Source link

4 min read16 min

Complaints made against councillors’ conduct have risen sharply at local authorities that held elections last year, figures obtained by PoliticsHome show.

Advertisement

The largest rise revealed in the data is at Staffordshire County Council, where there has been a 1,300 per cent increase in the number of complaints since Reform UK won control at the 2025 local elections a year ago.

As voters prepare to go to the polls for another set of local elections next week, experts said the data was a reflection of the UK’s increasingly polarised political climate. The findings show that in many local authorities, the dramatic rise in complaints has been driven by objections to councillors’ behaviour on social media.

Lucy Bush, Director of Research and Participation at the think tank, Demos, told PoliticsHome that the numbers are “indicative of today’s deeply polarised political environment, where strong negative emotions are driving engagement, where disagreements are sharper and where tolerance has evaporated”.

Councillors are required to abide by their council’s agreed code of conduct, which must be based on the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s seven principles of public life.

Advertisement

To obtain the information, PoliticsHome asked 23 councils where full elections took place in May 2025 how many complaints had been made against councillors between January and December 2024, and in 2025 since 1 May (the date that the elections took place last year).

The complaints could have been made by a member of the public or someone else at the council, and some may not have been taken forward or may have been withdrawn since first being lodged. Of the 23 councils, 13 responded fully to the request for information. PoliticsHome also requested the figures broken down by party, which some councils provided.

The findings show huge rises at many councils won by Nigel Farage’s Reform a year ago.

Advertisement

As well as the 1,300 per cent rise in Staffordshire, an increase of 10 complaints to 147, there was a 455 per cent increase in Leicestershire, from nine to 50, with 45 of those made against Reform councillors. 

In November, Leicestershire Reform councillor Joseph Boam told a council meeting that he was a “complaint expert”, having received about 20 himself at the time. He commented on the rise more widely, saying that he and others had “noticed that the spike started the moment Reform UK councillors were elected” and that the “huge increase is almost entirely complaints from far left councillors for our political views and not for any real breach of the code.”

He asked the director of law and governance during the meeting if she agreed with his observation, to which she simply responded: “No, I wouldn’t agree with that statement.”

In Reform-run Durham County Council, there was a 550 per cent increase in complaints made against councillors, rising from eight across the whole of 2024 to 52 between May and December 2025. Of those 52 complaints, 41 were made against Reform councillors. 

Advertisement

In Kent, often described as Reform’s flagship council, complaints against councillors have risen by 480 per cent from 10 to 58. The council said it could not provide a breakdown of the numbers by party as it could make it possible to identify an individual councillor.

There were rises in councils controlled by the Liberal Democrats, too.

In Devon, there has been a 264 per cent increase in complaints. Across the whole of 2024, just 11 complaints against councillors were received, compared with 43 in 2025, with 40 of those just since May 1. The council did not provide a breakdown of the complaints by party.

In Gloucestershire, run by a Liberal Democrat minority administration, nine complaints were received across the whole of 2024, compared to 27 in 2025 (25 of which were received since 1 May). Around half of the complaints received were against Reform councillors.

The data shows that, in some cases, complaints against councillors are triggered by a single event. For example, in Reform-run Warwickshire, 308 of the 315 complaints received in 2024 related to comments made by three councillors at the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting of 25 January 2024.

Advertisement

Rhiannon McQuone, research associate at More in Common, explained that the think tank has identified two groups who are most likely to have written to their councillors.

Setting them to PoliticsHome, she said: “Progressive Activists, a group of highly engaged, progressive voters who care about climate change and social justice, and Dissenting Disruptors, a group who are distrustful of institutions, opposed to multiculturalism, think political correctness is silencing ordinary people, and who crave radical change.”

The government consulted on the councillor complaints process in 2024, proposing to introduce a mandatory code of conduct. The Local Government Association said at the time that “there is frustration and dissatisfaction among both voters and councillors where they perceive different levels of standards being applied in different authorities”.

In January, The House magazine revealed that the home addresses of local councillors would soon be kept secret from the public amid rising concerns over threats.

Advertisement

 

Advertisement

Source link

President Donald Trump endorsed a Republican congressmember to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell while rejecting a self-styled MAGA candidate with backing from Elon Musk.

Trump announced his support Friday for Rep. Andy Barr in the Kentucky Republican primary, shortly after he said he asked businessperson Nate Morris to drop out of the race and take an unspecified role in the Trump administration.

