Guido’s been keeping a close eye on Starmer’s ties with his human rights lawyer cronies who are all pushing for the Chagos surrender deal. Newly released ministerial files reveal Attorney General Richard Hermer met with Starmer’s mate and Mauritius’ chief legal adviser on Chagos adviser, Philippe Sands KC, along with Dapo Akande KC on November 13, 2024 to “discuss international law and the International Court of Justice.” The cosy chat took place just a day after hundreds of Chagossians gathered in London to demand their right to self-determination…
Starmer’s “close friend” Sands, who in 2022 proudly planted the Mauritian flag on the Chagos Islands, has long been at the forefront of efforts to hand the islands over to Mauritius. Dapo Akande is another who’s argued Britain should give up the islands. He supported the International Court of Justice’s 2019 ruling that the UK should hand the islands back “as swiftly as possible,” even calling the case a “decolonisation” project. Akande also served as Jeremy Corbyn’s go-to legal adviser in 2018 on the UK’s bombing of Syria and praised the “brilliant” work of Julian Assange’s lawyers to the Kremlin mouthpiece Sputnik…
Both Starmer and Hermer put Akande forward last year to represent Britain at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the 2026 election, with Starmer and Lammy holding a meeting with Akande in Downing Street last October. Starmer’s been smug to say he’s not discussed Chagos with with his old mate Sands since becoming Labour leader. Instead, it’s his Attorney General who’s been having meetings…
The government has refused to reveal which law firms and individuals they have commissioned external legal advice in relation to negotiations over the Chagos Islands. Meanwhile, excited government briefings that the surrender deal would be “sealed” at the beginning of this month after Trump appeared to give his backing have gone quiet. Labour’s tangled web of pro-Mauritius connections continues to raise eyebrows…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”