UK Government rejects Blair’s call for digital ID cards to help control migration

07 Jul 2024 

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper. Photo Maja Smiejkowska/PA Wire

The Government has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards after former premier Sir Tony Blair called for the documents to help control migration.

Sir Tony, who championed ID cards when he was in office only for the idea to be killed off after Labour lost power, said the world was moving to a digital form of the document.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds initially said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper would look at “all sources of advice” on the issue.

Sources close to Ms Cooper said ID cards were not Labour policy and that has not changed, with Mr Reynolds later publicly ruling them out.

‘Game-changer’

Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Tony said: “The only game-changer is the full embrace of the potential of technology.”

He added: “We need a plan to control immigration. If we don’t have rules, we get prejudices.

“In office, I believed the best solution was a system of identity so that we know precisely who has a right to be here.

“With, again, technology, we should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective.”

Mr Reynolds told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The new Home Secretary will be looking at all sources of advice when it comes to that.

“But I would just say we have backed the points-based immigration system, we made difficult decisions, particularly when we thought legal migration was too high and it has to come down.”

Pressed again on ID cards he said: “Well look, my colleague Yvette Cooper and the rest of the home affairs team will be looking at all sorts of things.

“I’m not going to pre-empt things they may or may not want to do.”

Mr Reynolds later told Times Radio: “We can rule that out, that’s not something that’s part of our plans.”

MAGGIE THATCHER IN DRAG

Tony Blair calls for Keir Starmer to be tough on immigration, crime and ‘wokeism’

Ben Duncan-Duggal   7th July, 2024

© 360b/Shutterstock.com

Tony Blair has called for “a plan” for immigration control, tougher action on crime and for the new government to avoid “any vulnerability on wokeism”. 

In a lengthy opinion piece for The Times, the former Prime Minister also called for the new Labour government to embrace AI. 

Blair outlined the need for “a plan to control immigration”, stating “if we don’t have rules, we get prejudices”. He also argued for a “tough new approach to law and order”, pointing to criminal modernisation outstripping that of law enforcement. 

Blair also said “There is also clearly a challenge in part of the Muslim community, but that is a topic requiring its own special analysis.”

Blair said that in office he believed the best solution on immigration “was a system of identity, so we knew precisely who had a right to be here”, stating “we should move as the world is moving towards digital ID”. Blair’s government u-turned on ID cards following a lengthy and controversial attempted roll-out. 

Blair said AI application in the private sector – and encouragement by government – “is the only answer to Britain’s productivity challenge”. He also called for AI deployment in healthcare, education and government processes. 

Blair previously warned that AI “will change everything” in 2023 and his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has a large body of work on the topic. 

He has also made recent comments on social issues, stating “biologically, a woman is with a vagina and a man is with a penis” in June and stating Labour must avoid the “cul-de-sac of identity politics” in 2020. He had previously urged Starmer to drop “woke” politics in 2022. 

Labour rejects Tony Blair's call for ID cards

By Becky Morton, 

@beckyrmorton, 

Political reporter

Getty Images
Sir Tony Blair tried to introduce ID cards when he was prime minister

The government has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards, after former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair said they could help control immigration.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds initially said the home secretary would "be looking at all sources of advice" on the issue.

However, he later told Times Radio ID cards were not part of the government's plans.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said ID cards were not in the party's election manifesto and added: "That’s not our approach."

Sir Tony brought in legislation for compulsory identity cards when he was in office but the scheme was scrapped by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Tony said: "We need a plan to control immigration. If we don't have rules, we get prejudices.

"In office, I believed the best solution was a system of identity so that we know precisely who has a right to be here.

"With, again, technology, we should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective."

But asked if she could rule out introducing digital ID cards, Ms Cooper said: "It’s not in our manifesto. That’s not our approach."

Instead, she said the government was setting up a new enforcement and returns unit, as well as targeting people-smuggling gangs to prevent small boats crossings.

Asked about the possibility of introducing digital ID cards, Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: "We can rule that out, that's not something that's part of our plans."

Opponents of identity cards have raised concerns about the potential impact on civil liberties and what they see as unnecessary data collection by the state.

Getty Images

Tony Blair watches the fingerprinting of an asylum seeker in 2003

Tackling illegal immigration is one of the major challenges facing the new government.

So far this year, more than 13,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats.

The figure is higher than numbers for the same period last year, although in 2023 as a whole there was a drop compared to 2022.

The previous Conservative government had hoped to send people who arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda to deter small boat crossings.

However, no migrants were sent to the country under the scheme before the Tories lost power.

