Latest news with #SureStart
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
New parent check list – how to avoid missing out on £13,700 worth of benefits and savings
Scroll to see how you can get cash for food and free childcare BABY BRAIN New parent check list – how to avoid missing out on £13,700 worth of benefits and savings Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) WELCOMING a new baby into the world is a beautiful experience for most parents but the cost of raising a child can be daunting. From specialist gear such as prams, bed and nappies, through to food and childcare, the cost of being a parent is staggeringly high. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 As soon as you're pregnant, help becomes available Credit: Getty Fortunately, there is plenty of help available for parents if you know where to look. Here is a checklist of items to make sure you get all the financial help you can whether you are becoming a parent for the first time or having another child... Apply for Sure Start If you're expecting your first child and receive selected benefits you could get a one-off payment of £500 to help pay for costs such as a new cot or pram through the government's Sure Start scheme. You can claim within 11 weeks of the baby's due date and you don't have to pay the money back. You will need to claim within six months after the baby's birth. You can only get the grant if you don't have any other children udner 16. And you or your partner must also get one of these benefits: Income Support income-based Jobseeker's Allowance income-related Employment and Support Allowance Pension Credit Universal Credit You could qualify if you're getting a Support for Mortgage Interest loan. You'll need to print out and fill in the Sure Start application form available on the gov website. Or for more help contact the Sure Start Maternity Grant helpline on 0800 169 0140. Apply for Healthy Start The Healthy Start scheme helps low income pregnant women and families with young children to afford nutricious groceries, including fruit, vegetables, and milk. The scheme is a weekly allowance of £4.25 for people over 10 weeks pregnant, £8.50 for the first year of a child's life, and £4.25 a week for children aged one to four. It works out as up to £442 worth of essentials over the year for a child. Eligibility is based on income levels and entitlement to means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit or: Child tax credits (only if your family's annual income is £16,190 or less) Income support Income-based jobseeker's allowance Pension credit (which includes the child addition) Universal Credit (only if your family's take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment) For more information or to apply, visit Find out what you're entitled to You should use a benefits calculator to find out what you are entitled to and keep checking throughout maternity leave, as your pay changes, according to Katie Guild, co-founder of financial parenting website Nugget Savings. She says: "Whilst you might not be entitled to benefits like Universal Credit normally, when your wage drops to statutory pay only or you enter the unpaid period of leave, your household wage may suddenly be low enough to claim. "So it's worth checking in with the calculators to see if you are eligible every time your circumstances change." It's easy to do a quick check of benefits you could be entitled to. You just need to use a free online tool. Any of the following three should bring up extra help you could claim: You will need certain information ready to give the calculators such as savings, household income, including your partner's, existing benefits and pensions, as well as outgoings. You can get extra Universal Credit if you have children. For a first child born after 2017 this is worth £292.81 a month or £3,513.72 a year. Claim child benefit as soon as possible Once you have children you become eligible for child benefit. This is worth £26.05 a week for your eldest or only child, and you then get a further £17.25 for every additional child. For example, eligible families with two children, the payment is worth £2,251.60 a year. You can only backdate the payments for a maximum of three months, so claim as soon as possible after birth to avoid missing out. Any household that earns less than £80,000 a year are entitled to the full payment. But if you or your partner earns more than £60,000, you'll have to repay part of the benefit through the high income child benefit charge. Once you or your partner earns more than £80,000 a year, the amount you'll have to repay cancels out the payment. Katie adds: "If you're normally over the £80,000 threshold consider whether low maternity pay brings your earnings below the thresholds for the current tax year. "If it does, claim for the year and just de-register from the payments as soon as your wage goes over the threshold again." You can also still claim Child Benefit but crucially opt out of receiving payments to build up National Insurance contributions, which are used to calculate your State Pension entitlement in retirement. You need 35 years of NI contributions for a full state pension. This is why it's important to claim child benefit even if you opt out of payments. Consider childcare Childcare is a huge financial burden on working parents. However, from September there are 30 free childcare hours for children over 9 months. This is typically worth more than £5,000 a year. Katie says: "These schemes involve a lot of rules and eligibility requirements, so it's good to get your head around them in good time so you don't miss out on deadlines. "We recommend checking out the childcare choices website so you can apply for the various schemes on time." In some areas, childcare spaces are in high demand and there are waiting lists for nurseries so its a good idea to consider what you will need in advance of