Sunday, December 14, 2025

Why Palantir Has No Place in Our NHS

DECEMBER 10, 2025

By Cllr Claudia Turbet-Delof, Hackney Socialist Independent

Palantir Technologies is not just another tech supplier. It is a global surveillance corporation with a documented record of enabling human rights abuses — particularly against migrant communities in the United States and through militarised security partnerships internationally. Yet the UK government is attempting to embed Palantir deep inside the NHS through the Federated Data Platform (FDP), a contract worth over £300 million.

That figure alone should concern us all. But the real cost is far higher.

This is not a technical debate about data architecture. It is a moral and political choice — and one the public has an absolute right to understand, scrutinise and reject.

What is Palantir — and why should we be concerned?

Palantir is a US-based data analytics and surveillance company founded with early backing from the CIA’s venture capital arm. Its business model is built on centralising vast quantities of data, linking records across systems, and producing intelligencetools used for policing, border control, immigration enforcement and military operations.

Most notoriously, Palantir has been a central contractor for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the Trump administration, its systems were used to identify, track and target undocumented migrants — linking workplaces, addresses and family members to enable raids and mass deportations. These practices disproportionately impacted Latino and Latin American communities, tearing families apart, spreading fear, and being cynically used to distract attention from wider atrocities carried out by the Trump administration.

In documented cases, people with legal status — even US passport holders — were wrongly detained or deported.

Palantir has never apologised for this role. On the contrary, the company has publicly boasted about its contribution to deportation programmes.

Its long-time CEO, Alex Karp, has repeatedly framed Palantir’s mission as helping the state ‘win’ against its enemies and has expressed extreme views that normalise severe punishment and state violence. This ideology matters, because it shapes who Palantir chooses to work with — and what it proudly defends.

Palantir also maintains close partnerships with the Israeli government and military, providing data analytics tools used in security and military operations.

This is the corporation now seeking to manage NHS data.

What would Palantir mean for the NHS?

Through the Federated Data Platform, the NHS is being encouraged to centralise and link huge volumes of sensitive patient data.

It is vital to be clear: the FDP is not compulsory. NHS trusts are not legally required to adopt it. This means there remains space for scrutiny, ethical leadership and refusal.

Health data are some of the most private information people share — including mental health records, disability information, safeguarding notes and data that can disproportionately expose migrant and racialised communities.

Entrusting this data to a surveillance corporation with Palantir’s track record risks destroying patient trust. If people fear that accessing healthcare could expose them or their families to monitoring, profiling or future enforcement, they will avoid services. This is not hypothetical — it is a well-documented consequence of linking data systems with enforcement infrastructure.

The NHS was founded on universality, confidentiality and care based on need, not status. Palantir threatens all three.

Hackney’s democratic challenge to Palantir

In Hackney, we have insisted this issue is debated openly and publicly.

On 14th October, the Health in Hackney Scrutiny Commission heard evidence from the Good Law Project, including Dr Nick Mann, on Palantir’s role in immigration enforcement and the danger it poses to civil liberties, migrant communities and public trust.

As a migrant woman of Latin American origin, it was extremely important to me that Hackney residents heard — in a public, accountable forum — about the deeply unethical practices of a corporation now seeking to manage their healthcare data.

I was proud to recommend Palantir and the Federated Data Platform as a scrutiny topic, ensuring that colleagues across the commission could hear the evidence first-hand. The Good Law Project are doing a brilliant job unpacking this complex — and often deliberately opaque — corporation, so communities can understand what is truly being proposed in their name.

Following that session, I raised a public question at Hackney’s November Full Council, seeking assurances about whether Palantir’s involvement in NHS data systems is compatible with Hackney’s Borough of Sanctuary commitments.

Those commitments are not symbolic. They require us to ensure that our council and partner institutions do not contribute — directly or indirectly — to hostile immigration practices or the criminalisation of vulnerable communities.

Palantir and UK GDPR

There is also a serious legal dimension. UK GDPR requires that health data — special category data — are processed lawfully, proportionately, transparently and only for clearly defined purposes.

Palantir’s systems are explicitly designed to enable large-scale data linking and secondary use. This raises the risk of function creep, where data collected for care are gradually repurposed for non-clinical objectives.

If patients cannot trust how their data are being used, then lawfulness and fairness are fundamentally undermined. Trust is not optional under GDPR — it is foundational.

Why many of us do not trust US control of health data

For many communities — particularly those with long histories of US intervention — this debate is not abstract.

I am a Latin American woman, and I carry living memory of what US-backed health and ‘development’ programmes have done to entire communities like mine. US-supported so-called population control programmes led to the forced or coerced sterilisation of hundreds of thousands of women across Latin America, with Peru alone accounting for over a quarter of a million.

These abuses were dressed up as healthcare and poverty reduction. They targeted Indigenous, Black and Brown working-class women, often girls as young as 16. This was not choice. It was coercion.

So when communities like mine are told not to worry about US surveillance corporations managing health data, we recognise the pattern: first data are collected,
 then people are categorised,  then the most vulnerable are targeted —  all while corporations make millions and human rights are violated.