On Saturday Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Rwanda scheme was "dead and buried".

Labour had branded the plan an expensive "gimmick" and pledged to scrap it.

Instead the party has promised to set up a new Border Security Command, bringing together Border Force officials, police and intelligence agencies, and use counter-terror powers to tackle people-smuggling gangs.

The government said recruitment for the leader of the command would kick off on Monday, with the post likely to be taken up in the coming weeks.

The last Labour government got as far as issuing the first ID cards to UK citizens and 15,000 were in circulation when the scheme was scrapped by the coalition government in 2011 and the database destroyed.

Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals were issued to about 200,000 people before being rebranded as biometric residence permits.

Lord Blunkett, who launched the ID cards plan when he was home secretary, claimed they had already started to make a difference to illegal immigration when they were scrapped.

Earlier this year, he told The Daily Mail: "The gangs realised it wasn't worth their while to traffic people into the UK if migrants found they were unable to work or claim benefits without an ID card, and thus would be liable to deportation."

New British prime minister seeks to improve on ‘botched’ trade deal with European Union


British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, right, and Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar during an event in Edinburgh to welcome new Labour MPs in Scotland, following Labour’s victory in the 2024 General Election, Sunday July 7, 2024. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech following his first cabinet meeting as Prime Minister, in London, Saturday July 6, 2024. (Claudia Greco/Pool via AP)

Incoming Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy leaves Downing Street in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. Britain’s Labour Party swept to power Friday after more than a decade in opposition, as a jaded electorate handed the party a landslide victory, but also a mammoth task of reinvigorating a stagnant economy and dispirited nation. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

BY BRIAN MELLEY
July 7, 2024

LONDON (AP) —

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is seeking to reset relations at home and abroad.

During a visit Sunday to Edinburgh, that he billed as an “immediate reset” with the regional governments of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, Starmer said he would also seek to improve the U.K.'s “botched” trade deal with the European Union.

“I do think that we can get a much better deal than the botched deal that (former Prime Minister) Boris Johnson saddled the U.K. with,” he said in reference to the pact negotiated after Brexit.

Starmer said there were many discussions ahead to strengthen trading, research and defense ties with the EU. But he said those talks had begun as his top diplomat made his first visit abroad to Germany, Poland and Sweden.

With two of Starmer’s ministers in Europe ahead of a NATO meeting next week, the premier made a point of visiting the leaders of the regional governments in the U.K. following his party’s landslide victory last week.

Starmer, who said he has a “mandate to do politics differently,” met with Scottish First Minister John Swinney in an effort to “turn disagreement into cooperation.”

“We will serve every single person in Scotland,” Starmer told a group of enthusiastic supporters. “Performance, self-interest: they’re the politics of the past. The politics of this Labour government of 2024 is about public service, restoring standards of making sure that we always, always have in our mind’s eye the people who elected us into government.”

While each of the devolved nations in the U.K. elects members to the House of Commons in London, they also have their own regional parliaments.

Starmer’s Labour Party trounced Swinney’s Scottish National Party for seats in Parliament. But the SNP, which has pushed for Scottish independence, still holds a majority at Holyrood, the Scottish parliament.

Swinney said after meeting the prime minister that he believed there’s an opportunity to work together to make a difference for the Scottish people.

The trip to build better working relations across the U.K. comes as Starmer’s government faces a mountain of problems.

The Labour government inherited a wobbly economy that left Britons struggling to pay bills after global economic woes and fiscal missteps. It also faces a public disenchanted after 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule and fiscal austerity that hollowed out public services, including the revered National Health Service, which Starmer has declared broken.

Starmer said he wants to transfer power from the bureaucratic halls of government in London to leaders who know what’s best for their communities.

After his two-day tour, he’ll return to England, where he plans to meet with regional mayors, saying he would engage with politicians regardless of their party.

“There’s no monopoly on good ideas,” he said “I’m not a tribal political.”

Starmer continued to speak with other world leaders, having separate calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

He spoke with both about his priorities for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the return of hostages to Israel, and an increase in humanitarian aid, a spokesperson said.

He told Abbas that the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process was the “undeniable right of Palestinians” and told Netanyahu it was important to ensure the long-term conditions for a two-state solution, including ensuring financial means for Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to operate effectively.

Labour’s initial refusal to call for a ceasefire last year is blamed for costing it support and some seats in Thursday’s election.

In advance of Starmer’s attendance Tuesday at a NATO meeting in Washington, Foreign Secretary David Lammy reiterated an “unshakeable” commitment to the alliance during his first trip abroad.