returning to work, for example. In some cases, you may need to put down a deposit to guarantee spots. Apply for tax-free childcare Before you need to start paying for childcare, you should open a tax-free childcare account. This gives an extra boost towards the cost of paying for childcare through nursery or recognised childcare providers. The government scheme gives £2 free for every £8 put into an account, which is then used to pay providers. Parents can get up to a maximum of £2,000 a year per child or £4,000 if their child is disabled. This is huge help in the cost of care, so register well in advance to get it set up. You'll need to give details about you and your partners income, as well as confirming details every three months so you can also get the free hours, as well as tax-free childcare. What help is available to parents for childcare costs? CHILDCARE can be a costly business. Here is how you can get help. 30 hours of free childcare - Parents of three and four-year-olds can apply for 30 hours of free childcare a week. To qualify you must work at least 16 hours a week at the national living or minimum wage and earn less than £100,000 a year. free childcare - Parents of three and four-year-olds can apply for 30 hours of free childcare a week. To qualify you must work at least 16 hours a week at the national living or minimum wage and earn less than £100,000 a year. Tax credits - For children under 20, some families can get help with childcare costs. For children under 20, some families can get help with childcare costs. Tax-free childcare - Available to working families and the self-employed, for every £8 you put in the government will add an extra £2.
The Sun
2 days ago
- General
- The Sun
New parent check list – how to avoid missing out on £13,700 worth of benefits and savings
WELCOMING a new baby into the world is a beautiful experience for most parents but the cost of raising a child can be daunting. From specialist gear such as prams, bed and nappies, through to food and childcare, the cost of being a parent is staggeringly high. Fortunately, there is plenty of help available for parents if you know where to look. Here is a checklist of items to make sure you get all the financial help you can whether you are becoming a parent for the first time or having another child... Apply for Sure Start If you're expecting your first child and receive selected benefits you could get a one-off payment of £500 to help pay for costs such as a new cot or pram through the government's Sure Start scheme. You can claim within 11 weeks of the baby's due date and you don't have to pay the money back. You will need to claim within six months after the baby's birth. You can only get the grant if you don't have any other children udner 16. And you or your partner must also get one of these benefits: You could qualify if you're getting a Support for Mortgage Interest loan. You'll need to print out and fill in the Sure Start application form available on the gov website. Or for more help contact the Sure Start Maternity Grant helpline on 0800 169 0140. Apply for Healthy Start The Healthy Start scheme helps low income pregnant women and families with young children to afford nutricious groceries, including fruit, vegetables, and milk. The scheme is a weekly allowance of £4.25 for people over 10 weeks pregnant, £8.50 for the first year of a child's life, and £4.25 a week for children aged one to four. It works out as up to £442 worth of essentials over the year for a child. Eligibility is based on income levels and entitlement to means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit or: Child tax credits (only if your family's annual income is £16,190 or less) Income support Income-based jobseeker's allowance Pension credit (which includes the child addition) Universal Credit (only if your family's take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment) For more information or to apply, visit healthystart. Find out what you're entitled to You should use a benefits calculator to find out what you are entitled to and keep checking throughout maternity leave, as your pay changes, according to Katie Guild, co-founder of financial parenting website Nugget Savings. She says: "Whilst you might not be entitled to benefits like Universal Credit normally, when your wage drops to statutory pay only or you enter the unpaid period of leave, your household wage may suddenly be low enough to claim. "So it's worth checking in with the calculators to see if you are eligible every time your circumstances change." It's easy to do a quick check of benefits you could be entitled to. You just need to use a free online tool. Any of the following three should bring up extra help you could claim: You will need certain information ready to give the calculators such as savings, household income, including your partner's, existing benefits and pensions, as well as outgoings. You can get extra Universal Credit if you have children. For a first child born after 2017 this is worth £292.81 a month or £3,513.72 a year. Claim child benefit as soon as possible Once you have children you become eligible for child benefit. This is worth £26.05 a week for your eldest or only child, and you then get a further £17.25 for every additional child. For example, eligible families with two children, the payment is worth £2,251.60 a year. You can only backdate the payments for a maximum of three months, so claim as soon as possible after birth to avoid missing out. Any household that earns less than £80,000 a year are entitled to the full payment. But if you or your partner earns more than £60,000, you'll have to repay part of the benefit through the high income child benefit charge. Once you or your partner earns more than £80,000 a year, the amount you'll have to repay cancels out the payment. Katie adds: "If you're normally over the £80,000 threshold consider whether low maternity