Politics
Starmer strong man act falls flat
UK PM Keir Starmer gave his best attempt to tell Trump off in the House of Commons. This comes in response to Trump’s recent jab at the British government’s supposed delay to jump on board with the war in Iran. Trump said that Starmer “took far too long” to allow the US military to use a UK base in Cyprus.
Of course, just hours after Starmer publicly announced that permission had been granted, the base was attacked in retaliation for facilitating the US invasion of Iran. And, it must be noted, this is a war which many ex-military officials in the US have already labelled “illegal.”
So, when Starmer’s ‘rebuke’ of Trump did come, it fell rather flat.
Starmer strong man act falls flat
Stating that the US President has ‘expressed his disagreement’ with the UK, the weak PM attempted to look strong by justifying his decision as one of British national interest. Starmer said:
The lessons of history have taught us that it is important when we make decisions like this, that we establish there is a lawful basis for what the United Kingdom is doing.
That is one of the lessons from Iraq, and that there’s a viable thought-through plan with an objective that can be achieved or has a viable prospect of being achieved.
He continued:
This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.
But, it does believe in assisting US-led regime change via supplying airbases?
This belated ‘strong man’ impression offered by Starmer has been received as the damp squib it is. After all, the human rights barrister-turned-leader has had no problem supporting his allies in their numerous war crimes. He has been perfectly happy shielding war criminals responsible for a genocide against Palestinians.
Pressure from MAGA
However, this bravado exposes how impossible it is to have a diplomatic relationship with the demagogue US President. It is well known how Trump uses economic and military warfare to get his own way, highlighting the terrifying precedent being set by the rogue president for ‘diplomacy’.
Now our government is under pressure by the MAGA administration to get involved with their illegal war on Iran, it is more important than ever that we demand a divergence from the US. It cannot be understated that this aggression threatens chaos and suffering across the region, a chaos will undoubtedly and deservedly reach our shores.
Keir Starmer, “President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes”
“But it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest”
“That is what I’ve done and I stand by it”
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) March 2, 2026
It’s clear Starmer is going to great pains to differentiate between offensive and defensive military actions. But, the fact the UK is involved at all makes Starmer’s so-called ‘challenge’ to Trump look pathetic.
Iran has the right to retaliate under international law to threats posed against its sovereign territory. With our diplomatic cover and spineless behaviour, the UK is supporting the existential threat Iran faces from the US and Israel. Ignoring that, the UK Prime Minister appears to apply international law selectively – invoking and interpreting it in ways that shield the United States and Israel from accountability.
“Special relationship” under strain
Like a child throwing his toys out of the pram as per usual, Trump has already retaliated. He stated today that our relationship is now strained, indicating the cost that comes through legitimising Trump’s rogue, illegal and escalating decisions:
US President Trump has lashed out at Britain’s PM Starmer for refusing to back Washington’s war against Iran, warning that the so-called “special relationship” now faces strain.
🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/mSvQSyvKdN pic.twitter.com/c7YsJNdxVM
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 3, 2026
Our own Joe Glenton wrote in February about just how occupied we are by the US, signaling the tightrope and danger we are in if Trump is allowed to keep ignoring the rule of law. He wrote:
The UK is even more of a US military colony than we thought. New documents found in the US War Department’s website show that Britain hosts double the number of American military facilities previously reported.
Glenton finished with a vital rallying cry:
The truth is that Britain is a vassal state and colony of the United States. We say the UK would better off if it was not. US bases, troops and spies need to go.
Ordinary people thankfully can recognise legality better than our barrister PM. One X account commented on Starmer’s woefully manipulative speech, pointing out the legally obvious:
I’m just gonna leave this here.
UN Charter:
“Under international law, the UK can be held responsible if it permits its territory to be used by another state to commit an “internationally wrongful act” (such as an illegal war) if it has knowledge of the circumstances.”
It’s hard to believe Starmer doesn’t know this is illegal, especially due to his maneuvering and apparent discomfort with involvement in offensive actions. Maybe the UK PM is only happy with one illegal bombing campaign at a time, having been complicit in the genocide and heavily funded by the Israel lobby. Needless to say, his pushback to Trump is really just semantics and wordplay.
Curtis Daly pointed out on X just how easy this decision should have been:
So he should have told Trump to piss off when he asked to use our military bases. Starmer is complicit. https://t.co/RWI06XUTIq
— Curtis Daly (@CurtisDaly_) March 2, 2026
Careful the company you keep, Starmer
This horrific war of aggression that has already killed hundreds of Iranians and wounded hundreds more has to be the wake-up call for allies of the US. The US is falling, it is in its final days after repeatedly decimating any respect previously afforded to it. It being allowed to maintain control of the world order will put all countries on the backfoot, whilst prioritising the interests that Trump serves: the super-rich and powerful.