Lammy said that the U.K. government would tighten relations with the European Union and remains “ironclad” in its support for Ukraine.

“European security will be this government’s foreign and defense priority,” Lammy said in Poland. “Russia’s barbaric invasion has made clear the need for us to do more to strengthen our own defenses.”

However, Lammy reiterated Starmer’s pledge not to rejoin the EU single market after British voters in 2016 voted to break from the political and economic union.

“Let us put the Brexit years behind us,” Lammy told The Observer. “We are not going to rejoin the single market and the customs union but there is much that we can do together.”

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Sunday on Sky News that the U.K. should look for ways to improve trade with the EU and that removing some trade barriers was sensible.

But he said the Labour government was not open to the free movement of people that was required as a member of the union.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary John Healey met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Odesa and said the U.K. would provide a new package of support to Ukraine, including more artillery guns and nearly 100 Brimstone missiles.

Healey also said he would make sure the remaining military commitments to Ukraine by the previous government would be delivered within 100 days.

UK government prioritizing job retention in Tata Steel talks

Tata Steel aims to shut down several carbon-intensive blast furnaces, resulting in job losses

ByAkash Pandey

Jul 07, 2024

What's the story

The new British government is focusing on preventing job losses in its ongoing discussions with Tata Steel, the largest steel producer in Britain.Business Minister Jonathan Reynolds confirmed this priority during the talks, which are centered around government support for a transition to lower-carbon technologies."We see this as a major priority," Reynolds told the BBC, adding, "I'm going to make sure that job guarantees are part of the negotiation that we're having."

Greener switch

Transition to lower-carbon technologies

Tata Steel has initiated the process of shutting down one of its carbon-intensive blast furnaces, with another closure scheduled for September.This move toward lower-carbon technologies could potentially result in the loss of up to 2,800 jobs at Port Talbot in South Wales.The company's shift is part of a broader industry trend toward more sustainable production methods to prevent climate change.

Support package

Support package for Tata Steel

The new British government is expected to approve a £500 million ($635 million) support package for Tata Steel.This package, agreed upon by the previous administration, aims to assist in the construction of a lower-carbon electric arc furnace.However, unions are hoping for a more favorable deal with Tata that could potentially prevent some job losses.

Unite will keep Labour's ‘feet to the fire’ over steel investment pledge


Unite general secretary Sharon Graham

PETER LAZENBY

SUNDAY, JULY 7, 2024
MORNINGSTAR

UNITE general secretary Sharon Graham warned today that she would “keep [Labour’s] feet to the fire” over its manifesto pledge to invest billions to save Britain’s struggling steel industry.

She was speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg after Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said “job guarantees” would be part of the negotiations between the government and steel giant Tata about its Port Talbot site in South Wales, where 2,800 jobs are under threat.

Ms Graham said Labour would have to borrow to invest in British industry — “we do not have time to wait for growth.”

She said: “There is no doubt that Labour coming in and the intent of what they want to do is a good thing. I am glad we have a Labour government.

“But I am the leader of a trade union and my focus is on jobs, pay and conditions for workers.

“The problem we have is that when investment is spoken about in Britain, there are never job guarantees attached.

“The devil will be in the detail and I am going to keep an eagle eye on what that detail means.”

Mr Reynolds said on the BBC show: “There is a better deal available for Port Talbot and the steel industry as a whole.

“I do want things in exchange for money — we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.”

Ms Graham added: “I am going to be seen as either a critical friend or a pain in the proverbial.”

The Labour manifesto has committed to provide £2.5 billion to “rebuild our steel industry,” with Mr Reynolds noting this was on top of the £500 million committed by the previous government.

Starmer will have ‘no honeymoon period’ warns boss  LEADER  of UK’s biggest union


Keir Starmer’s new Labour government is facing an immediate challenge from the trade unions on the left to tear up his promises over economic stability

David Maddox
Political editor

THE INDEPENDENT
JULY 7, 2024

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham tells Starmer she will 'hold his feet to the fire'

The leader of Britain’s biggest union has thrown the gauntlet down to Sir Keir Starmer and his government over economic policy just 48 hours into his government.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, has demanded that Labour “borrows to invest” and brings in a protectionist policy of only using British steel for public sector projects in the UK.

She told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that “there will be no honeymoon period” for Starmer and his government.

The discussion came as the new business secretary Jonathan Reynolds answered questions on Tata Steel’s plant in Port Talbot, which is in danger of being closed down in days, with 2,800 jobs at risk.