The endorsement gives Barr a massive boost to win the GOP nomination over former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the deep-red state.

“I know Andy well, and he is always a Vote we can count on because he knows what it takes to GET THINGS DONE and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said on social media.

Trump said he asked Morris to serve as an ambassador but did not specify the exact diplomatic post, while praising him as a “strong MAGA Warrior.”

“Nate is Oxford educated, tough as nails, LOVES our Great Nation, and will represent the United States very well, overseas, or otherwise,” Trump said.

Morris endorsed Barr in a social media post, and called on “all Kentuckians to rally behind our next Senator.”

Morris has self-financed his campaign to stay financially competitive with Barr. But he did receive a significant investment from Elon Musk, who dropped $10 million into his campaign, according to federal campaign finance records from earlier this year.

The primary had been defined by Barr, Cameron and Morris seeking to distance themselves from McConnell, the lion of the Kentucky GOP who has grown into a Trump adversary and condemned the president for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

That maneuvering away from McConnell speaks to the power of Trump’s endorsement in the state, Kentucky Republican strategist Tres Watson said. He noted that Cameron will be familiar with the gift Trump has given Barr — Cameron won the GOP primary for governor in 2023 after getting Trump’s backing.

“It’s all over but the shouting,” Watson said. “Donald Trump’s endorsement effectively ends this campaign and Andy Barr can begin to turn his attention to the general election.”

Barr’s allies celebrated Trump’s endorsement. Former Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer said it shows that Barr has run a “perfect race” thus far.

“I’m pleased that President Trump has endorsed Andy Barr,” Thayer said. “He likes to support winners and it’s been clear right from the start that Andy has what it takes to win the primary and the general and hold the seat for Republicans.”

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

Source link

An arson attack against the ‘antisemitism commissioner’ of the German state of Brandenburg has turned out to be a case study in the Israel lobby’s antisemitism smear tactics. And, of course, the way in which those tactics are aided by the state-corporate media.

It’s a lesson that the UK badly needs to learn.

Andreas Büttner was targeted by a night-time arson attack — his door was damaged and an outbuilding on his property set on fire. Israel’s ambassador immediately leaped to publicly decry the attack as antisemitic and claim it was evidence that the Palestine solidarity movement is a terrorist one. And of course, he demanded that the German state “smash these terrorist organisations”:

My thoughts are with Andreas Büttner and his family. Knowing him as I do, he will only stand even more resolutely against antisemitism after this attack.

For the radical part of the “Palestine solidarity” movement is not only antisemitic, but terrorist. Attacks on those who think differently and attempted murder: That is what the Hamas triangle stands for—in Gaza as in Brandenburg. And the hatred of Israel goes hand in hand with hatred of our democracy.

Advertisement

The rule of law must smash these terrorist organizations—and that before they strike again.

Meine Gedanken sind bei Andreas Büttner und seiner Familie. Wie ich ihn kenne, wird er nach diesem Angriff nur noch entschlossener gegen Antisemitismus aufstehen.

Denn der radikale Teil der „Palästina-Solidarität“ ist nicht nur antisemitisch, sondern terroristisch. Anschläge auf… pic.twitter.com/MtgSfD7qn4

— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) January 4, 2026

Right. Equally quickly, much the German media jumped to amplify the claims. Bild demanded to know, “Where is the tough action against left-wing extremists?”, labelling the arsonists as “left-wing fascists” and claiming a “Hamas marker” had been left on Büttner’s door.

Except it appears to have had nothing to do with the left, or with antisemitism.

An ‘uncle’ to them

Instead, the two men accused of and charged with the attack were two young men that Büttner knows personally. Not just knows, but owns a business with. Not just owns a business with, but went to the opera with.

He even describes himself as “a kind of uncle” to them.

The Tagesspiegel decided to investigate the ambassador’s claims and quickly unearthed these facts. The outlet was forced to conclude that:

Many questions remain unanswered. But contrary to previous assumptions, one thing it is probably not about is antisemitism.

Even the Jewish press’s Jüdische Allgemeine has had to concede this week that the attack had nothing to do with Palestine, admitting that Büttner is “shocked” to find the attack was — allegedly still — by people he knew.

