Latest news with #LordGlasman
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Put Navy and drones in Channel to stop boats, says Labour peer
A Labour peer has urged Sir Keir Starmer to use the Royal Navy and drones in the English Channel to stop crossing boats. Lord Glasman told the Prime Minister he should 'just turn them back to France' as he set out his proposals to curb the worsening Channel crisis. His suggestions came after the number of migrants to reach Britain in small boats since Labour came to power last summer hit 50,000 earlier this week. Lord Glasman is viewed as an important voice within the party and is believed to have the ear of Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir's chief of staff. Speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC, the peer said the current scale of illegal migration was 'completely out of order'. He said: 'The first thing I'd do is put the Royal Navy in the English Channel to stop the boats.' Asked where the boats would then go, Lord Glasman replied: 'Just turn them back to France. What is the problem with being in France? France is a country that's signed up to human rights. Why are they leaving France? This is a very big question. 'Then we've got a really serious political problem with France. I think this is all part of the post Brexit agenda. We've got to actually assert our national interests.' He added that drones could be used to play a message to migrants urging them to turn back. 'Also, very interestingly, [I've] just been to Ukraine. They claim to have drones that can target every boat. 'So we could just send drones out as well and say, please turn back. We are under no obligation whatsoever to take the boat and it's been going on for much too long, and there has to be immediate action on that.' Sir Keir struck a deal last month with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, which means Britain will detain illegal migrants and send them back to France in return for taking a similar number of asylum seekers. But the evidence suggests that the 'one in, one out' scheme is already failing, with 50 per cent more migrants crossing the Channel since the deal than in the same period last year. 'The Treasury has outlived its function' During a wide-ranging phone-in, Lord Glasman – who has emerged as one of the staunchest Labour critics of Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves – also called for the abolition of the Treasury. He said: 'I actually think the Treasury has outlived its function. I'm in favour of abolishing the Treasury and having an economics ministry inside No 10. 'I think that over this period, certainly starting with Margaret Thatcher, the Treasury has become much too powerful. And the problem with the Treasury is it's all about accounts and it's about the Exchequer. 'And it doesn't understand the long term commitments that you have to make in order to build industry.' Ms Reeves is widely expected to launch a series of fresh tax raids at her second Budget this autumn to fill a hole in the public finances that may be as high as £50bn. Her first fiscal package last October raised taxes by a record-breaking £40bn, including an increase in employer's National Insurance and an inheritance tax raid on farmers. Ties with Trump and Vance Lord Glasman was the only Labour politician invited to Donald Trump's inauguration in January and said he is 'very' sympathetic to warnings about free speech issued by JD Vance, Mr Trump's vice-president. At a keynote speech in February, Mr Vance warned Britain that mass migration and the erosion of free speech pose a greater threat than Russia. Asked if he agreed that the biggest threat to Europe was an influx of 'unvetted foreign migrants', he said: 'I don't know if that's the biggest threat to Europe, but as I've said to you, I consider it as a pretty bad thing. 'He's also said some things about freedom of expression, expression and freedom of speech that I'm quite sympathetic [to].' A report released by the US state department this week claimed there were 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression' under Sir Keir's Government. Lord Glasman was then pushed to confirm he was sympathetic to Mr Vance's warnings that free speech in the UK was 'in retreat'. He replied: 'Yeah, very. I think our tradition of liberty is absolutely… In the ancient constitution which we still live with, there's four fundamental liberties. 'One of them is freedom of expression, one of them is freedom of conscience, another one is freedom of religion and the other one is freedom of association. 'Those four are essential to our country and our tradition. That's why I don't think we need the Human Rights Act here.'
Telegraph
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Starmer has six months to save his premiership, warns Labour peer
Sir Keir Starmer has six months to save his premiership, an influential Labour peer has warned. Lord Glasman, the founder of the socially conservative 'Blue Labour' movement, said that 'we are going to find out in the next six months' whether the Prime Minister 'has got it or not'. The peer said it would be possible to reach a final verdict on Sir Keir after the summer once the premier has made decisions on a number of big issues like a potential Cabinet reshuffle and the small boats crisis. He made the comments as Sir Keir marks his one-year anniversary in Downing Street this weekend. The Prime Minister suffered a terrible week in Westminster after he was humiliated by Labour rebels and forced to water down his welfare reforms. His premiership then hit a new nadir after Rachel Reeves cried during Prime Minister's Questions and Sir Keir initially failed to guarantee the Chancellor's future, spooking the markets. Lord Glasman, viewed as an important voice within the Labour Party, told Politico's Westminster Insider podcast that there needed to be a 'very significant change' in approach by Sir Keir. He said: 'He is grappling with the idea that being Prime Minister is actually very different from being a public prosecutor or a human rights lawyer and it is whether he can grow into that and we are going to find out I think in the next six months whether he has got it or not. I do think so.' Asked if he was saying that in six months he would know if Sir Keir could continue as Prime Minister, he replied: 'Yeah. We can make a date in six months and talk about where we are because I think that the decisions he has got to make over the summer about the Cabinet, about the reshuffle, about the direction, about all these things, defence policy, industrial strategy, borders, what needs to be done to stop the boats, all these things that he has talked about…' Asked if he believed Sir Keir was the right man to lead Labour into the next general election, he said: 'I don't know about the next election. I think that he is adequately placed to be the Prime Minister for the next four years. 'But in order to do that there has to be a very significant change.' The Prime Minister led Labour back into power with more than 400 MPs at the general election on July 4 last year – clinching a majority just short of Sir Tony Blair's landslide in 1997. But his personal popularity is now the lowest of any British premier after their first 12 months in office, according to professor of politics Sir John Curtice.
