. Just like WW1 generals, the Labour Party have run out of ideas and are going to die on that hill.

Journalist Richard Sanders said:

Steve Reed embodies a particularly distasteful feature of Starmer’s Labour Party – non-Jews who believe they have a God-given right to designate Jews they disagree with about Israel antisemites.

The Fraud details how he led a purge of left wing Jews shortly after Starmer became leader.

If white people roamed the Labour Party expelling black people as Uncle Toms we would be absolutely appalled. When and how did this become acceptable?

You can read that passage on Steve Reed in The Fraud here.

Lads the corrupt racist who backs a genocide and is linked to Labour pedophiles is trying the antisemitism smears agst a Jewish man

Not happy with sabotaging their own side. They want to try and do it to @ZackPolanski https://t.co/SQFpulg2B0 https://t.co/EtfnZpP9ju

— jan (@smerkinkones) April 21, 2026

Media smears

As people highlighted, the Spectator has been pulled up for concocted antisemitism accusations before:

The Spectator? Isn’t that the rag once edited by Alexander de Feffel Johnson whose novel is dripping with antisemitic tropes and which had to pay compensation to a man falsely accused of antisemitism in an article by its journalist who was cited in Anders Breivik’s manifesto? pic.twitter.com/eU1K4kmRGC

— Carl Freeman (@carljfree) April 21, 2026

In fact, the entire British media has been pulled up for this shit.

The fact that these smears no longer work is a positive development, but they still need calling out wherever we see them.

Featured image via Steve Reed

By Willem Moore

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Four senior Labour figures are being charged following a criminal investigation into vote-rigging allegations in Croydon East. The allegations against them centre on irregularities in the Labour candidate selection process for the constituency.

The Standard named the individuals involved as ex-Croydon councillor Carole Bonner, Unison organiser and prospective candidate Joel Bodmer, Shila Bodmer, and Gabriel Leroy.

All four face charges of conspiracy and computer misuse. Joel Bodhmer is also being charged with perverting the course of justice over suspicions that he tampered with phone records.

The Labour Party has immediately suspended all four individuals.

‘A whole new level’ of (alleged) dodginess in Croydon

Back in 2023, Labour Party members in Croydon East filed complaints about their contact details being altered. Somebody had apparently falsified their phone numbers and email addresses. This, in turn, meant that some of the potential parliamentary candidates couldn’t vote in the selection process.

Eventually, Labour had to temporarily call a halt to the selection process. Some of the injured parties levelled allegations of targeted vote rigging.

Joel Bodhmer withdrew from the race, leaving Natasha Irons to win both the selection process and the Labour safe seat.

At the time, the Morning Star quoted investigative journalist Michael Crick stating:

there are suggestions that this could be part of a much wider campaign that involves senior party figures, a systematic programme of data protection offences and interference in Labour’s supposedly democratic procedures.

Notably, Crick found evidence of current and former members being registered to vote online without their consent or knowledge. However, the charges announced today don’t appear to relate to these potential offences.

The Morning Star also alleged that:

Conspiracy and cyber-crime

In March 2024, the Metropolitan Police launched its official investigation into the Croydon East allegations.

On 21 April 2026, a spokesman for the Met stated that:

The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised charges against four people after an investigation by the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit into allegations that a Labour Party database was manipulated to increase a candidate’s chances of selection in Croydon.

The individuals have been charged with conspiracy to commit an offence contrary to Section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 and Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act relates to unauthorised acts “with intent to impair” the operation of computer.

Frank Ferguson, leader of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, announced:

Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.

We have worked closely with the Metropolitan Police Service as it has carried out its investigation.

We remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against these defendants are active and that they have the right to a fair trial.

It is vital that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.

‘We cannot comment further’

The four defendants from Croydon East Labour are scheduled to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 19 May.

A spokesperson for the Labour Party said:

These are incredibly serious charges.

When complaints were first raised with the Labour Party we conducted a thorough internal investigation and we referred the matter to the police as soon as potential criminal wrongdoing was identified.

We cannot comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.

This latest scandal will come as unwelcome news for Labour. Earlier this year, the PLP faced allegations of blocking Andy Burnham’s candidacy for Gorton and Denton because he posed a threat to Starmer and the party’s right wing.

