The UK’s radical progressive Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, continues to push an anti-Brexit narrative intended to set up a redo election. He hopes to bring the UK back into the EU, and he aims to use the riots and unrest in Britian to stigmatize Brexit. He is now directly accusing Brexit of being the underlying cause of the unrest in the country, not the unfettered immigration of foreigners that hate Britian, nor the criminalization of dissent against it.
Andy Burnham blames Brexit for Britain’s migrant crisis – The Independent News Source
EXCERPT:
Andy Burnham has blamed Brexit for Britain’s migrant crisis, arguing that leaving the European Union resulted in “weaker control” over immigration.
He said that the small boats crisis stemmed from the UK losing its ability to return migrants in the manner it previously could under EU arrangements.
While expressing a desire for the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime, Burnham insisted he would not move ahead of public opinion or dictate the process.
Burnham ruled out reintroducing EU freedom of movement without a public referendum, confirming no changes will be proposed during this parliament.
More than 200,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since 2018, despite a 41 per cent drop in small boat arrivals during the first half of 2026.
Thirteen Rules: Researchers Say the EU and UK Hold the Levers to Rein In AI– bioengineer.org News Source
EXCERPT:
As European and British leaders prepare to meet in Brussels on 20 November for the second EU-UK summit, a group of seventeen researchers has published a white paper arguing that artificial intelligence must be added to the agenda. The announced programme for the summit, hosted by António Costa and Ursula von der Leyen with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, covers defence, energy, agrifood rules, climate and migration. Yet despite recent reports of AI agents breaking out of their test environments, and an open letter from more than 1,100 industry employees asking governments to apply brakes, the technology is not on the table. The new paper, written by researchers from the universities of Sussex, Cambridge, Bologna, Macerata and Innsbruck, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Max Planck Society, the Hasso Plattner Institute, the German Environment Agency and civil society organisations, contends that the time for AI regulation is now, and that Europe should lead. It sets out thirteen rules that EU and UK governments should advance.
The paper’s central argument is that the public debate has been too narrow. According to Jochen Büttner, coauthor from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the AI debate revolves around safety, and the white paper agrees that red lines on models must be established and that liability for the companies publishing them must be enforced. But, he argues, this focus overlooks the fact that the most widespread harms of AI are fiscal and physical, and that AI companies are already harming people. The document therefore pairs the familiar safety agenda with two domains that regulators have treated far more lightly: the tax code and the environment. Its authors describe a technology sector that rewards the replacement of workers with software and that consumes land, water and fossil energy at a scale that local communities and national regulators are struggling to constrain.
U.K. won’t join Canada-led defence bank, but pledges cooperation – National– globalnews.ca News Source EXCERPT:
By Dylan Robertson
The Canadian Press
Posted October 25, 2026 5:59 pm
1 min read
The British government has turned down Ottawa’s attempts to have it join the international Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, though London says it will work in lockstep with Canada to meet NATO spending targets.
The DSRB is meant to reduce borrowing costs for military spending by pooling credit strength among allies.
Canada has tried for months to convince the U.K. to join the project, but London has instead been pursuing its own program called the Multilateral Defence Mechanism.
Canadian government ‘encouraged’ as 8 countries commit to global defence bank
Both countries agreed Sunday to craft a framework for cooperation between both banks, “having mutually concluded that it is best to develop two distinct but complementary institutions.”
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The two will “work in close partnership” on investment opportunities and challenges, according to a joint media statement.
The DSRB will be based in Canada and has the support of countries such as Belgium, Turkey and Ukraine.
British jets join French nuclear exercise for first time, France says– www.channelnewsasia.com News Source
EXCERPT:
PARIS: British and French jets flew together over the Mediterranean in their first joint exercise involving France’s airborne nuclear capability, Paris said on Friday (Oct 23), underscoring their cooperation at a time of friction with Russia.
The two allies agreed in July 2025 to reinforce cooperation over their nuclear arsenals in response to growing threats to Europe and uncertainty over their US ally.
“Having independent nuclear forces does not preclude coordination,” said French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin.
“Our nuclear cooperation with the United Kingdom continues to deepen: on Tuesday evening, British Typhoons took part for the very first time in a French nuclear exercise alongside Rafales (warplanes).”