This aggressive US world order will undoubtedly escalate, and it has never been more objectively clear that a thug sits in the White House. If we don’t want Trump’s angry, bloodthirsty glare to fall on the UK we must urge our spineless PM to actually object to the US and Israel’s unaccountable war on Iran.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Politics Home Article | Labour Deputy Leader Opposed By-Election Attack On Green Drug Policy

4 min read
Lucy Powell was among the Labour figures privately concerned about attacking the Greens’ drug policy during the Gorton and Denton by-election campaign, PoliticsHome understands.
Powell, who succeeded Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader last year, played a key role in the party’s campaign in Greater Manchester. She herself is an MP in the region.
However, several sources have told PoliticsHome that she expressed concern about particular attacks used by Labour against Zack Polanski’s party late in the campaign, which focused on Green positions on drug legalisation and prostitution.
A Labour spokesperson declined to comment on internal campaign discussions.
Many Labour MPs, including ministers, have complained that the party’s unsuccessful campaign in Greater Manchester was misjudged, focused too much on criticising the Greens rather than setting out a positive case for what the government had achieved in office. One minister told PoliticsHome that the lesson from the by-election defeat to the Greens was that Labour “can’t be negative” if it wants to win back progressive voters.
Cat Eccles, the Labour MP for Stourbridge, last week told PoliticsHome: “I cannot understand the choice to attack the Greens on their drug policies with sensationalism and misinformation. It did the party no favours whatsoever.”
Powell has appeared to publicly distance herself from elements of the Labour campaign.
In an interview with The Observer at the weekend, the MP for Manchester Central said her party would not succeed by trying to “out Reform” Nigel Farage’s party, and instead should present itself as a “progressive alliance that is against the politics of the right”.
The government has doubled down on the drug policy attack, despite concern in parts of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
In a letter to Labour MPs following their defeat in Greater Manchester, first reported by PoliticsHome, Keir Starmer said he would continue to highlight the risk posed to the country by the Greens, including “extreme policies like legalising all drugs and pulling out of NATO”.
The seismic Labour defeat to Green candidate Hannah Spencer has triggered a debate within the party about the direction it should go in to recover its electoral position.
In her weekend interview, Powell also said stricter immigration rules being introduced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood Powell were “a real concern to our ethnic minority communities” in Gorton and Denton.
Starmer’s description of the Greens as “sectarian” and “divisive” in his letter to the PLP unsettled some Labour MPs, who felt that it risked further alienating progressive voters whom the party must win back. “That letter is what the Greens will use to raise the money. Slow clap,” one backbencher complained last week.
The PM is also being warned that the Green victory in Greater Manchester means a strategy of presenting Labour as the party best-placed to stop Farage’s Reform can no longer be relied upon.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has intervened, arguing that his party must abandon its “flawed” strategy of “taking liberal, progressive voters for granted”.
Echoing a feeling widespread in the PLP, one Labour MP told PoliticsHome that coming second to Reform in Gorton and Denton would have been a more palatable result for the party, as, in that scenario, Labour could continue to argue that it is in a stronger position than the Greens to stop Farage. But now, “the barbarians are at the gate”, they added.
However, other Labour figures have warned that it would be misguided to shift to the left in response to the defeat last week.
Mahmood is pressing ahead with immigration and asylum reforms, with allies of the Home Secretary warning that rowing back would be to misinterpret public sentiment.
Paul Ovendon, former adviser to Starmer, today wrote in The Times: “If the government, reeling from recent events, now fails to fully back the Home Secretary, it will reap a far worse hangover than the one it is currently suffering.”
Recent research suggests that the Green policy of legalising drugs could be a problem for Polanski as his party gains more attention and exposure.
Focus groups carried out by Thinks Insight & Strategy for PoliticsHome last month picked up strong concern about the policy among people considering voting Green in Sheffield and East London. Allie Jennings, director at the research organisation, told PoliticsHome: “We found that focus group participants were often unaware of the Green Party’s policy on drugs. However, once informed, there was either disbelief or strong opposition. For those who opposed the policy, it confirmed their sense that the Green Party are idealistic and their policies are unlikely to work in reality.”
One Labour source claimed that the attack would have had more cut through had the party used it earlier in the by-election campaign.
A YouGov poll published on Tuesday, carried out following the Green victory in Gorton and Denton, put Polanski’s party in second place, five per cent ahead of both Labour and the Tories.
Additional reporting by Adam Payne
Politics
Starmer rapidly escalating UK involvement in US/Israel Iran war
The UK will send a British warship and military helicopters to Cyprus, UK PM Keir Starmer has announced. Starmer said HMS Dragon, a destroyer, and helicopters with counter-drone capability would be deployed to defend the UK’s colonial military bases on the island.
The decision follows an alleged Iranian drone attack on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The attack caused no casualties.
The attack was retaliatory. The US and Israel themselves launched an unprovoked attack on Iran on 28 February. Both US intelligence and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have respectively confirmed Iran had no intention to attack anyone and no intention to develop nuclear weapons. Iran was engaged in fruitful negotiations with the US at the time of the attack.
