Pressure mounts on Starmer to go

by New Worker correspondent

Calls on Keir Starmer to go are growing. Five government ministers resign, including Wes Streeting, the health secretary who has been manoeuvring to depose Starmer for some time, amid reports that more than 80 Labour MPs have privately or publicly urged the Prime Minister to step down. Starmer defiantly tells his diminishing band of followers that he has no intention of resigning as Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting prepare to battle it out when Starmer finally bows to the inevitable and hands in his resignation. 
 Andy Burnham was selected as Labour's candidate for the by-election in the Makerfield constituency in north-west England this week. Burnham held one of Manchester’s seats in the House of Commons from 2001 to 2017. When Burnham made a bid for the Labour leadership following the 2015 general election he came a distant second to Jeremy Corbyn. He left the House of Commons to become mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. Burnham’s less than covert come-back campaign began last year when it was clear that the Starmer government was on the rocks. But under Labour rules the leader can only be replaced by a sitting member of parliament.
His first attempt to return to Westminster, through a by-election earlier this year, was thwarted by Labour's National Executive Committee, which is dominated by Starmer’s followers and Blairites. Now that Committee has had second thoughts, and if Burnham does regain a seat in the House of Commons, he will certainly run for the Labour leadership.
Some say Burnham has done a “double-banking” deal with his Blairite rival, Wes Streeting, that would ensure that whoever wins the leadership race, the other gets the Number Two job in the Cabinet.
In the Starmer camp others say Sir Keir is digging in – pointing out that over 100 backbenchers and junior ministers have signed a statement arguing that it was “no time for a leadership contest”.
That’s not the view of Dan Hodges, a former Labour insider who now writes for the Daily Mail. He says Starmer is indeed considering throwing in the towel.
Writing in the Mail last weekend Hodges cited an unnamed Cabinet minister as saying that Starmer “understands the political reality” and is considering arranging his departure on his own terms. “He realises the current chaos is unsustainable. He simply wants to be able to do it in a dignified way and in a manner of his own choosing. He will set out a timetable,” the source said. The newspaper said it remained unclear when such an announcement could come, with some of Starmer’s allies urging him to wait until after the Makerfield by-election.
He’s possibly holding out for a top job in a future Burnham or Streeting government – maybe even Foreign Secretary. But what has he got to offer these days?
Graham Hryce, an Australian journalist, told the Russian media that “Starmer has never been anything other than a third-rate politician completely lacking vision. Unlike Tony Blair, who he somewhat woodenly resembles and tries to ape, Starmer lacks both charisma and political judgement. And unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer is utterly void of principle.
“Starmer started out as a Corbyn acolyte, who then destroyed his master’s political career – by levelling false allegations of anti-Semitism at him – in order to advance his own. He then pretended – unconvincingly – that he had never supported Corbyn’s political programme in the first place. It must be conceded that this pose was at least superficially plausible, but only because it was difficult to believe that Starmer had ever believed strongly in anything at all...
...after disposing of Corbyn, Starmer ruthlessly imposed his own anodyne agenda on the Labour Party and filled his Cabinet with compliant nonentities like David Lammy, who continue to support him this week”.
Whatever happens the Remainers believe their time has, at long last, come. They’ve put the Common Market back on the agenda with Streeting making rejoining the European Union part of his campaign platform. Burnham’s more reticent as he knows this is a touchy subject in the constituency he hopes to represent. But he too is a Remainer and both he and Streeting know that on this issue they can count on the support of the Lib-Dems, the nationalists and the Remainer Tories when push comes to shove over a “second-referendum” in Westminster.  

Never forget Palestine!

by New Worker correspondent

"British complicity in the dispossession and mass murder of Palestinians is not only a story of the past—it is still the reality today" said Ryvka Barnard, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Deputy Director, on Nakba Day as hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through central London to highlight the ongoing impact of the 1948 partition of Palestine, the first Arab-Israeli war and the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinian Arabs from their homes in what is now Israel. The Stand Up to Racism movement joined the demonstration, combining it with an anti-fascist protest against a nearby “Unite the Kingdom” rally organised by a racist and supporter of the State of Israel who calls himself “Tommy Robinson”. Some 250,000 people joined the Palestine march that takes place every month in London while the Robinson rally was said to have drawn around 40,000 to its rally in Trafalgar Square.

