Category Archives: Donations

Donor’s Diane Abbott remark highlights racism in both Tory and Labour parties

Diane Abbott: she has suffered more racist abuse than anybody you can name – and now she has to watch Tories scrambling to defend a donor who has allegedly piled more of it onto her, while her own party leader sits on his thumbs rather than supporting her.

A Conservative Party donor, whose business has received huge contracts from the Tory-run UK government, has apologised for passing racist remarks about Labour MP Diane Abbott.

But Frank Hester’s contrition comes too late, as it has demonstrated that both the Conservatives and the Labour Party are now cesspits of racism.

He reportedly said Ms Abbott made him “want to hate all black women”, and that she “should be shot”. That’s not merely insulting to her but racist to every woman in her ethnic group.

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Here’s a neat summary of what happened:

Mr Hester’s apology has proved not to be enough – and his claim that he was not being racist has been dismissed by other Labour MPs of colour. Here’s Dawn Butler:

Ms Abbott herself issued a statement this morning (Tuesday, March 12, 2024), describing Mr Hester’s words as “frightening”.

She said: “It is frightening. I live in Hackney, I don’t drive, so I find myself, at weekends, popping on a bus or even walking places, more than most MPs.

“I am a single woman and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talking like this is worrying.”

There was more to her statement, including an appeal for public support from Labour leader Keir Starmer, as read out by Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain:

Alas, Ms Reid’s hope may be forlorn; if Mr Hester is racist, then Starmer is just as racist as he is. We’ll come back to this.

Conservatives have rallied to support – not Ms Abbott, but their biggest donor. Apparently he can’t possibly be racist because he takes money from people in Jamaica:

Mel Stride, Work and Pensions Secretary, has also come out with much the same excuse.

Here are former Tory chairwoman Sayeeda Warsi and LBC’s James O’Brien with their own opinions about that:

The incident appears to have triggered a crisis within the Tory Party and its supporters, as black people across the UK who may have offered the Tories their vote at the next election now find themselves reconsidering their position:

But Ian Lavery, who is a socialist Labour MP and therefore a close comrade of Ms Abbott, can’t afford to crow too much about this because Labour itself has also treated her abominably.

Press coverage of the story seems to have missed out this vital angle…

Is it because they are backing Labour to form the next government?

Let’s get the facts out in the open, right now, starting with Ms Abbott’s own comments about the racists within her party who backstabbed her for years:

Returning to her appeal for support from Keir Starmer, here’s This Writer’s reason for doubting he’ll offer any: he has spent years doing his best to stifle or ignore any suggestion of anti-black racism in his party, despite the fact that it is clearly riddled with racists:

We can only conclude that Starmer is, himself, deeply racist against black people – at least until such time as he can prove that the words recorded above were never used by Labour staffers and/or that he has acted to ensure that the racists have been removed. I fear we may face a long wait.

I lay the following in support of this belief:

So now, not only the Tories but also Labour MPs and supporters have had to launch a damage limitation exercise. For example, here comes Ed Balls on (again) Good Morning Britain. I tend to agree with the comment by “Teri”:

We judge people on what they do. With the Conservatives scrambling to defend their biggest donor, rather than disown him, take back his contracts and return his dirty money; and with Labour doing almost nothing to condemn the racist discrimination against not only that party’s, but the UK’s, most heavily-abused black female politician, our conclusion must be harsh:

Both parties are racist to the core. Both deserve to be shunned at the next general election.


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Anti-Labour labels appear at shops linked to donors after Starmer scrapped Palestine recognition plan

Has anybody else seen this?

A friend has sent This Site a few images of altered labels at shops whose owners are known to be Labour Party donors, after Keir Starmer u-turned on recognising Palestinian statehood.

The image above was taken at a branch of Sainsburys, one would conclude.

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They’ve done a bit of research and have located a template for these rogue labels, which you can see here.

Although I understand such campaigns have been carried out to good effect on peak shopping days in the past, it would be hugely irresponsible for This Writer to suggest using these labels as the basis of your own campaign

So I won’t.


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The Tories are planning to spend their way back into government

Backhander: it seems the Tories gave big Covid-related contracts to their friends, possibly in order to have their friends give the money back to boost their expanded election chest.

Voter ID – the new law that means you must bring a recognised form of identification to a polling station before you can vote – is not the only way the Conservatives are planning to rig the next election in their favour.

Besides disenfranchising people who don’t have the recognised forms of ID, the Tories are also planning to spend their way back into power, after increasing the amount political parties are able to spend by 80 per cent – from £19.5 million to around £35 million.

