‘Stop arming Israel’, urge family of slain aid worker

James Henderson was among three British aid workers killed in Gaza. Now his family wants Keir Starmer to put an arms embargo on Israel.

JOHN McEVOY
13 August 2024

Former Royal Marine James Henderson was killed aged 33. (Photo: Hand out via Alamy)

Three Britons were among seven humanitarian aid workers killed in Gaza on 1 April during Israeli airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy.

The attack drew outrage from Britain’s most senior politicians, with Rishi Sunak demanding a “thorough and transparent investigation” into what happened.

Keir Starmer described the incident as “horrifying”, adding that his “thoughts [were] with the families of all those killed”.

Now the family of James ‘Jim’ Henderson, one of the Britons killed in the attack, has issued a letter to Starmer demanding the truth about events on 1 April.

The letter, sent by their lawyer Forz Khan, also urges the new Labour government to end Britain’s military relationship with Israel and to condemn the “war crimes and genocide” being committed in Gaza.

Total transparency

The family’s first demand is for “full and total transparency” from the UK government regarding the “death of James and the other British aid workers”.

That includes a guarantee that “no weapon(s) or part(s) of weapons” used by Israel during the attack “were provided by the UK government”.

Israeli forces carried out the attack with a Hermes 450 drone which may be powered by an engine produced in Britain, according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

The UK government has repeatedly refused to rule out whether British machinery was used in the attack.

The Henderson family is also concerned about a British surveillance plane that was flying over Gaza on 1 April.

As Declassified recently revealed, the RAF holds spy footage of Gaza from the day of the massacre, but is refusing to publish it or share it with the families of those killed.

The Hendersons are consequently asking Starmer to “confirm that this [footage] will be released to the family”.

James’ father Neil previously told Declassified: “This footage should not be kept hidden from our family”.

He added that “the UK government must urgently disclose any evidence it holds” which might “shed light on why James was wrongly targeted by Israel”.

Arms sales

The Hendersons are also urging Starmer to confirm that “no further weapons whatsoever will be provided by the UK government to Israel”. 

Despite conflicting news reports, the Labour government has not imposed any arms embargo on Israel pending an internal review of the country’s compliance with humanitarian law.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy said in July that it would “not be right” to have a “blanket ban” on arms exports to Israel. 

“This is one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the world. Israel is a country surrounded by people who would see its annihilation”, Lammy declared in parliament.

The Henderson family is consequently “deeply concerned that history will show that Britain, the country they love, was complicit with Israeli genocide, illegality, [and] failures to meet international obligations”.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since October, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court.

The number of aid workers killed in Gaza now totals over 250, according to the United Nations.

Campaign Against Arms Trade has said an arms embargo would be “the most concrete step the UK can take to bring an end to this obscene slaughter.” 

Five previous UK prime ministers, from both main parties, suspended arms sales to Israel during earlier conflicts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John McEvoy is an independent journalist who has written for International History Review, The Canary, Tribune Magazine, Jacobin and Brasil Wire.

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"TRUMP IS A SCAB"

UAW files federal labor complaint against Trump campaign over Elon Musk interview

Union launches assault against Trump campaign over his remarks on striking workers

John Bowden
Washington, DC
13/08/24

The United Auto Workers union launched a volley of attacks against the Trump campaign on Tuesday after the former president joined Elon Musk for a live interview on X Monday evening.

A statement from the union indicated that it had filed a complaint against Trump and Musk with the the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the two of intimidating workers with their comments in the interview about strikes.

The UAW’s X account also released a video Tuesday morning highlighting that segment of the interview, in which Trump described Musk supposedly firing a group of striking workers — though it was unclear whether he was referring to a real situation.

“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk, chuckling. “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.”

The Independent has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the UAW’s labor complaint.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean. Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” UAW president Shawn Fain said in a statement accompanying the union’s press release on Tuesday.