Remember their sacrifice!

 

Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin 

by New Worker correspondent 

Millions of Russians took to the streets on Saturday to celebrate Victory Day and the surrender of the Third Reich on 9th May 1945. Every year, the Russian Federation celebrates the victorious end of the Second World War with parades and processions across the country while similar tributes to the millions of Soviet soldiers and citizens who died in the struggle to defeat the Nazis were held in much of the former Soviet Union, Europe and the rest of the world. And on Saturday comrades joined diplomats, solidarity campaigners and members of the Russian ex-pat community for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in London to mark the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Wreaths were laid on Saturday 9th May at the Soviet War Memorial in Lambeth to honour the 27 million Soviet citizens and service members who died in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War that ended in 1945 with the Soviet flag over the Brandenburg Gate and Hitler dead in his bunker in Berlin.
The solemn commemoration brought together ambassadors and diplomats from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, alongside members of the Russian-speaking community as well as British communists and anti-fascist campaigners who came to pay their respects to the fallen.
The memorial in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park next to the Imperial War Museum, unveiled in 1999, honours the millions of Soviet citizens who lost their lives in the fight against Nazism during the Second World War. The block of rare crimson quartzite was mined in Karelia in the north west of Russia – the same type of stone with which the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the wall of the Moscow Kremlin is lined.

We will not forget Odessa!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) and members of the Workers Party of Britain held a vigil outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London on Saturday 2nd May to remember the Anti-Maidan heroes who died at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa on 2nd May 2014.
On 2nd May 2014 a fascist-led mob torched the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, preventing firefighters from intervening and attacking anyone who tried to escape. According to the Kiev regime, 42 people who were defending democratic rights and the rights of Russian speakers died on that day, but this figure is widely disbelieved. According to local investigators the true number of fatalities is well over 300.
For the first time since the formation of IUAFS in 2017, a pro-Zelensky counter-protest was held in front of the embassy, including people wearing fascist Azov emblems – one of whom held a sign saying "We killed the protesters in Odessa". However there were around three times as many anti-fascist protestors as the Ukrainian fascist Banderites. People came out of the embassy to join the Banderite protestors. So the embassy was was clearly involved, and that may be result of the repeated IUAFS protests there. 
There was a large police presence in order to avoid any conflict breaking out in front of the embassy, which is located in one of the most expensive areas in central London. Members of the IUAFS approached the Bandera supporters to tell them we wanted to lay flowers at the embassy gate but were told "it is forbidden". We consulted the police who advised that this may lead to trouble breaking out, so it was decided to lay flowers under a tree across the road. The policy of IUAFS is that its campaigns are purely political, firstly calling on the British government to end all support and collaboration with the Kiev junta, and secondly to extend solidarity and support to all Ukrainian democrats and anti-fascists in Ukraine or living in exile abroad.
The Ukrainian protestors, who were holding Ukrainian, Romanian and British flags, shouted to the anti-fascist protestors "are you Russian? Do your support Hamas terrorists?", and a man apparently from Ukrainian TV filmed the IUAFS activists and also asked "where are you from?".
IUAFS will continue its campaign until democracy, freedom of the media and the right for all peaceful, democratic political parties to operate freely in Ukraine are restored. We look forward to the day when Ukraine is free of NATO personnel and provocations and all the national communities in Ukraine can live side by side together peacefully.

