News Round-Up

• “Starmer drops attempt to sign Chagos deal before Trump return” – Keir Starmer has dropped plans to sign away the Chagos Islands to Mauritius this week, following opposition from Donald Trump’s team, reports GB News.
• “Kemi Badenoch skewers Keir Starmer over £9 billion cost of ‘dud’ Chagos deal” – Keir Starmer has faced a House of Commons grilling over claims Labour is preparing to pay nearly £9 billion to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, reports the Mail.
• “The lawyer friend of Starmer at the centre of Chagos deal” – Chagos islanders have questioned whether Keir Starmer was rushing through a deal to hand the territory to Mauritius to help out a lawyer friend acting for the Mauritian Government, reports the Telegraph.
• “Sir Keir’s lawyerly obsessions hurt the U.K.” – It is clear that the proposed Chagos treaty is misjudged and potentially harmful to the U.K.’s relations with its most important ally, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
• “Half a million ‘to lose Right to Buy’ under Rayner’s reforms” – The Resolution Foundation has warned that Angela Rayner’s planned overhaul of Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy will lead to half a million council tenants losing access to the scheme, reports the Telegraph.
• “Teachers to strike over pension cuts to fund Labour’s VAT raid” – Teachers at two private schools will go on strike after being handed a ‘fire and rehire’ pensions ultimatum, says BBC News.
• “Starmer hints at spending cuts during PMQs clashes” – Sir Keir Starmer has given another broad hint about looming spending cuts, blaming the “volatile” global economy for Britain’s post-Budget woes, reports the Mail.
• “It took the markets six months to realise Reeves had no growth plan” – Remember when Rachel Reeves used to claim that the Tories had “crashed the economy”? Well, it took the markets six months to work out that she had no growth plan, says Daniel Hannan in the Mail.
• “Starmer’s revolting betrayal will never be forgiven” – This Labour Government is acting against the British national interest, caring more about ‘human rights’ than its own citizens, writes Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “Righteous liberals are the real extremists, not Farage and Musk” – In the Telegraph, Allison Pearson says Sir Keir is more of an extremist – a “far centrist” – than Elon Must or Nigel Farage will ever be.
• “Starmer’s personnel crisis is exposing the dearth of Labour talent” – With three high-profile resignations under Keir Starmer’s belt in the first six months of his Government, the feeding frenzy is only going to get worse, predicts Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “The only reason to support Keir Starmer has just been utterly destroyed” – The Labour leader told voters he was ‘sensible’ and ‘moderate’ and a shining beacon of integrity, but his catastrophic mishandling of the Chagos Islands hand-over and his failure to sack his ‘anti-corruption’ minister when she become embroiled in a corruption scandal prove it’s a sham, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “Conservative Party leader says grooming gangs abuse still ongoing” – Kemi Badenoch has slammed the ongoing abuse by grooming gangs, blasted the authorities’ silence and demanded a national inquiry into the scandal, reports Gript.
• “The ‘grooming gangs’ delusion is finally being shattered” – ‘Asian grooming gangs’ is a mealy-mouthed phrase that fails to do justice to the mass sexual abuse of thousands of girls, says Gareth Roberts in the Spectator.
• “‘The day I was heckled for speaking about the rape gangs’” – In the Spectator, James Delingpole remembers getting heckled and shut down on a 2014 BBC Three debate for calling out Pakistani Muslim rape gangs, only to end up being praised later for actually having the guts to speak the truth.
• “What the British people think about rape gangs, deportations, legacy media, Starmer’s ‘far right’ claim and more” – On Substack, Matt Goodwin’s latest polling reveals the stark divide between the British public and political elites.
• “Wall Street billionaire Leon Black walks away from Telegraph takeover” – A Wall Street billionaire who had been lined up to bankroll a takeover of the Telegraph has decided not to invest, according to… the Telegraph.
• “Student activists force RAF to close stalls at university job fairs” – The Royal Air Force has had to close its stalls at university job fairs due to security concerns about pro-Palestinian student activist, reports GB News.
• “Humza Yousaf accuses David Lammy of racism” – Scotland’s former First Minister Humza Yousaf has accused David Lammy of racism for meeting with an Israeli minister as part of efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, says the Telegraph.
