Politics
Wes Streeting resigns as health secretary – letter in full
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
Eurovision bosses have spoken out after fans noticed that pro-Palestine protests had been cut from the Israeli act’s performance video on the contest’s official YouTube channel.
On Tuesday night, Israel’s Eurovision representative Noam Bettan sang his entry Michelle during the live semi-finals in Basel, Austria.
During the opening section of his live performance, chants of “stop the genocide” – and, reportedly, “free Palestine” – could be heard coming from the audience.
However, when footage of Noam’s rendition was uploaded to YouTube, it was quickly noticed that Eurovision had removed the audio of these protests.
A spokesperson for the contest told Middle Eastern Eye that this decision was made as they “believe the focus of the Eurovision Song Contest should be on artists and music”.
Earlier this week, a rep confirmed: “[Austrian’s national broadcaster] ORF is broadcasting a clean audio feed live from audience microphones before and during every performer’s song.
“One audience member, close to a microphone, loudly expressed their views as the Israeli artist began his performance, and during the song, which was heard on the live broadcast.
“They were later removed by security for continuing to disturb the audience.”
It was also confirmed that three more audience members had been “removed from the arena by security” for what the EBU and ORF described as “disruptive behaviour”.
BBC News subsequently reported that one of the audience members removed from the arena had “Free Palestine” written across his chest.
Noam also told the BBC that he was “aware” of the protests during his performance, which came as a “little bit of a shock”.
“[I] looked for the flags of the people who love me and want me to do my best, and that really carried me,” he added.
The continued presence of Israel has been a contentious issue for several years now, with many critics calling for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest in solidarity with Palestine.
After it was decided last year that Israel would be invited back to Eurovision in 2026, five countries withdrew from the contest, including “Big Five” member Spain.
The “naughtiest show on television” is finally back, and Rivals’ second season pays homage to the late Dame Jilly Cooper, who wrote the source material beloved by millions for decades.
Dame Jilly, the author of Rivals and 10 other novels set in the world of Rutshire, died suddenly in October 2025 at the age of 88, but before her death, she gave her input into the second series.
According to the show’s creative team, Jilly signed off on all the scripts for season two, and was giving production team notes up until a few days before her death.
“Jilly signed off every script of the 12 and was on set for quite a lot of production as well,” executive producer Alexander Lamb told Tech Radar.
“So it feels that this series totally has Jilly’s seal of approval. She’s an exec producer, which she’s credited for, and was giving me notes on the Thursday before she died on episode 12.”
Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock
“Her fingerprints are all over this series, and we’d also sat with her and talked about season three and the future, about how to mould the other books around Rivals,” he added.
“We’ve got her blessing on things. We’ve got her notes written down. She’s always with us.”
Jilly’s agent, Felicity Blunt, was one of the executive producers of the show and, according to the showrunner and self-proclaimed Jilly Cooper superfan Dominic Treadwell-Collins, was “Jilly’s representative on Earth, like the Pope is for God.”
“Jilly always said that her job was to entertain,” Felicity told Deadline. “We all try and ensure that that is our North Star. So this season is 150% a tribute.”
The show frequently pays tribute to Jilly with the author even making a cameo in season one.
While the series has expanded beyond Jilly’s source novels and characters, the writing still takes inspiration from the literary icon.
“If you are a Jilly aficionado, you will be able to point to certain scenes, beats or words that she uses,” Felicity – who also happens to be the sister of Emily Blunt and wife to Stanley Tucci – told the outlet.
“We are able to play out the repercussions of some of the bigger dramatic beats of series one, and I think we do that really effectively and still utterly in sync with Jilly’s voice and her storytelling practice. She read every script, celebrated all our choices and gave us complete permission to deviate from the text.”
At the season two premiere of Rivals, Emily Atack opened up about losing the novelist mid-way through filming the series.
“Losing her halfway through the shoot, it was really kind of bizarre and it just gives the show a whole new layer of love and sentiment to it,” she told the press.
“All we want to do is make her and her family proud and it’s a love letter to Jilly this.”