As the first Latin American councillor elected in Hackney, I feel a profound responsibility to raise these voices — especially as UK governments now openly boast about expanding deportations, including from workplaces.

Ethics matter — especially in public health

As a Governor of Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, I know ethics sit at the heart of NHS governance. Boards are responsible not only for finances, but for moral accountability.

We must ask:

  • Who controls our data?


  • What else is it used for?


  • Who is harmed by these systems?


Because the FDP is optional, NHS trusts can — and should — say no to unethical platforms.

Is it too late to fight back?

Absolutely not.

Across the country, people are organising to stop Palantir entering the NHS. In Hackney, residents are organising too — led by Hackney Keep Our NHS Public, alongside trade union members, community activists and the Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Together, they have formed the Hackney Coalition Against Palantir.

You can act today using the Good Law Project’s campaign tool: after entering your postcode, a template letter is sent directly to your MP.

You can also submit public questions, write to councillors and MPs, raise concerns at scrutiny commissions, or contact governors of your local NHS trust.

Silence allows contracts like this to pass unnoticed. Collective action stops them.

Final word

A £300 million NHS data contract with a corporation that profits from deportations, surveillance and human rights abuses should never be waved through quietly.

We have a right to say no to our data being handed to a company that makes millions from suffering.

Palantir is not inevitable. Surveillance is not neutral. Ethics are not negotiable.

We must choose care over control, dignity over data extraction, people over profit.

As a Latin American migrant woman, local resident and elected member, my position is clear: Palantir has no place in our NHS — not now, not ever.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Save_our_NHS_(49874977626).jpg Source: Save our NHS Author: Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.


“Cynical and unethical”

DECEMBER 11,2025

Diarmaid McDonald reports on the government’s deal with pharmaceutical companies that will cost patients’ lives and worsen health outcomes.

While the UK government celebrated a deal struck with the US government to avoid tariffs on pharmaceutical exports last week, the reaction from big pharma was gleeful, with industry lobbyists said to be “salivating” over the prospect of the agreement resulting in similar profit-boosting deals with countries across Europe.

The full details of the deal are still unclear – the text has not been made public – and the UK announcement gave far fewer details of what the government has signed up to than the US or even pharma statements. But we know it is going to lead to the NHS having to spend billions more on medicines every year, and that money is going to come from its existing budget.

The deal seems to have three main commitments. A 25% increase in the NICE threshold, meaning more new drugs will be approved at higher prices, delivering less health impact per pound spent. The rebate the industry has to pay to the government when overall NHS drug spending grows faster than the rate agreed in the industry-government VPAG (Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access, and Growth) scheme will drop from over 20% to 15%. This change alone could cost the NHS over £1bn a year. And thirdly, the government has pledged the UK will double the amount we spend on patented medicines from 0.3% to 0.6% of GDP in the next ten years.

In exchange, the UK secured a pledge by the US not to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical products for three years – a permanent weakening of our price control mechanisms in exchange for a temporary waiver from tariffs that many suspected might never be implemented as they would contravene World Trade Organisation rules.

This deal should come with a huge health warning. We already spend too much on medicines – and they’re increasingly bad value for money. Prices of medicines have been growing rapidly and they will keep sky-rocketing. Diverting further funds from other parts of the NHS to further inflate their profits as the health service’s overall budget barely grows will worsen patient outcomes.

In fact, initial analysis by the health economist, Karl Claxton, estimates that if the widely reported potential £3bn annual cost of this deal is borne out, over 15,000 patients would pay for this deal with their lives every year as the move to boost industry profits strips money from other NHS care and drives up excess deaths. Doubling drug spending over ten years would see avoidable excess deaths in the hundreds of thousands. This is self-inflicted harm of pandemic proportions.

So why has the government signed a deal that so obviously threatens patients and the NHS?  The industry’s big play here was to try and extract more profits from the NHS and the UK taxpayer as pharma smelled weakness.

The NHS has long been able to secure relatively affordable prices for patented medicines because it is almost the only game in town if pharmaceutical companies want to sell in the UK market, and due to its effective price control mechanisms established to control spending on new medicines.

The pharmaceutical industry has complained about these price control mechanisms for decades.  But right now, the industry is in a uniquely fortunate position, as the UK government has pinned their political hopes on securing economic growth, making it highly vulnerable to pressure from industry announcements pledging to cancel their investments in the country. Similarly, the new NHS 10 Year Plan portrays the pharmaceutical and tech industries as the saviours of the health service, dangerously hitching the government’s wagon to their monopoly business models.

Meanwhile Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies are being wielded in service of his widely discredited plan to bring down US drug prices. That plan is focused on forcing other countries to pay more for medicines in the mistaken belief that it will lead to big pharma voluntarily dropping prices in the US.

The amount a country pays for medicines has little bearing on pharmaceutical industry decision making on investment in research and manufacturing capacity. But pharmaceutical companies have sought to use the current political context, with high-level support from the White House,  to its advantage, in order to maximise its UK revenues and extract additional concessions from the UK government. It is cynical and unethical.