• “Ireland’s President has gone completely rogue ” – In the Spectator, Ian O’Doherty slams Irish President Michael D. Higgins for botching his final months in office, from mishandling Israel to provoking outrage over his upcoming Holocaust speech.
• “Antisemitism at record high and is a ‘global emergency’” – Nearly half of all people worldwide are antisemitic, according to the latest Global 100 survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League.
• “Miliband’s green targets risk unleashing property market chaos” – According to the Telegraph, experts are warning that Ed Miliband’s green targets for landlords will drive Britain’s property market into a “frenzy” and worsen the housing shortage.
• “Miliband bans new businesses from joining energy grid” – A quango led by Ed Miliband has halted new energy projects from joining the National Grid to tackle a backlog caused by thousands of green energy applications, reports the Telegraph.
• “Heat pumps may never be cheaper than gas boilers, says Ed Miliband” – Ed Miliband has admitted that heat pumps may never beat gas boilers on price, as Labour’s boiler tax risks slamming consumers with higher costs, says the Telegraph.
• “Two industries will survive the wrath of Net Zero – carmaking isn’t one of them” – Ministers must choose between abandoning the zero emission mandate and letting the market lead, or sacrificing U.K. manufacturing to futile Net Zero goals, warns Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Is there really a climate emergency?” – On PragerU, Steve Koonin, former Undersecretary for Science in the Obama Administration, challenges the assumptions of climate alarmists.
• “Petition: Repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and Net Zero targets” – Sign the petition urging Parliament to revoke the Climate Change Act 2008 and its accompanying Net Zero target.
• “Spike in baby deaths at hospital where Lucy Letby worked ‘not surprising’” – A leading statistician says that the spike in baby deaths at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked was not surprising and would be expected to occur somewhere in the country each year, according to the Telegraph.
• “Two-thirds of people injured by Covid jab denied compensation, inquiry hears” – More than two in three people with injuries caused by Covid vaccines have been denied compensation because they are ‘not disabled enough’, reports the Telegraph.
• “Sweden unveils tough new ‘honest living’ requirements for citizenship” – Sweden has unveiled tough new requirements for citizenship as part of tighter immigration rules aimed at integrating migrants and upholding the country’s values, says the Mail.
• “Hessen interior minister announces measures to combat ‘unfiltered opinions’ on social media, state media expert calls for the regulation of internet memes and other insanity from the Federal Republic” – On Substack, Eugyppius exposes the absurdity of Hessen’s Interior Minister leading efforts to filter “unfiltered” opinions on social media under the guise of combating disinformation.
• “Megyn Kelly blasts ‘overweight, out-of-shape’ women battling LA fires” – Megyn Kelly has hit out at the three female leaders of the Los Angeles Fire Department, accusing them of prioritising diversity over preparedness, according to the Mail.
• “Barack and Michelle Obama spark speculation they are ‘set for divorce’” – Some fans are starting to suspect something is awry in the former first couple’s marriage after news broke that Michelle would not be attending Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony with her husband, reports the Mail.
• “Trans woman nominated for leading actress film Bafta for first time” – Karla Sofia Gascon has made history as the first biologically male transgender actress to be nominated for a leading actress Bafta for his role in the musical drama Emilia Perez, according to GB News.
• “The era of men in women’s sports will soon be over” – The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. This is just the beginning, says Andrew Doyle on his Substack.
• “New York Times: Dry January is racist” – In the Spectator, Steerpike mocks Tressie McMillan Cottom’s New York Times claim that Dry January is racist, absurdly linking “clean living” to racism without a shred of evidence.
• “The Drenching Arms” – In part three of Paul Sutton’s The Drenching Arms on Substack, Raven’s despair is mixed with a swipe at progressivism and its role in England’s cultural decline.
• “Oh, for some balance and leadership” – On the Jester Journals Substack, Jestororious explores what football can teach us about politics.
• “Labour revives free speech law — minus controversial clause” – The Times reports on Bridget Phillipson’s U-turn on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act.
• “What I find extraordinary is why anybody feels the need to question whether or not there should be free speech on university campuses!” – On TalkTV, Julia Hartley-Brewer discusses Bridget Phillipson’s U-turn on university free speech laws with the Free Speech Union’s Bryn Harris.

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