Donald Trump is pictured participating in a live Twitter Spaces interview with CEO Elon Musk (Margo Martin/X/Reuters)

“Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns,” his statement continued.

The AFL-CIO, another major union, seemed to agree: “Scab recognizes scab,” its X account posted Monday evening.

Fain has long been an outspoken critic of Trump’s, and the UAW’s latest action only further highlights the divide between two of America’s largest unions, the UAW and the Teamsters, whose president Sean O’Brien became the first organized labor leader to speak at a Republican convention when he did so in July.

O’Brien’s speech at the RNC lent credulity to the economic populist image that Trump has sought to recapture, particularly with his selection of Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate. Vance was the only Republican member of Congress to show up on the UAW’s picket line in 2023 during strike efforts that year. But these latest comments about strike actions, and the UAW’s efforts to publicize them, will undermine that image.

Vance has also been the target of criticism from Democrats over missing a vote to extend the child tax credit in the Senate as he has been on the road campaigning for Donald Trump in the past several weeks. On Monday evening, the Harris campaign trashed the Trump-Musk interview in a press release mocking the Spaces CEO and his guest for technical issues that significantly delayed the interview.

Opinion

Labour unions and the US presidential election

Tony Burke 

12 August, 2024 

LEFT FOOT FORWARD


'Trump is on the back foot and US unions are now openly fronting up their members and their families to vote for Harris.'   

Two months ago US President Joe Biden and his VP running mate Kamala Harris were being written off in their bid to win the White House.

How times change. Harris has the votes in the bag at the forthcoming Democratic convention to fight Donald Trump who appears to be more deranged than ever and publicly apprehensive of facing Harris in a head to head TV debate. He knows she is a formidable debater and speaker.

Its a long way from Trump’s 2017 presidential win. In the run up to the election Trump’s support among working people was gaining traction. Decent jobs in manufacturing were being lost – a result of what in 1992 the then presidential candidate Ross Perot’s called “a giant sucking sound” – as production was moved to low tax areas of Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Bill Clinton and for which Hilary Clinton paid the price when she was beaten by Trump.

At the time Trump’s promises of re-opening shuttered steel mills, refineries and mines and rounding up illegal immigrants providing new jobs for US citizens struck a chord with union members who had seen good ‘middle class’ jobs lost and wages slashed with only precarious employment on offer. It was easy to see why many union members backed Trump’s non existent solutions.

Unions later did their analysis. Private polling by one union showed up to 60% of union families had voted Trump. After 2017 meetings in with US union officials it was wise to stay off the subject.

Trump still has diehard supporters in some unions but since Biden’s decision to stand down Kamala Harris has run an impressive campaign.

Trump is on the back foot and US unions are now openly fronting up their members and their families to vote for Harris.

Autoworkers president Shawn Fain has said: “When GM was on strike for 40 days, Trump was nowhere to be found. Kamala Harris was on the picket line standing with workers. Trump is beholden to billionaires, knows nothing about the auto industry and would send the labour movement into reverse if he’s elected again”.

Fain is the nemesis of Trump who has called for him to be sacked for ‘putting union members jobs at risk by accepting the move to electric vehicles’.

Fain’s main strategic aim is to organise the large numbers of non unionised US auto and supply chain plants. A Harris win is essential.

When Harris got the nod to run as the Democratic nominee many US unions nationally and at state level began to throw their endorsement behind her including the US trade union umbrella organisation the AFL-CIO; State and Municipal Workers (ASFME); Service Workers (SEIU); Communication Workers; Culinary Workers (hotel and hospitality); Nurses; Retail Workers; Food & Commercial Workers and in the last few weeks two of the most powerful manufacturing unions the United Autoworkers and the United Steelworkers have endorsed Harris.

The Autoworkers will be holding a Detroit rally on August 7 to support her while the steelworkers union president Dave McCall told his members: “She was essential in the administration’s efforts to return the National Labor Relations Board to its mission of empowering working people, rather than serving the interests of wealthy corporations. Her efforts chairing the White House Task Force on Worker Organising and Empowerment are proving to be an essential part of the administration’s goal of helping more workers realise the benefits of union membership.”

