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The Reform-led council in St Helens has instructed all local libraries to take down displays promoting or funding anything relating to Pride or Refugee Week.

This Orwellian – and bigoted – move comes just as Refugee Week is set to commence, between the 15th and 21st June, and shuts down the long-seen practice of libraries highlighting resources which increase understanding and compassion towards marginalised communities.

At the same time, the council have afforded £200k of taxpayers’ money to pay a consultant to ‘educate’ elected Reform councillors on the inner workings of the council over four years. This follows a comment made by a newly elected Reform councillor, George Woodward, in their first council meeting that they are:

enthusiastic but politically inexperienced.

Nevertheless, many newly elected councillors begin their terms with gaps in knowledge around policy and procedure, which is why councils already employ paid officers to support and advise them. However, Reform councillors are more than happy for lofty taxpayer funding for specialist political education delivered by consultants of their choosing, while simultaneously imposing cruel cuts to funding for community libraries.

Reform bigotry

This now-deleted post by St Helen’s Reform Councillor Mal Webster states it is a decision based in equality, because equality is of course the pretense that other groups just don’t exist.

Once again, white supremacy and bigotry is on full display by Reform UK.

Reform ;no longer support performative celebrations’

The Canary has seen an anonymous report from a library worker in St Helens who has spoken out saying “most if not all staff are horrified by this and we don’t have any outlet to disagree or speak out”.

Stating they are a ‘concerned member of the community’, they told us:

I don’t want my name used because I will lose my job. But I want people to know that Library management has told staff not to support Pride Month or Refugee week. I personally had to take down my Refugee Week display and Pride book display. This has not come from Reform, the libraries, which are supposed to represent the community, are covering themselves to cozy up with the new administration.

All Libraries in St Helens have been told not to support Pride Month or Refugee Week

Quote from Management – “We’re not recognizing Pride as a particular event this year”

Actions taken –

The calendar is being updated to remove references to Pride. Any leaflets mentioning Pride or Rainbow events “need to be pulled” and not distributed.

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Rebranding Events: Events originally advertised as “Pride” or “Rainbow” events are being rebranded as “creative crafts.”

“Pride book displays are to be removed.”

Quote from Management – “The council’s position is that they’re not supporting Refugee Week this year.”

Actions taken

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Removing Displays: Staff have been instructed to “bring down” Refugee Week exhibitions.

Modifying Educational Content: The “empathy school visits” has been updated specifically to “remove” references to Refugee Week.

We have since learned that the Reform council leader and cabinet directed this decision, with Newton-le-Willows Library issuing an “official response” stating that:

The council will not be involved in promoting or funding both Pride and Refugee Week.

Now with a clear need to replace the displays with something else, they’ve decided that Christmas comes twice this year – of course, this can’t possibly be called a performative display for one group, can it?

Money for “sympathetic” policy advisers, but not for inclusive libraries

Subsequently, the Reform council has stated its decision is about ensuring public money is not used for what it describes as “performative celebrations of one group”. However, the fact remains that it has seen fit to pay a consultant £50k a year on a four-year contract to inform Reform’s newly elected councillors, despite the council already having paid council officers who are more than able to inform on council policy and process for all who require it.

Therefore, it seems Reform is more than happy for taxpayer funds to go to the ‘performative’ benefit of one group, so long as it’s ‘theirs’. As a result, their far-right agenda becomes ever clearer, as they decide that it is not in the public interest for local people to have resources to help them understand and empathise with refugees and fellow citizens in their local LGBTQ+ community.

Once again, Reform show they want to restrict access to factual information that doesn’t suit their political narrative – because it goes directly against their gross, bigoted and ego-driven political motivations to divide our communities and increase hate in our towns and cities.

Since the council imposed the policy this week, local residents have been deeply unhappy with this development, with many across St Helen’s contacting their local libraries for answers and some going down to their library to see the ‘lack’ of displays for themselves.

We also tried to contact a number of local libraries in St Helens, but they would not confirm or deny whether they have taken down their displays. Instead, they directed us to speak to Reform Councillor Long for information regarding this cruel, anti-humanitarian ban.

Only one group matters to Reform – white supremacists

This disgusting policy decision, which in turn will leave communities without the educational resources to better understand issues surrounding refugees and our own LGBTQ+ community, is indicative of Reform UK’s commitment to white supremacy.

Their own leader Nigel Farage has done little to hide his disdain for marginalised people, as he recently sought to use the tragic death of Henry Nowak to whip up “pure cold rage” amongst fellow racists. Subsequently, we saw white riots in Southampton, which terrorised local residents.

Now, Reform is making clear that they want to leave communities in the dark and withhold vital resources which could help to bring down barriers, decrease fear, and increase understanding towards embattled people in the UK.

Where this will lead in St Helens awaits to be seen. But nothing good ever comes from fear, and education is the only way we can counter ignorance.

Reform is now actively taking that education away from our communities.