Starmer posted on X on 3 March:
The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there.
We’re continuing our defensive operations and I’ve just spoken with the President of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter drone capabilities and HMS… pic.twitter.com/0tsZb4dG2i
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 3, 2026
Starmer initially refused to involve the UK. Hours later – under pressure from the US – he conceded that the US could use UK military bases – effectively bringing the UK into the war.
Rapid escalation
The war is expanding at an alarming rate.
787 Iranians, 6 Americans and a growing number of people in the Gulf states and Israel have died. And On 3 March, the Cypriot government slammed Starmer for bringing it into the war. Also on 3 March, Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon.
Reuters security reporter Phil Stewart posted:
France and Greece said they would also send anti-missile and anti-drone systems after the British base on the island was hit on Monday.
MORE-
(Reuters) – Britain is deploying HMS Dragon, an air defence destroyer, to Cyprus after the runway of its Akrotiri base there was hit by an Iranian-made drone.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday he was sending the naval vessel along with helicopters with… https://t.co/ywkj7GIQG6
— Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) March 3, 2026
The Royal Navy website describes the Dragon as:
capable of an array of duties outside of her air defence role, from providing disaster relief to counter-narcotics boarding operations.
Having undergone a major upgrade to her weapons, IT, communications and marine engineering systems, HMS Dragon is currently undergoing sea trials in preparation for her third overseas deployment.
Starmer has taken a contradictory line on UK involvement in the war. He has claimed the UK will take only defensive role, allowing the US and Israel to carry out strikes. Self-evidently this is still taking part in the war – as is allowing the use of British bases inside the UK and the Indian Ocean.
Sir Richard Dalton told Declassified UK that British assets in the region were now legitimate targets of Iran.
The regional power:
will not distinguish [between] attacks to its missiles and other wider attacks on its political, military and economic institutions and leaders.
They will say that these are attacks facilitated by Britain on Iran as part of the United States campaign to destroy the Islamic Republic.
Only days after the US-Israeli attack on Iran the situation is accelerating extremely fast, increasingly pulling in European countries with it. The world economy is starting to feel the hit too. And there has been no democratic vote in the US or UK. Whatever this is, it does not feel like a situation Keir Starmer has any control over.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Trans driving ban in Kansas comes into effect
Late last week, on February 26, the state of Kansas dealt its most heinous blow yet to trans people. The new law is titled ‘House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 (HSB244). However, it’s also become known as the ‘Bathroom Bounty’.
The bill immediately invalidated state-issued driver’s licenses, identification cards, and birth certificates if they didn’t reflect the holder’s sex as assigned at birth.
As part of that legislature, the Kansas Department of Revenue sent out letters to 1700 trans people across the state. The notice demanded the immediate surrender of driving licenses, with no grace period. Essentially, Kansas is holding legal permission to drive hostage to enforce trans people’s submission.
‘Far beyond just transportation’
HSB244’s sweeping legislature requires that trans people use according to their assigned sex. It also permits any citizen to sue individual trans people for as much as $1,000 if they see them in the bathroom corresponding to their gender – hence the moniker.
Kansas governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, originally vetoed HSB244 for being poorly written. However, legislators overruled the veto to push the bill through.
The lack of grace period means that the law comes into effect immediately. Any trans or non-binary person driving with their correct license is at risk of a $1000 fine and 6 months in jail. Kansas already requires that inmates are jailed according to their sex assigned at birth.
Three researchers in anti-trans discrimination wrote for the Conversation about the far-reaching effects of the bill:
without a valid driver’s license, many trans and nonbinary people will be unable to get to work, attend classes, pick up their children, visit the doctor, see friends or go to the grocery store. Trans and nonbinary people who need to drive with an invalid license risk fines and jail time, where they would be housed according to their sex assigned at birth.
Taking a train or bus is not a solution that would work for many people. Almost half of the U.S. population does not have access to public transportation, and for those who do, it is often poorly maintained, sparse or unreliable. […]
The effects of invalidating someone’s legal documents goes far beyond just transportation. Legal IDs are required to access health care, obtain housing, have a job, vote, attend college, access financial assistance or even purchase cold medicine at a pharmacy.
Legal challenge
Two anonymous trans men are currently challenging HSB244 in the District Court of Douglas County. Civil rights organisation the American Civil Liberties Union is representing them, along with law firm Ballard Spahr.
They’re arguing that the bill violates state protections for privacy, equality under the law, personal autonomy, due process, and freedom of speech. Monica Bennett, Kansas ACLU legal director, stated that:
This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans.It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution.
Likewise, Harper Seldin – a senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project – added:
SB 244 is a cruel and craven threat to public safety all in the name of fostering fear, division, and paranoia. The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police. Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.