Likewise, on 17 April, we learned that Peter Mandelson failed the vetting for his position as ambassador to the US. However, Starmer and/or other senior Labour figures reportedly pressed through Mandelson’s appointment in spite of his name appearing in the Epstein files.

Alongside these recent scandals, vote rigging allegations would appear par-for-the-course for Starmer’s Labour.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband speaking at the National Growth Debate at the Institute of Directors in London | Alamy

3 min read7 min

Ed Miliband has said he will “double down, not back down” on the government’s clean energy mission in the face of critics calling on him to change course.

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The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero said the UK must go “faster” in its shift away from fossil fuels and that there was “not a moment to waste”.

The Labour government has faced calls to rethink its energy policy in response to the global energy crisis triggered by the war in Iran.

The conflict, initiated by US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, has resulted in severe disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane responsible for significant volumes of world gas and oil. Tehran has threatened to attack ships trying to pass through, leading to a sharp fall in maritime traffic. 

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Miliband has been urged by the Conservatives and Reform UK to restart drilling for gas and oil in the North Sea as a way of protecting the country’s energy supplies from shortages.

Speaking at an event in London hosted by the Good Growth Foundation think tank on Tuesday, Miliband said that “the era of fossil fuel security is over.”

“We have not a moment to waste, and that’s why we’ll double down, not back down on our mission for clean energy,” the Labour cabinet minister said, adding: “Clean energy is now the only route to financial security, energy security, and indeed, national security.”

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The government has announced a package of measures aimed at protecting Britain from the impact of fossil fuel shortages, including expanding the use of solar on public land, breaking the link between gas and energy policies, and taking further action to encourage households to switch to solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs).

Ministers are also working on a targeted scheme to protect some households from rising energy bills. 

Ofgem’s current price cap, which sets the maximum amount suppliers can charge households for energy, expires in July, when average bills are expected to rise sharply due to the war in Iran.

Speaking this morning, Miliband accused those who want the government to dilute its clean energy policy of being “a coalition of naysayers and defeatists”.

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“No matter what some people would have us believe, solar panels, heat pumps and EVs are not woke, or a left-wing conspiracy, or even a Marxist plot. They’re actually common sense.”

He added that it was a “myth” to say that gas and oil extraction from the North Sea would help cut domestic energy bills, stressing that prices are set on international markets. 

However, he did not rule out approving further drilling at the Jackdaw and Rosebank sites off the coast of northwest Scotland.

Work to begin extracting oil and gas at these sites was delayed after judges ruled that licenses were granted unlawfully, and now Miliband is under pressure from business groups and some Labour MPs to greenlight the projects.

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“I do not agree with those who say we should turn off the taps overnight, but nor do I agree with those who suggest that somehow drilling every last drop will take a penny off bills or give us energy security,” he said.

“I will not betray the future generations of this country by acting on the basis of myth, falsehood and misinformation.”

 

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Keir Starmer’s pressure on the Foreign Office to ignore Israel-supporting paedophiles’ pals is not limited to Peter Mandelson. He did the same with ‘Labour’ peer Matthew Doyle, who has since been suspended for his support for convicted child sex offender Sean Morton.

Starmer knew about Doyle’s links to Morton when he appointed him. Which means he also knew when he pressured the Foreign Office to give Doyle a job. As the Independent’s political editor spotted:

Starmer put pressure on the FCDO to give Matthew Doyle a job and not tell the Foreign Secretary. Another person suspended because he was close to a paedophile.
That is stunning.

— David Maddox (@DavidPBMaddox) April 21, 2026

Tip of the iceberg

But these incidents are just the tip of the iceberg of Labour Zionist paedophiles and sex offenders – and Starmer’s protection of them.

Starmeroid MP Dan Norris’s recent arrest for rape was his second on suspicion of sex offences. The first, in 2025, was for alleged rape and paedophilia and is still under investigation. As noted, Starmer is currently under pressure for appointing his mentor and chief adviser Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, who has since resigned over his notorious links with serial child rapist and Israeli agent Jeffrey Epstein.