Featured image via Getty/Bruno Vincent

By Maddison Wheeldon

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To celebrate Nigel Farage’s 50th day without a hosting press conference, Labour have published 50 pressing questions that both Parliament and the public would like him to answer.

By coincidence, the publication also coincides with the approval of Farage’s planning application for to extend and renovate his latest house purchase.

After the Guardian broke its story about Nigel Farage’s undeclared, untaxed ‘gift’ from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, the Reform leader has maintained an unusual level of radio silence. Instead, he’s made ’emergency broadcasts’ which incited a riot from the middle of a field.

Cooking up a white-supremacist riot is certainly one way to divert attention from massive (alleged) corruption. Unfortunately for the UK’s racist ringleader, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner probably hasn’t forgotten that he’s currently investigating Farage.

Neither, for that matter, has Labour chair Anna Turley.

Farage ‘Shifting accounts’

On 7 June, the Labour Press account published the full letter on social media. Addressed directly from Turley to Farage, it listed 50 pressing questions for the Reform leader to answer. What’s more, many of them even came with helpful quotes from Farage himself… and contradictory quotes, likewise.

On the subject of Farage’s many conflicting stories about the £5m gift (or was it donation?) for security (or possibly Brexit, but it definitely wasn’t political), the letter stated that:

Rather than providing clarity, these shifting accounts have raised further serious questions about whether you have broken Parliamentary rules, about potential conflicts of interest, and about whether you have told the truth.

You have refused to answer questions from journalists about the extraordinary sum of money you recieved. That is not acceptable.

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Turley got in a quick jab about reporting Farage’s alleged ‘Russian hack’ to the police before coming to the matter at hand:

Below are 50 unanswered questions – one for each of the 50 days since you held a press conference. You must now set out the answers, clearly and in full. The public deserves the truth.

Lets play 50 questions

In a markedly helpful fashion, Turley arranged her questions into eight similar headings. Of course, we’d love answers to the lot, but the following are some of out favourites. We’re starting fairly easy with the basic details:

Was the “gift” received into your personal bank account or crypto-wallet, or that of a company you control?

Surely Farage can remember that one, unless ‘Moscow’ deleted his records on its way out,

Next up, a group of questions on the fact that Farage didn’t bother to declare the £5m. Labour asked what kind of legal advice led the Reform leader not to bother with that one. Likewise, the party also wondered whether the undeclared £5m came up during Farage’s other recent parliamentary investigation:

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards opened an inquiry on 30 October 2025 into your breaches of the MPs Code of Conduct, and on 20 January 2026 concluded that you had breached the rules 17 times by failing to register financial interests totalling £384,000 within the 28-day limit. […] Did you discuss with the Commissioner the £5 million “gift” or any others given before the 2024 general election?

Private gift or political donation?

Turley then moved on to the reasons behind the ‘gift’. At just two questions, this section was rather short. However, we felt the following was particularly pressing:

You said that the £5 million from Christopher Harborne “was given to me so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life”, […] that it was “purely private”, “wasn’t political in any sense at all” and “an unconditional, non-political personal gift” […], and that “it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years”. […] Which of these is true?

When is a political gift not a gift? When somebody’s telling great big fibs.

For that matter, the letter also pressed Farage on whether he’d taken similar undeclared ‘gifts’ from anyone else. Likewise, Turley was also curious whether Harborne had handed money over to any other Reform stalwarts.

That said, highlighting that Reform promptly began shilling for crypto is probably the biggest ‘gotcha’:

On May 29, 2025 at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, you announced Reform had put together a proposed ‘Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill’ […]. Did Christopher Harborne or representatives of his business advise you or any other Reform-UK-linked figures on matters related to this bill in advance of its publication?

Well, a house is a kind of security…

Given that Farage originally claimed that the £5m was for ‘security purposes’, Turley devoted 10 whole questions to the subject. In particular, she pointed out one major disparity:

Christopher Harborne reportedly became “concerned about what little protection Mr Farage has access to” following an incident in 2019 […]. Why was there a five-year gap between his becoming concerned and giving you £5 million for your security?

We at the Canary had it that Harborne’s inciting incident was watching Farage get hit by a milkshake. We know billionaires are out-of-touch, but a raincoat is probably a cheaper fix than £5m there.

Of course, the fact that Farage and his partner bought/extended several houses up front, within months of the ‘gift’, also featured heavily. Turley singled out the dubious sourcing of those funds:

Reform UK has said that this house purchase was funded not by the Harborne gift but by the fee from your appearence on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! but you have previously said this fee was paid to your production company, Thorn in the Side Ltd. And Thorn in the Side’s company accounts suggest that the fee remained in the company account after the house purchase. How did you pay for the Surrey house in May 2024?

In our opinion, I’m a Celebrity owes the public money for subjecting them to Farage, but whatever.

Last but not least: Moscow

Inevitably, given Turley’s recent history with Farage, she finished up with a question about the Reform leader’s claim to have been hacked by Russia:

According to the Mail on Sunday report, following the disclosure of the £5 million “gift” you “decided to submit [your] mobile phone for forensic analysis by counter-espionage experts” who “concluded that hostile state actors, almost certainly linked to Moscow, had used ‘spear phishing’ tactics to compromise [your] phone, email and bank accounts”. Who were these counter-espionage experts?