After taking off from the Saint-Dizier air base in northeastern France, the French jets were escorted by British RAF Typhoon fighters, simulating a nuclear strike in an exercise called “Rummy”, France’s Armed Forces ministry said.
“In an increasingly dangerous world, our adversaries should be in no doubt: the United Kingdom and France stand together in their commitment to European security and to maintaining the deterrence that has helped preserve peace for generations,” added British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting.
UK Re-Arrests RAF Fairford Suspects, Alleges They Are Foreign Intelligence Assets– dailycaller.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Two men were re-arrested in an investigation into the Royal Air Force Fairford incident.
British Counterterrorism Policing re-arrested a 24-year-old and a 25-year-old man under suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service on Tuesday. Both men were from the London borough of Westminster — with the 24-year-old being a UK national and the 25-year-old being a dual British and Iranian national, according to Sky News.
“Since the events at RAF Fairford on Sunday 27 September, our specialist teams have been working tirelessly to interrogate the many lines of enquiry involved in this hugely complex investigation. So far seven men have been arrested in connection with our investigation,” The British Counterterrorism Policing Office of Media Inquiry told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “As a result of the ongoing efforts of our officers, earlier today two of those men were re-arrested for offences relating to Section 3 of the National Security Act — assisting a foreign intelligence service.”
Joint Statement on the United Kingdom’s Attribution of Iran’s Involvement in Attempted Terrorist Attack at RAF Fairford https://t.co/UVbKtv7ZmC
— U.S. State Dept – Near Eastern Affairs (@StateDept_NEA) October 12, 2026
No 10: Hegseth ‘wrong’ to say most non-US Nato soldiers didn’t fight in Afghanistan – UK politics live | Politics– www.theguardian.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Downing Street has delivered a rare public reprimand to a member of Donald Trump’s administration, saying Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, was “wrong” to suggest that most non-American Nato soldiers in Afghanistan did not do any fighting.
Hegsth made the comment in a speech at the University of Tennessee, where he recalled serving in Afghanistan himself. He said:
I was a captain in Afghanistan and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters. It was a beautiful thing to see, 50 different countries contributing to the Nato alliance and the Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] mission there.
Except there were maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that by the end were actually involved in kinetic operations. In fact the patch Isaf, we joked it meant ‘I Saw Americans Fighting’.
America Remained the UN’s Largest Funder in 2025 Despite Deep Cuts | American Enterprise Institute– www.aei.org News Source
EXCERPT:
A lot of ink has been spilled and anguish expressed about President Trump abandoning the United Nations. Yet, despite deep cuts, America contributed $7.1 billion in 2025 to the UN system, far more than any other nation. This funding gives Washington substantial leverage. But the leverage is eroding. The administration must decide which organizations merit continued US engagement and clearly communicate the reforms required for continued support.
Two weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump initiated a review of all international organizations to provide recommendations on future US funding and participation. Although the review remains ongoing, the US announced decisions in 2025 and 2026 to withdraw from or cease providing funding to the Human Rights Council, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and an additional 66 international organizations, including 31 UN entities.
Terrorists could use AI to target UK with drones and bioweapons, MI5 chief warns– www.independent.co.uk News Source
EXCERPT:
Terrorists could exploit artificial intelligence to target Britain with drones or biological weapons, the head of MI5 has warned.
Speaking after his annual speech at MI5 headquarters in London, Sir Ken McCallum said the UK had entered a “new era of national security” and the security service was directing more resources to keeping Britain safe now than in the Cold War, warning that essential services such as banking, flights, and healthcare were at risk of being disrupted by adversaries, including Iran and Russia.
He warned about the growing threat of AI provoking real fear that terrorists could use the technology for warfare, saying “we’ve caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methodologies”.
He said the possibility of AI-enabled drones added “a new twist” for bad actors and warned the greatest concern is “AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons”.
“These risks are real. The UK Intelligence Community – MI5, GCHQ, MI6 – is working closely with the UK’s globally respected AI security institute to take them on. Part of that means retaining the capability edge against those who mean the UK harm. As they seek to harness AI, we must stay ahead, so these powerful technologies bolster rather than undermine our shared security,” he said.
