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LFF is closed over the Easter break 17 Apr 7:47 AM (4 days ago)

LFF is closed over the Easter holiday period and will return on 22^nd April.

On behalf of the entire LFF team, we wish you a restful and enjoyable Easter break,

Best wishes

Basit Mahmood

Editor, Left Foot Forward

The post LFF is closed over the Easter break appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Former Tory minister calls Liz Truss a ‘bitter, toxic nut’ after reports she wants to set up her own social media company 17 Apr 6:49 AM (4 days ago)

A former Tory minister has attacked Liz Truss as a ‘bitter, toxic nut’, following news that the former Tory leader wanted to set up her own ‘free speech’ social media platform.

Speaking to Times Radio, Edwina Currie said that Truss was ‘mad’ and she hoped she stays in America and that no one on Times radio ‘bothers to listen to her’.

It comes after the London Economic revealed that Truss is set to launch her own social media platform, similar to Trump’s Truth Social, believing that the ‘establishment media’ have failed her.

She told the gathered audience in Bedford over the weekend: “We are planning to launch it in the summer of this year, and there will be more news about it fairly soon, but I can’t say anymore at this stage.”

Times Radio then asked Sir Anthony Seldon, the historian who wrote ‘Truss at 10 – How not to be prime minister’, what he thought of Truss’ plans to set up her own social media platform. He said: “I think it matters how former prime ministers behave and we are again back to that character question, aren’t we?

“Someone who has been a prime minister, even just for 49 days as in her case, has a duty to the country and indeed to themselves to behave in a way that is fitting and appropriate and I fear she doesn’t have that critical judgment.

“Judgement is the great, undervalued and overlooked quality in leaders. Donald Trump, I don’t think, has judgment. Our head of state, the king, does have impeccable judgment. And if you don’t have it, you become a laughing stock.

“I still live in the hope, Liz Truss, who has many skills and qualities and was Britain’s third female prime minister, will come to her senses and spend the rest of her days doing good and sensible things with a sense of public service, rather than what she is doing at the moment.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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Nigel Farage mocked for claiming he understands steelworkers as he worked in “metals business” 17 Apr 3:51 AM (4 days ago)

Nigel Farage has been ridiculed for claiming to a group of northern voters that he understands steelworkers because he previously worked in the “metals business”. 

In a post on X, British journalist and former Labour Party senior adviser Tom Baldwin corrected Farage’s claim, making clear that Farage was a trader in the City.

Baldwin said: “Just watched the Home Counties private schoolboy Nigel Farage telling northern voters how he understands steelworkers because he used to work in the “metals business” himself.

“He was, ahem, a commodities trader at the London Metal Exchange in the City.”

Responding to the tweet, Labour MP for Dover and Deal Mike Tapp, said: “You couldn’t make it up. Such a fraud.”

Another user on X pointed out that Farage’s “metals business” failed. 

A metals broker told the Financial Times in 2015: “This suggestion that he was a very wealthy man in the City is probably a bit of a misnomer.”

He added: “I don’t think he was anywhere near as successful as some people are portraying. He probably does better out of being an MEP.”

In 2003, Farage formed Farage Limited, a commodities broker, but in 2014 the business was still in the process of paying back £33,000 in taxes owed to HMRC. Farage remained a director of the company until 2011.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Harvard stands up to Trump and wins praise from Obama for doing so 17 Apr 3:16 AM (4 days ago)

Harvard university has rejected President Trump’s list of demands to make changes to its hiring, admissions and teaching practices, saying that the demands were an effort to regulate the university’s “intellectual conditions”.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump accused Harvard of hiring “Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’. The Trump administration says that the changes are designed to fight antisemitism on campus.

Harvard insists that it has taken many steps to fight antisemitism, and that the demands were an effort to regulate the university’s “intellectual conditions”.

The ‘legally binding’ demands included, the end of diversity-based hiring and admissions policies, a ban on international students “hostile to American values”, as well as a government-approved audit of all staff and students to ensure “viewpoint diversity” delivered by the end of the year.

Harvard has rejected the demands, posting a link to its reply by Alan Garber, the University’s President, on social media with the words: “No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private  universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

In its letter, Harvard says that it received a letter from the administration that it must comply with its demands ‘if we intend to “maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government’.