Despite the findings and the fact that the accused are not part of the pro-Palestine movement, as can be seen from the embedded X post above, the Israeli ambassador has not retracted his smear or his demand for a crackdown, or deleted his post.

Bild has not deleted its January article.

UK could learn from this German smear case study

However, despite the continued smears and the German government’s naked collusion in Israel’s genocide and smears, Germany is doing better than the UK. That’s not saying much, but at least some German media have admitted that the attack was a personal one and nothing to do with antisemitism or the anti-genocide movement.

In the UK, the Golders Green knife attacker has been charged with three counts of attempted murder this week — not terrorism. Three counts because one of the people he stabbed was not Jewish or in a Jewish area. Yet the Met police are still justifying brutality against the immobilised, psychologically ill attacker and smearing Green party leader Zack Polanski for daring to condemn it.

The Starmer regime is smearing the anti-genocide movement as hateful and dangerous, even though it had nothing to do with the entirely peaceful pro-Palestine marches Starmer wants to stamp out. Starmer’s government has used the attack to raise the terror alert level even though it was not terrorism, and intends further attacks on UK protest and free speech rights. Met commissioner Mark Rowley says he wants special, armed police force only for Jewish areas.

And UK media headlines continue to treat the incident as an antisemitic terror attack and ignore the non-Jewish victim, even though it was neither.

If we tolerate this, our children will be next. Israel is a terror state. Perhaps seeing it play out in a different country will allow a few more people to understand how they are being manipulated and misled by the Israel lobby.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Source link

The Green party launched its Workers’ Charter 2026 tonight at the People’s History Museum in Manchester. Zack Polanski opened the event with a wonderfully passionate call to build a system that works for the workers and not the wealthy few. Polanski’s powerful call to finally level the playing field, reinstate workers’ rights and to unite trade unionists under the Green banner was refreshing to hear.

Polanski’s common sense politics

The rally took place tonight on International Labour Day (May Day), Friday 1 May 2026, and the announcement could not be more fitting. The historic venue was perfect for the launch of the Workers’ Charter and speakers such as Hannah Spencer, a proper working-class MP, helped to hammer home the importance of its launch.

Polanski, a Salford-born leader, brought a grounded energy to the room. He spoke with the authenticity of someone who understands the city of Manchester. The atmosphere was electric as union representatives and active strikers took to the stage and hammered home just why the Green party’s Workers’ Charter is so important.

A £15 minimum wage

The party is pledging a £15 minimum wage for all workers regardless of age by 2027. This also comes with a commitment to achieving a higher real living wage.

The Workers’ Charter also includes:

• Pay justice: A 1:10 pay ratio within all organisations to cap executive greed. Think of how quickly working-class wages would go up if a CEO could only earn just over £100 an hour?
• Public sector pay: Guaranteed pay rises to match inflation as a minimum, and opening the door to pay restoration for all.

Polanski’s charter — stronger rights from day one

The Charter wants to build on the current Employment Rights Act, acknowledging it is woefully inadequate. The Greens proposed a total ban on fire and rehire, and zero-hour contracts. And let’s face it, it’s fucking long overdue. Pledges for ‘strong rights’ also include:

• Worker equality: a robust, single worker status to tackle multi-tier workforces.
• Work/life balance: More statutory holidays, more and fairer parental leave, and the right to off when you’re not on the clock.
• AI justice: New laws to protect workers from being replaced by technology. And a national strategy to ensure any gains from new tech are shared with workers.

Collective power

Polanski told the audience that workers deserve real protection and dignity at work, something that we are severely lacking. He vowed to lift the disgusting anti-union and anti-strike laws that have muzzled the working-class since 1979.

The Workers Charter also demands:

• Full ERA: Fast and strong implementation of the whole Employment Rights Act from union access to workplaces to electronic ballots to guaranteed.
• Second ERA: A new Act to go further to strengthen our rights. The Greens want to ban unfair dismissal practices from day one, ban fire and re-hire and zero-hour contracts outright. They want to bring back strong collective bargaining, including sectoral bargaining and the right to strike without barriers.
• Unchaining the unions: Scrap all anti-union and strike laws introduced since 1979. The Greens want to strengthen our right to strike, picket and protest, including solidarity action for political and social causes.

The Green party seems to be stepping into the shoes of what Labour used to be, the true party of the working-class. Polanski seems to be leading the charge in common-sense politics. But the question remains, will this be enough to prise the unions from the clutches of Starmer’s Labour? I really hope so.