Unite boss Sharon Graham warned that the Labour government will not have a honeymoon period (PA)

She said:”I am glad we have a Labour government [but] I am the leader of a trade union and my main focus is jobs, pay and conditions for workers.

“So I am either going to be seen as a critical friend or a pain in the proverbial.”

Ms Graham and Unite had refused to back Labour’s manifesto believing it did not go far enough on workers’ rights and protecting jobs in an early shot across the bows for Sir Keir.

Ms Graham said: “It’s my job to make sure we have feet to the fire on this.”

She warned the “devil will be in the detail” and claimed “the problem is that when we talk about investment there is never a jobs guarantee attached.”

In a full frontal attack on new chancellor Rachel Reeves’s promises to keep a tight control of public expenditure to avoid inflationary pressures, she warned that Labour will need to rip up the fiscal rules.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds leaving BBC Broadcasting House in London, after being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg (PA )

“We will have to borrow to invest in British industry; that is going to have to happen.”

Sir Keir and Ms Reeves have insisted investment can only come with economic growth but Ms Graham said there is not time to wait for that.

She said: “Since 1997 the fiscal rules have changed nine times, when we change them then there is opportunity. We are going to have to borrow to invest, we cannot wait for growth.”

Unite wants the UK to borrow up to the same limits as the US: 127 per cent of GDP rather than the UK’s 99 per cent.

Former Tory leader Michael Howard warned that this is only possible in the US without a spike in inflation because the US dollar is a reserve currency.

Earlier, Mr Reynolds said that “job guarantees” would be part of the negotiations between the government and steel giant Tata about its Port Talbot site.

Tata has shut down one of two blast furnaces at its biggest plant under its plans to switch to a greener form of production. The second blast furnace is due to be shut down in September.

Mr Reynolds said: “There is a better deal available for Port Talbot and the steel industry as a whole.” He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I do want things in exchange for money we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.

“I think that’s a reasonable way to make sure public money is being well spent and I believe there are things, capacities, the steel industry needs in future that could be part of that conversation and that’s what I’ll be having in the next few days.”

He added: “I’m going to make sure that job guarantees are part of the negotiation that we’re having.”

‘Better deal available’ for Port Talbot steel jobs, says Business Secretary


Sunday 7 July 2024 

The steelworks in Port Talbot is seeing an end to traditional steel-making at the site.

Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The UK Government will press for “job guarantees” in return for taxpayer-funded investment during talks with steel giant Tata over the future of Port Talbot.

The new Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said he believes there is a “better deal available” for the South Wales site and the steel industry as a whole, as he confirmed negotiations with Tata were continuing on Sunday.

Tata has shut down one of two blast furnaces at its biggest plant under its plans to switch to a greener form of production.

The second blast furnace at Port Talbot is due to be shut down in September.

Unions are opposed to the changes, which will lead to the loss of around 2,800 jobs, although Tata has argued its restructuring programme is designed to stem “unsustainable” losses of more than £1 million a day.

Mr Reynolds described the situation at Tata as a “major priority” and insisted the approach is “not about underwriting loss-making businesses” but being a “partner for investment in the future”

.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds leaving BBC Broadcasting House in London, after appearing on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg

Credit: Jeff Moore/PA

He told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “There is more money available for the steel industry under our plans for government.

“But that’s about making sure we meet this transition with the private sector together and recognise…it is a good exemplar of how we have to make sure that decarbonisation is not deindustrialisation and we’ve got to do that together.

“But there is a better deal available for Port Talbot and the steel industry as a whole, I’m sure of that.”

Mr Reynolds added: “I do want things in exchange for money we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.

Blast Furnace 5 winds down with steam and loud noises expected in Port Talbot


Strike at Port Talbot steelworks called off

“I think that’s a reasonable way to make sure public money is being well spent and I believe there are things, capacities, the steel industry needs in future that could be part of that conversation and that’s what I’ll be having in the next few days.”

He added: “I’m going to make sure that job guarantees are part of the negotiation that we’re having.”

Mr Reynolds said he would not put a particular figure on the Government’s aims, saying: “Blast furnaces employ more people than some of the newer technologies available, whether that is electric arc furnaces or what is called DRI, so there’s a range of things you have to understand.

“But I absolutely agree with the point that we have to make sure this is a transition that works for working people and that they’re part of that and you can’t simply give money out without guarantees in exchange for that.

“But there is a negotiation and I’m going to have to keep a little bit of that information to myself while I engage with the company.”

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham on the BBC One current affairs programme, Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg

Credit: Jeff Moore/PA

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told the same programme: “There’s no doubt that Labour coming in and the intent of what they want to do is a good thing.”

