Politics
“Revealing”: Lord Parkinson reviews ‘Winston Churchill: The Painter’
September 1946: Winston Churchill painting in Belgium | Image: © Churchill Archives Centre
5 min read
At a time of turmoil, political leaders could do no worse than seek inspiration from this revealing and enjoyable retrospective of the paintings of Winston Churchill
I was delighted, when arts minister, to learn that the Wallace Collection was planning a Winston Churchill retrospective. It might seem a surprising choice for this museum of decorative arts, but it has a splendidly Churchillian connection: the great-granddaughter of Sir Richard Wallace – the Conservative MP who left the collection to the nation – was Odette Pol-Roger. She befriended Churchill over dinner at the reopened British Embassy in Paris in 1944, reserved an entire vintage for him, and sent him a case each year for his birthday.
Image: © Churchill Heritage Ltd. Image courtesy Churchill Heritage Ltd
The wartime premier’s Nobel Prize in Literature is well-known; less so is his renown as an artist. After two of his paintings were pseudonymously accepted into Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, he was elected an honorary academician in 1948. A decade later, a selection of his works toured the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand before a hugely popular show at the Royal Academy in London – but there has been no national exhibition in the UK since his death in 1965. High time, then, for this illuminating and enjoyable show, curated by Xavier Bray and Lucy Davis.
These canvases illuminate the visual metaphors in his famous speeches
Churchill turned to painting at one of his lowest ebbs, after his dismissal as first lord of the admiralty in the wake of Gallipoli. Ejected and dejected at the age of 40, “the Muse of Painting came to my rescue”. She would remain an inspiration and comfort the rest of his life. “Painting is complete as a distraction,” he later explained. “I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind.”
Though self-effacing about his “daubs”, the apprentice was typically committed to improvement. His earliest mentor was the society portraitist and war artist Sir John Lavery. One of the most arresting images in this exhibition is the self-portrait Churchill produced at Lavery’s studio in 1915, shrouded in darkness and shadow, an echo of his turmoil that autumn.
High birth and high office allowed him to seek the advice of other artists. Sir William Nicholson – “the person who taught me most about painting” – stayed at Chartwell and tutored him in still-life, though with a Churchillian twist in the choice of subject: bottles of brandy and Johnnie Walker. Walter Sickert encouraged a greater spontaneity and more vibrant palette – seen in his Moroccan landscapes, or in his 1949 Twenty-Minute Sketch of Lake Carezza, painted en route to the inaugural session of the Council of Europe. To stop him overworking it, his wife Clementine is said to have asked a bodyguard to hide it under his bed.
Image: © Churchill Heritage Ltd. Image courtesy Churchill Heritage Ltd
The nearly 60 works selected here (from an oeuvre of over 500) amply demonstrate his development and curiosity, from hasty despatches from the Great War trenches to sophisticated studies of the state rooms at Blenheim Palace.
Especially revelatory is The Beach at Walmer, painted in 1938 and depicting the Churchill family paddling in Kent. The artist himself stands apart, looking out across the Channel. A Napoleonic cannon follows his gaze, echoing the warnings of the man who, within three years, would be lord warden of the Cinque Ports.
Just as Churchill mobilised the English language and sent it into battle, these paintings show how he deployed every medium in the campaigns he waged. These canvases illuminate the visual metaphors in his famous speeches – read in the audio guide by Sir Gary Oldman – and the list of friends and allies to whom he gifted them (set out meticulously in the catalogue by Lord Roberts of Belgravia) explain how he wielded soft power both at both a personal and geopolitical level. The list of lenders reads like a Who’s Who of the allied powers; parliamentarians will recognise the works on loan from the Churchill Room and the No lobby of the Commons.
This exhibition of the great statesman’s work runs until 29 November, the day before his 152nd birthday. Any other political leaders facing turmoil between now and then might find inspiration in it.
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay is a Conservative peer
Winston Churchill: The Painter
Curated by: Dr Lucy Davis & Dr Xavier Bray
Venue: Wallace Collection – until 29 November
Referrals to LGBTQ+ youth charity The Proud Trust increased by 171% following the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.
This prompted the charity to launch a major new national campaign highlighting the challenges LGBTQ+ young people continue to face and call for greater understanding, safer spaces and better support.
The Proud Trust, one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ youth charities, has launched #DeserveBetter, a nationwide campaign calling for greater understanding, safer spaces and better support for LGBTQ+ young people throughout the year.