Featured image provided via author

By Antifabot

Source link

DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 31

BLAKEMAN’S DAY IN COURT: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman’s battle to access the state’s new public campaign finance program made its way to an Albany County courthouse this afternoon.

The legal fight is over hypertechnical matters like whether duplicate copies of a “PCF-22” form submitted separately should be considered as a joint submission.

But the repercussions are significant. Blakeman is seeking to build momentum for his underdog campaign in a blue state, and a win would provide a $3.5 million boost to his effort, guaranteeing he’d be one of the better-funded state Republican candidates in recent decades. It would also give him bragging rights over the Democrats who call all the shots in Albany.

The GOP case rests on the idea that Democrats made the rules for joining the program impossible to follow. Blakeman lawyer Adam Fusco noted that none of the gubernatorial candidates who applied are likely to receive any money.

“There is a hidden ball trick,” Fusco said. “And everyone who tried to do this failed to do it correctly: 0-7. It sounds like my high school baseball career.”

Blakeman was booted from the program in March. During the same week in December, he received a letter saying he was accepted into the program and the Public Campaign Finance Board approved a new rule that gubernatorial candidates and their running mates must apply jointly.

The board never published the form they’d need to submit and never mentioned the need for a signature from Blakeman’s running mate, lieutenant governor hopeful Todd Hood. The requirement was also absent from a training Blakeman sat through in January and wasn’t mentioned in a recent update to the campaign finance handbook. But since the nonexistent form was never received, the board’s Democratic majority deemed Blakeman no longer eligible.

Democratic lawyer Chris Massaroni rejected the idea that the decision stemmed from partisan gamesmanship. Any serious campaign for governor should stay abreast of changing rules, he said.

“It wasn’t a sort of casual, quick determination,” Massaroni said. “It was a careful consideration that we have to apply the rules carefully, and we can’t appear to be giving exceptions. … If we start bending these election rules once, we don’t know where that’s going to end.”

Justice Denise Hartman, who was first nominated to the bench by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, seemed perturbed by the board’s failure to produce the form Blakeman was expected to file.

“This is very problematic that there was no joint form,” she said.

“Under the board’s own regulation, the board shall — it’s a shall — produce a joint form for the candidates. Why hasn’t that happened?” she later asked.

She also noted, however, that the fact Hood never even attempted to file anything at all was a “concern.”

Fusco is requesting the court to require the board to produce a form that Blakeman and Hood can jointly fill out and allow for a new “window for filing that form.”

Hartman promised to “hurry this along” and issue a decision in the next week or two. That will allow for arguments in a mid-level appellate court before the end of May, making it more likely the matter will be resolved before judges start taking summer vacations. — Bill Mahoney

From the Capitol

THE END IS NEAR: Gov. Kathy Hochul is bullish that a state budget agreement is on the verge of completion in the coming weeks, telling reporters today that a compact is close.

“Our teams are going to continue working day and night for the entire weekend,” she said in an impromptu gaggle.

The governor acknowledged, though, that sticking points remain over devising the structure of a pied-à-terre surcharge for high-value non-primary homes in New York City. She also indicated that more education aid is being discussed for the Big Apple as Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin push for additional revenue from Albany. And she said a potential rebate check program is “on the table” in negotiations with the Legislature.

The budget is now more than a month past its March 31 due date. The month-long impasse between Hochul and the Legislature stemmed from her push to weaken a 2019 climate law and to overhaul the state’s car insurance laws. — Nick Reisman

THE RINGS: In the same gaggle, Hochul teased a potential push for New York to get an Olympic games.

“We had a very productive meeting today to launch our exploratory committee for the Olympics,” she said.

But the governor quickly clammed up after that and wouldn’t go into detail. Her news, though, comes as New York officials have made various efforts over the years to bring the Olympics back to the Empire State. Lake Placid last hosted the winter games in 1980.

Democratic Assemblymember Bobby Carroll earlier this year pitched a potential Lake Placid-New York City winter games, similar to how Italy spread its Olympics between Milan and Cortina. — Nick Reisman 

FROM CITY HALL

ZO GO GO: In a speech this afternoon to the Regional Plan Association’s annual assembly — which has been described as a sort of Oscars for urbanists — Mamdani once again delved into faster buses.