Farage is scuppered either way on this one. Either he didn’t report the ‘Russian hack’, which he should have as a national security incident, or he made the whole thing up. Personally, our money’s on the latter.

Of course, if Farage wants to remain in hiding, he’s free to do so. Dodging interviews is really helping his public image as a man who definitely isn’t lying. That said, if he does fancy facing the music, Turley’s itemised list is probably a good place to start.

Featured image via Getty/Dan Kitwood

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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Just as Green Party leader Zack Polanski has made calls to release Marwan Barghouti, so too in Spain, prime minister Pedro Sanchez attended Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival. There, Barghouti’s son, Arab Barghouti, addressed 75,000 people before meeting the Spanish premier.

Arab Barghouthi, son of Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez after addressing 75,000 people at Primavera Sound. pic.twitter.com/RMMyKyzGm3

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 8, 2026

Sanchez even shared a video of Barghouti’s son’s speech on Instagram and thanked him for raising his voice.

Polanski and Sanchez’s positioning of Marwan Barghouthi as a political prisoner rather than Israel’s framing of him as a terrorist borrows directly from the playbook that once freed Nelson Mandela.

Barghouti has been called “Palestine’s Mandela” – a statue of him briefly stood near the UK Parliament last week before police intercepted it.

Like Mandela, Barghouti has spent decades in prison. And like Mandela, his supporters believe he will one day be recognised as a global symbol of freedom and justice.

Barghouti must be freed

A POLITICO profile published the same week praised the Spanish PM as a “rockstar” and the “unlikely face of Europe’s opposition” to Trump.

When the U.S. and Israel began their attack on Iran in late February, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez stood out as the sole EU leader to openly condemn the military operation.

Within months, he went from an outlier in Europe to the bloc’s moral leader.

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https://t.co/VLTgSu4Whv pic.twitter.com/s4N6wcvf0c

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) June 8, 2026

POLITICO traces Sanchez’s domestic popularity to his defiance of US foreign policy priorities.

Spaniards backed him when he refused Trump’s demands to hike NATO spending. But it was his condemnation of the war on Iran that resonated with Spanish voters, among the most opposed to the attack anywhere in Europe.

The news outlet praised Sanchez as an exception to other European leaders who have not stood up to the Americans:

Overall, Europe’s leaders have been reluctant to clash with Trump. The U.S. is one of the EU’s largest trading partners, and maintaining stable ties is considered essential for countries like Germany. Additionally, despite Trump’s efforts to undermine NATO, European defense continues to not only be U.S.-led, but U.S.-centered.

But Sánchez is an exception to that status quo.

Zionist backlash

Like Barghouti’s, though obviously not to anywhere near the same degree, Polanski and Sanchez have paid the price of standing up to the Anglo-American-Zionist ruling elite.

For Polanski, the cost is a relentless media war. The Telegraph has joined other right-wing rags in publishing antisemitic Polanski caricatures. The Telegraph has also implied that Polanski wants to create a “Jew register,” in response to the Green leader backing calls to hold potential war criminals to account.

The Daily Mail published anonymous claims from allegedly “disgusted” relatives, but Polanski revealed they’d all refused to talk.

For Sanchez, right-wing rags are too eager for his downfall. The Jerusalem Post calls Sanchez’s administration “the most antisemitic government in the West,” and digs into his wife’s corruption case. 

One particularly strange claim from the Jerusalem Post, attributed to Spanish businessman David Hatchwell, insists Spain is “led by a coalition financed by Iran” made up of “terrorists who have never answered for their crimes.” No evidence is provided.

Hatchwell smears Sanchez’s government as one that “hates Spain, hates Israel, and hates America.”

Polanski and Sánchez might not reflect mainstream elite politics – but they certainly reflect majority public opinion.

New polling from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign reveals just how out of touch the British establishment really is.

BREAKING: New polling shows that Labour’s policy on Gaza is a significant factor in progressive voters ditching the party in huge numbers pic.twitter.com/9ftj4Y1QWQ

— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) June 8, 2026

Polling showed that Labour’s policy on Gaza is a significant factor in progressive voters ditching the party in huge numbers, with 53% of those who switched to the Greens, Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru, or independents citing Gaza as a reason.

Polanski and Sanchez’s embrace of Barghouti’s cause probably resonates more with ordinary voters than any front-page smear in the Daily Mail or Jerusalem Post.

Featured image via Getty/Buda Mendes

By The Canary

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The US military deployed elements of the elite 82nd airborne division – paratroopers – to the Middle East in March. Sources have now revealed some went to Israel. Their mission, if called upon, was to seize Iranian oil port Kharg island.

US journalist Ken Klippenstein reported on 8 June:

When the Pentagon announced that the 82nd Airborne was deploying to the Middle East in March, it concealed a key detail: some of the paratroopers were headed to Israel, as revealed in an Army deployment order I obtained.