UK Gov’t Funnelled Taxpayer Money to Activists Seeking to Block Farage– www.breitbart.com News Source
EXCERPT:
The Labour Party-run British government reportedly provided funding used to train leftist activists to prevent Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party or the Conservatives from coming to power and to stifle the public’s concerns over mass migration.
In the wake of the 2024 Southport Riots, which broke out after a second-generation Rwandan teen went on a mass stabbing at a children’s dance party, leaving three dead and ten others injured, then-Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced a £15 million ($20m) “community cohesion” fund supposedly intended to prevent more disorder.
“In the immediate aftermath of the unrest, I was heartened to see the extent to which communities so quickly came together to support one another and their local areas, she said at the time. “This new Community Recovery Fund will support the work that is already under way and ensure that communities have the resources they need to rebuild.”
However, according to a report from London’s Daily Telegraph, some of the money from the fund was channeled through Labour-run city councils into left-wing political projects, including the training of activists by groups such as the School of Organising, which was reportedly founded by former members of the far-left cancel culture Hope Not Hate group.
The broadsheet reported that materials produced for the training sessions included instructions on how to convince voters to reject Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the “Tory-Right”, while coaching activists up on strategies to shift working-class communities away from voting for right-wing parties.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has telegraphed his next major move, setting up an election with Brexit on the chopping block. He is leading an international effort to paint Britain’s choice to leave the EU as a Russian-manipulated outcome, justifying a revisiting of the question. He accused Russia of meddling not only with the 2026 vote, but with other European elections as well.
UK and EU confirm date of summit after Burnham says Russian meddling shows the need for closer ties– abcnews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
LONDON — Russia’s attempts to meddle in European politics show why Britain must forge a closer relationship with the European Union, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday, arguing that “the status quo is not good enough.”
Burnham said that attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic votes across Europe, including Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum, highlight the importance of strengthening the U.K.’s links with its neighbors, years after they were weakened by Brexit.
He told lawmakers in the House of Commons that it would be “a dereliction of duty” not to seek stronger ties with the 27-nation bloc that the U.K. left in 2020.
The statement comes after Burnham told the Labour Party’s annual conference last month that “Brexit has done more harm than good” and that the bare-bones trade deal Britain has with the EU is holding the country back. He said he will seek political consensus on a new relationship, with future options including rejoining the bloc.
Second wave of early prison releases under way in England and Wales | Prisons and probation– www.theguardian.com News Source
EXCERPT:
The second wave of early prison releases takes place throughout Tuesday, with hundreds of offenders walking out across England and Wales under the government’s controversial plan to ease overcrowding.
About 2,000 criminals, including domestic abusers and violent offenders, are being freed this month, with another 3,000 to follow in stages over the next year. The total was reduced from 6,000 after an intervention by Andy Burnham.
Prisoners who were convicted of manslaughter are excluded, meaning the killers of PC Andrew Harper, who died in the line of duty in 2019, will not be eligible.
The second tranche of early releases comes as members of the probation union, Napo, hold a pre-ballot meeting on taking strike action over pay and workloads.
Pay negotiations with probation officers ended with a “best and final” conditional pay offer worth 5%, which the union’s negotiating committee rejected. Members will be asked to vote for industrial action on pay, along with a question on workloads, in a formal ballot on industrial action to launch on 19 October.
The union says probation has been asked to take on huge amounts of additional work due to tens of thousands of prisoners released early from prisons since 2022.
The number of people behind bars has jumped by more than 1,700 in the past three months. The prison population in England and Wales was at 87,499 on Monday, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data, up from 85,761 on 29 June, a rise of 2%.
The MoJ said released offenders would be monitored under the “toughest supervision in British history”. New restriction zones designed to control the movements of the highest-risk sexual and violent offenders should confine released prisoners to areas a few miles wide, in an effort to reassure victims of their crimes.
The MoJ also announced an expansion of electronic monitoring, with a new presumption that offenders will be electronically tagged and monitored when they leave prison. Technology rolling out this year is said to give probation near-live access to tagging data, helping staff spot breaches when offenders step out of line.
However, this month the victims’ commissioner, Claire Waxman, said the government’s confidence in the plan “is not yet matched by the reality on the ground”.