But even just in 2026 the issue goes far further. In early January, Israel fanatic Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) organiser Liron Velleman admitted child sex offences. In February, Labour councillor Conor McGrath was charged and convicted for possessing child rape images. Like Velleman and other Labour-right paedophiles, McGrath escaped jail, receiving only a ‘slap on the wrist’. In April 2026, right-wing ‘friend of Israel’ former Labour councillor Adrian Hughes was convicted of grooming three children for sex. He has not yet been sentenced.

But we’re just getting started.

In January 2025, former Blair minister Ivor Caplin was arrested in a sting operation as he allegedly attempted to meet a 15-year-old boy for sex. Local police decided to go after local left-winger Greg Hadfield for exposing explicit content Caplin posted on his X feed – Hadfield defeated the ‘vexatious’ charge in November 2025. However, no charges have yet been brought against Caplin and he is not even on bail. A court did not re-impose bail conditions after his initial bail expired. Despite the ongoing police investigation, Caplin was recently invited to speak on LBC about Keir Starmer’s move to block Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s bid to stand in a parliamentary election.

There’s more

Hackney councillor Tom Dewey, an organiser in pro-Israel group ‘Labour First’, admitted possession of the most serious category of child rape images in 2023. The party knew of his arrest when it allowed him to stand for election. After his conviction, it blocked local women members from its systems to prevent them discussing the case.

And in March 2025 Sam Gould, who worked for Starmer’s health secretary Wes Streeting, quit as a Redbridge councillor after being convicted on two separate counts of indecent exposure to a 13-year-old girl.

Cover-ups and appointments

Keir Starmer’s personal involvement in covering up alleged sex offences has been extensively documented by Skwawkbox – and not just from his time as Director of Public prosecutions when the CPS declined to prosecute rapist celebrity Jimmy Savile and others.

Starmer:

• Welcomed the London MP Neil Coyle back under the Labour whip despite Coyle being found by Parliament to have sexually harassed a staffer, as well as racially abusing a Chinese-British man.
• Turned a blind eye to then-Chester MP Chris Matheson’s sexual harassment: neither Starmer nor the party machine suspended him pending the outcome of the investigation, as would be usual practice to protect the women around him.
• Protected at least two further alleged sex pests on his front bench.

And Starmer and his then-sidekick David Evans covered up Jewish whistleblower Elaina Cohen’s allegations of serial abuse of vulnerable Muslim women by a party staffer.

Cohen repeatedly warned Starmer and Evans that a staffer working for then-Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood — and allegedly Mahmood’s lover — was engaged in ‘sadistic’ and ‘criminal’ abuse of vulnerable Muslim women. The victims were fleeing domestic violence, allegedly inflicted through the now-defunct domestic violence ‘charity’ that she ran. Starmer and Evans did nothing. Mahmood remained on Starmer’s front bench and Cohen was sacked from her role as parliamentary aide.

One of the victims gave evidence at Cohen’s successful wrongful dismissal tribunal. She spoke of the horrific abuse she and others suffered. This included blackmail and sexual exploitation. Her evidence was not challenged by Mahmood or his lawyers. At the tribunal, Mahmood admitted under oath that he’d personally made sure that Starmer was aware of Cohen’s allegations.

Labour’s ‘paedophile friends of Israel’ problem is also so widespread as to be a defining characteristic of that faction. And Starmer’s cover-ups and blind-eye-turning regarding paedophiles and sex offenders is a defining characteristic for him. That he is still in a job shows how sick and dysfunctional the UK’s ‘democracy’ really is.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Shahzad Akbar, an aide in Imran Khan’s government, has told Declassified UK that he has been the target of a sustained campaign of “transnational repression” since fleeing to Britain following the US-backed 2022 regime change in Pakistan.

The former Pakistani cabinet minister, barrister, and close ally of the currently incarcerated Imran Khan, told Declassified’s Mark Curtis that he was brutally assaulted on his doorstep last Christmas Eve. This followed his protests against Khan’s imprisonment outside the Pakistani High Commission in the week leading up to the attack.

Please watch this @declassifieduk interview with @ShazadAkbar who was horrendously attacked at his home in England — for his criticism of Pakistan. https://t.co/BEMFSYIEkk

— Mark Curtis (@markcurtis30) April 16, 2026

Akbar told Curtis:

Imran Khan’s illegal incarceration is not because of any cases or corruption charges. It is because of the personal vendetta of the current army chief, Asim Munir, who Imran Khan fired as the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] chief when he was prime minister.