She added: “My main focus is jobs, pay and conditions for workers so I’m going to either be seen as a critical friend or a pain in the proverbial, whichever they want to take that, because it’s my job to make sure feet to the fire on this.”

Ms Graham said the “devil will be in the detail” when it comes to a jobs guarantee on investment.

The Labour manifesto has committed to provide £2.5 billion to “rebuild our steel industry”, with Mr Reynolds noting this was “on top of” the £500 million committed by the previous government.

Tata has said it would make every effort to mitigate the impact of the transformation on affected employees and the local community.

It said it had put forward the most favourable financial package of support it had ever offered, including facilities for training and upskilling, alongside finance for small and medium-sized businesses through the UK Steel Enterprise regeneration and job creation scheme.

Gulf BDS groups launch boycott campaign against British universities over war on Gaza

Boycott groups from Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait announced a campaign to boycott British universities that are complicit in Israel's war on Gaza.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
07 July, 2024

Gulf CAN say their initiative has cost British universities losses of £600,000 so far 

A pro-Palestine coalition group based in the Gulf states has launched a campaign to boycott universities in Britain that are allegedly contributing to what they call the genocide in Gaza.

The Gulf Coalition Against Normalization (Gulf CAN) is calling on students not to enrol in the targeted universities, contracted agents to terminate relationships and ministries of education to remove the universities from scholarships and end their relations with arms companies that supply weapons to Israel and withdraw their investments.

Gulf CAN is an umbrella organisation comprised of activist groups from Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. It aims to coordinate campaigns within the Gulf states to "resist Zionism" and normalisation with Israel within the region.

"British universities are not only complicit in refusing to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, but also play a direct role in financing and developing weapons supplied to the Zionist occupation army," the statement reads.

Gulf CAN is calling on local education stakeholders to boycott the following list of UK universities: Newcastle University, University of Liverpool, University of Nottingham, University of Leeds, Northumbria University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Portsmouth, University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Coventry University.

The institutions on Gulf CAN's list have invested over £34 million in Israel-linked companies, according to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

"These universities take an explicit position in protecting the occupation by suppressing demonstrations by students demanding an end to their participation in the genocide in Gaza," the statement adds, highlighting that "the suppression has included the use of physical violence, sexual harassment, and the removal of the hijab".

The organisation says the universities have lost £600,000 due to their campaign so far, noting that scholarship programmes and partnerships with local universities in the Gulf are an "indispensable source of income for British universities."

The British Council found that Gulf countries, including Kuwait and Qatar, are among the largest markets for sponsored UK study visas in 2018. The UK saw an almost six percent increase in T4 visas from Kuwait.

At the same time, the UK remained Bahrain's number one destination for students leaving the country, with over 15,000 students.

Universities across the globe, especially institutions in Britain, have been facing pressure to divest from companies linked to Israel with protests and encampments.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) found that UK Universities collectively invest almost £430 million in companies complicit in the state's war on Gaza, which has since killed over 38,000 Palestinians.

Can We Compare Elections?

Opinion

Tariq Al-Homayed
Saudi journalist and writer, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper

Sunday - 7 July 2024

The British elections gave the Labour Party a historic victory following 14 years of Conservative rule. President Emmanuel Macron lost in the first round of the snap legislative elections in France to the right.

The debate about President Joe Biden's health and his capacity for running for re-election in the United States continues. Meanwhile, some are talking about the Iranian elections and the implications of the results. However, is this comparison logical or tenable? Of course not.

We can compare the United States, Britain, and France with one another. But comparing either of them to Iran is fundamentally misleading. That is not to say that the Iranian elections are unimportant. However, they are crucial for understanding how one man, the Supreme Leader, thinks and how Iranian society accepts that way of thinking.

The comparison is illogical because it is a talking point of Iranian propaganda, which claims that the country holds real elections, which is not true. Everyone knows that over the stages leading up to those elections, a council appointed by the Supreme Leader controls the selection process, determining who can and cannot run.

Moreover, the Supreme Leader and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) hold the reins, make the decisions, as well as in shaping the policies of Iran. This means that nothing is really going to change, and Iran pursues whatever tactics the Supreme Leader and the IRGC deem fit at any given stage.

Meanwhile, the process in France, Britain, and the United States is entirely different. Theirs are serious elections that will impact not only these countries, but also Europe and the world, including our region, deciding crucial matters for our region, both in the present and the future.

Those elections will have an impact on Europe, Britain, or France’s politics, military, economy, and social cohesion. Europe and the United States are seeing shifts that push against the current. They are now more inclined to embrace nationalism and oppose globalization and the changes it creates.