But it is not all plain sailing. The USA’s biggest union the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is balloting its members and retirees on who to endorse – Harris, Trump, Robert Kennedy junior, Cornel West or no one and to rank their top five political issues from a list supplied by the union.

The Teamsters have also invited Kamala Harris to a ‘round table’ meeting but she has yet to respond. Teamster’s president Sean O’Brian has already spoken at the Republican convention and is slated to speak to the Democratic convention. US union comrades are not commenting on which way the Teamsters will bounce.

As for Donald Trump? Well, he has been endorsed by the Florida Police union, the International Union of Police Associations and the National Association of Police Organisations. Says much!

Tony Burke is the Co-chair of the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom

UK Labour minister launches brutal takedown of Elon Musk’s X

Basit Mahmood 

12 August, 2024 

Left Foot Forward

'I don't wish to fish in that particular pond anymore.'

A Labour minister has launched a brutal takedown of Elon Musk and his X platform, formerly known as Twitter, because the site has become a place of ‘misery’.

Jess Phillips, Minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said that while she had previously been addicted to X, it had now become a ‘place of misery’ which is why she has decided to delete the app from her phone.

Her comments come after the billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk, came in for criticism for allowing misinformation, fake news and extremist content to be shared on the platform in the wake of far-right riots which took place in towns and cities across the UK.

Musk has also been criticised for attacking Prime Minister Keir Starmer and for stoking tensions by claiming the country is heading for civil war.

Phillips made the comments at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she said: “Fundamentally for me now I think that I am sort of done with it, I don’t wish to fish in that particular pond anymore.”

She went on to add: “I used to be massively addicted to Twitter, I have got a very addictive personality, I was massively addicted to it.” But she added: “The only power we now have over what is becoming a bit despotic is that we opt out of it, you vote with your feet in this instance rather than pen and paper.”

Following the horrific killings of three young girls in Southport, the far-right were spreading misinformation about the identity of the attacker, claiming that he had arrived in the UK via a small boat with a number of far-right social media accounts claiming that the attacker was Muslim, a migrant, refugee or foreigner. Much of this misinformation circulated on X, as far-right rioters attacked mosques, assaulted police officers and targeted hotels with asylum seekers.

The knifeman was later revealed to be Cardiff-born Axel Rudakubana.

In the days after the attack, as the Prime Minister sought to restore order and tackle the far-right rioters, Musk became embroiled in a row with Keir Starmer and British authorities after claiming that ‘civil war’ was ‘inevitable in Britain’ and tried to claim, without evidence, that the police response to the riots had been ‘one sided’.

Prime Minister Starmer has warned that ‘social media is not a law free zone’, and signalled that the government will review social media laws, after the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said ministers should check whether existing legislation to protect against online harms is fit for purpose.

The Prime Minister has also said that the courts would crack down on those who incited violence online.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

EXCLUSIVE: Majority of public say hereditary peers in the House of Lords should be abolished, poll finds

Basit Mahmood 

Yesterday
Left Foot Forward



When it comes to party affiliation, a majority of Conservative Party voters, 54%, supported abolishing hereditary peers, as do 57% of Labour Party voters, 61% of Lib Dem voters and 63% of Green Party voters.

A majority of voters believe that the House of Lords should abolish hereditary peers, a new poll for LFF has found.

The poll, carried out by Savanta on behalf of LFF, found that 56% of those asked believe that the House of Lords should abolish hereditary peers, compared to just 19% who say that the Lords should continue to have hereditary peers.

It comes after the Labour Party pledged immediate reform to the House of Lords in its manifesto and the King’s speech contained proposals to ensure that the 100 or so hereditary peers will no longer be able to sit and vote in the House of Lords.