Experts suspect this sustained and seemingly coordinated campaign of threats – cancelling investment, moving their HQs out of the UK, questioning future drug supplies to the NHS – might amount to a breach of the UK’s competition laws, and we wrote with allies demanding authorities investigate

But with a one-dimensional understanding of economic and health policy, the UK had ruled out more creative and effective responses, meaning they left themselves little option but to roll over. So they travelled to the US to pitch their plan to please Trump. The US promptly checked with the pharma lobby to see if they were satisfied, and they in turn briefed the press. Domestic UK health policy is being decided in Washington DC by the US government and US corporations.

This deal was always about economic rather than health impact. But if the government thought the deal would see an immediate, positive response from industry they were quickly disabused of that notion. Before the deal was announced, the price the NHS pays for medicines was the key barrier to pharma investment in our economy; once it was announced, the goal posts miraculously moved. Increased drug spending was now “an important first step”. No investment announcements were made; new demands were laid out. 

We still await any evidence from the government that there will be any economic benefit resulting from the deal.

The UK was only the first step in the industry’s strategy. The focus of corporate lobbyists and industry execs immediately shifted to reload the tactics, this time targeting other European countries.

The pharmaceutical industry understood exactly what power they had and exactly what they wanted to achieve. The UK government, on the other hand, has no coherent strategy to deal with the outsized monopoly power wielded by the companies we have entrusted with the responsibility to deliver us the medicines we all rely on. As a result, an NHS under devastating financial pressure has been forced to spend money in a way that will cost patients’ lives and worsen health outcomes.

This is not just a dangerous policy development for the NHS. It’s a hugely dangerous precedent for the UK and its public services. There is no way the pharmaceutical industry won’t use this tactic again, considering how successful it has been. Other industrial sectors will have been watching and learning. 

This is not simply the consequence of a government in an impossible situation with no alternative courses of action. This is the consequence of a government which has no ideas on how to address the fundamental barriers undermining the NHS and patient health in this country, willing to sign bad deals with long term costs and no tangible benefits for a few vaguely positive headlines.

This week over 200 experts wrote to the government demanding transparency for this deal. We urgently need our parliamentarians to step up and deliver the detailed scrutiny this grave threat to patients and the NHS requires, and commit to reversing it when they get the chance. Furthermore, we urgently need them to investigate how one corporate sector was able to hold the UK hostage, and walk away with the ransom.

Diarmaid McDonald is Director of Just Treatment.  @justtreatment

Image: https://southeast.unison.org.uk/news/2025/10/hampshire-nhs-trust-transfer-to-subco-is-a-no-go/ Creator: rawpixel.com | Credit: rawpixel.com. Licence: CC0 1.0 Universal CC0 1.0 Deed

 

Zohran Mamdani: The inside story behind New York’s first democratic socialist mayor

DECEMBER 13, 2025

On 1st January 2026, Zohran Mamdani takes office as New York’s first ever Democratic Socialist Mayor.  Bryn Griffiths of the Labour Left Podcast sat down with Professor Theodore Hamm to ask him how Zohran got elected and to consider what will happen next.

To help us answer these questions, about possibly the biggest success of the international left in 2025, Bryn interviewed Professor Theodore Hamm, aka Ted, the Chair of Journalism at New York’s St Joseph’s University. He writes for the New York City based IndypendentJacobin and most importantly of all, he’s just published the book Run Zohran Run! 

What does the podcast cover?

Ted Hamm and OR Books spotted Zohran Mamdani’s potential before he made his breakthrough in the Democratic Primary in the summer of 2025.  So, Ted, based in New York, had exclusive access to Zohran before he became an international celebrity. He also spoke to many Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) activists about their amazing campaign.

In the interview we speak about Zohran’s background and political evolution. 

We consider how the  DSA’s success was based on an approach to coalition-building and clear campaigning objectives that the whole of the international left would do well to learn from.

Inevitably Zohran’s campaign, like Corbyn’s Labour Leadership in the United Kingdom, was subject to vicious and unjust smears of antisemitism. But this time the smears didn’t work because Zohran’s campaign was what Rachel Shabi, a previous Labour Left Podcast guest, called in her recent Substack The Mamdani Masterclass on Antisemitism. The podcast takes an in-depth look at how Zohran held his ground and what lessons the international left can learn from his example.

The Red Ken parallel

It will not be lost on our English readers that a democratic socialist seizing office in a major western city is not without precedent. In the podcast we look at the Ken Livingstone precedent and how, as John McDonnell put it when he appeared on the podcast, elected socialists must see themselves as  both In and Against the State.  What could Zohran learn from the Greater London Council? What should Zohran expect from Trump and how might he resist the inevitable attacks?

The headline in London Labour Briefing when Ken Livingstone took control of the Greater London Council was London’s Ours!

How’s the podcast doing?

2025 has been a good year for the Labour Left Podcast.  Our largest number of viewers and listeners is still on You Tube but you can now subscribe to watch us on Substack and we are of course on every podcast site you can think of.  Spotify tell me that our listeners in the podcast audio format are on the up.  In 2025, the podcast audience was up 999% and we have 1.8k new listeners. Reassuringly for a long form podcast, Spotify tell me that subscribers listen to the Labour Left Podcast for longer than 92% of other shows.  During 2025 we added a video format choice for our Spotify subscribers and they tell me that the show was in the top 10% of videos on Spotify. 