UK PM Burnham says Russia interfered in 2016 Brexit vote– www.channelnewsasia.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Burnham’s comments mark a departure from those of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who campaigned to leave the EU, and said in 2020 there was no evidence of Russian interference in the referendum.
Britons voted 52 per cent to 48 per cent to leave the EU in 2016, plunging the country into its biggest political crisis since World War II.
Burnham said voters in European democracies needed to be better informed about efforts to disrupt their politics.
“I mean, these things are important now to put clearly on the record, and I believe, help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely Russia,” he said.
Britain’s government failed to establish whether Russia meddled in the 2016 referendum on membership of the EU, according to a report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee in 2020.
The report also found that Russia had sought to influence Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum, in which voters rejected independence.
Burnham last month said he could campaign to take Britain back into the EU at the next general election, reopening the country’s divisive debate on its relationship with the continent.
King Charles warns malicious online actors are evolving their tactics– www.bbc.co.uk News Source
EXCERPT:
King Charles III has warned of the challenges disinformation and other “hostile online activity” pose to trust and security in the digital age.
The comments, made in a letter to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to mark its 10th anniversary, spoke of “malicious actors” continuing to “evolve their tactics by using automated technologies”.
“From threats to our international order, to the need to balance the risks and opportunities of powerful new technologies, strong cyber security is fundamental to making the online environment safer and more resilient,” he wrote.
Last month, the King warned AI executives of the “existential dangers” posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands.
In the letter published on Saturday by NCSC, the King praised the government agency. He said its achievements over the past decade have included defending the country against cyber attacks, safeguarding democratic institutions and protecting “the critical infrastructure upon which daily life depends”.
“You have built resilience across our public services, businesses and communities, equipping us all to prosper in our ever-evolving digital world,” the monarch added.
The King said he was “acutely aware” that much of the work done by the NCSC cannot be praised publicly and that he was filled with “profound gratitude”.
Britain steps up national defences against growing AI risks– www.gov.uk News Source
EXCERPT:
Government to put frontier AI to work strengthening cyber defences, building on pilots that have already identified and addressed over 1,000 vulnerabilities.
Stronger protections against emerging AI threats to be considered through the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill regime, such as how serious AI incidents and near misses can be identified and reported.
New work underway to prepare Britain for serious incidents involved autonomous AI agents.
Rigorous evaluations of the latest generation of models underway through the AI Security Institute.
Britain will be better protected from the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI by a suite of measures, with the government urgently putting frontier AI to work strengthening cyber defences, examining stronger legal protections and preparing for serious incidents involving autonomous AI systems.
Announced today (Monday 12 October), the move builds on two pilots that have already helped identify and fix over a thousand potential cyber vulnerabilities across government systems, and detect potential cyber threats. Extending the programme will help protect the public services people rely on every day to reduce risk in the short-term, and will support longer-term adoption across the public sector.
Speaking at Imperial College London’s science and tech incubator, Base One, AI Minister Kanishka Narayan argued for a whole-society approach to resilience in the face of emerging AI risks, so that this technology continues to serve British people’s interests and boost our prosperity, as well as our security.
The Minister also warned that as frontier AI systems become increasingly powerful and capable of acting autonomously, the potential consequences of failures or malicious use could become far more serious. He will argue that Britain must act now to strengthen its defences and prepare for future serious incidents.
Britain steps up national defences against growing AI risks– www.gov.uk News Source
EXCERPT:
Government to put frontier AI to work strengthening cyber defences, building on pilots that have already identified and addressed over 1,000 vulnerabilities.
Stronger protections against emerging AI threats to be considered through the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill regime, such as how serious AI incidents and near misses can be identified and reported.
New work underway to prepare Britain for serious incidents involved autonomous AI agents.
Rigorous evaluations of the latest generation of models underway through the AI Security Institute.
Britain will be better protected from the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI by a suite of measures, with the government urgently putting frontier AI to work strengthening cyber defences, examining stronger legal protections and preparing for serious incidents involving autonomous AI systems.
Announced today (Monday 12 October), the move builds on two pilots that have already helped identify and fix over a thousand potential cyber vulnerabilities across government systems, and detect potential cyber threats. Extending the programme will help protect the public services people rely on every day to reduce risk in the short-term, and will support longer-term adoption across the public sector.
