As Starmer persecutes journalists and helps those killing them, he claims he’ll protect them

From covering up sexual abuse to targeting pro-Palestinian journalists, Starmer’s malignant hypocrisy knows no limits – and he has no intention of protecting real journalism

It was already clear that Keir Starmer’s hypocrisy and shamelessness has no limits – and that is not limited to his breaking of every promise he made to fool Labour members into voting for him to be party leader.

Starmer has claimed to be a champion of women, yet repeatedly covered up ‘sadistic’ and ‘criminal’ abuse of Muslim women by the alleged girlfriend – and staffer – of a right-wing Labour MP despite warnings from whistleblower Elaina Cohen, who also worked in Khalid Mahmood’s office. Mahmood himself also gave sworn testimony that he had personally talked to Starmer about the allegations.

Starmer sheltered at least two alleged sex pests in his [then-]Shadow Cabinet and took no action against disgraced MP Chris Matheson after Matheson was placed under investigation and ultimately found guilty by Parliament of sexual harassment. Matheson instead resigned after the finding.

Starmer took no action when a female MP reported one of his front bench team to the Metropolitan Police for alleged sexual harassment – and allowed a ‘senior staffer’ to keep his job despite two separate investigations finding he had sexually harassed an intern. The victim of that assault condemned the sexual harassment she said is rife in Starmer’s party. He also welcomed Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Neil Coyle back into the party last year, despite Parliament finding Coyle guilty of at least one count of sexual harassment and of making racist remarks – and Starmer’s lackeys tried to silence two female party staff to protect an alleged ‘senior’ sex pest.

Starmer’s people on Labour’s national executive also ignored their own barrister’s legal advice that the party should fully investigate allegations of serious sexual assault against then-Redbridge council leader Jas Athwal, an ally of right-wing Health Secretary Wes Streeting and that the disciplinary process against Athwal should continue until the investigation was completed. Instead, the investigation was abandoned, allowing Athwal to become a parliamentary candidate. He is now Labour MP for Ilford South. Party insiders told Skwawkbox in 2022 that:

Once Keir Starmer took over, the allegation of serious sexual assault disappeared.

But Starmer’s latest brazenness has hit a new low, with a column in yesterday’s Observer in which he claims that,

Journalism is the lifeblood of British democracy. My government will protect it.

Whether it is online intimidation, journalists imprisoned abroad or the cynical use of Slapp lawsuits, we will fight any threats to those who hold the powerful to account.

Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, the British state has been engaged in a campaign of intimidation, against journalists who have exposed its war crimes. Since Keir Starmer got into Downing Street thanks to the neo-fascist Reform ‘party’, that campaign has escalated, leading to calls for the United Nations to intervene.

Pro-Palestinian journalists Asa Winstanley, Richard Medhurst, Kit Klarenberg, Sarah Wilkinson, Tony Greenstein and Craig Murray have either had their homes raided or have been detained at airports under anti-terror legislation, by police who seized their electronic devices and, for those in airports, used the Terrorism Act’s unjust provisions to force them to hand over passwords. In some cases, access to lawyers, and even to food and water, has been denied. The first four cases listed above have been perpetrated in the three months of Starmer’s tenure.

we must remain vigilant so that the growing power of digital technology does not begin to chip away at [mainstream news circulation].

Starmer is clearly signalling his ‘stand’ is about protecting ‘mainstream’ stenography against independent, mostly online, news.

And Starmer is a consistent supporter of Israel, which has killed almost two hundred Palestinian journalists in a year and has put others on a kill list, designating them as terrorists to try to prevent them further exposing Israel’s crimes that have led to a global surge in support for the Palestinian people, yet Starmer has the gall to mention them in his article as if he has done anything but enable their murderers.

Journalism is the lifeblood of democracy – but what passes for journalism in most ‘mainstream’ publications often amounts to stenography for power instead of a challenge to it. It is very clear from the state’s actions under Starmer so far that he has no intention of protecting the independent journalists who actually scrutinise and expose the actions of the powerful – or the Palestinian journalists who face targeted murder daily by their occupiers and oppressors.

Just because journalists are brave does not mean they should ever suffer intimidation [as long as they’re journalists we like!]. This goes for intimidation on social media – the Online Safety Act will introduce new protections from abuse, as well respecting recognised news publisher content.

Starmer, with Skwawkbox added emphasis and commentary in square brackets, signals his intent to use legislation to protect only the ‘journalism’ he and his backers like – and to attack those who criticise their stenography.

Instead, Starmer’s calculated hypocrisy looks more like the beginning of a campaign to protect the ‘mainstream’ stenographers from criticism and to use the treatment of journalists abroad selectively – as we have seen in the case of US Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia, whose detention on allegations of spying for the US led to mass demands for his release, in stark contrast to the US regime’s silence of the murder of US independent journalist Gonzo Lira by Ukraine and the arrest and detention by Israel of Grayzone’s independent journalist Jeremy Loffredo for reporting on the impact of Iran’s retaliatory missile strike at Israeli military bases.

Meanwhile, there is no sign that the British state’s assault on real journalisms and the journalists who do it will do anything but continue to escalate – and to undermine the remaining shreds of British democracy.

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