Starmer's gesture politics on Palestine and why a vote for Corbyn's new party will put Nigel Farage in Downing Street
Keir Starmer is terrified Jeremy and his band of pro-Gaza MPs will hoover up the Muslim vote and cost Labour the next election.
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So in a jaw-dropping speech on Tuesday, he announced the UK will recognise an independent state of Palestine unless Israel signs up to a ceasefire and long-term peace process.
It was an astonishing change in position from Keir, who just days earlier dismissed the stance as gesture politics.
So what changed?
The grim facts on the ground in the Middle East remained the same.
Hamas is still refusing to release the Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 and held in cold, dank tunnels buried deep underneath Gaza.
They have been there for more than 660 days.
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu still shows no signs of being willing to accept a two-state solution.
And innocent civilians in Gaza are paying the price for Hamas' reign of terror.
Appalling images of starving children desperately queuing for food have haunted our TV screens and newspaper pages.
The only thing that has changed is the news Corbyn is launching a new party to challenge Labour.
No10 denies Keir is tearing up 75 years of foreign policy because he is running scared of Jezza.
Moved by appalling images of emaciated children, he is launching a last-ditch bid to get Netanyahu to re-engage with the peace process, they say.
But recognising the state of Palestine will not put food into the belly of a single hungry child in Gaza.
It will not release a single hostage snatched by Hamas as they slept in their beds or danced at a music festival.
And it will not bring the Middle East a single step closer to peace.
It is the very essence of gesture politics Keir Starmer claims to despise.
Biggest danger
There is no doubt the new Corbyn party poses a massive challenge for Keir.
They plan to target seats with big Muslim populations.
There are fears inside Labour that 'London could fall'.
Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner are being targeted.
Zarah Sultana — a former Labour MP who has switched to Corbyn's party — will run against Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in Birmingham Ladywood.
The loss of all three of these Cabinet big beasts would be a catastrophe for Labour.
Sources close to Jeremy say the party could win around ten seats at the next election.
Others reckon the number could be higher — more like 20.
But the biggest danger to Labour is not the number of seats the party takes, but the number of votes.
Pollsters More In Common say the new party could get ten per cent of the vote, mainly from current Labour and Green supporters.
By nibbling at Labour's vote, Corbyn and his crew could hand Nigel Farage's Reform Party a seven-point lead — and a majority in Parliament.
So vote Jeremy, get Nigel Farage in No10.
Labour Party chiefs are expected to hammer this attack line on a Corbyn-led party.
Keir Starmer was also under huge pressure from his own party and base to recognise Palestine.
Over 100 Labour MPs had signed a letter demanding he do it.
A large chunk of the Cabinet had urged him to do the same.
But Keir has spent years painting himself as morally upright and principled standing loftily above the self-interest that motivates others.
Now the Prime Minister looks like he is recognising Palestine to save his own political skin.
As one party insider put it: 'Keir used to say country first, party second. Where does this decision leave that?'
How Ozzy helped Jacob to rock up on reality TV
AT first glance Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ozzy Osbourne do not have much in common.
One is a pinstripe-suit-wearing former Tory MP best known for his love of Brexit and devout Catholicism.
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The other was a heavy metal wildman famous for biting the head off a bat on stage and being so desperate for drugs he once snorted a line of ants off the roadside.
So it was a bit surprising to see the Moggster dedicate a whole section of his GB News show to tributes to the late, great Prince of Darkness.
But Jacob actually owes much of his success to Ozzy.
The Osbournes was the original family reality TV show – featuring Ozzy, wife Sharon and children Kelly and Jack.
Their lives were slightly bonkers, very loving – and made for intoxicating viewing.
Twenty years later, Jacob followed in Ozzy's footsteps with Meet The Rees-Moggs, a reality TV show about his equally eccentric and loving family.
Paying tribute to the Brummie rocker on telly, Mogg hailed him as 'a charismatic figure who had great charm and was at the top of his field'.
He added: 'We will pray for his soul.'
Judging by the rocker's hell-raising antics, I reckon that will take quite a few Hail Marys, Jacob.
CUT OFF PHONE THEFTS
STRICTLY dancer Michelle Tsiakkas has become the latest victim of mobile phone thieves to go public.
The ballroom dancer was walking through London's Covent Garden in June when a thug on an e-bike snatched her phone.
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When will this criminal scourge end?
As a Londoner, I'm appalled to see how muggers are terrorising the capital on their green e-bikes.
A phone is stolen in London every six minutes. That is a shameful statistic.
When victims call the police they are just fobbed off and told officers are too busy to investigate – even when the phone has a tracker on it.
Within days these mobiles are sold on by criminal gangs and end up around the world in places like China.
Enough is enough. Police must take a zero-tolerance approach to these phone snatchers.
I don't mind the rental e-bikes which have popped up all over the capital.
But they are too easy for thugs to fiddle so they can ride them without paying – and to carry out their muggings.
These businesses must step up and improve security.
And if London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants a legacy he should hurry up and clean up the streets of our capital.
