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Palantir Technologies, the controversial US spy-tech firm, is once again set to be a sponsor of this year's NHS Confederation Expo, an event jointly delivered with NHS England.

The company, co-founded by Peter Thiel, will have a stall there, as well as sponsoring a main stage panel event titled, 'The healthcare data revolution: building a system fit for the future with the NHS FDP'. It also sponsored the event in 2024.

The NHS Confederation (Confed) is an independent charity and membership group for organisations that commission and provide NHS services, aimed at bringing together, supporting, and speaking for the whole of the healthcare system in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The move has caused unease among Confed members and NHS staff, who have raised it with Confed leadership, citing ethical concerns about Palantir's association with the Trump administration, its ongoing backing of Israel's military operations in Gaza, and the company's history in defence tech.

EXCLUSIVE

'Peter Mandelson's Fixing of Keir Starmer's Visit to Spytech Firm Palantir Raises Serious Questions'

Palantir was represented by a lobbying firm founded by Mandelson, Iain Overton and Max Colbert report

Iain Overton and Max Colbert

Internal company messages reported by 404 Media show that Palantir's role in the US' immigration system has expanded to include tracking down people marked for deportation.

Concerns have also been raised privately to Byline Times about the Federated Data Platform (FDP) contract - the £330 million consortium deal to organise health data held in NHS trusts, with Palantir as the lead supplier - Palantir's apparent favoured status in its award, and the possibility of it being a precursor to privatisation by the UK Government.

An internal Email confirming Palantir's inclusion as 'a sponsor at ConfedExpo this year', sent to all staff by the Group Executive and seen by Byline Times, notes the concerns raised but states that, due to the partnered nature of the event, Confed "do not have unilateral say on who we work with in this regard".

The Email states, "the FDP will be a key part of the program at the event and NHS England are satisfied that Palantir is an appropriate sponsor". It notes that while Confed knows "many colleagues will have concerns about this, that this is the only project the Confed will be working with Palantir on" and that "given most of our members are now working with Palantir, through the FDP, we don't have grounds to not have them at the event".

"Ultimately, the decision regarding NHS ConfedExpo is not ours to take alone," the email reads, and while staff have "commented in the past about how Palantir fits with our ethical framework. The framework is not an ethics algorithm that provides a yes or no answer - sadly there is no such thing."

The decision to include the company as a sponsor again, has caused a coordinator of the Confederation BME Leadership Network (not directly employed by the Confederation, but contracted to do networking for it, working closely with staff), to pull out of speaking at the Expo.

Speaking in a personal capacity, coordinator Wayne Farah told Byline Times that "a number of us raised objections", and that in his view the Confed "should not be working with these people… I was supposed to be speaking at the event, so I've withdrawn. I made it clear I wasn't prepared to do anything that involved them."

Farah added that for him, "the Confederation as a charity, has a responsibility in terms of its ethical contracting… I'm coordinating black leaders in the Confederation, who [the Confederation] are in bed with Palantir. W...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

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The man known for championing a "third way" in politics has popped up purporting to have found a "third way" in physics.

The science on climate change is quite clear in presenting the world with two basic options: drastically cut back the use of fossil fuels to a degree that is consummate with safer levels of warming, or don't do that - and face a world of spiralling temperatures, irreversible tipping points and all the attendant social, economic and political catastrophes which will follow.

But Tony Blair thinks that he - uniquely among the world's forum of climate scientists, policymakers, campaigners and experts - has spotted a way to transcend this fairly fixed and clear binary, claiming that any climate agenda predicated on rolling back fossil fuel use and overconsumption is "doomed to fail" in a new report from his Institute.

How a Police Crackdown on Climate Protests Made Me Join the Frontline for the First Time

"For me, the act of civil disobedience was a stand against the increasing erosion of a fundamental pillar of democracy - our right to protest"

Stuart Spray

In reality, the opposite is true. The only approach doomed to fail is one in which we don't rapidly phase out fossil fuels and curtail the excess emissions of the small number of people who consume the most.

