Politics
The House Article | Mu Sochua: The Cambodian Politician Urging UK Action On ‘Scam Centres’
Mu Sochua speaking in Tokyo in Feb. 2024 (Newscom/Alamy)
7 min read
Mu Sochua is on an international mission to rid Cambodia of its industrial-scale ‘scam centres’. Noah Vickers speaks to her as she brings her message to Westminster
It’s become a reality of daily life in the West. Messages on social media from anonymous profiles urging you to invest in crypto. Phone calls from someone claiming to work for your bank or software provider, warning that your account is about to be compromised.
For most of those at the receiving end, scams are simply a nuisance to be ignored. For the minority who fall for them, they can have devastating consequences. But little thought is usually given to those on the other side of the phone – hundreds of thousands of whom have been trafficked, abused and imprisoned in vast, multi-storey facilities across south-east Asia.
In Cambodia alone, roughly 100,000 people are estimated by the United Nations to be forcibly involved in online scams.
Leading the charge to shut them down is Mu Sochua, a 71-year-old Cambodian opposition activist and former MP who since 2017 has been living in self-exile in the United States.
Mu argues that the scam centres are only able to operate because the country’s government tolerates them. There is no path to permanently closing all of them, she suggests, without restoring democracy in Cambodia.
“There would not be scam centres on this scale – with torture and human rights abuses – if it was in a country with the rule of law, a government elected by the people in a free and fair manner, where there is civil society, independent judiciary and independent media,” she says.
The UK government, she argues, should say loudly and clearly that the Cambodian regime is complicit in allowing the centres to remain open.
In October 2025, the UK and US announced sanctions on Chen Zhi, chairman of the Prince Group conglomerate that built some of the scam centres and was implicated in laundering their proceeds, along with a network of associated companies. Further sanctions against other groups and individuals linked to the scam centres were announced in March.
Some of those sanctioned had incorporated their businesses in the British Virgin Islands and invested in the London property market, including a £12m mansion on Avenue Road, a £100m office building on Fenchurch Street and several flats.
All of these assets were frozen by the sanctions, but Mu argues that “freezing alone is not enough”. Ministers should ensure, she says, that the money raised from them is used to support the victims of human rights abuses in Cambodia, just as immobilised Russian assets have been used to support the Ukrainian war effort.
Mu also points out that no sanctions have been levelled against members of the Cambodian government. Close family members of deputy prime minister Neth Savoeun, for example, reportedly own luxurious London properties.
While the Foreign Office expressed “regret” that Cambodia’s most recent election, in 2023, was “neither free nor fair” – due to the disqualification of the main opposition party – the regime’s ruling family continued to enjoy access to the UK’s education system.
Just last month, the son of one of Cambodia’s other deputy prime ministers, Hun Many – who is himself a son of the country’s former prime minister Hun Sen – graduated from Sandhurst military academy.
“Look how well-prepared they are to give the top education to their children,” says Mu. “To groom their children to take over. Where? In the UK. In the US.”
Mu, who served as a minister in the Cambodian government from 1998 to 2004, was in 2005 nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize along with 999 other women around the world working to advance peace and human rights. But in 2017, her party leader was arrested on treason charges, and Mu was forced to flee after being tipped off that she would be next.
“I only had, overnight, less than 10 hours to pack up,” she remembers. “I never even had a chance to say goodbye to my family, and since then, I’ve not been able to go back.”
When The House meets Mu, she is visiting the UK Parliament in her role as president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy (KMD) – a global campaign to restore Cambodia’s democratic freedoms.
Over the last year, she has made similar visits to speak with parliamentarians and officials in Japan, South Korea, the US, Canada, Australia, Belgium and Germany.
This is a moment where you have Cambodia down on its knees – don’t let go
Mu says she is “banging on the door” of each of these governments, particularly as many of them were signatories to the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements intended to guarantee Cambodia’s democracy in perpetuity. As long as the accords are being violated, Mu argues that the UK and others should cease trading with Cambodia.
“The UK, the EU, the US – where there is a huge market for the Cambodian garments sector – have to use that leverage that they have,” she says, adding that it does not make sense to condemn the scam centres while continuing to import clothing from a country rife with labour exploitation.
“On the one hand, you go after the scam centres. On the other hand, the UK closes its eyes to other kinds of violations, like workers’ rights.”