Adding:

A military source involved in war planning tells me the deployment is tied to new U.S.-Israeli joint contingency plans, completed since February, for seizing Kharg Island and carving out coastal territory inside Iran.

Rumours of a ground invasion bubbled then faded as the war ground to a humiliating halt. Klippenstein, among others, argued that a ground war was never going to happen. Trump’s war on Iran is currently polling as badly as the Vietnam war.

US paratroopers Israeli mission kept secret

The mission was kept quiet to head off:

public debate over a joint U.S.-Israeli operation inside Iran — a prospect many considered plausible at the time.

And because:

A joint U.S.-Israeli operation raises thorny questions for America’s Gulf Arab “partners,” especially over logistical support — hence the 82nd, which could launch directly from Israel without any Gulf state’s consent to use its territory.

The last mass military parachute drop was in 1945. While the Pentagon did talk about the deployment, the Israel tasking was kept quiet.

US Joint Chiefs Chairman general Dan Caine praised the 82nd in a public meeting in May 2026:

He went on to describe the paratroopers as “constantly ready to jump from Air Force aircraft into ground combat [to] seize key terrain if ordered to do so, just like their predecessors did in Sicily and Normandy in World War II, or to secure or enable the follow-on forces to flow into theater as they did in Grenada or Panama.”

For Klippenstein:

That is a description of readiness to seize a piece of Iranian terrain — which makes me suspect the New York Times and others were being used to “message” Tehran that such an operation was imminent.

One company remains Israel

The US-Israeli alliance is hardly a secret. Klippenstein gave three reasons why the mission was kept so secret:

First, the breadth and depth of U.S.-Israeli military cooperation goes far beyond arms sales and “deconfliction.”

Secondly:

the two countries are deepening intelligence sharing aimed at making Israel a sixth “eye” in the so-called Five Eyes alliance of the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

And:

Third, naming Israel would expose how much of the U.S. assault on Iran is in fact a joint U.S.-Israeli attack — not a Trump-Netanyahu brotherhood, but cooperation at the military-to-military working level, where combined war plans are now reality.

Klippenstein said one airborne company – between 60 and 250 soldiers –  is still in Israel:

from which no dispatches have emerged in two months. I’m not saying a ground operation is imminent or inevitable. But if one were coming, wouldn’t it be nice to know?

US-Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.

The US has achieved none of its original war aims. Iran predictably closed the Straits of Hormuz, a vital oil channel, once attacked – creating a global energy crisis. Far from being defeated, Iran has said the war will continue until “the enemy’s inevitable and permanent humiliation, disgrace, regret, and surrender”. Trump came to power on an anti-war ‘America First’ ticket. He now faces worldwide humiliation.

Featured image via Getty/Ian Hitchcock

By Joe Glenton

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Your Party parliamentary leader Jeremy Corbyn is asking for the public’s help to pressure Makerfield by-election candidate Andy Burnham into confirming he will back an independent inquiry into UK collusion in Israel’s genocide. Corbyn wrote to the Greater Manchester mayor in May 2026 asking Burnham to say publicly that he will back an inquiry. Burnham did not respond.

Now Corbyn wants members of the public, particularly but not exclusively in Makerfield, to sign a petition demanding Burnham state unequivocally that he will back an inquiry – and arrange it if he wins the by-election and a leadership election.

The British public deserves to know the full scale of its government’s complicity in genocide. That’s why I will continue to push for an independent, public inquiry.

We will not give up until there is justice for the people of Palestine.https://t.co/X0HlSxpGCg

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 26, 2026

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Friends of genocide – except Corbyn

Burnham, at least formerly a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), is surrounded by concerns over his closeness to the UK Israel lobby. Disgraced, Israel-supporting incumbent Josh Simons quit in order to trigger the by-election and other pro-Israel figures now support Burnham. Burnham needs to win in order to challenge Keir Starmer for the keys to Number 10. Simons’s pro-Israel ‘Labour Together’ sabotage outfit appears to be trying to stay in control.

Makerfield voters go to the polls Thursday, 18 June 2026. If Burnham wants the left to lend him a vote, he needs to say right now – as per Corbyn’s demand – that he will hold an independent inquiry into the collusion of UK government, media and others in Israel’s slaughter of innocents.

Sign the petition here.

By Skwawkbox

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Nigel Farage has called on the Unions to ditch Labour and instead join far-right Reform UK.

Reform is now the party of workers.

Today I am inviting trade unions to apply for affiliation with Reform UK.

We also welcome union leaders to attend our national conference in September and engage in discussions about the policies of a future Reform government. pic.twitter.com/v9dRHMmwU4

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 9, 2026

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Farage has never been a member of a union. Instead, he has spent most of his career spouting hatred at them.

Nigel Farage hasn’t been a member of a union his whole life. He’s had nothing but borderline hatred for them his entire career. He’s also quoted as saying “Reform would go to war with these left wing teaching unions”.

