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Peter Walker

@peterwalker99.bsky.social
82K followers 653 following 4K posts

Guardian senior political correspondent. New book, Stress tested, out now: tinyurl.com/mhn82a7m Email: peter.walker@theguardian.com Secure email if needed: peter.walker.guardian@protonmail.com

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 11h
Adam Wagner KC, barrister who led the case which concluded Corbyn’s Labour broke equalities law, said there is "a strong risk that the motion as passed contravenes the Equality Act 2010... as it will discriminate against and harass people who hold Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally."
Adam Wagner KC, the barrister who led a case which concluded that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour broke equalities laws over antisemitism, said that such a case would have a good chance of success.

“I think there is a strong risk that the motion as passed contravenes the Equality Act 2010, which applies to political parties, as it will discriminate against and harass people who hold Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally.,” he said.

“Zionism, defined in the broad sense of supporting the establishment, development, and protection of a Jewish nation state in its ancestral homeland, the land of Israel, is likely to be a protected belief under the Equality Act 2010.”

He said there was a strong risk that the policy, especially if it resulted in disciplinary action, “will create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for both Zionists and Jewish people, therefore harassing them”.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 12h
I'm told that some Greens are already looking at legal action over worries that the 'Zionism is racism' motion is likely to be illegal under equality laws. This is a view shared by some lawyers. More soon.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 13h
Some Greens feel Polanski has shown a complete lack of leadership on the motion, saying he was happy to see an influx of new members but then did nothing to make sure they stuck with Green values. In fairness, the leader has few powers. But they do have influence - and Polanski has not exerted any.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 13h
Matthew Syed is making an endless and half-comprehensible speech to the Conservative conference. They clearly appear to see him as a sort of secret weapon. Other views are available.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 13h
I'm told by a delegate is has passed - 1,022 votes for the motion, 813 against. While the Greens love their direct democracy model, it does mean policy risks being set by the small minority who can be arsed to (and can afford to) go to conference.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 13h
Greens for Palestine say their "Zionism is racism" motion has passed at Green conference. This could be a big problem for the party, not least as four of the party's five MPs have spoken out strongly against it, while Zack Polanski has (sort of) endorsed it. Some, not all, Jewish members worried.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15h
I have to say I didn’t see that but I went round it fairly quickly so might have easily missed it.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15h
Quite big. Takes a few minutes to walk around it.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15h
The Tory Bayeaux tapestry is currently the busiest part of their conference. It’s quite ingenious if a bit weird at times - is that meant to be Jenrick on the first pic. But credit for portraying the full horror of Andy Burnham’s infamous running shorts.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 16h
It was challenged.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 19h
Interviewed on BBC1, Badenoch is asked about her comment that people are "cheating the system" to claim sickness benefits. Asked what proportion of claimants she thinks do this, Badenoch replied: "My team have done the research. I don't have those figures to hand." Slightly odd answer.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 19h
As noted in the story by Tim Bale, politics professor and guru of all things Tory, the party are still polling well below what they got in 2024, a historically bad election loss: "If this is what success looks like, I’d love to know what failure is.”
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 20h
Conservative conference begins today, and I've tried to work out the paradox of a party more unified and upbeat than in years but also, by any conventional polling metric, still in deep, deep trouble. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Party conference will be more upbeat than last year, Tories say – but that’s not the whole story
The mood is better but ‘overhyped’, says one Conservative MP as party remains a distant third in polls
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I do sometimes lose perspective on how far we’ve come. But yes - you’re right.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The letter argues that is just one version of Zionism, an explicitly hard right one, and to use this as the default definition is to treat anyone who supports an Israeli state in any form as being the same.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“This is like accepting the EDL’s definition of Englishness.” Statement by Jewish Greens on why they think the “Zionism is racism” motion paints “a very diverse group of people with a very broad brush” and should be opposed. jewishgreens.greenparty.org.uk/2026/02/12/w...
jewishgreens.greenparty.org.uk
Why Jewish Greens are urging party members to vote against THE MOTION: ZIONISM IS RACISM - Jewish Greens
Why Jewish Greens are urging party members to vote against the motion 'Zionism is Racism' at the Green Party's Spring 2026 conference
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I think he was respected as a campaigner, but also viewed with some caution given his v obvious ambition and his ideological turnaround.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I think he was disliked even when still (offically) a Tory.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A lot of this is down to politics. Jenrick was widely viewed – accurately - as agitating against Kemi Badenoch, and wanting to supplant her. But it's notable also how many people I spoke to said they also simply don't like him and think he's toxic.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I've been talking to quite a few Conservatives for a piece ahead of their conference, and it's striking how many proactively brought up a reason why they think this year's event will be more positive than last: the fact Robert Jenrick won't be there. Such unananimity of dislike is rare.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Could have mentioned what?
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Reposted by Peter Walker
Susannah Walker @susannahwalker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Despite the picture, this is a development which will not necessarily benefit women. Research and engagement is clear that greenways do not feel socially safe for many women, particularly after dark, and they would prefer to cycle near a road.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is, of course, 100% standard for any right of reply quote, whoever it’s from.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just for clarity I did quote GfP properly. They asked that a fairly long quote be used in full. I replied to say that for story-length reasons that was probably not possible but that I’d fairly précis anything not used in full. Which I did. They did not object to this in advance.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
NEW: An organisation pushing the Green party to equate Zionism with racism has encouraged people to join the party specifically to support that agenda, and has links to activists who say that pro-Israel “infiltrators” must be rooted out of the UK. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Group encouraging people to join Green party to back ‘Zionism is racism’ agenda
Exclusive: Greens for Palestine group has links to activists who say pro-Israel ‘infiltrators’ must be rooted out of UK
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
To make two other utterly basic points: it's not bikes or modal filters that are slowing down his journey - it's other motor traffic. Plus, designing a vast city's transport system around making a small number of expensive cab journeys more rapid would be objectively mad.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm a few days late to this, but it's worth noting as amid all the years of deeply weird discourse about low-traffic neighbourhoods this is perhaps the most unhinged thing I've ever seen. [Plus: they're not "Sadiq Khan's LTNs". They're done by councils.]
 Sadiq Khan’s LTNs made me flee Britain, says millionaire philanthropist

