Epstein hurled 'money laundering' allegations at Trump in secret email as feds closed in

Alexander Willis
November 17, 2025

RAW ST0RY


A newly unearthed 2019 email shows that Jeffrey Epstein was aware that President Donald Trump may have been misrepresenting the value of his assets — an allegation that would get president hit with a $454 million fraud judgment in 2024.

“Trump was a frontman for money laundering, according to Epstein,” wrote Mykhailo Golub, the general manager for the consultancy firm TLFRD, in a social media post on X Sunday. Golub shared an email unearthed in the latest release of a trove of Epstein messages last week.

Trump would be successfully prosecuted in civil court in New York for having inflated the value of his company’s assets, and was ordered to pay $454 million. But in 2019, Epstein appeared to be aware of Trump’s alleged financial crimes.

“Donald doesn't really own very much, he rents out his name. He puts it on buildings projects etc. for a royalty or piece of the upside. he then claims the asset is,” wrote Epstein in an email to himself, dated Jan. 15, 2019, just months before his eventual death in prison.

“He represents his ‘income’ as the GROSS receipts of his clubs. means nothing at all ZERO. no income as we [know] it. He lists his ‘assets’ and their VALUE – but not the corresponding loans, against it. So no net number, hence meaningless.”


As to why Epstein would write emails to himself, investigative journalist Barry Levine recently suggested that Epstein may have been aware that “feds would be closing in on him,” and that such emails were designed to document his connection to Trump in the event that his computers were seized by law enforcement, and hence, gain leverage should he be arrested.

Trump’s alleged inflation of the value of his assets would come to a head around three years after Epstein’s email in a New York courtroom when New York Attorney General Letitia James brought civil charges against Trump for allegedly inflating the values of his company’s assets to receive more favorable loan agreements.While an appeals court would eventually throw out Trump’s multi-million dollar penalty, the Trump administration targeted James with fraud charges over allegations that she misrepresented her income and assets on a loan document, a criminal probe that critics have described as retaliatory and politically motivated.

'This is America!' Sickened Morning Joe shames Stephen Miller with heartbreaking photo

Tom Boggioni
November 17, 2025 
RAW STORY

Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough (MS NOW screenshot)

Donald Trump advisor Stephen Miller was raked over the coals on MS NOW on Monday morning after “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough shared a New York Times report about small children being left behind as their parents are abducted and deported by ICE.

To make his point, he held up the paper which showed a photo of a two-year-old child named Jorge, whose mother was grabbed and shipped out of the country in error.

Discussing Donald Trump's cratering popularity, Scarborough suggested Miller is contributing to the president’s collapse, even among Republicans, over Miller’s heartless round-up of immigrants which has infuriated communities.


“What is serious, though, is this New York Times, you actually have children, children being left alone without their parents,” he explained as he held up a physical copy of the Times.

“Because you have the administration so obsessed on reaching their numbers,” he added before accusing, “And Stephen Miller thinks this is a good idea. This is Stephen Miller, thinks this is a good idea and Donald Trump lets it happen. Can we zoom in on this picture, please? Donald Trump lets this happen. Where children, here's a two-year-old who are (sic) left without their parents because they're trying to meet quotas that we said from the beginning, and we'll say it again, quotas that will never, ever be met."

GOBBELS  / MILLER

Tossing aside the paper, he added, “This is America in 2025.”

“It's that image and that headline why Donald Trump's numbers on immigration are so underwater,” a disgusted Jonathan Lemire contributed. “This was supposed to be a signature issue. Americans are saying that's too much. Outside, maybe that thrills the hardest core faction of his base, but we know that the numbers they set out, the millions they want deported are not going to happen. And that though Americans, you know, in 2024 showed this, they want the southern border to be managed better.”

Deep red state threatened with 'severe' consequences after shock rejection of Trump demand

Travis Gettys
November 17, 2025 

RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (not pictured) over lunch in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 17, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The heavy-handed push by President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies backfired with Indiana Republicans – but it hasn't forced him to back down, according to a report.

The president called on GOP legislators to redraw congressional maps in states all over the country, but Indiana Republicans — even in deep-red Trump districts — made clear to their elected representatives that they didn't want to go along with the scheme, and voters and legislators alike resented "all these social media influencers barking" at them, a local talk radio host told CNN.

"They’ll move heaven and earth to help Republicans pick up two seats in Congress, and people are saying, wait a second — you won’t do anything to help me, but you’ll do all this to help your party," said Rob Kendall, an influential conservative talk radio host on WIBC in Indianapolis. "I think that rubbed people the wrong way.”

Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announced last week the measure lacked the votes to pass, even with a GOP supermajority, and MAGA influencers promised to primary state senators who refused to support the scheme, which Kendall said makes no sense.

“What’s the case?" he said. "You’re going to knock on the door and say, ‘You should vote this senator out because he did what his constituents wanted?’”

Vice President JD Vance visited the state twice to push the scheme, which has the backing of Gov. Mike Braun, the state Republican Party and the entire Indiana GOP congressional delegation. But state legislators said their constituents “overwhelmingly opposed” the plan – and they resented the strong-arm tactics.

“Some have even been sent via cell phone to students in my district, including my 14-year-old grandson,” said state Sen. Jean Leising, who represents a deep-red district in southeast Indiana. “These groups do not have the best interest of my rural area or the state of Indiana at heart, and their methods are completely unacceptable.”

Leising said only 6 percent of her constituents approved of redistricting, and other senators found similar legals of support, but out-of-state activists aren't ready to move on.

“I think what they’ll do is bring it up, have more discussion among the Republican senators, and I’m confident in the end they’ll convince people of the view that I have: that really, Republicans need to step up and do this,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh. “They shouldn’t be afraid of the bad press they might get or their Democratic colleagues getting mad at them.”

Indiana GOP operative Marty Obst also said he will continue to pressure legislators with his group Fair Maps Indiana, which includes Trump 2024 senior adviser Chris LaCivita, political consultant Chip Englander and Trump advertiser John Brabender.

“It’s a shame Sen. Bray blocked the special session,” Obst said. “It’s clear he does not support President Trump’s agenda. Senators should show up and do their jobs and vote on redistricting. Like elections, decisions have consequences. I anticipate those consequences to be severe.”

'Push back': Roadmap to 2026 MAGA destruction outlined in new book

Alexandria Jacobson,

 Investigative Reporter
November 17, 2025


A computer shows a Project 2025 screen. (Bella1105/ Shutterstock)

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

The answer to Project 2025, the infamous 920-page conservative leadership blueprint, is to be found in less than 200 pages, a historian, preservationist and independent congressional candidate turned author insists.

Mike Bedenbaugh is the author of Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, a new book in which he outlines his plan for a “Project 2026”: an alternative to the governmental makeover compiled by the Heritage Foundation before the 2024 election and then pursued by Donald Trump in power, seeking to decimate the federal workforce.

“Project 2026, this is what we need to aim for, to push back … in the midterms of next year,” Bedenbaugh told Raw Story.

ALSO READ: This direct line leads from 9/11 to Trump

Bedenbaugh, who ran last year as an independent in South Carolina's 3rd Congressional District, losing to Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC), said the forthcoming midterms would be the “most important” election in the U.S. “since 1876 after the end of Reconstruction,” as Democrats seek to take back at least one chamber of Congress and put the brakes on Trump’s unrelenting takeover.


Mike Bedenbaugh (provided photo)

Seeking to “open up the system, make it more representative,” Bedenbaugh calls for nonpartisan reforms including banning stock trading by members of Congress, enacting term limits for legislators and prohibiting former legislators from working as lobbyists or joining corporate boards immediately after leaving office.

He also proposes reducing the influence of corporate money on elections and shrinking the size of congressional districts, to make them more responsive to constituents.

Bedenbaugh says he presents his "95 Theses” as “a way to communicate what [priest and theologian Martin] Luther was trying to communicate against a corrupted 16th-century Catholic Church” when he nailed his 95 demands to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church in Germany in 1517, an action that eventually triggered the Protestant Reformation.

Five hundred years later, in the U.S., Bedenbaugh sees “a corrupted 21st-century federal republic, and how over the past-century, we've lost a lot of standards that need to be rebuilt.”


Bedenbaugh said he had a “Hail Mary” idea: to propose 10 to 15 independent-minded members of the U.S. House of Representatives form a “Fulcrum Caucus," holding out on voting for legislation unless reforms are included in bill language.

“Over the past century, what was made to be a balanced federal republic I think has been destroyed for a monopolistic government system that now Donald Trump is the ultimate example of,” Bedenbaugh said.

“I think just through tweaking a few dials, it can be made right, and people would be happier with that in the long run.”

‘It’s about control’

Bedenbaugh said he was inspired to write his book after watching the first Republican presidential primary debate in August 2015, the year of Trump’s first serious campaign for office.

