UK Politics

Sir Keir Starmer defended his judgement after Labour suspended two parliamentary candidates over their remarks about Israel.The Labour leader spoke to BBC Breakfast on Friday morning, 16 February, following a tumultuous week for the party.“I did something that no leader of the Labour party has ever done before, which is to remove a candidate in a by-election where they cannot be replaced because I was so determined to take decisive action in relation to anti-semitism,” the Labour leader said.Mr Starmer has faced backlash for the speed of his decision after a damaging 48 hours in which he initially backed Azhar Ali over anti-semitic comments, before changing his mind. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Tory minister has disowned a misleading video clip shared by his own party which showed Sadiq Khan mistakenly calling Labour a party of antisemitism.Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said he had “no idea” why his party would publish the shortened video clip, which failed to show the mayor of London go on to correct his mistake, and was captioned: “Labour saying the quiet part out loud.”Asked whether the clip – published on the official Tory X/Twitter account – signals “how low the Conservatives are going to go“ in the upcoming general election, he told BBC Newsnight: “I think we should give an accurate portrayal of what somebody’s said. Clearly he’s made a mistake. “I wouldn’t support something which is clearly an honest mistake from Sadiq Khan.”Pressed on why his party had used the video, he said: “I’ve no idea. That’s a question to ask CCHQ, and I’m sure questions will be asked.”But Tory party chair Richard Holden defended the video, telling Times Radio the following morning: “What it highlights is an issue of antisemitism at the heart of the Labour Party. And it’s not been edited. It was clipped.”“I think we both know the difference between editing something to misconstrue or clipping something. And I think the issue we’re trying to highlight, and I think which is really important, is that the Labour Party hasn’t changed, whether it comes to antisemitism within it under Keir Starmer.”The Labour Party suspended two prospective MPs this week after news outlets published a recording of comments made at a meeting in Rochdale. Sir Keir Starmer faced questions after initially declining to suspend ex-Tony Blair aide Azhar Ali as the party’s candidate for the upcoming Rochdale by-election, after he suggested Israel allowed the 7 October massacre by Hamas as a pretext to invade Gaza. Sir Keir was forced to U-turn the following night after further comments of Mr Ali’s complaining about the influence of “certain Jewish quarters” in the media were published by the Daily Mail. Mr Ali will now sit as an independent if he wins the by-election.A further recording from the same meeting, published by Guido Fawkes, then saw Hyndburn candidate Graham Jones swiftly suspended, after he was heard saying “f***ing Israel” and mistakenly saying Britons who fight for the Israel Defence Forces are breaking British law and should be “locked up”.In the fuller clip of Mr Khan’s Sky News interview, the mayor of London said: “It certainly shouldn’t be acceptable in a party like mine that is proud to be both anti-racist, but also antisemitic – I beg your pardon, tackling antisemitism.”It came as the Conservatives suffered two devastating by-election defeats, in Kingswood and Wellingborough, where the huge 28.5 per cent swing to Sir Keir‘s party marked the second largest at a by-election since the Second World War. More

Sir Keir Starmer was asked how he’s trying to be “more appealing” to voters ahead of a general election this year.The Labour leader spoke to BBC Breakfast on Friday morning, 16 February, after the party won two by-elections the day before.“I’m working on how to be the best leader I can be of the Labour Party in very difficult circumstances,” he said, referencing the 2019 election as Labour’s worst defeat since 1935 (he mistakenly says 2035).“The progress we’ve made from the worst result since 1935, to being now credible contenders, and that’s all we are, for the 2024 election.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailGen Kitchen has just become the first Labour MP for Wellingborough since Peter Bone turned the seat blue in 2005.The Northamptonshire constituency was the second most marginal seat for Labour in Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide, with Paul Stinchcombe winning by just 187 votes.And Labour figures are confident that Ms Kitchen’s win, beating Tory candidate Helen Harrison by more than 6,000 votes, puts the party on course for a landslide under Sir Keir Starmer later this year.Gen Kitchen campaigned with Keir Starmer ahead of polls opening in Wellingborough Amid the fallout of another dramatic by-election win for Labour The Independent asks, who is the new MP for Wellingborough?Ms Kitchen was born in Northamptonshire to navy parents who think the idea of her becoming an MP is “a bit mad”.But the 28-year-old, who went to a local state school during the last Labour government, is determined to fight for the constituents she says have been “left behind under Conservative leadership”.She graduated in 2016 from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in history and politics and spent the next seven years working in the charity sector. Her most recent role was running philanthropy for a children’s health charity.Ms Kitchen is also a former councillor in Newham, London, where she was responsible for economic recovery in the area as well as boosting residents’ health.Gen Kitchen will join the House of Commons in the coming days as one of its youngest MPs She is set to join the House of Commons in the coming days as one of its youngest MPs.An avid Taylor Swift fan, with tickets to the popstar’s Eras tour in May, Ms Kitchen has earned the nickname “zen Gen” among her campaign team, partly due to her penchant for spa days and partly for her ability to remain calm throughout the gruelling campaign.Ms Kitchen had been hoping to fight to become Wellingborough’s MP in this year’s general election. But, midway through her honeymoon in Suffolk, disgraced ex-MP Mr Bone was found to have indecently exposed himself to a staff member and trapped him in the bathroom of a hotel room.It became obvious a by-election was coming and, with fish and chips in one hand and her two dogs in the other, Labour’s regional director rang her and she came back early.Ms Kitchen was helped to victory by the Tories’ selection of Mr Bone’s girlfriend Ms Harrison to fight the seat for them. And she was likely boosted by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which stood ex-MEP Ben Habib in the seat as part of its war on the Conservatives. More