Sir Peter Lampl claims mayor’s traffic policies make London unsuitable for ‘wealth-creating entrepreneurs’ “To do all that, I needed to be able to get about,” he wrote. “I needed to be able to meet people, make deals, go campaigning, chivvy politicians into action. I needed black cabs and roads they could get down. And I needed to be able to get home at the end of the day without spending an hour stuck in a single lane of traffic on Park Lane.Sir Peter said the expansion of bike lanes in London and introduction of traffic calming measures, such as 20mph speed limits and low-traffic neighbourhoods, had created “a capital city in which we literally can’t get around by taxi”.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In contrast, the big reveal on changes to Brexit was vague in the extreme - Burnham will use the EU summit "to lay out to the country what I believe the different options are for Britain's long-term relationship with our European partners, and ... see if we can find consensus around one." Woo hoo.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It probably won't make the headlines in tomorrow's papers, but a national commission on replacing first past the post with a presumably proportional system is a *seismic* change. If it happened, a lot of how UK politics happens would be done differently.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The section where Burnham was essentially almost in tears as he vowed to "use this job to build the kind of Britain my dad wanted to see" was powerful by any political metric.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Andy Burnham isn't a brilliant natural orator. He can be a bit woolly and rambling at times. But – and the obvious contrast here is Keir Starmer - it is very obvious what he believes in, and how strongly he believes in it, which can be very powerful, as here.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A step and a doorway!
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There is a sudden and very long pause as Burnham look emotional. It is clear why when he begins talking about his dad, who died very recently.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham says he will invite other parties to be involved in this. It will be fascinating to see how Reform respond to this. Nigel Farage was a very big fan of PR for years - until FPTP started to work for him.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham: "Today I am announcing a new national commission on electoral reform." The "Andy Burnham is in fact a Lib Dem" theory gathers pace.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And as ever, I will begin to believe in "parity" between technical/vocational education and university degrees when the children of at least some government ministers go down the former route.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I remain to be convinced that a lack of vocational education in schools is, in fact, the root cause of the Neets crisis, as implied here by Andy Burnham.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'd call that a step and a doorway. Either way, you'd look a bit silly making a speech from it.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It can be quite bitter in winter.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham: "On my first day in this job, on the steps of Downing Street.." Once again - there are no steps, and prime ministers do not speak from the single step, they speak in the street
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"I am ten weeks into this job, and not all of my recent predecessors have been able to say that." Obligatory Liz Truss joke near the start of Andy Burnham's Labour conference speech.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I do sometimes wonder if the political history of this period, when written, will mainly conclude: “Many people lost their way simply by spending too long on X.”
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
He needs to borrow Daniel Korski's idea of switching off traffic lights at night " to speed up traffic".
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The small print says they would look at whether poeple were entitled to other citizenship Shamima Begum-style.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Conservative proposals would also see foreign nationals convicted of any criminal offence apart from a summary offence deported from the UK, no matter how long they had been here and irrespective of family links. That could see people deported for things like cannabis possession.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Two-tier British citizenship latest.
 Conservatives to strip migrant criminals of British citizenship

Dual nationals serving sentences over five years could lose passports under the proposals
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
*Sighs very deeply in public health-ese*


    Camilla Tominey

There’s no excuse for being fat

Given the availability of new weight loss treatments, we shouldn’t feel afraid of telling it how it is
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is often lost in the talk of “illegal” migrants…
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The tactical voting attack ads for other parties basically write themselves.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Are Reform UK *sure* they want to yoke themselves to people like Daniel “Danny Tommo” Thomas? Nigel Farage was adamant for years that most voters instantly recognise and intensely dislike football thug types like him and Tommy Robinson.
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