For example, in the United States, we have the specter of a Democratic Party split following President Biden's insistence on running for re-election. This comes after his miserable debate against rival candidate Donald Trump that left Democrats scared they could lose the elections.

These risks are exacerbated by a Republican-Democrat struggle that has gone further than all those that have preceded it. President Barack Obama and then former President Trump are primarily responsible for this clear and dangerous internal fragmentation in the US, despite the strength of its institutions.

However, this division in the US has left its mark on everything, including academic, political, and media institutions. The country is polarized and its society is split, which requires a long discussion to explain.

We see the same state of affairs in Europe; chaos has prevailed in Britain since it left the European Union, taking economic, security, and health setbacks, giving us the impression that Britain needs a miracle for a better future.

Similarly, in France and the rest of Europe, populism is on the rise, the economy is in crisis, and there is a refugee crisis. Europe also fears terrorism, along with the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, which has shown that the old continent needs change. Europe is going through a laborious process of rejecting the status quo, but it is unable to live with it nor break free from it.

Therefore, it is misguided and simplistic to even refer to Iranian elections at this stage. They are an entirely different matter and are not genuine elections in the first place.

Lib Dems will ‘challenge Government’ to make sure it delivers for carers – Davey

The Lib Dems achieved a record result, with 72 seats UK-wide.


LIBERAL DEMOCRAT LEADER SIR ED DAVEY SAYS HIS PARTY WILL PROVIDE ‘CONSTRUCTIVE OPPOSITION’ (GARETH FULLER/PA)

PA WIRE
JORDAN REYNOLDS

JULY 7, 2024

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the party will be the “voice of carers” and “challenge the Government to make sure they deliver for the millions of people looking after their loved ones”.

It comes after the Liberal Democrats defeated the SNP in the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat on Saturday, the final UK constituency to be declared in the General Election results.

The party achieved a record result, with 72 seats UK-wide.

Speaking at Lib Dem headquarters in central London on Friday, Sir Ed said his party’s first campaign will be “for an emergency budget for health and care”.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Ed said: “We’re going to be constructive opposition. We fought the election on health and care and the cost of living, on ending the sewage scandal and in the parliament we will focus on those issues and we will urge the Government to go further.

“We’ve already started that by calling for the emergency budget on health and care and I want to make sure they respond.

“I mean one thing I was disappointed in Labour’s manifesto was it didn’t mention family carers or unpaid carers who are actually critical.

“And I’ve made very clear that the Liberal Democrats will be the voice of carers, and we will challenge the Government to make sure they deliver for the millions of people looking after their loved ones.”

Sir Ed also said the party has “long argued for electoral reform” as “our politics is broken”, but added it “might mean that there’ll be people who are elected who we don’t agree with”.

Asked if it was fair that Reform UK got many more votes than the Lib Dems but have ended up with far fewer seats, he said: “Well, you know Laura that the Liberal Democrats have long argued for fair votes and long argued for electoral reform and proportional representation. We want to improve our democracy, our politics is broken and so we’re going to continue to make that case.

“It might mean that there’ll be people who are elected who we don’t agree with but by the way, that’s been the case in the first past the post, there are many people in the Conservative Party who seem to share the values and ideas of Reform, and they’re already there.”

Asked if the voting system was reformed under proportional representation, would he be happy to see Reform UK being the third biggest party and not the Liberal Democrats, he said: “Well, I believe in democracy, and I believe in taking forward your ideas for political reform.

“People will get voted in who you don’t agree with, under first past the post people in Reform have got elected too and people in the Conservative Party who were very close to Reform have got elected. That’s democracy, that’s allowing the people to express their will.”

Steal our ideas, Lib Dem leader urges government

By Chas Geiger, 

Politics reporter

BBC

JULY 7,2024


It "would be great" if the new Labour government took on Liberal Democrat policies, party leader Sir Ed Davey has said.

After his party won 72 seats in the general election, he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme Labour in opposition "stole" his party's idea of a windfall tax on the big oil and gas companies.

He said the Lib Dems aimed to be a "constructive opposition" and to force the government to listen "by the strength of our arguments".

Sir Ed repeated his call for an emergency budget to improve health and social care, saying his party would be "the voice of carers".

After Reform UK won more votes but far fewer seats than the Lib Dems, Sir Ed also said he would go on arguing for "fair votes" and changing the electoral system to proportional representation.



"We want to improve our democracy, our politics is broken and so we're going to continue to make that case.