The campaign comes as national research continues to paint a stark picture of the challenges many queer young people face. Nearly half of LGBTQ+ pupils experience bullying because of who they are, almost six in ten have seriously considered suicide, while almost a quarter may never complete secondary school, twice the national average.
The charity says there’s a growing demand for specialist LGBTQ+ support. Over the past year alone, The Proud Trust delivered nearly 400 youth group sessions and held more than 820 support conversations with LGBTQ+ young people, parents, carers and professionals.
Almost 10,000 people visited The Proud Place, its LGBTQ+ community centre in Manchester, while more than 1,400 teachers, youth workers and other professionals received specialist inclusion training.
Through its Rainbow Flag Award programme, which helps schools create safer and more inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ pupils, the charity also reached almost 50,000 young people.
Campaign will highlight issues affecting LGBTQ+ young people
Through #DeserveBetter, The Proud Trust will shine a spotlight on many of the issues affecting LGBTQ+ young people today, including bullying, discrimination, healthcare, education, barriers to employment, family acceptance, identity, belonging and access to safe spaces.
To kick off the campaign, The Proud Trust is sharing powerful first-person stories from people speaking publicly for the first time about growing up LGBTQ+, while also shining a spotlight on the key issues affecting young people today through expert insight and lived experience.
Award-winning spoken word artist myndstate has written an original poem inspired by his own experiences of growing up gay, while the campaign will also feature a special film bringing together a host of LGBTQ+ celebrities and high-profile allies, with the full contributor line-up to be revealed in the coming weeks.
Liam Swanston, director of development and partnerships at The Proud Trust, said:
A 171% increase in referrals isn’t just a statistic, behind every referral is a young person looking for somewhere they feel safe, someone who understands what they’re going through, or simply reassurance that they’re not alone.
Every day we work alongside LGBTQ+ young people who are navigating bullying, discrimination, isolation and uncertainty while also trying to understand who they are and where they belong. We also work with adults who want to understand and support the young people in their lives better.
No young person should grow up believing they have to hide who they are, face those experiences alone, or feel there’s no place where they truly belong.
#DeserveBetter is about ensuring those young people’s voices are heard. This campaign shines a spotlight on the realities many LGBTQ+ young people continue to face today, while celebrating the extraordinary difference that acceptance, visibility, community and support can make.
We hope it encourages greater understanding, challenges misconceptions and reminds every LGBTQ+ young person that they deserve to feel safe, valued, understood and able to thrive, every single day of the year.
For more information about The Proud Trust and the #DeserveBetter campaign, visit www.TheProudTrust.org
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
As of the 13 July, new regulations have come into effect for all police forces which will impact vetting procedures and suspensions. The government is rolling out the “complex and wide-ranging” rule change as part of its pledge to end violence against women and girls (VAWG). It follows a campaign from the charity Refuge, ‘Remove the Rot’, which kicked off in 2023 and subsequently found a “shocking scale of police-perpetrated VAWG” which meant women and girls could not trust the police to protect them. Refusing to allow there to be no place to turn for justice, the domestic abuse charity pushed for change, saying:
as an institution designed to protect the public from harm, the police cannot be allowed to let perpetrators slip through the net.
Refuge welcomed the changes which came into effect from today, adding that:
We hope today represents the beginning of a future where women and girls finally feel protected by the police, as they deserve.
Refuge: ‘Remove the Rot’ campaign
UK police forces have long been under mounting pressure to own up to the misogyny and racism that have been allowed to take root among many male officers.
These calls intensified after the appalling — and preventable — kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, Wayne Couzens. He abused his position of power with deadly consequences, conducting a false arrest of Everard and using police handcuffs to take her into his ‘custody’.
However, men that abuse women and girls do so because it makes them feel ‘superior’ and ‘dominant’ over their victims. This makes the police force quite an appealing line of work for these pathetic and dangerous types of men, making it the perfect breeding ground for these malicious, abusive attitudes.
Couzens shared “grossly offensive messages” with fellow officers before murdering Everard. This surely shows just how deeply these toxic attitudes can run within policing. Given another police officer was spared prison time for spying on a 14-year-old girl back in October, it doesn’t seem like the force has suitably recognised the severity of the threat facing women and girls across the country.