The Cambodian economy, she points out, is in a precarious state and further pressure, instead of what she calls “soft diplomacy”, may help break the regime’s resolve: “This is a moment where you have Cambodia down on its knees – don’t let go.”
Not only are the scam centres destroying lives, she adds, but they are part of a wider network of criminality that is “putting global security in jeopardy”. Until it was closed in December last year, the Cambodian digital payment platform Huione Pay was being used not only to launder money from the scams but also to launder cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers, which may in turn be helping to fund Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
Mu’s multiple attempts to return to her home country have been blocked by the authorities, who have cancelled her Cambodian passport. But she takes courage from her work leading KMD, which is currently setting up an elected overseas citizens assembly to speak for Cambodians inside and outside the country.
“We are for national reconciliation,” says Mu. “I want to go home – I have tried so hard to go home.
“Right now, we are building this platform so that the Cambodian people are united, so that we can represent ourselves as an alternative, democratic Cambodia. That will be feasible if the international community starts coming back to Cambodia in the context of the Paris Peace Accords.”
The Foreign Office declined to comment in response to Mu’s remarks, instead pointing The House back to the press releases announcing their sanctions on those connected to the scam centres. The Cambodian government did not respond to a request for comment.
Following the UK’s sanctions in March, Cambodia’s parliament passed its first law targeting the scam centres in April. Under the legislation, scams conducted by gangs or against many victims can be punished by up to 10 years in prison and as much as $250,000 in fines. The law also outlines penalties for those convicted of money laundering, gathering victims’ data, or recruiting scammers.
Justice minister Koeut Rith told reporters at the time: “This law is strict like the fishing net, strict to ensure we don’t have the online scams anymore in Cambodia, strict in order to serve the interest of the Cambodian nation and people.”
Wes Streeting has resigned as health secretary, saying it is now clear that Keir Starmer will not “lead the Labour Party into the next general election.”
Streeting, who has headed the Department of Health and Social Care since the 2024 general election, described the 2026 local and devolved parliament elections as “unprecedented”.
In his resignation letter, the leading Labour MP said that the rise of nationalism in all corners of Britain represented “an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom”.
He wrote: “Progressives across our country understand this threat and our responsibility to confront it, but they are increasingly losing faith that the Labour Party is capable of rising to our historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.”
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Streeting further accused Starmer of presiding over a period of “drift”.
He called on the prime minister to oversee a leadership contest and for a future election to be a “battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism.”
Read Streeting’s resignation letter in full.
Dear prime minister,
The results are in and I am pleased to report that I have delivered against the ambitious targets you set for me when I became your Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Today’s figures confirm that we surpassed our waiting times target despite strikes, and that waiting lists fell by 110,000 in March- the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008 – meaning that we are on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history.
The only question that matters in government is whether we leave our successors a better situation than we inherited. Ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes are now the fastest in five years. A&E waiting times are improving, with four-hour waiting figures also the best in five years. We’ve recruited 2,000 more GPs and satisfaction has risen from 60 per cent to 74.5 percent since we came to office. We hit our target of recruiting 8,500 mental health staff three years early. We’ve achieved this at the same as balancing the books for the first time in nine years and smashing the 2 per cent NHS productivity target by achieving 2.8 per cent, which means the investment we’re putting in goes further and that the public can have greater confidence that their money is being well-spent.
None of this would have been achieved without the brilliant leadership team of ministers, officials, and special advisers we have established in the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS – superbly led by Samantha Jones and Sir Jim Mackey, who has been a knight in shining armour and a brilliant leader of 1.5 million staff upon whom all this success depends.
The National Health Service is the embodiment of all that is best about Britain and our values. Thanks to our Labour government, it is on the road to recovery: lots done, but so much more to do.
These are all good reasons for me to remain in post, but as you know from our conversation earlier this week, having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable and unprincipled to do so.
Last week’s election results were unprecedented – both in terms of the scale of the defeat and the consequences of that failure. For the first time in our country’s history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom – including a dangerous English nationalism represented by Nigel Farage and Reform UK. This represents both an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom, but Reform UK also represent a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great. Progressives across our country understand this threat and our responsibility to confront it, but they are increasingly losing faith that the Labour Party is capable of rising to our historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.