The Sun
18-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Labour big beast says he ‘loathes' proposed assisted dying laws – urging party to focus on migration and defence
A LABOUR big beast has launched a devastating takedown of proposed assisted dying laws - telling his party to focus on migration and defence instead. Lord Maurice Glasman - founder of the influential Blue Labour group - said he 'loathed' the attempt to 'give incentives to old people to die so that their children can get their hands on the house and some money.' The peer's first intervention on the thorny issue will likely give some party MPs pause for thought ahead of Friday's final Commons vote to legalise assisted dying. It will also send alarm bells ringing in Downing Street where top aides are trying to appeal to Labour's traditional work-class voters. In comments to The Sun, Lord Glasman said: 'No parent wants to be a 'burden' on their children, and times are hard. 'This Bill is not only - and pardon my expression - an abortion in its messy confusion, it is also the opposite of what this Government should be supporting. 'We should love and cherish our old people, support families taking care of their parents and grandparents by supporting and subsidising the building of granny flats.' He added: 'Labour's priority must be securing our borders, restoring our army and industrial strategy around defence spending. 'Solidarity not diversity must be our guiding principle, honouring our old people and the integrity of family life.' The assisted dying legislation has come from Labour MP Kim Leadbeater as a private members bill, with MPs given free votes so they are not constrained by party lines. At the last vote it passed with a 55 majority, with Sir Keir Starmer voting for it but Health Secretary Wes Streeting opposing. It would take just 28 switchers to bring down the Bill. It will give terminally ill patients the right to end their lives, but original safeguards including a judge signing off every assisted dying case has been watered down to panel of experts.
Telegraph
04-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
LGBT Pride Month has become a pointless embarrassment
See if you can make any more sense of this than I can. The other day, the official Facebook page for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue posted a photo showing three employees wearing face paint. Two were plastered with the rainbow colours of the Pride flag, and the other with the pink, blue and white of the transgender flag. And here's the message that ran alongside. 'We're proud to stand with our LGBT+ communities this Pride season and beyond,' it said. 'Fire doesn't discriminate. No matter who needs us, we'll always be there.' A noble sentiment. My only question is: what on earth was the point of it? I mean, of course the fire brigade will 'always be there' for LGBT+ people whose houses have caught fire. That's always been the case, even back in the dark, distant days when homosexual acts were illegal. To the best of my knowledge, no one calling 999 to report a blaze at their home has ever been ordered to state their sexuality. ('I'm awfully sorry, sir, but in that case we can't help you, I'm afraid. We only put fires out for red-blooded heterosexuals.') What this message was intended to achieve, therefore, is sadly lost on me. Still, no doubt there's more such bafflement to come. The whole of June, after all, is Pride Month. And what was once a vital means to campaign for equality has long since descended into an orgy of competitive virtue signalling by members of what the anti-woke Labour peer Lord Glasman has so memorably dubbed 'the lanyard class'. As in: the preening elitists who seize every chance going to parade their moral superiority. Here's another example. This week, Air Canada opened Pride Month by advertising its first-ever 'all-2SLGBTQIA+ flight'. In other words, every member of the crew was one or more of the following: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, 'queer', intersex, asexual, or 'two-spirit' (that is, someone who subscribes to the American Indian belief that the body contains both a 'masculine spirit' and a 'feminine spirit'). Congratulations to all involved, naturally. Again, though, I can't help wondering what the point was. It surely can't have meant much to the average passenger. In my own experience, at least, few holidaymakers refuse to board a flight until they've ascertained the exact number of ancient tribal spirits currently inhabiting the pilot. And to be frank, I don't see how it helped the staff, either. Since when has there been a shortage of job opportunities for gay air stewards? Back in Britain, even the head of MI6 has been joining in. In a statement, Sir Richard Moore announced that 'MI6 is proudly flying the Pride flag from Vauxhall Cross, alongside the Union flag, for the whole month of June. Your sexual orientation is no bar to you working and thriving at MI6.' Once upon a time, of course, it would have been. But how many people imagined that this were still the case, in 2025? And while we're on the subject: is it really essential for Sir Richard to declare on his social media profile that his pronouns are 'he/him', as if he were some blue-haired student, rather than the 62-year-old chief of the nation's