The letter by Garber adds: “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the “intellectual conditions” at Harvard.”

The university says that ‘over the past fifteen months, we have taken many steps to address antisemitism on our campus’, before adding: “These ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate.”

Reacting to the letter online, President Obama posted on X: “Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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Reform UK’s Runcorn candidate hit with misconduct finding during time as magistrate 17 Apr 2:15 AM (4 days ago)

Reform UK’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election candidate Sarah Pochin committed misconduct while serving as a magistrate.

In 2018, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) found Pochin used her position as a magistrate to influence the views of her colleagues in a political context.

Documents seen by the Liverpool Echo also state that she breached confidentiality by publicising the complaint made against her. 

In response, a Reform UK spokesperson today told the ECHO: “This matter had nothing to do with Sarah Pochin’s conduct as Presiding Justice in Court. 

“The comment was made in a private meeting and was used by the Conservative Party as a politically motivated attack. No further action was taken.”

The spokesperson added: “Sarah went on to serve a further seven years with great distinction as a magistrate in the Chester and Crewe courts. In March this year she honourably resigned as a Presiding Justice to campaign in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election and was thanked for her past service to the Magistracy. This speaks for itself.”

Pochin was a magistrate for 20 years. In 2015, she became a Conservative councillor, and then became an Independent in 2020, after becoming mayor with support from Independents, bypassing the Conservatives’ chosen candidate.

She was later kicked out of the Independent group after rejoining the Conservatives to vote in the 2022 leadership contest.

Farage’s party is the bookies’ favourite to win the by-election, which was triggered by the resignation of former Labour MP Mike Amesbury, after he assaulted a constituent last year. Labour’s candidate is Karen Shore.

The by-election will take place on 1 May.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Majority of Britons would rather have the EU as a close trading partner than US 17 Apr 1:07 AM (4 days ago)

A majority of Britons would rather have a closer trading relationship with the EU than the US, a new poll has found.

The poll, carried out by YouGov, found that 57% of Britons would rather have a closer trading relationship with the EU, compared to 16% who would rather have the US as a closer trading partner.

It comes after President Trump caused turmoil on global markets through the imposition of tariffs, leading to sell-offs sparking trillions in losses across the world.

After a major backlash from the markets, Trump carried out a U-turn, announcing a 90-day pause for countries hit by higher US tariffs, however he said he was authorising a universal “lowered reciprocal tariff of 10%” as negotiations continued. Despite his policy reversal, the trade war with China continued too. Trump increased tariffs on goods from China to 125%, accusing Beijing of a “lack of respect” after it retaliated by saying it would impose tariffs of 84% on US imports.

With a protectionist President in the White House, it seems the British public would rather prefer closer trading ties with the EU.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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BBC criticised for giving ‘extremist’ Douglas Murray an 8-minute interview on prime-time TV 17 Apr 12:59 AM (4 days ago)

TV and radio presenter Matthew Stadlen tore into “extremist” Douglas Murray and questioned him getting an eight-minute interview on primetime television on Newsnight last night.

People only social media also asked why Murray had been given airtime.

One user asked: “Why did the BBC just give racist Douglas Murray a platform on prime-time television?”.

Murray appeared in a separate segment of the programme, where he told BBC political editor Nick Watt that the UK had pursued “a wildly stupid and lax immigration policy for decades” and defended his comments that the UK needs “less Islam”.

Watt challenged Murray on his “less Islam” remark, pointing out that it seemed to imply a desire for fewer Muslim people in the UK, rather than just fewer extremists.

The Spectator’s associate editor also said that people who attend protests against Israel’s war on Gaza “support the death cult [Hamas]” and claimed they “would murder Jews and the rest of us next”.

These comments went unchallenged by Watt, who thanked Murray for being interviewed.

Asked what he thought about Murray, Stadlen pointed out that Murray had once said Scottish-born Humza Yousaf, former First Minister of Scotland, “infiltrated the British political system” and called him the “First Minister of Gaza”.

He went on to say: “This man is an extremist in my view and the Overton window has shifted so significantly, and I don’t criticise Newsnight for doing it, that he has been given an eight-minute interview on prime BBC television.”