Despite being a political exile living in the UK, Akbar says he has been attacked and intimidated, raising urgent questions about Britain’s duty to protect dissidents.

Akbar said that the UK takes threats seriously when they come from Russia or Iran, “but they must do everything to protect people from Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, because we have rights too”.

Pakistan recently mediated talks between the US and Iran because of its ties to both. However, Khan’s incarceration has cast a shadow over it.

Imran Khan’s incarceration brings up uncomfortable questions for Pakistan’s role as a colonial lapdog for the US and Israelhttps://t.co/cVR8QAdPQa

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) April 13, 2026

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The Washington Post said that despite Pakistan not recognising Israel, its ties with the US “through deals in crypto, minerals and counterterrorism”, have helped Pakistan’s role as a mediator. 

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed power that doesn’t recognize Israel, is hosting talks to end the Iran war despite not always getting along with President Trump.

The country improved ties with the U.S. through deals in crypto, minerals and counterterrorism. https://t.co/KQPjiNH2nN

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 21, 2026

But as the US and Britain embrace Pakistan as a strategic partner, they are complicit in the very repression Akbar fled from.

Featured image via Associated Press of Pakistan

By The Canary

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As reported by Stats for Lefties, support for the two main parties – Labour and the Tories – has tanked:

Ahead of local elections, how have polls shifted since the last time these seats were contested (in 2022)?

Ref +24.2
Grn +10.7
Lib +1.7
Con -15.5
Lab -21.6

Since last time these seats were up, support for the two big parties has fallen by over **37pts** pic.twitter.com/bYcWyHBSoO

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 20, 2026

At this point, we should probably stop calling them the ‘two main parties’.

While they hold the most seats right now, that almost certainly won’t be the case come the next general election.

Fading fortunes of Labour and the Tories

Unfortunately, it looks like Reform UK are set to capitalise on the downfall of Labour and the Tories. In addition to the above, Reform have once again opened up a significant lead with the pollster YouGov:

POLL | Reform lead by 10pts

Ref: 27% (+3)
Grn: 17% (-1)
Con: 17% (-2)
Lab: 16% (-1)
Lib: 14% (+1)

— Seats —
Ref: 337
Lib: 89
Grn: 82
SNP: 47
Con: 40
Lab: 23
Plaid: 10

Poll: @YouGov, 19-20 Apr 2026 (+/- vs 13 Apr) pic.twitter.com/3Q8lGtwMA9

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— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

If an election happened today, the above result would see Reform UK securing a majority government. We dread to think what that would look like (although it probably wouldn’t be any different to a Reform-Tory coalition).

Reform’s polling bounce has come despite the constant controversies of the past few weeks, including:

• Reform activist said ‘Hitler was right’.
• Reform candidate wants to ‘tear down’ the NHS.
• Reform welcomes ‘shoot the p*kis’ scandal ex-Tory.
• Reform UK accused of ‘nil vetting’ as another racist candidate exposed.
• Farage heckled at Reform’s Jimmy Saville-aping London launch.

The ‘glass half full’ analysis is that voters see Reform as the logical protest vote.

With Labour PM Keir Starmer embroiled in many controversies of his own, the UK public have much to protest:

You don’t need a vetting process to tell you that you shouldn’t appoint the best friend of a convicted paedophile who continued the friendship after the conviction. Starmer knew, he should go. https://t.co/ISHehVDvnY

— Mark Roberts (@Roberts_Mark_) April 21, 2026

The other note of optimism is that Reform have struggled to turn their national polling into local success. Most notably this happened in the Caerphilly by-election, and also in Gorton & Denton:

Sore loser Farage can't accept that Reform's man in Gorton & Denton was a dud, so he's resorted to accusing the Green Party of cheating.https://t.co/N0t4YG65X2

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) February 27, 2026

The problem for Reform is that the party is incredibly polarising. Their supporters love them, but their detractors will go out of their way to ensure they don’t get in.

This has kept Reform out in by-elections; we’ll see if the same proves true in the locals.

Problems regardless

Should Reform perform as expected, this still may not benefit them in the long run. The party runs several councils now, and the consequence of that is people have got to see how Reform govern.