pay brings your earnings below the thresholds for the current tax year. "If it does, claim for the year and just de-register from the payments as soon as your wage goes over the threshold again." You can also still claim Child Benefit but crucially opt out of receiving payments to build up National Insurance contributions, which are used to calculate your State Pension entitlement in retirement. You need 35 years of NI contributions for a full state pension. This is why it's important to claim child benefit even if you opt out of payments. Consider childcare Childcare is a huge financial burden on working parents. However, from September there are 30 free childcare hours for children over 9 months. This is typically worth more than £5,000 a year. Katie says: "These schemes involve a lot of rules and eligibility requirements, so it's good to get your head around them in good time so you don't miss out on deadlines. "We recommend checking out the childcare choices website so you can apply for the various schemes on time." In some areas, childcare spaces are in high demand and there are waiting lists for nurseries so its a good idea to consider what you will need in advance of returning to work, for example. In some cases, you may need to put down a deposit to guarantee spots. Apply for tax-free childcare Before you need to start paying for childcare, you should open a tax-free childcare account. This gives an extra boost towards the cost of paying for childcare through nursery or recognised childcare providers. The government scheme gives £2 free for every £8 put into an account, which is then used to pay providers. Parents can get up to a maximum of £2,000 a year per child or £4,000 if their child is disabled. This is huge help in the cost of care, so register well in advance to get it set up. You'll need to give details about you and your partners income, as well as confirming details every three months so you can also get the free hours, as well as tax-free childcare. What help is available to parents for childcare costs? CHILDCARE can be a costly business. Here is how you can get help. 30 hours of free childcare - Parents of three and four-year-olds can apply for 30 hours of free childcare a week. To qualify you must work at least 16 hours a week at the national living or minimum wage and earn less than £100,000 a year. Tax credits - For children under 20, some families can get help with childcare costs. Tax-free childcare - Available to working families and the self-employed, for every £8 you put in the government will add an extra £2.
The Independent
01-08-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Bring back early years scheme Sure Start to fend off Reform, Labour urged
Labour has been urged to launch a massive expansion of family centres under the Sure Start brand to fend off Nigel Farage 's Reform UK. A commission backed by Labour peer Hilary Armstrong has said a reintroduction of Sure Start family centres could rebuild faith in neighbourhoods blighted by Tory austerity. Her Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods found the reinstatement of Sure Start would be backed across the political spectrum, with two-thirds of potential Reform voters supporting the move. Bridget Phillipson has ploughed £500m into family hubs offering parenting support and youth services across every council in England. The education secretary is targeting disadvantaged communities with what are called 'Best Start' hubs, which she has said will 'give a lifeline' to families. Officials anticipate the network will grow to include up to 1,000 hubs by the end of 2028. Government sources told The Guardian the Best Start brand was tested and came out as a clear winner among voters, with parents viewing it as aimed at parents' ambitions. But Baroness Armstrong's commission found that 62 per cent of people recognise the Sure Start brand, while 72 per cent of voters want to see it revived. More than 1,400 Sure Start centres have been closed since 2010 amid the Conservatives' austerity drive. At its peak under Gordon Brown, the programme had more than 3,600 centres, with Labour ministers repeatedly describing Sure Start as one of the party's biggest achievements in government. Jo White, a Labour MP who chairs the 'red wall' grouping in parliament, told The Guardian: 'Labour's reconnection with left-behind communities, including in the 'red wall' constituencies, has to be tangible. People need to see and experience change, and the reopening of Sure Start centres is a very good start.' Baroness Armstrong added: 'On our visits across the country we have heard time and again how Sure Start made a positive difference to the lives of people in ways that few other policy initiatives have done. 'Our work has shown that bringing back Sure Start centres through upgrading existing services in the most disadvantaged places would not only be good value for money but would also start to rebuild trust in neighbourhoods which saw services taken away due to austerity.' Labour is hoping to see off the rise of Reform, which has consistently topped the polls after Sir Keir Starmer 's shaky start in Downing Street. Mr Farage's party is currently backed by 30 per cent of voters, with Labour on 22 per cent and the Conservatives in third on 17 per cent. Department for Education spokesperson said: 'Giving children growing up in our country the best start in life is central to our mission to break the unfair link between background and success. 'This government is revitalising family services, rolling out up to 1,000 Best Start family hubs in every local area, relieving pressure on parents and building on the successful legacy of Sure Start. 'Through our Plan for Change, our Best Start services will deliver 30 hours of government-funded childcare, expand school-based nurseries, and roll out free breakfast clubs in every primary school to support working parents.'