The party’s leader in the House of Lords, Baroness Smith, has previously said that it would be “hard to justify taking a place in the legislature on the basis of who your parents, grandparents etc were”.

Support for abolishing hereditary peers is highest among older age groups, with 59% of those aged 45-54 supporting abolishing hereditary peers, with the figure rising to 68% among those aged 55-64. When it comes to 18-24 year olds, 40% of those asked supported abolishing hereditary peers.

When it comes to party affiliation, a majority of Conservative Party voters, 54%, supported abolishing hereditary peers, as do 57% of Labour Party voters, 61% of Lib Dem voters and 63% of Green Party voters.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

If media is so fixated on equivalence, where are the calls for Trump to step aside?

Mark Bergman 

Yesterday

Left Foot Forward

Almost incomprehensively, for months, while the media and commentators were calling out President Biden’s age, gaffes and gait, and increasingly questioning his mental competence, Donald Trump largely has had a pass.

I continue with my split screen view of electoral politics with fewer than 90 days to go before Election Day. There are any number of angles to focus on this past week, but one, in particular, so captures the essence of the choice voters will face in November. I hesitate to refer to that choice as a “contest,” or even as a “race,” as those terms feed into the surreal narratives that all too often dominate the headlines and the airwaves. Voters continue to be ill-served by the all-too-frequent default to equivalence that obscures reality and by the timidity in covering Donald Trump. Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, described this default as a “‘bias toward coherence’ that leads to careful circumlocutions instead of stunned headlines” writes Tom Nichols.

Following the June 27th debate, the Democratic Party did what a responsible political party should do. Party stalwarts realized that if Democrats wanted to win, it was time for the President to pass the torch to another generation, and that’s exactly what happened. There was, however, a second aspect to this, namely the concern with the President’s ability to function effectively over the course of the next term. Whether that was fair or not, there was the underlying perception that Biden would not be able to function effectively, and the debate did little to assuage the concerns. Almost incomprehensively, for months, while the media and commentators were calling out President Biden’s age, gaffes and gait, and increasingly questioning his mental competence, Donald Trump largely has had a pass.

Perhaps that is because over the years Trump routinely has rambled, has meandered, has mangled sentences, has made outlandish claims and has repeatedly lied. That is the baseline we are all too familiar with, and more of the same is hardly a surprise, let alone newsworthy. “Old news,” say many journalists. But over the past months, even allowing for all his past antics, he appears to have stress tested that baseline. Exhibit A is Thursday’s press conference, during the course of which one set of fact-checkers working for NPR cited 162 instances in which he lied or distorted the facts (in 64 minutes).

The response of the Harris-Walz campaign to the press conference follows. That response reminds me of the following exchange from the 1988 film “A Fish Called Wanda”:Wanda: Now, was that smart? Was it shrewd? Was it good tactics? Or was it stupid?
Otto: Don’t call me stupid.
Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I’ve known sheep that could outwit you. I’ve worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you’re an intellectual, don’t you, ape?
Otto: Apes don’t read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes, they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not “Every man for himself.” And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.


Donald Trump’s Very Good, Very Normal Press Conference Split Screen: Joy and Freedom vs. Whatever the Hell That Was

Donald Trump took a break from taking a break to put on some pants and host a p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ public meltdown. We have a lot to say about it. Here are some initial thoughts – with more to come. He hasn’t campaigned all week. He isn’t going to a single swing state this week. But he sure is mad Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are getting big crowds across the battlegrounds. The facts were hard to track and harder to find in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meltdown this afternoon. He lied. He attacked the media. He made excuses for why he’s off the campaign trail. We’re here to help because his staff clearly isn’t. But first, an important reminder on the question Donald didn’t answer: how he will vote on the Florida abortion referendum. (He has been ducking this question since April.) We worked to pin down reality so Donald Trump, bless his heart, doesn’t have to.

 Here are the facts:

-We had 12,000 and 15,000 people in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday, respectively (Not 2,000.)

