Bunky

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[Faye Brown @FayeBrownSky]

NEW: Green Party leader Zack Polanski has written to Louise Haigh to ask if she stands by her past comments calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.

On 4 June last year, Haigh said in parliament it was ‘impossible to conclude that this is anything less than a genocide’.
She asked the FCDO minister Hamish Falconer if he will ‘reflect the will of this House to the Foreign Secretary and the Cabinet that sanctions be imposed immediately on Netanyahu and his genocidal regime’.

Polanski’s letter says new PM Burnham ‘does not seem so clear-sighted’ as earlier this month while apologising for Labour’s initial response to the conflict he stopped short of calling it a genocide, saying that it ‘must be for the international courts to determine, rather than politicians.’

The letter is part of Green attempts to challenge the narrative that Burnham will be any more progressive than Starmer.

Labour’s stance on Gaza has been a key reason why many progressive voters have left the part for the Greens:

https://t.co/TOrwIXw75N

[Jonathan @jabberwock951]

If you advocate for something when not in power, and then refuse to implement it when you ARE in power, you should just be branded fundamentally dishonest and nobody should vote for you ever again.

Yet it seems to be a hallmark of our politicians.

[Mohammad Ali Shabani @mashabani]

Sounds accurate. And in line with Trump's dismissal of input from US intelligence agencies.

The destruction Trump's actions may unleash will likely be comprehensive and mark a turning point in the transition towards a post-American order in the region.

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Least surprising news ever.

There’s your patriots!

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

New defence secretary Wes Streeting has taken tens of thousands of pounds from donors linked to Palantir and arms companies supplying Israel during its genocide in Gaza.

Streeting, the former health secretary, received £20k in June from Daniel Luhde-Thompson, a strategic adviser at Quadrature Capital – a hedge fund which was exposed for holding $121m worth of shares in arms companies making Israeli fighter jets and bombs in 2024.

Quadrature’s most recent US filings show it currently owns a stake of nearly $35m in US spytech firm Palantir, according to analysis by the National.

The MP for Ilford North has also accepted seven donations totalling £31,750 from Trevor Chinn, a senior advisor to private equity giant CVC Capital Partners. CVC is the majority owner of Ontic, which has held two military export licences to Israel since 2021, according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

Chinn himself is a pro-Israel lobbyist who was awarded the Israeli presidential medal of honour for services to the state of Israel in 2024, and funded the Labour Together thinktank that commissioned a US firm to spy on British journalists.

Streeting’s most recent donation from Chinn – a single £12k payment – was listed on 17 June when he was considered a potential Labour leadership challenger.

During his tenure as Keir Starmer’s health secretary, Streeting was criticised for accepting donations worth more than £200,000 from people and companies linked to private healthcare.

Streeting also defended the use of Palantir technology in the NHS despite the company’s involvement with the Israeli military and ICE in the US, describing the company as “absolutely critical to the future of the NHS”.

Scottish National Party MSP Zen Ghani told the National: “Wes Streeting holds the record for private healthcare donations and it landed him the health secretary job.

“There are questions to answer here for the Labour party as yet again we see donations linked to companies appearing to fund Israeli arms throughout the genocide in Gaza.”

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

Andy Burnham will not introduce rent caps as part of his plans to ease the cost of living despite advocating for them previously, housing secretary Angela Rayner has said.

The new prime minister had told reporters earlier this week that he was considering capping rent as part of an emergency package of policy changes.

But Rayner told BBC Breakfast on Friday that Burnham’s government would not pursue rent controls.

She pointed to the Renters’ Rights Act, which came into force in May and which Rayner said was “already having a significant impact on the market”.

Later that day, Green party leader Zack Polanski wrote on X: “The new prime minister talks a lot about helping with the cost of living crisis. This is the one single measure that would help the most and save billions. All talk. Continuity Starmer.”

Burnham previously advocated for rent caps to ease the cost of living crisis in 2023, when he was the mayor of Greater Manchester.

Former Labour leader and Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn said Rayner’s announcement was “extremely disappointing”.

"There is no hope of ending homelessness if we do not stand up to vested interests and take action against extortionate private rents,” he added. "We need rent controls, and we need them now."

In defence of her announcement, Rayner argued that rent caps hadn’t “necessarily brought rent down” after emergency measures were enacted in Scotland during 2022.

Critics of that legislation argued that the policy sheltered existing tenants, but didn’t stop landlords hiking rents for new tenants. Regardless, the Ferret reported that when the legislation expired in 2024, tenants were soon notified of large increases.

Around 8.8m households rent in the UK, with a third of tenants spending 50% or more of their income on rent, according to Tribune.

[Laura Webster @LauraEWebsterr]

NEW: Andy Burnham is in Scotland today for the first time since becoming PM

Just like we have seen with the UK Gov time and time again, Scottish media has been blocked from access. No change there.

🚫 No transparency
🚫 No scrutiny

https://t.co/7heVBKUDzb

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

A leading human rights barrister successfully defended pro-Palestine activists. Now, he is facing prosecution for contempt of court.