Rufus Jones, who plays Emily’s on-screen husband, also revealed at the premiere that Jilly did manage to see some of the second season before her death.
“She saw some of the assemblies and some of the episodes, you know, the rough episodes, so she got to see something,” the actor explained.
According to Emily, Dame Jilly was “nothing but complimentary and happy” about the episodes.
“You know, she was a mate by the end of it. It’s still a big loss,” Rufus added.
Looking at the rave reviews from critics and 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, we’re sure the late Dame would be proud of how well her characters have been brought to life.
The first three episodes premiere on Friday 15 May, on Disney +, followed by one a week until 5 June. The second half of the season will air later in 2026.
Birmingham-based criminal-defence lawyer Akhmed Yakoob has become an unlikely kingmaker in his city’s local politics, built on his relentless self-promotion, on his ‘straight-talking’, no-holds-barred online persona and on the public’s growing distrust of mainstream politics.
Yakoob has regularly promoted his legal services through catchy TikTok videos aimed at young people drawn to glamour and conspicuous wealth. He films himself next to his Lamborghini. Many in Britain would once have found his brash, Americanised style of marketing distasteful. Yet that style clearly resonates with a section of younger voters who feel alienated from traditional British politics, and who increasingly consume news and current affairs through social-media snippets, rather than through party manifestos or serious debate.
To some, Yakoob may appear clownish. But dismissing him as a joke misses the point entirely. He played a critical role in the election of nine independent councillors on Birmingham City Council in last week’s local elections. With the council now under no overall control, that bloc of councillors will inevitably seek influence and leverage through deal-making with larger parties.
When one looks closely at Yakoob’s campaigning themes, two issues dominate: bin collections and Palestine. The former is at least a local-government issue. The latter has virtually no relevance to the practical services local authorities are supposed to provide to residents.
The more important question is this: how have we reached a point where sectarian politics can secure sizeable clusters of council seats and where similar identity-driven politics delivered five parliamentary victories for independent candidates two years ago?
Having worked for more than 25 years within Muslim communities, I have seen first-hand how Palestine has repeatedly been used as a political football to suit the agendas of different groups in Britain. The first people to recognise its emotional and political potential were Islamist groups, affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood and toxic agitators such as Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri Muhammad, the self-styled ‘Tottenham Ayatollah’. They understood early on that Palestine could be weaponised emotionally to cultivate grievance, anger and communal identity politics.
Such is the gravitational pull of the Palestinian issue that for some British Muslims, it can cloud basic common sense. Many of those most animated by the issue will never visit the West Bank, let alone Gaza, yet they are drawn into the black-and-white thinking that now dominates discourse around Israel and Palestine. Israel is viewed as wholly evil, incapable of doing anything right, while everything Palestinian is automatically cast as virtuous.
The contradictions are glaring. Some passionately denounce Israel while taking Teva-manufactured medication for blood pressure or chronic illness, apparently oblivious to the fact that the medicine helping to prevent catastrophic health events originates in Israel. That is how emotionally charged and irrational this debate has become in certain circles.
On the far end of this polarised spectrum, some have even come to see Hamas as ‘freedom fighters’. The cognitive dissonance runs so deep that they refuse to acknowledge the most basic reality: that Hamas’s barbaric actions on 7 October 2023 directly triggered the catastrophe we are witnessing in the Middle East today.
It is precisely this constituency that Yakoob appeals to – people angry about Palestine, angry about Britain and emotionally invested in a permanent victim narrative claiming that ‘Muslims have it bad in Britain’. This narrative persists even among those whose families own extensive property portfolios across the Midlands and the north of England, and who enjoy opportunities unavailable to millions across the world.
Yakoob himself is not the root cause of the problem. He is a symptom of a much deeper malaise: the catastrophic failure of successive integration policies that abandoned muscular liberalism in favour of passive multiculturalism. Rather than confidently promoting shared civic values, governments retreated into hand-wringing platitudes about ‘communities coming together naturally’.