And that is what makes this so frightening: the police are supposed to protect the public, but when women and girls fear the very people meant to keep them safe, who are they supposed to turn to?
Given they amount to half the UK population, this has been a huge failing by the police and reform has been long overdue. This also comes at a time when the safety of women and girls is hugely under threat, with violence against women and girls rising and reported rapes increasing by over 500% in the last two decades alone.
“Refuge decided: enough is enough”
CEO of Refuge, Gemma Sherrington, welcomes the rule changes:
Women’s confidence in policing has been in crisis for far too long. Finally, the tables are starting to turn. As new vetting and suspension regulations come into force, today (July 13th) marks the success of Refuge’s Remove the Rot campaign.
For years, we have pushed for automatic suspension of officers accused of violence against women and girls (VAWG) alongside stronger vetting procedures. At long last, the police conduct and vetting regimes have been amended to bring new regulations in.
Launched in 2023, Remove the Rot uncovered the shocking scale of police-perpetrated VAWG, including domestic abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Having seen firsthand the catastrophic impact this was having on women and girls’ trust in the police, Refuge decided: enough is enough. VAWG is already at epidemic levels, and as an institution designed to protect the public from harm, the police cannot be allowed to let perpetrators slip through the net.
The new regulations, which were first announced in the government’s 2025 VAWG strategy, will require all police officers to hold and maintain vetting clearance, with new requirements to tighten suspension for those under investigation for specified VAWG offences. While these regulations depend on consistent implementation across police forces and cannot reverse the harm caused by police-perpetrated VAWG, they do send a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.
This campaign win was made possible by the tireless efforts of our supporters, with over 48,000 of you signing our Remove the Rot petition which was delivered directly to Downing Street in 2024.
The head of Refuge finished with a reminder that this is just the start of long-overdue reforms of the kind of people the police force is willing to hire and empower:
We hope today represents the beginning of a future where women and girls finally feel protected by the police, as they deserve.
We deserve to feel safe with the police
Many women and girls won’t even consider contacting the police for abuse they have suffered. They may stay silent because they fear nobody will believe them, or because they want to avoid a criminal justice system that often puts victims on trial instead of holding perpetrators to account — further deepening their trauma.
However, these changes introduced to the police force, lobbied for by Refuge, are only effective from today. Those within the ranks will likely not face any penalties unless they choose to reoffend.
Yes, abusers often reoffend, so they will likely expose themselves eventually, but this again puts the burden on victims of police-perpetrated abuse to have the courage to speak up to the colleagues/mates of the very man who hurt them.
Therefore, officials should have applied these changes retrospectively to remove those already hiding within the force and tackle the rot at its very core.
After all, Refuge found over 1.1k cases of police perpetrated VAWG just between October 2021 and March 2022.
Refuge rightly says that women and girls deserve to be protected by the police — not to be abused by them.
Featured image via the Canary
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‘Please don’t speculate.’ If I hear that chilling instruction one more time, I’m going to flip. It’s been the deathly, censorious chorus of the police, politicians and every media prick since Ann Widdecombe’s body was discovered at her home in Dartmoor last week. Don’t speculate. Don’t be a conspiracy theorist. Don’t exploit this tragedy. Don’t say it was political. Don’t call it terrorism. On and on they droned. And yet now it seems the ‘speculators’, those defamed as fantastists, may have been on to something.
Today it has been announced that counter-terrorism cops are taking over the investigation of Ms Widdecombe’s death. The body of the veteran Tory / Reform politician was found on Thursday. Shock tore through the nation when it was later announced she had sustained serious injuries and there would be a murder investigation. But cops were quick — weirdly so — to dampen ‘speculation’ that it might have been a political killing or a terroristic act. There is ‘nothing to suggest’ it was politically motivated, they said.
To many of us, it just didn’t stack up. How could they be so sure so soon? What’s more, the first suspect they arrested – a ‘26-year-old white man’, they told us, with the emphasis on ‘white’ – was swiftly released without charge. Without a suspect, how could they decipher a motive? Then came the news of the arrest of a second suspect, and that’s when folk really started scratching their heads. He was arrested in Rotherham, more than 250 miles from Widdecombe’s home. We were expected to believe that a random from Rotherham allegedly drove across England to the exact address of a famed politician and that there was nothing to see here? Nothing to ruminate on? Nothing unnerving?