There is no doubt that the unpopularity of this Government was a major and common factor in our defeats across England, Scotland and Wales. Good Labour people lost through no fault of their own. There are many reasons we could point to: from individual mistakes on policy like the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance to the “island of strangers” speech, all of which have left the country not knowing who we are or what we really stand for.
You have many great strengths that I admire. You led our party to a victory few thought possible in 2024 and I was proud to fight alongside you in the trenches of that campaign. You have shown courage and statesmanship on the world stage – not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran.
But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift. This was underscored by your speech on Monday. Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords. You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.
As a member of your government, I know better than most that governing is hard. It should be, because it matters. There are enormous challenges facing this country. For the first time in our history the next generation faces a worse inheritance than the last. We have wars raging in Europe and the Middle East that are making our challenges harder, not easier. We are in the foothills of a technological industrial revolution that has huge implications for every aspect of our lives – not least the future of work. It is not clear whether democracy or tyranny will define the 21st century. After the financial crisis, austerity, the disaster of Brexit, Liz Truss, the covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the war in Iran, the country needs to believe again that things can be better than this and that politics is part of the answer, not the source of the problem. These are big challenges that require a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering.
It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election and that Labour MPs and Labour Unions want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism. It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope that you will facilitate this.
Serving as your Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been the greatest joy of my life and, regardless of our differences this week, I remain truly grateful to you for the opportunity to serve and I am deeply saddened to be leaving government in this way.
Yours sincerely,
Wes Streeting
Rail union RMT will ballot members at Heavy Haul Rail Ltd for industrial action. This is after the company refused to rule out compulsory redundancies and pressed ahead with sweeping restructuring plans.
The union says the employer is seeking to cut jobs, merge grades and impose revised job descriptions. This will range across control, rosters, TOPS, train planning, administration and management grades.
Heavy Haul Rail only came into existence at the start of 2026, following a buyout of part of the Freightliner business.
RMT warns the company is asking members to take on extra duties and flexibility without any guarantee of additional pay. Also, members may have to relocate hundreds of miles away.
Heavy Haul Rail supports critical infrastructure building programmes, as well as renewal and maintenance work on Network Rail. It has rejected the union’s call for a no compulsory redundancy agreement.
The company has also dismissed proposals to protect existing roster clerk jobs and mitigate further redundancies in the crucial function of controller grades.
Bosses are trying to load extra duties onto staff, including control and delay attribution work, while refusing to guarantee they will be properly paid for it.
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said:
Heavy Haul Rail is trying to force through job cuts, merged grades and extra duties while refusing to guarantee no compulsory redundancies.
Our members keep this operation running and they will not accept attacks on their jobs, pay and conditions.
The company’s proposals are unworkable, damaging to the business and completely unacceptable.
We will ballot our members for industrial action and we will be urging them to send a clear message to the employer that they will not accept these proposals.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
Wes Streeting leaves No 10 on Wednesday (Alamy)
2 min read
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has resigned from the cabinet and is expected to trigger a leadership contest
The resignation comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s future looks increasingly fraught amid resignations and calls from those in government for him to resign following a disastrous set of local elections in which the party lost 1,500 council seats.
Streeting met with Starmer in Downing Street on Wednesday morning, leaving No 10 after just 16 minutes. The Times reported that Streeting had told the Prime Minister that he was preparing to challenge him for the leadership.
It was later widely reported that Streeting was expected to resign as soon as Thursday morning and fire the gun on a leadership election.
As of Wednesday, four ministers had resigned from government, including health minister Zubir Ahmed, who is a close ally of Streeting.
He was preceded by faith and communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, Home Office minister Jess Phillips and Ministry of Justice minister Alex-Davies Jones.
On Wednesday, PoliticsHome reported that junior minister Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, had told the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure.
At the time of writing, more than 90 Labour MPs have publicly called for Starmer to resign.
On Tuesday, PoliticsHome reported that Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Prime Minister, had sparked suspicion among colleagues that he was seeking support for his own leadership bid.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is also seen as a potential contender for the leadership. Miliband’s allies told PoliticsHome on Wednesday that he would have the numbers to stand in a leadership contest if Manchester mayor Andy Burnham cannot get a seat in time.