Indeed, the current Labour government appears determined to continue with the same failed ‘melting pot’ fantasy – the kumbaya politics of assuming that social cohesion somehow emerges automatically without challenge, accountability or a firm defence of democratic norms. Ordinary British people increasingly see through this. They are tired of sectarianism, tired of anti-Semitism and tired of the relentless ‘Britain is uniquely awful’ rhetoric pushed by parts of the activist left.
A closer examination of Yakoob’s own public record reveals a deeply divisive and polarising figure who has nevertheless succeeded in mobilising thousands of voters.
In March 2026, Yakoob was arrested on suspicion of racially abusing a West Midlands police officer. Footage showed him detained in the back of a police van and, true to form, he turned the incident into yet another performance for the cameras, using confrontation and controversy to reinforce his outsider image. He was later released on bail in what is becoming an expanding catalogue of allegations surrounding him.
In May 2025, he was charged by the National Crime Agency with money-laundering offences allegedly committed between February 2020 and January 2021. Yet even then, he brushed aside the seriousness of the allegations with characteristic swagger, remarking that ‘Today’s newspapers are only going to be used to wrap up tomorrow’s bag of chips’.
Other remarks are also cause for concern. In June 2024, Yakoob was heard suggesting that ‘over 70 per cent of hell is going to be women’. Then, during a Sky News interview in March 2026, he reportedly suggested to voters that ‘the Zionists control everything’ – rhetoric that veers dangerously close to classic anti-Semitic conspiracy-theory tropes.
I grew up in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s, when local and national politics revolved around issues such as council tax, Europe, standards of living, economic opportunity and Britain’s place within NATO. Those issues still matter profoundly today, arguably more than ever. Yet the politics now emerging on the streets of Birmingham bear little resemblance to the civic politics many of us once knew.
What we are witnessing points to two uncomfortable truths. First, how deeply divided Britain has become. And second, how identity politics has been allowed to fester unchecked for decades. How have we arrived as a country when a young British Muslim who has never worked, who still lives in his mother’s home and who has little stake in Britain’s economic future can be mobilised more passionately around Palestine than around building a career, contributing to society or strengthening the nation in which he lives?
No, Yakoob is not the disease, but he is a symptom of our age – and of weak, hesitant governments that lacked the courage to challenge sectarianism before it embedded itself into our politics.
Fiyaz Mughal is founder of Faith Matters and Tell MAMA.
(Alamy)
4 min read
Former minister Josh Simons is stepping down from Parliament to allow Andy Burnham to run as a Labour candidate.
Simons, MP for Makerfield, posted on X that he was standing aside so the mayor of Manchester could enter Parliament and “drive the change our country is crying out for.” Burnham will have to be approved by the NEC to stand as a candidate and step down from his current position as mayor.
Simons said it had not been an easy decision but he said Burnham provided the last chance to provide the change the country needed.
In his statement, the outgoing MP said: “For decades, Westminster has overseen the managed decline of towns like mine. We have talked big, then acted small, stuck in a politics of incrementalism that cannot meet the moment. We have lost the trust of those our party was built to serve. It is my unwavering belief that nothing short of urgent, radical, courageous reform will make a difference. That must start with a change in leadership.
“Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield. I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter Parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying out for.”
At the last election, Simons won a majority of 5,399 votes, with Reform coming in second place. Makerfield has been Labour since its inception, but has been moving rightwards for the last decade. A victory for Burnham in a by-election would in itself therefore make a strong case that he should be allowed to run for the Labour leadership.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “We look forward to the contest and we will throw absolutely everything at it.”
Simons added: “This has not been an easy decision. This is my family’s home, where only a few weeks ago, doctors and nurses at Wigan Infirmary saved our newborn son’s life. But we all must make choices and in recent days I found myself with a difficult one: defend the status quo or step forward and act.
“I have made my choice. I am in politics because politics is how you change lives for the better. My party has one last chance to do that: deliver for the people and places I represent, drive economic growth, secure our borders, reform our state and politics, and change a status quo that is not working. That is the fight. I believe Andy is the one to lead it.”
