As chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, Zarah Sultana has a strong anti-capitalist vibe to maintain. In a campaign video, previously pinned to the top of her Twitter profile, Zarah railed against political greed, saying “some MPs are just in it for themselves”. Zarah is different: She will “Never Take a Penny From Corporate Donors”.
Guido therefore was surprised to see her entry in the register of interests. Zarah enjoyed match day hospitality to the value of £700 courtesy of Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC at her beloved Liverpool Football Club. As much as Liverpool supporters might wish to believe the club is a workers’ co-operative, they’re actually owned by a US headquartered multinational corporation, Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC.
Controlled by billionaire investors, the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is an American multinational sports holding conglomerate which owns baseball team the Boston Red Sox, the Premier League’s Liverpool F.C. and the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Fans have criticised the billionaires who own Liverpool for burdening the club with debts of millions – the club owes FSG over £70 million and other lenders some £88 million. Such financial engineering at the expense of fans is no concern of Zarah when she has a free ticket to swipe from the bosses…
Unfortunately for Zarah, she didn’t see Liverpool win, though she took comfort in her prediction of “a Champions League victory” in Paris. Liverpool lost that Champions League final.
This isn’t the first time Zarah’s corporate hospitality has highlighted hypocrisy, in 2020 she faced her fears to attend a maskless MOBO awards. When it comes to MPs in it for themselves, Zarah will never walk alone.
Following their last email pleading for donations, subscribers to Momentum’s mailing list received another amusing e-post today. A joint email from the Commie campaigners and Zarah Sultana announced her new Free School Meals For All Bill. This would “ease the pressure on millions of struggling families across the country”. And help millions of families with no financial issues whatsoever…
One problem for Zarah is her lack of parliamentary support, not least from her own party. So, she has had to send the email to drum up support, saying “with Labour set to kick out this rotten Tory government at the next election, it’s critical we build an organised Left ready to fight for transformative policies.”
The Lib Dems get little gratitude for their support – Zara only uses them to chastise Labour for failing to lead the way.
The Lib Dems might want to rethink their support for the bill if this is the thanks they get…
Tory MP Tim Loughton talking sense this afternoon on Politics Live over the ludicrous sums wasted on diversity and inclusion officers across Whitehall:
“At a time when taxes are historically at a very high level, we are spending £427 million on equality, diversity, and inclusiveness staff. Some of whom I’m sure are doing a really good job. But the rest of them, are they really essential, are they really a priority, when we need more nurses, more train drivers… that’s what we are questioning.”
Conservative Way Forward have published a report on their investigation, although co-conspirators will already be familiar with the number of these roles that crop up every ten minutes in the public sector. Loughton is one of 40 MPs to have signed a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this morning calling for this waste to be rooted out once and for all. Inevitably, Zarah Sultana had to pretend scrapping this sort of thing was “classic Tory ‘divide and conquer.”
Read the full letter below:
Owen Jones is pinning the blame on the Tories for anti-monarchy protestors being threatened and arrested, claiming “peaceful protesters are currently being arrested and threatened by police under legislation introduced by the Tories which the left fought in the streets”. Owen is just factually incorrect to blame the Tories for the legislation. The widely reported arrest in Scotland came under Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, a law introduced under an SNP government supported by the Greens and LibDems, opposed by Labour and the Tories.
Owen’s new-found support for the right to protest comes as a pleasant surprise to Guido, given his prior position on protests he disagreed with:
Women being harassed outside abortion clinics by anti-abortion protestors is horrific - surely action has to be taken to stop it https://t.co/JzPJFhtT7S
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 10, 2018
To be fair to Owen, free speech flip-flops are common on the left. Zarah Sultana yesterday quite rightly argued “No-one should be arrested for just expressing republican views“, while previously voting for a bill with the intention of banning protests outside abortion clinics. Diane Abbott has also defended the right to protest, whilst voting for the same bill to ban those she disagrees with from protesting. The list of lefties picking and choosing on free speech is long…
LBC’s Theo Usherwood has uncovered yet more lunacy from the socialists over at the NUS. The group are hosting their annual conference at the end of the month and have revealed the line-up set to appear at the event. The star of the show is rapper Lowkey, who’s performed barnstorming sets at Glastonbury, T in the Park, and Oxygen. He’s also spent the last week claiming “the mainstream media has weaponised the Jewish heritage of Zelenskyy” to “stave off” scrutiny of neo-nazi groups in Ukraine. He’ll be joined at the event by none other than Zarah Sultana…
If making wild accusations about Ukraine isn’t enough, Lowkey’s also gone on the record recently to claim NATO is “aiming to essentially balkanise Russia“, and that the invasion makes “perfect sense” once you “understand that”. Alongside Chris Williamson… on Iranian Press TV.
So the narrative about Ukraine being full of Nazis has now moved on to NATO is full of Nazis.
— Harry's Place (@hurryupharry) March 16, 2022
Patron of the Stop the War Coalition Lowkey, together with Asa Winstanley, pull back the curtain on a mysterious world of NATO Nazis who are "aiming to essentially Balkanise Russia" pic.twitter.com/QP3IrU1HJz
He’s also found the time to defend David Miller, the disgraced former Bristol University lecturer. When the Union of Jewish Students complained to the NUS about their decision to host the rapper, the union insisted attendees could use an “existing safe space designated for students who are sensitive to loud noise during Lowkey’s performance”. After the students asked for Lowkey’s performance to be cancelled, NUS President Larissa Kennedy said she was “more concerned about who she might hurt if the event was cancelled”. Presumably Zarah will now take the opportunity to boycott the event…
UPDATE: The NUS have announced Lowkey is no longer attending the event: “Lowkey was due to speak at Liberation Conference on 30 March. He has pulled out of the event and will no longer be appearing.”
Unsurprisingly, yesterday’s most read Guido piece was Zarah Sultana’s brazen maskless hypocrisy at the MOBO awards, where she enjoyed a night of revelling without a face covering just days after complaining maskless Tories in the Commons made her feel “unsafe”. If Sultana comments, no doubt she’ll point out masks aren’t technically mandatory in the setting she found herself.
Unfortunately it appears Zarah may have, in fact, incriminated herself further on TikTok. A video montage of the evening uploaded by the MP shows her arriving and leaving the event in the backseat of what appears to be a taxi without – you guessed it – wearing any face covering. This, on the unmasked face of it, appears to be a breach of the law.
This is more serious than her masklessness at the event itself, given the government explicitly says this is against the law:
Guido has contacted Zarah. He doesn’t expect a response…
UPDATE: Sultana’s office has responded. They claim she was in a private vehicle, not a taxi nor a private hire vehicle. They claim the driver was not paid by any party and the driver was known to the MP. This leaves questions; why was she sat in the back, as in a taxi passenger, and did her same ‘friend’ pick her up from the event as well? Finally, why does she care so little about her “friend’s” health?