Escalating Trump administration policy
HSB244 is an escalation of the Trump administration’s wider anti-trans policymaking. Trans-focussed independent journalist Erin in the Morning explained that:
The Trump administration has barred transgender Americans from obtaining passports that reflect their gender identity, a policy the Supreme Court allowed to take effect in November. The Social Security Administration has similarly stopped permitting gender marker updates. At the state level, Florida, Texas, Indiana, and other states have moved to block gender marker changes on driver’s licenses or birth certificates. But Kansas appears to be the first state to go further than simply blocking future changes—it is actively invalidating previously issued documents and demanding their surrender.
Meanwhile, in the UK, our government is busy trying to institute its own bathroom ban for trans people. The legislation is currently in limbo because there is no legal way to tell whether or not a person is trans.
Any attempt to do so will, inevitably, also impact intersex people, butch lesbians, femme gays, and gender non-conformists of all types, leaving it open to legal challenge.
As Kansas has clearly demonstrated, the ‘solution’ to this problem will necessarily involve stripping a minority group of their identity documents. If that sounds to you like fascism, it’s because it is bloody fascism.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
It’s not ‘Islamophobic’ to condemn Mothin Ali’s ayatollah apologism
‘The blatant Islamophobia that Keir Starmer is demonstrating through smearing Mothin Ali would be shocking – but it’s becoming a pattern’, intoned Green Party leader Zack Polanski on X last night. He was of course speaking in defence of his deputy, who he described as a ‘caring man of principle who stands up for peace’. Polanski followed this up with another post earlier today, claiming that ‘There’s nothing the establishment is more scared of [than] a calm, kind, thoughtful gardener who happens to be a Muslim man in politics’.
As is so often the case when an accusation of ‘Islamophobia’ is flung around, Polanski was not defending Ali from unjustified racist attacks. He was trying to silence criticism, which, in this case, was coming Ali’s way for attending a pro-ayatollah rally last Saturday. That’s right – while the majority of the Iranian diaspora were overjoyed at the news that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed during American airstrikes, with many taking part in large, celebratory events, Ali was at a smaller gathering, to mourn the tyrant’s passing.
Ali claims he attended the rally not because supports the Islamic Republic of Iran, but because he opposes war, full-stop. He said that the rally was organised by the Stop the War Coalition and any suggestion he may have been motivated by anything other than pacifism is ‘pure racism’. But it is difficult to take this claim at face value.
Firstly, the protest Ali attended seemed less ‘anti-war’ than anti-America and anti-Israel. Protesters shouted the favourite incantation of Iran’s mullahs, ‘Death to America’, and burnt the star-spangled banner. They drew the same tired parallels between ‘Zionism’ – that is, the right of Jews to have a homeland – and terrorism. Attendees chanted, ‘Khamenei, you make us proud’, and waved flags that bore the grim visage of the Iranian despot. To reinforce the pro-regime message, those present also desecrated the lion and Sun banner – the symbol of the Iranian resistance.
Ali has form here. He may claim to be a pacifist, but he has no problem with war or violence when it’s waged against the world’s only Jewish State. In the aftermath of Hamas’s pogrom in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, he openly supported the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ (Hamas’s codename for the mass killings), citing Palestinians’ ‘right to fight back’. In 2024, when he was elected to Leeds City Council, he punched the air and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ – declaring his victory a ‘win for the people of Gaza’.
As for being ‘thoughtful’ and ‘caring’, in 2024, Ali led a campaign of abuse and intimidation against Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, an Israel Defence Forces volunteer and Leeds University’s Jewish chaplain. ‘You should be protecting students from this kind of animal’, he told the university in a vituperative social-media post, targeting Deutsch. He accused the rabbi of killing women and children in Palestine, and labelled him a ‘creep’. Deutsch, his wife and their two children were later required to flee Leeds on the advice of police, after being inundated with death threats.
Unsurprisingly, Ali’s attendance at the pro-ayatollah rally did not go unnoticed. In the House of Commons on Monday, Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke said he was ‘appalled’ but ‘not shocked’ by the Leeds councillor’s attendance at the semi-vigil for Khamenei. ‘We’re all shocked by the actions of the deputy leader of the Green Party’, responded prime minister Starmer. ‘[But] perhaps not surprised, given their recent turn of direction.’ For once Starmer was surely right: Ali’s attendance of the rally was part of a pattern of inexcusable behaviour.
Polanski and Ali may cry ‘Islamophobia’, but the Greens’ embrace of Islamic sectarianism and their willingness to excuse even the most violent expressions of Islamic extremism fully deserve to be condemned. Indeed, the Greens’ success in the Gorton and Denton by-election was a reminder that this is no longer a small party on the sidelines of British politics. They cannot be dismissed as harmless.
For the Greens, the issues impacting Gorton and Denton, and the UK as a whole, hardly warranted a mention. Instead, their campaign was almost solely focussed on Gaza – specifically, ‘punishing’ Labour for its (extremely tepid) support for Israel. They successfully pitted members of the constituent’s significant Muslim population – and their partisans among students and graduates – against other ethnic and religious groups. The most shameless demonstration of this tactic was a campaign video in Urdu – the native language of Pakistan – which showed Starmer embracing Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and accusing Reform (untruthfully) of planning to tax foreign residents at a higher rate.