In 2019, the Tories came closest to the then-limit by spending £16.5m. Labour spent £12m and the Liberal Democrats £14.5m.

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You can expect the Tories to spend a lot more at this year’s election – especially as they have increased the threshold for publicly declaring the names behind individual donations from £7,500 to £11,180.

This means Tory donors can donate £11,180 anonymously.

Labour’s Brent MP Dawn Butler reckons this is so money given to Tory friends in bloated contracts during the Covid-19 crisis can come back into party hands, to be used in the election campaign – especially as the changes were pushed through by statutory instrument, with no debate or vote in Parliament.

One of the most important questions we must ask is, where are they getting the money from? It is hard to see how this won’t result in more unaccountable dark money being funnelled into our political system, including through loopholes from foreign entities as we have seen in the past.

So, when the Government raise the election cap by 80%, I am suspicious. Will there be more shady deals? Will Tory donors be calling in favours? And how many government contracts will be handed to their mates before the general election?

There is no doubt in my mind that they will try to outspend everyone else again at the next election – as they have historically done – to communicate their message on all fronts. Perhaps it’s no coincidence these changes have been made while the Tories lag behind in several opinion polls.

This Writer’s question is more to the point: how will the money be spent?

I reckon we’ll see more targeting of online advertising – especially to those who might be described as the most impressionable of voters.

These people need to be reminded that in 2019, 88 per cent of the Conservatives’ most widely-promoted ads featured claims which had been flagged by independent fact-checking organisations … as not correct or not entirely correct.

This Writer expects that proportion to increase this year.

So next time you see a Tory election advert, remember that it most probably won’t be true, and may have been bought with money that originally belonged to the public purse but was given away by the Tories, just so they could take it back in donations and use it to win the election.

Source: You probably didn’t notice the Tories’ latest ploy to steal the election


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How do you scrap a tax hike on your digital services business? Give Labour £16,000?

Google: facing an increase in the UK’s digitial services tax from 2% to 10%, this firm and others gave Labour shadow ministers gifts worth £16,000 and it was subsequently cancelled. The increased would have brought £3 billion into the UK Treasury.

Is Keir Starmer’s Labour as bent as a figure-eight? Judge for yourself with this tale of shadow ministers scrapping plans for a 10 per cent digital services tax after receiving £16,000 in gifts from Google and other companies in the sector.

The tax hike would have brought £3bn to the Treasury, providing an opportunity to cut taxes on struggling small businesses – but it seems £16,000 for people including shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds was enough to put a stop to this valuable change:

Information from Open Democracy says Reynolds was talking about the tax increase right up until he took a £3,377 package for two to attend Glastonbury as a guest of YouTube, which is owned by Google. The day after, reports emerged that he had ditched the plan.

It was not the only time senior figures in Starmer’s team accepted luxury gifts from Google in the months before the party’s U-turn. Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell’s political adviser, Labour’s executive director of policy, and the party’s head of domestic policy all accepted tickets and transport to, and ‘hospitality’ at, the Brit Awards in February from the digital giant. Powell’s register of interests estimates that the adviser’s ticket was worth £1,170.

Starmer’s political director also accepted transport to and ‘hospitality’ ahead of the event from Google, though his ticket, along with that of Starmer’s private secretary, was covered by Universal Music.

Starmer had accepted a £380 dinner from Google for him and one staff member during the World Economic Forum in January.

In total, openDemocracy estimates that Labour shadow cabinet members and their staff accepted luxury gifts from Google worth nearly £10,000 over the months before they announced their policy U-turn.

And that’s just Google. The estimate of £16,000 in total may, in fact, be low.

Take a look at the full Open Democracy article (link below). The attached comment from ‘Tory Fibs’ is also useful because it crystallises the problem with Labour – or any political organisation – taking money or gifts-in-kind from businesses facing tax increases or legislative regulation:

My perception is certainly that Labour cannot be trusted to implement the right policies for the UK because its representatives are corruptible with cheap bribes.

And no – it doesn’t matter whether Jonathan Reynolds was otherwise influenced to cancel the policy.

It seems as though he shut down a £3 billion plan to help small businesses because a digital giant gave him tickets for Glasto.

And it seems as though the total cost to the digital services industry of shutting down this £3 billion plan was a mere £16,000. That’s pocket money to these people.

Until Labour – and all the other political parties – stop accepting these gifts from people and organisations their decisions may affect, they can never be trusted.


