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Labour comms director helped write manifesto while still working at TikTok
A senior executive at TikTok helped write the Labour manifesto while still working at the Chinese-owned technology company, he has said. James Lyons, who left his post as Keir Starmer’s director strategic communications last week, wrote on LinkedIn that he was asked last year to help write the party’s election pledges while he was still working for the social media platform. Kiran Stacey has the story here.
Keir Starmer will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog as MPs express ‘grave concern’ at the visit
Good morning. Keir Starmer is today holding talks with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, in Downing Street. The visit was highly contentious even before Israel bombed Qatar in a targeted strike aimed at Hamas officials.
More than 60 parliamentarians, including Labour MPs, SNP MPs, Greens and independents, have signed a letter to Starmer expressing “grave concern” at the visit because, even though the presidency in Israel is largely a ceremonial post, Herzog’s past comments and actions have been cited as support for the case that the country is committing genocide in Gaza.
Here is the text of the letter, coordinated by the Labour MP Andy McDonald.
And the Green party has gone further. Zack Polanski, its new leader, has called for Herzog to be arrested. He said:
President Herzog has been complicit while the Israeli government has engaged in an ongoing genocide in Gaza. Everyone involved should be arrested, charged for war crimes and face justice.
Welcoming a potential war criminal to the UK is another demonstration of how this Labour government is implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It also serves as a brutal insult to those mourning the thousands of innocent lives lost and to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing ongoing violence and hunger.
A refusal to detain Herzog can be seen as a contravention of the Geneva Convention which makes clear that States have legal responsibility for preventing the targeting of civilians. When this is breached individuals must be prosecuted and this should be applied to Herzog.
As Eleni Courea reports in her story, Herzog has “previously clashed with Netanyahu over democratic and judicial changes but broadly backed the military campaign in Gaza”. She says:
The Israeli president has received attention for a statement in which he asserted that all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. “The entire [Palestinian] nation out there … is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,” he said in October 2023.
Starmer will no doubt address this at PMQs.
And there will be more on Labour’s deputy leadership contest, although the main event – the private, online hustings for Labour MPs – will not take place until this evening, when the blog has closed.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes annual household spending figures.
9.45am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives evedience to the Commons culture committee.
11am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to give a speech at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) summit.
11.30am: Liz Kendall takes questions in the Commons for the first time since being moved from work and pensions secretary to science secretary in last week’s reshuffle.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
2.15pm: Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, and Emma Little-Pengelly, the deputy first minister, take questions from the executive office committee at Stormont.
Afternoon: John Healey, the defence secretary, holds a press conference with his counterparts from the E5 (the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland) after they have held a meeting.
Afternoon: Starmer holds a meeting with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.
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