Horror stories we’ve covered include:

• Reform councillor reposts that Labour MP ‘should be shot’.
• Reform councillor dramatically quits over council tax betrayal.
• What a surprise – Reform councillor attends just one meeting and sends two emails in six months.
• Reform councillor fined £40,000 for hiring ‘illegal’ workers.
• Reform councillor would like to see wage cuts to fund his pay rise.

Reform may have considerably more councillors after the local elections. This will mean they have considerably more scandals, and that the public gets a much better idea of the threat they represent.

Let’s hope that reality doesn’t manifest, and that Reform underperform this May.

If you want to see that happen, be sure to get out there and vote.

Featured image via Stats for Lefties

By Willem Moore

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PARC Against DARC has been campaigning since 2024 against the US military’s proposed DARC radar array in Pembrokeshire. Now it’s spoken out on Eluned Morgan’s surprise announcement which called for the UK government to ‘pause’ the DARC project while Donald Trump remains US president.

The campaigners say that while they welcome any opposition to DARC from the first minister, her calls lack any real substance when viewed under scrutiny as she is only calling for a pause and has not come out in outright opposition to the project. They add that there’s nothing to stop her doing another U-turn if she wins re-election.

Reports suggest there were over 500 opposing emails in response to the MOD’s recent public consultation on DARC and many to Morgan and MP Henry Tufnell. Campaigners believe this may have contributed to what they describe as Morgan’s ‘election jitters’ over the issue, adding:

It’s clearly in the minds of voters for the upcoming Senedd elections and may well also be a key issue being reported back to Morgan from the doorsteps too.

The campaign has also been quick to criticise Tufnell’s rebuke of Morgan’s remarks where he cited ‘Pembrokeshire DARC jobs’ as a key pro-DARC factor, saying:

It’s absolutely unbelievable how out of touch Henry Tufnell is on the whole DARC debate. You can tell that ‘somehow’, he hasn’t even got the memo from the MOD that they stopped trying to use jobs to try and sell their disastrous radar as soon as their Environmental Impact Assessment forced them to officially admit that the number of jobs for locals would be a meagre 20 at a maximum!

And that’s with the rest of the tiny operational staff being made up entirely of US personnel. Given that the EIA also shows that a necessary condition of DARC being built is that the entire existing staff would have to evacuate the Brawdy base, what we’re actually talking about with this proposal is a net loss of about 300 to 500 Pembrokeshire jobs, and that’s before we even get to the knock-on job losses from the huge damage to tourism.

Henry Tufnell has done what all of the very few DARC advocates left in the county always do: they just lie and lie and lie. Both he and Eluned Morgan recently trotted out this MOD lie that the statutory consultation just passed was publicised to all residents in the area, yet if they had paid attention to even a single email we know they were sent by local residents, they’d realise that not a single one of the leaflets the MOD distributed to the community ever even mentioned the consultation, and that the whole thing was a huge scandal.

For them to miss something so glaringly big just confirms that they continue to be utterly clueless as to how contemptuous the MOD’s handling of the local community actually has been. Either they don’t know, they don’t care, or they just can’t possibly believe how bad and out of control this project actually has been.

Party lines on DARC

Prior to Morgan’s unexpected announcement, campaigners had been critical of what they described as:

an abject silence and lack of any meaningful comment from local Labour officials on DARC.

This announcement, they say, is a clear sign that there are deep ruptures within the Labour Party over DARC. They believe Morgan may have seen the ‘writing on the wall’ for Starmer with predictions of an electoral bloodbath for Labour on 7 May.

So, effectively, Morgan has nothing left to lose with the prospect of her losing her seat and Starmer losing the leadership after the elections. The PARC campaign says, however, that it does wish to acknowledge what it describes as “Morgan’s bravery in standing up to Trump,” who has a reputation for bullying people, and especially for attacking women, who criticise him.

Both Plaid Cymru and the Wales Green Party have publicly opposed DARC from the beginning. And with polls showing Plaid as the largest party in Wales after 7 May, a likely Plaid / Green coalition could well be able to stop DARC in its tracks by a means of ‘calling in’ the planning application to the Senedd once in power.

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said:

This is nothing but a last-ditch attempt by Eluned Morgan to cling on to her seat. Since becoming first minister, she has chosen to stay quiet on defence and international affairs, only now speaking up after polls show her losing her seat.