"People will get voted in who you don't agree with... That's democracy, that's allowing the people to express their will," he added.

The Lib Dems won their 72 seats - a record for the party - with 12.2% of the vote. Reform UK gained five MPs with 14.3% of the vote.

Reform chairman Richard Tice, the new MP for Boston and Skegness, told BBC Radio Lincolnshire the election results had "highlighted the absurd flaws in the first-past-the-post system".

"On a fair proportional representation system, we would get 94 seats, but instead we've just got five and that is patently unfair."

In his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Ed rejected suggestions that the size of Labour's majority meant the government did not need to pay attention to the Lib Dems.

He said: "We’ve managed over a number of years to persuade people to steal our policies and that’s a really good idea.

"It was the Liberal Democrats who argued for a windfall tax on the huge profits of the oil and gas companies, made on the back of President Putin in his illegal invasion of Ukraine.

"It was Liberal Democrats making that argument to help people with their energy bills, in three months after we made it, [the] Labour Party stole that idea.

"So, I’m hoping, as we argue for health and care, we argue for ending the sewage scandal, we argue for action on the cost of living, that the Labour government will realise that we actually have the best arguments, the best policies and take them, and that would be great."

Sir Ed said his party had put health and social care at the heart of its election campaign, and believed an emergency budget was needed "so we can start rescuing our NHS which is on its knees because of the Conservatives".

Since taking office, both the prime minister and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have described the NHS as "broken".

But the Lib Dem leader said he was disappointed that Labour’s manifesto had not mentioned family carers or unpaid carers "who are actually critical".

His party would "be the voice of carers and we will challenge the government to make sure that they deliver for the millions of people looking after their loved ones", he said.

UK

This wasn't the social media election everyone expected


By Marianna Spring, 

Disinformation and social media correspondent
BBC



It was just hours before the polls opened for the UK’s general election when I noticed the audio clip going viral on the social media site X.

It sounded like Labour politician Wes Streeting using foul and abusive language towards a member of the public who disagreed with him over the war in Gaza.

There were replies from other accounts, apparently reacting in shock: “Is this real???????”

It wasn’t. The incident never happened.

The fake audio supposedly featured Labour MP Wes Streeting


That did not stop the false audio clip - since labelled on X as “manipulated media” - racking up more than a million views.

By itself, the clip wasn’t necessarily enough to mislead voters.

But crucially, a network of profiles run by real people commented on each other’s posts in support of the fake clip. This had the effect of lending it credibility as well as amplifying it to more people.

The poster who asked whether it was real was connected to this group of accounts, as was the user who replied to insist that it was.


The same network targetted other Labour politicians as well as some from Reform UK


As a result of both the clips and these comments, some real users I contacted told me they were confused about what to trust.

Streeting himself even said that he had been contacted by another politician who initially believed the clip was real.


It’s not just about deepfakes…


Earlier in the election campaign, I had investigated this network - a group of left-leaning activists who had shared several other deceptive clips smearing not just Streeting, but other Labour politicians and some from Reform UK too.

Some of these clips were clearly absurd and satirical - a form of trolling - but others falsely portrayed candidates as saying politically damaging things.

There had been warnings from politicians and social media experts that the integrity of this election would be undermined by deepfakes - AI-produced video and audio that manipulate a person’s voice or image to say or do things they never said or did.

But the broader issue I encountered was that some committed political activists have learned to distort, manipulate and shape the online conversation with all the tools at their disposal including, but not limited to, AI.

…and not all ‘deepfakes’ are sinister


I tracked tactics like this on social media feeds during this election campaign using dozens of old phones, which were set up with the profiles of my 24 undercover voters.

They are fictional characters, based in locations across the UK, that I created based on data and analysis from the National Centre for Social Research. Their profiles are set to private with no friends.

What appears in their feeds cannot give me a complete picture of what everyone has been seeing this election campaign - they aren’t part of private group chats, for example.

But they have offered me an insight into how voters are targeted and what content they are recommended by the major social media platforms.

The undercover voters’ feeds have been greeted not by a tsunami of AI fakes, but rather by a deluge of political posts from activists, supporters and unidentified profiles amplified by the social media sites’ algorithms and at times with hate directed at politicians in the commentsTikTok users being fed misleading election news, BBC finds

And AI fakes are not always not always created with malicious intent. Sometimes they are used for the purposes of humour or parody.

In one example, a series of videos purported to show Sir Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson playing each other at the video game Minecraft. It’s unlikely anyone seriously believed these were real.


