Darran Scully

Father, Railwayman, Reading FC . politically homeless & hoping for an opposition waiting for the great leap forward.

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

Sagal Abdi-Wali has just filed her first register of interest in Parliament, revealing who funded her election campaign in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election where she defeated Zack Polanski.

And they stink.

They are from sources with strong historical ties to Labour Together. And through one of her key donors, Sagal is linked to investments in companies like Palantir and Elbit Systems and Boeing. There is something completely broken about how the reporting regime for donations works that we're only finding this out now, after the election.

The returns show that Abdi-Wali had two big donors: Daniel Luhde-Thompson and his wife Cressida Pollock who donated jointly, and Green Britain Group Ltd, the holding company of Dale Vince's Ecotricity. Both donated £50k to the campaign.

Daniel Luhde-Thompson is mega-wealthy. He is one of the co-founders of the quant-trading hedge fund Quadrature Capital. Quadrature, whose holding company is registered in the Caymans, donated £4m to the Labour Party during the 2024 General Election.

It was the single largest donation Labour had ever received. But nobody knew this fact during the election itself, as the donation was only declared after the election as it was made in a specific week-long window that was exempt from immediate reporting.

As I revealed in OpenDemocracy in October 2024, Quadrature had held shares in companies connected to the genocide in Gaza in late 2023 and early 2024. It held an average of $121m in shares in companies linked to the genocide in Gaza between December 2023 and July 2024. This included shareholdings in arms companies like the lead contractor on the F-35, Lockheed Martin.

I've just checked Quadrature's most recent SEC filings submitted at the end of June 2026. They show that Quadrature still has investments in arms companies like Boeing and Lockheed. The June fillings show it held $9m in Elbit shares and an astonishing $117m in Palantir.

What is it with the Labour Party and connections to Palantir?

Luhde-Thompson also donated to Labour Together. He donated £50k at the end of November 2023: smack-bang in the middle of the period when Labour Together hired APCO to investigate journalists (including me and my family) who had exposed Morgan McSweeney's failure to report donations in violation of the law between 2018 and 2020 (of course there is no indication Luhde-Thompson knew about this).

Dale Vince, Sagal's other donor, was also a big donor to Labour Together. He has, most recently, strongly supported approving drilling at Jackdaw and Rosebank oilfields.

We found out about Dale Vince donating to Sagal during the campaign because it was leaked to the Independent. But voters in Holborn & St Pancras had no idea that she was also being funded by Daniel Luhde-Thompson, linking her to Quadrature and, through that, investments in companies complicit in genocide.

There is really something deeply wrong here. Voters were deprived of key information before they cast their vote. Our electoral laws around donations, which allow the mega-rich to dominate our politics, have to be reformed.

[Andrew Feinstein @andrewfeinstein]

This is repulsive. Holborn & St. Pancras deserves better than an MP who is paid for by companies complicit in genocide. No wonder she refused to speak out on the genocide!
‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy!’

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Interviewer: "Sorry to interrupt.. the Israeli military says it was targeting Hamas terrorists.."

British surgeon Dr Gopher Rahbour says he hasn't seen any Hamas at Nasser hospital but he does see the horrendous conditions people are living in

Interviewer: "We're short of time"

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

.@ZackPolanski: "I think it will be odd to people across this country that their bins might not be collected or their services might be under pressure because Burnham is more interested in protecting a genocide .. than working constructively & collaboratively with another party"

[Andrew Feinstein @andrewfeinstein]

Of course she has.
The British state is being handed over to a bunch of racist fascist profiteers

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Disgusting.

[Jack Seale @jackseale]

If only there had been thousands of people immediately and very vocally warning them that this would happen. Ah well

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Abdul El-Sayed in the UK was campaigning for @faizashaheen.

And the Labour Party blocked her from standing.

It's very weird to see them celebrating the wins in the US - as if they share a political platform.

https://t.co/TsFeO8wCIh

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

If only there was a party that already had this as policy...

https://t.co/i9idDx4vyY

[Ian Prowse @IanProwse]

As socialists we have no option right now other than to support the Greens against the racist, genocide enabling establishment.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Since Lisa Nandy is doing the media round this morning heres one from the archive.

In Oct 2023 Nandy was asked 3 times whether Israel breached international law when it cut off power & water to Gaza & she refused to answer.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Hi @bbclaurak,

Zionism has resulted in the bombing of children & the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people in Gaza.

Again - the actual controversy is the Labour Government are arming that & the BBC 'debate' if it's racist.

How's that for answering the question?

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

C'mon Clive, expanding sanctions isn't something the govt should be considering, its what they should be doing. Be more explicit & back Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions. Its the bare minimum people should be calling for.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Clive is right, its not just Netanyahu thats the problem (despite some now hiding behind that argument)

As Daniel Levy explained, the dehumanisation of Palestinians has been going on for decades & that dehumanisation underpins Israels brutal occupation & apartheid system

[Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg]

The British government says in the Supreme Court that those thousands of pensioners being arrested for holding placards are criminals and are engaged in terrorist activity.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

"people who.. lost their lives for the sake of protecting their country"

WW1 wasn't about protecting the country, it was about ruling classes competing for profits, markets & resources

Moments later Kamali almost gets there as he draws paralells with today

[Darran Scully @DapperCharles]

@ToryFibs It's rubbish and we are seeing the true Burnham.
Fudging around the edges whilst not changing anything.

He is just Blair all over again

[Ricky | Council Estate Media @cem_uk_]

It's a sickening spectacle to see Labour MPs who think anti-Zionism is racism celebrating the election of Abdul Al-Sayed--an anti-Zionist Muslim who they would've expelled from their party

[Dr Rahmeh Aladwan @doctor_rahmeh]

I'm a doctor in the UK with Palestinian family. I spoke out against genocide and jewish supremacy. My medical licence was suspended.

Dr Eastland Staveley, a jewish GP, said he didn't shoot enough babies in Gaza. He is practising medicine freely in Britain.

They proved my point.

[MikeD @mjdaly57]

I go back, again and again, to Asa Winstanley’s book and his reference to the investigation by the Media Reform Coalition and Birkbeck, University of London that concluded that:

‘the Guardian’s coverage on the issue amounted to a “disinformation paradigm.” In an in-depth study of 259 newspaper articles and TV news segments on “Labour anti-Semitism” from 2018, researchers found 90 clear cut examples of misleading or entirely inaccurate reporting. They also found an overwhelming source imbalance, especially on television news, with those critical of Labour given “a virtually exclusive and unchallenged platform to air their views.”’ Page 262

In layman’s terms that “disinformation paradigm” was a continuing and consistent pack of lies in the Guardian.

It was the most sickening onslaught against a British mainstream political leader ever waged by the media establishment. Fuelled in part by a cadre of Labour/Blairite client journalists - at the Guardian and BBC especially.

@BBCNews @BBCNewsnight @itvnews @GMB @Channel4News @SkyNews @bbclaurak @jonsnowC4 @guardian @thetimes @dailytelegraph @PippaCrerar @Freedland @pollytoynbee @AsaWinstanley @BirkbeckUoL @mediareformUK