Disgusted by the “absolute vulgar bullying” on display, Bedenbaugh turned to the writing of the Founding Fathers, particularly George Washington’s Farewell Address, delivered by the first president in 1796 as a warning against excesses by political parties and their ambitious leaders.




"Reviving Our Republic" (provided image)



Bedenbaugh then traveled to Washington, D.C., and read Ron Chernow’s biography Washington: A Life, to look at how the Founding Fathers would respond to today’s politics.

“[Washington] predicted exactly what was happening and his concern for that,” Bedenbaugh said.


The stakes are high as the U.S. heads down an authoritarian path under Trump in his second term, even more so than his first, Bedenbaugh said, fearing “a death knell of our nation if we allow that to happen, and that's the trajectory I think is very realistic."

“What's happened is Donald Trump has created a safe space for all these folks who have this tendency to want to yield sovereignty and feel safe with a leader," he said.

“One of the biggest hazards in our nation is that these folks now are organized in a way that it's about power. It's about control and only their perspective of how the nation should be run.”


Looking to Project 2025, Bedenbaugh said its “Christian nationalist” approach left him “infuriated.”

On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump repeatedly denied knowledge of or involvement with Project 2025. Since taking office, he has embraced the plan.

One community-driven Project 2025 Tracker estimates that at least 48 percent of the project’s goals have been achieved since Trump was inaugurated in January, including efforts to slash government funding and eliminate diversity programs.

Bedenbaugh said: “Project 2026 is really just something to show an alternative to what 2025 is saying, and there is a way to fix what they're saying is the problem, but only through the original foundational issues of what made this country amazing.”

Those issues, Bedenbaugh said, were identified by “a diverse group of people who all aspire to have one thing: liv[ing] in happiness with your children, being successful, being in your community, being part of it, free, and … thriv[ing]. That's all we want.”Reviving Our Republic is out now

Alexandria Jacobson is a Chicago-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, focusing on money in politics, government accountability and electoral politics. Prior to joining Raw Story in 2023, Alex reported extensively on social justice, business and tech issues for several news outlets, including ABC News, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. She can be reached at alexandria@rawstory.com. More about Alexandria Jacobson.

David Letterman inducts the late Warren Zevon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Killers perform in his honor


By Markos Papadatos
November 16, 2025

AFP

Warren Zevon. Photo Credit: Aaron Rapoport, Courtesy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

TV host David Letterman inducted the late Warren Zevon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously.

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place on Saturday, November 8th, at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, and it recognized this year’s Class of Inductees: Bad Company, Chubby Checker, the late Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Soundgarden, and The White Stripes.
Warren Zevon honored with the 2025 ‘Musical Influence’ Award

The late Warren Zevon was recognized with the “Musical Influence Award,” which is bestowed to artists whose music and performance style have directly influenced, inspired, and evolved rock and roll and music impacting culture.

Salt-N-Pepa was also honored in this “Musical Influence Award” category, which was previously known as the “Early Influence” category.

His most famous compositions were “Werewolves of London,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” “Excitable Boy,” and “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.”


He also wrote hit songs that were recorded by other major artists, including “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” “Mohammed’s Radio,” “Carmelita,” and “Hasten Down the Wind.”
Impact of Warren Zevon’s music and songwriting

Warren Zevon is credited for being an “artist’s artist.” One of the most talented and significant singer-songwriters to emerge in the 1970s, Zevon wrote poetic but offbeat songs, often with darkly humorous and acerbic lyrics, and delivered them with a dry wit and a twisted energy like no other performer could.

Billy Joel described Zevon as “the soul of L.A.” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times (as she wrote a letter of support for him to the Rock Hall back in 2023).
David Letterman’s moving induction speech about Warren Zevon

In his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame introductory speech, Letterman praised Zevon for being a poet and a classic rock and roller, whose music addressed the complexities of life.

Letterman described Zevon’s music as “dense with historic illusion, love, and sadness tinted with unexpected whimsy and delivered with third-rail voltage rock ‘n’ roll, or sweet, heartbreaking, lush, symphonic melodies.”

Letterman recalled Zevon’s final appearance of his “Late Show” program, where the iconic rocker told him to “enjoy every sandwich” amid his terminal cancer diagnosis, which was Zevon’s immortal reminder.