The average person can out-do political parties


A lot of the content that really took off this campaign was not paid-for targeted adverts, but posts picked up by social media algorithms designed to identify the most engaging content and push it into people’s feeds.

Cue funny memes, TikTok trends and selfie videos about parties’ policies - the less slick, the better.

It means that lots of the posts popping up on my undercover voters’ feeds have been from people I like to call the accidental election influencers, who have been plucked from obscurity by the algorithms.




Newscast

Hear more about the UK undercover voters and how this election unfolded on social media on BBC’s Newscast podcast.

Listen on BBC Sounds




They have a range of political views and their amateur content was getting as much traction as some of the parties’ own posts - and more than some of their online ads.

Crucially, these posts could reach an audience who were otherwise disengaged from mainstream politics.

Sometimes they provided reliable updates, but on other occasions they were responsible for misinformation, too - such as a faked image of Sir Keir Starmer in a Palestinian flag T-shirt or a post falsely suggesting that an incident in which a milkshake was thrown at Nigel Farage while he was out campaigning had actually been staged.

Reform UK dominated social media feeds


It is worth saying that some of the political parties have had success at producing viral posts. Reform UK in particular has generated a huge amount of traction and conversation on social media.

That is backed up by what I have found on both the feeds of my younger undercover voters, and in my conversations with real younger people.

As well as being pushed left-leaning content connected to Labour and the Greens, some of their feeds have also been awash with posts from Reform UK.

It is mainly young men who have told me me about how their feeds were dominated by posts about Nigel Farage’s party.


Nigel Farage featured widely on TikTok, including on this fan account


A lot of this shows the success of Reform UK - both the party itself and also its supporters - at dominating the online conversation and creating content that resonates with this audience, discussing housing, immigration and other issues in a very clear and direct way.

Reform UK was also one of few parties that had already started to build its TikTok reach before this general election, as had its leader Nigel Farage.


Don’t underestimate the comments


A very active network of users was also willing to post in support of Reform UK, either with their own videos and content or in reply to others.

While an earlier generation of internet users would warn each other to “never read the comments”, they can be a place users go to gauge the opinions of others - just as we saw with the network of profiles that boosted the fake Wes Streeting video.

In the comments of political videos during the campaign, it was common to see the words “Vote Reform UK” repeated over and over again by different accounts, suggesting the party had a wave of support behind it.

I investigated several profiles accused by some other users of being bots, tracking down and identifying who was behind them.

And as I’ve found in previous investigations, many of them turned out to be run by real voters who were indeed posting the same political messages again and again, from an anonymous profile that may have looked like a bot but was actually just their own account, to support the party.

Others were suspicious, though, and some of those have been removed by the social media companies.

A spokesman for Reform UK told me the party was “delighted about the organic growth of online support” but also said there were other fake accounts, not linked to the party, which it had flagged by itself to the social media companies.

Trying to pinpoint exactly who is behind suspect accounts is very difficult. I’ve established for myself that some of them really are political supporters who have decided not to share their identities. It’s possible that groups of political supporters might also get together to run fake accounts to push their preferred party’s ideas.

Alternatively, the accounts could be trolls seeking to make the party look suspicious. Or they could be spammers, jumping on a popular topic and eventually hoping they can use it to sell stuff.

Or they could be run by a group, such as a hostile foreign power, seeking to sow division or cause trouble.

But while there have been documented attempts by countries such as Russia to use fake accounts in this way, there is less evidence that they have ever changed anyone’s mind.

It’s not just a problem at election time

This concern over the risk of foreign influence has prompted social media companies - TikTok, X and Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook - to invest in measures they say will protect users from online manipulation.

This election, they have all told me, they have tried to ensure users get reliable information. Some have removed posts and accounts following my various investigations.

During the 2024 election, for the first time since Elon Musk took over X, the social media site responded to allegations raised by me - and took action, too.X takes action on deepfake network

But lots of the tactics I’ve uncovered were deployed and finessed by political activists long before Rishi Sunak stood in the pouring rain to call the general election.

The group of accounts sharing the faked clips and false comments about Wes Streeting had shared similar posts about Keir Starmer, for example, during a by-election back in February 2024.

As someone who investigates social media’s real-world impact all year round, it feels like some of the companies often only really wake up and take action during an election period.

The problem is that the concept of the “social media election” is dead. Instead, the world is constantly shaped by what’s happening on our feeds and group chats long before and long after any vote.

And so in the end this wasn’t a deepfake election - it was an election in which the same old questions about social media regulation went unanswered. The warnings about AI were a distraction from the lack of clear solutions to problems posed by algorithms and well-practised misinformation tactics online.


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