Former Labour councillor Oliver Steadman has been charged with one count of blackmail and with a communications offence in relation to the Westminster ‘honeytrap’ scandal. The Crown Prosecution Service announced the charges against the 28-year old this morning…
Head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division Malcolm McHaffie said:
“We have decided to prosecute Oliver Steadman with blackmail and five communications offences in relation to a total of five victims working within politics and Westminster.
“This follows an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service which looked into messages that included alleged unsolicited indecent images sent to a number of people within parliamentary political circles between October 2023 and April 2024 using Whatsapp.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings. Oliver Steadman will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 3 November 2025 for a first hearing.”
Steadman was elected as an Islington councillor in May 2024, only to resign two months later. His X account also suddenly went private. At the time, both Labour and Islington Council refused to comment…
A (now ex) Labour councillor has defected to Reform, claiming his former party is “lost” and “mired in scandal“. Mason Humberstone, who is Stevenage’s youngest councillor, posted a statement on X this morning…
“I’ve battled with this decision for some time. But deep down, I know it’s the right call. It isn’t ordinary, hardworking people in Stevenage and across our country who’ve left Labour – Labour has left us.
The party I joined is lost, without vision, mired in scandal, and too often speaking for a metropolitan elite rather than the people they’re meant to serve.
When policies harm the British people and weaken our democracy, I cannot in good conscience support them.
As Stevenage’s youngest councillor, I entered politics to serve with integrity and respect. Today, I know I join a party that will put the British people and our great nation first. I feel proud to be part of this team and ready to get to work.”
Reform won five of the six Stevenage seats on Hertfordshire County Council back in May. Worth bearing in mind…
Labour Deputy Leader hopeful Lucy Powell has come out swinging against Starmer, saying that “unforced errors” have meant Labour has given “sense that we’re not on the side of ordinary people.” Still bitter about being sacked…
Powell said on BBC’s Political Thinking podcast:
“Some of the mistakes that we’ve made, or some of the unforced errors, have given a sense that we’re not on the side of ordinary people. I think part of what’s gone wrong is that people have lost sense of what those values are and whose side we are governing.”
She added that Labour needs to be “clearer” about “working towards” scrapping the two-child benefit cap. Powell leads among Labour members on 47%, compared to Number 10’s favourite Bridget Phillipson on 30%, according to a Survation poll. Would be yet another serious headache for Starmer if she wins the race…
A new report from Policy Exchange warns that the government is a taking “damaging new approach” to Northern Ireland legacy cases, with a potential return to prosecutions for British veterans and the abandonment of “any form of conditional amnesty“. Potentially setting back the peace process by decades…
Admiral Rt Hon Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC PC, Labour Peer in the House of Lords and a former Head of the Royal Navy said:
“The latest proposal in relation to Northern Ireland legacy cases looks set to strip away hard-won procedural protections from those who served during the Troubles. I agree with Policy Exchange that the Government must think again if we are not to perpetuate a damaging cycle, which is not fair to veterans and is not likely to promote reconciliation in the province.“
The paper adds that repealing the Legacy Act 2023 is “driven primarily by a desire to placate the Irish government and to bring a close to the inter-state case brought by the Republic of Ireland against the UK before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.” All roads lead back to Strasbourg…
Read the full report below:
Continue reading “Report Warns Government Agreement With Ireland Could Put Veterans at Risk”
A lawyer who blocked a small boat migrant from being sent back to France under the Government’s so-called “one-in, one-out” deal yesterday told Good Morning Britain today that ‘public opinion‘ is on her client’s side. Imogen Towley explained:
“There really isn’t one argument that would apply to everybody who’s seeking to resist removal to France. I’m working for somebody who has close family in the UK, um who has serious mental health problems. Uh we’re acting for somebody else who was um forced to come to the UK by traffickers.”
Translation: there will always be a reason not to return anyone. Meanwhile, immigration has shot to the top of voters’ concerns for the first time since Brexit. Despite Labour’s promises, not a single return to France has happened – blocked time and again by lefty lawyers. Labour can’t even say when the first will go…
Air Force One touched down at Stansted late last night for President Trump’s second UK state visit. He stayed overnight at Winfield House, and will meet King Charles later this morning. Meeting Starmer at Chequers tomorrow…
Number 10 will be keen to trumpet the success of the ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’ – signed to coincide with the visit – which they say represents a £31 billion agreement between the government and US tech giants. They’ll be less keen to talk about the collapse of a 0% tariff deal on steel, despite boasting about it in May. Trump himself is more interested in chatting to the King…
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.”