Angela Rayner revealed in an interview with The Guardian on Thursday morning that she had been cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs. It means that Rayner could put her name forward in a bid for the leadership.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said publicly that Wes Streeting’s bid to topple Keir Starmer – expected any minute – is “revenge”. He’s alleged revenge by Starmer’s former handlers Morgan McSweeney and his mentor and child-rapist fan Peter Mandelson. Both men were sacked or resigned over the scandal of Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Starmer has tried desperately to distance himself from Mandelson – completely unsuccessfully – and McDonnell says they’re now collecting payback:
Just a thought. Wes Streeting owes his political status to the support he’s received over years from Peter Mandelson & Morgan McSweeney at Labour Together. He wouldn’t make a move against Keir Starmer without Mandelson’s say so. So look on this as Mandelson’s & Morgan’s revenge.
— John McDonnell (@johnmcdonnellMP) May 13, 2026
Straight from one Mandelson-McSweeney puppet to another. That’s a grim prospect for a country desperate for real change and a halt to the march of fascism. It seems many agree:
— just me #corbynwasright (@JCorbynwasright) May 13, 2026
Mandelson has groomed Streeting for years, many think. Certainly enough that Streeting confessed his fear of losing his parliamentary seat to the disgraced Blairite fixer:
Mandelson has been around young Wesley from the early days. Always ready to give him a hand… pic.twitter.com/RmZn2tvkAn
— John Miller (@johndowmiller) May 13, 2026
Starmer clones
But not everyone agreed. Many think it’s a con – an attempt by the pair to convey an appearance of change while maintaining the same God-awful status quo – continuity kid-starver and genocide-enabler:
No, it’s nothing to do with “revenge”.
.
This is a semi-orderly transfer of a facade, without any meaningful change of control, power, or policy.
.
The government will continue to support genocide abroad,
crush freedom at home,
& increase the cost of living to cut non-dom taxes. pic.twitter.com/bkyq8MqEA4— Frank O’Callaghan (@ionank) May 13, 2026
Maintenance of the ‘Epstein class’, in other words:
It’s not revenge John. It’s a con. They want it to look like there’s distance between Starmer and Streeting when in fact it will be more of the same Labour Together project. Simon’s supporting Streeting, Reed ‘behind’ Starmer. It stinks.
— The Daily Politik (@DailyPolitik) May 13, 2026
The Epstein links were a recurring theme:
Miles off John
Syarmer and streeting both part of the epstein regime.
Its just a passing of the baton— Dulcet panacea (@dulcet_Panacea) May 13, 2026
Riding two horses
Others pointed out, accurately, how the ‘Labour Together’ saboteur squad is supporting both sides in the ‘contest’:
It’s not revenge John. It’s a con. They want it to look like there’s distance between Starmer and Streeting when in fact it will be more of the same Labour Together project. Simon’s supporting Streeting, Reed ‘behind’ Starmer. It stinks.
— The Daily Politik (@DailyPolitik) May 13, 2026
And some think it’s Israel’s revenge – though you could be excused for thinking that’s a fake distinction:
It’s Israel’s revenge for not directly attacking Iran.
— bawbagstauner (@bawbagstauner) May 13, 2026
Certainly Israel and its lobby – and private healthcare – have just as big a piece of Streeting as they do of Starmer, as Green leader Zack Polanski has previously pointed out:
Streeting appears to have rushed his launch in order to prevent Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham getting into the contest. Certainly Burnham is no panacea, but Streeting and his supporters rightly recognise he’d have no chance against Burnham.
Whether McDonnell is right or wrong, Streeting in Number 10 would be just as appalling news for the many as Starmer has been. Has-been… – that seems very appropriate. If only both of them were ‘never-was’s.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
There was an opinion piece published in Metro earlier this week, trumpeting the headline, ‘Zack Polanski, not Wes Streeting, should be Britain’s first gay prime minister’. The article began like a moronic Pink News scoop: ‘Like many LGBT+ people, I’ve spent my whole life hoping I’d live to see the day an openly gay prime minister moved into 10 Downing Street.’ I was tempted to ask why, but I’m pretty sure that Streeting or Polanski would give an equally on fleek rendition of ‘Tear down those curtains and make him a dress’ upon entry, so what difference would it really make?
I jest, of course. The sad reality is that there are those among us who appear to believe that one’s sexuality or identity is the most interesting and important component to doing a job. That certainly seems to be the case with the LGBTQIA+ crowd, who think that having an actual gay person in charge would be the most groundbreaking event since Eddie Izzard said, ‘Call me Suzy’.