Win a Prize!

The Labour Left Podcast doesn’t have the profile that Novara, Joe’s Politics or Alistair Campbell’s wretched The Rest is Politics have, so I need your help.  If you like our Labour Hub spin-off podcast, please help by reposting or making your own posts on social media to promote this podcast.  For every post you make I’ll place an entry in a draw for you to win Paul Holden’s excellent book The Fraud – Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy. The rules are simple: each time you repost one of my promotional posts on X, Facebook, Substack, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp or Bluesky, you get one entry.  If on the same platforms you make your own post and tag me, you will get an additional entry.  So, that will be a total of two entries per platform for posts promoting the Ted Hamm episode of the podcast.   You can find all the links to my socials on Linktree at https://linktr.ee/brynhgriffiths The draw will be conducted in the Odd One Out after the Tuesday 27th January meeting of our North Essex World Transformed group.

The draw prize for those who help promote the podcast on social media.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts here, Audible here, Substack here and listen to it on Spotify here.  You can even ask Alexa to play the Labour Left Podcast. If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast

If you subscribe you can catch up on our 20-plus episodes back catalogue. The top episode of 2025 was the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. Other big hits have included Andrew Fisher, the man behind the 2017 manifesto For the Many Not the Few, and Rachel Shabi, the author of The Truth Behind Antisemitism.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. 

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.  You can find all the episodes of the podcast here  or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

You can purchase Ted Hamm’s excellent book  Run Zohran Run  at OR Books for the reduced price of £12.  Here is the Link.

Three more Farage-bloc MEPs alleged to have followed Russian asset’s script


9 December, 2025 
Left Foot Forward

At least eight former UKIP or Brexit Party MEPs are reported to have been targeted by the ex-Reform leader in Wales



Three more British MEPs from Nigel Farage’s bloc in the European Parliament allegedly followed Russian asset Nathan Gill’s script.

Gill was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison last month for accepting up to £40,000 in bribes to make pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament and the media.

According to The Guardian, the Crown Prosecution Service has named former UKIP and Brexit Party MEPs Jonathan Bullock, Julia Reid and Steven Woolfe among those who followed talking points given to Nathan Gill.

Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian pro-Russia MP, gave Gill a script to use when giving interviews to 112 Ukraine, a pro-Russian TV channel in March 2019.

At least eight MEPs elected for UKIP or the Brexit Party, are now known to have been targeted by Reform UK’s former Wales leader, Gill, to co-opt them into carrying out tasks set by his Kremlin paymasters.

There is no suggestion that Bullock, Reid or Woolfe committed criminal acts or that they had been aware Gill took bribes to promote Russian interests.

There is an ongoing police investigation into Russian influence on other MEPs.

Two weeks ago, David Coburn, a former MEP who was a member of UKIP and then the Brexit Party, denied taking pro-Russia bribes.

William Dartmouth and Jonathan Arnott are also reported to have followed Gill’s talking points, though there is no evidence they committed criminal acts.

The chair of the Labour party, Anna Turley MP, said: “He must order an urgent investigation into pro-Russia links in Reform, and he should voluntarily go to the police for interview and help them with their inquiries.”

Bullock denied any wrongdoing when approached by The Guardian. Bullock made comments to 112 Ukraine in 2019, in which he spoke in favour of the sovereignty of nation states.

He said: “I do think that it’s much better for nation states to act individually, so Ukraine’s to do what’s best in Ukraine’s interest and likewise we in western Europe and in the United Kingdom, for example, to do what we would like.”

Bullock told The Guardian that he was a known critic of Russia, adding: “My comment was a standard run-of-the-mill answer from me which I connected with my energy views on UK choices relating to nuclear power and renewables.”

Woolfe declined to comment, but his friend said he felt “personally appalled” about being dragged into the investigation, but said “he has nothing to hide”.

Reid did not respond to requests for comment.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Downing Street defends Sadiq Khan against Trump’s latest attack

11 December, 2025 
Left Foot Forward

“The prime minister is proud of the mayor of London’s record and proud to call him a colleague and friend.”



Downing Street has defended the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan after President Trump’s latest attack on the Mayor, as the bitter feud between the two continues.

Keir Starmer has said that he is proud to call the Mayor of London his friend, after Trump told Politico Khan was “horrible” and claimed that he only won “because so many people have come in”.

On Wednesday, a No.10 spokesperson hit back at the president’s remarks, saying: “Those comments are wrong.

“The mayor of London is doing an excellent job delivering free school meals in primary schools, cleaning up London’s air, introducing the world’s largest clean air zone, and building record numbers of council houses.

“The prime minister is proud of the mayor of London’s record and proud to call him a colleague and friend.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked Khan and did so once more in September this year during a rant at the UN, where he called Khan a terrible mayor and claimed that London wanted to ‘go to Shariah law’.