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour urged to revive Sure Start label to win back Reform voters
The government should greatly expand family centres under the Sure Start brand to help win back Reform voters in former Labour heartlands, a commission backed by Labour politicians has said. Hilary Armstrong, the Labour peer and former cabinet minister, was among those pressing for a fuller reintroduction of family centres under the Sure Start label, saying it would help to rebuild trust in neighbourhoods damaged by austerity. Armstrong is chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, which said its polling showed 62% of people recognised the Sure Start brand, and that 76% would like to see it revived. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, announced last month that one-stop-shop family hubs similar to Sure Start would be introduced throughout England to give parents advice and support. The £500m project will open up to 1,000 centres from April 2026, meaning every council in England will have a family hub by 2028. It will be called Best Start and will build on the existing family hubs and the start for life programme to provide a single point of access for services in health, education and wellbeing services. The policy forms part of the government's push to replace services lost since 2010, which include the closure of more than 1,400 Sure Start centres. At their peak under Gordon Brown, there were more than 3,600 Sure Start centres, which were considered one of the previous Labour government's biggest achievements. Government sources said the Best Start brand was tested and came out as the clear winner against other options, with focus groups drawn from expectant parents up to those with 10-year-olds, all participants from lower socioeconomic groups. Parents in the groups opted for Best Start as the clearest description of intent, who it was aimed at and a sense of parents' ambitions. The hubs are intended to be a bigger umbrella for services than Sure Start, ultimately encompassing Labour's wider offer, from free breakfast clubs to school-based nurseries. However, the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods said the policy should be returned to its original Sure Start name to have the maximum impact. Jo White, a Labour MP who chairs the 'red wall' grouping in parliament, said: 'Labour's reconnection with left-behind communities, including in the 'red wall' constituencies, has to be tangible. People need to see and experience change, and the reopening of Sure Start centres is a very good start.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Hilary Armstrong said: 'On our visits across the country we have heard time and again how Sure Start made a positive difference to the lives of people in ways that few other policy initiatives have done. Our work has shown that bringing back Sure Start centres through upgrading existing services in the most disadvantaged places would not only be good value for money but would also start to rebuild trust in neighbourhoods which saw services taken away due to austerity.' Polling by ICON found reinstatement as Sure Start would have cross-party appeal, including to working-class voters who switched to Reform in May's local government elections and whose continued support for Nigel Farage's party threatens scores of Labour seats. It found 65% of Reform voters said they backed its return, along with 82% of Liberal Democrat voters and 87% of Green voters. Among those described as 'Reform curious' – voters open to backing the party – support rose to 68%. The polling found that Sure Start was more commonly identified with the Labour party than with the Conservatives or coalition, and that 61% identified children as beneficiaries, 56% poorer families and 39% working-class people. Of those questioned, half said the return of the programme would make them view the government more favourably, while a third said it would make them more likely to vote Labour. Ministers are understood to want to honour the legacy of Sure Start while embedding the Best Start hubs even deeper into the system to make sure they cannot be easily dismantled by future governments. A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'Giving children growing up in our country the best start in life is central to our mission to break the unfair link between background and success. 'This government is revitalising family services, rolling out up to 1,000 Best Start family hubs in every local area, relieving pressure on parents and building on the successful legacy of Sure Start. 'Through our Plan for Change, our Best Start services will deliver 30 hours of government-funded childcare, expand school-based nurseries, and roll out free breakfast clubs in every primary school to support working parents.'
