Keir Starmer accused of ‘mimicking Trump’ with Middle East crisis TikTok post

Keir Starmer has been accused of trying to mimic Donald Trump’s social media output after posting a TikTok video about the crisis in the Middle East overlaid with the prime minister’s voice and the Dire Straits song Money for Nothing.The video opens with footage showing Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters flying over his head before cutting to British military jets in action and a drone being destroyed, as Starmer’s voice states the position he has taken on the conflict.“Our number one priority is protecting our people,” says Starmer, overlaid with the sound of electric guitars played by Dire Straits.Starmer refused to join the US and Israeli strikes on Iran but has since authorised “defensive” action.Al Pinkerton, a Liberal Democrat MP, said the choice of song when the military was “crying out” for the government’s defence spending plan seemed “particularly cloth-eared”

Proportional representation is true rule by the people | Letters

Gaby Hinsliff (Nobody wants to defend Britain’s voting system any more – but here’s why I will, 26 February) writes that proportional representation (PR) “doesn’t guarantee that we could all just vote for what we want instead of endlessly against what we fear (ask the French)”. Yet France does not use PR, which is precisely why tactical blocking occurs there. Indeed, there is overwhelming cross-party support in France for moving towards PR.Under first past the post (FPTP), whoever wins the most votes takes the seat, even without a majority. That means a majority of voters in a constituency can end up unrepresented, as in Gorton and Denton, where six in 10 votes were not represented

Senior Labour figures warn government amid fears of ‘political earthquake’ in London

Senior Labour politicians across London have warned the government not to take progressive voters for granted, with concerns the party faces a “political earthquake” in the capital in May after a surge in support for the Greens.They have been privately circulating new data that suggests Labour could drop from first to fourth place in London in the May elections – losing control of all but two of their councils – with the Greens soaring into first place to take nine.“The government needs to demonstrate that they’re not taking liberal, progressive voters in the capital for granted,” a senior London Labour figure warned.Another added: “It’s going to be a total catastrophe for us in London. If we lose swathes of voters on our progressive flank then we’re doomed

Crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne no longer interested in Reform-Tory pact

Christopher Harborne, the ultra-wealthy political donor who has given £12m to Reform UK, has told the Guardian he is “no longer” interested in a Reform-Conservative pact before the next general election.A possible collaboration between Reform and the Conservative party had been an important aspect of discussions about donations between Harborne and senior figures including Nigel Farage, sources familiar with the conversations said.The Thailand-based cryptocurrency investor had previously wanted Farage to keep an open mind about a pact between the two parties, the same sources added.This position has changed, however. Harborne said in an emailed statement: “In the past this was possibly the case, but it is no longer the case

Nigel Farage to discuss Chagos Islands deal at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Donald Trump tonight – as it happened

Downing Street has denied there has been a U-turn on UK government policy on Iran after Britain’s deputy prime minister suggested this morning that the UK could take part on strikes on Iranian targets. Royal Air Force jets could legally strike Iranian missile sites being used to attack British interests in the Middle East, David Lammy said in a BBC interview earlier today.David Lammy has said it is an “absolute travesty” that details were leaked from a top secret national security meeting on the US-Israel attacks on Iran and has called for an investigation. There were reports last weekend of cabinet splits at a national security council meeting, which is protected by the Official Secrets Act, over allowing the US to use British bases for the strikes against Iran.Royal Air Force jets could legally strike Iranian missile sites being used to attack British interests in the Middle East, Lammy also said this morning

Starmer is facing a cocktail of dissent that is growing ever more potent

But for the Iran crisis, Labour’s first major policy announcement since the party’s calamitous defeat in the Gorton and Denton byelection would have been arguably the biggest political story of the week.Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, pressed ahead with what is intended to be the party’s full-throated answer to the competition it faces from Reform UK as she declared an end to permanent refugee status and the removal of state support from some asylum seekers.It immediately put her on a collision course with many Labour backbenchers, but it also left the party’s soft-left majority, who had been pushing for a more progressive offering in recent weeks, asking: “Is that it?”The victory speech in Gorton and Denton by Hannah Spencer, the newly minted Green party MP, contained the sort of lines that many on Labour’s backbenches yearn to hear their leader utter, or even nod towards. Hard-working people had become “sick of making other people rich” and now wondered what their toil would yield, said the young plumber.Yet while Keir Starmer’s troops expected at least some red meat this week from their party’s leadership to counter the Green challenge for economically squeezed traditional Labour voters, his instinctive response was to send a letter to MPs in which he repeated an attack line that sought to paint Zack Polanski’s party as extremist