Keir Starmer has insisted that he is a socialist and a progressive, but said the country does not have the money to allow him to fulfil some of the pledges he made during the 2020 Labour leadership race.

When asked by the Guardian if he would rule out raising tuition fees, following warnings from vice-chancellors and former ministers that universities will be at risk of bankruptcy without increased funding, [Starmer] did not directly answer the question.

[...] “I said that we should abolish tuition fees. Now with the damage that’s been done to the economy, particularly by Liz Truss, it is not possible to do that … I think that is basic honesty with the electorate." “I think it’s more important to stand in front of the electorate and say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t now afford what I said before because of the damage done to the economy’ … What I’m saying to the electorate is this: I’m going to tell you in advance of the election what I don’t think we can afford to do.”

On Friday, Leicester crown court acquitted two Palestine Action activists accused of criminal damage to an Israeli weapons factory in 2021. The jury was persuaded by the defence’s argument that Joe Irving and Ferhat Ulusu’s actions were admissible on the basis of preventing harm to civilians and property in Palestine.

The 2021 action saw four Palestine Actionists occupy the rooftop of UAV Tactical Systems, a Leicester-based subsidiary of Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems.

[...] The activists – who drank rainwater in order to extend the occupation to six days, and slimmed down the group to two halfway through in order to save food supplies – spray-painted slogans including “Shut Elbit Down” and “Free Palestine”, sprayed red paint on the building’s facade and damaged a skylight in order to expose a drone being manufactured inside.

The action was one of the less disruptive the group – which has been known to cause hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of property damage for Elbit – has undertaken. In court, Elbit Systems’ representatives claimed that installing additional security as a result of the action had cost the company £40,000 per month, £1.6m in total.

The leftwing Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), which has faced criticism from the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), including being called a “sham Jewish representative organisation”, made a complaint against the CAA to the commission in 2020.

However, earlier this month, the commission wrote to JVL saying that its application had been refused because it was not “a person that is or may be affected by the registration of CAA”, leading to consternation at JVL, given the length of time taken and the regulator’s previous statements.

The veteran human rights lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC said: “There can be no dispute that political campaigning requires investigation. The evidence provided by JVL is of CAA challenging criticism of Israeli policies and conduct towards Palestinians. This is clearly political.

“While combating antisemitism and other forms of racism is clearly a legitimate charitable purpose, attacking expressions of opinion about Israeli conduct towards Palestinians is not.”

Charity regulations state that “an organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political”.

The Labour MP John McDonnell, who has been criticised by CAA in the past, and Rabbi Chaim Blayer, a community rabbi from north London, have also contacted the commission about the CAA investigation.

The CAA made the initial submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission about antisemitism within Labour, which led to the watchdog finding that the party was responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination.

During Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the CAA organised protests outside Labour HQ and a petition, the wording of which was changed from Corbyn “must go” to Labour “must act” after a previous regulatory compliance case led to the commission telling it to do so “to ensure it complied with our guidance on campaigning and political activity”.

The prime minister also defended his new National Service policy despite refusing to comment on what sanctions people would face if they refused to take part in it.

:sunak:

no transcript to copy from here but basically after a bit of dancing around the point of who he means when he's referring to the people who hate british values, want to destroy britain and support Hamas, he says its muslims of course and than adds that also there's "middle class girls called Jacasta" involved too