Speaking at Imperial College London’s science and tech incubator, Base One, AI Minister Kanishka Narayan argued for a whole-society approach to resilience in the face of emerging AI risks, so that this technology continues to serve British people’s interests and boost our prosperity, as well as our security.
The Minister also warned that as frontier AI systems become increasingly powerful and capable of acting autonomously, the potential consequences of failures or malicious use could become far more serious. He will argue that Britain must act now to strengthen its defences and prepare for future serious incidents.
Polanski defends leadership of Greens and says he will not step down after byelection defeat by Labour – UK politics live | Politics– www.theguardian.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Under Green party rules, leaders have to get re-elected every two years, which means there will be a contest next summer. Asked how confident he was of being able to win again, Polanski told Sky News:
What I’m experiencing is the immense amount of people who are saying they’ve never been prouder to be a Green party member.
It is being difficult being leader of any party, particularly the Green party or a decentralised party.
Very often the media – and I think this is fine that they do that – talk about the Green -arty as if we’re like the other parties. But that is a different kind of party. We’re led by the grassroots and ultimately the leader is partly a primary spokesperson for the party. That is difficult. But I signed up for that difficult job, and I’m more than ready to continue.
Asked if he would stand again to be an MP, he replied:
I want to be an MP. I don’t think it’s the be all and end all. I think I’ve demonstrated over the last year that you can create change from outside of parliament.
But, if another seat came up in London where he had a connection, he would stand again, he said.
Key events
Sagal Abdi-Wali, the new Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, posing for a selfie with Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, and Labour activists this morning. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Back to the byelection, and the politics professor Rob Ford has written an analysis of the results for Sky News. Here is an excerpt.
This was a strong performance for Labour on several metrics. The decline in Labour’s vote share, at just 3.7 points, was well below the average drop of 19.3 points across the four by-elections during Starmer’s premiership, where Burnham was not on the ballot.
The drop here was indeed smaller than the average drop in Labour support found during Tony Blair’s first term (11.1%).
The Labour to Green swing, at 13.1 points, was well below many of the swings the Greens achieved in the 2024 general election and this May’s local elections, and a pale shadow of the 26.5-point swing the party achieved in Gorton and Denton in February.
How swing from Labour to Greens in Holborn and St Pancras compares with swings to Greens in other notable Labour/Green contests Photograph: Sky News
Burnham unveils £48m partnership in bid to ‘defeat’ dementia
Andy Burnham has pledged to make dementia research a national priority as he announced a £48m industry partnership to accelerate the search for a cure, the Press Association reports. PA says:
The prime minister, whose father Roy died last month after suffering from Alzheimer’s, said he wanted Britain “to be the country that makes the breakthrough”.
The government will invest £33m, and there is also funding from Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures to help recruit more people for clinical studies.
The investment will support The Barbara Alliance, which was launched in memory of the late EastEnders actress Dame Barbara Windsor to speed up the development of dementia treatments.
It will establish a platform connecting health data, research and clinical trial capabilities to make it easier to find participants for trials.
Burnham said:
Dementia is a devastatingly cruel disease, not only for those who live with it, but for the families who care for them.
For too long, we have accepted dementia as something to be managed later in life, rather than a disease we can defeat.
I don’t accept that.
In fact, I have real hope that we can come together and do exactly that.
Downing Street has published further details here.
Caroline Lucas says Green party urgently needs to revise its policy-making rules because it’s ‘woefully exposed’ to entryism
Caroline Lucas, the former Green leader, has said that Sunday’s vote for the “Zionism is racism” motion has shown how the party is “woefully exposed” to entryism.
In an article for the New Statesman, she said passing the motion crossed “a very significant red line” and she said the party urgently needed to reform its internal procedures to stop this happening again.
She explained:
It’s worth recalling that this motion was supported by 1,022 self-selected members – just 0.5% of the party’s total membership – an unknown number of whom were actively encouraged to join the Green party simply to vote to push the motion through. This speaks volumes about the vulnerability of our internal structures. Entryism has been a problem for many parties, but with our commitment to direct democracy and our cumbersome internal accountability mechanisms, the Greens are woefully exposed.