Meanwhile councillors like @DarrenGrimes constantly air… https://t.co/mcBIPmgr8M

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) June 9, 2026

If any union accepts his offer, there is no doubt that it will eventually destroy both the union and its members’ rights. That sounds a bit like a turkey voting for Christmas.

Farage inviting the Unions to get into bed with him and Reform UK because they are ‘the party of working people’.
If any union accepts this offer it will destroy them and their members rights, perhaps that’s his plan? I would leave my union if it did would you? #Farage #ReformUK pic.twitter.com/QtOy7KVV8Z

— The Rev. Anton Mittens (@MittensOff) June 9, 2026

Farage voting against workers’ rights

Farage claims that Reform is the party of working people. However, the reality is that Farage has consistently voted against workers’ rights.

Trade union representative here: ARE THEY FUCK FOR THE WORKING PEOPLE. https://t.co/B8FDP1t6d3

— SaltyTech (@Captin__Caveman) June 9, 2026

From the man and party who voted against the Employment Rights Act – this is farcical.

What was it about the law which repeals vast swathes of the Tories’ punitive Trade Union Act 2016 and makes it far easier to get unions recognised in a workplace you didn’t like Nigel? https://t.co/LUMQhJlkY3

— Cllr Tom Creswell (@tom_creswell_) June 9, 2026

Reform wants to scrap the Equality Act. This would threaten parental leave rights, along with job security for half a million pregnant people.

Reform opposed the Employment Rights Bill & would scrap day one sick pay & parental leave rights.

Farage was against increasing the minimum wage & defended Thatcher causing a “little pain” with huge job losses in working class communities.

Reform are not on the side of workers. https://t.co/TSpttGE86e

— Danny Adilypour (@dannyadilypour) June 9, 2026

Farage was also against increasing the minimum wage. Which is hilarious given how much he takes home each year from his nine jobs. He takes home over £600k every single year – so much for a man of the people!

Reform is the party of corporate interests

Eleven trade unions are affiliated to the Labour Party. Having said that, a recent poll suggested there is growing support among some trade union members for Reform UK.

However, leaders of the TUC, GMB, Unison and Community all hit back at Farage. They said that Reform was the party of “corporate interests”.

In an interview with the Times, Farage said union leaders were spending members’ money on policies that members do not support. He added:

Reform now runs councils that employ tens of thousands of unionised workers: bin men and women, social workers, care staff, school support workers.

Unlike the snobbish Tories of old, we will never treat organised labour with contempt. If you represent working people in this country, my door is open. The doors of every Reform council leader from Sunderland to Sandwell are open.

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Reform has never, and will never be, the party of workers.

Reform is not the party of workers.

You hate trade unions. You hate workers rights. You hate the minimum wage.

How can a party of greedy corrupt multi-millionaires and failed Tories who want to strip away our rights, make us poorer and privatise the NHS, ever be on our side. https://t.co/BZ9KSSSmIu

— Oliver Bennett (@OBennettSocial) June 9, 2026

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Does Nige think that if he’s racist enough and incites enough riots, everyone will just forget about the £5m donation and the house he didn’t pay stamp duty on?

Why won’t you allow yourself to be interviewed? Why are you running away from the scandal of your £5mil ‘gift’ or should we say bribe? #Farage #FarageRiots #ReformUK #Brexit #RejoinEU https://t.co/5Ms3KSpeS1

— WeAreTheDeeplyUnhelpful48% #FBPE #RejoinEU (@Budfrog) June 9, 2026

It’s actually insulting to working-class people that Farage thinks he can spout racism and the working class will jump into his arms. But you can’t claim to be the party of working people whilst simultaneously voting against workers’ rights.

A man of the people wouldn’t take millions from crypto billionaires, pay as little tax as possible, and consistently vote against stronger employment rights for workers.

There is absolutely no doubt that if he got into Number 10, Farage would take a massive dump on workers as soon as he got the chance.

Featured image via Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

By HG

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Laila Cunningham is Reform UK’s candidate for the mayor of London, and, in a new interview, she disputed the claim that Nigel Farage wants to force the UK to abandon free health care in the form of the NHS for a US-style insurance model. The problem is that Farage has publicly voiced this opinion on camera, as commentator Farrukh highlighted:

Mick Lynch repeatedly humiliates Reform UK's Laila Cunningham

She then accuses Mick Lynch and Labour of spreading lies to "win the argument" denying that Nigel Farage wants an insurance-based NHS

Here are two clips of Nigel Farage saying,

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1. He doesn't want the NHS funded… pic.twitter.com/joAvIQ2YQ0

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) June 8, 2026

Death to the NHS

In the first clip Farrukh highlighted, Farage says the following to Sky’s Beth Rigby:

I do not want [the NHS] funded through general taxation. It doesn’t work. It’s not working.

In an older clip, Farage says:

I think we’re going to have to think about health care very, very differently. And I think we’re going to have to move to an insurance-based system of health care. Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the marketplace of an insurance company than just us trustingly giving £100bn a year to central government and expecting them to organise the health care service from cradle to grave.