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Don’t think your life will get better, just because Boris Johnson is going

Boris Johnson: he has left Parliament but he’s doing quite all right, thank you very much. Meanwhile it’s business as usual at Tory HQ and in Downing Street.

Here’s an excellent point, courtesy of Gary Stevenson:

It’s true – the Conservative Party is not an organisation of public servants; it’s a business.

It works for whoever pays it the best – and that isn’t the public, even if they are getting at least three times the average wage.

No – the Tory Party works for Mohamed Mansour, who has donated £5 million to Conservative coffers, along with other donors like him. Why do you think Tory donors, party members and friends got so many Covid-19-related business contracts when the usual scrutiny processes for awarding them were suspended because it was an “emergency”?

And Labour (under Keir Starmer) works for Gary Lubner, who’s donating $6 million to that party, along with donors like him.

When in government, both parties do a very good job for their real employers. That’s why the UK’s super-rich have expanded their wealth threefold since 2010.

This happens because both the Tories and Labour tell you that they’re working for you and will make your life better, and when election time comes around, whoever’s in office throws you a few scraps to make you think they mean it.

It’s time to wise up and realise you need to find someone else; you need to break the racket.

Because your money is running out of your hands and into their bank accounts faster than you think – and you probably don’t even know it yet.


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Labour’s new bankroller is Israel lobbyist | The Electronic Intifada

Keir Starmer: is this new donor another sign that the Labour leader is in thrall to the alleged Israel lobby?

Weeks after Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour gave £5 million to the Conservative Party (in return for what?), Labour is to receive $6 million from a pro-Israel lobbyist who profiteered from South African apartheid (it says here):

Gary Lubner’s company played an important role busting international sanctions against the South African apartheid regime in the 1980s.

Successive annual reports show that Lubner is a long-standing donor to the United Jewish Israel Appeal, a lobby group with close ties to the state of Israel.

The Lubners are longstanding donors to the apartheid state of Israel.

A spokesperson for Mr Lubner issued a blanket denial to the apartheid allegation (but not to those relating to Israel).

Details and evidence are available here: Labour’s new bankroller is Israel lobbyist, South African apartheid profiteer | The Electronic Intifada


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Crony-watch: son of Tory donor who hosted Boris Johnson’s wedding party had £11.2m Government cash

Jo Bamford of Wrightbus: what did he do to deserve government funding apart from be the son of a friend of Boris Johnson?

This is from a while ago but let’s put it up so we can keep an eye on it:

The son of a Tory donor who hosted Boris Johnson’s wedding party was handed an £11.2million UK Government grant to build hydrogen buses.

Jo Bamford’s Wrightbus was given the cash to pioneer the “green” fuel cell vehicles in March 2021.

He is the son of JCB founder Lord Bamford, who hosted Johnson’s lavish wedding party on his grand Cotswolds estate. The then-Prime Minister and his wife Carrie partied with family and friends at 18th-century Daylesford House after officially tying the knot in 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hmm. There are hydrogen fuel cell buses on trial now – but they aren’t made by Wrightbus.

Is this another waste of public money on a Tory crony?

Source: Son of Tory donor who hosted Boris Johnson’s wedding party given £11.2m Government cash – Daily Record


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What does this Egyptian billionaire want from Sunak’s Tories in return for £5 million bung?

Quiet money: it’s not really a backhander, but we certainly have good reason to ask what Egyptian billionaire Mahmood Mansour hopes to buy with his £5 million payment to the Conservative Party.

Almost as soon as I published my story about Boris Johnson being investigated by the police, someone responded by asking what major story that ‘dead cat’ had been slung on the table to cover up.

Normally, one can just ignore those remarks because they’re made by Tory supporters trying to divert attention from their government’s latest atrocity.

But this time I thought I’d cast around – and here’s a story that seems to have been buried: of an Egyptian billionaire who has donated £5 million to the Conservatives – the biggest bung to a UK political party in 22 years.

Now, why would anybody do that?

The Conservatives have received the largest political gift in 22 years from Egypt-born businessman Mohamed Mansour.

Praising the “capable” Rishi Sunal, the party’s treasurer rejuvenated the Tory coffers ahead of the next general election to the tune of £5 million.

Writing in The Telegraph he said: “I look at what he has achieved in his first months in office and think what he could do in five years.”

Some, commenting on this donation, have made the point that the Tories shouldn’t be able to criticise Labour for having “trade union paymasters” after taking this.