The fact is that neither Labour’s Streeting nor the Greens’ Polanski would ever ‘identify’ as gay. Both would likely talk in terms of being LGBTQIA+. Which is quite a different entity altogether. Ultimately, both terms are meaningless and irrelevant to the task at hand. Had a prime minister come out, say, in 1981, when the tennis legend Martina Navratilova did, it would have been a different matter entirely. Although, if my recollections are correct, it would have been distinctly unlikely, considering the constant mixture of fear and loathing levelled against lesbian, gay and bisexual people at the time. To do so would have been not only courageous, but most likely a fool’s errand, too. Your career would have been over and out before you could say, ‘I could crush a grape’.
Homosexuality is so unremarkable now that I’m surprised more politicians haven’t latched on to the Hollywood craze and declared themselves ‘nonbinary’. This, apparently, carries far more cachet, and – most excitingly – a smashing new wardrobe filled with assorted dungarees.
Which brings me onto the reaction to this Dual of The Divas between Streeting and Polanski. Of course, the bona fide members of the all-or-nothing LGBTQIA+ mob were outraged at the suggestion that Streeting could take the crown. Some septum-pierced, grammarless hack said he was ‘Getting out ahead of this right now’, before declaring: ‘We simply do not claim Wes Streeting as the first gay PM. A man who has thrown trans people under the bus, who backs attacks on LGBTQ migrants, on POC [people of colour], on [the] working class… is not emblematic of our movement and is certainly no trailblazer.’
I had no idea a group could ‘claim’ anyone for themselves, but as this particular individual’s X bio proudly proclaims he’s ‘Your dad’s favourite lay’ (followed by a glittery long fingernail emoji), I think we may safely dismiss this rant as the ravings of an online omnicause onanist.
Trouble is, there seems to be rather a lot of these people about. Polanski is being touted as the champion of LGBTQIA+ politics, but it does not seem to me that this particular individual will concern himself with the first three letters of this increasingly foolish acronym, whose rights are in direct opposition to the TQIA+. Most gay people who want nothing to do with gender ideology call themselves LGB. That is because we do not want to see women’s hard-won rights demolished, we do not want to see lesbian-only spaces invaded by men, and we most certainly do not want to see gender theory in action – especially when it comes to influencing other people’s children.
In practice, neither Streeting nor Polanski would be any good. In fact, I believe they’d be rotten. Gay, straight, multicoloured or hexagonal, their sexual preferences are utterly irrelevant. Especially now. What is of vital importance is what these men really believe and whether they are to be trusted. It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I’ve always voted “X” and I’m not changing now.’ It’s not enough to say, ‘Yay! They’re LGBTQIA+! That’s what matters!’
It is worth heeding these words from the estimable Douglas Murray: ‘It doesn’t matter what your sexuality is. You should simply be concentrating on doing what you should be doing in your life and doing it well.’
I wonder if that’s ever going to be a possibility for people ever again?
James Dreyfus is an actor who has starred in Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Absolutely Fabulous and The Thin Blue Line.
On Wednesday morning, Labour’s Health Secretary Wesley Streeting met with ailing Prime Minister Keir Starmer for approximately 16 minutes. Perhaps a longer rendezvous was unnecessary. Streeting, a long-time favourite of pro-Israeli lobbyists and private healthcare interests, has certainly made his intentions clear.
By lunchtime on Wednesday, Streeting’s camp confirmed what the rest of the country already knew: he is going for Starmer’s throne. The Streeting coup was underway.
By Tuesday evening, a string of Streeting allies had resigned from Starmer’s cabinet in an attempt to force him out before Andy Burnham had time to get back into Parliament.
Zubir Ahmed
First, Zubir Ahmed, a junior minister in the Department of Health and former Personal Parliamentary Secretary (PPS) to Streeting.
Ahmed, the Labour MP for Glasgow South West, was also one of several Scottish parliamentary candidates to receive £10,000 from Labour Together in the run-up to the 2024 general election. The controversial think tank has been beset by scandal, and it was recently revealed that current board member Jonathan Kestenbaum, a Labour peer, previously served with the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.
Jess Phillips
Then, Labour’s Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips stood down from the cabinet, praising Starmer in her resignation letter as:
a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things.
She was referring to the same person who once said that the Israeli state “had the right” to cut off water and electricity to Gaza.