What Farage is talking about is a US-style system; a system which offers the worst of all worlds to taxpayers. As Health System Tracker note:

analysis shows that 20 million people (nearly 1 in 12 adults) owe medical debt. The SIPP survey suggests people in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. Approximately 14 million people (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe over $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000. While medical debt occurs across demographic groups, people with disabilities or in worse health, lower-income people, and uninsured people are more likely to have medical debt.

The reason we say it’s ‘the worst of all worlds’ is because the US pays more per head for their healthcare.

That’s right.

A private health insurance system doesn’t just lead to inescapable personal debt and worse health outcomes; it also costs taxpayers more than the alternative. And the reason it costs more is because the industry is a massive scam.

As congressman Ro Khanna said in April this year:

The U.S. spends far more on healthcare than other rich countries. $15,000 per person (almost double), 18% of GDP (nearly twice as high), and healthcare inflation is 7% (roughly double others).

Yet outcomes are worse. Life expectancy is lower, infant & maternal mortality higher, and chronic disease like diabetes and heart disease higher. Canada with single payer has far lower costs than the US, and even than Germany & Switzerland, and provides better, universal coverage.

Unimpressive

The NHS point wasn’t the only question that Cunningham struggled to answer:

"Nigel Farage hasn't held a press conference for 40 days, since details of his £5 million gift from his billionaire crypto friend in Thailand was reported in April."

"He's out there speaking to people."@vicderbyshire interviews Reform UK's Laila Cunningham.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/M9X5pQB9z2

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 8, 2026

Farage isn’t just ducking questions, either; he’s also skiving from work. As we reported on 3 June:

There have been 525 votes in this parliament, and Farage has shown up to just 169. At 32%, this means he’s shown up for less than a third of the votes he should have done. Do you think you could get away with missing seven days out of every ten at work?

Further demonstrating how unimpressive she is, Cunningham admitted the following to Lynch:

I don’t even understand what you said.

Generally, it’s better to have politicians who understand things. This is how you end up with something like the NHS. Reform, meanwhile, is how you end up with a chaotic, US-style insurance system.

Featured image via Leon Neal (Getty Images) / Carl Court (Getty Images) / Dan Kitwood (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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Many have accused Reform politicians of having regressive opinions about women’s rights and female body autonomy. They’ve accused them of this because Reform politicians have regressive opinions about women’s rights and female body autonomy. And as such, it’s unsurprising the party attracts far fewer female candidates than its rivals.

In the latest example of the party not being the safest place for women (allegedly), a councillor from the 2025 intake has defected to the Tories:

Another Reform councillor has quit, citing bullying, sexism and misogyny within the party. And in Staffordshire alone we’ve also seen repeated racism controversies involving Reform representatives.

This isn’t a few bad apples. Reform is institutionally racist and misogynistic. https://t.co/3KwnKili5R

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— Will Barnish (@WillBarnish365) June 8, 2026

“Natural home” in Reform…

The ex-Reform councillor in question is Charlotte Kelly of Leek Rural, Staffordshire. Rather than stepping down, she’s defected to the Conservative Party, of which she was previously a member. She’s now described herself as a “traditional Conservative”, and said that Kemi Badenoch’s Tory Party is her “natural home”.

Of course, if this is true, it suggests she originally switched to Reform because she’d have a better chance of winning under their banner. She certainly wasn’t wrong to suspect this. In the 2025 locals, the Tories lost as many seats as Reform gained:

Speaking on her reasons for leaving, Kelly said:

Unfortunately, as a member of the Reform group I have experienced bullying and sexism on a regular basis.

Reform’s leadership has not been willing to deal with the issue and this has made it impossible for me to continue as a member of that group.

In response, Reform politicians made accusations of their own:

It comes as no surprise that councillor Kelly has left Reform UK. She has been a source of ongoing disharmony within the group and is currently subject to a formal complaint.

It is regrettable that she has chosen to defect to a party with a dire track record of mismanagement in Staffordshire – one that has driven the council into hundreds of millions of pounds of debt through reckless and uncontrolled spending.

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According to the Stoke Sentinel, Kelly also lodged formal complaints – two in fact. Reportedly, she made these complaints two months ago, and is still waiting for action to be taken.

The Sentinel also reported that Kelly blamed ‘toxicity’ for her departure, and that:

a local party official ‘yelled and swore’ on multiple occasions, and her name was added to a lobbying letter against her wishes. She believes she was treated this way because she is a young woman, with most of her fellow party members being older men.

Not the first

As reported by the Guardian, Reform UK struggles to attract female candidates:

Reform UK has the smallest proportion of women on ballot papers in the local elections in England, at 23%. Labour is the closest to achieving gender parity, with 42% of its candidates women, followed by the Green party (41%), the Liberal Democrats (33%) and the Conservatives.

Reform also has issues holding on to female councillors.

On 3 March, Kathryn Shaw and Joanne Blythe of West Northamptonshire Council left the party to sit as independents. Blythe blamed ‘misogynistic undertones’; Shaw said the move was necessary to ‘more effectively advocate for strong safeguarding systems’.