With free buses not happening this year, the mayor said he’s focusing on delivering faster bus service through street redesign projects and a plan to speed up buses along dozens of corridors. The aim is to cut commutes by six minutes each way.

“I say that as someone who, when I went to Bronx Science and I got off the 1 train and I knew that I’d missed the bus, if I ran fast enough, I could catch up to it three stops later,” Mamdani said.

He also used the speech to suggest he would work often with the RPA, the same way as the group and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia did decades ago. “Together, they turned ideas into action, delivering on transitways, parks and a more livable New York City,” Mamdani said. “A century later, let us do the same.”

The RPA gave an award to Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill also delivered remarks and said that lack of investment in New Jersey Transit has “pushed it into really hard times.” — Ry Rivard

CONGESTION PRICING APPEALED: The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling blocking its attempts to end New York City’s congestion pricing program.

“Appealing congestion pricing once again is just a waste of everyone’s time,” said Sean Butler, a spokesperson for Hochul. “Sean Duffy can keep trying, but traffic will stay down, business will stay up, and the cameras will stay on.”

A Southern District of New York judge ruled against the Department of Transportation in March, finding that the federal government could not unilaterally terminate an agreement with state and city agencies that gave the go-ahead for the tolling program.

President Donald Trump’s social media posts did not help the federal government’s case.

“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” he posted in February 2025, on the same day that the MTA filed its lawsuit against the DOT.

Justice Department lawyers filed an appeal Friday to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. — Mona Zhang

IN OTHER NEWS

— BILLIONAIRE BOOST: Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen is pouring $3.5 million into a super PAC backing Alex Bores, escalating a high-stakes primary fight with AI regulations emerging as a key issue. (POLITICO)

— ACROSS THE AISLE: New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler’s wife, Anna Poe-Kest, is taking a senior role at the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget has drawn scrutiny as it places them on opposite sides of budget negotiations. (City & State)

— WASTE WARS: The Council has introduced a package of bills to curb dog waste after a winter surge, aiming to expand bag access, composting and outreach to pet owners. (THE CITY)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

Source link

Alys Denby, editor of billionaire-owned City AM, told billionaire-owned Times Radio she was upset at being forced to vote Labour to keep the “extremist” Greens out.

The Greens will be beside themselves with grief, no doubt. Here is the full commentary from 1 May:

Proud Conservative @alysdenby has proclaimed she’s voting Labour and calls for other London Tories to do the same.

She believes Labour are the “lesser of two evils” when it comes to the Greens. pic.twitter.com/lZ72OEN7Sv

Advertisement

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) May 1, 2026

Denby said:

I am going to vote Labour at the upcoming local elections. I hate myself for it, but where I live in south London people don’t know what is good for them so they tend not to vote Conservative.

She went on:

It’s a marginal between Labour and the Greens and considering who is the lesser of two evils, I have to vote Labour. The Greens…. are not some sort of crusty cute hippies that people think, that just care about nature. They are extremists, and their policies would destroy London faster than carpet bombing.

Faster than carpet bombing…

Denby then launched into a purely ideological attack on Green leader Polanski and the party’s policies, singling out rent controls as:

the worst policy in the world.

Erm…

Granted, it probably is if you are a member or pal of the landlord schema. Which Denby may well be, given her politics and class background…

The Greens boiling billionaire piss

But what could the Oxford and City University-educated editor of a newspaper owned by the super wealthy possibly have against the mild reformism of the Green Party?

According to the fact-checker Factually, the current Green manifesto is offering:

an overlapping set of priorities: tackling the cost-of-living crisis, delivering an accelerated green transition, building large-scale social housing, and protecting public services and human rights — with variations and local emphases across UK, Welsh, Scottish, and borough platforms.

And locally the party’s manifesto aims to:

amplify community wealth-building, tenants’ rights and council-level powers, while the party’s internal policy process and recent conference decisions shape what ends up in each document.

All sound like pretty standard old-fashioned social democratic stuff to us. And not a single mention of carpet-bombing London.

To our knowledge, Polanski and Mothin Ali lack access to a fleet of bombers. Though they could feasibly pop up to RAF Fairford and ask Keir Starmer’s mates in the US Air Force for a quick borrow of a B-1 between UK-enabled strikes on Iranian civilians. I’m sure they’d be accommodated.