Responding at the time, Khan said that Trump had ‘shown he is racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic and he is Islamophobic’.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
Woke bashing of the week:
How a migrant bear and a lullaby became the latest targets of Britain’s culture warriors


7 December, 2025 
Right-Wing Watch


Their targets are a gentle song about “migrant” Paddington Bear and a reimagined Palestinian lullaby raising funds for humanitarian aid in Gaza.



The annual scramble for the Christmas No. 1 spot is underway, and this year’s frontrunners have triggered yet another round of contrived indignation from the culture war-obsessed right. Their targets are a gentle song about “migrant” Paddington Bear and a reimagined Palestinian lullaby raising funds for humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“Woke Christmas!” shrieked the Daily Mail, excitedly reporting that the BBC had been “warned” against promoting these tracks, warnings supposedly amplified by the broadcaster’s recent internal controversies over “anti-Trump bias” and the row over a Glastonbury performance by artists the Mail branded “Death to the IDF rappers.”

The paper eagerly quoted Conservative culture spokesman Nigel Huddleston, who said:

“With the BBC mired in a political bias scandal that cost bosses their jobs, the national broadcaster must think carefully about what it airs this Christmas.”

One of the ‘woke’ songs is ‘One of Us,’ written by Tom Fletcher of McFly. The song is about Paddington Bear, the beloved fictional character from Peru who found a home in Britain. Fletcher sings: “If you want to make him leave here then before you do there’s something I should say, I can’t imagine tomorrow without him. If he’s looking for a family, then he’s already one of us.”

Warm, uncontroversial lyrics to most ears, just not to one Tory source who insisted to the Mail that the song is a “thinly veiled comparison” to the 100,000 asylum seekers who came to Britain last year.

The paper claims that Fletcher will receive a “major boost” by performing on the Strictly Come Dancing quarter-final, apparently evidence of an insidious BBC plot.

Chasing Paddington Bear in the charts is an all-star version of the Palestinian lullaby Mama, Sing to the Wind, which will be released on December 12, with proceeds going to life-saving humanitarian support in Gaza. Brian Eno, Celeste, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Dan Smith of Bastille, and the London Community Gospel Choir are all involved.

For this track, the Mail cites the thoughts of Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, who said: “Interest in the Christmas number one is being hijacked by campaigners who want to build the largest possible audience for their issue.

“The BBC appears to be happy going along with turning Christmas into a celebration of its favourite political causes.”

This is the same Frank Furedi who has long fulminated against so-called cancel culture and who helped push Viktor Orban’s right-wing populist agenda in Europe. It’s the same Frank Furedi who George Monbiot accused of overseeing extreme right- wing libertarian campaigns “against gun control, against banning tobacco advertising and child pornography, and in favour of global warming, human cloning and freedom for corporations.”

The Mail also reminds readers that last year the BBC declined to play Freezing This Christmas, a track attacking cuts to pensioners’ fuel support. The song hit No. 1 on the download charts anyway, which rather weakens the argument that the BBC dictates the cultural mood and the rankings of songs in the charts.

The article ends with a token nod to balance, with a BBC spokesperson calmly explaining that the broadcaster has “no specific policies on tracks” and does not ban songs, with programming decisions based on audience and context, a perfectly rational position that undercuts the entire manufactured scandal. It is perhaps worth reminding that in 2013 on the death of Margaret Thatcher, the BBC refused to play the Wizard of Oz song ‘Ding, dong, the Witch is Dead’. Clearly those lefties at the BBC were at work then. Mind you, the song never did reach number one, just number two in the charts.
Kemi Badenoch says UK minimum wage shouldn’t go any higher as Tories declare war on workers


10 December, 2025 
Left Foot Forward


We heard similar arguments from Tories before when the minimum wage was first introduced, only for them to realise that businesses didn’t collapse and nor was it detrimental to the economy.



The Tories never have been the party of working people, with a long standing opposition to the minimum wage when it was first introduced.

Now the current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wishes to continue that legacy, telling journalists that the minimum wage for millions of low-paid employees should not go any higher.

Badenoch is furious that Chancellor Rachel Reeves decided to raise the pay for workers at the Budget last month. From April 2026, the government’s National Living Wage will increase to £12.71 per hour for workers over 21-years-old.

The National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds will also increase by 8.5% to £10.85 per hour.

Badenoch made her displeasure about the raise clear during an interview with the BBC, where she said that she didn’t think the minimum wage should be raised any further as she didn’t believe businesses could afford it.

She said: “I don’t think that we should be raising it any more for example, we’ve seen that too many businesses can’t pay for it. You can make the minimum wage £1,000 per hour, if businesses can’t pay it none of us are going to have a job.”

We heard similar arguments from Tories before when the minimum wage was first introduced, only for them to realise that businesses didn’t collapse and nor was it detrimental to the economy.

Tories have never been on the side of workers.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
Right-Wing Media Watch: Piers Morgan’s Uncensored expansion – another step towards a consolidated right-wing media empire

Today
Right-Wing Watch

Things could be worse. Piers Morgan could have confirmed the rumours that he might apply for the role of BBC director general. Then we’d really be in trouble.


