This week the left’s associations with Venezuela have been under the spotlight. The Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, organisers of the derided “Emergency Online Rally: No War on Venezuela,” counts trade unions – and Labour-linked lefty law firm Thompsons Solicitors – among its backers. Birds of a feather…
Thompsons proudly supports the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign – founded in 2005 – by “highlighting and correcting inaccuracies and distortions made about Venezuela.” At the TUC Conference in last September, Thompsons sponsored an event “¡Viva la Solidaridad! Stand with Latin America Against Trump.” Phil Liptrot – a Thompson’s solicitor – spoke at the event. Liptrot then spoke at a similar ‘Arise’ event during Labour Conference…
It’s worth noting Thompsons’ connections to the wider Labour movement. Lefty MPs Richard Burgon (who’s spoken at several recent Venezuela Solidarity Campaign events), Andy McDonald and Warinder Juss previously worked at Thompsons. Yvette Cooper, Emily Thornberry and John Healey have also received donations from the firm…
Yesterday Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith slammed Thompson’s Scottish arm, Thompson’s Scotland, over its plans to sue M&S over last year’s cyber attack: “Thompsons’ model – backed by Labour through its close ties and political pipeline – isn’t just about helping workers. It’s about fuelling an industry machine that sucks billions out of the economy, penalises firms for taking risks, and kills the growth and innovation we need to thrive.” The left’s mission to financially ruin us all continues…
Bridget Phillipson has publicly blamed the Equality and Human Rights Commission after the DfE failed to publish the EHRC’s guidance on single-sex spaces for months. It is still not out…
Phillipson told pool reporters that she would publish the guidance “as soon as I can” and laid the blame at the EHRC’s door for legal problems in their guidance:
“We did require certain additional information from the EHRC, so that has unfortunately slowed the process, but I hope we can make progress, because I know that people want that clarity, but actually the ruling from the Supreme Court was also very clear… We have a new chair that has taken up post at the EHRC. I think she is going to do a fantastic job, and I have every confidence in her… We have experienced difficulties in the past. I’ll be up front about that.”
The Education Secretary is in effect blaming former EHRC chairman Baroness Falkoner. The funny thing is that the new one, Mary-Ann Stephenson, insisted that the guidance was “legally sound” when presented to the government in Summer last year…
Phillipson added: “I hope now we can move into a phase where we can crack on, we can make sure that we’re putting in place the code of practice that we know we need to bring forward, but we do so in a way that is responsible, that follows all of the proper processes.” A barbed quote there – all is not well when it comes to implementing a landmark Supreme Court decision…
Latest analysis from the Department for Business and Trade shows the (Un)Employment Rights Bill will trigger a surge in employment tribunal claims by nearly a fifth. And that’s an optimistic figure from civil servants…
The last impact assessment, published in October 2024, suggested tribunal claims would rise by around 15%, largely thanks to Labour’s plan to make protection from unfair dismissal a “day one” right. Now Labour has U-turned on that policy, tribunal claims are actually set to climb even higher…
Last night’s analysis lays out:
“The measures in the Act will extend or create new employment rights for individuals. If these rights are infringed upon, it could lead to more workplace disputes…which is which could increase the volume of cases in the ‘individual enforcement’ (i.e. Acas and Employment Tribunal) system by around 17%”.
Meanwhile, there’s already a 515,000 court backlog for employment disputes. No wonder there’s much objection to this…
Another U-turn is imminent from the government on business rates – but for pubs alone. It’s not even ten days into January yet…
Labour MPs and some Cabinet ministers have been raging at the large rate hikes faced by hospitality businesses, caused by the removal of pandemic-era reliefs and the Valuation Office Agency’s re-evaluation of rate charges. Adding thousands to bills…
Starmer said the government was looking at “further support” earlier this week. Treasury analysis of the changes has led the department to reconsider and explore valuation changes among other measures. Here’s an idea – reverse the last two Budgets…
Firms have been told not to make their worries public while the government works out what to do. Hotels are unlikely to get targeted support because people have more sympathy for pubs. They will pass on a hike in business rates to their customers…
There are rumblings from Labour mayors in the North of England that the scope of Northern Powerhouse Rail, a major series of high speed city links, will be pared back. Ministers did nothing this morning to ease those fears…
The project was announced by Osborne in 2014 and seen huge delays since. Reeves talked it up and Labour promised to deliver it speedily – it was meant to appear in the Spending Review, and then Conference, and then the Budget. It did not and ministers now say news will come early this year…
Transport minister Keir Mather and Heidi Alexander both dodged direct questions in the Commons today on whether the scope of NPR would be reduced. DfT sources have previously briefed that it will now be a phased series of projects. With Labour facing several black holes going into the year shaving billions off the NPR would be an easy cash save. Northern authorities fear an HS2-style rundown. They would be furious…
There is a row this morning over comments the Chancellor supplied to the Guardian overnight, crystallised in their write-up:
“Rachel Reeves has said she was angered by Nigel Farage’s suggestion that only British-born families should have the two-child benefit cap lifted, saying the Reform UK leader would keep children in poverty based on their skin colour… ‘I don’t really care what colour a kid’s skin is – some deserve to be in poverty and some don’t? That makes me pretty angry,’ she said.”
The clumsy language there obviously implies that British-born people are exclusively white and immigrants are not. The one time Reeves doesn’t get her words signed off by civil servants…
Zia Yusuf has taken this up this morning:
“Rachel Reeves comes out as an ethno nationalist. She believes only white people can be British.“
He went on to call for her to be sacked for her “beyond the pale and overtly racist” comments. Who said the first week back would be slow?
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”