New bid to ban Palestine marches

by New Worker correspondent

“I am absolutely horrified by the appalling attack on two Jewish Londoners,” said Jeremy Corbyn on hearing the news that two Jews had been stabbed in an apparently anti-semitic attack in Golders Green. The Metropolitan Police have now detained a man with a "history of serious violence and mental health issues". The suspect in the double stabbing has been identified as a British national who was born in Somalia and came to the UK legally in the 1990s.   
Corbyn, the former Labour leader, who now heads the Independent Alliance bloc in the House of Commons, said “my thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and Jewish communities across the UK. We must stand united against racist attacks - and defend a society that embraces the common humanity of us all”. But attempts by others to connect a series of anti-semitic attacks in north London with the marches in solidarity with Palestine are false.
The Stop the War Coalition has been proud to be part of organising these mass marches in support of the people of Gaza and against the genocide of the Israeli government. In a statement issued this week the anti-war movement said “we have campaigned for justice for Palestine since our founding 25 years ago, because we recognise that this question is inextricably linked to the wars throughout the Middle East which continue today in Iran and Lebanon. 
“We believe that the statements by Jonathan Hall KC, suggesting that the Palestine marches should be subject to a ‘moratorium’ because of the series of antisemitic attacks in North London, are unacceptable. 
“We condemn unequivocally these attacks, as we do all forms of antisemitism and racism. No one should be attacked for their race or religion. 
“However, the attempts by Hall, sections of the media and some politicians to connect such attacks with the Palestine marches are wrong. Our marches are against the treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza, against the killing of up to 200,000 people in the past two and a half years, the destruction of most of the Gaza Strip, and the targeting of hospitals and other civilian sites. They are in protest at the role of the Israeli government, and the complicity of the British government in these attacks. 
“These marches are supported by many Jewish people who attend. They are not the ‘hate marches’ described by right wing politicians but expressions of solidarity and support for those under attack. The aims to criminalise the protests, which reflect majority public opinion in this country, or worse to connect them with racist or terrorist attacks being carried out against Jewish people, are scurrilous and should be rejected. They appear to be part of a wider agenda to clamp down on protest more generally, and to limit our rights. In a democracy, we have the right to peaceful protest and we will continue to exercise it. We will be marching on 16th May for the Nakba”.

China leads the way

by New Worker correspondent

Ma Jiantang and Zheng Zeguang at the meeting

Andy Brooks joined other British communist leaders and solidarity campaigners in welcoming a senior Chinese delegation to London at a meeting chaired by China’s ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, at the Chinese embassy last week.

The five-strong delegation was led by Ma Jiantang, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China who also sits on the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that plays a central part in the communist-led work of the United Front of China.

At the embassy the NCP leader, together with Alex Gordon of the CPB and Ranjeet Brar from the CPGB-ML along with a number of long-standing friendship activists, were briefed on China's efforts to expand domestic demand and promote high-quality development under the 15th  Five-Year Plan which began this year.  

In the discussion Andy Brooks said “the success of the Chinese revolution led by the Communist Party of China, is one of the greatest achievements of humanity. The communists were the only force capable of building the broad front in the struggle against Japanese aggression. They were the only ones able to unite China’s millions in the struggle against the landlords and exploiters during the civil war that ended with the establishment of the people’s government in 1949.

“Since then we’ve seen  an amazing transformation of a country which was the poorest in the world to a prosperous pillar of the Global South that is paving the way forward in the 21st century.  

“There may only be one road to people’s power but there are many roads along the way of socialist construction. Chinese-style socialism, based on the experience of generations of struggle,  is one of them”.

During their stay in London Ma Jiantang and his delegation also held discussions with government, business and academic circles as well as representatives of leading UK media outlets.

Fuel crisis – Scrap fares!