The Greens are playing a dangerous game. They deserve all the criticism that is coming their way. When a senior party member is happy to cast the murder of innocent Israelis as resistance, hounds an innocent Jewish man and his family into exile, and attends a rally in defence of a theocratic tyrant, it isn’t ‘racism’ or ‘Islamophobia’ to condemn it. It’s called accountability – and it’s high time Mothin Ali and Zack Polanski got used to it.
Hugo Timms is a staff writer at spiked.
Politics
Buckingham Palace turned into memorial garden by activists
Led by Donkeys activists have turned the gardens in front of Buckingham Palace into a memorial to Virginia Giuffre, the best-known survivor of serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was close to former prince Andrew. He and, especially, his enabler and fellow Israel asset Ghislaine Maxwell were frequent guests at the palace, often off the books and bypassing security.
Justice activists and the public have been highly critical of the Windsor family’s slowness to act against Andrew and only then when forced to by revelations from documents from the official investigation into Epstein. The family paid a significant amount to keep his crimes out of the public view. Andrew was arrested on his birthday in February 2026 for leaking sensitive information to Epstein – but not for his alleged crimes against trafficked girls and women.
Giuffre is officially supposed to have died by suicide at her home in Australia, shortly after a mysterious car accident. Her family and others have pointed out holes in that story. She said publicly in 2019 that she would never choose suicide. No doubt the presence of her likeness and story outside the palace is something Charles and his minders will not welcome.
One of the creators of the installation said:
She’s wasn’t here to see the arrest of Prince Andrew, but don’t let the world EVER forget Virginia Giuffre.
Former prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein tried to silence and SMEAR her. But she demanded justice against her abusers. She NEVER gave in.
So we just installed this right outside Buckingham Palace. Welcome to the Virginia Giuffre Memorial Garden.
Featured image via Instagram
Politics
Farage doesn’t take well to losing
Professional victim Nigel Farage is whining that Reform’s recent loss in Gorton and Denton is the result of cheating. Never mind for the moment that Manchester is historically a left-wing heartland, whilst Farage’s party is on the far right. It was definitely cheating though.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Reform leader is still banging on about alleged family voting in Gorton and Denton. Now, however, he’s also accusing overseas voters from the Commonwealth as having tipped the by-election.
Meanwhile, Hannah Spencer MP – the Green’s victorious by-election candidate – has accused Farage of emulating his hero Trump in crying election fraud. Which, let’s be honest here, is clearly what’s happening.
Farage is a Poundland Trump
Writing for the upstanding British fascist’s newspaper of choice, Farage began:
For years, I warned of the looming threat of sectarian voting. Naturally, of course, I was derided by the political establishment and accused of spouting outrageous hyperbole.
My generation grew up witnessing the violent horrors of sectarianism in Northern Ireland and the impact it had.
But most believed it could never come to England.
That was until the last general election, when four pro-Gaza Independent MPs were elected to Parliament. Then, finally, everybody woke up to those dangers.
This is almost so brilliant that I don’t know where to start. First, on a purely historical note, sectarianism is a centuries-old fixture of English political life. Those monasteries didn’t dissolve themselves now, did they?
Even limiting the scope to Northern Ireland-related sectarianism, that also very famously came to England.
But Farage isn’t actually talking about sectarianism, is he? Rather, Farage is talking about Muslims; he’s just too much of a weasel to say it directly. We can see this from his definition of sectarianism being ‘some MPs are pro-Gaza now’.
(Quick reminder – Israel is still committing genocide, and the UK has a legal duty to oppose it).
‘Let’s be frank’: he made it up
The Reform leader acknowledged that his tantrum would be “viewed as sour grapes”. However, he bravely soldiered on:
What happened last Thursday at the Gorton and Denton by-election, in which the Green Party emerged victorious in a historically Labour stronghold, was the most glaring example yet of what happens if we’re not careful about the impact of mass immigration and the legitimacy of those who can vote in our elections.
Because let’s be frank: Reform UK won the Gorton and Denton by-election among British-born voters.
Absolutely fucking incredible. An extraordinary claim, given that Farage hopefully hasn’t seen a breakdown of the votes by demographic. You know, given that that would be a deeply illegal violation of voter anonymity.
So what is it that makes the Reform leader so certain? Well, he explains:
What makes me so certain of saying this is that the raw figures are so stark: 10 per cent of the overall constituency were born in Pakistan. […]
There were 14 wards that made up the constituency and in ten of them, more than 20 per cent of people were born abroad.
In one ward, Longsight, 48 per cent of the population are foreign-born.
Yes, that’s roughly how many people in these areas weren’t born in the UK. But Farage’s claim was about how they voted. You don’t think he might be… making things up about people from other countries, do you? What kind of person would do something like that?