It’s easy to see why Reform would attract sexists when you listen to its bigwigs. For an example of this, take no-fault divorce, which senior Reform politicians have discussed ending. Should this happen, women would once again find themselves trapped in abusive marriages because they can’t tick the correct box on a government check sheet.

'We need more prosperous families which lead to a more prosperous country.'

Reform's Richard Tice dodges @AndrewMarr9's question over whether reversing no-fault divorces is his party's policy. pic.twitter.com/9RpwHoFxU5

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— LBC (@LBC) February 24, 2026

Farage himself has repeatedly demeaned female journalists in interviews. He was also accused of using the grooming gangs scandal for political capital – and accused by the victims themselves, no less. These same women demanded an apology from Farage after he lied about their situation.

Oh, and there’s also this:

A man is judged by the company he keeps. pic.twitter.com/vOZLwzKTje

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) October 28, 2025

A sign of things to come

It’s obviously completely inappropriate for men to belittle, bully, or harass their female colleagues. Such attitudes could become far more normalised if Reform takes power, however, and we get a government which is three quarters male, pale, and racist.

Before even taking power, Reform is threatening to tear up the Equality Act. The party claims this won’t lead to women losing the hard-won rights they enjoy today. Personally, however, we would advise women to take a long, hard look at Reform UK’s record before trusting them on this.

Featured image via Finnbarr Webster (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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Around 100 well-known public figures have signed an Artists for Palestine open letter describing the government’s plan to impose terror sentencing on four humanitarian activists as a “miscarriage of justice”.

Signatories include author Sally Rooney, activist Greta Thunberg, filmmaker Terry Gilliam, actor Steve Coogan, comedians Jen Brister and Alexei Sayle and law expert Lord John Hendy KC. After failing to gain convictions in their first trial, the state rigged the retrial of six ‘Filton 24’ activists to ensure convictions. The judge prevented the jury hearing that they had a right to acquit the defendants. He banned media from reporting on the fact that sentencing would be escalated as ‘terrorism’.

Even so, two activists were acquitted completely; all were acquitted of any violent intent. Four – Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani – were convicted of criminal damage to an Israeli weapons factory. Sentencing is scheduled for this Friday, 12 June 2026. The judge has refused to recuse himself from the sentencing hearing because of the conflict of interest in his long links to UK security services.

Feeble state excuse for the Filton 24

The letter’s signatories urge judge Jeremy Johnson to drop use of a ‘terrorism connection’ in Friday’s sentencing, because imposing such sentencing after banning mention of it during the trial would be to:

bypass the jury and sentence a group of protesters as terrorists would constitute an extremely grave miscarriage of justice, with consequences far beyond this case alone,

The letter, also signed by actors Zoë Wanamaker, Miriam Margolyes, and Zawe Ashton, Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd, Labour MP John McDonnell and musicians Charlotte Church and Kate Nash, notes the state’s feeble excuse for demanding terror sentencing: that the activists were trying to influence the Israeli government. Nobody believes the Israeli government was going to be influenced – the action was to damage weapons and save Palestinian lives.

Authors Marina Warner and Kamila Shamsie, scholars Paul Gilroy and Jewish academic Avi Shlaim, and actors Brian Cox and Tobias Menzies have all put their names to the call. Irish novelist Sally Rooney, herself a frequent target of Israel lobbyists for her stand against genocide, said:

Protest that poses no threat to the public simply is not terrorism. These activists may have knowingly risked their freedom in taking action, but they now face the prospect of punishment for crimes they were never convicted of and did not commit. This is an obvious effort to undermine solidarity with Palestine, but what it really undermines is UK law.

Singer Charlotte Church added:

The government failed in its duty to prevent genocide in Palestine. Now the courts are lashing out at young people who acted to try and stop it, when it’s those making weapons for Israel that should be facing jail.

Supporters have been asked to gather at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday to increase awareness of the state’s abuse of justice and process to protect Israel. The letter and signatories are reproduced below:

We, the undersigned, urge you to drop the use of the ‘terrorism connection’ in the sentencing of Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona (Ellie) Kamio, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani on June 12th 2026.

The four defendants were not charged with terrorism offences. They were not tried under terrorism laws. The jury was never informed of any proposed ‘terrorism connection’ during the trial and did not find any of the defendants guilty of any terror-related crimes. The proposed ‘terrorism connection’ is founded simply on a guilty verdict in relation to criminal damage. To bypass the jury and sentence a group of protesters as terrorists would constitute an extremely grave miscarriage of justice, with consequences far beyond this case alone.

It is a consensus view within the international legal community that Israel’s campaign of mass killing in Gaza has crossed the threshold of genocide. International law prohibits arms exports to any nation committing genocide or other atrocity crimes, but the UK has continued to supply Israel with weaponry. The defendants in this trial tried every means at their disposal to call for an end to this illegal arms supply: they marched in the streets, wrote to their MPs and joined university encampments. But the export of lethal weapons, and the mass killings they facilitated, continued.