Letterman concluded the speech by presenting Zevon’s guitar (that he had gifted him 22 years ago, and Letterman had cared for the guitar) to The Killers’ guitarist Dave Keuning for their performance. “Congratulations, Warren. Thank you for everything. Enjoy every sandwich,” Letterman exclaimed.

Warren Zevon. Photo Courtesy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Tribute performance of ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ by The Killers

It was followed by a vivacious and rousing performance of “Lawyers, Guns and Money” by The Killers (lead vocals from Brandon Flowers, lead guitar by Dave Keuning, drums by Ronnie Vannucci Jr. and bassist Mark Stoermer).

This tribute performance featured veteran guest musician Waddy Wachtel on the electric guitar, and throughout the song, Flowers included a slight interpolation of Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.”

The 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony can be viewed in its entirety on the streaming service Disney+.

For more information on the musical legacy of Warren Zevon, check out his official website.



Written ByMarkos Papadatos

Markos Papadatos is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Music News. Papadatos is a Greek-American journalist and educator that has authored over 24,000 original articles over the past 19 years. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, entertainment, lifestyle, magic, and sports. He is a 16-time "Best of Long Island" winner, where for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), he was honored as the "Best Long Island Personality" in Arts & Entertainment, an honor that has gone to Billy Joel six times.

UK LABOUR PARTY

‘Our coalition is fracturing. We can rebuild it by making life affordable again’

Jeevun Sandher   17th November, 2025

Photo: Ultraskrip/Shutterstock

:

We have lost around half of the voters who supported us last July. Voters are leaving us because life is unaffordable and they want transformational change. Most of our lost voters are going to the left – to the Greens, the Lib Dems – or to undecided, while a smaller but significant portion of our vote has gone to Reform. But we can win these voters back. We need to unite our coalition, getting both sets of radical defecting voters onside. We can do this with a strong offer of making life affordable and a vision of Britishness founded in collective strength. 

Since July 2024, we have lost far more voters to the left than to Reform.  Of the 50% of voters who have left us, around 20% have gone to the Lib Dems/the Greens, around 20% to Don’t Know (who are sceptical of Reform) and around 10% have gone to Reform.

Reform’s gain in the polls is not driven by them picking up Labour voters. Instead, they are picking up non-voters (31% of their gains) and Conservatives (42% of their gains). Many non-voters are being politically engaged online, seduced by far-right rhetoric reminiscent of the 1930’s that makes sense of their frustrations. Only ten percent of Reform’s current vote comes from Labour’s July 2024 voters.

‘Affordability-driven angst is driving up support for populists worldwide’

Voters who are finding life unaffordable are the most likely to be leaving us. They are frightened of being unable to pay the bills, frustrated that working hard doesn’t mean living well, and furious at a political elite who cannot seem to address their issues. The group of voters who are frightened, frustrated and furious is growing, as more and more cannot pay their bills. Making life affordable for them matters.

The old left vs. right paradigm is dying as affordability-driven angst is driving up support for populists across the globe. The new political divide is between mainstream centrist voters (who are financially comfortable and happy with the status quo) vs. radical voters (who want transformational change to make life affordable). A simplified version is given below.

We in Labour are currently keeping mainstream voters, while populist parties on the left (Green) and right (Reform) are hoovering up radical support. The radical left is picking up young renters who can’t afford housing, the radical right is picking up voters from non-graduates who can’t get decent jobs. We can only win if we keep the mainstream and pick up those radical voters who are finding life unaffordable.

‘Tackling small boats crisis crucial, but must not alienate left-minded voters’

Affordability is the number one issue defecting voters cite for leaving us, followed by not delivering on change. I cannot stress enough how much making life more affordable for them is the key to winning again. If we do not make life affordable, we cannot expect their support in 2029. But after the cost-of-living, our defectors to the left and right are leaving us for different reasons. 

On the left, defectors say Labour has been “too right wing” in office. These Greens/Lib Dem defectors are also far more winnable for us than Reform defectors. Around 60% of these defectors are already open to voting for us next time. Even 30% of those who voted Green in 2024 are open to voting for us next time, while 60% would consider a left-wing alternative. 

Those who have moved to undecided are considering voting a wide range of parties but, crucially, few are considering voting for Reform or the Conservatives. They might be a bit less winnable than our Green/Lib Dem defectors are, but they are not lost for good.

The voters we are losing to Reform are the hardest to win back. Just 13% said they would consider voting Labour at the next election and 42% said there is nothing Labour could do to win them back. Labour to Reform defectors are small in the context of our overall losses (around 10% of our 2024 vote share) but these defectors will count double in most of our contests at the next election. 

