US Submit Draft Resolution to United Nations Over Gaza | #NovaraLIVE

The US has submitted draft resolution to United Nations, but it stops short of demanding a Gaza ceasefire.

Plus: Child poverty in the UK has hit a record high; and Labour race adviser Doreen Lawrence has slammed Keir Starmer’s handling of racism in the party.

00:00 Intro
00:49 US Draft Resolution On Gaza
16:49 UK Child Poverty Record
30:06 Doreen Lawrence Slams Labour
37:28 Tory Mayor Candidate Defects
42:12 Owen Jones Leaves Labour

With Moya Lothian-McLean and Ash Sarkar.
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Hello and welcome to nvar live I’m Mo the mlan and what a treat because tonight I’m joined by Ash Saka they tried to keep us apart MOA but they will never succeed they tried and what we did was St a podcast which you can listen to

If you go to if I speak uh let’s stick with what the task in hand though so coming up later tonight on Novara live child poverty has again hit record levels in the UK this is becoming a pattern we speak to experts about the issue and what needs to be done to solve

It meanwhile the Tory candidate for mayor of Greater Manchester has defected to reform UK today and at the end of the show we’ll be speaking to Owen Jones about his defection uh from labor and a new initiative he’s announced to support left-wing candidates for Parliament the

US has so far blocked every single Gaza ceasefire resolution proposed at the UN it’s now three times that the country has used its veto power against f to stop Israel’s war there but now Secretary of State Anthony blinken has been interviewed by a Saudi News Channel

Al Arabia where he said this we actually have a resolution that we put forward right now that’s before the United Nations security Council that does call for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages and we uh hope very much that countries will uh will support

That I think that would send a a strong message a strong signal very rich for them to start asking other countries’s support their seire resolutions now Al jazer has obtained a copy of the text of that resolution and it says this the security Council determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained

Ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides allow for the delivery of a central humanitarian assistance and alleviate humanitarian suffering and towards that end unequivocally supports ongoing International diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages Park life now the language here

Is interesting yes it contains the words immediate and sustained ceasefire and that’s what most of Western media is running with in their headlines this is how the guardian presented the story this was the headline in the times and here’s how the New York Times described it but these headlines are pretty

Misleading what the draft text of the resolution actually ask the security Council to recognize is the imperative of a ceasefire in other less Meely words the US appears to be seeking formal recognition by the security Council of the importance of an immediate and sustained ceasefire without actually demanding one it’s the appearance of

Doing something without actually doing anything which the US are world leaders in but blink’s announcement comes at a time when the Biden Administration is coming under increased domestic pressure to Halt Israel’s attacks on Gaza yet Israel is showing no signs of letting up Biden has repeated repeatedly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu to call off his planned ground operation in Rafa where more than 2third of gaza’s population are now crowded in a briefing to the nessed earlier this week Netanyahu said this we have a debate with the Americans over the need to enter Rafa not over the need to

Eliminate Hamas but over the need to enter Rafa I made it as clear as possible to the president that we are determined to complete the elimination of these Hass battalions in Rafa and there is no way to do this without ground incursion International outrage has also been growing over impending

Famine in Gaza with the now with the entire territory now at risk of lifethreatening food shortages we shouldn’t fool ourselves over the word impending because people are already dying of hunger in Gaza and most of them are children Reuters has this report on one child in Northern Gaza where UNICEF

Has said nearly one in three children under two suffer from acute malnutrition six-year-old Zant is acutely malnourished his spindly legs can no longer support him to walk he is confined to a bed at the Kamal adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza where famine is bearing down fatty suffers from cystic

Fibrosis this is him before the war with his twin and dancing at a [Applause] wedding you didn’t feel he was Ill his mother shimar says he went to kindergarten with his brother like any other child then she says FY was taking medicine that his family can no longer find and

Eating a balanced diet vegetables fruits and his favorite grilled chicken F’s condition began to deteriorate about 2 months ago he’d sometimes have 10 bouts of diara a night before the war he weighed 66 now his mother says just 26 if the war continues his condition is getting worse he is getting weaker he

Keeps losing things he can no longer walk he can no longer stand when I help him stand up he falls straight away he cannot hold himself dying of hunger is one of the most torturous ways a human can pass away I’ve recently been reading uh a book detailing the deaths of the 10

Hunger Strikers in 1981 in in Ireland and it is just living torture and to see children dying like this when they could so easily be saved I don’t think words to Justice now fatty was being treated at the Kamal adwan hospital where the Gaz and health Ministry says 27 children have died of

Malnutrition in recent weeks but in southern Gaza overcrowding and food shortages will also soon cause a rise in child mortality here at the alaa center in Rafa in the South Umpa hedi says her 5-year-old daughter isra suffers from quadriplegia epilepsy and now malnutrition her medication is no longer

Available and she has lost a lot of weight displaced like nearly all Garin the family now lives in a camp with no work or money I die 1,000 times a day I feel bad for her when I see her having spasms there’s no medication she’s hungry I know she’s hungry the ward

Nurse Amir Abu jaad says the hospital is unable to get enough milk for the children the situation is catastrophic every day it gets worse the children here are suffering from Mal nutrition we see it in a frightening way each day we have 5 to 10 cases of children who have

Severe deficiency in nutrition especially milk now that level of starvation is not going to disappear anytime soon because even if the bombing of Gaza were to stop today and food trucks were able to enter the strip the dying would still continue for some time this has been predicted on every level

By experts and yet it’s been allowed to happen the need for an immediate ceasefire has never been more urgent and grows more urgent with each day now Ash that resolution from the US it is something right it is something well I think we should identify what that something is and then