To give him his due, the report rightly draws our attention to one salient and difficult truth often repressed in the climate movement: that global emissions - and fossil fuel production - are still rising year on year. In spite of flagship legislation in economies like the US and the rapid rollout of renewables, nothing has slowed the global extraction of coal, oil and gas.

The correct response to this situation, however, is to do the only things known to work, rather than chasing the chimera of tech solutions which have no track record of success. Blair's central prescription is to invest heavily in carbon capture and storage technologies, along with further deployment of AI to supplement technologies which can aid the response to climate change.

Given that one of his central critiques of current net zero policy is that it asks too much of the public and the pound in their pocket, it's curious that he would point to a solution which his own report acknowledges is "prohibitively expensive" above renewables whose production costs are tumbling year on year, with a real prospect of bringing down bills for the average consumer.

'I'm a Labour Councillor and This Is Why My Party Should Ground Heathrow Plans and Rejoin the EU Instead'

Rachel Reeves is looking in the 'wrong direction' for stimulating growth in the UK, argues Labour Councillor Salman Shaheen

Salman Shaheen

Of course, the central message to give up on phasing out fossil fuels in favour of expensive and untested tech is much less curious when you consider that - among a portfolio of petrochemical interests - Blair has been, for example, a chief lobbyist for Saudi oil.

Meanwhile, his Institution is bankrolled by the sort of tech firms that would likely benefit from ramped up investment in products to which he is suggesting that huge philanthropic bodies should turn their attention.

The policy prescriptions are compromised and wrong. But his reading of climate politics is equally warped. Blair says that the movement needs a "public mandate", completely blind to the fact that it already exists.

Away from the noise in the media and the attempt to drive a wedge within the electorate among some politicians, the consensus on the need to act on climate remains rock solid in the public.

In fairness, Blair isn't the only person to fall foul of th...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

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The Prime Minister's Office has declined to reveal how many WhatsApp messages sent or received by Keir Starmer over a four-day period were saved for the public record.

Their refusal of a Freedom of Information (FOI) by Byline Times raises questions about the Labour Government leader's promise - before he took power - that he would make it "easier to hold government to account" and end the "outrageous way government departments refuse freedom of information requests".

In its response, the Cabinet Office explained that fulfilling the request would involve a manual review of all records from the specified period to identify whether any messages originated via WhatsApp. It said the cost of retrieving and reviewing the relevant data between 7 and 10 December 2024 would be too great and that the department's records are organised by subject matter, not by communication medium.

EXCLUSIVE

'Peter Mandelson's Fixing of Keir Starmer's Visit to Spytech Firm Palantir Raises Serious Questions'

Palantir was represented by a lobbying firm founded by Mandelson, Iain Overton and Max Colbert report

Iain Overton and Max Colbert

The refusal comes after years of mounting concerns, widely reported by this paper, about the use of private communication platforms for official government business.

WhatsApp, alongside other secure messaging services, became an increasingly popular tool to communicate for both ministers and civil servants under the Conservative Party. But their use raises serious questions about transparency, record-keeping, and accountability. At the time, Labour seemed to agree that the Conservative's use of WhatsApp had gone too far.

In 2021, Starmer wrote an essay saying: "Where the current Tory government has muddied the waters of transparency on the … things it does, I want to make it easier to hold government to account… That means everything from ending the outrageous way government departments refuse freedom of information requests."

In the same year, Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, declared that ministers "must not govern by private messages that are then deleted". She said at the time that "this is completely undemocratic and an attack on transparency and accountability".

Between 7 and 10 December 2024, Starmer engaged in significant diplomatic activities and policy decisions. He embarked on a diplomatic tour to the Middle East, visiting the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus.

'Keir Starmer's Weaponisation of Foreign National Crime Statistics Risks Stoking Violence and Empowering the Far Right'

Ranking crimes by nationality risks stoking a repeat of last summer's racist riots, argues Minnie Rahman, who urges ministers to focus on fairness and rehabilitation instead

Minnie Rahman

In Abu Dhabi, Starmer met with Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss enhancing bilateral relations and advancing a Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

In Riyadh, he engaged with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. During his Cyprus trip, the first by a UK PM since 1993, Starmer visited RAF Akrotiri, a site from which hundreds of British spy planes have flown over the bombed-out Gaza strip.

Domestically, Starmer also announced the termination of the Refugee Employability Programme, a scheme initiated by the previous government to assist refugees in integrating into the workforce. Additionally, Starmer welcomed the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, describing it as "barbaric," and pledged £11 million in humanitarian aid to support the Syrian people.

Despite such a busy schedule, it is not known if there was any WhatsApp com...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

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Every year, the McCain Institute - established to continue the legacy of character-driven leadership by the late Republican Senator John McCain - honours an attendee at its annual Sedona Forum with its 'Courage and Leadership' Award.

This year, the award went to Maria Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela's democratic movement, who has been in hiding for more than nine months, since last year's presidential elections, which the ruling regime of Nicolas Maduro refused to recognise as being won by her candidate. Instead, it instituted a further crackdown on Venezuela's opposition.

Accepting the award on her behalf, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado said that her mother was fighting not just for today, but for the freedom of "future generations to come", and that freedom fighters everywhere - whether in Russia, Ukraine, Africa, or other parts of Latin America - were all fighting for the same cause.

"Everywhere, the fight for freedom is one and the same," she said.

Earlier in the conference, participants heard from Anaise Kanimba, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which her father, Paul Rusesabagina - the real-life hero of the film Hotel Rwanda - saved more than 1,200 people. Kanimba led an international campaign to secure the release of her father after he was detained illegally in Rwanda in 2020 and has since become an advocate for human rights defenders everywhere.

'Lady Chatterley's Brexit'

Not accepting or being able to discuss the damage caused by Britain's exit from the EU leaves the country in a unsustainable position, writes Chris Grey

Chris Grey

We also heard from Roya Mahboob, a female Afghan entrepreneur, who helped establish the first Afghan women's robotics team, and is continuing efforts to support Afghan women's education from outside the country, following the Taliban's takeover in August 2021.

Other attendees included Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of Belarus's pro-democracy movement, who entered politics after her husband was arrested, and was later forced into exile. Her husband remains in jail, his condition unknown. She was joined by Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian political activist who was sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian gulag for his opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine, and released last summer, as part of the largest prisoner exchange with Russia since the end of the Cold War. Also in attendance was Aisu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe, who was freed from a Russian prison at the same time as Kara-Murza, in the same prisoner exchange.

Every year, the testimonials of courageous individuals such as these, or their family members, have formed the emotional highlight of the annual Sedona Forum. It was impossible not to feel anguish as Dasha Navalnya received the award on behalf of her deceased father last year. For two years in a row, Vladimir Kara-Murza's wife, Evgenia, attended the Sedona Forum alone, to raise awareness not just of her husband's plight, but that of thousands of other political prisoners in Russia. As American Ambassador Roger Carstens, who coordinated the prisoner exchange leading to Kara Murza's release, said at the conference, it was the highlight of his year to see Vladimir and Evgenia finally reunited and able to enjoy a cocktail together.

This year, in the context of Trump's 'America First' philosophy, and radical cuts to US aid programmes, all of these participants were at pains to stress the continuing need for American leadership in the world, noting that when the US withdrew, the world became more dangerous.

Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya urged the US not to agree to an un...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

According to CNN exit polling, in 2024, US President Donald Trump lost Independent voters to Vice President Kamala Harris by a slim three percentage points (49%) Harris, 46% Trump).

One hundred days into Trump 2.0, numerous polls demonstrate that Independents disapprove of the president's job performance. With American politics extremely polarized between Democrats and Republicans, Independents are the critical battleground.

In polling for Washington Post/ ABC News, 58% of Independent voters disapprove of Trump's job performance. Polling by the New York Times/Siena College paints an even grimmer picture as two out of three (66%) Independent voters disapprove of his job performance.

Trump's stars don't get any better the closer you look.

Tariffs Hurt Trump

In Washington Post/ABC News polling, 66% of Independent voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. In the New York Times/Siena polling, a 54% majority of Independents feel that Trump has made the economy worse since taking office.

Even more significantly, 67% of Independent voters think that Trump does not understand the problems facing them; 60% of the Independents in the Washington Post/ABC News poll say that Trump is out of touch with the "concerns of most people in the United States today".

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Alexandra Hall Hall

Are Trump's tariff policies driving the shift among Independents? The Washington Post/ABC News polling finds that 70% disapprove of Trump's tariffs (6% higher than among all respondents) and the New York Times/Siena polling finds that 63% of Independents disapprove of Trump's tariffs (8 points higher than among all respondents).

Furthermore, 68% of Independents see the US as benefiting from trade with other countries. The data in both polls strongly suggests that Trump's tarries are hurting him with Independent voters.

Trump's Anti-immigration Push

No issue had been more central to Trump's political identity than immigration. The New York Times/Siena polling shows that 54% approve of Trump's policy of "deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally back to their home countries". Independents are slightly less likely to approve of this policy (52%).

In the Washington Post/ABC News polling, 48% feel that Trump is "going too far in deporting undocumented immigrants," while just over one in three (34%) say Trump's actions have been "about right" and 16% say he has "not gone far enough."

Independent voters offer up an identical response to respondents on the deportation of undocumented immigrants (48% too far, 16% not going far enough, 34% about right).

Trump's Failures Aren't a Win for the Democrats

Is there something in the New York Times/Siena poll or the Washington Post/ABC News that is good for the Trump team? Yes, there is - independents are clearly critical of Trump's handling of the economy, do not think he understands their concerns, and are not impressed with his handling of undocumented immigrants - yet they do not have confidence in the Democrats.

In the Washington Post/ABC News polling, just under one in five (19%) see the Democrats in Congress as doing a better job "handling the country's main problems). At least in relative terms, Trump does better on this question (28% do a better job). Most importantly, a 47% plurality of Independents trust neither Trump or the Democrats in Congress to address the country'...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

Now we can see with the real clarity of votes at the ballot box, what the consequences are of a Labour Government that responds to the economy's deep-seated problems with yet more cuts to pensioners' winter fuel payments and attacks on disabled people.

Runcorn and Helsby was one of the most rock-solid of Labour seats. But less than a year into Keir Starmer's Government, Labour's 14,700-vote majority has been demolished, with a 17% swing to Reform and Labour's share of the vote down from 52.9% to 38.7%. Even if Labour had somehow narrowly held on, the fact that Runcorn & Helsby was even in contention is an indication that something is going very badly wrong.

The signs have been there for months. Polling heading south, Keir Starmer's satisfaction ratings at rock bottom, council by-elections with Labour's vote in freefall, even in seats the party held onto. The boost that Scottish Labour enjoyed at the prospect of a UK Labour Government has evaporated.

Nigel Farage Is Killing the Conservative Party and Starmer Must Change Course to Avoid the Same Fate

Telling voters that the Reform leader is right, but they shouldn't vote for him anyway, is no more likely to work for Labour than it has for the Conservatives, argues Adam Bienkov

Adam Bienkov

Now with a slew of elections taking place on one night there is a much clearer sense of the impact of Labour's ten months in charge. Not only has the party lost its first by-election test in Runcorn and Helsby in dramatic terms but it is in trouble on many other fronts.

The night began with Labour losing a council by-election in Hartlepool, setting the scene for some very bad results in the North. Labour's majority in the North Tyneside mayoralty was slashed, a post that was not previously considered in contention. In Northumberland the party lost twelve seats, down to eight, whilst Durham has been a bloodbath. Labour's Ros Jones held the Doncaster mayor on a sharply cut majority, prompting her to say that the winter fuel payment cuts were wrong and that Labour needed to listen to what people are saying.

However, sadly all the signs are that Labour's leadership is still not listening. Instead, their script for the broadcast rounds was to argue that Labour was taking the tough choices the country needed after years of Conservative mistakes and that the Government needs to go much further and faster with its current approach. In this, members of the Cabinet will merely compound the growing public view that they are out of touch and complacent.

It is the Government's current direction that is the problem, not its rapidity. Further and faster down the wrong path is the height of political wrong-headedness. The repeated lesson of Labour governments - and indeed left of centre governments around the world - is that voters expect them to improve their living standards and when they do not, they withdraw their support. Labour in the 2020s has not somehow magically leapt out of this political reality.

Public opinion hardened against Labour over the winter fuel payment cut, which was Rachel Reeves' emblematic first major mistake. Now Labour intends to keep going, with a spending review in June and a vote imminent on its huge programme of welfare cuts.

"On every door it was the same story - winter fuel and PIP," reported the BBC's Henry Zeffman from Runcorn, referring to the £5-6 billion planned cuts to payments to disabled people.

EXCLUSIVE

Reform UK Facebook Groups Are Full of Racist Far Right Posts and Islamophobic Conspiracy Theories

Groups set up by Reform UK officials contain posts calling for Muslims to be lynched and suggestions that ...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

"I'm sad to be in opposition but there's a part of me that's excited," Kemi Badenoch told the Conservative party conference last October.

"We are going to have fun."

Fast forward to this morning and there was little sign of either the "excitement", or "fun" the Conservative leader predicted last year.

Far from being unleashed from the political chains of office, Badenoch continues to be heavily tied to them.

Right across the country, in a set of local elections heavily dominated by former Conservative strongholds, the party continues to be severely punished by voters, as they switch in huge numbers to Reform and the Liberal Democrats instead.

The reasons for last year's defeat have already been well dissected. Fourteen years of low growth, public sector austerity and administrative incompetence lay the ground for a historic collapse in support for a party which had previously been the most electorally successful in Britain's history.

Yet while in the past recently ousted governing parties quickly regained support in opposition, the opposite now appears to be happening with the Conservatives. Even in the face of growing global economic uncertainty, and an unpopular new Labour government, these results show that Badenoch's party continues to go backwards.

The reasons for this go well beyond the Conservatives' recent record in office, to the much more fundamental question of who the party is now actually for.

Blue Labour on MAGA Square: Maurice Glasman's Journey to Trumpism

Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar look at the nationalist populist drift of Labour's anti-progressive tendency

Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar

A Failed Realignment

Ever since Brexit, the question of who the Conservative party stands for has been one that Tory politicians have struggled with. For Boris Johnson the answer lay in uniting socially conservative non-metropolitan voters, in opposition to a coalition of Labour's socially-liberal, university-educated, metropolitan base.

This strategy, which centred around a relatively small number of constituencies in the so-called "red wall" ultimately failed once the hollowness of Johnson's promises to "level up" those parts of the country became clear. Yet while Johnson's "realignment" ultimately proved illusory, it was at least a clear electoral strategy. The same cannot be said for what followed it.

In the wake of Liz Truss' devastating kamikaze raid on the Conservative party's economic reputation, Conservative party leaders quickly switched to an equally devastating raid on their own record on immigration. Beginning with Rishi Sunak's ludicrous pledge to "stop the boats", Conservative politicians succeeded in massively raising the salience of rising immigration numbers, while doing absolutely nothing of substance to actually deal with the issue. The result was that socially conservative voters started to switch in increasing numbers to Reform UK instead, with every attempt by the Conservatives to further mimic Nigel Farage's talking points, merely convincing even more voters to switch to the real deal.

And as socially conservative Tory voters switched over to Farage, so too did the Conservatives' more socially liberal base switch over to the Liberal Democrats. Turned off by the increasingly Trumpian pro-Brexit rhetoric of the party leadership, millions of affluent life-long Conservative voters in the South increasingly fled to Ed Davey's party. The result was a two-sided bleeding of Conservative support that today's results show is now only getting worse.

Kemi Badenoch Ditches Net Zero Target After Taking Donations From Funders of Tufton Street Climate De...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

Campaigners have warned that Keir Starmer's Government's planned benefits cuts are undermining its plans to end homelessness, as new figures show the number of households in temporary accommodation continues to rise.

Ministers have committed to increase funding for homeless services by £233 million next year, which will take spending to almost £1 billion, which they argue will put the UK on the path to ending homelessness.

However, the planned increases come as the Government also slashes spending on benefits, leading to fears that any progress could be reversed.

Speaking at the London Housing Summit on Wednesday, Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, who chairs Parliament's housing committee, said that the most "shocking thing" about the housing crisis is that an estimated 160,000 children, 90,000 of which are in London "woke up in temporary accommodation".

UPDATE

Company That Supplied Hundreds of Millions of Pounds of Unusable COVID Tests Saw Profits Skyrocket to £178 Million After Lobbying Conservative Peer for Contract

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Russell Scott

"Some of those children will not sleep in the same bed tonight. Some of them will be asked to move to another B and B hostel. That 90,000 equates to one child in every single classroom here in London. And when I was elected as the Chair of the Housing Communities and Local Government select committee, I was determined to make sure we put the stories of those children and the impact on their day-to-day lives front and center of the work we are doing as a select committee".

Her speech followed the release of statutory homelessness statistics for October to December 2024, which revealed that the number of households in temporary accommodation is at record levels and continues to rise.

127,890 households were in temporary accommodation on 31 December 2024, up 1.5% from the previous quarter and up 13.6% from the same time last year.

Eshalomi pledged to work to end the crisis, saying "let it be that every single home that we are bringing forward together with the Government includes generally affordable homes and social homes, so that we get those children out of temporary accommodation into a home of their own".

Some campaigners in the housing sector worry that the Government's housebuilding program will be insufficient to tackle the scale of the crisis.

EXCLUSIVE

'Peter Mandelson's Fixing of Keir Starmer's Visit to Spytech Firm Palantir Raises Serious Questions'

Palantir was represented by a lobbying firm founded by Mandelson, Iain Overton and Max Colbert report

Iain Overton and Max Colbert

Dan Wilson Craw, Deputy Chief Executive of Generation Rent said, "Behind every statistic are thousands of stories of people facing some of the most stressful, traumatic and insecure times of their lives. More and more children are spending their formative years trapped living in temporary accommodation, often in overcrowded and unsafe conditions and at huge cost to local authorities. This is a national scandal that demands government action".

He added "The Government's house building programme is welcome, but will take years to have a noticeable impact. People need change now. It must intervene to slam the brakes on soaring rents, while also unfreezing Local Housing Allowance so those on low incomes have more options in finding a home."

Others worry that progress also risks being undermined by the planned cuts to Personal Independence Payments.

Alex Bax, Chief Executive of Pathway, a charity focussing on the health of homeless people t...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

Correspondence newly released to Byline Times reveals how former Prime Minister David Cameron helped an old Etonian school friend and former hedge funder get a fast track into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) advisors at the start of the pandemich.

The friend was Hugh Warrender, who attended Eton with Cameron in the 1980s and who was then representing a South Korean COVID testing firm. After being contacted by Warrender, Cameron introduced him to Lord Feldman, another close friend of Cameron's, who was working as an advisor to health ministers at the time.

Knightsbridge based consultancy firm, Fin De Guerre Strategies, owned by Warrender, was ultimately unsuccessful in securing the contract for their clients from the DHSC. However, the companies "referral" from Cameron sheds new light on how businesses backed by senior Conservative Party figures were able to circumnavigate the usual procurement process.

The Sheer Scale of the COVID 'VIP Lane' PPE Scandal Has Still Not Been Revealed Five Years On

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Russell Scott

Emails released to Byline Times via a Freedom of Information request reveal how within three days of lobbying the former PM, the Fin De Guerre's offer to supply South Korean produced COVID Tests was emailed directly to Health Minister Lord Bethell.

In the early hour of 3 April 2020, Cameron received an email from representatives of Fin De Guerre, the subject header of the email read: "Need your help - I have a supplier of COVID-19 tests but we can't contact anyone who replies to offer them."

The email included a plea to help provide contact details for somebody in government with the "wherewithal to address" their offer to supply COVID tests "seriously".

Later the same morning, Cameron obliged and forwarded the offer onto Lord Feldman - A Conservative Peer who was also working as an advisor to Matt Hancock and Lord Bethell during the early months of the pandemic.

Cameron told the supplier: "Hi there. Try Andrew Feldman - an old friend of mine and my former party chairman who runs a business but is currently working in the NHS, for Matt Hancock, sorting out various procurements". Cameron signed off the email "All good wishes. Dc."

The day after Cameron's introduction to the Conservative Peer, the supplier emailed Lord Feldman directly on what appears to be his personal email address rather than his official DHSC account to request Feldman give its submission "more prompt attention".

Remarkably, within three hours Lord Feldman replied: "Thanks for this - you are doing all of the right things. We are getting a lot of offers of tests from South Korea at the moment as well as a huge volume of other offers. My job is to triage many of these offers across testing kits, ventilators, medicines and PPE for DHSC for Matthew Hancock and James Bethell."

Feldman, described as Cameron's oldest political friend, passed Fin De Guerre's COVID testing offer onto Health Minister and fellow Conservative Peer Lord Bethell the next day on 5 April 2020.

Lord Bethell replied within fifteen minutes of receiving the email from Lord Feldman, an email which was given the subject header "referral from David Cameron".

In his response Lod Bethell complained: "I just had a shocking procurement call. We need to think of ways around procurement."

Although Fin De Guerre's attempt to supply COVID Tests to the DHSC appears to have not succeeded, the emails reveal how a supplier with a Conservative Party backed "referral" was able to go from b...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

"I am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er".

This famous quote, from Act 3, Scene 4 of Shakespeare's Macbeth reflects the moment when Macbeth realises that he has gone so far down the path of evil that there is no turning back from it.

Reflecting on the destructive and lawless nature of Donald Trump's first 100 days in office, one has to wonder whether he too, like Macbeth, will conclude that his presidency has gone too far down the path of extremism to be able to course-correct.

Instead, despite his tanking poll numbers, he may be tempted to just keep upping the ante.

Trump is already well-known for his pathological aversion to admitting mistakes. Rather than reversing course, in an effort to reassure voters and calm the markets, he could decide to accelerate the chaos in the hope of keeping his opponents off-balance.

He could also try to exploit the non-stop turmoil to justify taking even more extreme measures - such as clamping down further on free speech; tasking the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash the budgets of even more federal agencies and bodies designed to oversee the executive; and weaponising institutions of the state, such as the FBI and Department of Justice, to go after even more political opponents.

His list of perceived enemies already includes officials from his first administration, such as Chris Krebs, former Secretary of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who challenged his claims that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged; and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who has publicly criticised him.

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It includes media outlets and journalists who report critically on his administration. It includes law firms that represented clients in lawsuits against him or his businesses, which have been blacklisted from government contracts or bullied into signing agreements to provide it free legal services. It includes respected academic institutions such as Harvard and Columbia Universities, which have been hit or threatened with budget cuts on the flimsy grounds that they have failed to take sufficient action against antisemitism.

This list is now widening to include judges who have issued court orders against his administration, who are now being accused of judicial overreach. Last week, the administration even arrested a judge on the grounds that she had allegedly hindered the detention of an immigrant by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

His list includes non-profit organisations, think tanks, and independent entities which advocate for causes his administration opposes such as climate change; diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI) initiatives; or democracy promotion.

The list even includes entire towns, cities and states which are accused of not cooperating with his policies. On 28 April, the President signed an executive order directing the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to identify within a month those cities and states that are not complying with federal immigration laws, and designate them as "sanctuary jurisdictions". These could face federal funding cuts and possible criminal and c...