These Reform defectors are, unsurprisingly, deeply concerned about migration (which we can read as small boats crossing). Tackling the small boats crisis is crucial to getting these voters back, but we must not alienate our left-minded voters in the process. 

Concerns about migration also stem from affordability. When people who cannot afford the basics, they draw inward and want to protect what is theirs. As one Reform voter said in a focus group:

“It’s not about being racist. It’s about looking after all the people in this country who are poor, starving. We can’t keep supporting everybody.”

‘Politics is not a paint-by-numbers game’

If making life affordable is seen as a zero-sum game, either a migrant gets a house, food and warmth or I do, anti-immigration sentiments rise. As my colleague Liam Byrne and pollsters like Steve Akehurst have found, it is economic messages on affordability as well as (surprisingly) positive Net Zero messages that work best with Reform-curious voters. Making life affordable again matters. 

Winning radical voters back starts with bringing costs down. For the young renters going Green, we can get housing costs down by building (a lot more) social homes. For those going to Reform, that means creating good jobs in post-industrial areas as we are with our Clean Energy Plan. For all voters, getting down energy bills with cleaner, cheaper energy will make life affordable again. 

More than this, building a winning coalition also means binding the radicals we are losing together with one vision. Politics is not a paint-by-numbers game. We can’t offer one policy to one group, another policy to another, and say it all adds up to winning.

‘Win back voters by making life affordable and with a unified vision of what it means to be British’

At this moment of deep division, our vision must define what it means to be British, and who is British. Being British is partly about legal status. But it’s also about our values, our traditions, and how we come together as one British people.

Unity, decency, and determination are our common British values. It was by living up to these values that we protected democracy in Europe.  It was that same spirit that saw us persevere through a pandemic. Beyond those great moments, the national moments that bring us together – during the Olympics, football tournaments, and now the Traitors. And the small moments – a cup of tea, a pint, queuing politely. Communities may look different but we come together as one British people in these moments, big and small. Stronger when we stand together, weaker when we stand apart.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook.

Our vision of Britishness also acknowledges the strengths and limitations of migration. We are proud of how different communities have contributed to this country. It does not matter what you look like. What matters is how you act and the values you hold. We welcome and value the contribution of those allowed to come. And we have a strong border to determine who can come and those who cannot.  We can only draw together the radical left and right voters we are losing through this vision. 

We also must define who we are against. We stand against the populists who seek to divide our nation. Who blame all our problems on other groups. Whether it’s blaming immigrants as Farage does or blaming corporations as Polanski does. Their vision is one of division leading to collective weakness. It is a vision we reject. 

We are losing voters who cannot afford the basics and want radical change. Beyond that, different voters are leaving us for different reasons. Those going to the radical left think we are too right wing. Those on the radical right want us to do more on migration. We can win both sets of voters back by making life affordable and with a unified vision of what it means to be British. It is a vison of Britishness founded in our collective strength that can bring them back to us. That is how we win back our lost voters and win the next election.

Jeevun Sandher

Jeevun Sandher is the MP for Loughborough and served as an economist researching inequality and poverty at King’s College London and as a UCU trade union rep.@jeevunsandher

View all articles by Jeevun Sandher

UK to cut protections for refugees under asylum ‘overhaul’: govt

By AFP
November 15, 2025


Pedestrians pass a closed entrance to London Bridge Underground Station - Copyright AFP Prabin RANABHAT

Britain will drastically reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the Labour government said on Saturday.

The measures were announced as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure over irregular migration in the face of soaring support for the hard right.

“I’ll end UK’s golden ticket for asylum seekers,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement.

Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship.

‘We will restore order and control to our borders,’ said Shabana Mahmood – Copyright AFP Oli SCARFF

But Mahmood’s ministry, known as the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months.

That protection will be “regularly reviewed” and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added.

The ministry also said that it intended to make those refugees who are granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term, instead of the current five.

The Home Office called the proposals the “largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times”.

Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors.

More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys — more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022.

The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year.

Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with some 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures.

UK Asylum reform: Full list of MPs opposing government’s immigration proposals

James Moules & Daniel Green  17th November, 2025

Photo: Home Office/Flickr

 

More than a dozen Labour MPs have expressed criticism of the government’s radical reforms to Britain’s asylum system.

Shabana Mahmood has proposed sweeping new reforms to the UK asylum system today, which has quickly led to a visceral backlash from many Labour figures.