Then came the Sun’s publication of CCTV footage seeming to show the suspect getting into his car in Rotherham on the morning of Widdecombe’s death, apparently with a large wooden stick. Naturally, the Sun, too, was accused of dangerous ‘speculation’, but in truth its intrepid sourcing of the CCTV footage contributed enormously to the public’s bristling, democratic concern over this strange death in Dartmoor. Even the BBC is now saying that the Sun’s reporting was swiftly followed by today’s jolting announcement: that Widdecombe’s death is now being investigated by counter-terror cops.
It was a moral outrage to shame the masses for ‘speculating’. People have serious, burning and entirely legitimate questions about this horrific incident. They knew it didn’t feel right that a possible political motivation was so swiftly discarded. They knew it didn’t add up that a man would allegedly trek from Yorkshire to Devon and allegedly knock on the door of a Tory turned national treasure without some kind of motivation. It’s possible the demonised speculators will be vindicated following today’s announcement that ‘new information and evidence’ has been discovered, and that counter-terrorism will take over.
It was officialdom’s supercilious tone that was most grating. And the media class’s, too – these prigs looked down on everyone asking questions as X-brained conspiracy nuts driven loopy by populism. They dolled up their opposition to ‘speculation’ as an effort to ringfence the legal sanctity of a future trial from the grubby BS of the little people. In truth, there has been a clear censorious impulse to their reprimanding of social-media oiks: pipe down, plebs, and leave it to us of a more refined, educated bent.
Maybe the chin-scratching public were right and the haughty elites were wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Let’s see. Of course, justice must not be prejudiced. And Widdecombe and her loved ones really do deserve justice for the horror that appears to have been inflicted on her. But respecting justice does not preclude querying police narratives, especially when they are asking us to believe that an alleged Rotherham-to-Dartmoor journey, with an alleged weapon, where a simultaneously loved and hated politician was the alleged target, is a random thing with no motivation. We must be free to query that. It was good that people did.
It’s the double standards of the speculation shushers that really stands out. When a ‘progressive’ individual is attacked, it is instantly narrativised as the horrible consequence of right-wing ‘culture’ and angry tabloid criticism. Yet when a figure on the right is attacked, it’s all ‘Don’t speculate’, don’t point a finger, don’t weave a self-serving narrative. Shorter version: we can ‘exploit tragedy’, but you can’t. It’s preposterous, and sinister. We need justice for Ann, and we also need the right to put pressure on officialdom if we think they are selling both us and her short with their investigations.
Brendan O’Neill is spiked’s chief political writer and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. His new book, Vibe Shift: The Revolt Against Wokeness, Greenism and Technocracy, is out now. Find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy.
Six weeks ago, Nicola Sturgeon said this:
Today, on her behalf, her perpetually furious lawyer said this:
So she was lying. Imagine literally nobody’s surprise. “I have nothing to hide, but I’m going to hide it anyway” is flawlessly in character.
(Though we must take a moment to note that the idea of anyone bothering to release her “police interview” – seven hours of “No comment” – is hilarious.)
In the intervening time, both Police Scotland and the Crown Office have made it very plain that Sturgeon was NOT “exonerated”, something only a judge and jury have the power to do, but Anwar lies about it anyway because neither of them has the slightest clue how to do anything but lie any more.
Everywhere Sturgeon goes, the lies glisten in her wake like a snail trail. The former First Minister, a coward to the last, is nothing but a stain on Scotland’s history.
UK counter-terror cops have arrested twelve people over an alleged far-right threat against an Islamic event in Suffolk, England. The arrests took place mostly in southern and eastern England with one individual detained in Greater Manchester.
On 13 July, the Counter Terrorism Police (CTP) had said:
The investigation, which is extreme right-wing terrorism-related, is connected to a suspected threat directed towards an Islamic event held at Shrubland Hall, Suffolk over the weekend (9-12 July).
Due to the concerns over the possible threat, and as a precaution, advice was provided via Suffolk Police to the organisers of the UK Ijtima event to close the event slightly earlier than planned on Sunday, 12 July. There is not believed [to] be any wider threat to the public connected to this matter.
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 13, 2026
NEW: 12 people have been arrested after a suspected far-right threat forced an Islamic event at Shrubland Hall in Suffolk to close early over the weekend pic.twitter.com/W2HnbUUPio
CTP’s Commander Helen Flanagan said:
After becoming aware of a potential serious threat towards the Islamic event in Suffolk, we have moved extremely quickly to make a number of arrests in various locations across the country.