by New Worker correspondent

Scrapping fares on public transport is an ideal way to respond to the soaring fuel prices caused by the war in the Gulf, Fare Free London says. Abolishing fares makes public transport more attractive to drivers, to help get them out of their cars. It also gives instant support to public transport users, whose journeys are far less fuel-intensive. 
The Fare Free London campaign was set up in February 2024 to promote free public transport as a way to open the capital to all, to support low income households in the face of rising costs and to tackle air pollution and climate change. They have won substantial support from trade unions and community organisations, and are working with our allies towards establishing a national campaign.
"Free public transport would reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and on world markets where prices are set by events outside our control", Pearl Ahrens of Fare Free London said.
The fuel price shock from the American-Israeli attack on Iran is likely to last a long time. The UK will be hit harder than any other country in the G20, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development has said. And the European Union has warned that cutting taxes on petrol could cause a fiscal crisis.
This terrible war should force a permanent rethink of the transport system, Fare Free London believes. The drastic changes necessitated by climate change are long overdue, and the war just adds to the urgency of addressing energy vulnerabilities now.
This is an opportunity to put in place policies that make our transport system more resilient to shocks – both fuel shortages and economic crises – and work towards a sustainable transport system in the longer term. Instead of cutting taxes on fuel, which is already heavily subsidised, we should try and save fuel by encouraging people to travel on public transport.  
"It is wonderful to see the Scottish Greens putting free bus travel in their manifesto", Ahrens said. "And at UK national level, the call by Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats, for 10 per cent off rail fares and a £1 cap on bus tickets, is very welcome.
"But we can and should go further. National and local authorities in several countries have already implemented free public transport, in response to the war. It should be at the top of the UK and London political agenda".
In Asia, municipal authorities have turned to free public transport to shield people from the worst effects of the sharp increases in oil prices.
In Pakistan, the state of Punjab (the largest state in the country, with 125+ million population) and the capital, Islamabad, have made public transport free for a month. The Punjab Mass Transit Authority reckons that more than 800,000 passengers are benefiting from the policy each day, and the provincial government is considering expanding the bus fleet to cope.
In Australia, the states of Victoria and Tasmania have also made public transport free temporarily. Municipal authorities in Ho Chi Minh city, the capital of Vietnam – which has a population of 14.5 million, much bigger than London's – are considering a permanent scheme.      
Free public transport as an emergency measure is not problem-free, but its implementation in British cities would be a welcome relief from the cost of tickets. Evidence from Montpellier in France, where public transport has now been free for two years, is that a properly-managed scheme in a European city works very well.
In the run-up to the 7th May elections, more than 170 candidates have signed a pledge to "use our platforms to call for the extension of free public transport". Fare Free London, together with Fare Free Yorkshire, Better Buses for West Yorkshire, West Yorkshire Needs a Tram, Tipping Point UK and the Greener Jobs Alliance, are backing the initiative – and they hope to gather more support between now and election day.

No cuts! No war!

by New Worker correspondent

CND has condemned Israel’s brutal escalation in Lebanon killing hundreds of civilians. The targeting of residential areas and infrastructure are war crimes. This is a breach of the ceasefire agreement between the USA and Iran, mediated by Pakistan, which covered all the arenas of the conflict including Lebanon. That truce has now been confirmed following pressure on the Americans from their own NATO allies and the feudal Arab oil sheikhs who have so much to lose if the fighting resumes – though for how long depends on the outcome of the next round of peace talks in Pakistan.
Trump and Netanyahu’s war has been a brutal and illegal onslaught on the people of Iran and Lebanon. It has created a humanitarian disaster and caused the destruction of infrastructure, environmental damage and economic crisis. The imperialist sanctions on Iran must be lifted, and reparations paid for the terrible damage done to the Islamic Republic.
Trump’s threat to destroy a civilisation, with its implied threat of nuclear war, sent a chill around the world. Iran negotiated in good faith over its nuclear programme. Israel and the United States sabotaged these diplomatic efforts. 
CND says “we regard Trump as a dangerous war criminal and have no illusions that this ceasefire will hold. We are committed to opposing any further attacks, and those of Netanyahu’s Israel on Lebanon and on the Palestinian people.
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been complicit in this illegal war, and we demand he stops allowing US planes to use British bases. The so called ‘special relationship’ is finished, and the British government must break with Trump and his warmongering policies, including allowing the stationing of US nuclear weapons at the Lakenheath base in Suffolk”.
Meanwhile a former British head of NATO and co-author of the 2025 Strategic Defence Review has called on Keir Starmer to cut welfare spending further to fund Britain’s war drive.
George Robertston, Labour’s Defence Secretary during the Blair era before serving as NATO General Secretary from 1999 to 2003,  says that successive British leaders had shown “corrosive complacency” to military spending. Echoing Tory demands to slash welfare to pay for a new arms race Robertson told the media that “we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget”.
Robertson’s intervention comes as the Starmer government’s existing military spending plans face a £28 billion spending gap. That’s before the ambitions outlined in last year’s defence review are considered. Between 20 and 25 per cent of the Ministry of Defence’s budget goes on nuclear weapons spending.
Starmer has rightly come under pressure not to enforce further austerity measures to fund war spending. A recent study published by Oxford University, found welfare cuts implemented by the former Conservative-Liberal Dem coalition government left an “austerity generation” with a fifth of children growing up ‘scarred by poverty’ because of its policies.
That warning comes as the full economic impact of Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran is yet to be felt. The UN has warned that the global impact of the crisis could see 32 million people forced into poverty globally amid rising food and energy costs.
CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said “Whilst Robertson is trying to present this as about defending national security, it is precisely the government’s warmongering and military escalation that is threatening our security now. Making further cuts to public services – at a time when we are facing even greater attacks on living standards due to the US illegal war on Iran – would be disastrous. It will create even greater levels of social deprivation and insecurity in Britain. Starmer needs to cut ties with the Trump administration, close down US access to British bases, and promote a policy of peace and dialogue that respects international law – not buckling to pressure for further military escalation”.