Burnham has been trying to locate a seat in the North West for the last few days, as Keir Starmer has faced mounting leadership challenges since the local elections.
Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary on Thursday morning after he had lost confidence in the prime minister. He said a future leadership contest should be broad and protracted to allow the best candidates to challenge one another.
Burnham said he will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the by-election, claiming he grew up close to Makerfield for 25 years.
In a statement, he said: “Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.”
Burnham addded that he wanted to recognise the “difficult decision” taken by Simons.
The Manchester mayor added: “Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again.”
In the recent local elections, Reform UK won all eight wards by a comfortable margin. The breakdown of the results were:
Reform: 50.4 per cent
Labour: 22.7 per cent
Green: 10.9 per cent
Conservative: 9.9 per cent
Lib Dem: 3.8 per cent
Other: 2.2 per cent
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Andy Burnham has revealed the Commons constituency he wants to stand in so he can become an MP again and challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.
Labour MP Josh Simons has agreed to stand down from his Makerfield seat to make way for the Greater Manchester mayor less than two years after being elected.
In a statement, Simons said: “I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield. I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying out for.
“This has not been an easy decision. This is my family’s home, where only a few weeks ago, doctors and nurses at Wigan Infirmary saved our newborn son’s life.
“But we all must make choices and in recent days I found myself with a difficult one: defend the status quo or step forward and act. I have made my choice.
“I am in politics because politics is how you change lives for the better. My party has one last chance to do that: deliver for the people and places I represent, drive economic growth, secure our borders, reform our state and politics, and change a status quo that is not working.
“That is the fight. I believe Andy is the one to lead it.”
Simons won the seat with a majority of 5,399 over Reform at the general election.
In a statement, Burnham – who was MP for Leigh between 2001 and 2017 – said: “Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics.
“We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures.
“However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again.
“This is why I now seek people’s support to return to parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people.
“Millions are struggling and they need the Labour government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years.
“After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the prime minister and the government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said his party “will absolutely throw everything at” the by-election campaign.
Before he became an MP, Simons used to run Labour Together, the moderate think-tank which helped Starmer become party leader in 2020.
He was forced to resign as a Cabinet Office minister in February over his part in a Labour Together smear operation against journalists.
Despite being a former ally of the PM, he said in the wake of Labour’s drubbing in last week’s elections that Starmer had “lost the country” and needed to go.
The dramatic development comes after Burnham’s leadership rival Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary with a ferocious attack on Starmer on Thursday afternoon.
He said it was clear that the prime would not lead Labour into the next general election on the back of the party’s drubbing in England, Scotland and Wales last week.
Streeting said: “Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”
Burnham stood down as an MP in 2017, and needs to find a way back to Westminster in order to challenge for the Labour leadership.
He tried to stand as Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, but was blocked by the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC).
However, the NEC will be under intense pressure to let him stand again in the hope that he can win the seat and return to Westminster, which he quit in 2017.
Communities secretary and Starmer loyalist Steve Reed says: “I’m sorry Josh has taken this decision.
“If anyone thinks there is a caped superhero that is coming our way with all the answers they have another thing coming.”
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Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Mandelson-protégé health secretary Wes Streeting is preparing to announce his bid to oust Keir Starmer. Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) is likely to play a major and potentially decisive role in who gets to stand in the contest to replace Starmer in Number 10.
Starmer is the worst PM in living memory. That’s quite an ‘achievement’ in a decade that has seen Boris Johnson and the dire Liz Truss in the same seat. But the odds are that the NEC – stacked as it is with Starmeroid and Blairite factionalists – will want a continuity candidate to win. That fact alone would have made it unlikely that Andy Burnham would be allowed anywhere near the contest.
Burnham is deeply flawed, but has a personality and some basic principles. Either would be enough to beat any of the Starmer-clones with which his faction crammed the parliamentary party. Either is enough to make him persona non grata for the NEC.