-The ABC debate is September 10th. Not the 25th.

-People have spoken to bigger crowds than Donald Trump. (Obama, Clinton, literally anyone at Lollapalooza, Coachella, the World Cup…)

-January 6th was decidedly nothing like MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And Trump did not get a bigger crowd than MLK on that historic day [estimated at a quarter million].

-There was famously not a “peaceful transfer” of power after the 2020 election, which Donald Trump fought to overturn. (Famously.)

–Five police officers died because of January 6th.

-Donald Trump said he was off the trail this week because of the Democratic convention. (That convention is not happening this week.)

-Trump said they have commercials at a level no one else does. (He is being drastically outspent on the airwaves.)

-Governor Josh Shapiro is actually a great guy.

-Project 2025 author Tom Homan, the “father” of Trump’s cruel child separation policy, is not a person to praise.

-Jewish people should not “have their head examined” for not supporting him. (That’s actually antisemitic.)

-Trump said he was not complaining. He in fact very much was.

-Trump does not know the difference between asylum seekers and an insane asylum.

-Donald Trump does not “cherish” the Constitution.

-Abortion is not “less of an issue” for voters. It is not “subdued.” It is not a “small issue” for voters, despite how much Donald Trump wants it to be.

-Donald Trump did not answer the abortion question “very well in the debate.”

-Everybody did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. The American people do not support states banning abortion.

-After-birth abortion does not exist.

–Minnesota and Virginia are not the same.

-Donald Trump doesn’t know what “progressive” means.

-Kamala Harris does not want to take away everyone’s guns.

-Tim Walz is a gun owner.

-Vice President Harris does not support an arms embargo on Israel.

-Donald Trump could not remember Tim Walz’s name.

-Donald Trump’s tax cuts are not the biggest in history.

-We don’t know what “the transgender became such a big thing” is supposed to mean.

-Donald Trump will cut Social Security – just like he proposed every year he was in office.

-Government was not weaponized against Trump and Steve Bannon.

-Mail ballots are secure.

-We agree – Elon IS a different kind of guy.

-There are no polls that say Donald Trump is going to win in a landslide.

-The MAGA base is not 75% of the country.

###

Trump’s performance begs the question as to why the Republican Party is incapable of emulating the Democrats. Imagine the drubbing Biden would have taken had he done the same – Biden appeared old, but he did not subject the television audience to a constant stream of lies and distortions. This regrettably has been the story of Trump from the outset – any one of thousands of outrages would have sunk the campaigns, let alone the political careers, of just about any other politician.

But this is more than just lies, this was repeated failure to distinguish fact from fiction. He claimed he was in a helicopter with then mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown that made an emergency landing (“Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together and there was an emergency landing.”). It never happened. He was trying to make the point that Brown, a former boyfriend and political mentor of Harris’, had made negative comments about Harris, but in the process had convinced himself of something that did not happen – that is fiction.

If the purpose of the press conference was to show that Trump was not rattled by the performance of Harris-Walz on the campaign trail and in the polling, and/or to convince voters he deserves their vote – he failed. And just as the debate and the ensuring interviews with President Biden were an inflection point for how Democrats viewed him (and the Party quickly moved past the “it-was-a-bad-debate-night” view), so too should this press conference be seen as an inflection point for Trump. While many of the lines were reprises of his grievance tour, some suggest a deeper downward spiral (this in no way is akin to Governor Walz’s statement that he had served in war). Or are we simply seeing a candidate who, for the first time this cycle, is unnerved?

So, where are the GOP stalwarts managing Trump off the political stage? How can they not see, as Tom Nichols succinctly phrased it, “The Republican nominee, the man who could return to office and regain the sole authority to use American nuclear weapons, is a serial liar and can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Donald Trump is not well. He is not stable. There’s something deeply wrong with him.” And what should be most terrifying to those closest to him is the combination of his state of mind, the enormous power a president can wield and the implications of the recent Supreme Court decision on immunity.

