UK Politics

The UK government has confirmed for the first time that a phone call took place between David Cameron and Karim Khan in which the then foreign secretary is alleged to have threatened the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court over his investigation into Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

However, it has now been forced in response to a Freedom of Information request to confirm that a phone conversation between the men took place.

The phone call took place just one month before Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and coincided with an intensifying pressure campaign targeting Khan over his investigation into the war in Gaza.

PDF — if you add up the columns, 13437 of 79235 prisoners are Catholic

British lawyers have filed a request to the UK foreign secretary to impose financial and travel sanctions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over crimes against Palestinians.

British law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn made the request earlier this week on behalf of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK).

The submission stated that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Netanyahu’s statements amounted to incitement to commit prohibited acts with an “intent to destroy in whole, or in part, the Palestinian people in Gaza”. Such intent, it said, amounts to incitement to commit genocide.

It relates to a criminal case against five women charged with criminal damage for breaking the windows of JP Morgan Bank’s European head office at Victoria Embankment over its fossil fuel investments.

During the trial, which began in February 2024 at Inner London Crown Court, protesters held signs reminding jurors that they have an “absolute right” to acquit a defendant on conscience.

Judge Silas Reid instructed the jury to disregard the placards, saying they were “misstating the law".

He then told them that it is a “criminal offence for a juror to do anything from which it can be concluded that a decision will be made on anything other than the evidence in the case”.

The women were handed suspended sentences, but launched an appeal on the basis that Judge Reid had wrongly directed the jury that it would be a criminal offence for them to acquit the defendants according to conscience.

They argued that in telling jurors this, he was pressuring them to return a guilty verdict. They said this made their convictions “unsafe”.

The campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) said the ruling is the latest in a slew of efforts by the government to crack down on a growing trend of juries acquitting members of social movements – including pro-Palestine and climate activists – according to conscience.

Monday 19 January

No votes scheduled

Tuesday 20 January

Glaucoma Care (England) Bill
Concerns the detection, treatment, and monitoring of glaucoma (a degenerative eye disease) by optometrists in England. Ten minute rule motion presented by Shockat Adam. More information not yet available.

Sentencing Bill – consideration of Lords amendments
Applies to: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Introduces wide-ranging reforms to the sentencing framework, implementing some of the recommendations in the recent Independent Sentencing Review. Includes a presumption that custodial sentences of 12 months or under will be suspended unless there are exceptional circumstances. Introduces new orders, including requiring offenders who earn enough to pay a portion of their income as a fine each month, and banning offenders from going to places such as pubs, bars, and nightclubs.
Draft bill (PDF) / Commons Library briefing

Holocaust Memorial Bill – consideration of Lords amendments
Applies to: England, Wales
Authorises spending to build a National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. Removes land restrictions to allow it to be built in Victoria Tower Gardens next to Parliament.
Draft bill (PDF)

Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill – consideration of Lords amendments
Applies to: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Implements into domestic law the agreement to hand over the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. Ends the UK's sovereignty over the islands and removes its status as a British overseas territory.
Draft bill (PDF)

Wednesday 21 January

Rail Passengers' Charter Bill
Establishes a Rail Passengers’ Charter, which sets out guarantees that rail operators must provide and targets they must meet. Ten minute rule motion presented by Olly Glover.

National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill – committee of the whole House, report stage, and 3rd reading
Applies to: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Introduces National Insurance on pension contributions above £2,000 a year made via salary sacrifice (where an employee agrees to a lower salary in return for their employer paying the difference directly into their pension). Currently, employers and employees who take part in a salary sacrifice scheme pay no NI. Comes into force in April 2029.
Draft bill (PDF)

Thursday 22 January

No votes scheduled

Friday 23 January

No votes scheduled

Last week's votes

Passed

• Finance (No. 2) Bill – goes to report stage
• Emergency and Life-Saving Skills (Schools) Bill – goes to second reading
• Banks (Financial Exclusion and Access to Finance) Bill – goes to second reading

Click here to read details of the bills in last week's newsletter.

If the Gorton and Denton seat becomes available, Burnham would need approval to run from Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) a body which is generally seen as being supportive of Sir Keir.

Several Labour sources said they expected the NEC to object on the grounds that Burnham standing for Parliament would in turn trigger a by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty, which would be seen as a drain on party funds as well as politically risky.

Thoughts? Should Andy Burnham try to challenge Sir Keir? Would this help the country at all?

Archive link for those of us in Keir's inner circle.

"President Trump deployed words on Chagos yesterday that were different to his previous words of welcome and support when I met him in the White House," [Starmer] said.

"He deployed those words yesterday for the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain in relation to my values and principles on the future of Greenland."

The PM added: "He wants me to yield on my position, and I'm not going to do so."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she supported the PM's position on Greenland - but agreed with Trump on the "stupidity" of the Chagos Islands deal.

"We didn't need President Trump to tell us that, we've been saying this for 12 months," she told Sir Keir.

She urged the PM to "scrap this terrible deal and put the money into our armed forces".
[…]
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey accused Trump of "increasingly acting like a crime boss running a protection racket" and urged the PM to join French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in standing up more strongly to the US president.

The head of a British policing watchdog tasked with investigating the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Israeli football club’s match against Aston Villa failed to include any voices from Birmingham’s Muslim community in his preliminary report.

The report by Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary, led to the UK Home Secretary Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood saying that she had “no confidence” in Craig Guildford, the chief constable of West Midlands Police (WMP), prompting Guildford’s immediate retirement.

Those interviewed by Cooke include the charge d’affaires from the Israeli embassy in London, a representative of the Jewish Representative Council for Birmingham and West Midlands, and Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism.