But Streeting’s rationale for announcing his leadership bid quickly will largely be based on making sure Burnham can’t even think about participating. Burnham would need time to find a parliamentary seat he could stand in before he can bid to lead. Even if the NEC allowed him to stand – rather than find a pretext to block him (again) – it’s far from certain any Labour candidate would win a by-election, even if a 2024 winner stepped down to make way for him.
Optics
But a single-candidate contest, or a Starmer v Starmer mini-me election, wouldn’t be great optics for what remains of Labour.
Former deputy PM Angela Rayner conveniently got a free pass on alleged tax-dodging from HMRC, just in time to throw her hat in the ring, though she’s not Blairite enough for most NEC limpets. And the NEC is currently under the control of the hardest-core factionalists, as new NEC members won’t be in place until the party’s annual conference in the autumn.
So, who might stand and what obstacles do they face? Might sheer inertia allow Starmer to cling on as the most hobbled of lame ducks? Ranjan Balakumaran looked at the situation for the Canary:
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Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
As the Met police tool up ahead of a big day of protest in London on Saturday 16 May, the UN has warned that the UK is eroding people’s rights.
The UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, has called on the UK to uphold its international human rights obligations.
This follows the adoption of restrictive legislation and political calls for a blanket ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Romero said:
The entry into force of the UK Crime and Policing Act on 29 April introduces provisions fundamentally incompatible with international human rights obligations regarding the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association, and expression, and the right of participation.
Of primary concern is the vague concept of ‘cumulative disruption,’ which grants law enforcement excessive discretionary powers to restrict assemblies, disregarding the standard that peaceful protests inherently entail a level of disruption that must be accommodated.
The Act’s criminalisation of face coverings is especially problematic amidst intensified surveillance, as anonymity is often essential to protect privacy and prevent chilling effects.
By imposing further restrictions on mobilisations near places of worship, the State risks creating ‘no-go zones’ for dissent, undermining its duty to facilitate assemblies within ‘sight and sound’ of their target audience.
Yes, Starmer does take a ‘two tier’ approach to protest
On 29 April, following multiple stabbings in Golders Green, London, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said that he would consider banning some pro-Palestinian protests due to the “cumulative” effect that they were having on the UK Jewish community.
This statement followed Tory calls for a moratorium on all pro-Palestinian protests. The (allegedly) independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall echoed these calls and:
claimed that it was ‘clearly impossible at the moment’ for such demonstrations not to ‘incubate’ antisemitism.
However, Romero called on the UK government to refrain from stigmatising and banning pro-Palestinian marches in the name of preventing antisemitism:
Antisemitism is a serious problem that must be addressed through targeted and lawful measures. It cannot justify a blanket prohibition on peaceful protest.
Romero expressed concern that the government’s approach appears to apply heightened security scrutiny to protest activity associated predominantly with Muslim communities. But it doesn’t apply equivalent scrutiny to other forms of protest with direct links to antisemitic and racist incidents.
International human rights law prohibits discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to peaceful assembly on grounds including religion and race. Romero said:
Where restrictions are framed around conduct, such as antisemitism, but are applied in a manner that disproportionately burdens one community defined by religion or ethnicity, this may amount to discrimination.
The freedom to assemble is foundational to a democratic society. Banning pro-Palestinian protests would be an affront to democracy. This is especially important ahead of the Nakba mobilisations that will take place on 16 May.
The special rapporteur has previously raised these concerns with the government.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
President of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) has joined other trade unions in recognising that the ‘Starmer project’ has utterly failed. However, Ian Hodson goes further than the Labour-affiliated unions by arguing that people must collectively rebuild class politics itself.
Until then, he said:
the vacuum will continue to be filled by division, nationalism and billionaire-backed forces pretending to speak for working-class communities – whilst protecting the very system that caused the crisis in the first place.
Proving his commitment to solidarity, Hodson has worked with many groups including Platform for a Democratic Party. He told the Canary that he fully supports the idea of a grassroots political movement that empowers communities to shape policy decisions, and he has made clear that top-down politics harms the interests of working-class people.
After all, ordinary people always foot the bill in our crumbling society, while the rich evade tax and responsibility as they buy off politicians.