Let’s assume the stalwarts and their donors believe Trump is going to win, though that conclusion was far easier to reach three weeks ago. But now? Do they truly believe he has the capacity, should he win, to function effectively as the holder of the most powerful position in the world over the next four years, or are we missing something? And then there is the small detail of the authoritarian agenda and the demonstrated willingness to upend the Constitution. Again, are we missing something?

And, in the meantime, if the press conference is a harbinger of more to come, we can only hope Trump continues to unravel. Most importantly, we must continue to talk about his fitness to serve.

* * *

Mark S. Bergman

7Pillars Global Insights, LLC

Washington, D.C.

August 11, 2024

UK

Black and minority ethnic (BME) workers

‘Structural racism’ means one in six BME workers are in an insecure job, we desperately need to tackle systemic discrimination

The massive and disproportionate concentration of BME workers in Britain in low-paid and precarious work is structural racism in action - and yet another damning legacy from 14 years of Conservative rule.

Paul Nowak 

Yesterday

Left Foot Forward

Paul Nowak is General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress

We have witnessed over the past weeks attempts by the far-right to divide working class communities and use mistruths and false information to push the narrative of blame onto Muslim and migrant communities. But we know that the real problems and frustrations lie in the damage wrought by a decade of political failings.

That’s why it’s so important to deliver the necessary change to tackle the politics of hate and division.

Our new data shows how over a decade of downgrading rights at work have affected all communities, and just how urgent our agenda to bolster workers’ rights and deliver for working people.

The Tories oversaw an explosion in insecure, low-paid work, with more and more people being pushed into precarious employment.

This week new analysis by the TUC shows how Black and minority ethnic (BME) workers have borne the brunt of a problem that affects far too many people in working class jobs.

The massive and disproportionate concentration of BME workers in Britain in low-paid and precarious work is structural racism in action – and yet another damning legacy from 14 years of Conservative rule.

Under the Tories, insecure work – which includes zero-hours contracts, low-paid self-employment and casual/ seasonal work – rose almost three times faster than secure forms of employment.

Between 2011 and 2023 the rate of people doing insecure jobs jumped by 31%, while those in secure jobs increased by just 11%. This has meant the overall number of people in insecure or precarious work has increased by nearly one million to a shocking 4.1 million.

This has had devastating consequences for workers affected.

Being trapped in these low-paid, insecure jobs translates to limited rights and protections, and often being treated like disposable labour.

BME workers hit hardest

In 2011 around 360,200 BME workers were in insecure employment, however this more than doubled to a record high of 878,800 by 2023.

The huge increase in the number of BME workers facing job insecurity was around 8.5 times the increase in the proportion of white workers in insecure work over the same period.

The TUC estimates this has left 1 in 6 BME workers in the UK trapped in precarious work, compared to 1 in 9 white workers.

BME workers experience racism at every stage of the labour market, including discrimination in recruitment processes, fewer opportunities for training and development compared to white workers, being unfairly disciplined, and being forced into roles with less favourable terms and pay.

BME workers have been punished by years of institutional racism in the labour market.

It’s another stark reminder of the impact 14 years of Conservative policies have had, that sought to repeal workers’ rights and instigate a race to the bottom on pay and conditions.

Employment rights bill can be a gamechanger

Britain is crying out for employment reforms to turn the tide on increasing work insecurity and discrimination, and to deliver dignity and fairness in the workplace.

That’s why the new government’s Employment Rights Bill is so important. It will help make work pay and raise living standards for hundreds and thousands of BME workers – who are hardest hit by the tide of insecurity that’s hit the working class.

The Employment Rights Bill will help turn the minimum wage into a real living wage. It will ban zero-hours contracts and make key employment rights available from day one on the job. It will be a game changer for hard-pressed working families.

And Labour’s plans to place a duty on employers to report their ethnicity pay gap will also make a huge difference to BME workers around the country.