Plaid Cymru has consistently called on the UK government to focus on rebuilding European ties in response to Trump’s increasingly dangerous positions.

We have consistently opposed DARC alongside local communities, passing a motion at our annual conference in October 2024 and tabling a parliamentary motion in Westminster in March 2025.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski referred to Morgan’s comments as “Absolutely right”. He also said:

Standing up the USA must mean more than words. Let’s get serious about national security by working closely with our EU neighbours & rapidly decoupling from a rogue US president.

With public divisions now seeping out from inside the Labour Party itself and DARC becoming an ever more hotly debated election issue, the campaign believes that now is the time to put DARC to bed once and for all. Campaigners say that they have repeatedly ‘blown up’ every single justification the MOD has tried to make for it.

Campaigners point out:

The fact that in the recent war on Iran, the IRGC destroyed all of the $billions worth of US military radars in Gulf countries within hours of hostilities beginning proves that radar sites like DARC would make Pembrokeshire a ‘first priority military target’ in any conflict, which is completely unacceptable and should not be supported by our ‘parachuted in’ Labour MP.

They add:

Comments from Downing Street and Henry Tufnell yesterday which sought to minimise local impacts are simply laughable too and are an insult to the intelligence of Pembrokeshire and its people.

The MOD’s Environmental Impact Assessment does nothing but outright and openly confirm that DARC would have significantly adverse effects on literally every environmental level assessed, particularly in its visual impact on the National Park skyline.

The MOD’s had to admit that the visual impact is adverse in 100% of the 33 assessed viewpoints, and substantially adverse in at least 21% of them.

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Having to admit all of this, all the MOD can then try to do is make out that DARC, which we’ve now extensively proven to be for targeting enemy assets in space and is considered a huge escalation by China and Russia who are now having to basically enter an arms race because of Trump’s increasingly unstable global aggression, is some kind of civilian system for space management.

Yet anyone who knows a single thing about that subject would see that claiming to have solved one of the most legally and diplomatically difficult endeavours of building an actual international space traffic management regime with just one radar site in West Wales is just simply yet another one of the most easily discredited and brazen lies the MOD have told so far.

As the issue gains national attention following Morgan’s remarks, campaigners conclude:

DARC must be stopped, it’s as simple as that, and to achieve that we urge people to vote for the anti-DARC parties on 7 May.

Featured image via PARC Against DARC

By The Canary

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UK universities, including Oxford, Imperial College London and King’s College, have hired a private intelligence firm to spy on pro-Palestinian students and academics.

The operation was carried out over several years by Horus Security Consultancy on behalf of 12 elite academic institutions. Horus shareholders include an ex-SAS colonel who helped found the hard-right, pro-Israel Henry Jackson Society.

The joint Liberty Investigates and Al Jazeera report claims the task netted the firm “at least £440,000  ($594,000)” since 2022. The surveillance operation reportedly involved using AI technology to monitor online activity.

After sending freedom of information requests to 150 universities, the team uncovered:

evidence that Horus Security Consultancy Limited trawled through student social media feeds and conducted secret counter-terror threat assessments on behalf of some of Britain’s most elite institutions.

The bizarre spy mission targeted students and academics exercising their right to campaign against Israeli brutality and genocide — and it did so even before the 7 October 2023 attack.

Universities target campus activism

The investigation found:

Among those monitored were a Palestinian academic invited to give a guest lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University and a pro-Gaza PhD student at the London School of Economics, according to internal documents.

Adding:

In October 2024, the University of Bristol provided the firm with a list of student protest groups it wished to receive alerts about, an internal university email suggests. It included pro-Palestinian and animal rights activists.

Ultimately, some of the most best universities in the UK “paid the firm to monitor campus protest activity”.

The report also named:

• University of Oxford
• Imperial College London
• University College London (UCL)
• King’s College London (KCL)
• University of Sheffield
• University of Leicester
• University of Nottingham
• Cardiff Metropolitan University

AI-integrated private spy service

Horus provides a special spy service called “Insight”. Insight provides “open-source intelligence reports” to customers using an unidentified tool to “harvest a vast range of sources on the internet”.

Liberty Investigates and Al Jazeera noted:

According to its website, [Horus] has been integrating AI into its operations since 2022.