Stadlen noted that he found it “concerning”, adding that “more and more people, it seems to me, share his repulsive views”. 

“Imagine just for a moment, Nick, being one of the millions of British Muslims, law-abiding British Muslims watching him say those things.”

Watt replied: “Yeah well we did question him”. 

Donald Trump promoted Murray’s new book earlier this week on his social media platform Truth Social, referring to the commentator as “my friend”. 

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Voters shocked by how much Nigel Farage loves Donald Trump 16 Apr 5:49 AM (5 days ago)

A video posted by the Trades Union Congress shows voters in Wrexham reacting to Donald Trump’s tarriffs and the news that Reform UK leader and MP Nigel Farage is a big fan of Donald Trump.

Residents Wrexham, Wales were asked to guess who had said: “Only Donald Trump can bring sense to the Western world.”

Their guesses included “Someone uneducated”, “An idiot”, and “A rich person”.

When told the quote came from Farage, one man responded: “Well I never, I was just starting to like him.” He added that it surprised him, “because I thought he’d got a bit more sense than that”.

Another woman said: “Maybe he wants a job in America”. While one man said he wasn’t at all, stating :”he’s halfway up Mr Trump’s orifices”.

Asked what they thought about Trump more generally, one woman responded with a retching noise, while another said: “Am I allowed to swear?”

A third remarked: “Annoying and he’s orange”.

On the tariffs, people said “Madness. Madness!” and “Tarriffs are just going to push the economy to the brink of collapse”.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Unite warns Birmingham bin strikes could spread to other councils 16 Apr 4:50 AM (5 days ago)

The trade union Unite has warned that the bin strikes taking place in Birmingham, which have resulted in rubbish piling high in the streets as well as an influx of rats, could spread to other parts of the country.

It comes as the dispute between refuse workers and the city council in Birmingham continues without a breakthrough, after the latest pay offer by the city council was “overwhelmingly” rejected by bin workers.

The dispute centres on the council’s decision to cut a role from its waste service, which the union says will leave a number of workers with an £8,000-a-year pay cut.

Unite said the city council’s “partial” offer was “totally inadequate” and did not address the potential pay cuts for 200 drivers.

Now the general secretary of Unite, Sharon Graham, has warned that the bin strikes could spread to other parts of the country if there are further pay cuts and job losses.

“If other councils decide to make low-paid workers pay for bad decisions that they did not make, workers paying the price yet again, then absolutely, of course, we all have to take action in those other areas,” Sharon Graham told LBC.

Unite’s national lead officer Onay Kasab echoed Graham’s words and told BBC Radio 4: “If other local authorities look to cut the pay of essential public service workers, then there is the potential for strike action spreading. That’s why different political choices need to be made.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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Tommy Robinson loses Court of Appeal challenge against prison sentence 16 Apr 2:44 AM (5 days ago)

Far-right thug Tommy Robinson has lost a Court of Appeal challenge against the length of his prison sentence for contempt of court.

Robinson, 42, was jailed for 18 months in October last year after admitting breaching a 2021 High Court order banning him from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.

In recent months, Elon Musk has also backed Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, with the billionaire owner of X posting and reposting calls for Robinson to be released from prison.

Robinson was sentenced to prison after making false accusations against Jamal Hijazi, a young Syrian refugee, in a video on social media where he claimed Hijazi was “a violent school bully”.

The first video was posted in 2018, but Robinson continued to repeat these claims, screening a libellous film about the case at an event in Copenhagen in 2023. Hijazi vehemently denied the allegation and took legal action against Robinson. He was sent to prison after breaching an injunction by repeating the false claims again.

Lawyers for Robinson told the Court of Appeal that prison is “making Robinson ill” and that his mental health, combined with his segregation in custody, is having a “demonstrable effect” on him, meaning his sentence should be reduced.

Barristers for the Solicitor General, who opposes the appeal, said there are “no grounds” for reducing the sentence.

Judges Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Lord Justice Warby dismissed Robinson’s appeal in a written 15-page ruling.

They said they did not find Robinson’s prison conditions were “harsher or more onerous” than sentencing judge Mr Justice Johnson had foreseen at the time.

“The appellant had in fact been able to associate with others by email, by telephone, and in person, to a considerable extent,” it said.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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