Finally, in August 2024, the defendants took action. They entered a UK facility run by Israel’s largest arms producer, Elbit Systems, and dismantled weapons themselves. Their actions may well have saved lives. And yet, when facing trial, the defendants were not permitted to explain their motivations to the jury. Deprived of the full moral and humanitarian context, the jury found four of the six defendants guilty of ordinary criminal offences.

The conscientious motives of these activists – suppressed throughout the trial – may now be brought against them at the sentencing stage through the use of a ‘terrorism connection’. The only stated basis for this connection is that the defendants were ‘attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons’. But virtually every international humanitarian organisation, including a group of expert UN Special Rapporteurs, has called for the same thing: the restriction of Israel’s access to weapons, in accordance with international law.

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In this case, the purported ‘terrorism connection’ could extend the defendants’ prison sentences, require them to ‘rescind’ their deepest moral beliefs in order to be eligible for parole, and impose harsh restrictions on their freedoms even after their release. Never before has a link to terrorism been imposed at the sentencing stage in a criminal damage case. The implications for civil liberties in Britain are difficult to overstate.

Over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including over 20,000 children. The Filton activists acted to uphold international law and defend human life. To sentence them on the basis of a ‘terrorism connection’ would not only be unjust and cruel: it would gravely undermine the right to protest and the impartiality of the judicial system itself. We demand that you reconsider before it is too late.

The Filton 24 letter has so far been signed by:

Alaa Abd El-Fattah, writer, campaigner, software developer
Khalid Abdalla, actor
Abubaker Abed, journalist
Susan Abulhawa, author
Mark Adderley, producer, director
Lolly Adefope, actor
Travis Alabanza, artist
Anthony Anaxagorou, poet, publisher
Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney
Zawe Ashton, actor, playwright
Krystel Ball, independent analyst
Ronan Bennett, screenwriter
Emma Breschi, model, DJ
Jen Brister, comedian
Dunstan Bruce, musician
Debbie Campbell, ecologist
Joanna Carolan ,comedian
Grace Chatto, musician
Louise Christian, solicitor
Charlotte Church, singer-songwriter, actor
Caryl Churchill, playwright
Steve Coogan, actor, comedian, writer
Brian Cox, actor
Jasmine Cruickshank (jasmine.4.t), musician
Clare Daly, former Member of European Parliament
Jessica Darrow, actor, singer
Siobhan Davies, artist
Robert Del Naja, musician
Mohammed El Kurd, author, poet
Theo Ellis, musician
Brian Eno, composer, producer
Paapa Essiedu, actor
Bobby Gillespie, singer-songwriter
Terry Gilliam, film director, screenwriter
Paul Gilroy, writer, scholar
Lambrini Girls, band
Kerry Godliman, actor and comedian
Denise Gough, actress
Katharine Hamnett, designer
Misan Harriman, photographer
Eleanor Harrison, director
Rima Hassan, Member of European Parliment
John Hendy QC
Billy Howle, actor
Noah Huntley, actor
Sue Jones, casting director
Mali Koa Hood, musician
Florence Kosky, director
Yorgos Lanthimos, film director
Ruth Lass, actor
Paul Laverty, screenwriter
Alex Lawther, actor
Sophie Lewis, writer, scholar
Ken Loach, film director
Mikaela Loach, writer
Lowkey, rapper
Moshé Machover, professor, philosopher
Shirley Manson, musician
Miriam Margolyes, actor
Francesca Martinez, comedian, writer
Victoria Mary Clarke, writer
John McDonnell MP
Tobias Menzies, actor
Kate Nash, musician
Nyome Nicholas-Williams, model, writer
Fionn ó Loingsigh, actor
Ardal O’Hanlon, actor
Lola Olufemi, writer, researcher
Alice Oswald, poet
Maxine Peake, actor
Max Porter, writer
Bella Ramsey, actor
David Renton, barrister, historian
Sally Rooney, writer
Nadia Sawalha, TV Presenter, actor
Alexei Sayle, comedian, author, broadcaster
Graeme Segal, scholar, mathematics
Nadine Shah, singer-songwriter
Kamila Shamsie, writer
Avi Shlaim, emeritus professor of International Relations
Laila Souief, assistant professor of mathematics
Jack Steadman, musician
Maggie Steed, actor
Rahel Stephanie, chef, writer
Juliet Stevenson, actor
Joelle Taylor, writer, poet
Greta Thunberg, campaigner
Zing Tsjeng, journalist
Yanis Varoufakis, economist, academic and author
Bobby Vylan, musician
Harsha Walia, author
Mick Wallace, former MEP
Harriet Walter, actor, author
Zoë Wanamaker, actor
Marina Warner, writer, historian
Roger Waters, musician
Boff Whalley, writer and Musician

Jeremy Corbyn has called on potential new PM Andy Burnham to guarantee an independent public inquiry into UK state collusion in Israel’s genocide. Keir Starmer’s war on UK justice and human rights should put him behind bars in the Hague.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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