However, Cooke did not include any voices from Muslim community groups or mosque leaders. Muslims make up approximately 30 percent of Birmingham’s population and almost 10 percent of the wider West Midlands region, according to census data.

Regarding defence:

The conclusion is inescapable: now is the time for the UK to reinforce, not wreck Europe’s security relationships, both through the European pillar of Nato and through cooperation with the EU. That means developing its own military capabilities as the US pulls back, as well as exploring a UK role in potential decision-making bodies such as a European security council.

Regarding the economy:

Labour should be open to renegotiating all barriers to cooperation – including integration with the single market in a Swiss-style deal.

Thoughts?

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/58638312

The British government co-owns a UAE-controlled port in Somaliland that is part of a network of Emirati infrastructure used to arm the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) accused of committing atrocities in Sudan.

The UK’s stake in Berbera port is held through the government’s foreign investment arm, British International Investment (BII), which jointly owns the strategic Horn of Africa port with the UAE’s logistics behemoth DP World and the Government of Somaliland.

Somaliland, a former British colony, is a breakaway region of Somalia that is currently at the centre of a diplomatic controversy after Israel last month became the only country in the world to recognise its independence from Mogadishu in a move that has drawn widespread international condemnation.

Tim Sigsworth 19 January 2026 2:48pm GMT

The White House has told Britain to stop arresting people who express support for Palestine Action.

Sarah Rogers, Donald Trump’s free speech tsar, said the arrests were “censoring” free speech and did “more harm than good”.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action since it was proscribed as a terror group in July last year.

Ms Rogers, the US state department’s under-secretary for public diplomacy, said that the public should be allowed to say they back the group.

“I would have to look at each individual person and each proscribed organisation,” she told Semafor. “I think if you support an organisation like Hamas, then depending upon whether you’re coordinating, there are all these standards that get applied.

“This Palestine Action group, I’ve seen it written about. I don’t know what it did. I think if you just merely stand up and say, ‘I support Palestine Action’, then unless you are really co-ordinating with some violent foreign terrorist, I think that censoring that speech does more harm than good.”

Palestine Action was proscribed in July 2025 after its activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and vandalised military aeroplanes.

In a campaign of vandalism and trespass protesting the war in Gaza, it has targeted businesses that it claims are linked to Israel.

Anyone who expresses support for the group – which is often done on a piece of paper – faces arrest and a maximum prison sentence of six months.

Ms Rogers has been an outspoken critic of Sir Keir Starmer’s Government and freedom of speech in Britain since taking her position in October last year.

She has criticised the Prime Minister for cancelling local elections, curbing rights to jury trials and not banning cousin marriage.

Ms Rogers also compared Britain under Labour to Vladimir Putin’s Russia after the Government threatened to ban Elon Musk’s X over the creation of naked images of women and children by its AI service, Grok.

She also said British police forces were wrong to arrest people for using the phrase “globalise the intifada”.

The Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said last month that anyone chanting the slogan would face arrest in a more robust approach to pro-Palestinian protesters following the Bondi Beach and Manchester synagogue terror attacks.

“I’m from New York City where thousands of people were murdered by jihadists,” Ms Rogers said, referring to the 9/11 terror attack. “I don’t want an intifada in New York City, and I think anyone who does is disgusting, but should it be legal to say in most contexts? Yes.”

In December, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, was arrested in London for expressing support for Palestine Action. She was later bailed until March.

The group is in the midst of a legal challenge against its proscription and critics of the ban have argued the group is not comparable to violent terror groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Proscription ‘is draconian’

Amnesty International, the charity, has said the group’s proscription is an example of “problematic, overly broad and draconian restrictions on free speech”.

A number of the group’s activists embarked upon a hunger strike while being in prison on remand as they awaited trial.

Scottish prosecutors have offered to drop charges against some supporters of Palestine Action if they accept a £100 fine.

Adam McGibbon, who refused the offer, said: “The fact that the authorities are offering fines equivalent to a parking ticket for a ‘terrorism offence’ shows just how ridiculous these charges are. Do supporters of Islamic State get the same deal?

“I refuse to pay this fine, as has everyone else I know who has been offered one. Just try and put all 3,000 of us who have defied this ban so far in jail, Shabana Mahmood. Have you got the space?”

Mr McGibbon was among those arrested at a mass rally on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in July 2025.

Lord Walney, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for defending democracy, said: “It is unfortunate that Sarah Rogers says she is unaware of the history of violence and organised sabotage that led the UK Government to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

“The president has spoken out in strong terms against far-Left violence and intimidation in the US and it is obvious he would in no way support these extremists damaging RAF jets, smashing up defence factories and attacking security staff with sledge hammers here in the UK.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “Palestine Action has conducted an escalating campaign involving not just sustained criminal damage, including to Britain’s national security infrastructure, but also intimidation and alleged violence and serious injuries to individuals. That kind of activity puts the safety and security of the public at risk.”

Israel’s aliyah and integration minister has said that Israel “ranks first” for British Jews and that the number of them migrating to Israel has risen significantly since 2023.

Ofir Sofer, who is in charge of attracting and integrating Jews to Israel from abroad, was speaking to Israeli radio station Kol BaRama on Monday.

Aliyah is a key concept in Israel, in which the state facilitates for Jewish people from around the world to move to the country - often by including financial incentives.

“Three years ago we were at 300 olim from England and today we are at 900,” he said, referring to Brits deciding to move to Israel.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government on Tuesday approved a huge new Chinese Embassy in central London despite heavy pressure from lawmakers over its potential security risks.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed formally signed off on plans for the building near the Tower of London after a series of delays and legal challenges.

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/31060778

Archive link for those of us not in the Customs Union.

Labour doing everything they can to keep us out of the EU.