Change is desperately needed to drive up employment standards and tackle systematic discrimination.

The new government – in partnership with unions – can turn the tide on insecure work and tackle structural racism in our labour market.

It’s a historic and timely opportunity to set the nation on course for a better future, and one that can find solutions to the problems that divide us.

UK

Boris Johnson could return to the Telegraph as global editor-in-chief as Nadhim Zahawi plots bid

Johnson has longstanding links with the Telegraph, having previously written a column for the paper and having started his journalism career there.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson could return to the Telegraph as ‘global editor-in-chief’ and is being courted for the role as Nadhim Zahawi plots a takeover bid for the paper.

Basit Mahmood 

Today

Left Foot Forward

Former Chancellor Zahawi is said to have sounded out Johnson for the role, after approaching a number of wealthy backers about assembling a potential bid for the Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine, Sky News reports.

Zahawi, who was sacked last year as Tory party chair after an investigation found he committed a serious breach by not being open about a tax probe, has approached a number of billionaire backers about helping to finance an offer for the daily newspaper, its Sunday sister title and The Spectator magazine, Sky News has previously reported.

The open auction process to buy The Telegraph and The Spectator magazine is restarting after a failed bid by the Jeff Zucker-led Redbird IMI, a joint investment vehicle between US private equity firm Redbird and Abu Dhabi-backed vehicle International Media Investments.

Johnson has longstanding links with the Telegraph, having previously written a column for the paper and having started his journalism career there.

The former Prime Minister, who has little regard for the truth, was previously sacked from the Times for making up a front-page news story, where he had made up quotes, fabricating the words of his godfather, the academic Colin Lucas.

He of course also lied about Covid lockdown parties in Downing Street as well as lying about having an affair.

That someone with so little regard for the truth could be considered for ‘global editor-in-chief’ at a newspaper says it all about how standards have fallen in sections of the right-wing press.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Meet the migrants absent from the debate on fascist riots

After racist violence gripped England and Northern Ireland, migrants are shaken and remain on high alert

Aya Khedairi
13 August 2024

Protest in support for migrants |
BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images

The past weeks for migrants, people of colour and Muslims across England and Northern Ireland have felt like a living nightmare, as far right racists assaulted and threatened racialised people, including with acid attacks, burning their cars, damaging mosques, smashing homes and migrant accommodation, and leaving high streets in total disarray.

Despite a flurry of statements of condemnation from migration charities, this is not enough, with migrant voices themselves having been largely missing from the public conversation. I work at the charity Migrants Rights Network, which works with organisations across the UK to enable migrants to speak truth to power on immigration and issues that affect their lives. That’s why we decided to ask migrants, including refugees, in our community for their thoughts on the attacks and how they’ve fared over the past few weeks.

One of the many common threads that came through was that, although this weekend did not see any large-scale riots again, and anti-racist demonstrators came out in force in London and Birmingham among other places – many migrants have retreated indoors, too scared to go outside in case of attacks. Many have bordered up their local shops, while high streets in areas with a high proportion of, have been quieter than usual.

“I never thought I would be in lockdown again but this time for being Black,” said Lorraine, a refugee from Malawi and migrants’ rights campaigner. “We are being hunted like animals.”

Another clear thread was a clear frustration from migrants on the lack of migrant representation in media coverage. Javier, a linguist from Spain, explained how the voices of migrants with their individual journeys and experiences are shut down: “The mainstream narrative has failed to address the many decades of political and media discourse which have vilified the human right of migration.”

Angelo, a journalist from Italy and member of Black Europeans also voiced his frustration at the media portrayal of the violence: “Talking about far-right ‘thuggery’ means losing sight of the bigger picture. What we are witnessing is racist and Islamophobic terror and it finds its roots in the normalisation of the far-right rhetoric as well as in the colonial history of the United Kingdom”.