See if that is um sorry my brain is just in full buffering mode see if that is in any way uh um meeting the extreme urgencies of this political and Military moment so what this draft rol resolution does is that it is an attempt by the US

To wield diplomatic pressure in a public global forum in such a way that would hopefully shame Israel into calling off or scaling back any planed assault on Rafa now there isn’t anything to suggest that this approach is going to work with with Netanyahu he’s proved himself time

And time again to be a politician who is much more willing to push American Goodwill a lot further than any previous Israeli leader of government before him so trying to you know Implement a draft resolution through the UN which is largely toothless it recognizes the urgent need for a cease Fire doesn’t

Quite call one doesn’t really put any options on the table for applying pressure directly to Israel in the form of sanctions um or any sort of you know coordinated efforts with lots of other countries so this is It’s just bit of finger wagging really and what Netanyahu

I think has consistently shown over the course of this entire war is that he prioritizes his own political survival over and above whatever it is Joe Biden might think of him personally people in the White House know that Netanyahu is very difficult to work with politically they’re already trying to sideline him

And work around him when it comes to their diplomatic overtures having those meetings directly with Benny Gans for instance just a few weeks ago that shows that the White House considers Netanyahu not so much a a geopolitical partner in Israel anymore but a sort of thorn in

The side that they’ve got to weather netanyahu’s already priced that in for him the more dangerous political option is calling off the assault on Rafa this war drawing to a close and then suddenly he’s under all that political pressure that we knew that he was under even before October the 7th very very

Unpopular um reforms to uh the Israeli Supreme Court and there’s also the matter of the security failures which led to October 7th itself what Netanyahu did when he set out the objectives for uh I mean it’s not a war it’s a it’s a genocide that’s being carried out what

He did when he said set out the objectives for what in his view as a legitimate War retrieval of the hostages was placed below the destruction of Hamas now to what extent have Hamas been destroyed I mean yes they will have lost much of their military capacity but

Maybe not all that much their senior leadership remains intact uh and secondly it’s a lot harder to fight Urban Warfare when instead of streets to send your soldiers near your tanks down you’ve got to negotiate Rubble that tends to uh benefit Insurgent guilla Fighters much more than it benefits

Conventional armies so this sort of um objective of okay well we’ve got to destroy her Mass that’s kind of indefinite and unachievable so as long as Netanyahu is able to keep up this pretent of that’s what the military objective is he gets to stay in power so

All in all I don’t think that this draft UN resolution by the us if it’s not backed up by something like suspension of military aid uh suspension of armed sales I don’t think it’s going to have that much of an impact because for Netanyahu the end of the war means the

End of his time in office bombing Siege and now starvation in Gaza well these are the conditions that drive thousands of protesters onto the streets of Western capitals week after week but the Israeli government believes that we’re doing it for quite different reasons speaking at a press conference earlier

This week Israel’s Minister for diaspora Affairs and combating anti-Semitism um amakai Chilli said this about criticism of Israel the events of October 7 brought this attack to new hates of Madness and hatred we saw blatant support for the rape and murdered of innocent men women and children demonization of ID of

Soldiers in the Jewish State link in them to the Nazis Distortion of the Holocaust in its memory and the applications of hypocritical double standards tailored to specifically Target one people and one state alone the streets of Europe are once again unsafe for Jews and many of its leaders instead of showing courage are

Demonstrating cowardice instead of standing with the truth they align themselves with full Palestinian propaganda instead of supporting the victims of the attack they side with the barbaric preparators this morality perhaps may serve shortterm interest allowing a temporary semblance of Peace but make no mistake it will ultimately result in intensification and strengthening of

Radical Islam aggression and barbarism at a separate event in Jerusalem last night ji said this about Britain this is a Center of Western Civilization the country of the Magna cataa and one of the leading democracies of the West with a rich Legacy of freedom of speech of

Human Rights but it seems what is happening now in Britain is that freedom of speech no longer exists today in the UK Jews are hiding their jewishness the mauza the kipa they know that if they speak Hebrew on the subway they might get hit and this is the reality for Jews

In Europe This is a reality in Europe where anti-Semitism is the worst since the 30s as a consequence of the red green alliance with radical Islam these inflammatory statements are pretty on form for chickle last month he compared foreign secretary David Cameron to Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler

That was after Cameron said the UK would recognize a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza chigi also said that labeled Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez quote an anti-semites for raising doubts about Israel’s compliance with international law Ash we learned yesterday that Israeli spokesperson Alon Levy has reportedly been suspended for

Attacking David Cameron is Israel doing itself any favors via ministerial comments like this because Britain doesn’t seem to like it very much when they turn on their allies I mean this is exactly the kind of that Britain has itself enabled and empowered because our government has tried to play this game

Of weaponizing anti-semitism and weaponizing very real fears of racist harassment and attacks to clamp down on legitimate expressions of solidarity with Palestine to demonize uh Muslims in particular in the UK and also the left more generally so that’s been the domestic political game that’s being played here now you can’t get upset when

The Israeli government plays that exact same game in order to exert political pressure on you you simply can’t get upset about that so this is a beast which has been fed watered nurtured by David Cameron and his colleagues in rishy sunak cabinet quite frankly um

When it comes to you know is this Israel shooting themselves in the foot I think that again one of the things that this might result in is a sort of frostier diplomatic reception perhaps a reluctance to provide so much diplomatic cover for the most egre just of Israeli abuses of Palestinians political and

Human rights But ultimately when it comes to the stuff that matters um normalizing relations with Israel uh sanctions weapon sales military aid you know you could call David Cameron Eva Brown and it’s not actually going to change the disposition of the British government it does of course make certain things more like

