Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat has caused a stir in the Commons by attacking Labour over the £800 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority. Tugendhat raised concerns about well-resourced Hamas operations…
Labour minister Melanie Ward shouted “shame on you” at Tugendhat. His comments about the aid:
“What have we seen for it? Well, we have seen the vile indoctrination of hatred, of the control of food and services to achieve dictatorial compliance. And we have seen the biggest network of tunnels built to prepare for war. But of course, it’s striking, isn’t it, that these air raid shelters were not built to protect the civilians. They were never allowed in. Palestinian women and children were never allowed in the tunnels…
I can see the lady shaking her head [in reference to Melanie Ward]. If she wants to side with Hamas, she’s welcome to. But if she wishes to stand with the Palestinian people, she should recognise what Hamas has done. Those who stand with the Palestinian people stand against Hamas. And again and again and again, we have sadly seen Hamas torturing and murdering so many…
We recognise that aid has been weaponized by the Hamas leadership that has been in control for more than 20 years. Again and again and again, it has chosen to hurt, to murder, to destroy its own people for the political benefit of its masters in Tehran and its vile ideology.”
A sobering point…
Spotted by Robert Colvile and confirming Guido’s reporting. It’s now a ‘stretch target’…
Prospective Tory London Mayoral candidate James Cleverly said on The Guido Fawkes Show last night that he would not abolish the Met Police force if he becomes Mayor, and he has confidence in Mark Rowley as its Chief. Laying the blame for rising crime at the door of Sadiq Khan…
“The Metropolitan Police Force is a really, really good police force. It’s a great police force. Again, like London itself, it is great. It could and should be better. I know Mark Rowley very very well, both from my time originally on the old Metropolitan Police Authority back much earlier in our respective careers, and I also know him very well from my time as Home Secretary. He is a good police officer”.
He further added that while Rowley is a good officer, the force needs political leadership that “has got their back when they do their job properly“:
“The job of the mayor is to make sure that Metropolitan Police is doing its job properly. And on that metric, Sadiq Khan has failed miserably, miserably because he just doesn’t care…”
A judgement just handed down from the British Indian Ocean Territory Court of Appeal has found in the favour of the authorities who are seeking to remove Chagossians from the archipelago. Chagos First Minister Misley Mandarin landed on one of the islands along with colleagues earlier this year in protest at the Labour government’s plan to cede sovereignty to Mauritius…
The Chagossians can now appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The judgement throws up a difficult political dilemma for Burnham, who has turned his back on the giveaway. If he is seen to forcibly remove the Chagossians from the territory he will look heavy handed and punitive. Meanwhile, the White House remains firmly opposed to the deal. Another Starmer era headache Burnham could do without…
The British government has allowed the French to use UK-funded trucks intended for small boat beach patrols for other police work, including ramming protesters. Granted – it’s nice to see them put to good use…
The vehicles in question are Masstech VEZIs (Véhicule d’Éclairage de Zone d’Intervention), which are heavy-duty Toyota Land Cruisers reinforced with protective grilles. They are paid for by British taxpayers meant – under the Sandhurst Treaty of 2018 – to be used only for immigration control, which means patrolling French beaches. One was filmed careening around Dunkirk on the worst day of protests in France…
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked whether the British government lets the French use the UK-funded cars for riot policing. The Home Office has admitted:
“The funding agreement requires that UK-funded resource be used for the purpose of preventing illegal migration to the UK, with any other use being kept limited to only unusual and urgent cases.
This is a common-sense allowance to avoid situations in which serious crimes go unprevented because law enforcement needed to change vehicles before attending the scene, or UK-funded personnel were not allowed to intervene, etc.”
And across go the boats…
The Millburn review of benefits for NEETs will recommend that “significant” funds are put into a rejig of benefits which involves creating new ones. The Labour way…
Savings are set to come after a decade or longer, according to Alan Millburn. He will recommend that new benefits are created for young people instead of Universal Credit and PIP, with an even higher payout rate to the most disabled. Some current recipients are set to lose out, though…
Labour MPs say they are ready to rebel and refuse to vote for any cuts. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has said of the report: “It’s got to be taken as a package… we’re not running for the hills.” This will go badly…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”
