Liverpool Against Hate

Today, the long hand of the Labour Together Project will make the UK a crueller, less fair and less equal place, while also undermining worker's rights. This afternoon Shabana Mahmood, one of Labour Toether's most prominent "brave eight" MPs, will present her immigration proposals. They are the most likely going to be the most hardline immigration reforms in a generation. The Labour Party's leadership will likely try and spin the minor concessions they may have extracted to signal a welcome shift under Burnham. But it really is just that - spin. The totality of the package will mean legal immigrants to this country will be cast into greater insecurity by forcing them to wait much - much longer - for settled status in conditions of worsening insecurity. These proposals are nearly universally opposed by unions, and for good reason. The reforms will help create a labouring underclass living in conditions of unjust precarity. It binds immigrant workers to bad employees who can exploit them for longer, and pay them less. They particularly target low-paid but socially necessary workers like carers, who get tied into long-term contracts under awful conditions, often based on broken promises. This precariariat then undermines ALL workers, who must compete in the same workforce as exploited, vulnerable, low-paid employees who can't fight for fair pay and acceptable working conditions. Mahmood's reforms will be championed by the right-wing press as tough and fair, and she will be celebrated for taking hard decisions. But doing exactly what the right-wing press and bad employers want is actually the path of least resistance. Standing up for all workers, regardless are where they from, is the real hard work, and the essence of solidarity. This should be non-negotiable for a Party born from the trade union movement. I expect the Green Party will oppose these reforms, but this is also the time for the Labour left to stand up. The Labour left has survived the Starmer/McSweeney years - now they must use that survival to push back against the regressive politics pushed by Mahmood, one of the key architects of the Labour Together project.

Excellent and disturbing new report from @EndCorruptionUK based on over 40 FOI requests. Spotlight has found that UK govt ministers have held 137 meetings about Data Centres and AI growth zones between June 2024 and June 2026... but they didn't meet a single environmental group. Government met only two community groups - but only AFTER the government had approved growth zones in their communities. At the same time, Spotlight found that 38 government officials had left to take positions at AI and tech firms. Spotlight is (correctly) calling for a halt on the approval of new AI and Data Centre Development zones until there has been a proper national consultation on community and environmental impacts. In other countries, these consultations have led to important new regulations to enforce environmental protections.