So for instance the UK government potentially recognizing a state of Palestine or beginning that process in order to sort of you know spook whatever Israeli government is in power at that point uh into some degree of of decency or somewhat better Behavior but the devil’s in the detail what recognition

Of a Palestinian State means doesn’t necessarily equate to pressure on Israel to give up the occupation or to give back land which has been settled since 1967 um it also doesn’t necessarily mean that what kind of state the International Community in the west will lend its support to uh for Palestine

Will be one which has any meaningful sovereignty so once more finger wagging clutched pearls nothing of substance child poverty in Britain has hit a record high we say that basically every year now there are now more children living in poverty in Britain that at any time since comparable records began in

2002 according to government figures 4.3 million children are now in relative poverty that means they live in a household with an income less than 60% of the median after housing costs and 3.6 million are in absolute poverty up by 300,000 on last year’s figures according to the financial times that

Represents the fastest rise in child poverty in 30 years and it means that a quarter of all children in the UK are living in absolute poverty so what’s driving this shocking fall in living standards for the nation’s children while campaigners Point primarily to the two child benefit cap that’s the Tory

Policy that means only the first two children in a family are entitled to Universal Credit or child tax credit a sum amounting to around £3,000 per child per year any children born after the first two get absolutely nothing diddly squat the policy was introduced by Theresa May in 2017 though labor have

Vowed to keep it if they win the election so what’s their plan to tackle the issue well Shadow employment Minister Allison McGovern told the independent this labor tackle the root causes of poverty by growing the economy bringing down energy bills creating better more secure jobs building more affordable housing and protecting

Renters delivering our child health action plan placing young Futures hubs in every Community cutting school uniform costs and supporting parents and children by providing breakfast clubs in every primary school that’s called trickle down economics and we’ve known for 40 years that it doesn’t work and it isn’t what poverty experts are asking

For Children’s Charities and campaigners are all calling for the two child benefit cap to be scrapped and they want a social guarantee for those families most in need covering basic costs like food and household bills the effect of Britain’s dire economic policies is hitting children hard so hard that now

Schools are having to fill some of their basic needs desperate neglect is how an observer report describes the situation with teachers having to wash children’s clothes and even find them beds as a result of deepening poverty that article goes on to report this the head of a

Primary school in a deprived area in Northwest England speaking anonymously to avoid identifying vulnerable children said we have a child who we put in the shower a couple of times a week he described the family’s bathroom as disgusting and said they couldn’t afford to buy cleaning products his school

Routinely washed uniforms for children whose families didn’t have a washing machine the report continues the school recently stepped into help after discovering a pupil begging outside a supermarket and its free breakfast club was really needed but lack of sleep has also become a big symptom of poverty and

A barrier to learning we’ve got a lot of kids in homes with not enough beds or a mom sleeping with one with two or three children the head said support staff would often take children out of class who weren’t coping because of exhaustion to let them sleep for an hour or two

Some children are falling asleep in lessons and not just little ones he said one teacher described children vaping and drinking energy drinks to suppress their hunger leading to eratic behavior and poor or no learning another said that some of their students had no beds of their own While others had no bedding

Or heating meaning the cold kept them awake one head teacher put the situation like this there is this simplistic romantic idea that education lifts people out of poverty but you have to do something to mitigate the impacts of poverty or children can’t learn the former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield blamed the government’s decade

Long assault on public services for the alarming rise in child poverty and she described schools as quote the last people standing in terms of support for kids from poor households earlier today I spoke to Jo Lane director of policy at Action for Children about the record Figures it’s just more evidence that

Child poverty is too high in the UK and what we’ve seen really is lots of hand ringing over how poverty is measured so you know we’ve seen we often see in Parliament that they debate the difference between relative poverty absolute poverty and what today’s figures have shown actually is now you

Know however you look at poverty those figures are going up and Action for Children is a children’s po charity and one of the things that we often point to is that however you measure poverty however you cut that data whether you’re looking at relative poverty absolute poverty food insecurity being behind on

Bills other types of financial hardship it’s always children and families with children who are most likely group to be growing up in poverty so it’s very easy for politicians of all parties to say you know children are the most vulnerable and they they you know they’re they’re deserving of the most

Help at the moment we don’t have the policies we don’t have the strategy to make sure we’re protecting children from poverty and bringing that you know horrendous high high level of child poverty down obviously as you say this is a reflection of a lack of strategy

And a lack of long-term policy have we seen any initiatives within the current economic landscape that have successfully helped alleviate child poverty in certain communities and can they be scaled up there’s a few things there so one thing that we have talked a lot about Action for Children we try to

Really shine a light on is this idea of work being the best route out of poverty so you know you we we constantly hear that um in political messaging but we know statistically that the vast majority of children who grow up in poverty live in households where their

Parents are working we’ve dug into that data um in in in granular detail and shown that um around between around half and two-thirds of children growing up in poverty in the UK live in what we call sort of work constrained households so that means their parents really really

Struggle to do any more work than they already are and that might be because they’re working full-time um it might be because one of them’s working full-time and one of them is looking after a baby or one of them is disabled and unable to work or one of them is you know has

Caring responsibilities for a disabled family member so using really really you know be being being quite sort of um strict almost with that criteria so that’s probably an underestimate of those people who who had actually really really struggled to do additional work so it’s one thing we we say to all

Political parties at the moment is it’s not enough to just say you know work is the best route out of poverty it’s it’s clear that families are working as much as they can and their children are still you know suffering with growing up in poverty and all of the impact that stat

Has actually in terms of measures that work we had that sort of strange instance during the pandemic where Universal Credit went up by 20 pounds a week and actually what we saw in that period was the the headline child poverty rates fell um and then that that