Horus Security’s CEO and founder is Jonathon Whiteley. Whiteley is a former UK Intelligence Corps colonel. His bio says he worked for the British Army, where he served in Iraq, the Balkans and Cyprus.

He was seconded at various times to all three UK national intelligence agencies and was Mentioned in Despatches for his work in Northern Ireland.

The UK’s three main intelligence agencies are the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the Security Service (MI5) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). They respectively deal with external security, internal security and electronic and signals intelligence.

Whiteley left the army in 2006 before running a “successful project” for Oxford University and founding Horus.

Ex-SAS Henry Jackson-linked shareholder

The Horus website names former SAS colonel Tim Collins as a shareholder. Collins is a founding signatory of the hard-right ‘thinktank’ the Henry Jackson Society (HJS).

HJS invests much of its time in:

intellectual agitation on behalf of elite Anglo-American financial, security and fossil fuel interests.

Experts have said that the spying programme had gruesome implications. Gina Romero, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, told Al Jazeera:

The use of AI to harvest and analyse student data under the guise of open source intelligence raises profound legal concerns.

The head of the lecturer’s union, Jo Grady, told Al Jazeera it was “shameful” that institutions had “wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds spying on their own students”.

Lizzie Hobbs was a PHD student at the London School of Economics (LSE) when she was targeted by Horus.

She said:

We knew surveillance was happening by the university, but it is shocking to see how systematised it is.

Horus also targeted Palestinian-American lecturer, Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, in June 2023, before the Israeli genocide began. She had been invited to speak at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in memory of British student Tom Hurndall, who was killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza in 2003.

Documents, including emails between Horus and university staff and a copy of the assessment Horus provided, were uncovered by journalists.

Together, these show that on April 6, 2023, MMU asked Horus to conduct a secret counter-terror “threat assessment” on the 70-year-old Palestine studies scholar.

Horus and Collins did not respond to request for comment. Some of the universities did respond, often citing ‘security’ and ‘safety’ as a rationale for commissioning acts of espionage against students and scholars.

It is evident that private and state geopolitical and security interests have merged into a brazenly authoritarian apparatus. This all-encompassing security blob, with AI surveillance at its very core, threatens our essential liberties. The fact that it comes on the same day as genocide-linked AI firm Palantir announced their openly fascistic manifesto only makes the revelations more chilling.

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By Joe Glenton

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On 17 April, we learned that Peter Mandelson had failed his vetting for the ambassador to the US position. Keir Starmer would blame the senior civil servant Olly Robbins for this, sacking him as a consequence.

Now, the sacked Foreign Office chief has hit back:

NEW: Olly Robbins says there was an "atmosphere of pressure" from No 10 to push through Peter Mandelson's appointment without vetting

"[The due diligence document] resulted in a dismissive approach to Developed Vetting from No 10" pic.twitter.com/RLdGOl4UXq

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— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) April 21, 2026

Starmer and his fall guy

Robbins’ letter is addressed to Emily Thornberry MP, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

In it, he notes he is seeking “advice” on his dismissal. He also attempts to clarify a situation that he describes as being “mired in confusion”, noting:

1. In November 2024, the then Cabinet Secretary recommended that security clearance be obtained before announcing a political appointee for Washington. It was not. After the announcement, I believe the Cabinet Office (CO) raised whether Developed Vetting (DV) was actually necessary. I understand the FCDO insisted that DV was a requirement before Mandelson took up his post in Washington.

2. I took over as PUS on 20 January 2025. Developed Vetting (DV) for Mandelson was underway, but already:

  a. Due diligence (which assesses reputational suitability and checks if a candidate is fit to serve) had been completed by the Cabinet Office

  b. Approval of the appointment had been given by HM The King

  c. Mandelson’s appointment had been announced

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  d. Agrément had been given from our US partners

  e. Mandelson had access to the FCDO building and basic IT access

  f. Mandelson was being granted access to highly classified briefing on a case-by-case basis

Clearly, the point Robbins is making is that No 10 seemed determined to put Mandelson in the position regardless. Indeed, Mandelson was already operating as the ambassador to the US before the vetting was completed.

“Atmosphere of pressure”

Robbins continued:

3. Cumulatively, 2a to 2f resulted in a dismissive approach to DV from Number 10 Downing Street (No 10) for the remainder of the process. Nonetheless, despite this atmosphere of pressure, the department completed DV to the normal high standard.