Like Streeting in Ilford North, Phillips now sits on a wafer-thin majority in Birmingham Yardley. Furthermore, the disastrous local elections last week left Labour with a grand total of zero councillors in the constituency.
In 2020, Streeting endorsed Phillips for Labour leader and served as her “campaign chair”, saying:
Jess is the person to bring our party and our country together.
Just days after Labour’s defeat in 2019, Phillips and Streeting spoke together at the Limmud Festival at an event titled “Should the Jewish community (still) be worried about the Labour Party?” Limmud’s executive director at the time was Eli Ovits, a reserve captain in the Israeli military and IDF spokesman.
Streeting, Friend of Mandelson and Israel
In 2022, Streeting became the first member of Starmer’s shadow cabinet to join a Labour Friends of Israel-funded delegation to occupied Palestine. LFI also paid for Sarah Harrison, one of Streeting’s staffers, to accompany him on the trip. Anna Wilson, another Streeting aide, had a similar trip in July 2023 paid for by ELNET, the lobby group which organised a Peter Mandelson-led delegation in 2024 and is headed by former LFI chair Joan Ryan.
Funders of Streeting include:
- Jonathan Mendelsohn (through his company, Red Capital Ltd.), a director at private healthcare firm the Europa Healthcare Group;
- David Menton, a business associate of Israeli arms beneficiary Chaim “Poju” Zabludowicz, who is also a donor to and director of BICOM, a pro-Israeli lobby group that flourished under the leadership of former Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimons; and
- Trevor Chinn, who was a director, key funder, and central figure in Morgan McSweeney’s Labour Together operation.
Streeting once opined that “there wouldn’t be a Labour government” without McSweeney’s contribution. He has also been eager to defend Peter Mandelson in the past. Last September, he said that Mandelson should not be considered “guilty by association” for his close ties to notorious paedophile and likely Israeli intelligence asset Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson, who Streeting has described as a “legend”, personally campaigned for Streeting in both his 2015 and 2019 election campaigns. In 2024, sans-Mandelson, Streeting’s vote collapsed. He now holds his seat by just 528 votes.
A choice between two lightweights?
Keir Starmer’s remaining allies say that he will stand against Streeting if he launches a leadership challenge. With a cost of living crisis, curtailment of civil liberties, and genocide in Gaza, the British public are to be treated to a showdown between two Israel lobby-backed political lightweights as they fight over the rotting carcass of the Labour Party.
Featured image via the Canary
Manchester City moved the title race on for at least another week with a composed 3-0 win over a much changed Crystal Palace at the Etihad.
Phil Foden, given a rare start, was the standout figure, producing two first half assists that set the tone and handed City a commanding lead they never surrendered.
Guardiola made six changes to his regular starting XI, resting big names and bringing Gvardiol back from injury, while Palace manager Oliver Glasner shuffled his side too.
The changes mattered less in this game than City’s efficiency, they created three big chances. All converted into goals and a performance that felt measured.
Manchester City clinical
The opener was a moment of instinct. Foden’s clever back heel found Antoine Semenyo, who finished into the bottom corner to break the deadlock.
The second arrived Foden again found space, touching a cross into Omar Marmoush’s path. Marmoush swivelled and finished with composure to double the lead.
A late third was Savinho, set up by Rayan Cherki after the interval, wrapped up the scoring and a statement win.
City’s finishing was clinical as it has been these past few games, yet their approach was simple; control possession and probe patiently. Punishing when Palace provided opportunities to do so.
This win moves City to within two points of leaders Arsenal. With both teams having played the same number of games. That gap keeps the title race alive, but the margin for error is tiny, Arsenal are still in control of this title charge.
City will bemoan the draw away at Everton that handed Arsenal the advantage, yet Guardiola’s team have shown in recent matches they will not give up until the final whistle has been blown.
History suggests a comeback from five points behind so late in May is unprecedented, but City’s back-to-back wins hint at belief rather than resignation. Guardiola’s body language at full time, was pure energy, fist pumps which underlined the winning mindset.
Final Word
Phil Foden was the standout player of the match, his movement and decision making unlocking Palace’s low block. Guardiola praised Foden’s ability to create in tight spaces and highlighted the midfielders adaptability in a deeper role.
Palace boss Oliver Glasner admitted his team failed to execute their plan and were beaten by a superior side.