Uplift was scrapped and then you had you know a very real sort of natural experiment almost where child poverty levels have rebounded straight away because of that policy choice to get rid of that 20 pound uplift and our sort of headline recommendation to the government and to all political parties

Going into the general election is the best way to get money in the pockets of low-income families is to invest in the child element of Universal Credit so for every pound you invest in the child element of Universal Credit that gives you your bet best bang for your buck in

Terms of lifting children out of Y and you know in the most cost effective way we’re most likely to see a labor government come 2025 they have said they will be keeping policies like the two child benefit cap what would you want to Lobby a labor government for in order to end child

Poverty in the UK one really encouraging thing is that the labor party going into the election have committed to a child poverty strategy and that’s something which is absolutely essential but we know from this Parliament that you know just just having that commitment to you know for instance in the in the 2019

Manifesto there was that commitment to use um in in the conservative Manifesto sorry the commitment to use the social security system to reduce child poverty clearly the statistics that have been published Today Show that that hasn’t happened so Action for Children will be working you know making sure that all

Political parties have a really clear commitment to reduce child poverty after the next general election and then after the next general election on those specific changes that are needed to do that so some of those are about the social security system we want to see um you know that investment in the child

Element of un Universal Credit we want to see the two child limit um the two child benefit cap scrapped we want to see the benefit cap scrap to make sure that people who need that money can benefit from it that that the benefits they receives aren’t artificially capped

And then also that work that needs to go on in the labor market so when we talk about work constrained households our employers you know get creating the jobs and creating the labor market conditions that enable those people who have real lives you know lives where they have childcare and responsibilities caring

Responsibilities out you know outside of their family um where where they might have their own needs um whether that’s disability or or or other things and that those people are able to work as much as they can and they’re able to do that in a sustainable way you know in

Jobs that are you know are you know don’t sort of make their health conditions worse or or or their lives unbearable so also that work around the labor market and making that work for families and you know those two things together make social make the Social Security System adequate Target money at

Families with children in particular and make the labor market work better for those people who need that flexibility will go a long way to reducing the level of child poverty in the UK where is the political will to deal with child poverty in the country because surely you think our politicians wouldn’t want

To see the Country Return to deenan levels of poverty and yet that’s exact actly the situation that’s been described one of the big challenges in sort of combating child poverty is on the surface you know all politicians of all Stripes all colors want say you know say they want to reduce child poverty

And want to see as few children growing up in poverty as possible there’s you know there’s endless reasons to do that there’s obviously sort of moral and ethical reasons that you know we want all children to have a positive life experience to be able to flourish and fulfill their potential and you know

Have as many choices in there lives as possible and then there’s also those you know more what people would see sort of hard-headed um reasons in terms of the costs that child poverty imposes on the state in terms of the costs it imposes on the economy the knock on health

Impacts the knock on impact on school outcomes and labor market outcomes so there’s plenty of reasons and and and plenty of sort of superficial will and and you know and Action for Children you know we campaign really really hard on this every year and you know and we’ll

Be doing the same in the run up to en election it’s not enough to just say we want to reduce child poverty we need to have make those policy choices um that that Target you know Target spending um you know in whatever sort of um fiscal environment there is but that there’s

There’s spending choices that can be made but Target that spending at those families and the children who need that money the most I understand you also having a report today out on child exploitation how does that link in with the figures that we’ve seen today we heard hours and hours hundreds of

Thousands of um um words of evidence from experts and people with lived experience with child and exploitation and you know within that there’s a whole host of risks that pose um you know vulnerabilities to children to families and that’s you know the areas they live in it’s um you know children often you

Know often black boys often um you know but certainly um black and minority ethnic children over represented in in in in those figures but absolutely what we hear is that children living with financial pressure where they amilies are in in in financial difficulty and the cost of living crisis has only made

That worse that’s a vulnerability for exploitation because those those those criminals often organized crime they know that children and particular sort of children as they get a bit older they’re looking to get a bit of money themselves they might be looking to help out in terms of the costs with their

Family and that’s something that they can use to groom and exploit those vulnerability so absolutely you know when I talked about the knock on impacts um of poverty on other areas of the state it makes children vulnerable to exploitation and you know our evidence shows that this is in the tens of

Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of children who are being groomed and exploited and certainly are vulnerable to exploitation and the harm of that almost can’t be overstated and you know we heard as we produced our our our our um report for today that lived experience of children who’ve been

Threatened who’ve been sexually abused you know CH children who action for children have worked with who’ve been killed um and and you know the the these children are not being protected at the moment and they’re being made more vulnerable Often by their financial situ but you know but where they are where

Where they are growing up in financial hardship now Labour’s race relations advisor has accused kiss D of not listening in a new speech according to reporting from the times Dorene Lawrence mother of murdered teenager Steven Lawrence privately criticized the labor leader during a closed meeting of majority ethnic minority MPS and peers

On Tuesday attendees also included Sue gray star’s chief of staff and Shadow foreign secretary David Lamy Lawrence’s reported have said this I was appointed as the race adviser but I haven’t been listened to I wish K listened to me there are Gatekeepers who stop things from happening the Times report

Continues Lawrence added that she no longer knew how to respond to complaints about the party leadership from black and minority ethnic voters and questioned its decision to scale back a conference at which Dharma had been due to unveil plans for new race equality legislation last month when approached

By the times about the leaks Lawrence didn’t deny the remarks had been made instead she said this of course I’m always going to push the party to do more as the fight for equality has never done but I’ve known Kier for years and I’ve no doubts about his commitments to

Equality in fighting racism that’s why I’ve been proud to work with labor to develop their plans for a new race equality act as the times point points out Lawrence made these remarks in the midst of renewed questions about MP Diane Abbott suspension Abbott is the longest serving black MP in Parliament

