General Election 2024: General UK Politics Discussion here

[Longcol]

2 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Thought Labour were crying the country’s skint .

 

Not for summat that cost will  a fraction of 1% of government spending (107.4 billion) .

[hackey lad]

1 hour ago, Longcol said:

 

Not for summat that cost will  a fraction of 1% of government spending (107.4 billion) .

What about the other stuff  ? 

[alchresearch]

[peak4]

I can't claim to approve, and don't seek to justify some of the expenses stuff surrounding Starmer at the moment, but I wonder if it's gaining so much traction to mask what may well be serious corruption and foreign influence in this country's politics.
Take Jenrick for instance

Revealed: the international super rich bankrolling Robert Jenrick’s political ambitions  Peter Geoghegan

Calls for electoral laws to be tightened after Israeli billionaire and Australian hedge fund boss use companies that made minimal UK profits to give £40,000 to former immigration minister

So this newsletter took a look…. and found that in the last month alone Jenrick has accepted £40,000 from two companies, one owned by an Israeli billionaire, the other by an Australian hedge fund boss. 
Both firms gave more money to Jenrick than they made in profit over the last two financial years, raising concerns from transparency campaigners about the use of opaque companies to funnel money into British politics. 

Robert Jenrick accepts donations from loss-making company - AGAIN    Democracy For Sale Note that the article also discusses "Labour Together"
New transparency data also reveals how Labour Together has become the party’s “first SuperPac”  

Jenrick has been at pains to appeal to the right of the Tory party. He has vowed to leave the European Court of Human Rights and woo back Reform voters. 

He even gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation - the uber-conservative US think tank behind Project 2025 - earlier this year and was recently forced to backtrack after saying that any protester who shouts “Allahu Akbar” should be arrested. 

The man once dubbed ‘Robert Generic’ because of his putatively middle-of-the-road politics has also raised more money so far than all of his Tory leadership rivals combined.

Jenrick declared £137,000 in donations in the latest register of MPs interests (published late on Friday. The perfect time to avoid prying eyes….)

Among Jenrick’s supporters is a small company called the Spott Fitness Ltd, which gave the would-be Tory leader two donations of £25,000 each in July.

There’s something curious about the Spott Fitness: since being incorporated in December 2020, the company has never turned a profit. 

Its most recent accounts show that the company - which is owned by lawyer Mark Dembovsky -  has no employees and net current liabilities of £330,000. 

 

[Al Bundy]

3 minutes ago, peak4 said:

I can't claim to approve, and don't seek to justify some of the expenses stuff surrounding Starmer at the moment, but I wonder if it's gaining so much traction to mask what may well be serious corruption and foreign influence in this country's politics.
Take Jenrick for instance

Revealed: the international super rich bankrolling Robert Jenrick’s political ambitions  Peter Geoghegan

Calls for electoral laws to be tightened after Israeli billionaire and Australian hedge fund boss use companies that made minimal UK profits to give £40,000 to former immigration minister

So this newsletter took a look…. and found that in the last month alone Jenrick has accepted £40,000 from two companies, one owned by an Israeli billionaire, the other by an Australian hedge fund boss. 
Both firms gave more money to Jenrick than they made in profit over the last two financial years, raising concerns from transparency campaigners about the use of opaque companies to funnel money into British politics. 

Robert Jenrick accepts donations from loss-making company - AGAIN    Democracy For Sale Note that the article also discusses "Labour Together"
New transparency data also reveals how Labour Together has become the party’s “first SuperPac”  

Jenrick has been at pains to appeal to the right of the Tory party. He has vowed to leave the European Court of Human Rights and woo back Reform voters. 

He even gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation - the uber-conservative US think tank behind Project 2025 - earlier this year and was recently forced to backtrack after saying that any protester who shouts “Allahu Akbar” should be arrested. 

The man once dubbed ‘Robert Generic’ because of his putatively middle-of-the-road politics has also raised more money so far than all of his Tory leadership rivals combined.

Jenrick declared £137,000 in donations in the latest register of MPs interests (published late on Friday. The perfect time to avoid prying eyes….)

Among Jenrick’s supporters is a small company called the Spott Fitness Ltd, which gave the would-be Tory leader two donations of £25,000 each in July.

There’s something curious about the Spott Fitness: since being incorporated in December 2020, the company has never turned a profit. 

Its most recent accounts show that the company - which is owned by lawyer Mark Dembovsky -  has no employees and net current liabilities of £330,000. 