But if we’re to talk about the Tories having a “billionaire paymaster”, then we need to ask what Mr Mansour wants from them “in five years” in return for that still-huge amount of money – if anything.

Source: Tories receive largest political gift in 22 years


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Is this the reason Keir Starmer is so timid about the economy?

Funded by private business: Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves both receive donations from private businesses, and it is reasonable to conclude that they receive advice (let’s call it that) from those people too. Given that they don’t seem to have much personal understanding of how the economy works, this may be the reason they are now following right-wing, Establishment, ideas that will help billionaires and crush people like you.

That rising star of left-wing journalism Grace Blakely has written an interesting piece for Tribune, stating that Keir Starmer is too timid to run the UK economy for the people – basically because he doesn’t know enough about it.

Starmer relies on his economic advisers, she says, and they adhere to right-wing dogma that prioritises the rich over the poor:

It is no longer radical to argue that the UK economy requires deep, structural transformation. With the power to set taxes, levels of public spending, wages in the public sector, and regulation in the private sector, the British state is the only institution capable of enacting such a transformation… The British electorate is in favour of a radical shift in economic policy.  

Keir Starmer is undoubtedly a timid and conservative leader… His expert advisers inform him, allegedly objectively, which kinds of policies would be good for ‘the economy’, and he rigidly adheres to their advice.

Without ever providing any evidence, policymakers will state that ‘the economy’ requires tax cuts, or public spending cuts, or deregulation. Experts will nod along and, without the ability to challenge them, most people will simply accept their word as gospel. 

And the policies these ‘experts’ promote just so happen to privilege the interests of the already wealthy while eroding the power of the working classes.

An example of this in action is the National Health Service. When he was campaigning to be Labour leader in 2020, Starmer said he would follow Jeremy Corbyn’s policy to increase income tax on the top five per cent of earners.

This would allow more spending – for example, on the NHS. But now Starmer has rowed back on this pledge, despite the fact that it would help re-balance the economy, which the Tories have tilted to give more money to billionaires:

And now we learn that he’s giving a speech today (Monday, May 22, 2023) saying that the NHS doesn’t need more money – he thinks it is “not serious” to suggest that the NHS’s current issues can be fixed solely with more money.

He won’t say how he’ll change the way the NHS works in order to fix those issues, though – probably because he doesn’t know.

His favoured solution is to bring in more privatisation – as advocated by his Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting.

Why does he say this? Would it be unreasonable to suggest that it is because they are both receiving donations from private firms that make a profit from the UK’s health industry?

Private companies don’t make donations to MPs without wanting something in return; we all know that – right?

And if you think that’s bad, what about the money going to MPs so they can employ staff and pay for “office costs”? If private firms or donors are paying this money, are they dictating who gets the jobs – putting their own people in a position to advise our MPs?

If so, then we should be deeply concerned that almost half of the £1 million that has gone to MPs for this purpose was given to just four Labour MPs – including Streeting.

Another major beneficiary is Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

With so much apparent influence from business people promoting their own selfish interests, is it any wonder that Starmer and his cronies are toeing the Establishment line, rather than supporting the radical, transformative policies of his forerunner Jeremy Corbyn?

Source: How Starmer Abandoned Left-Wing Economics


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Here’s why MPs are so keen on private health companies

Wes Streeting: the Shadow Health Secretary took £22,500 in donations from private health firms last year, according to EveryDoctor’s interactive map. Why would he end NHS privatisation and stop that money from coming to him?

Did you ever hear of an organisation called EveryDoctor?

It’s a group of doctors campaigning to revive the National Health Service in the face of huge political effort – from both main parties – to kill it off in favour of private companies.

And it has compiled an interactive map showing not only the extent of Tory-driven privatisation, but MPs’ interests in private health firms.

Here’s the tweet announcing it:

To provide a taste of what you’ll find if you use the map, the organisation has been tweeting interesting entries on it:

The really important element to grasp is that it isn’t only Tories who are making money from private health. Look at this:

This is the Shadow Health Secretary. Perhaps now Labour’s about-turn on health policy, so it now supports the increased use of private companies, makes more sense.

Here’s another Labour donation – but this one went straight to the top: Keir Starmer took £12,500 from a private health firm.

Do you really think he’s going to bite the hand that feeds him by returning the NHS to the principles on which it was founded and kicking private profit-makers out?

It seems unlikely to me.

Yvette Cooper’s take has been massive:

It seems clear that this is the reason neither Labour nor the Tories want to rid your health service of the private, profit-making parasites:

They are taking donations from those firms.


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