This case should terrify anyone who cares about the independence & integrity of the judicial system.

Sign the petition: https://t.co/wXBwWhuK1H

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

The Metropolitan police has U-turned on its decision not to investigate Brits who served with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The Met’s war crimes team received a landmark 240-page dossier of evidence in April 2025, submitted by legal experts on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC).

The dossier alleged that ten British nationals - including dual citizens - had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity while fighting with the IDF in Gaza, including “wilful killing, extermination, attacking civilians, and deportation or forcible transfer of population”.

A year later, Novara Media revealed that the Met had decided not to open an investigation. This was despite more than 70 legal and human rights experts urging the police to take action in accordance with international law.

The Met has now backtracked after British-Palestinian human rights campaigner Lubna Speitan, who is represented by the PILC, threatened judicial review proceedings against the force.

Following the possibility of a legal challenge, the Met confirmed it will open a “fresh scoping exercise” in relation to four of the ten British nationals.

Scoping exercises are undertaken by the Met’s war crimes team to decide whether to conduct a full investigation.

PILC legal director Paul Heron said: “These allegations concern some of the gravest crimes known to international law.

“Where there are identifiable British nationals alleged to have participated in such crimes, it is essential that investigative decisions are taken on the fullest evidential basis possible.”

Over 2,000 Brits have served in Israel’s military during the genocide in Gaza, Declassified UK revealed in February.

[Narinder Kaur @narindertweets]

The "'Just make a voluntary payment' line coming from the government this morning is genuinely tedious...Imagine running the public finances on the honesty system while everyone else's tax is set by law!!
Make it LAW.

[The National @ScotNational]

The new Health Secretary was gifted a total of £165,439 from backers connected with the healthcare industry, it has emerged

That figure, covering the two years from 2025, makes Yvette Cooper the second biggest recipient of cash linked to the private healthcare industry

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

This is stupid, short-sighted and ignorant. Defence spending is a terrible vector for economic growth, industrialisation and job creation.

You only spend on defence for strategic reasons: there is no economic case for spending money on defence versus nearly any other sector.

If you are hoping to re-industrialise through defence spending it will cost you vastly more, engender huge waste through the industry's addiction to single-souce procurement and widespread corruption, and lock the UK into a defence export regime that ties us to authoritarian dictatorships and the sort of hawkish militarism that has scarred the Middle East for years. It will also deepen our economic inter-dependence on the US, and we've just seen where that leads - refusing to stop selling F-35 parts to Israel because the US won't countenance any disruption to Lockheed's supply chains as a matter of commercial principle.

If you are increasing defence spending at the expense of infrastructure spending, or investing in renewable, or health technology, or climate change mitigation, or education, you are actively retarding economic growth.

What is also not fully understood is the extent of the transformation in the ownership patterns of UK defence companies - most big players have significant shareholding held by the gargantuan multinational hedge funds.

Profits from defence spending will flow into the pockets of the 1% who are the ultimate beneficiaries of hedge funds: and into the corrupting networks of influence, like lobbyists and pet think-tanks that push outdated national security perspectives over human security.

Dispiriting, depressing stuff.

https://t.co/gKPCBMvzn7

[Alfie Stirling @alfie_stirling]

When pay runs out before the end of the week, it's irrelevant whether the next thing you need costs 50p or £50.

Before getting in an arithmetic tangle over 50p>0, pause instead on what you would do if one week you had to choose between feeding your kids or brushing their teeth.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: allowing the US to use British air bases for its illegal war on Iran is a catastrophic, historic mistake.

[Danny Shell @DannyShell4]

Serious question @andyburnham @UKLabour why aren't you doing this?

[Declassified UK @declassifiedUK]

Andy Burnham had already announced he’ll promote the “reindustrialisation” of Britain through “defence” (i.e, spending on arms companies).

Now he addresses an arms fair to which Israeli arms companies supplying the IDF were invited.

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle 🏳️‍🌈🏕️ @lloyd_rm]

This needs to end.

The immoral proscription of Palestine Action has led to the farce of trying to prosecute the lawyers who defended them.

This is an assault on our justice system and our civil liberties.

The new government must step in. https://t.co/OR0RhcFiRi

[Reece Dinsdale @reece_dinsdale]

Now let’s see what Burnham and Streeting are really made of.
You gave him the job, Andy, knowing full-well where he stood.
For Streeting to change his tune now would be deplorable!

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

"More than 120 millionaires.. have signed an open letter urging PM Andy Burnham to tax their wealth. The campaign, called 'Proud to Pay' says a 2% tax on wealth over £10m could raise £24 billion a year" #GMB

[Darren Parkinson 🌍💚🤘 @DarrenBar88]

The Green Party want to see a 10:1 CEO to lowest paid worker pay ratio, instead of this outrageous 130:1 pay ratio.

We've got to end this obscene inequality.

https://t.co/THzxjrZBxy