Purportedly modelled on Denmark’s tough immigration rules, the new measures could see fast-tracked deportations, and a quadrupling of the time it might take to achieve permanent status.

It’s prompted a fierce debate within the party, with many Labour MPs quick to express their horror at the perceived draconian measures.

However, other Labour figures such as Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash and Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes have indicated their support.

Speaking to the BBC, asylum minister Alex Norris defended the measures and said the “fair and humane” plans would “restore order and control at our borders”.

Here is LabourList’s tracker of which MPs have made their disapproval known:

Tony Vaughan

The new MP for Folkestone and Hythe was among the first to make their displeasure at the new proposals clear. His post has now become totemic in opposition to the government’s harsh new measures.

He posted on X: “The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. We absolutely need immigration controls. And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation.”

Several other Labour MPs have shared Vaughan’s remarks including Clive Lewis, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Kate Osborne, Olivia Blake and Peter Lamb.

Nadia Whittome

Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome hit out at the Home Secretary’s proposals in the House of Commons, describing the proposed reforms as “dystopian”.

She said: “It’s shameful that a Labour government is ripping up the rights and protections of people who have endured unimaginable trauma.”

John McDonnell

Veteran left winger John McDonnell responded to Vaughan’s original post, making clear his own opposition to the reforms.

He said: “Tony Vaughan is one of the new MPs elected for Labour last year & in his contributions to Commons debates has displayed a considered approach to issues. He’s certainly not what the media would call a ‘usual suspect.’

“I suspect he is reflecting here what many in the PLP feel.”

Abtisam Mohamed

Sheffield Central MP Abtisam Mohamed also replies to the original post by Vaughan.

She said: “If we truly want an asylum system that works, the answer is clear: faster decisions, better accommodation, and a functioning agreement with France. Punishing recognised refugees won’t achieve any of that.

“We need a fair, workable approach, not another round of policies that divide communities and fail on their own terms.”

Stella Creasy

In an op-ed in The Guardian today, Creasy blasted the government’s Denmark-style approach to asylum.

She wrote: “This is not just performatively cruel, it’s economically misjudged. There is scant evidence that Denmark’s decision to refuse to grant longterm asylum to most has deterred anyone who would have chosen Denmark as a destination.”

Long-standing member of Labour’s national executive committee Ann Black echoed Creasy’s concerns and said: “I’m with Stella on this” in a post on social media.

Simon Opher

The Stroud MP said: “We should stop the scapegoating of immigrants because it’s wrong and cruel … we should push back on the racist agenda of Reform rather than echo it.”

Brian Leishman

The Alloa and Grangemouth MP, who recently got the Labour whip back, has told The New Statesman’s Megan Kenyon that he has “reservations” about the new measures.

He said: “We need to build a caring compassionate society that looks after people from the UK and also from other countries. And that needs to be done with real Labour Party values.”

Sarah Owen

The Luton North MP posted on BlueSky: “A strong immigration system doesn’t need to be a cruel one. It shouldn’t need saying – but refugees & asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution.”

Cat Eccles

Stourbridge MP Cat Eccles told PoliticsHome’s Harriet Symonds: “I’m massively disappointed and angry about what the Home Sec is saying.”

Rachael Maskell

MP for York Central Rachael Maskell criticised the proposals in an interview with Times Radio and said: “The dehumanisation of people in desperation is the antithesis of what the Labour Party is about.”

Richard Burgon

MP for Leeds East Richard Burgon described the plans as “morally wrong [and] politically disastrous” in a post on social media.

He said: “We’ve moved a long way from the days when the Prime Minister promised “an immigration system based on compassion and dignity.” We now have policies and briefings that seem to have been dragged from the moral sewer – and that are even being celebrated by far-right figures like ‘Tommy Robinson’.

“Labour voters who have abandoned the party will not be won back by this. They haven’t flocked to Reform but mainly to other progressive parties or now simply say they don’t know who to vote for. Many who have stuck with Labour so far will be repulsed by these attacks on vulnerable people fleeing war and persecution.”

Ian Byrne

MP for Liverpool West Derby Ian Byrne also criticised the government’s planned asylum system reforms and accused the Prime Minister of drifting “far from [his] promise of ‘compassion and dignity’, towards policies dragged from the moral abyss and applauded by far-right figures like Farage & Yaxley-Lennon”.

UK

Right-Wing Media Watch – GB claims “It’s the kind of journalism you believe in”

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Yesterday
Left Foot Forward

If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book.