Stand by Palestine!

students at the Palestinian embassy

by New Worker correspondent

Students were briefed on the current situation in the West Bank when they met Palestinian diplomats in London last week. The students from the Westminster Global Diplomacy Initiative at the University of Westminster met Political Counsellor Marwan Yaghi at the Palestine embassy in London to discuss the current developments in occupied Palestine and how they put to test international law, accountability and the role of states in upholding justice.
Meanwhile a number of MPs, union leaders, writers, musicians and entertainers have signed an open letter accusing the London police of giving preferential treatment to a far-right demonstration led by the man who calls himself “Tommy Robinson” over a Palestine solidarity protest in the capital on the same day.
The pro-Palestine movement has had its preferred route through central London for its annual commemoration of Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinians – rejected by the Met, while the “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration will take place in the heart of London.
The letter signed by 34 peers and members of the House of Commons including the Corbynista bloc in parliament says “we are appalled to hear that the Metropolitan Police have refused permission for the Palestine movement to march to commemorate Nakba day on 16th  May on its proposed route and instead given over the political centre of London to a hate march called by racist thug ‘Tommy Robinson’ in response.
“The far right has targeted the Palestine movement before. They have done so aggressively with verbal and physical violence directed at the movement and the police.
“The Palestine movement marches on the nearest Saturday to Nakba day every year, and they informed the police of their intention to hold the 16th  May march in central London on 18th
 December 2025. While the police have refused their route, Tommy Robinson’s demonstration has been granted Kingsway, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square.
“We call on the police to immediately reverse this shameful decision. We call on everyone of good conscience to join us for Palestine on 16th  May. We will march”.
More than 30 MPs have also tabled a motion to reject the Government’s proposal to require police to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated protests in the same area – drawn up in response to pro-Palestine demonstrations – when imposing conditions.

Irish rent row protest in London!

by New Worker correspondent

A  Sinn Féin member of the Dublin parliament says the Irish government must urgently intervene in the escalating Knockmealdown rent dispute as protesters occupied an exclusive antiquarian bookshop in London belonging to the absentee landlord at the centre of the row. The shop was peacefully occupied during the protest with a strong presence maintained outside.
London’s Terence MacSwiney Committee, named after the Lord Mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in Brixton prison during the Irish fight for freedom in 1920,  was glad to lend our support to this protest against the Duke of Devonshire to highlight the extortionate increase on Lismore farmers from £500 to £5000!
Conor D McGuinness, the Sinn Féin Deputy for Waterford, said the protest has brought fresh attention to a dispute that threatens the future of traditional hill farming in the Knockmealdowns and reflects the depth of anger among farmers and their supporters.
Speaking shortly after the protest, McGuinness said "today's occupation of the landlord's Mayfair bookshop in London has put a sharp spotlight on the disgraceful situation facing hill farmers in the Knockmealdowns. These are farming families whose people have worked these mountains for generations, and they are now being hit with a reported 900 per cent rent increase that would drive them off the land. I stand with them and with those protesting in solidarity with them.
"I am in touch with the protesters and I will continue to support the farmers as they campaign to protect their livelihoods, their communities and their future on these mountains. What is needed now is government intervention and a solution. I have raised this directly in the Dáil with the Minister for Agriculture, including the fact that farm payments are being withheld because a commonage letter from the landlord is required before payments can issue, even in respect of other lands not in dispute. That means the Minister is effectively holding these farmers over a barrel in the middle of an already outrageous dispute. That is unacceptable and it must end. It's 2026, not 1846. The government needs to act accordingly".