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With the Telegraph merging into the Daily Mail’s orbit, the last thing Britain needs is yet another right-wing media heavyweight tightening its grip on an already lopsided landscape.

And yet, sigh, that appears to be exactly what’s coming.

Veteran journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan is now seeking major investment to transform his YouTube-based Uncensored show into a global media brand. Viewers learned this week, via a breaking interruption on Sky News, that Morgan is raising tens of millions of dollars to supercharge the venture.

Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman reported: “The Piers Morgan YouTube show has amassed well over four million subscribers. And I understand that he is in the process of finalising the fundraising of about $30million to expand the Uncensored brand globally.

“This deal will value the business just under £100 million before the new money is factored in and we’ll see it launch new areas, such as in history, technology and sport.”‘

We now know who some of the backers are. The Raine Group, a New York merchant bank increasingly meddling with UK media, sport and culture, is among the investors.

The name might ring a bell. Raine was appointed in April 2024, alongside Robey Warshaw, to advise on the future ownership of the Telegraph and the Spectator. It previously acted as financial adviser to the Glazer family during the sale of a 29% stake in Manchester United to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, reportedly pocketing £25 million for the job.

Raine appears to have developed quite an appetite for UK-based ventures.

Also in the mix is Theo Kyriakou, chairman of the Greece-based Antenna Group. Kyriakou made headlines in May 2025 when he attended an official dinner in Qatar hosted by the Emir in honour of Donald Trump during Trump’s Middle East tour, where he reportedly held a private discussion with the president about international business and political developments.

And the Trump connection is hard to ignore. Morgan, of course, has been a longtime friend of Trump, whom he has affectionately called “champ” for years. Their relationship dates to Morgan’s 2008 victory on the Celebrity Apprentice, a win Morgan once admitted came from giving Trump exactly what he wanted.

Reaction to Morgan’s fundraising news has been predictably mixed, with social media delivering both mockery and concern.

“$30m to make Piers Morgan even louder? At this point investors must be paying for the chaos, not the journalism,” was one comment.

“So basically, another propaganda machine, got it,” was another.

One user posted: “This is what happens when you build an audience outside the traditional media bubble, investors follow attention, not institutions.”

“I guess he’s getting his prize for defending Israel’s genocide for the last 2 years…” said another.

In fairness, things could be worse. Piers Morgan could have confirmed the rumours that he might apply for the role of BBC director general.

Then we’d really be in trouble.
Opinion

This is how we can tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in Britain


12 December, 2025
Left Foot Forward

Housing First works for the people who needs most support



Patrick Hurley is the Labour MP for Southport

Homelessness in the UK is a symptom of the long-term problems of the country – a Tory government that made a complete mess of running the country over 14 long, difficult and progressively worse years; and a Labour government that hasn’t yet managed over its 18 months in office to sufficiently get to grips with the overwhelming catastrophic failure of every branch of the state that it inherited in July 2024. This week’s publication of the government’s National Plan to End Homelessness is both a very welcome statement of intent and also simultaneously an acknowledgement that government has not previously been bold enough.

New official figures show that 9,574 people were sleeping rough in July 2025, an increase of 94 per cent compared with July 2021. This confirms that current approaches are not improving the situation and that many people are becoming trapped in homelessness rather than helped out of it.

Several pressures are driving the rise. The housing shortage and the cost-of-living crisis remain major factors, exacerbated by the freeze to Local Housing Allowance and the Benefit Cap. The government has great ambitions relating to building more homes, with £39bn promised for social and affordable housing, but the scale of the challenge is daunting.

The number of long-term rough sleepers reached a record level in September. A total of 3,397 people were seen sleeping rough in three or more of the previous twelve months. This group has grown by 28 per cent since September 2023. Long-term rough sleepers are now the largest group of people sleeping on the streets. This indicates that homelessness for many has become an ongoing condition, not a short-term crisis. The nature of the problem is different than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. And so that means that the nature of the solution needs to be different too.

Thankfully, there is now clear evidence of what works better. Some of this is included in this week’s National Plan – great proposals such as national targets, a move from crisis response to prevention, an end to families housed in B&Bs in all but the most exceptional emergencies, additional funding for rough sleeping services, and targeted support to reduce long-term rough sleeping.

A report from the Centre for Social Justice, No Place Like Home, calls for a national roll-out of Housing First. This is an approach based on providing people with secure housing as the starting point, with support offered rather than required. The report describes Housing First as the most effective and well evidenced intervention for people with the most complex needs.

The results support that claim. Housing First is over three times more effective than traditional services at helping people secure and sustain permanent housing. Across pilots in Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, 84 per cent of users were still in long-term housing after around three years on the programme. These are individuals who typically have long histories of rough sleeping, contact with the criminal justice system, poor physical and mental health, and repeated failed attempts at temporary accommodation.

Political leadership has also come from those areas. Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester and Steve Rotheram in Liverpool City Region have both backed Housing First and demonstrated how it can work in practice. Their advocacy shows that the policy is not theoretical and that it can be delivered in partnership with local authorities and voluntary sector providers.