An interesting subject line landed in my inbox from GB News this week (yes, I subscribe, purely to keep tabs on what they’re up to). It read: “Why GB News matters more than ever.”

The message came from Bev Turner, GB News host who, in 2023, faced criticism for tweeting that Covid “causes less harm to certain ethnicities — East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews (Fauci anyone?).”

Curious, I opened the email, though I already had a fair idea of what to expect.

Turner explained she had been in Washington DC this week, “speaking with journalists from across the spectrum.”

“And what struck me most was this: people are tired of being told one version of events. They want honesty, balance, and open debate.

“That’s exactly why I’m proud to be part of GB News. We don’t follow the pack. We don’t take our cues from the establishment. We tell it as we see it — and trust you, the viewer, to make up your own mind.

“If that’s the kind of journalism you believe in, I’d love for you to stand with us. Your support keeps independent journalism alive.”

It’s a slick pitch, but laced with irony. If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book.

Instead, here are just a few of the channel’s more egregious ‘crimes.’

In September 2023, presenters Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson were fired, and Dan Wootton was suspended, after Fox made offensive remarks about a female journalist on Dan Wootton Tonight. The comments prompted 8,867 complaints to Ofcom.

When Ofcom ruled against the programme in March 2024, Wootton quit the network the following day, denouncing the regulator as “Ofcommunist censors” and claiming that its report “raised far bigger issues.”

The Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) found that during coverage of the far-right riots, GB News accounted for 62% of all clips on UK news channels that associated Muslims with the violence. The report concluded that the channel repeatedly framed Muslims as perpetrators rather than victims, downplaying attacks on mosques and Muslim communities and reinforcing a one-sided, hostile narrative.

Similarly, a 2024 Good Law Project investigation into a year of GB News output exposed what it described as an “unhealthy obsession” that paints a distorted picture of modern Britain.

Its analysis revealed that the word “illegal” is the single most common adjective used by GB News to describe people arriving in the UK, appearing before “migrant” or “immigrant” in 53% of instances. When related terms such as “boat,” “undocumented,” and “Calais” are included, the figure rises to 66%.

By contrast, positive descriptors such as “legal” or “skilled” appear only 4% of the time.

Also troubling, the word “Pakistani” was found to be most often used by the channel in connection with stories about child sexual abuse, reinforcing damaging stereotypes and perpetuating racial bias under the guise of “telling it like it is.”

In February this year, Ofcom received 1,227 complaints about comments made by GB News presenter Josh Howie on the programme Headliners. During a discussion about a sermon by a US bishop, Howie appeared to suggest that the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles.

Although Howie later claimed his remark was intended as a “joke about paedophilia in the church,” the backlash was fast and brutal. The Good Law Project launched a petition against what it called “dangerous disinformation about LGBTQ+ people,” gathering more than 60,000 signatures. Ofcom has since said it is “carefully assessing” the complaints.

In response to repeated controversies, campaigns such as Boycott GB News have emerged to challenge the channel’s influence. The initiative encourages the public not to watch, quote, or fund GB News, and to contact advertisers directly, warning that continued support will cost them customers.

GB News may have enjoyed a good week – the BBC in crisis and the US president, via his lawyer, declaring he is “very fond” of the channel and “appreciates its fair and accurate reporting.” But pitching it as “the kind of journalism you believe in,” as Bev Turner did, is less a defence of journalism than a parody of it.

Right-Wing Watch

Smear of the week: Fox’s racist poppy slur and the Polanksi white poppy meltdown

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Yesterday
Left Foot Forward

You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top

They’re damned if they don’t wear them, and damned if they do – ‘lefties’ and poppies that is.

Laurence Fox reached another new low this week, tweeting:

“This foreigner has no right to wear the poppy. Or to sit in parliament, for that matter, Go home @ZarahSultana.”

Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, is from Birmingham. Her family is of Pakistani ancestry, having settled in the city in the 1960s when her grandfather migrated from the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir.

As you might expect, Fox’s tweet sparked outcry but then, sigh, outcry is exactly what he wants.

Sultana responded with: “Go home… to Birmingham?”

Journalist and broadcaster Sangita Myska wrote: “The British Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in history during the WW2, with over 2.5 million men in its ranks. The war effort incl my family. It may have included Zarah Sultana’s. She was born in Birmingham; she’s British. She has every right to wear a poppy. As do I.”