In the weeks and months to come, we Greens have urgent work to do: taking action to show everyone in our communities, especially Jewish people, that our party is safe for them; finding ways of making our party’s policy making processes more inclusive and effective, our internal structures more accountable and resilient, and our understanding of both antisemitism and Zionism more informed.
Setting out what she saw as the flaw in the motion, Lucas said:
One of the most dangerous outcomes of rising populism and polarisation is a refusal to accept complexities, to deal only in zero-sum binaries. And so the radical over-simplification at the heart of the “Zionism is racism” motion has led to many Jewish people, both inside and outside the party, feeling scared and unwelcome. For many of them, the knowledge about why their ancestors or families fled Europe and sought sanctuary in Palestine can, and often does, simultaneously sit alongside their utter abhorrence at the actions and ideology of the state of Israel now. But asking all Jewish people to deny the historical realities that might explain their own families’ attachment to Israel as a sanctuary is not an ask our movement should or needs to make.
Caroline Lucas at the Green party conference last week. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
In his speech in Manchester, Andy Burnham congratulated Sagal Abdi-Wali on her victory in the byelection.
He said:
We’re here in Manchester. But actually, it’s good news from London that it’s lifting us. And I just wanted to say congratulations to Sagal Abdi-Wali, the new member of parliament for Holborn and St Pancras – and, relevant to this morning, the constituency that is the capital of innovation in the UK, home to the Crick Institute, the Alan Turing Institute and so much more.
Andy Burnham speaking at the Innovation Nation Summit at Bruntwood SciTech in Manchester this morning. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
These are from the More in Common pollster Luke Tryl on the Holborn and St Pancras byelection result.
3000+ majority for Labour, comfortable and a sign of Burnham’s gains on the left. Labour vote barely drops. Green vote significantly up from 2024, but less impressive if you assume lots of Feinstein 2024 voters went to the Greens. Bad result for the Greens but not at worst end
Wider context to the Holborn result: this chart shows the proportion of Labour’s 2024 vote going to different parties. Post Gorton over 1 in 10 Labour 24 voters were going to the Greens – that number has more than halved as Labour’s retention improved, particularly on the left.
% of Labour 2024 voters defecting to supporting other parties Photograph: More in Common
Tryl also points out that it was a record bad result for George Galloway, who in the past has pulled off two remarkable byelection victories.
Obviously not helped by the fact he is in self imposed exile. But Holborn was George Galloway’s worst ever result in a Westminster election.
George Galloway’s parliamentary elections results Photograph: More in Common
Here is Guardian video of Zack Polanski responding to the byelection result.
‘We didn’t get it over the line’: Green party’s Zack Polanski on byelection loss – video
Party leaders sometimes visit the constituency after a byelection win. Andy Burnham is giving a speech this morning – but not in Holborn and St Pancras. He is in Manchester, where he is giving a speech at the Innovation Nation summit.
Burnham is speaking now, and he is following the former PM Gordon Brown. Brown said the UK could be a leading innovation nation, and Burnham started his speech with what he said were words that he used every week when he was a cabinet minister almost 20 years ago. “Gordon is right,” he said.
Andy Burnham speaking at the Innovation Nation Summit. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Polanski says he wants Green party to revise its Zionism motion ‘at earliest opportunity’
Jenny Jones, the Green party peer, said that the Greens should clarify what they meant by the “Zionism is racism” motion passed at their conference.
Describing the vote “a rather big blip” for the party in an interview on Times Radio, she said:
I actually chaired the session and I was astonished. It was very emotional, but it was also relatively polite, which was surprising.
And I would like to see it reorganised. It is not clear exactly what we mean.
Zack has been working with Jewish members of the party and with Jewish organisations to make it clear that we are not antisemitic.
And nobody in the party will be disciplined for going to the synagogue or any sort of community centre.
We have to work through it and we’ve got to make it clear exactly what that motion means.
In his Today interview, Polanski also said that he would like the party to revise the motion. He said:
At the earliest possible opportunity, I do want, at a conference motion, to see us go back to a process where Israelis and Palestinians decide the future of their region.
Now, that’s up to members because we’re a grassroots party.
Polanski declines to say Israel has right to exist, but insists he does not back replacing it with single Palestinian state
On the Today programme (see 9.12am) Zack Polanski was being interviewed by Nick Robinson. At times, it got rather tetchy.