 

But Tories.😂

[peak4]

8 minutes ago, Al Bundy said:

But Tories.😂

Commenting without reading or understanding the articles??
One of the links sends you to here;

Labour's lobbying problem
"I’d be shocked if there isn’t a lobbying scandal in the first year"  Democracy for sale

During the general election campaign, Keir Starmer positioned Labour as the alternative to years of Tory sleaze.

Starmer was right: the Conservatives’ presided over unprecedented levels of corruption and cronyism in British politics.

We are all still recovering.

But Starmer’s Labour has also sought to build very close links with the business lobby - and seems wary of upsetting party donors.

The King’s Speech had little to say about the revolving door between government and the private sector, donors buying access or foreign funding of political parties.

This week I’ve written a 4,000 word piece for the London Review of Books on Labour’s increasingly cosy relationship with the lobbying industry, the key players and why it’s in the party’s interest to take big money out of British politics.

The full essay is here (do read!) but I thought it was worth highlighting some of its key points.......................................

[hackey lad]

1 hour ago, peak4 said:

I can't claim to approve, and don't seek to justify some of the expenses stuff surrounding Starmer at the moment, but I wonder if it's gaining so much traction to mask what may well be serious corruption and foreign influence in this country's politics.
Take Jenrick for instance

Revealed: the international super rich bankrolling Robert Jenrick’s political ambitions  Peter Geoghegan

Calls for electoral laws to be tightened after Israeli billionaire and Australian hedge fund boss use companies that made minimal UK profits to give £40,000 to former immigration minister

So this newsletter took a look…. and found that in the last month alone Jenrick has accepted £40,000 from two companies, one owned by an Israeli billionaire, the other by an Australian hedge fund boss. 
Both firms gave more money to Jenrick than they made in profit over the last two financial years, raising concerns from transparency campaigners about the use of opaque companies to funnel money into British politics. 

Robert Jenrick accepts donations from loss-making company - AGAIN    Democracy For Sale Note that the article also discusses "Labour Together"
New transparency data also reveals how Labour Together has become the party’s “first SuperPac”  

Jenrick has been at pains to appeal to the right of the Tory party. He has vowed to leave the European Court of Human Rights and woo back Reform voters. 

He even gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation - the uber-conservative US think tank behind Project 2025 - earlier this year and was recently forced to backtrack after saying that any protester who shouts “Allahu Akbar” should be arrested. 

The man once dubbed ‘Robert Generic’ because of his putatively middle-of-the-road politics has also raised more money so far than all of his Tory leadership rivals combined.

Jenrick declared £137,000 in donations in the latest register of MPs interests (published late on Friday. The perfect time to avoid prying eyes….)

Among Jenrick’s supporters is a small company called the Spott Fitness Ltd, which gave the would-be Tory leader two donations of £25,000 each in July.

There’s something curious about the Spott Fitness: since being incorporated in December 2020, the company has never turned a profit. 

Its most recent accounts show that the company - which is owned by lawyer Mark Dembovsky -  has no employees and net current liabilities of £330,000. 

 

“but “ 😂😂😂

[peak4]

Since my previous reply, this article has just been published in The Guardian by the same author; 

Donors and Starmer’s suits? That’s just a dress rehearsal. Without new probity rules, worse will follow Peter Geoghegan

Labour made big promises while seeking power. It must fulfil them or risk real damage and an irretrievable breach of public trust

Starmer’s team, reports suggest, only became aware that the dresses needed to be declared when companies approached his wife offering free products.

The Labour leader then went to parliamentary authorities.

This was the right thing to do.

The defence of the foreign secretary, David Lammy – that Britain’s first family needs political donors to buy their clothes “so they can look their best” when representing the country – was less laudable. (Between them, Keir and Victoria Starmer earn north of £200,000, according to the Sunday Times.)

Conservative central office has said that Starmer’s sartorial saga “beggars belief”.

That’s a bit rich coming from a party that set up the Covid VIP lane and whose frontrunner for leader, Robert Jenrick, admitted “apparent bias” in overturning a planning decision in favour of a billionaire property developer (who also happened to subsequently donate to the party).  [see a couple of posts higher for other interesting donations to Jenrick]

But the opposition has been able to make hay with the story because it highlights what is fast becoming Labour’s glass jaw: a failure to recognise the tension between private interests and public office.

[Delbow]

1 hour ago, Al Bundy said:

But Tories.😂

 

So the Jenrick stuff isn't happening?

[alchresearch]

I think what makes the whole situation worse and adds salt to the wound is when things like this are announced after the event:

 

No inquiry into gifts for Starmer's wife, say No10

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgeyy0dlp24o