This is the moment Labour’s Gen Kitchen wins the Wellingborough by-election, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 18,500.Ms Kitchen said she was “ecstatic” at the result, and the double by-election win for Labour shows people are “fed up” and want change.The candidate said she cut short her honeymoon to begin campaigning when she was told former Conservative MP Peter Bone had been suspended from the Commons.She was announced as the winner on Friday (16 February) just over two hours after Labour also triumphed at Kingswood and she achieved the second-largest swing from Tory to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War. More

This is the moment Labour’s Damien Egan is pronounced the winner of the Kingswood by-election.As the party overturned a Conservative majority of more than 11,000, Mr Egan claimed “The Tories have sucked the hope out of our country”.In his victory speech in the early hours of Friday morning (16 February), Mr Egan thanked the activists who helped him win and the people of Kingswood for putting their trust in him.He said: “It’s a trust that I promise to repay, to show you that politics can be different and it can make a difference.” More

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailMarjorie Taylor Greene has doubled down on her mistaken assertion that British Foreign Secretary David Cameron compared Republicans unwilling to support further aid to Ukraine to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. “Well, number one, I really could care less what Lord Cameron has to say. I just don’t care,” she told The Independent on Thursday. “And number two, he was calling us Hitler and calling us horrible names and that is extremely rude and he needs to stop making that association.“He needs to consider what he’s actually saying,” she added. “So I just don’t care. He really needs to worry about his country. I think over there, they’re having all kinds of problems, they’re entering a recession. They need to worry about their problems and leave our country alone.”This comes after the hard-right Republican congresswoman said Lord Cameron “can kiss my a**” on Wednesday after he urged the US Congress to pass aid to Ukraine and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, citing the appeasement of Hitler in the lead-up to the Second World War.The Democratic Senate has already passed a bill which would send further aid to Ukraine but the legislation faces a steep uphill climb in the House.In an op-ed published in The Hill on Wednesday, Lord Cameron wrote: “As Congress debates and votes on this funding package for Ukraine, I am going to drop all diplomatic niceties. I urge Congress to pass it.“I believe our joint history shows the folly of giving in to tyrants in Europe who believe in redrawing boundaries by force,” he added. “I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression.“I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Putin in 2008, when he invaded Georgia, or the uncertainty of the response in 2014, when he took Crimea and much of the Donbas — before coming back to cost us far more with his aggression in 2022,” Lord Cameron, a former UK prime minister, argued. “I want us to show the strength displayed since 2022, as the West has helped Ukrainians liberate half the territory seized by Putin, all without the loss of any NATO service personnel.”“I don’t want to read it, I know the British embassy wanted me to read it – I have way too many other things to do than read his op-ed,” Ms Greene said on Thursday. James Matthews of Sky News asked Ms Greene on Wednesday: “David Cameron says that you should vote through funding for Ukraine. What do you say to that?”“I think he tried to compare us to Hitler also,” Ms Greene said, mixing up the appeasers, whose conduct Lord Cameron did cite, and the Nazi leader.Ms Greene has previously faced criticism for making comments comparing the use of masks during the pandemic to the Holocaust. She later visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC and apologised for the remarks.Speaking about Lord Cameron on Wednesday, Ms Greene told Sky News: “If that’s the kind of language he wants to use, I really have nothing to say to him.”“He likened you can do to an appeaser for Hitler, in not voting through funding for Ukraine, are you an appeaser for Putin?” Matthews asked.“I think that I really don’t care what David Cameron has to say. I think that’s rude name-calling, and I don’t appreciate that type of language. And David Cameron needs to worry about his own country, and frankly, he can kiss my a**,” she added.During a visit to Poland on Thursday, the foreign secretary said that he is not someone who wants “to lecture American friends, or tell American friends what to do”, but he added, “We really do want to see Congress pass that money to support Ukraine economically, but crucially militarily in the months ahead.”Speaking at a press conference, Lord Cameron said: “We have to do everything we can to make sure that Ukraine can succeed in this year and beyond.