The bottom line is this: the Canary knows as well as anybody the Greens aren’t perfect — far from it. We report their fuck-ups regularly. But the kind of hyperbolic, bad-faith garbage delivered by Denby — presumably a very accomplished journalist — could be read as a disgrace to the profession.

We detest the super-wealthy. We’ll say it with our chests. Those who hate low and middle-income families — and loathe the idea of them getting a bit of rent control, or healthcare or a bit of say in their communities — should just come out and say it too.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Source link

Activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla have reported being brutalised by the Israeli military after their humanitarian ships were stormed. They also said they were denied food and water. The illegal seizure was a brutal re-run of previous attacks on flotillas.

The activists were detained by an Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) naval vessel for 40 hours after their capture. The flotilla’s main X account posted details on 1 May:

URGENT: GSF PARTICIPANTS BRUTALIZED BY IOF AFTER 40 HOURS AT SEA

Global Sumud Flotilla participants have just survived 40 hours of calculated cruelty aboard an iOF navy vessel in Greek waters.

Advertisement

They were denied adequate food and water. They were forced to sleep on floors… pic.twitter.com/FAlM0SZfHR

— Global Sumud Flotilla (@gbsumudflotilla) May 1, 2026

The account said:

When the military moved to abduct two participants, Saif Abukeshek (Spain / Palestinian origins) and Thiago Ávila (Brazil), our crew peacefully resisted and the response was sheer violence.

Adding:

Participants were punched, kicked, and dragged across the deck with their hands bound behind their backs. They suffered broken noses, cracked ribs and bloody beatings. Shots were even fired at them in the chaos.

The group said that the Greek police, who have taken custody of the activists, are now refusing to release them:

The nightmare isn’t over. Greek police are now trapping our battered crew on buses, denying them the freedom to leave while Saif and Thiago have been abducted and taken back to occupied Palestine.

However, the group added:

Our participants remain unbroken: 60 participants have immediately launched a hunger strike.

This is a vicious attack on peaceful civilians. We will not look away. We demand their freedom and international accountability NOW.

Advertisement

Speedboats chasing flotilla and jamming technology

Democracy Now! reported that Israeli forces had chased down many of the flotilla boats, but not all:

Israel’s military has intercepted boats traveling with the Global Sumud Flotilla as they worked to bring food and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Leaders of the international aid group say at least 22 of the 58 vessels en route to Gaza were chased down overnight by drones and military speedboats near the Greek island of Crete.

The US-based outlet described Israel’s piracy in detail:

Their radar was jammed as Israeli troops carrying assault rifles boarded the ships and ordered participants to their hands and knees. Israeli authorities said they arrested 175 people.

Activist Neve O’Connor livestreamed the attack as it happened.

As a flotilla, we have activated all safety protocols, and we are now preparing for interception. If we go silent, this is why: We have been intercepted. Please keep tracking us. Condemn Israel. Condemn anyone that you can to bring us back home safely, and keep an eye on us.

Flotilla leaders said it was a straight-up attack on “unarmed civilian boats in international waters” and amounted to “kidnapping on the high seas.”

Naval aggression

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) published a press release condemning Israel’s illegal attack. They urged the UK Government:

to take urgent action to protect UK citizens and other global humanitarian civilians who are under attack.

They said the flotilla’s mission was to:

deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza at a time when Palestinian people continue to face malnutrition and starvation due to Israel’s intentional restriction of humanitarian aid, as part of its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The organisation said Israeli forces:

smashed vessels and forcibly intercepted the flotilla, preventing it from continuing its mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Activists were detained following the assault, in a deliberate effort to disrupt and punish attempts to stop the Israeli blockade.

We won’t hold our breaths waiting for Keir Starmer to intervene on behalf of his own citizens. He is far too busy attacking basic liberties at home. But this flotilla certainly won’t be the last, as activists put their own lives and liberties on the line to oppose the settler-colonial state’s genocidal assault on Palestinians.

Featured image via AmnestyInternational

By Joe Glenton

Source link

Keir Starmer’s niece will contest a safe Labour council seat after two black candidates were barred from running. Ellie Sandover will run in Bensham Manor, the second safest Labour seat in the borough. Good old Croydon seems to be a centre for Labour controversies in recent weeks…

Inside Croydon reported on 30 April:

Sandover was selected in August last year, among the first to be announced of Labour’s full slate of 70 council candidates standing in the local elections next Thursday.