New Statesman
23-07-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
The MoD's Afghan data breach shows us who we really are
Hundreds of people are evacuated out of Afghanistan by British armed forces in August 2021. Photo by Ben Shread/MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images The Afghan data breach was not an isolated incident. Between 2023 and 2024, there were 569 known cases in which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) failed to keep sensitive information safe: software compromised, devices missing, documents mishandled. On 16 July it was revealed that a UK official had accidentally leaked information on 18,714 Afghan nationals applying for a government relocation scheme for those who had helped the British military. Before that, the MoD had made public the identities of 265 Afghan collaborators, most of whom were interpreters, in a stray email in 2021. It had left its payroll system vulnerable to hackers who gained access to the names and bank details of British military personnel. And it had admitted to losing hundreds of government assets, from laptops and memory sticks to a Glock pistol and a First World War machine gun. What explains this pattern of failings? It appears that by removing security checks, foregoing proper data protection, cutting back on staff and hiring outside contractors, the MoD laid the foundations for the unfolding national scandal. The leaks thus reflect the deeper maladies of the British state: a decrepit structure, starved of skills and resources, which is willing to meddle in the affairs of foreign countries yet incapable of running its own IT. It is equally the latest reverberation from the new century's version of imperialism, when Tony Blair hymned overseas conquest like Kipling reborn, and the British army marched through deserts it had last seen in 1880. The New Labour era was a period of peculiar political and geopolitical arrogance. Today, Keir Starmer praises the record of these governments and cites it as a model for his own, even as their legacies threaten to undermine his leadership and give succour to his right-wing opponents. Nostalgists for the Blair-Brown era tend to bracket its foreign policy, presenting the war on terror as a blunder that needn't detract from domestic achievements like Sure Start or the national minimum wage. But the Afghan debacle shows that these two spheres cannot be separated; the national and international dimensions of Blairism followed the same economic logic. As New Labour embarked on its state-building projects abroad, it simultaneously hollowed out the state at home, marketising those parts of it that hadn't yet been sold off by the Tories. The MoD was the second biggest departmental spender on private finance initiatives, raining hellfire down on Iraq and Afghanistan with the help of an emboldened private sector, to which it handed billions worth of contracts. This strategy left public institutions increasingly unable to function by themselves. They made little effort to develop their internal expertise, not least when it came to the new frontier of digital services and databases. Both New Labour's military adventurism and its private finance agenda emanated from a belief that the market-led 'liberal democracy' would conquer the world after the Cold War, replacing backward governments with modern ones, fusty bureaucrats with dynamic entrepreneurs. Authorities in Kabul and Westminster alike would be swept away by this emerging order. Since the arc of history supposedly bent in its direction, the transformation would be mostly spontaneous. Policymakers were encouraged to step back and let it take its course. Their main role was to remove the obstacles to this telos via targeted interventions: overthrowing unfriendly dictators, repealing onerous regulations and waiting for peace and prosperity to follow. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe But such progress never arrived. Instead, the Middle East was drenched in blood: cities bombed to oblivion, ancient heritage sites razed and ethnic conflicts inflamed, with a network of torture facilities springing up across the region to deal with popular resistance. The puppet government in Afghanistan hid out in its securitised Green Zone, siphoning off foreign aid while the rest of the country suffered an endless social crisis. Inequality widened, with basic services in short supply. Political opposition was monopolised by the Taliban, who could bide their time until the occupiers exhausted themselves. Nor was New Labour's 'modernising' vision realised on the home front, where opening the state to market competition brought no benefit to anyone apart from the successful competitors. Just as external actors took over what passed for public provision in Afghanistan, private entities assumed many of the traditional functions of government in Britain, creating a culture of kickbacks and corner-cutting, soaring costs and deteriorating services. Blair had assumed that he could remove the constraints on his 'Third Way' model – 'rogue regimes', nationalised utilities – and bask in its success. But in practice the elimination of those fetters led to perpetual crisis, which the government was forced to step in and manage: staying in the Middle East far longer than expected to attend to the aftermath of its invasions, while struggling to limit the blowback from its free-market reforms. This sequence of events unfolded not just in Britain but across the Global North, as governments joined foreign wars and delegated authority to big business. It soon gave rise to a paradoxical situation. New forms of international dependency were created, with impoverished client states becoming completely reliant on the imperial powers. At the same time, those powers themselves became dependent on predatory investors and asset-stripping corporations, with dire results for states and wider societies. So, as elites in Kabul looked to Western governments to stabilise their rule, they realised that the latter were grappling with