Commonwealth voting
Farage then swings around to his unexpected new pet peeve: the British Empire:
But the issue that is most astonishing, and, frankly, is not discussed enough, is the right for Commonwealth citizens to vote in UK elections. […]
If you come into this country from a Commonwealth nation such as Pakistan, provided you can prove that you normally reside at a property within a constituency, through Commonwealth rights you get the right to vote.
As a result, the thousands of those who voted Green last Thursday are not actually British citizens.
Again, absolutely fascinating claim. I’d love to know where Farage got all of his data about who voted for the Greens, and by what means. The source needs reporting to the Electoral Commission.
Family voting, again
Farage also swung back to complaining about “extraordinarily dishonest behaviour” in polling stations:
Democracy Volunteers, a group of election observers who check that voting processes are being followed correctly, claimed last week that in 68 per cent of the polling stations they surveyed in Gorton and Denton, they witnessed what they described as ‘family voting’.
This is a process where people are walking into booths with their relatives, many of whom speak little or no English, and watch over them as they vote for the ‘right’ candidate.
Make no mistake: This practice must be outlawed.
This practice was outlawed, three years ago. It was called the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023. It’s one of the reasons why groups like Democracy Volunteers monitor polling stations.
Now, if family voting is happening, it needs to be taken seriously. However, there’s a few problems with Farage’s claim here.
First and foremost, Democracy Volunteers made absolutely no claims about the alleged family voting being among Muslims. Nor, for that matter, did they claim that the votes went to the Greens. Farage has, once again, jumped to the conclusion that Muslims are doing illegal things with absolutely no basis.
Second, if sectarianism is such an issue, why would all of these supposedly hyper-conservative Muslims force their families to vote for a left-wing woman from a party led by a gay Jewish bloke? After all, all the Reform candidate ever did was claim Muslims are terrorist sympathisers. Surely he deserved the Muslim vote?
And third, it’s odd that Democracy Volunteers’ claims of family voting were flatly contradicted by the polling station staff themselves.
Wannabe Trump-lite prick
Meanwhile, the Green’s newest MP – Hannah Spencer – called Farage’s pathetic display out for what it is:
Everyone’s vote is equal. Farage today is talking racist nonsense and is trying to sound like his hero Donald Trump who also tried to deny the results of an election he lost.
Farage doesn’t even know who voted for Reform, it’s a secret ballot and he spent hardly any time in the constituency. Farage has insulted the people of my constituency by saying people who voted Green don’t work. We won by appealing to everyone, including Reform voters, and his party were shown the door.
Farage is blatantly laying the groundwork to claim that future elections have been stolen. It’s the same tactic that his mate Trump used to incite the January 6th Capitol riot.
Utterly specious claims of electoral fraud are a method of voter suppression. Once you can make the public doubt the democratic process, you can throw out any election result that doesn’t suit you.
This tactic is, at its heart, fascist. It’s cheap, it’s dirty, and it’s Nigel Farage all over – pathetic little Trump fanboy that he is.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Dr Abu-Sittah is being pursued by UKLFI for the ELEVENTH time
The General Medical Council (GMC) is continuing its shameful collusion with the Israel lobby by again trying to remove the medical licence of British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah.
For the 11th time.
In January 2026, Abu-Sittah defeated the tenth attempt by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the GMC to have him struck off. UKLFI has been described as one of the two main Israel lobby “apartheid apologist” groups, alongside front-group ‘CAA’. His supposed ‘offence’ has been to speak out about what he saw as a volunteer doctor in Gaza: Israel’s genocide, war crimes, and the suffering, injury and death of its Palestinian victims.
This, according to UKLFI and the GMC, discriminated against his Jewish patients – itself a grossly antisemitic claim given the prevalence of Jewish people among opponents of Israel’s crimes.
‘Politically acceptable’ harassment
But the GMC, to its indelible disgrace, has now appealed the tribunal’s decision to dismiss its tenth attack. This is forcing Abu-Sittah to again crowdfund for legal costs – this time estimated to be around £150,000. He said of the GMC’s decision:
When the MPTS rejected the allegations, I felt that a two-year period of continuous harassment and attempts to undermine my credibility, including my evidence before the ICC and ICJ, had finally come to an end.
What the GMC is saying is that it will keep going until it gets the decision it deems politically acceptable.
The significant cost of pursuing this appeal, borne by fee-paying GMC members, raises serious questions about the degree of external political pressure being exerted on the regulator.
I do not, and have never, supported violence against civilians. The allegations made against me were rejected by the tribunal and, in my view, form part of a broader attempt to discredit my professional and humanitarian work.
He added that he has received an “outpouring of support” from Jewish colleagues.
McCarthyite foreign interest group
UKLFI, whose name makes clear it serves the interests of a foreign power, has attacked everything from a display of plates painted by Palestinian children to Netflix — is well known for its attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian speech and solidarity, particularly in the NHS and in the media-cultural sector.