And she’s also currently suspended from labor because of remark she made in 2023 saying people belong to Jewish Irish and GRT communities only experienced Prejudice not racism but last week it was revealed that Abbott had been the target of violent racist and misogynistic abuse from the conservatives biggest donor Frank Hester

In the wake of that scandal abber has publicly asked for the whip to be restored and said that labor also needs to address racism in its own ranks according to the Times report Abbott’s case was discussed at the meeting Dorene Lawrence spoke at so with K was Co so

Was Kate oser the labor MP suspended in January for including Gaza in a list of genocides she cited in a newsletter on Holocaust Memorial Day according to sources present there were complaints about how slowly the party is conducting disciplinary cases against politicians from visible minor minorities who are

Seen to be part of the quote coronight left now what these disciplinary processes actually entail is a bit of a mystery kiss dama and his Deputy Angela rain have publicly said the investigation into Abbott specifically is an independent process but there are conflicting reports as to whether Abbott

Suspension is actually being handled by Labor’s Chief whip instead which would make it an internal process and not independent the whip can also override independent decisions for example in 20 20 Jeremy Corbin was readmitted to the labor party by an independent NEC panel after being suspended for rejecting some

Of the findings of an ehrc report into anti-Semitism in the party allies said that that should have meant automatic reinstatement as a labor MP but the whip was still withheld from him and he was barred from standing at the next election despite the findings of the independent NC panel now multiple

Sources are now saying that labor is Seeking a similar outcome in Abbott’s case journalist Andrew Fisher and Lee harpen have both reported that labor leadership have offered to restore the whip to Abbott if she stands down at the next election Ash is it true that ethnic minority voters and MPS are getting the

Short end of the stick with the current iteration of Labor yes but I assume you want me to say more than just yes is it all ethnic minority MPS and uh uh and voters or is it certain parts of the party as what I’m interested

In I would say it has a lot to do with race but it’s not entirely to do with race particularly when you look at the treatment of black Asian and minority ethnic MPS within the labor party so effectively what you have is a highly politicized disciplinary process now if

You cast your mind back to the ehrc report that’s exactly what Jeremy Corbin was accused of presiding over and was was the reason why the ehrc felt compelled to intervene now you’ve got if anything an even worse disciplinary process now for MPS where it’s ultimately up to the discretion of the

Party leadership as to whether an apology is going to suffice to bring someone back into the fold now what that means for ethnic minority MPS who are on the left of the party is that disciplinary mechanis isms particularly when it comes to accusations of racism and especially when it comes to

Accusations of anti-Semitism will be used as a pretext no matter how flimsy in order to suspend the Whip and then if it comes to you know booting someone out of the party for good you could say all right well it’s not for anti-Semitism instead for bringing the party into

Disrepute or something else it’s all a way of giving what is effectively a factional process of an ear of moral legitim y now that does have an impact I think on all ethnic minority voters in this country because when you see the party which is likely to form the next

Government basically saying okay racism is one big political game to us and we’ll notice it when it benefits us and we’ll ignore it when it doesn’t that doesn’t mean you can trust these people in government I mean remember when during the black lives matter protests you had K Dharma and Angela Raina taking

The knee and sort of gazing vacantly in the middle of an empty conference room you know you had these commitments to implementing the um recommendations of the Lamy review andolini uh the wind Rush report you can’t trust these people to do what they say because the next moment when it’s not politically

Convenient or they are coming under pressure from right-wing newspapers or the right of their own party they would will as they’ve shown with their own internal processes absolutely do what’s best for them in their political careers rather than doing what’s morally right so yes ethnic minority voters and ethnic

Minority MPS are being shafted but they’re being shafted as part of a specific political attack on the left and this is I think an important point to make which is that when you see this kind of factional Warfare on the left of the labor party it is actually screwing over and

Marginalizing all ethnic minority voters and would be politicians in this country God remember when all the politicians were taking the knee my word what a time that was uh you in obviously now you could not give a better example of gesture politics than those empty shots of people taking in

Knee amid the pandemic masks on uh and now we fast forward today god wow that would be an Adam Curtis documentary won’t it a big blow to the Tories today because their candidate for the mayor of Greater Manchester has just announced his defection Dan Barker was previously running for the conservatives against

Labor incumbent Andy Burnham but today he jumped ship to reform UK the party formerly known as the brexit party this is what he told the BBC about his defection I think in truth the conservative party have given up on greater Manchester and the north of England you can see that from inside the

Party what they are really doing is trying to protect the blue wall in the Southeast and the Southwest because they fear that the liberal Democrats are going to annihilate them when are we going to get rid of the term wall it’s becoming the Gate of politics no more

Walls no more gates no more suffixes like that for their part the conservatives had pretty sharp words for Barker an anonymous conservative parliamentary candidate told politics home that I congratulate Dan on going from being guaranteed to lose because of his mediocrity to being doubly guaranteed to lose because of his

Untrustworthiness these are the same people who selected Barker as their maral champion in December 2023 you have to ask did they have such faith in him then it’s quite fascinating because the conservatives have always been held together by their lust for power and now they’re just absolutely falling apart

Now barkers is not the first deection to reform he of course follows Lee Anderson the former deputy chairman of the Tory party Anderson was suspended from the conservatives after making islamophobic remarks about London May S Khan he then coincidentally decided his heart really lay with reform and if polling is to be

Believed lots of Tory voters may feel the same the latest yug of polling has given reform 15% of the projected vote share in a general election but look at what the Tories are on just 19% labor are currently sitting on 44% of the vote of course these polls are untested and