Or his time in City Hall will go down in history as one of failure.
MENUS JABBED
HESTON BLUMENTHAL has revealed he is on the fat jab, and he's not the only one.
The celebrity chef says so many Brits are on Ozempic and Wegovy it risks wrecking the restaurant trade.
The days of charging diners through the nose for giant tasting menus might be over, he warns.
It costs £395 per person to tuck into the 11-course tasting menu at Blumenthal's own restaurant, The Fat Duck.
Looks like the fat jab will shrink Heston's bank balance as well as his waistline.
POPE'S BLACK MAGIC
Pope Leo XIV is said to have toasted St Patrick's Day this year with a pint of the black stuff.
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Perhaps the pontiff's love of Irish stout should come as no surprise.
He is a Yank after all – and they are known to be huge fans of the Irish tipple.
We were always big fans of Guinness in my family.
My grandad, Jim O'Sullivan (no awards for guessing where he came from), swore by the medicinal qualities of a pint of Guinness.
Whenever me or my brother were feeling sick when we were kids he would suggest taking a long glug of Guinness.
It is packed full of iron and would get our strength up, he said in his thick Cork accent.
It sounds like The Pope agrees.
Drinking Guinness is God for you!
The mega-rich Brits are said to be part of a consortium trying to take over the controversial porn site.
The property tycoons are considering pumping hundreds of millions of pounds in the project.
Well, no one ever became poor overestimating our interest in sex.
CHEAP AS LIPS
CLOBBERED by the cost-of-living crisis, us girls are turning to small treats like lipstick to give ourselves a little lift.
Britain's 'prestige lip market' has grown by 16 per cent in the past six months, according to the market research company Circana.
I never leave my flat without a full face of make-up.
But last time I bought a lippy it set me back £30, which isn't exactly cheap as chips.
Although I guess it's cheaper than a week in Marbella.
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The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israel minister who led prayers at a controversial holy site has a record of provocative actions
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Palestinians consider the mosque a national symbol and view visits by Jewish leaders as provocative and as a potential precursor to Israel seizing control over the compound. Most rabbis forbid Jews from praying on the site, but there has been a growing movement in recent years of Jews who support worship there. Ben-Gvir has long called for greater Jewish access to the holy site. Ben-Gvir was visiting to mark the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av, a day of mourning and repentance when Jews reflect on the destruction of the First and Second Temples, key events in Jewish history. Visits like Ben-Gvir's are legal. Israeli media said the visit was the first time that a sitting minister actively and vocally led prayers. Ben-Gvir also called for Israel to conquer and declare sovereignty over all of the Gaza Strip and encourage 'voluntary' migration from Gaza in order to end the war and bring the hostages back. Palestinians say the migration plan is a disguise for forced expulsions. In response to Ben-Gvir's visit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the status quo at the site had not changed and would not change to allow Jewish prayer. Run-ins with the law Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offenses that include racism and supporting a terrorist organization. The army banned him from compulsory military service when he was a teen, deeming his views too extreme. Ben-Gvir gained notoriety in his youth as a follower of the late radical rabbi Meir Kahane. He first became a national figure when he broke a hood ornament off then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's car in 1995. 'We got to his car, and we'll get to him too,' he said, just weeks before Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians. Two years later, Ben-Gvir took responsibility for orchestrating a campaign of protests, including death threats, that forced Irish singer Sinead O'Connor to cancel a concert for peace in Jerusalem. Moving to the mainstream The political rise of Ben-Gvir was the culmination of years of efforts by the media-savvy lawmaker to gain legitimacy. But it also reflected a rightward shift in the Israeli electorate that brought his religious, ultranationalist ideology into the mainstream and diminished hopes for Palestinian independence. Ben-Gvir is trained as a lawyer and gained recognition as a successful defense attorney for extremist Jews accused of violence against Palestinians. With a quick wit and cheerful demeanor, the outspoken Ben-Gvir also became a popular fixture in the media, paving his way to enter politics. He was first elected to parliament in 2021. Ben-Gvir has called for deporting his political opponents. In an episode in 2022, he brandished a pistol and encouraged police to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers in a tense Jerusalem neighborhood. In his Cabinet post, Ben-Gvir oversaw the country's police force. He used his influence to encourage Netanyahu to press ahead with the war in Gaza and recently boasted that he had blocked past efforts to reach a ceasefire. As national security minister, he has encouraged police to take a tough line against anti-government protesters. Controversial minister Ben-Gvir secured his Cabinet post after 2022 elections that put Netanyahu and his far-right partners, including Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party, into power. 'Over the last year I've been on a mission to save Israel,' Ben-Gvir told reporters before that election. 'Millions of citizens are waiting for a real right-wing government. The time has come to give them one.' Ben-Gvir has been a magnet of controversy throughout his tenure — encouraging the mass distribution of handguns to Jewish citizens, backing Netanyahu's contentious attempt to overhaul the country's legal system and frequently lashing out at U.S. leaders for perceived slights against Israel. Resignation and return to Netanyahu's cabinet Ben-Gvir temporarily resigned from Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet earlier this year to express his disapproval of the Gaza ceasefire deal. The ceasefire ran from Jan. 19 to March 1. Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in return for nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences for deadly attacks. Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to what remained of their homes, and there was a surge of humanitarian aid. Ben-Gvir's resignation did not stop the ceasefire, but it did weaken Netanyahu's governing coalition. Ben-Gvir rejoined the cabinet when Israel ended the ceasefire and returned to active combat in Gaza in March 2025. Last week, the Netherlands banned Ben-Gvir and far-right Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich from entering the country. Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway imposed financial sanctions on the two men last month.