It recently intimidated a gallery owner into ending a smash-hit art show.
UKLFI has forced the resignation of a university museum director for daring to host a display by technical experts who exposed Israeli lies during the genocide.
Despite being thoroughly discredited, the genocide-shielding group UK Lawyers for Israel still managed to persuade the General Medical Council to pursue a lawfare-style antisemitism complaint against Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah.
The surgeon has incensed Israel’s apologists by…
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) March 2, 2026
It tried to force Tower Hamlets Council in London to take down Palestinian flags put up by residents in solidarity with Gaza, by claiming that local Jewish residents felt threatened.
Along with its fellow apartheid apologist group, the so-called ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’ (CAA), UKLFI has fallen foul of regulators. CAA has been subjected to regulatory action for its political smears and humiliated in court for false accusations against comedian Reginald D Hunter. UKLFI is currently being investigated for vexatious threats.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Bridgerton’s Season 4 Coming Out Scene Is ‘Hugely Important’, Says Showrunner
The latest season of Bridgerton has received widespread praise for its touching coming out scene, which sees Benedict opening up to Sophie about his sexuality.
Luke Thompson’s character was confirmed to be queer during the show’s third run, where he was seen engaging in trysts with both men and women.
Benedict is Bridgerton’s first openly queer lead character, and his coming out scene took the show’s writers into new territory.
“I am capable of caring for you, just as I have cared for women I have known who are of the Ton,” he told Yerin Ha’s character, Sophie, in season four’s sixth episode, which premiered on Netflix last week.
“Just as I have cared for some men whom I have known intimately,” he added. “And I refuse to be at all ashamed about that.”
Since the episode’s release, showrunner Jess Brownell has explained why it was “hugely important” to her that this scene be included.
“I think any queer person knows that no matter who you end up with, queerness is a part of your identity,” Jess told Business Insider. “It never goes away. And I think one of the messages of this show every season is that the only way to truly be loved is to be your true self.”
After Benedict’s coming out, Sophie assures him: “Love is always a thing to be proud of. The world needs more of it.”

But to Jess, there was never any doubt about how the character would react.
“Sophie is someone who’s been through so much and has lived in the downstairs world and been friends with people of all different classes,” she claimed. “And I do think she’s probably encountered people of different sexualities.”
Before the series was released, Jess stressed that it was “really important” to her that Benedict’s queerness remain a key part of his character, including after he began to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman.
“There is a really harmful and untrue stereotype that bisexual men are actually just gay men. More often, we see bisexual men ending up in media in homosexual-presenting relationships,” Jess told Variety last year.
“And it felt fresh and important to see a bisexual man ending up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship and still owning the fact that he is still queer.”
Benedict is not the only queer character in the world of Bridgerton.
Jess has previously said that Hannah Dodd’s Francesca will enter a same-sex relationship in a future season.
At the end of Bridgerton’s third outing, Francesca is introduced to her husband John’s female cousin, Michaeala Stirling.
Fans of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton book series will know that in the novels, this character is written as a man called Michael, with whom Francesca finds love after John suddenly dies.
However, he has been gender-swapped for the TV adaptation, with Michaela being played by Masali Baduza.
All four seasons of Bridgerton are available to watch on Bridgerton now.
Politics
Rachel Reeves Stands Firm Despite Middle East War Concerns
Rachel Reeves looked as though she was enjoying herself as she took aim at Labour’s political opponents while delivering her Spring Statement.
With no new policies to announce, the chancellor decided to use a decent chunk of her time at the despatch box attacking Reform UK, the Conservatives and the Green Party.
“The Tories left our country, our people and our allies exposed: They had no plan and no intention to fund their pledge to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence,” she said.
“Reform would go one step further by ditching our allies and siding with Russia, while the Green Party wants to take us out of Nato and jeopardise our alliances.
“So let me be clear: It is Labour and only Labour that can provide social justice, national security and fiscal responsibility.”
In another section, she dismissed Reform as “a Tory tribute act” following the defections of the likes of Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman.
“They may have changed the colour of their rosettes, but the British people won’t forget that they are the exact same people that wrecked our public services and wrecked our public finances in the last Tory government,” she said.
“The same people, the same policies and the same disastrous outcomes for working people.”
But behind the political knockabout, the chancellor must know that the fate of the UK economy – and perhaps even the Labour government – depends on the outcome of the latest war in the Middle East.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) may have forecast that inflation will come down, but that was before the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran sparked an energy crisis which has seen gas prices soar in the past 48 hours.
If that ends up feeding through into people’s bills, Labour will pay a huge political price.
The same goes for the OBR’s forecasts on economic growth, as well as government borrowing and national debt.
A prolonged conflict in the Middle East, and the accompanying economic turmoil which would ensue, would blow another huge hole in the already-stretched public finances.
With unemployment set to be higher than expected this year and the tax burden set to hit another post-war high, yet more economic uncertainty is the last thing the chancellor needs.
“This government has the right economic plan for our country,” Reeves insisted.
“A plan that is even more important in a world that in the last few days has become yet more uncertain.
“With the unfolding conflict in Iran and the Middle East, it is incumbent on me and on this government to chart a course through that uncertainty, to secure our economy against shocks and protect families from the turbulence that we see beyond our borders.”
She may have talked a good game, but the chancellor knows that events thousands of miles away have the potential to destroy her economic plans and plunge the government into political crisis they may not recover from.
Politics
Israel begins ground invasion of Lebanon
Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon appears to be underway as US-Israeli aggression threatens to pull the entire region into open war. Israel mobilised 100,000 reservists on 2 March and issued threats to civilians. Hezbollah, their primary adversary in southern Lebanon, has said the age of patience is over.
Hezbollah is a Shia political party and paramilitary force. It is distinct from the Lebanese army and has seats in the country’s parliament. The US and Israel launched unprovoked attacks on Iran on 28 February. Hezbollah is a regional ally of the Iranian regime.
Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on 3 March that Israeli forces had pushed deeper into Lebanon:
In a statement on Tuesday, Katz said that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had authorised the army to “advance and hold additional dominant terrain in Lebanon”.
He said the aim was to “prevent the possibility of direct fire on Israeli communities”.
MEE added
The Lebanese group began launching rockets at northern Israel on Monday, which it said was in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Israel responded with heavy air strikes in southern Lebanon and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing dozens and triggering a fresh wave of displacement.
Hezbollah said the ‘era of patience’ is over:
BREAKING: Hezbollah official says’ era of patience has ended’
🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/ZGG7iEbuuE pic.twitter.com/9v5ITQrPCf
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) March 3, 2026
And there were reports an Israel tank was hit by a guide missile near the border:
Israeli media reported that an Israeli tank was struck by a guided missile along the border with #Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/NtkSPBfamz
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 3, 2026
Displacement crisis
Reports suggest locals are fleeing north in droves. The Intercept’s Seamus Malekafzali warned:
The whole displacement crisis has become a footnote amidst all of this.
Almost everyone I know in Lebanon is posting appeals to find housing for their relatives, or relatives of friends, who have become displaced from south Lebanon and south Beirut amidst the intense IDF attacks. The whole displacement crisis has become a footnote amidst all of this.
— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) March 3, 2026
Israel has also intensively bombed Beirut:
Israel claims it is responding to Hezbollah firing rockets into its territory on 2 March:
Yesterday, Hezbollah chose to join the Iranian regime in their terrorist fight against Israel.
Today, they have begun to see the consequences. pic.twitter.com/shNsoo85Ec
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 3, 2026
In theory, Hezbollah breached a US-brokered ‘ceasefire’ with Israel which had held since their last war in 2024. In practice, the US has given Israel carte blanche to strike Lebanon ever since. Israel has done so constantly since the deal was struck.
You can read about the secretive Israel-US ‘side letter’ pact here. And our extensive coverage of Israel’s ceasefire breaches here.
Let it be open war
Middle East Observer reported Hezbollah is moving to a war footing:
⚡️🚨 Deputy Head of the Political Council of Hezbollah, Mahmoud Qomati:
The enemy wanted it to be an open war, so let it be an open war pic.twitter.com/vRUE4eTy07
— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) March 3, 2026
The Lebanese government has also banned Hezbollah’s “military activities”:
#Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun says the decision to ban #Hezbollah’s military activities is “irreversible,” as the Iran-backed movement claimed responsibility for new attacks targeting Israeli positions.https://t.co/qBhrAV36M7
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) March 3, 2026
And Lebanese forces in the south have been seen pulling out in anticipation of an Israeli assault:
⚡️🚨 Under the orders of the Lebanese Government, The Lebanese Army withdraws from borderpoints to allow the safe entry of the Chosen People of God’s army and the occupation of Lebanese territory. The Lebanese Government consider the lives of Israeli soldiers as sacred and worth… pic.twitter.com/IeakWNTafS
— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) March 3, 2026
The legacy media seems to be mincing its words about Israel’s actions. Associated Press (AP) reported on 3 March:
The Israeli military said it has sent additional troops into southern Lebanon and took new positions on several strategic points close to the border, while Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its positions along the border.
They posted on X:
The Israeli military says soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon as part of a broader effort to increase security for residents in northern Israel near their shared border. It says troops are positioned at several points near the border in what it described as a “forward
But Middle East historian and author Assal Rad put more plainly:
So many words to avoid saying invasion. https://t.co/oPE4CG08H8
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) March 3, 2026
Israel is now bombing Iran and Lebanon at the same time. It’s genocidal assault on Gaza and the West Bank is also still underway. Opening a new front in the war will stretch the settler-colonial state further, but only time will tell what the long term implications are.
Featured image via the Canary
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