In the most recent parliamentary byelection in Rochdale reform came sixth with only 6.3% of the vote so it really does remain to be seen if this polling is something that actually translates to results and it hasn’t happened so far but that hasn’t stopped the media making

Noise and what I want to know Ash is all this ferar about reform right do they pose an actual tangible risk the Tories or are they just acting as this pressure group I think it can be a bit of both while reform is eating into the conservative party vote share at least

In you know Westminster voting intention polls they have an ability to Spook the conservative party into adopting its political positions its rhetoric and to empower those on the hard rout of the conservative party when it comes to eventually launching a leadership bid so you’ve got that element where they can

Operate as a pressure group and because basically they’ve got billionaire funders with endlessly Deep Pockets they can afford to sort of Chuck a few candidates at the wall and see what sticks in a general election if they end up with uh candidates in Parliament and I’m not just talking about you know

Defectors like Lee Anderson he’s on course to lose his seat in Ashfield I believe it is um but if they end up with you know one or two candidates that’s an incredible bully pulpit for them so I think that they can afford to be both I

Think that reform is all is already very different from the brexit party in that they’ve ruled out the possibility of any deals with the conservative party basically there is no policy position that the conservatives could say that they would adopt because they’re not going to form the next government and so

That’s not going to form the basis of any kind of agreement to stand down in particular seats and yeah they can for to see what happens next what I’d say is that the approach of Reform so far has been quite scaron one is that they’re obviously fighting an an air war with

The help of GB news uh you know two they’re absorbing defectors like Lee Anderson and other candidates running locally and regionally but you know Lee Anderson was going to lose his seat anyway many of those candidates didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell so thinking about how all this is going to

Add up after the next general election there is a big old question mark I would say that on balance it looks like what they’re trying to do is prime the political terrain to ensure that there is a further rightwards drift in the conservative party leftwing journalist Owen Jones has made headlines today

Literally and is trending on many social media platforms by announcing that he’s leaving the labor party after 24 years years I’ve always been a labor guy my family’s been labor for Generations I joined the party at the age of 15 and I voted for them under every single leader

In the 21 years of my adult life but for me the part is over and I’ve just quit and now I think it’s time for us to vote green or independent unless you still got a labor MP who offers an actual alternative to the catastrophic Tory policies which have brought this country

To the edge of ruin the Tories are toast you can s lab message without risking them sneaking back in now they’ll try and spook you into thinking despite the toys having comprehensively nuked themselves you’ve got to vote labor or you’ll just let the toys back in don’t

Believe them they’re just after a big majority so they’ve got absolute power and they can do anything they want and no one can stop them you can’t trust them with that power look how they keep purging their opponents boasting of blackmailing the Speaker of the House of Commons to overturn parliamentary

Protocols to get their own way look personally I’m scared of what they’ll do with the power that a whopping big majority will give them if we don’t get our act together when it all ends in tears for starmer labor and when they’re in government believe me it will the far

Right will be waiting in the wings instead the Tories are toast we deserve better end the war and hope send labor a message let’s do this right so didn’t want to just give Owen a free advert for his campaign we have actually asked him some pretty hard-hitting questions when

Earlier today I caught up with him about this new campaign we deserve better I for a long time I’ve been thinking of um ending the increasingly toxic relationship I have with the labor party um but I spoke to various people they thought if I was going to leave then I

Might as well do something with it and lots of them were thinking about the idea of you know how do you build pressure on the labor party um in the electoral system that we have given the pressure that’s coming on it um which it very willingly Embraces is pressure from

The right um and what came up in those conversations is why not something which raises money for independent candidates green party candidates um as well as if they’ll take the money or allow to take the money without being kicked out of the labor party um Labor candidates who

Still stand for things like taxing the rich to invest in public services public ownership and not slaughtering thousands of innocent people in Palestine um and from that came the idea of we deserve better H so it’s not my campaign I’m not a leader um I can barely time a sh laces

That’s probably not a good idea um that that’s bringing together lots of activists from across the movement um including counselors who’ve left the labor party peace activists climate activists so for example Brant Fatima from a green New Deal Rising is involved they’re already doing their own strategizing to raise money and

Resources for candidates like Jamie jull in the Northeast a former labor cand sorry current a current mayor who labor banned from standingstone new Northeast combined Authority and the idea of it is at the moment people think look not happy about labor but what what do we do

Now and this is trying to say look we AG green candidates who stand for things like public ownership taxing the rich T taking on the climate emergency independent candidates organically coming out of communities and there are still good people on the loan Pike you don’t have to

Choose You’ spoken a bit today actually I’ll ask you a different question first what was your red line when it came to your lifelong support of Labor and deciding to leave the party Israel’s genocide in Gaza no question um what that did is turn what I think is a labor

Leadership which got there through dishonesty and K farmer clearly made a series of extremely dishonest commitments from public ownership to taxing the rich investing in public services scrapping tuition fees we really could go on it’s quite a long list um in order to you know accept things like continuity austerity slash

Andb burn cuts which have led this country to disaster um as well as I don’t know take Char poverty for example he’s new lab had policies on tackling the crisis of child poverty wasn’t enough but the minimum wage was something tax credits was something these these people support

The two child benefit cap which drives 250,000 kids into poverty and 850,000 PE children further into poverty so they they don’t even have that competitive lab that’s bad enough but what takes what I think is a disgrace on domestic policy into abject moral disgrace is the

Fact at the very beginning k said he supported the right of Israel to cut off water and energy to a civilian population um then sent Shadow ministers on television to back that morally depraved position and I think that position is sick by the way he’s a human rights liar he understands the Geneva

