UK Politics

Labour is considering proposals to tackle AI deepfakes, including a ban on so-called nudification tools, used to generate nonconsensual pornography, and signing up to a cross-party pledge not to tolerate deepfakes that constitute electoral misinformation, the Guardian can reveal.

The policy paper, produced by the centre-left Labour Together thinktank, proposes a legal ban on dedicated nudification tools that allow users to generate explicit content by uploading images of real people.

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The paper comes after the revelation that Twitter, now known as X, refused to remove deepfake audio of Keir Starmer in October last year, despite policies against such misinformation. The AI-generated clip, which went viral at the time and purported to record the Labour leader berating his staff, was rapidly removed from other social networks but, according to a report from Bloomberg, Twitter demurred, citing a caveat that allowed it to decline to take action if it was “unable to reliably determine if media have been altered or fabricated”.

Peter Kyle, the shadow science, innovation and technology secretary, said the party was considering the proposals. “The capacity for deepfakes to harm individuals, undermine elections, and increase fraud has been clear for some time. The recent surge in nudification tools is deeply concerning.

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The policy paper also calls for all major parties to voluntarily commit to not using deepfake technology, or spread misinformation for campaigning purposes. It recommends Labour sign up to a cross-party pledge “not to create, disseminate or tolerate misleading information”, and urgently calls for an exception to the ban on media coverage of a general election on polling day to allow for mainstream media to rebut fraudulent misinformation that could be going viral as people head to the polls.

Earlier this week an unnamed Tory minister told Sky News' deputy political editor, Sam Coates, they were "worried there might be peace in the Middle East" because the conflict in Gaza is perceived to be damaging the Labour Party's relationship with its voters.

The minister made the comments amid a debate in the Tory Party as to when Mr Sunak should call an election after the budget last week failed to excite his backbenchers.

Senior Tories attempted to rally behind an increasingly beleaguered Rishi Sunak on Saturday night amid claims that some Conservative MPs are plotting to replace him with Penny Mordaunt before the next general election.

Former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Davis went public to denounce the idea as “mad” and “bonkers”, as did senior backbenchers, including former vice-chair of the 1922 Committee Sir Charles Walker.

With many backbench Tories – including some with healthy majorities – increasingly fearful of losing their seats in an election wipeout, accounts of a “plot” to oust Sunak surfaced on Saturday in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.

The Mail said MPs on the right of the party had “held talks with moderates” about uniting behind Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, and anointing her as leader in a “coronation” in the coming weeks.

Mordaunt made no public comment about the claims but her supporters said she was not party to, or aware of, any such plot, and that she believed the stories were an attempt by her detractors on the right to damage any potential challenge she may make in future, after a Tory election defeat.

Several Tory MPs maintain, however, that Mordaunt has been “on manoeuvres” for months, making clear she would be happy to visit MPs’ constituencies and get to know their local party officials.

All parties declared more than £93m in total compared with £52m in the previous year.

The Conservatives received the most donations by far, raking in £44.5m in cash, compared with Labour’s total of £21.6m, £6m for the Liberal Democrats, £610,000 for the Green Party and £255,000 for Reform. The SNP registered only £76,000 cash donations in 2023.

Last month, Tory MP Mark Pritchard asked in parliament whether Britain “might actually be hitting the wrong target” in the Middle East.

“It might be the case”, he said, “that while we have the best of diplomatic intentions and we do not want to provoke Iran [into] a major conflict with NATO, the US or the UK, putting off that decision now will cost more lives in the future”.

While acquiescing in Israel’s possession of nuclear arms, British ministers repeatedly say that Iran should “never” be allowed to acquire such weapons. They have threatened to consider “all options” if Tehran appears close to doing so.

Over recent months, the British media has also been talking up the prospect of military action against Iran.

Sky News’ military analyst Sean Bell deliberated the utility of “a series of calibrated strikes against Iran”. He added that there is a “limit to how many diplomatic options you’ve got on the table if you want to keep trade flowing”.

Con Coughlin, the Telegraph’s defence and foreign affairs editor, declared that the “West is now at war with Iran and its proxies”, adding we “shouldn’t fear a direct confrontation with Tehran”.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/11547944

Union says Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement deportations

Archived version: https://archive.ph/dNa33

Rishi Sunak will call a snap general election if 10 Conservative MPs defect to Reform UK, a top Tory with close links to Downing Street has claimed.

The source of the claim, made to parliamentary colleagues after Lee Anderson's shock defection, is an influential party figure with impeccable connections.

The prime minister's threat emerged as he mingled with Conservative MPs at the 1922 Committee's spring reception after a half-hour meeting with the '22 executive.

Traditionally known as "the men in grey suits", the senior MPs who make up the 1922 Committee executive have the power to make or break prime ministers.

According to parliamentary folklore, they have in the past handed a failing party leader "a glass of whisky and a pearl-handled revolver in a darkened room".

I can only imagine how badly this will go.

"Can we have better pay and conditions please?"
"No."
"OK, then we have no option but to strike."
"If you strike, you will be sacked unless 73% of you stay at work."
"...If you sack all the firefighters, who's going to make up that 73%?"

A few more years of conservative rule, and they'll start stretching the definition to include this site.

I must admit I was suckered in with the headline and and picture. It's not Brown he's criticising. It's his fellow Tories.

Donor told colleagues looking at Diane Abbott made you ‘want to hate all black women’ and she ‘should be shot’

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/Neoliberal/t/890806

Michael Gove is set to unveil new definition to cover issue, but many in ruling party would prefer rhetoric be dialled down

Archive

The former deputy chair of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson, has defected to Reform UK, said the party’s leader, Richard Tice.

Anderson’s defection to the rightwing populist party was announced by Tice at a central London press conference on Monday.

Anderson lost the Tory whip after claiming Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.

Anderson, whose constituency is Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, becomes the only MP to sit for Reform, which grew out of the Brexit party after the 2016 referendum and has links to Nigel Farage.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12878654

A pensioner has been caught on CCTV apparently spraying the word ‘b******’ onto the plinth holding a statue of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister.

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Its installation was controversial and it has been egged and spat on – with some jokers even marking the statue as a public toilet on Google Maps.