City’s rotation showed that Pep had one eye on the FA Cup final against Chelsea in the coming days.
Guardiola managed minutes carefully, as did Palace with their own European final on the horizon.
This was not a Premier League classic, not an end to end thriller. for the neutrals the result keeps the title race interesting. For City, they must now maintain that pressure for 1st place. For Arsenal, it was a prompt to finish the job. The final days. of the season promises to be tense, with every slip and spark magnified at the top.
Featured image via the Canary
By Faz Ali
(Alamy)
3 min read
Wes Streeting is set to leave government today, according to allies, and launch a campaign for Number 10 as the Labour Party plunges into civil war.
Streeting, the health secretary, is scrambling to find the required 81 MPs to mount a leadership challenge against the prime minister. It will likely set off a three-way contest between Streeting, Keir Starmer and one of Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband or Andy Burnham – if the latter can find a seat and win a by-election.
The health secretary is expected to resign this afternoon and plot the next steps to fight the Prime Minister. Streeting’s supporters have been praising his talents and urging Starmer to step aside and set out a timetable for his departure.
Chris Curtis, Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, and a Streeting ally, said the health secretary was a “generational talent”. He added on Thursday morning that he would be announcing his preferred contender to replace the Prime Minister this afternoon.
Meanwhile, a junior minister and Streeting ally called for Starmer to step down and set out a departure timetable in a private meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, told the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure during a meeting with ministers, PoliticsHome revealed. Starmer told the meeting that if there was a challenge, the NEC would set out an appropriate timetable.
Angela Rayner’s position was strengthened this morning after she was cleared in an investigation over whether she deliberately avoided paying stamp duty tax, making it easier for her to launch a leadership bid.
The former housing secretary and deputy prime minister told The Guardian the probe into whether she paid the correct amount of tax on her flat in Hove had “clipped her wings”.
Allies of Rayner have been quick to back her and claim she has been exonerated. Chris Webb, Labour MP for Blackpool North, who has known Rayner for two decades, said she had “always been a woman of integrity, honesty, and decency.”
It is understood that Rayner’s preferred outcome, however, would be backing Burnham in a potential leadership contest. She told a union conference this week that it was a mistake to block the Manchester mayor from running for Parliament in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Burnham is finding it more difficult to pin down a seat and persuade a sitting MP to step down so he can run for it.
Allies of the Manchester mayor told PoliticsHome the seat he has found is in Greater Manchester and are confident of winning it. But several MPs in the region have denied stepping aside for the so-called King of the North.
They include Afzal Khan, MP for Manchester Rusholme; Connor Rand, MP for Altrincham and Sale West; Phil Brickell, MP for Bolton West; Josh Simons, MP for Makerfield; and Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley and Middleton South.
“How many MPs has Burnham humiliated by suggesting they might stand down now? 8? 9?,” one Burnham critic told PoliticsHome.
“Afzal, Carden, Dowd, Nichols, Rimmer, Simons, Barker – now Smith. Plus the nonsense with Lewis. It’s half an alphabet.”
Burnham pulled out of a regular radio slot with BBC Manchester at 10am as speculation about his future continues.
PoliticsHome revealed he was in London on Tuesday to hold meetings with MPs. Burnham is said to have met with Rayner and Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton.
Sarah Taylor’s appointment to the England cricket men’s Test squad is hugely significant.
The former wicket keeper will join the men’s setup as fielding coach for the upcoming Test series against New Zealand, a signal that elite coaching roles in the men’s game are opening to women on merit.
England cricket coach is vastly experienced
This is not a token gesture. Taylor arrives with a track record inside the England coaching structure and recent experience with the Lions in Australia. Her selection is being framed by the board as a performance-first decision.
She has been trusted to work with the senior men’s group because she brings specialist expertise that improves results, not because of optics. The move from symbolic hires to performance-driven inclusion is the real watershed.
Taylor’s credentials shine as her CV is compelling. A 2017 World Cup winner and one of the most decorated wicket keepers of her generation. She has already coached at county level and with England development pathways.
She has worked alongside high profile coaches on the Lions tour, gaining direct experience in male professional environments. These credentials remove any lingering doubts for this appointment.
There is a practical case for more women coaches in the men’s game, they’d add different perspectives, same high standards, the fresh angles on techniques, preparation and the level of communication.