The economic case for Housing First is also strong. The CSJ calculates that rolling out the programme across England would take over 5000 people off the streets by 2030. It finds that for every pound invested, up to two pounds is returned to taxpayers and society due to reduced pressure on the NHS, temporary accommodation, homelessness outreach and the criminal justice system. A national programme would cost just £100 million over four years. By way of comparison, this is what the NHS spends every four hours.

The argument is that these changes would reflect a Housing First approach in both policy and in priorities, particularly when it comes to housing homeless veterans. The principle is that the goal should be to prevent rough sleeping where possible and resolve it quickly where prevention has failed, rather than allowing people to become entrenched in it.

Public opinion appears to support a stronger approach. A poll for the Royal Foundation found that nearly half of adults agreed with the statement “Homelessness is a major problem and needs to be given top priority,” with more agreeing than disagreeing.

Taken together, the scale of the problem, the evidence from pilots and the level of public concern suggest that Housing First should be a central part of the forthcoming national homelessness strategy. It offers a clear and practical response to rising rough sleeping, backed by data and by examples within the UK. It treats people as residents rather than temporary cases and provides the stability that makes recovery more likely.

The UK has already tested Housing First and shown that it works for the people who most need support. The question now is whether the country will build on that progress and adopt a national programme that reflects both the urgency of the situation and the potential for lasting change. If the goal is to reduce rough sleeping visibly and meaningfully, starting with a home is the most direct route to doing so. Government has this week signalled its seriousness of intent to reduce homelessness; now is a great opportunity to ramp that seriousness up and roll out the policies that will make the most difference.

Too poor for council or housing association homes



DECEMBER 12 , 2025

By the Labour Campaign for Council Housing

 A report from the housing campaign Crisis, in collaboration with Heriot-Watt University and the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence, indicates that around a third of housing associations surveyed said pre-tenancy affordability checks determined that the applicant would not be given a tenancy due to “too low an income or insecure finances”.

According to Crisis, 24% of housing associations said that households below a certain income threshold are sometimes excluded from the housing register. Nearly three-quarters of them said that welfare reform had impacted on allocations and lettings processes in recent years, notably restrictions to housing benefit and the benefit cap.

Around a quarter of associations reported “often refusing nominations from the local authority because the offer was ‘unsuitable’.”

What is known as a “Greenlight for Housing” process, introduced by housing associations has been copied by some councils, though we don’t know how many – see this example. It is common now for a double means-test. Those applying to get on the waiting list are tested to see if they earn enough to be able to afford a private rental property or ‘shared ownership’. If they are judged to be able to afford either of those options then they will not be allowed on the list.

Once on the list, when they apply for a tenancy, they are means-tested to see if they are deemed to be able to afford the rent. If not, they will be refused a tenancy. They will be asked to participate in the Greenlight for Housing process, to examine whether their financial situation can be improved, maybe with benefits they are not claiming, or more work. If they refuse to participate, and are not able to show, after three months, that their financial position has improved then their application will be closed.

The Crisis report does not consider the question of the level of rents except insofar as it says: “The welfare system must ensure homes and especially social homes are affordable. The UK Government should review the interaction between social housing rent levels and social security arrangements to ensure that no household entitled to mainstream social security benefits is unable to afford a social home that is of an appropriate size to their needs.”

We know that the rent arrears for English council tenants were £393 million in 2024/25. In March 2024, arrears for housing associations reached a record level of £800 million. Housing associations have a much higher level of stock charging ‘affordable rent’; around 380,000, or 13% of their stock. Councils have 43,683. Given the much higher rents then fewer people are likely to be judged able to afford them. The difference between ‘affordable rent’ and ‘social rent’ is £60 a week for council tenants, £90 in London. For housing associations, ‘affordable rent’ is £44 a week higher than ‘social rent’. We have said the government should end its support for the Tories ‘affordable rent’. (‘Affordable rent’ includes service charges, whereas ‘social rent’ doesn’t. However, the difference between them is considerable, and with percentage increases the gap between them grows each year.)

If people cannot afford the rent for a council or housing association home, what can they afford? Certainly not more expensive private rent. With the government introducing a policy of ten years of above-inflation rent increases for council and housing association tenants (see No to 10 years of above inflation rent increases), the likelihood is that more people on the waiting list will be told they cannot have a tenancy.

This situation is the product of the acute shortage of social rent homes and rents which have increased to the point that they are becoming more difficult to manage and unaffordable for some. The government’s Social and Affordable Homes policy is only offering funding for 18,000 social rent homes a year. It’s a flawed programme which will not solve the housing crisis.

Crisis has called on the government to boost funding for building more social rent homes. They are also calling on it to:

  • remove minimum income requirements for getting on the waiting list and for issuing tenancies to people on low incomes;
  • ensure that no household entitled to mainstream social security benefits is unable to afford a social home that is of an appropriate size to their needs.
  • direct the Regulator of Social Housing to prevent exclusions based on low income.

Millions still living in cold, damp homes, with those in poor health most exposed, new research shows


DECEMBER 12, 2025

By the End Fuel Poverty Coalition

Millions of people across the UK are still living in cold, damp homes, with new research showing that those with existing health conditions remain far more exposed than the general population, deepening health inequalities and adding pressure to the NHS.