foreign intelligence service? We already know he's a 'he'. The 'Sir' was a bit of a clue. Otherwise he'd be Lady Richard. In the United States, at least, times are changing. According to Newsweek, there's been a big drop in corporations jazzing up their logos in Pride colours. Perhaps their CEOs fear being ridiculed by Donald Trump. Or perhaps too many customers twigged that it was all just a load of empty spin (having noted, for example, how few of these corporations used Pride logos in their Middle Eastern markets). In Britain, however, the lanyard class remains scrupulously observant. Yet it's hard to avoid the sense that the wider public is starting to feel patronised. Of course homophobia still exists. Like all forms of prejudice, it always will. But under the law, people who describe themselves as LGBTQIA+ have the same rights, these days, as everyone else. So when a business preaches about inclusivity, it's difficult to see what it's trying to accomplish – other than to earn some easy applause. All of which is why Pride Month increasingly feels like a pointless embarrassment. No longer a platform for the powerless to speak out – but for the powerful to show off.
Telegraph
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Starmer's ‘thought police' turning off working class voters, says Labour lord
In his speech on Wednesday, he claimed Labour has isolated its core voter base by dismissing ordinary people who are simply 'in pain' by branding them as 'far-Right' or racist. He called for a 'cultural change' targeting the 'thought policing' of 'acceptable discourse' in order to win back the working class. 'It's been the case for the last 20 to 30 years that I would say that Labour culture has been a hostile environment for working-class people, because if you actually say what you think, you get condemned,' Lord Glasman said. 'And the inability to express the grief ... this is a huge part of the story, is that we see people in pain, and we call them far-Right or populists or nativists or racists or sexists, but no, they're just speaking.' He added: 'Obviously, the first part of the argument is that if we're a patriotic party that's pro-industry, pro-Army, pro-police, we will attract working-class support hugely. 'But there's got to be a cultural change where this thought policing of what is acceptable discourse, the power of HR departments, has got to be targeted ... to create a political space once more, in which the people who created our movement are allowed to speak.' He suggested that even Ernest Bevin, the former Labour foreign secretary, would be forbidden from standing for the party today because he would not be considered 'progressive' enough. A 'working-class insurrection' Last year's general election saw Labour win back dozens of 'Red Wall' seats that backed Boris Johnson to 'Get Brexit Done' in 2019. But any hopes of a working-class revival were dashed at the local elections on May 4, where Reform made huge gains in core Labour heartlands such as Durham and pipped Sir Keir to the post in Runcorn and Helsby. Lord Glasman said the 'only way' for Labour to get the better of Reform, which has declared itself as the new 'party of the working class', is to lead an 'insurrection' of his own. 'As Leonard Cohen says, everybody knows. Reform is a working-class insurrection against the progressive ruling class, and the only way to counter it is for the Labour Government to lead the insurrection,' he said. 'To celebrate the collapse of the era of globalisation, to embrace the space of Brexit, the renewal of the Commonwealth, the restoration of vocation, the primacy of Parliament, the integrity of our peace, the effectiveness of our Armed Forces, the protection of our borders, and the resurrection of Labour as the tribute of the working class.' 'Stain' on the political class Lord Glasman's 'Blue Labour' group, which leans Left on the economy but Right on social issues, has previously urged Sir Keir to go further on grooming gangs by launching a national inquiry into the scandal. On Wednesday, the Labour peer suggested perpetrators of historic child sex abuse should face show trials, referring to the purges of political dissidents carried out by the Soviet Union. 'Rape gangs systematically preying on young girls is what they call bang out of order. It is an abomination that must be purged from the body politic,' he said. 'The fact that it has been considered as s--- happens, rather than out of order, is a stain on me and the entire political class. It is time to resurrect more traditions from socialism, the purge and the show trial. 'The difference being that the accused in this case are not, by definition, innocent. It is a festering wound, it is still going on and it has not been stopped. The role of the televised trial is to witness the reason why it had not been stopped.' Dominant, not hegemonic Lord Glasman also compared the current Labour Government to the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who led the Communist Party during part of the Cold War. 'When you win less than 34 per cent of the vote and gain 71 per cent of the seats in Parliament, it is more reminiscent of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev than the renewal of social democracy. 'The party is dominant, but it is not hegemonic.'