The key is in the culture of a team, or a group of players. Diverse coaching teams challenge groupthink, raise standards, improve player behaviour but also adds accountability. These are all standards that success chasing teams need to win.
Breaking barriers but not making headlines
Taylor’s appointment follows a history of boundary-pushing moments in her career, from being lauded as one of the best wicketkeepers in the world to becoming the first woman to play first grade cricket in Australia.
Those milestones matter because they show capability in mixed environments, not just symbolic firsts.
The next step in normalising appointments like this so they stop being news and start being routine.
Selectors and boards should now look to increase the pool from which they select coaches, all roles should be visible to qualified candidates. Real investment into developing more female coaches into leading roles, providing the same exposure to professional environments.
These are some practical steps that can turn a single appointment into a systemic change for the betterment of the sport of cricket.
Sarah Taylor’s move is one with high expectations and pressure. If she improves England’s fielding and helps younger players, the argument for more women in the men’s game becomes self-evident.
Opening the door wider in sports doesn’t dilute standards, it lifts them.
Featured image via The Independent
By Faz Ali
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at dinner in Tehran on 30 November 1943 (piemags/ww2archive/Alamy)
4 min read
Politicians making a meal of it. This week: the limits of banquet diplomacy
Over the course of the Second World War, Winston Churchill would have a series of meals with Joseph Stalin. They were potentially difficult affairs, encounters between an empire-supporting Tory from aristocratic British stock and a Soviet revolutionary from a peasant family, conducted through a translator. Both men had huge egos and were prickly and sensitive to insults.
The meals, among other things, are charted by Giles Milton in his book The Stalin Affair. The first, in August 1942 in Moscow, was a 19-course Kremlin banquet. Relations between the two men were frosty: earlier in the visit, Stalin had complained that he wasn’t getting enough support and that the US and Britain were leaving the USSR to fight the Nazis alone. Churchill had replied that Britain had been fighting the Nazis when Stalin had been sucking up to them.
Now Stalin gave a toast to Churchill referring to the Gallipoli campaign of the previous war, a brainchild of Churchill’s, as suffering from “gross stupidities in concept and execution”. It took all the skill of the British ambassador to Moscow, Archibald Clark Kerr, to stop the prime minister from leaving Moscow immediately.
A year later, there was another dinner in Tehran, marking Churchill’s 69th birthday. The British were hosting and, according to Milton, they wanted to intimidate Stalin, “They thought that the best way to do that was to pull out the full array of British etiquette.” The table was laid with an array of cutlery for the multiple courses. When the Soviet leader took his place at the table, he anxiously asked the British interpreter for advice on etiquette. But if Stalin was worried he would embarrass himself, the good news was that another member of his team would suffer far worse at the meal.
The dessert was a ‘Persian lantern’, a huge tower of ice cream, several feet high. It arrived as the speeches began, and the staff were reluctant to interrupt the great men in order to serve.
But in the heat of the evening, the pudding had begun to melt. The British general Hastings Ismay recorded what followed with some delight. “The laws of gravity could be denied no longer,” he wrote. “The pudding descended like an avalanche.” The man caught in this was Stalin’s interpreter, Pavlov. “In a moment, ice cream was oozing out of his hair, his ears, his shirt, even his shoes.” Knowing that there were worse things that could befall someone in Stalin’s service, Pavlov continued interpreting his master’s words without missing a beat.
They wanted to intimidate Stalin. ‘They thought that the best way to do that was to pull out the full array of British etiquette’
In 1944, Churchill was back in Moscow, and invited Stalin to a banquet at the British embassy. Clark Kerr pulled out all the stops: there was white fish poached in wine and cold suckling pig with mayonnaise. For this trip, Churchill had a secret mission: he had brought with him what he called his “naughty document”, a plan to divide up eastern Europe and the Balkan states into British and Soviet spheres of influence: the USSR would get Romania and Bulgaria, Britain would get Greece, and Hungary and Yugoslavia would be split evenly.
The evening was a huge success, culminating in the guests gathering on the balcony to watch a gun salute marking a recent Soviet victory. Churchill was delighted. Stalin had agreed to his plan. But that gun salute told the real story: the USSR was happy to let the British believe what they wanted, because the Red Army was in eastern Europe, and wouldn’t be sharing it with anyone. It would be some months before Churchill realised that there are limits to the powers of banquet diplomacy.
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