their own set of instabilities, caused by the forward march of neoliberalism. Politicians in the developed world had forfeited their own sovereignty while trying to assert it over others. This dynamic contributed to the failure of the regime-change doctrine. These weakened states – internally atrophied and externally overstretched – were not up to the task of neocolonial governance. Their operations were often haphazard, their intelligence flawed. They never established hegemony, which requires the maintenance of power through a careful balance of coercion and consent. The mode of rule was based on the first far more than the second: domination pure and simple. Under this system, the original sins of colonialism began to proliferate. According to a BBC investigation, scores of Afghan civilians were executed by British special forces, with one SAS squadron reportedly competing internally to attain the highest body count. One veteran described it as 'routine' for soldiers to handcuff and kill detainees – including children – and then cover up their crimes by removing the restraints and planting weapons on the corpses. Killing, said another former fighter, was 'addictive'. 'On some operations, the troops would go into guesthouse-type buildings and kill everyone there… They'd go in and shoot everyone sleeping there, on entry.' Countries that are run in this way tend to rebel against their rulers. The abrupt Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, allowing the Taliban to regain control rapidly, was an open acknowledgement of that fact. Two decades of engagement had cost an estimated 243,000 lives without leaving behind any durable power structure. While some clung to the dream of an indefinite occupation, most of the political and military establishment recognised the urgent need to jump ship. Yet the notion that Britain could easily escape this quagmire was no less misguided than the decision to enter it in the first place. Relations of dependency do not disappear overnight. UK officials had to work out what to do about the significant number of Afghans who lent their services to the war effort, and who now have a legitimate claim to asylum. Once again, their response was astoundingly inept: first presiding over a leak-prone MoD that broadcast the collaborators' details on an unencrypted spreadsheet; then failing to notice the mistake for 18 months; then refusing to inform those it endangered; and finally launching a belated resettlement scheme under the cover of a super-injunction. Britain has now abandoned even this fleeting attempt to make up for its reckless activities. The Defence Secretary, John Healey, has announced that no more Afghans whose data was exposed will automatically be offered relocation in the UK, nor will they be given compensation. He assures us there is 'little evidence of intent from the Taliban to conduct a campaign of retribution against former officials' – even though there is already a well-documented record of similar revenge attacks, and Healey admits he is 'unable to say for sure' whether people have been killed as a result of the breach. Naturally, the families of those featured on the spreadsheet are not as sanguine as he is about their possible fate. All this follows Labour's earlier decision to shut down safe routes for Afghan asylum seekers, abolishing both the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. These were designed for those who had assisted UK forces along with other vulnerable groups, but have now been closed with immediate effect, as part of a broader attempt to outflank the anti-migrant politics of Reform UK. Starmer's intention, it seems, is simply to ignore the inconvenient fallout of the war on terror. The fantasy of building a harmonious Western-orientated Afghanistan has been swapped for the fantasy of evading the consequences of that project. It will not turn out well. The Labour Party's wars of aggression have reshaped 21st-century Britain, not to mention the Middle East, in ways that are impossible to repress. In particular, by promoting the narrative that Muslims are incapable of running their own countries and attempting to modernise them at gunpoint, they have legitimated the kind of Islamophobia Nigel Farage is now wielding against the main Westminster parties: calling for a hard-border regime to keep out those lacking in 'British values'. Farage has used the data breach to further incite such paranoia, claiming with no evidence that sex offenders have been allowed into the UK under the resettlement programme. The only principled and effective antidote to this reactionary tendency is a full rupture with the legacy of New Labour. The first step would be to reckon with the scale of suffering caused by foreign interventions and accept Britain's obligation to alleviate it to the greatest possible extent: by welcoming refugees, easing sanctions that continue to strangle the Afghan economy, and paying reparations. The real test of whether we've learnt from the 2000s, however, is whether we continue to repeat its mistakes. The current Labour government might be more wary of dispatching troops to faraway places. But it still sent RAF spy planes to aid Israeli intelligence operations in Gaza, and has supplied components for Israel's F-35 jets that are being used in air strikes, all in the service of a protracted regime-change campaign against Hamas. It refuses to rule out supporting a US-Israeli assault on Iran, which would inevitably cause mass death and displacement as well as creating many more refugees. If the government's main foreign policy ambition is to act as Washington's henchman, this is in part because its domestic policy is not designed to reclaim the sovereignty that was relinquished during the neoliberal period; it is characterised by the same mix of deregulation and deference to private interests. In this sense, the data leak offers a glimpse of a much wider problem: the ability of Blairism to survive amid the wreckage it has made. [See also: Israel and Gaza: A question of intent] Related