Thank you to @PlatformforaDP, of which I am proud to be a part, for this endorsement. Other members are Eric Barnes, Graham Bash, Michael Forster, Ian Hodson, Ken Loach, Ben Sellers and Audrey White. https://t.co/SlxQA98dH2
— NaomiFromKent (@NaomiFromKent) January 13, 2026
‘Starmer project has failed to deliver’
Ian Hodson spoke to the Canary following the moves by other unions to attempt to ‘right the ship’ that is Starmer’s failing Labour Party. In contrast to the other unions, Hodson believes the system will simply replace one stooge with another unless people force through radical, transformative change.
Hodson shared his insights with us, having worked alongside Labour and its leaders for many years, saying:
The Labour movement is at a pivotal moment. The Starmer project has failed to deliver the change our class was promised and in doing so has created the space for Reform to grow by feeding disillusionment, division and anger.
When politics abandons the language of class, inequality and collective hope, the far right step in with scapegoats and slogans.
He then spoke of how powerless trade unions are increasingly becoming to defend workers’ rights due to the blatant neoliberal status quo:
Trade unions cannot organise around managed decline, attacks on our own movement, and a political strategy built more on defeating the left than transforming society. Our class needs a real alternative that challenges poverty, insecurity and exploitation, not another version of the status quo dressed up as change.
Pointing to the radical change desperately required to remind politicians that the 99% matter and are the engine which drives our economy – even if the 1% offer lucrative, appealing backhanders:
What is needed now is a politics rooted once again in solidarity, public ownership, trade union freedom, redistribution of wealth and democratic control over the economy. A movement confident enough to confront corporate power, rebuild communities stripped apart by decades of neoliberalism, and give people something real to believe in instead of simply something to fear.
If we fail to rebuild that class politics, the vacuum will continue to be filled by division, nationalism and billionaire-backed forces pretending to speak for working-class communities whilst protecting the very system that caused the crisis in the first place.
Live launch of 'For the Many', with Audrey White, Ken Loach, Ian Hodson, Andrew Feinstein and more https://t.co/SRNQWrO1Ru
— SKWAWKBOX (@skwawkbox) October 9, 2023
Hodson: ‘We are conditioned to believe we are not meant to be heard as a class’
We then asked Hodson about the barriers that prevent working-class people from engaging in politics – or even considering it in the first place.
After discussing the barriers I personally felt putting my name forward in 2024 for the general election, Hodson said:
We are conditioned to believe we are not meant to be heard as a class. And women even more so.
Which is why it matters that we challenge and ultimately smash the machine that keeps power and wealth in the hands of the few.
It may take a generation, but every gain our class has ever won came because ordinary people refused to stay silent. We have had victories and defeats along the way, but every struggle leaves something behind for those who come next.
The BFAWU President isn’t alone in this principled ambition for the working classes. Your Party MP Zarah Sultana has strongly advocated for building collective power and has repeatedly warned that British society urgently needs to take “bold action”.
And, our own Ed Sykes wrote:
Sultana made it clear that strong policies and stances are necessary, and that the active participation of ordinary people matters, saying:
“The crises we face, which everyone in this room knows about – climate, cost of living, housing, inequality – they are too big for tinkering around the edges. They demand bold action and collective power. And that power starts here: it starts with you, it starts with our members, our communities, and our activists.
And Your Party has to be that platform for that power, a politics driven by the people: a politics that values diversity, but not as this window dressing exercise. It gives a voice to those who have deliberately made voiceless, and makes democracy feel real, feel tangible.”
Hodson: “Refuse to accept invisibility”
He finished by saying that it is essential that socialists today work to build a platform and provide the tools for a new generation to be even more empowered to “speak up and speak out”.
Beautifully, he finished by reminding us that courage and commitment today for working-class politics will provide:
Another step forward for our class, and for the generations of women that will follow and refuse to accept invisibility ever again.
We at the Canary couldn’t agree more: it is high time working-class people are finally taken seriously in UK politics.
Featured image via the Canary
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