Flanagan also thanked the organisers for cooperating with police and noted the news “may be concerning”:
to the public and particularly those in the Muslim community, given that we believe the intended target was an Islamic event.
But as we have shown, we will not hesitate to act if there is any potential threat, no matter who or what the potential target may be. I’m also pleased to say that although the event ended slightly earlier than planned, it nevertheless passed off safely.
She added:
Sadly, this activity is a stark reminder that the threat level in the UK is at ‘severe’, so we urge the public to remain vigilant and report anything if it doesn’t look or feel right.
Suffolk arrest 11 men and one woman
Eleven of the twelve people arrested were men. They were aged between 27 and 60, and all but one suspect was arrested in the south and east of England. Police have said:
Eight men [A-H] have all been arrested and detained under section 41 of the Terrorism Act, 2000 and remain in police custody at this time.
Three other men [J-L] were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, and a woman [I] was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Of those, one person [J] has since been released on bail, while the other three [I, K and L] remain in police custody at this time.
Suffolk police assistant constable Alice Scott from Suffolk Constabulary said:
We understand that the arrests and the context behind them may well cause some concern amongst our local communities. To provide some level of reassurance we will have a visible police presence in the area of Shrubland Hall over the coming days and we welcome local people to speak to us on the matter if they wish to.
Scott said “a major incident” was declared early Sunday morning. The authorities initiated “a multi-agency response”:
to ensure a safe and properly co-ordinated departure from the event of the 15,000 attendees. The major incident status was withdrawn earlier today (Mon).
This was a complex and fast moving scenario with the priority of all the agencies working together to ensure the safety of all the attendees. The Suffolk Resilience Forum wants to thank the organiser and attendees for remaining calm in very difficult circumstances, and we can reassure the public that everyone left the location safely.
US-British commentator Mehdi Hasan noted this was just the latest threat to British Muslims:
“Twelve people have been arrested over an alleged right-wing terror threat to an Islamic event at a country estate in Suffolk, police said.”
Another threat against Muslims in the UK: https://t.co/c96kuxWYfo
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 13, 2026
Another X user said “Islamophobia is a disease”:
Counter terrorism has arrested 12 British patriots suspected of planning an attack against Muslims at an Ijtima event in Suffolk.
Islamophobia is a disease that has infected broken Britain…. It must be cured. https://t.co/TNHIn8Dehi — Zara Hussain (@zarahussain999) July 13, 2026
Another social media user pointed out that anti-immigrant public figures who’d been very vocal about the alleged 9 July murder of right-wing politician Ann Widdecombe had so far been very quiet on the latest arrests:
As the entire Reform cult scream terrorism over a murder where there is yet to be any statement of terrorism there is a profound silence about the 12 arrests in relation to right wing terrorism this weekend
Terror police hold 12 for 'threats' to Suffolk mansion's Islamic event…
— dave lawrence
(@dave43law) July 13, 2026
Police said:
The investigation is being led by officers from CTP London, with support from colleagues in the Eastern Region Special Operational Unit (ERSOU), CTP North West and CTP South East.
Between the Widdecombe case and this sudden spate of arrests there are now two new major counter-terror investigations underway in the UK. Time will tell what the police turn up, but the difference in legacy media coverage is notable.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
Politics
Undercover Policing Inquiry reveals BAE Systems offered money to Special Branch to spy on anti arms trade campaigners
Evidence in the Undercover Policing Inquiry recently revealed that BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms company, offered the Metropolitan police money to spy on anti arms trade campaigners.
This followed the 1996 Seeds of Hope Ploughshares action which caused £1.4m worth of damage to Hawk aircraft. Four women were acquitted of criminal damage charges on the basis they were preventing a greater crime by taking action to stop BAE Systems exporting the aircraft to Indonesia for use in war crimes against people in East Timor.
The information emerged during the questioning of former detective chief inspector Dell on 1 July 2026. Dell managed the Special Demonstration Squad / Special Duties Squad (SDS) between 2001-2005. And he worked on C-squad – the Special Branch department that dealt with protest – prior to this.
During questioning about the links between private companies and police spies, Dell stated:
I remember someone on C-squad telling me that BAE Systems had suffered another attack…BAE had offered the Branch money to finance so resources could be put into this.