The outlet said:

Two of Bensham Manor’s sitting councillors, Eunice O’Dame and Enid Mollyneux, both black women, were blocked by Labour from standing as candidates in 2026. For most of the past four years, Mollyneux has been Labour’s shadow cabinet member for community safety.

Sandover reportedly previously worked at Croydon’s Legacy Youth Zone:

In her mid-20s, former BRIT School pupil Sandover has a degree from the Central School of Speech and Drama, and while she was working at Legacy and in Sarah Jones’s parliamentary office last year, she also managed to complete her Master’s in law.

She is the daughter of Starmer’s sister Kate Swabey, a care nurse. Inside Croydon said:

It was Swabey to whom Starmer, when the leader of the opposition, referred to as “my sister is a poorly-paid care worker” in a Prime Minister’s Questions back-and-forth with Boris Johnson in 2021.

One Labour staffer told the paper “that’s news to me” when Inside Croydon asked about Sandover running in the seat.

Concerned locals speak of a ‘parachuted’ niece

Locals told Inside Croydon about their concerns that Sandover:

Labour members in Bensham Manor have also noted how Sandover has been rarely sighted recently, suggesting that she might have gone on holiday during the short campaign period, though this has not been confirmed.

Adding:

On social media, at a crucial time in the election campaign, Sandover’s last canvassing selfie was posted on April 9. Flytipping and uneven pavements were the residents’ concerns Sandover heard on that occasion, “no small issues for people in the place they call home”, she tweeted.

One concerned local said:

Ellie’s a very new member to the party.

And Inside Croydon reported:

The usual requirement by the Labour Party is for those seeking selection as a candidate to have been a member for at least six months – which suggest that Sandover must have been a party member by at least February 2025 were she eligible to be selected that August.

They added:

Bensham Manor ward is in Croydon West, the constituency of MP Sarah Jones.

Interned with Starmer ally MP

Sandover reportedly interned with Sarah Jones MP, a Starmer ally and junior Home Office minister “in May and June last year [2025]”.

The Fraud author Paul Holden posted on X:

So let's get this straight… two sitting black councillors are deselected in Croydon. The Party's bureaucrats enforce a mandatory shortlist… and the result is KEIR STARMER'S MID-20s NIECE gets picked to stand for the 2nd safest ward?

She might be very smart and capable, and…

— The Fraud (@StarmertheFraud) April 30, 2026

Advertisement

Jones is a pretty standard example of a Starmerite MP. Her register of parliamentary interests names her son, Joseph, as an employee for Flint Global — a consultancy firm with defence and energy interests. The MP also appears to have taken multiple overseas trips funded by the Antisemitism Policy Trust, whose website has promoted the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism and platformed right-wing ex-Labour MP turned ‘independent advisor to UK government on antisemitism’ John Mann.

Jones also reportedly accepted event tickets worth hundreds of pounds from Global Media, the “shadowy conglomerate” behind LBC radio.

Keir Starmer has questions to answer, and not just on whether his niece was parachuted into a safe seat. You’d think a man whose government is falling apart, and whose credentials as a principled and ‘forensic’ lawyer lay in tatters, would be a bit more mindful in this febrile climate…

Featured image via Twitter

By Joe Glenton

Source link

In a high-stakes European Conference League semi-final first leg, Spain’s Rayo Vallecano secured a 1–0 victory over France’s Strasbourg.

The match was tightly contested, but it was Rayo who were celebrating after the final whistle.

Viral Palestine flag moment

Moroccan forward Ilyas Akhomach, 22, was among the first to join supporters after the win.

During the celebrations, he was handed a Palestinian flag by fans, which he carried onto the pitch.

The gesture drew a strong reaction inside the stadium and quickly gained traction online, with videos of Akhomach circulating widely.

Within hours, the moment had become one of the most talked-about moments of the European Conference League.

Keeping the Palestinian struggle front-of-mind

Some spectators saw the act as a show of solidarity with Palestinians, while others pointed to its wider political significance, particularly in the context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The moment comes amid growing international concern over the impact of the conflict on Palestinian sport. According to advocacy groups, hundreds of athletes, including footballers, have been killed during the war.

Critics have also called for greater scrutiny of Israel’s participation in international sport, and governing bodies — for their part — have yet to take significant action.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alaa Shamali

Source link