This isn’t the first time that racism and anti-migrant hate has arisen in recent history. Those voting to leave the EU were more likely to agree with the statement: “immigrants threaten their values and way of life”. And we saw the rise in hate crime and racist attacks that occurred post-Brexit.

“The media, beyond the usual tabloids, is to blame for having provided a platform to known figures and inflammatory language”, Angelo continued.

“The fact that what is happening is being labelled in the mainstream as “riots” or that we hear about “legitimate concerns” is part of the problem. The rhetoric against Muslims, people of colour and migrants is extremely toxic and it is so mainstream because in the years after Brexit this has been so normalised. People of colour and migrants in the country now live in fear because a similar scenario has been enabled”.

Alongside demands for a stronger, anti-racist narrative around the violence, migrants also stated that this moment should mark a shift beyond reactive or performative statements, including in the charity sector itself.

While racialised people, including migrants, in our network have been moved by the acts of solidarity by communities in the form of counter-demonstrations, what is clear is that this has not been accompanied by optimism.

Let’s cast our minds back to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests. The aftermath was shaped by a rush to be seen to condemn in the form of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) statements and social media posts all promising to tackle racism. But here we are again.

What has become clear from our community is the desire for this energy to be sustained long-term and for meaningful action to be taken beyond this moment – one that centres migrants and tackles the root of anti-migrant racism and Islamophobia.

As Javier told us: “There are more dark days to come, but I genuinely hope there can be a power shift once and for all to benefit the migratised community.”

WORKERS CAPITAL
Blackstone sells 3,000 homes worth £405m to UK’s biggest pension fund

Julia Kollewe

THE GUARDIAN
Tue, 13 August 2024 

The sale is the largest involving shared ownership homes since 

creation of the scheme in 1990.

Neil Hall/EPA

The US private equity group Blackstone has sold more than 3,000 shared ownership homes to Britain’s biggest private pension fund in a £405m deal, the latest by big investment companies in the UK housing sector.

The New York-based company sold the portfolio to the academia pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which manages more than £75bn of assets.

The sale is one of the biggest in the UK housing sector this year, and the largest involving shared ownership homes since the creation of the shared ownership scheme in 1990.

Related: UK’s biggest housing association fined over four-year failure to fix window

The scheme allows people who cannot afford to buy a home outright to get on the property ladder by buying part of it, with the option of acquiring the remainder in the future.

The scheme is open to people whose household income is up to £80,000 a year, or up to £90,000 a year in London, and if they cannot afford all of the deposit and mortgage payments “for a home that meets your needs”.

Blackstone has been investing heavily in rental and social housing, and agreed to buy 1,750 rental homes from the housebuilder Vistry for £580m in June.

The firm has ramped up investments in British housing, betting on long-term returns in a market where demand far outstrips supply in a long-running housing crisis that experts say will take more than a decade to fix.

The new Labour government has promised to build 1.5m new homes over the next five years, with a focus on affordable housing, in particular social homes, and laid out changes to the planning system.

Blackstone sold the homes via its Sage Homes vehicle, a housing joint venture with the private equity investor Regis Group that was launched in 2017.

The portfolio, which is located across the UK, consists of shared ownership properties across 250 Sage Homes sites. USS has launched Sparrow Shared Ownership, a registered provider of social housing, to manage the homes.

James Seppala, the head of real estate Europe at Blackstone, said the company had “created an institutional-grade portfolio which has, in turn, attracted more long-term institutional capital into the sector”. He said the sale proceeds would be invested in Sage to help alleviate the undersupply of housing in the UK.

“Through Sage Homes, which was established in 2017, Blackstone has been the largest provider of newly built affordable housing in the country for the last three years,” he added. Sage has committed £3.7bn to fund the development of 22,600 affordable rent and shared ownership homes, of which more than 17,000 have been built so far.

Institutional investment in UK housing is still small compared with the US and continental Europe, and makes up just 2% of the total rented stock, compared with more than 35% in Germany and the US, according to Savills.