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
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Hamas CAVES to pressure from Netanyahu and concedes it might now allow the Red Cross into Gaza following global outrage over hostage videos
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Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Exposed: Palestine Action supporters plot to overwhelm police
Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters are planning to flout terror laws in a co-ordinated attempt to overwhelm the police, The Telegraph can reveal. Campaigners have hatched a plot for Left-wing activists and members of the Muslim community to attend a demonstration on Saturday declaring support for Palestine Action, the recently banned terror group. To do so would be an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000, punishable by up to 14-years in prison. More than 200 people have been arrested for expressing support for the group since July 5. Last week, one of the co-founders of Palestine Action won the right to challenge the legality of the ban. Now, campaigners plan to confront the criminal justice system en-masse to test if the law can be enforced if thousands of protesters descend on London. The move would ramp up pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, who is simultaneously battling a 25-year High Court backlog and a chronic shortage of prison spaces. Protests are planned for towns and cities across the UK, but the main event will take place in Westminster where thousands are being urged to attend and deliberately flout the terror legislation. The Telegraph can today expose the plan, co-ordinated by a number of groups including Cage International and Defend Our Juries, after attending a pro-Palestine event last week. At the meeting, hosted by Cage International in Birmingham, Moazzam Begg, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee, called on the Muslim community to join in the act of defiance and declare their support for Palestine Action. He told supporters: 'I would urge everybody to join the action of the 9th of August. That is the first step to take for the resistance. 'Those from the Muslim community, we have a massive presence in this city, and we must engage our leaders, our Imams, our habibs, those in positions of power, to join, there is strength in numbers, stop being a coward, cowards never win battles.' The meeting was attended by about 30 to 40 supporters, some of whom wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and flags. The evening was billed by Shezana Hafiz, a Cage International representative, as an opportunity to 'discuss crucial matters that pertain to our movement – a movement to liberate Palestine, to crush Zionism and see an end to the genocide in Gaza'. During the meeting, Angie Zelter, from Defend Our Juries, urged people to take part in the co-ordinated action, telling attendees: 'Together we can and must face down the rising tide of fascism in Britain.' She said people were starting to see 'an arrest for terrorism as a badge of honour'. In a briefing document, drafted by Defend Our Juries and seen by The Telegraph, those considering taking part are warned: 'Joining this campaign comes with risk.' But the document goes on to say: 'It would be practically and politically difficult for the state to respond to an action on this scale. 'Even assuming it had the physical capacity to arrest so many people on the same day, the political fallout from such an operation would be incalculable, causing irreparable damage to the reputation of the Government and the police. 'Our assessment is that an action on this scale could be enough for the ban to be lifted. 'Charging and prosecuting at least 500 more people, in addition to the 200 people already arrested, is likely to be beyond the capacity of the state, given the current situation in the criminal justice system.' Volunteers are told to bring their own blank placard and a thick marker pen, and when in place to write the words: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' They are advised: 'Although there's a substantial risk of arrest, and all taking part should be prepared for that, no-one has yet been charged with an offence and no-one has been remanded to prison.' Experts have warned that the action could create a significant headache for police forces if thousands of people deliberately break the law in a co-ordinated campaign. Graham Wettone, a retired Metropolitan Police officer with many years experience working in public order policing, said: 'There are a limited number of custody cell spaces available in London and as we saw a couple of years ago with Just Stop Oil, these can fill up quickly. 'The Met may seek to take some of those arrested outside of the capital but there is no doubt that if thousands of people turn up and take part it will test the system to the limit. Simply put, they will not be able to arrest and process everyone.' The courts backlog is running at a 25-year high, with about 77,000 cases waiting to be heard and some trials being listed for 2027. Last year, Labour's early release scheme freed thousands of prisoners who were 40 per cent of the way through their sentence, rather than halfway. Legal challenge against proscription Palestine Action was outlawed by Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, on July 5 after a group of its members allegedly entered RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military aircraft. Last week, the co-founder of the group won the right to bring a legal challenge against proscription, arguing that the ban breached the right to freedom of expression and protest. A judicial review over the legality of the group is due to be heard in the autumn and could see the ban lifted. Of the 200 or so people who have been arrested on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action since its proscription, none have yet been charged. It is thought that prosecutors are waiting for the outcome of the legal challenge before they make a decision on whether to put people before the courts.