As energy bills remain 69% higher than in winter 2020, the latest End Fuel Poverty Coalition polling for 2025 finds that 14% of adults say they live in a cold, damp home, which remains broadly in line with 2023 and 2024 (16%). However, there are stark disparities affecting vulnerable groups.

People with health conditions are significantly more likely to say they live in cold, damp homes in 2025, with rates rising to 22% for people with lung conditions and 25% for people with mental health conditions. The figure also remains high for people with other long-term conditions such as motor neurone disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, at 24%.

Housing tenure also continues to play a major role. One in five renters in the private rented sector say they live in poor conditions.

In cold and damp homes, the presence of mould is an almost ever present issue. More broadly among the general public, the 2025 research shows that 26% of adults report mould in their homes frequently or occasionally in the last 12 months, only a slight fall from 29% in both 2023 and 2024. 

People with health conditions face elevated levels (32%), with in particular people with mental health conditions (35%), being more likely to report mould. 

With over two fifths (41%) of people still worried about being cold this winter due to the energy crisis, the findings have raised concerns among campaigners that without targeted action, avoidable housing-related illness will continue to burden the NHS, particularly during winter months.

Eilidh Weir is a mother of two who rents a home in  Buchlyvie, Scotland. She said: “There’s nothing more miserable than being skint in a cold, damp house.

“I’m a private rental tenant and I used to have storage heaters, but I didn’t use them because they were too expensive. When I found out I was eligible for an air source heat pump to be installed, completely free, I felt really, really pleased that I was able to access that without having a high wage.

“My kids notice the house is cosier now. Being able to make better choices shouldn’t be just for those that have higher incomes.”

Charlotte Higgins is retired and lives in Solihull in the West Midlands and had energy-saving measures fitted by the Solihull Household Support Fund. She said: “The loft insulation has been done, and I’ve had solar panels on the front and the back. It’s made a difference to my heating, and my bills are a lot cheaper.”

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “Five years into the energy bills crisis and households are still waiting for a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan which will set out how people can improve the energy efficiency of their properties and reduce their energy use in a safe way.

“Given the well-publicised failings of the previous Government’s insulation schemes, we now need to move even faster to catch up and help people stay warm every winter and cool every summer.

“Meanwhile, for many households, the research highlights the vicious cycle where cold and damp housing worsens existing health conditions, increasing energy needs and making homes harder to heat. This in turn drives further ill health and greater pressure on healthcare services.

“The data underlines the need for long-term solutions that address housing quality and energy affordability together, rather than relying on short-term crisis support, to prevent cold and damp homes becoming a permanent driver of poor health and rising public costs.”

Tom Darling, Director at the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “We know that private renters are more likely than other groups to be living in homes with damp or with serious health risks. It’s shocking that so many people are living in homes that put their life at risk – and totally unacceptable that many landlords are profiting from them.”

“The government must set out when they will apply Awaab’s law to the private rented sector, as they recently have for social tenants, and finally impose a legal duty on landlords to address dangerous housing conditions within a specific time frame. Every month without action will see more people harmed by unhealthy homes.”

Andrew McCracken, Director of External Affairs at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “Millions across the UK are living in homes that could be damaging their health. Cold, damp homes are much more likely to develop mould which can lead to life-threatening flare ups for people with lung conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cause lung conditions in previously healthy individuals. With rising fuel costs and a cost-of-living crisis, too many vulnerable people are being forced to live in unsafe conditions.

“The Government must deliver its Warm Homes Plan with a focus on sustainable heating, well-fitted insulation, and effective ventilation, so that no one has to choose between affordable heating and breathing in clean air. Poor lung health has the closest link with deprivation of all the major health conditions and the UK, shamefully, has the highest death rate in Europe for respiratory conditions. We desperately need urgent Government action to support warm homes and protect the health of the most vulnerable people in our society.”


Meanwhile bills will rise as networks upgrade

Meanwhile Ofgem have announced that there will be £28bn spent over the next five years in Britain’s gas and electricity networks, but this could rise to £90bn. 

Overall, Ofgem estimates that the net increase in bills to cover all costs by 2031 will be around £3 per month. But this could be more in the short-term, falling in the longer term. Of the initial money announced, most of the funding (£17.8bn) will go towards maintaining Britain’s ageing gas networks.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition profits tracker estimated that over £50bn of profits have been generated by electricity and gas transmission and distribution firms since 2020.

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “With the North Sea running out of gas and after years of under investment, upgrades to Britain’s energy grids are vital to ensure a reliable energy supply and to help homes benefit from renewables as they come online.

 “But that shouldn’t mean signing a blank cheque for network and transmission companies. These vast sums of essentially public money must come with proper scrutiny and guarantees for consumers.

 “These firms have already made billions in profits during the energy crisis, with significant returns flowing to offshore investors and so-called ‘vampire funds’.

 “Households can’t keep footing the bill while private equity profits. Every penny added to customers’ bills must be spent delivering clear value for money and actively helping to reduce the cost of energy in the long-term and ensure energy security.”