Labour MP Jas Athwal is rapidly losing credibility as the self-proclaimed “renters champion.” Just last month, it was revealed that the Commons’ largest landlord has been leasing out flats crawling with bugs and marred by deadly black mould. Now it’s been found he’s the landlord of a failing children’s home….
According to The Londoner, Athwal, now dubbed a “slum landlord,” is the landlord of a dangerously unsafe private care home where vulnerable children are at risk of exploitation and have even gone missing. An Ofsted inspection from August flagged “serious and widespread failures,” and a previous review in 2019 pointed to bullying and intimidation, resulting in a stabbing incident involving a child. Athwal claims to have not been aware of the home’s failings, despite being the long-term landlord…
Athwal’s connections with the home run deep. He’s mates with the owner of Heartwood Care Group, the firm that raked in millions from Redbridge Council while Athwal was council leader. Their funding skyrocketed from £130,493 the year before Athwal took the reins to a jaw-dropping £787,000 in his first year as council leader. Just another Labour MP sure to give Starmer a headache he won’t be wanting…
While Labour scrambles to clarify who exactly they meant by “working people” in their manifesto’s tax pledges, one shrewd businessman knew exactly what was coming. Anthony Bamford, top Tory donor and controller of JCB, distributed a £300 million ($389 million) dividend last year, signing off just weeks before Labour came to power. Cashing out before the Labour could cash in…
With JCB profits surging 43% to an impressive £620.7 million in 2023, Bamford has now climbed to the rank of the world’s 198th-richest person. His timely move will mean the Bamford dynasty avoids any upcoming punitive taxes that Labour is eyeing. A reminder: according to the OBR, around 60% of income tax revenue comes from the top 10% of earners and 30% from the top 1%. As the Laffer curve bends, other businessmen will wish they had done the same…
Labour’s muddled definition of “working people” has now shifted three times in a week, adding to the farcical spectacle surrounding their manifesto tax pledges. Yesterday, Keir Starmer said that Britons earning income from shares or property aren’t “working people.” Sparking fresh fears of looming tax hikes for investors…
In a failed attempt to clarify the “working people” line, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, made the morning media rounds. Speaking on the Today Programme, he was asked six times a simple question: “Do landlords work?” And six times, he dodged the question, hiding behind a stream of evasive waffle instead:
This won’t be music to the ears of 2.82 million private landlords in the UK, who now brace for the potential of steep tax hikes in the upcoming budget. Labour has taken the “campaign in poetry, govern in prose” approach to whole new level…
Starmer continues to peddle the line that Trump trying to sue the Labour party won’t affect his relationship with the former President, though his cabinet’s past (and very public) disdain for Trump doesn’t exactly bode well for the special relationship if Trump does get in to the White House. Nor will having Labour MP Stephen Doughty as the Minister for North America…
Doughty has never hidden his feelings on Trump. In an interview with the BBC, he labelled Trump as “racist, incompetent or both” and in 2019, branded him a “racist, sexist, divisive and a liar”, “offensive to civilised values” and that Trump “represents the very worst of the world”. Tell us how you really feel…
The Minister for North America also sponsored not one, but two Early Day Motions against Trump when he was President. First in 2017, sponsoring an EDM to stop Trump from speaking in Westminster Hall, and in 2019, he sponsored an EDM to rescind the offer of a state visit to Trump. If Trump does win as many polls suggest, it may make for awkward small talk if Doughty is shipped out to American soil in this role…
Wes Streeting’s boyfriend Joe Dancey has been appointed Labour’s new Executive Director of Policy and Communications. Stitch-up accusations abounded as Dancey was selected for the Stockton West constituency despite living in London with Wes. It didn’t matter in the end – he lost to Tory Matt Vickers in the only Labour defeat on Teesside…
Dancey will now be based in London to “provide strategic leadership across the organisation to ensure that Policy and Communications functions are at the cutting edge.” Before the election Labour had two separate roles for communications and policy, headed up by Matthew Doyle and Stuart Ingham. With those two headed into government the Party combined the roles into one £104,985 position, which Dancey has now filled. Politics is a family business…
Labour is reopening asylum hotels at a staggering cost of £4 million a day. Just a year ago, the Conservatives shut down 150 of these hotels to deter illegal entry. It’s yet another U-turn from Labour. Their manifesto promised to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”. Now it’s ‘reopen asylum hotels, costing the taxpayer billions of pounds’…
Yvette Cooper’s decision to overturn the law preventing illegal migrants from claiming asylum has sent asylum seeker numbers skyrocketing, so it’s no surprise Labour has opted to reopen hotels to house them. With 27,225 migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats so far—a 5% increase from the same time last year—many of these newcomers will soon find themselves in the very hotels Labour has revived. It’s an open-door policy with the bill landing on the taxpayer. No wonder Channel migrants love Labour…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”