Dell denied that Special Branch took the money, stating:
Even though the Branch could well have done with the money, they made the offer to the commissioner, obviously, and it had to be declined.
It appears likely that this refusal led BAE Systems to take matters into its own hands. The Seeds of Hope action took place in 1996, and by 1997, BAE Systems had embedded its own corporate spy, Martin Hogbin, at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). Hogbin remained at CAAT until 2003.
Cops worked for BAE Systems anyway
However, this also didn’t stop the SDS spying on CAAT throughout this period. HN3, cover name “Jason Bishop”, was also authorised to target CAAT. Former detective sergeant Ron Gilbertson, HN49, stated that Bishop was:
authorised to target CAAT because the group was known to hold protests and demonstrations, which had the potential to result in serious public disorder.
Bishop also targeted Disarm DSEI, the coalition group organising against the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair. And he was close friends with CAAT’s media coordinator, Emily Apple.
However, documents revealed in the Inquiry show that anti arms trade campaigners weren’t targeted because of the threat they posed to public order, but because their protests:
could influence the financial wellbeing of the state.
Apple said:
BAE Systems went to extraordinary lengths to spy on anti arms trade campaigners, and intrude into our lives. This is a private company essentially prepared to bribe the police for information about its critics.
There are serious questions that the Inquiry needs to investigate about the complicity between successive governments, the police, and arms companies to repress our right to protest in order to protect a trade that is complicit in multiple genocides and human rights abuses.
However, it’s important to remember that this is not historical. The power of the arms trade to influence both government and policing policy is in evidence today.
This is shown clearly in the proscription of Palestine Action, with documents detailing meetings Elbit Systems had, not just with the Home Office but with the attorney general’s office, about how to crack down on protesters.
Successive governments have tried to label our protests as unlawful or undemocratic. However, it is the arms trade, the government, and the police that are profoundly undemocratic, repeatedly subverting the law to repress, surveil and harass our protests.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
Animal welfare charity FOUR PAWS UK is calling on the government to back mandatory animal welfare labelling legislation. It has published a report that reveals widespread confusion on supermarket shelves and growing public demand for a simpler, more transparent system.
A special event in parliament on 9 July launched the report. It included a pop-up supermarket aisle where parliamentarians saw how regulated welfare labels could transform the way we shop.
The report highlights a fragmented labelling landscape. Shoppers currently have to navigate a patchwork of assurance logos and welfare claims. And there’s often no clear information on how animals were bred, reared or slaughtered.
FOUR PAWS UK found that consumers are increasingly expressing concern for animal welfare. But they don’t have the tools needed to make informed choices between products. Unlike price or ingredients, animal welfare cannot be verified at the point of purchase. And this means consumers must rely entirely on the information presented on packaging.
Terms such as “farm fresh” and “responsibly sourced” can appear reassuring. But they provide little tangible information about stock density, housing conditions, access to pastures, or other factors that have a meaningful impact on an animal’s quality of life.
Method of Production labelling
FOUR PAWS UK argues the solution is mandatory Method of Production (MoP) labelling across all animal products. Under the proposals, labels would clearly identify the housing systems in which animals were kept and be supported by validated welfare indicators. This would create a consistent and trustworthy framework for consumers, retailers and farmers alike.
The report cites evidence from the egg sector that demonstrates how clear MoP labelling can improve consumer understanding. This has influenced purchasing decisions, contributing to the long-term shift away from caged egg production.
There is also strong public support for reform. A 2025 FOUR PAWS UK survey found that almost 80% of respondents support MoP labelling on animal products sold in supermarkets. The same research found four in five people also support banning cages for farmed animals. And two-thirds support ending barn systems where animals are raised exclusively indoors.
Emily Wilson, head of programmes at FOUR PAWS UK states:
Most people assume the information on a food label tells them something meaningful about the life an animal led. Too often, that simply isn’t the case. When shoppers are standing in front of a supermarket shelf, they should be able to tell, at a mere glance, the difference between one product and another.
The public have made it clear that animal welfare matters to them, but are being asked to make decisions on inconsistent, confusing and misleading claims. Consumers deserve honest, straightforward information.
Farmers who are already investing in higher welfare deserve recognition for the standards they’re setting. Most importantly, animals deserve a system that encourages a better standard of life.
Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael is chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee. He wrote the foreword for the report, hosted the launch and chaired an expert panel discussion with representatives from farming, certification and retail sectors. He added:
People have a right to know how the food they buy was produced. The current landscape is clouded with marketing spin and meaningless messages, which only do a disservice to shoppers and the many farmers who are already investing in raising standards.
The government has an opportunity to deliver a practical reform, with benefits for consumers, producers and animals alike.
The market has failed so the government needs to step up
FOUR PAWS UK is calling on the government to bring forward mandatory MoP labelling legislation. And it’s urging MPs from all parties to support measures that improve transparency, reward higher welfare farming and give consumers the information they are demanding.
Voluntary approaches alone cannot deliver the consistency and market-wide coverage needed to drive genuine change. While assurance schemes do play an important role, coverage remains uneven and significant gaps exist across imports, processed foods and food service settings.
Without a common standard, farmers investing in better standards have to compete on a Wild West-like playing field, against products using ambiguous welfare claims. We need to level this playing field and bring in mandatory legislation that applies consistently across domestic and imported products, processed foods and food service settings.
You can download and read the report in full here. For more information email FOURPAWS@thephagroup.com
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
There’s been so many wonderful, heartfelt and heart-breaking tributes paid to Ann Widdecombe, written by close friends and colleagues, that when asked to write this I hesitated. What can I add? I see this as a postscript to those tributes, based on very specific circumstances that led to a rather peculiar but rewarding relationship.
When I agreed to stand as a Brexit Party candidate in the European elections in 2019, I was entering an alien political environment to that associated with my directorship of the Academy of Ideas, or my regular perch on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze or the Sky News paper review, or indeed my previous life as co-publisher of LM magazine (the successor to Living Marxism). If that was discombobulating, what was terrifying was my first meeting with Ann, the well-known Thatcherite and former Conservative shadow home secretary.
We were to share a platform at a Brexit Party rally, and she had asked to see me privately beforehand to ‘clear the air’. I had been told she was unhappy with my candidacy after something of a media storm about my previous – albeit decades-old – involvement in the Irish Freedom Movement, a UK-based organisation that campaigned against British rule in Northern Ireland. She had lost a friend in the IRA Brighton bombing in 1984 and had been at the Conservative conference which was being held at the time. So, as I nervously introduced myself, her opening words were: ‘So, you wanted to blow me up.’
After 45 minutes of forensic grilling, during which we enjoyed a frank exchange of views, she smiled wryly, squeezed my hand and said she respected honesty and principles. She concluded in that unmistakable school ma’am voice: ‘We’d better get on with saving Brexit then.’
She went on to deliver a barnstorming speech without notes. I followed her on to the stage with a sheaf full of notes, far more nerves and far less verve. But the cheering crowd was generous to both of us. We were all on the same side on this issue at least. As I left the stage, she gave me a warm hug and, with a twinkle in her eye, said ‘you’ll do’. We never looked back.
That seriousness, generosity of spirit and humour rather set the tone for our relationship when we were elected as MEPs, along with the rest of the victorious Brexit Party candidates who ended up in Brussels. Her experience as a proper, grown-up politician, as opposed to those of us who were new to the field, was invaluable.
She was meticulously professional. When she explained why it was important to answer all correspondence, even from those who were hostile, I took note. She taught me that accountability to the public was paramount. She was forthright and intelligently probing in all our group meetings, forcing us to think through tactics and positions. She was ferociously loyal to the Brexit Party as a group, but she was also her own woman, and fervently independent.
Inquisitive about people, she was always keen to look beyond the surface and find out what made others tick. In our many conversations, we discovered how much we had in common – from our shared commitment to free speech as a core pillar of democracy to our opposition to assisted dying. And when we disagreed, we both took time to explain why we believed as we did, disagreeing civilly, and always learning something from each other. This taught me that whatever the media caricature or public persona, when you actually dig deeper, people are always more complicated and interesting.
It helps explain why now, since the tragic circumstances of her untimely death, social media are littered with hundreds of photos of Ann with countless people from all social backgrounds. Having dinner with them, chatting to them, sharing a bottle of wine with them. And she is always looking as though she is having a ball. She honestly seems to have known everyone! And that’s because she was the opposite of a snob. She was distinguished – as a political figure, novelist, celebrity – but never too grand to be approachable. She was great company and a model public servant.