She added: “Brown & Black people can’t win: If we don’t wear poppies and wave flags we’re told we’re not British. If we do wear poppies and wave flags we’re told we aren’t British and have no right to participate.”

Others dismissed Fox’s provocation as a cynical attempt to court engagement.

“The odious blue ticker really will just say anything for engagement in the hope of getting a cheque at the end of the month. He’s best ignored,” one user remarked.

Indeed, Fox has previously boasted about his income from Elon Musk’s platform, revealing that he made nearly $2,500 in August and $1,300 in July 2024.

“The irony of demented socialists paying for my dinner whilst I sit and do nothing is not lost on me,” he gloated.

Meanwhile, GB News worked itself into a frenzy over Green Party leader Zack Polanski wearing a white poppy at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. The white poppy is a long-established symbol of remembrance for all victims of war, both military and civilian, and of a commitment to peace.

Polanski, who in fact wore both a white and a red poppy, explained that the white poppy symbolises “looking ahead to the future and saying, we want a world of peace.”

Critics ridiculed GB News’ outrage. “If you zoom in real close, you’ll notice he’s wearing a red poppy too,” mocked one observer.

You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top.

Daily Mail issues apology to BBC presenter over fabricated quote

Basit Mahmood 

Today
Left Foot Forward

The BBC presenter never made any such statement..

The Daily Mail has once more been forced into an apology because of inaccuracies in its ‘journalism’, this time having to apologise to a BBC presenter for attributing a quote to him that he never made.

At a time when the right-wing press is keen to stick the boot into the BBC after Trump threatened to sue the corporation after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020, the right-wing media have failed to put their own house in order.

On Saturday, the Mail apologised to BBC presenter Nick Robinson after running a piece earlier in the week in which it quoted Robinson as saying there was a culture of fear at the broadcaster. The story quoted him saying there was a ‘fear of making decisions and a fear of the truth’ in response to Donald Trump’s wrath.

However, the Mail has been made to make a grovelling apology after it was discovered that Robinson never made any such statement. The Mail’s apology stated: “A comment piece in Wednesday’s paper wrongly claimed that BBC Today presenter Nick Robinson had said: “What we’re seeing isn’t leadership-it’s fear. Fear of making decisions, fear of headlines, fear of the truth.” In fact, Mr Robinson made no such statement. We apologise for the error.”

Robinson went on to add on X: “The @DailyMail’s correction & apology for making up something I never said comes after a week in which it has run, by my last count, 6 headline pieces condemning me for being, amongst other things, “unhinged” & “semi-deranged”.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Liz Truss slammed for suggesting Trump should destroy the BBC

Basit Mahmood 

Today

Left Foot Forward

'There's patriotism for you.'

Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss has sunk even lower, as she cheered on Donald Trump’s attacks on the BBC and called for the President to destroy the corporation, leading to her being criticised for her fake patriotism.

Truss, whose premiership ended in disaster, and who was booted out of office after just 49 days, making her Britain’s shortest ever serving Prime Minister, has continued to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons since her exit. She has sought to blame the deep state for her disastrous time in office, while also pushing far-right narratives and conspiracy theories.

In the latest incident, Truss told Fox News that a lot of Brits are “cheering on” the US president, who has said he wants to sue the BBC for up to $5 billion after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020.

The BBC has apologised with two of its top figures, including the director-general, resigning amid concerns about impartiality.

Truss accused the BBC of peddling ‘fake news’ and of being ‘left leaning’, during a rambling speech on Fox.

She said: “There is a lot of excitement amongst Conservatives in Britain at the moment that President Trump is actually taking the BBC on.”

She claimed an apology from the BBC would not be enough and went on to add: “I believe the organisation needs to be defunded, and as well as suing the BBC, I think it would be fantastic if President Trump were to encourage stopping the British taxpayer funding what is fake news that is damaging Britain’s reputation.

“The BBC used to be the paragon of journalism across the world. It was respected. It’s now become a laughing stock and it needs to be put out of its misery.”

Her comments were condemned, with journalist and commentator Mehdi Hasan stating: “Think about how insane this is: not just a supposedly patriotic Conservative ex-British prime minister going on a foreign TV channel to encourage a foreign government to sue the BBC but also claiming that it costs the taxpayer money while calling for the taxpayer to pay Trump $$!”

Historian William Dalrymple posted on X: “Liz Truss, our worst & shortest lived PM, and the only living person who makes Boris Johnson look like a statesman, now wants Trump to destroy the BBC… There’s patriotism for you.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward