Can anyone stop the We R Blighty fundraisers?

It’s Remembrance Sunday this weekend, which is why you’ll see Royal British Legion poppy sellers across the capital raising money for veterans. Many of London’s commuters are happy to tap their card readers or put some money in the bucket to support the cause.

But poppy sellers aren’t the only people standing outside London stations asking commuters for donations in the name of the armed forces. We R Blighty, whose banners say they support homeless veterans, is a for-profit organisation that has become infamous for its lucrative and occasionally lawbreaking fundraising on the streets of London.

This morning We R Blighty was found to have breached fundraising rules on nine occasions, with one of the British Army’s former top officers telling London Centric the organisations risks undermining Londoners’ trust in mainstream veterans’ charities.

Yet there doesn’t seem much willingness on the part of councils or the Met police to crack down on We R Blighty’s operations — and the group’s founder has told us they’ll just change tactics and use another legal loophole to reinvent themselves as newspaper sellers outside London’s stations.

Scroll down to read what is going on.

Exclusive: Another ex-Labour councillor has defected to the Greens

Southwark councillor Kath Whittam has joined Zack Polanksi’s Green Party. A former chair of the local Labour Party, Whittam became an independent this summer over claims that the central Labour party had “rigged” the south London council’s leadership election to block a leftwing candidate.

It’s all part of the drip-drip of left-wing political realignment currently underway at some of the capital’s Labour-dominated councils, with similar defections to the Greens in the likes of Lambeth, Haringey, and Barking and Dagenham. Whittam told London Centric why she had quit Labour after 42 years: “I can breathe the fresh air of the Green Party and enjoy my politics again! There are no divisive factions, no sides to take – just a shared space to talk about common goals. It’s positive, hopeful, and focused on real solutions.”

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Welcome, New York (from London)

Sadiq Khan this morning sent congratulations to the newly-elected New York Democratic mayor (and Arsenal fan) Zohran Mamdani.

“New Yorkers faced a clear choice — between hope and fear — and just like we’ve seen in London hope won,” said Khan.

Earlier, a ‘source close ...