Convention he knows what article 33 says on collecty punishment I told Emily Thor me my local MP at the time that I wasn’t going to vote for her that was back in October so clearly I’ve been thinking about this for a while um I couldn’t I

Wouldn’t be able to do that I think war crimes Collective um supporting what at the beginning was clear from the genocidal statements of Israeli leaders I called them genocidal on the 9th of October two days after this horror began I think it was very clear what was

Goingon to happen I don’t think I’m a speal I’m a prophet I don’t think I had extreme special Insight um I just listened to what Israeli leaders said and they followed What to the letter what they said they were goingon to do it labor back to that they legitimized

It and they’re unfit for office of course I can’t support something like that I think it would be you know grotesque you said you’re not in charge of this new campaign but do you know if there’s going to be any similar red lines in the politicians that will be

Allocated funds from this war chest you know for example Independents like George Galloway very Pro Palestine preaches an economically redistributive agenda but also in the flip side uh use like an extensive amount of transphobic language in the campaign materials he was giving out like where are the red

Lines going to be when we’re dealing with these new independent candidates some of who really mix up what political ideologies they follow it’s not just transphobia the part of George G is it um it’s on a whole range of issues I mean discuss talking about refugees being men of

Fighting age his language around grooming gangs um when he attacked the Scottish first Minister hza Yousef in a tweet he said you’re not Scottish like me you’re not Celtic like me what he’s supposed to do with that kind of language um he claims the 2020 he

Suggested you know open to the idea of a 2020 presidential election being rigged by the Democrats he um you should condemn Joe Biden for supporting genocide and war crimes doesn’t mean you give into trumpian conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and also for talking about foreign policy in terms of consistency I

Very much opposed any Western military involvement in Syria that doesn’t mean that I turned a blind ey to the horrors Unleashed by Assad against Muslim innocent civilians so I think consistency on human rights internationally um and not giving into bigoted views about minorities trans people I think is is a very striking

Example so yeah I think the the red line I don’t think is you know it’s not easy to come up with the so it’s not it’s not it’s not a problem or difficult to come up with these red lines consistency which is you stand always against Prejudice um against all minorities you

Stand up for all minorities uh irrespective and um you consistently stand for human rights at home abroad um you know I don’t think George Galloway’s left wing I know it’s going to annoy some people listening to this but taking a good stand on Gaza which he

Has doesn’t in any way um you know compensate for his views elsewhere which is why I think this is important because we need you know independent candidates um who are rooted in their community and at the moment Galloway’s filled that vacuum hasn’t he he’s there because there isn’t something like this

To help support and fund independent candidates so I’m hoping you know we’ll have people for example who used to be in the labor body like Jamie droll and also lean mahamed who’s a British Palestinian woman who’s standing against where streeting in in ilford Andrew Feinstein who’s standing um against K

Starma himself who’s a former ANC politician and the son of Holocaust Survivors so I I think it’s not it’s it’s very straightforward to come up those red lines but has that been agreed to by the Coalition behind we deserve better has that already been discussed

As some some think that will be stuck to when allocating These funds yes absolutely that’s something which um those who have been involved have all disussed and and and agreed you know there’s a there’s a huge range of independent and green candidates they’re gonna be backing I mean an obvious one

Is when jermy Corin ends up standing um which I think is very likely he hasn’t announced it but I’d be extremely surprised if he doesn’t given local party members in nlon north have been denied their Democratic rights by the party leadership their right to choose their candidate and they would over

Whelmingly she’s Jamie Corbin you know Dian AA if she’s not allowed to stand um you know she’s someone who should be supported if she went on to become an independent candidate if the labor party refused to allow local members in hat North and St newon to vote for that so

It’s not you know there’s no shortage of these candidates so I think there’s a whole range of them but the Coalition would immediately fall apart if Galloway IES George Galloway type candidates were were back of you know the green party wouldn’t be involved in something like

That for a start um I think it’s important to have that consistency this isn’t quite tactical voting it’s more like tactical funding but you’ve still been hit by lots of accusations today that you’re essentially helping the Tories with this how do you respond to those there is more chance of one of my

Cats becoming Supreme emperor of the universe than the conservative winning the next election it’s not going to happen the stories have destroyed themselves they simulated just one of the scandals I suppose scandals euphemistic uh that they’ve been embroiled in would be sufficient to finish off a normal political party uh

Party gate being one um the worst squeezing living standards um on record uh collapsing National Health Service and general public realm just being in power for that long being intellectually politically exhausted because they’ve gone through so many iterations and every single one has failed um but obviously that for me you know what

Clearly destroyed the conservatives was the Liz Tross experiment people didn’t like her policies they objected them overwhelmingly and they objectional policies crashed the economy and sent rents and mortgages spiking and after that the elector decided it doesn’t matter what you say or do we’re not listening and we’re not going to vote

For you anymore that was the end of the conservative rule which is why now in the latest poll they’re looking like they’re going to get overtaken by reform even if they CLA back some support given an election is likely in either October or November in fact inevitable in

October November and we’re now in March there is no way in hell they could possibly win and you’re right if this was a Clos run election I don’t think something like this would be seen as possible because too many people would go look are in and let in uh of my

Perspective see where you’re coming from don’t like these guys either but we’ve got to get the conservatives out so the reassurance the me what the the tagline of a campaign is the Tories are toast let’s send labor a message if you vote green of independent um you’re not going

To let the conservatives win another term in office there’s absolutely no chance that happening and the Really fundamental point is you are going to be spooked into thinking that by labor and their client journalists but they don’t believe it the reason they’re saying it is is because they want the absolute