One thing I really loved was the delight that Ann took in our unlikely friendship – although she did sometimes tut-tut at my blaspheming. Whenever she was approaching me, she held her arms open wide and just embraced me with such warmth, often calling me ‘comrade’, with a cheeky grin. She joked about us being united as rebels from across the political divide, and her greatest compliment was when she laughingly admitted I may have brought out a bit of revolutionary spirit in her.
She had far closer chums, deep friendships with many, and we were only colleagues temporarily. But she made a huge impression on me – not so much in terms of my politics but how to behave in the political arena. She was unbiddable, unbuyable and uncompromising in speaking truth to power. She worked bloody hard, too. Indeed, she was one of the most tireless, diligent and irrepressible women I’ve ever met.
Since her death, many have noted that she would have been an obvious person to be nominated for a peerage. We might speculate about whether grandees in the Conservative Party were – as rumoured – so sectarian and spiteful that they denied this renowned elder stateswoman that honour. Despite this, Ann was lovely when I joined the House of Lords, and showed no envy whatsoever. Instead, she gave me invaluable advice on how to operate in parliament: ‘Gird your loins when encountering condescension and sneers; speak out as often as you can, but only on issues that matter to you; don’t be bullied by others; and only act on your conscience.’ It could be a charter for all politicians.
As for Ann, the truth is she was far too busy to sit on the red benches. Having already experienced life as an elected legislator, she rightly felt she could be far more effective at realising the project of Brexit by escaping the confines of Westminster.
I hate that she was struck down so cruelly while living her best life politically. She was behaving like a Young Turk, dashing around the country speaking at Reform UK rallies and local meetings, endlessly offering forthright advice to Reform UK bigwigs and her vast range of journalist mates without fear or favour. And she appeared regularly in the media, ensuring that distinct voice of common sense was heard loudly and clearly by millions. Perhaps someone thought an act of violence would silence that voice.
There is some minor consolation that, since her death, clips of Ann have been greedily shared on social media, with some even trending. Let’s help that endeavour by sharing Ann’s uncompromising defence of free speech at the Oxford Union a few years ago far and wide. Do listen – and you might just recognise me in one of her anecdotes (ouch!).
I was just so lucky to have known her.
Claire Fox is a member of the House of Lords, and director of the Academy of Ideas.
On 13 July, activists disrupted Manchester and Glasgow offices housing Chubb Insurance. It was part of a coordinated campaign to pressure genocide-complicit corporations to sever ties with apartheid Israel.
Campaigners believe that Chubb Insurance offers Employers’ Liability Insurance to UAV Engines Limited. UAV is a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, which arms the Israeli occupation with 85% of its weapons.
Palestine Resistance Collective (PRC) occupied the Manchester office lobby with banners and a model of Elbit Systems’ quadcopter drone.
Meanwhile, Mothers Against Genocide Scotland held a family-friendly demonstration outside the Glasgow office with banners and music, engaging with the public as they passed by.
As workers arrived for the day, they had to walk through the protests and confront their corporation’s role in genocide. Some reportedly appeared shocked.
Chubb under pressure
In the last few months, Chubb has also faced numerous direct action hits across the country. Actionists have locked on outside, broken windows and covered buildings in red paint.
Last year, campaigners claimed victory when Allianz and Aviva stopped providing Employee Liability Insurance to Elbit, following sustained protest activity. Since Chubb took on this role, it has become the focus of many groups who believe sustained protest activity will again force the insurer to sever ties.
A member of Palestine Resistance Collective, who coordinated the action in Manchester, stated:
Isreal is expanding its plans of systematic land theft and murder at a never seen before scale. Whilst a myth of a ceasefire exists, Chubb Insurance is in the background drooling at the sight of money to be made off the bombs, missiles and drones dropping on tents.
Chubb Insurance will learn the hard way, akin to its cousin corporations, Allianz, Aviva and AXA who were forced to abandon their genocidal ventures.
Andrew Taylor for Boycott Bloody Insurance explained:
Chubb is profiteering from the ethnic cleansing happening in Gaza and the West Bank. Its insurance enables Elbit Systems to continue to battle-test its weapons on Palestinian civilians.
Research by Boycott Bloody Insurance uncovered that Chubb maintains a high position in terms of underwriting the risk of weapons manufacturers with ties to the genocide. Chubb has achieved the worst possible score for any insurer across a variety of key issues.
This includes insuring companies such as Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and multiple suppliers of the F-35 fighter jet parts, which are also used by the occupiers to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in their native land.
Featured image supplied
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