When Robinson asked about Caroline Lucas saying that Polanski should have voted in the debate on the “Zionism is racism” motion (see 2.55am), Polanski said he was fighting a byelection. Robinson then told him not to “insult the intelligence of people listening” and said that of course he could have been at the debate. Polanski said he had in fact pushed to get the conference postponed.
Asked how he would have voted if he had been there, Polanski said he wanted to amend the motion on two grounds. But those amendments fell. “And so I would have voted against the motion,” he said.
Polanski backed taking out the reference in the motion saying there should be a one-state solution, and another amendment that would have ensured Jewish Green members were not penalised for belonging to synagogues that identify as Zionist.
Asked if he believed there should be “a safe home for Jews in a state called Israel”, Polanski replied:
I believe everyone deserves a safe home, and I’ve not dodged the question.
When Robinson asked again if Israel had a right to exist, Polanski said:
I believe Israelis and Palestinians should have equal rights in a democracy …
Right now, Israel is a one-state, apartheid state. Palestinians don’t have democracy and they don’t have the right to vote for their government.
Robinson asked why Polanski was not able to say he believed in Israel as a safe home for Jewish people, even if he loathed what its government was doing. Polanski replied:
I don’t believe that any state has a right to oppress or to commit apartheid, and certainly not genocide, on another people.
Now, it may be that in the future that there is a solution in which case Israelis and Palestinians can have equal rights.
I believe my role as leader of the Green party, and more importantly the British government, is to uphold international law.
But this is a context where we’ve seen 75,000 Palestinians murdered in the last few years, 1,500 murdered since the so-called ceasefire, and there are more child amputees than in modern history.
I don’t believe that’s a state that anyone should be supporting.
Robinson asked about the distinction between the Israeli government and the Israeli state. Was Polanski saying things were so terrible the state of Israel should no longer exist? Robinson said the motion passed at the Green conference implied this because it proposed a single Palestinian state. Did Polanski want to scrap the state of Israel?
Polanski replied:
No. What I want is to see a safe space for Israelis and Palestinians. And by the way, this isn’t a new position. We could go back to Edward Montagu, a Jewish man who was in the cabinet, who said at the time that he felt Zionism was a racist endeavour against Jewish people …
Jewish people have always had different opinions about the state of Israel.
Robinson intervened:
I still don’t know what your position is, whether it has a right to exist or not. You could just give me a yes/no and we could move on.
Polanski said he wanted to equal rights for Israeli and Palestinians. Robinson said that was not an answer to the question. Polanski replied: “At the moment Palestinians don’t have equal rights, so I think I’m answering your question really clearly.”
Zack Polanski being interviewed on Today Photograph: Today programme/Today progamme
And Andy Burnham has posted this message on the result.
Yesterday, Holborn and St Pancras voted for hope.
Congratulations @Sagal_AW and the whole team on a fantastic campaign. Looking forward to working together!
Keir Starmer, the former PM, has posted this on social media about Sagal Abdi-Wali winning the byelection created by his resignation as MP for Holborn and St Pancras.
Brilliant result. Congratulations to my friend @Sagal_AW, I know you are a brilliant champion for our communities and will be a fantastic MP.
Polanski says Green party investigating member proposing Zionism motion over friendship with convicted terrorist
In an interview on the Today programme, Zack Polanski was asked about reports that Lubna Speitan, one of the Green party members proposing the “Zionism is racism” motion, was listed in court documents as a “close friend” of a man later jailed for supporting al-Qaeda.
Polanski said that he was not aware of this at the time of the debate. But he said this was now being investigated by the party.
When it was put to him that, given the importance of this motion, he should have looked who was proposing it more carefully, Polanski said there were 121 motions proposed at the conference.
Asked about her friendship with Minh Quang Pham, who denied planning a suicide attack, Speitan told the Telegraph: “People are demonised for all sorts of things and wrongfully accused of all sorts of things.” She also claimed she was the victim of a “character assassination”.
Here is an extract from Prof Sir John Curtice’s assessment of the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in an article for the Times.
With 45 per cent of the vote, Labour was much further ahead of the Greens, on 33 per cent, than they had been in May. Yet, Labour’s tally was still four points down on the 49 per cent Sir Keir won in 2024 — a figure that, as in many constituencies with a substantial Muslim population, was well down on the 66 per cent the party won locally in 2019.