Power of an overwhelming majority and you’ve seen how they behave with dis a descent in their own party they have very cynically and fractionally used for example uh the issues of racism where they protect those um who support K who make anti-semitic remarks and then cynically for example Purge likes of

Leftwing um Kate osore one of the only black female um labor MPS uh for saying what’s happening in gaz’s genes on the day the international court of justice puts Israel on trial for Gen alleged genocide they we saw what they did to the speaker the other week that their

Own people certainly briefed uh BBC News night’s political editor that the speaker had crushed the snp’s collective punishment this motion saying Israel is responsible for Collective punishment because he’d been told that the labor wouldn’t let him become speaker again if they get a majority which they will you

Can’t trust them with that power these people are how mad they’re authoritarian they’re intolerant of descent um and the only reason they’re trying to Spook people into thinking the Tories will win which they absolutely know there’s no chance of happening whatsoever is because they just crave a massive

Majority and believe you me they will use that majority to use this Machinery of State for factional Revenge that’s the sort of people they are they will clamp down the right to protest they will find ways of um of of of using the state to come down hard on anything

Associated with the left five years ago we were pleading with various center right figures to stop writing op heads about why they were leaving the labor party and why Jeremy Corbin and his front bench were the worst things that could ever possibly happen to this country is we deserve better a

Continuation of that cycle from faction to faction or is it an attempt to break it I think the very clear difference is those um on the right of the labor party are I think the most effective cry bullies in British political history in in that they spent years going oh Jamie

Corbin’s the coming of next coming of Stalin look how totalitarian and tolerant he is he’s crushing us he did no such thing obviously he started with a shadow cabinet packed full of people who opposed him and then they resigned on mass um and then he continually appointed people from the whole length

And breadth of the labor party including K sta who is a shadow brexit secretary so he put people in place who knew didn’t support him from all wings of the labor party now I think a lot of people would say he was too I think in hindsight people would that’s what

People would argue wouldn’t they he didn’t Purge a single MP not a single MP got deselected as jie gin you had for for months I remember because I had to keep going on television about it um a national news story which is seen as like a a national Scandal about a few

Counselors counselors getting deselected in Haring so the point I’m making is there was no reign of terror under Jeremy Corin actually it was a broad church and they were allowed to constantly attack and brief him with no of any description taken against them this on the other hand is the most

Authoritarian leadership in the history of the lab bike don’t listen to me listen to John crudus who is a MP from the middle of the party who used to be an adviser to Tony Blair and he said this is the most illiberal faction labor party’s history in charge and they’re

Want to power they obviously you know they’re they’re they’re they’re you know they they have the most authoritarian leadership in in history so I think the point of making is I’ve supported labor in the past when they’ve terrible things people have completely correctly just go why why are we backing labor then under

X Y or Z then when they’re doing terrible things because the differen is now firstly the nature of the crisis developing Britain in terms of austerity they’re going to continue that that in my view means the far right are going to stand to benefit so unless we do

Something now given labor going to continue those policies the far right will end up benefiting so we have to do it whether we like it or not that’s my own view but the other is um there’s no way back as things stand without external pressure if people think labor

Might change in the future which is I think a legitimate perspective it’ll only happen with external pressure otherwise they will just Purge everybody on the left which is what they’re doing they’re making a hostile environment for anyone to the left of Peter mandon where can people find out more about we

Deserve better go to we deserve better. UK um and it’s really simple at the moment what you do is you donate whatever money you you you want you can and there a cost living crisis as only if people can and that money will then go to the likes of lean Muhammad who’s

Standing in ilford against West streeting who the shallow Health secretary who boasts of um how he’s going to increase privatization of the National Health Service um or it will go to for example Carla denier brilliant green candidate standing against stum deaner in Bristol Central with polling suggesting she could win well with more

Funding I’m sure that makes it more likely Jamie Driscoll former labor mayor North time now standing for the Northeast combined uh Authority his election’s in may he needs all the support and he we can he can get so all you do is you just either donate uh if

You can at the very least put in your details because the other part of this is to get people to go in if they’re nearby put your details and then you’ll be people can be sent information about how you can campaign how you can you

Know give up some time knock on doors if you able to do so it’s really simple at the moment you know and I think you know we’ll see what happens when stars in power I see this as a trial run myself it’s laying foundations it’s limited and

In terms of what he can achieve with an election so close but there’s all these brilliant candidates now and you don’t have to choose between the green party or The Independents you can just give some money and it will be a portioned uh to candidates you won’t agree with them

On everything but you’ll agree with them a lot more than you agree with the labor leadership and it will put pressure on labor it puts we’ve already seen West streeting obviously quite spooked by the support leam muhamed’s getting and that’s why he started changing his ret

On Gaza it’ll scare them and it’ll put pressure on them and it just you know it’s two quid or three quid it makes a difference and it will go to candidates who need it and um as I say either you put pressure on them or the hard right of British

Politics will keep putting pressure on them and labor will gladly keep shifting towards them it’s a Tross well we have some super chats Rob hog five pounds Owen is Right labor is now morally and politically bankrupt we do deserve better and Jason St with 199

Says can we see more of the cat please pay up Musa costs more than that if you if you want to if you want to see Musa you got to throw the cash around I mean he’s currently just out of shot glaring at me because he’s like it

Is my dinner time and here you are talking into a screen at nobody instead of giving me my Munchies he’s literally my1 he said I’m working at the pyamid tonight I need1 Ash thank you so much for joining us tonight and it’s great to have you back thank you so much for

Having me and see you all again next week thank you to everyone who tuned in uh remember if you watch live you get to see bloopers occasionally which is great fun and to the person who asked if I have ADHD I have got a clinical diagnosis tune in tomorrow for another

Stream at 6 PM you have been watching Navara media good night