Thanks to openDemocracy doing the journalism the corporate media consistently fail to, we now know that the Labour Party accepted a huge donation just after Rishi Sunak called July’s general election. We also know that the company behind it invest themselves in the worst of the worst. However, for a final sting in the tail, look no further than what this hedge fund does with some of the cash it makes.
Labour Party: £4m in slush funding…?
As openDemocracy revealed:
The Labour Party’s largest-ever donation came from a Cayman Islands-registered hedge fund with shares worth hundreds of millions of pounds in fossil fuels, private health firms, arms manufacturers and asset managers.
While the £4m donation by Quadrature Capital is the sixth-largest in British political history, it is noteworthy not just for its size, but also its timing.
Electoral Commission records suggest Labour received the donation in the one-week window between former prime minister Rishi Sunak announcing the general election and the start of the ‘pre-poll reporting period’ in which all political donations over £11,180 had to be published weekly, rather than the quarterly norm.
This means that despite being made on 28 May, Quadrature’s generous donation was published by the Electoral Commission only last week, more than two months after Labour won the election.
Of course, no one should really be surprised that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is accepting donations from hedge funds registered in tax havens. However, there were further revelations from openDemocracy. These include the fact that Quadrature had investments in fossil fuel, arms, and private healthcare companies.
Again, none of this should be a surprise:
Labour is owned by the worst people on the planet. Be very afraid.
https://t.co/TAbiPS251R— Bevan Boy 💚 (@mac123_m) September 18, 2024
It goes without saying that all this is at odds with Starmer’s front-facing image:
I posted this yesterday but repeating as it's so awful.
£4 million donation tied with arms sales, oil & gas and private healthcare.
And the cynicism of labour accepting it in the one week where they wouldn't have to declare it until after the election.https://t.co/r63jpHgLuH
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 19, 2024
The openDemocracy story also shows up the BBC’s non-story about Sue Gray for the gossipy nonsense it is:
Does Sue Gray being paid more than the PM tell us anything useful about Labour?No
But this does: Labour’s largest donation was from hedge fund with $$$ in arms, private health, oil and big tech
+ questions over why it wasn’t declared during the electionhttps://t.co/tTS6mcDPe3
— Ethan Shone (@EJShone93) September 18, 2024
Starmer: now a fan of climate engineering by default
However, just for a final flourish in this sordid tale, Quadrature is very keen on geoengineering; what conspiracy theorists used to call climate engineering – before it was revealed to be true.
As MIT Technology Review wrote:
A London-based nonprofit is poised to become one of the world’s largest financial backers of solar geoengineering research. And it’s just one of a growing number of foundations eager to support scientists exploring whether the world could ease climate change by reflecting away more sunlight.
Quadrature Climate Foundation, established in 2019 and funded through the proceeds of the investment fund Quadrature Capital, plans to provide $40 million for work in this field over the next three years, Greg De Temmerman, the organization’s chief science officer, told MIT Technology Review.
That’s a big number for this subject—double what all foundations and wealthy individuals provided from 2008 through 2018 and roughly on par with what the US government has offered to date.
Yes, that’s right. The icing on the cake from Starmer’s £4m capitalist slush funders is that, far from stopping humans destroying the planet – they just want to manipulate the atmosphere so rich, white people in the Global North can keep doing whatever the hell they want.
Which kind of sums up Starmer’s Labour Party completely, now.
Featured image via the Canary