4. DV is a clearance process designed to assess a candidate’s national security risk. It relies on the applicant and contacted third parties being entirely candid. To be effective, this requires a highly confidential environment, which applicants trust to protect their personal information. DV achieves this by minimising access to this information. Without trust, DV is less effective and national security is weakened.

5. UKSV did not ‘fail’ Mandelson and FCDO did not ‘overrule’ their decision. Like several other departments eg MOD, FCDO is the DV decision-maker, not UKSV. It is FCDO that makes the risk judgement and then does or does not grant clearance. This is particularly important at the FCDO, as an area of focus for the DV process is a candidate’s foreign relationships. FCDO has thousands of staff with DV and the security team has extensive experience to call upon when making these judgements.

6. Within FCDO, the Estates Security and Network Directorate (ESND) liaise with UKSV to discuss the risks they have identified and whether the FCDO is confident these can be managed. I have not seen any UKSV documentation and would not normally expect to.

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The idea that Mandelson didn’t ‘fail’ his vetting is at odds with the narrative we’ve all come to understand since 17 April.

As Robbins explains, however, there’s a reason for this confusion.

Pass/Fail

According to point 7 in Robbins’ document, while Mandelson may not have ‘failed’ his vetting, it seems equally clear he didn’t really ‘pass’ either:

7. On 29 January 2025, I met with Director ESND and we discussed the DV for Mandelson. It was an oral briefing and no documents were presented to me. I was briefed that:

  a. UKSV considered Mandelson a ‘borderline’ case, leaning towards recommending that clearance be denied;

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  b. ESND assessed that the risks identified as of highest concern by UKSV could be managed and mitigated eg via management actions and the need to obtain STRAP clearance from the intelligence agencies;

  c. The risks did not relate to Jeffrey Epstein; and

  d. UKSV acknowledged that FCDO may wish to grant clearance, with appropriate risk management.

DV clearance is a risk judgement. This is especially true the more senior a candidate is and the longer their career. Managing these risks as part of the clearance process is not unusual. I therefore agreed that the ESND approach was appropriate and ESND granted clearance. When the Prime Minister informed the House that the proper process had been followed in respect of NSV, he was correct.

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Even before the vetting, people were saying Mandelson was too big a risk. We now know Ed Miliband was one of them.

In other words, the vetting scandal is a distraction from the real issue – that Starmer saw fit to hire the twice-disgraced Epstein associate in the first place.

“Deeply worrying”

Robbins provided further details on what he did and did not have access to:

8. As I and the Foreign Secretary wrote to this Committee on 16 September 2025 and as outlined to the House of Commons by Minister Doughty on the same day, “Ministers… are not informed of any findings other than the final outcome.” These statements were agreed with CO and No 10. This position reflected long-standing practice and guidance, and correctly constrained our ability to share information beyond the vetting process then or later.

9. In September, after Mandelson’s withdrawal, I considered the possibility of taking the unusual step of asking to see the UKSV documentation. My team consulted the Cabinet Office and were told that I required a national security justification. Subsequent discussions between FCDO and CO reflected different views on this matter, but I decided to adhere to normal practice and did not pursue this further.

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We understand not everyone should have access to all the information that materialises in the vetting process. The problem is it seems like no one with the power to make decisions seems to have gained any understanding of what the vetting said about Mandelson.

This is not a functional system.

Whistle blowing around Starmer and his government

Robbins closes out by expressing his concerns over how the story came to be publicly known:

10. Finally, it is deeply worrying that within days of CO officials briefing No 10 on the issues they perceived with Mandelson’s vetting the story had leaked to The Guardian.

In executing my national security responsibilities as PUS, I have drawn on many years in national security roles and applied guidance and commonly understood practice. My guiding principle has been to defend the integrity of a system designed to protect UK national security.

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I thank the Committee in advance for its consideration of this note, for its invitation today and for its vital work scrutinising the department I have been enormously proud to lead.

Robbins may be worried, but we’re not.

Clearly, the public needed to know what an absolute shambles the government’s vetting process is.

And if a creature like Peter Mandelson can slip through, the process may as well not exist in the first place.

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By Willem Moore

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