“We must not let Putin think he can out-wait us or last us out, and that’s why this vote in Congress is so crucial.”He added: “And I say this as someone who is not wanting in any way to lecture American friends, or tell American friends what to do.“I say it as someone who has a deep and abiding love of the United States – of their democracy, of their belief in freedom – [and] as someone who really believes in the importance of our alliance.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Former Illinois lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate William “Sam” McCann abruptly pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine felony counts of wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, halting his federal corruption trial over misusing up to $550,000 in campaign contributions. McCann, who cut off negotiations over a plea deal last fall when he dismissed his court-appointed attorneys, made the reversal on the third day of a bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Lawless. His latest lawyer, Jason Vincent, of Springfield, asked that he be released from custody as part of the deal, but Lawless nixed the idea, telling McCann his only option was to offer a no-strings open plea. The seven counts of wire fraud and single count of money laundering each carry a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison. For tax evasion, it’s three. But a complex set of advisory guidelines before Lawless, who set sentencing for June 20, will likely yield a far shorter term.“Are you pleading guilty because you are in fact guilty?” Lawless asked. The 54-year-old McCann, wearing the gray-and-black striped jumpsuit of the nearby county jail where he’s held, replied, “Yes, your honor.”Lawless set a hearing for Friday on McCann’s release request, but it’s certain to draw opposition from the government and not just because McCann violated probation last week when he left the state to check himself into a hospital with chest pains. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass told Lawless he would introduce as further evidence of McCann’s unreliability a bizarre social media video posted just this week in which McCann claims a government conspiracy involving an “ungodly pack of lies” is against him. A state senator from 2011 to 2019, McCann formed the Conservative Party of Illinois to campaign for governor in 2018. A criminal indictment in 2021 outlined numerous schemes McCann employed to convert contributions from his campaign committees to buy vehicles, pay an overdue loan, two mortgages, credit card bills and fund a family vacation, entertainment and other purchases.For his unsuccessful run for governor, he collected more than $3 million dollars from Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers alone. Despite being questioned four times by FBI and IRS agents in summer 2018 about alleged improper spending, he tore through $340,000 in leftover campaign funds for personal expenses in the year after the election.McCann’s trial was repeatedly delayed. On the day it was supposed to start last November, McCann announced he had dismissed his court-appointed attorneys and would represent himself, telling reporters afterward, “God’s got this.” The proceeding was reset for Feb. 5, but McCann didn’t show, sending a weekend email that he was in a St. Louis-area hospital. Back in court Feb. 12, a circumspect Lawless questioned McCann closely when he told her he was “medically and psychologically” unable to go to trial and ceded control of his defense to Vincent. At that point, McCann told the judge he had very little memory of anything that occurred after his Feb. 7 discharge from the hospital, including a 55-mile (89-kilometer) drive last Friday from his home to Springfield to surrender for skirting probation guidelines. He drove a pickup that matched the description of the one the indictment said he used $60,000 in campaign funds to partially purchase. On Tuesday, while McCann was in jail, the video appeared on Instagram. McCann was driving what appeared to be a truck and told his viewers he was innocent of the charges. He claimed an “Orwellian” government had attempted to nail him for failing to provide assistance on other investigations, offering an extravagant tale about a probe into McCann’s “unholy alliance” with then-House Speaker Michael Madigan to “rig an election.“I wouldn’t play ball. They came back to me and said, ‘Well, we have you on this,’” McCann says in the video. “And if you just tell us what we want to hear, we’ll stop digging. And I said ‘No, I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear. I will speak the truth.’”So federal agents continued digging and, McCann said, managed to “turn everything I’ve ever touched” into “these machinations of wrongdoing.” More