In short, the result confirmed that, while it is enjoying a substantial recovery from the nadir to which the party fell in the final months of Sir Keir’s tenure, Labour still has significant ground left to recover before it is in a position where it might win another Commons majority.
Curtice also points out that the results confirm that Restore Britain is a problem for Reform UK. (See 6.15am.) The Conservative party came third, but Reform UK would beaten the Tories if its candidate had also had just half the votes that went to Restore.
Here is a Guardian graphic showing how the share of the vote changed in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection since the 2024 election.
And this is what Bridget Phillipson, the Labour party chair, told Times Radio about the byelection result.
I think it demonstrates that Labour’s message of hope is really cutting through, that people don’t just want parties like Labour to talk about the progressive change this country needs but they want to see it delivered in action, and that’s what we’re focused on every day as a Labour government.
The things that really matter to people about the cost of living, about issues around homelessness as Sagal [Abdi-Wali] was talking about.
In Sagal we had a fantastic candidate who really resonated with the public, backed up by Labour’s clear message of hope and I couldn’t be more pleased.
Bridget Phillipson, the Labour party chair, told Sky News that the Holborn and St Pancras byelection result showed that Andy Burnham had “got off to an incredibly strong start” as PM.
Hamas supporters in London decided to march on the 3rd anniversary of the October 7 slaughter of innocent Israelis by the organization they are marching for. The march was not seen as racist by British police, despite it clearly sending a message to the Jews that they’re next. It is an embrace of the slaughter of the Jewish race, nothing more.
Pro-Palestine university groups march in London on October 7 anniversary | Gaza– www.aljazeera.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Pro-Palestine students took to the streets of London on October 7, despite police calls to postpone the march. Al Jazeera’s @Lina_Serene reports.
The UK is coming out in support of a UN resolution demanding worldwide action to prevent hate speech. The Burnham administration declared, “… we, the UK, thank the African Group for bringing forward this resolution and pay particular tribute to South Africa for their principled leadership in keeping the fight against racism high on the international agenda.”
UK Sets Out Vote on UN Resolution on Hate Speech News Source
EXCERPT:
It is appalling that, in 2026, we are still grappling with the scourge of racism, a blight on all our societies.
Racism is not an abstract phenomenon. These are not just words. Growing up, my own childhood was marked by verbal abuse, physical violence and a hatred driven solely by the colour of my skin. This is a world I have long left behind but a world, indeed often worse, in which millions still live.
As such, we, the UK, thank the African Group for bringing forward this resolution and pay particular tribute to South Africa for their principled leadership in keeping the fight against racism high on the international agenda.
We are committed to combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all their forms.
The UK fully acknowledges the devastating tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade, and recognises that its legacy continues to shape lives, communities and societies around the world today.
The UK believes that only by acknowledging and discussing collectively the most painful elements of the history that we share with other nations, including the transatlantic slave trade, can we come together in a spirit of solidarity and mutual respect to respond to the challenges that we all face today.
Teen Farage Supporter Arrested over Online Jokes About Tory Councillor– www.breitbart.com News Source
EXCERPT:
A 15-year-old supporter of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party was arrested in Britain after he made jokes about a local Conservative Party politician online.
The schoolboy, only referred to as Fraser, was arrested by four officers from the West Midlands Police at his home in the early hours of August 3rd. He was taken from his family home and searched in front of his neighbours, locked in a cell, fingerprinted, had a mugshot taken, and had a sample of his DNA taken. Meanwhile, two officers searched his bedroom, and he was pressured to hand over his phone for other officers to search.
While the police force has yet to confirm the reason for the 15-year-old’s arrest, The Telegraphreports that it appears that it was a result of comments made by Fraser online about the standard of dress of the leader of the Conservative Party on the Wolverhampton City Council, Simon Bennett, who has admitted referring the boy to the police over the posts.
In one post, he complained that the Tory councillor had attended a meeting in a T-shirt and shorts and later said he expressed approval when Bennet then attended a subsequent meeting in a suit. Fraser said that he was glad the councillor did not turn up “looking like a rent boy”, a derogatory phrase for homosexual prostitutes in Britain.
