Three Labour Peers Spoke at a Festival Sponsored by a Reform Mega-Donor – And Which Hosted a Far-Right Bookshop

Three Labour peers have been criticised by one of their party colleagues after speaking at the ‘Battle of Ideas’ festival, which is sponsored by a Reform mega-donor and which partnered with a far-right bookshop, which sells books by Joseph Goebbels and Oswald Mosley.

Labour MP Phil Brickell accused his colleagues of “legitimising” Reform’s crypto billionaire Ben Delo by participating in last weekend’s event, which was partnered with the far-right Oldspeak bookshop.

The festival, run by Baroness Claire Fox’s Academy of Ideas, partnered with the bookshop, as an official partner last weekend. Its guide pointed attendees their way, to source “works that challenge contemporary narratives and reinforce foundational beliefs”. Several speakers also conducted book signings at the stall.

As Byline Times recently reported, just days before, Oldspeak’s owner received a visit from police over an allegedly racist post on X. Oldspeak’s account frequently posts calls for “remigration” – the mass expulsion of people deemed not to be ‘British’ – but the visit focused on a photo the account posted of two Muslim men in the Suffolk village where it was previously based, captioned: “It’s started.” Responses included racist abuse.

The organisers had been asked about the bookshop’s more extreme content. This has included claiming that the black England footballer Marcus Rashford’s parents’ nationalities mean “he cannot be English”, and approvingly sharing a video arguing that entire communities four generations deep should be stripped of citizenship, detained and deported. Another post included the hashtag “#millionsmustgo”.

Three Labour peers spoke at the festival, which was presented “in association with” the foundation of Reform mega-donor Ben Delo.

Lord (Jack) McConnell, former Scottish First Minister, spoke on two panels: one titled “Should we put Britain first? The ‘national interest’ question”, and another on devolution.

His first panel included Boris Johnson’s former spokesman Lord Ross Kempsell, who had promoted Oldspeak on X in a post that now appears to have been deleted. When approached Kempsell told this outlet: “I obviously had no knowledge of these posts as I just bought a book from a book stall at a conference and, it goes without saying, I don’t agree with the content.”

Blue Labour founder Lord (Maurice) Glasman, seen as on the right of the party, spoke at a keynote session titled “We don’t ‘do God’: have we lost faith in secular liberalism?” In November last year, he addressed the Together Declaration’s fourth-anniversary conference, DeSmog reported. The Together Declaration rose to prominence opposing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, and was listed as a festival supporter this year.

Fellow Labour peer Baroness (Ann) Mallalieu, who spoke on a panel about the urban/rural divide, is president of the Countryside Alliance, which was also a named festival partner. She told this outlet: “I was invited to take part in the festival session on the town/ countryside divide by a member of the panel. It was the only session I attended . I was neither offered or received any fee or expenses for doing so.”

Labour MP Phil Brickell told Byline Times: “Labour peers should – under no circumstances – be legitimising Ben Delo’s involvement in British politics. Peers have every opportunity to engage in a battle of ideas each week, in the House of Lords chamber. There’s simply no excuse for taking part in Delo’s efforts to launder his reputation via such events.

“As for Oldspeak Bookshop, as Secretary of the Germany APPG let me be clear. No respectable person should be associating with a business which promotes a Goebbels book for ‘scholars and enthusiasts alike’ or which says Hitler ‘may have been Man of the Century’.”

Oldspeak’s owner, Joanne May, was named in the festival’s production credits. Her shop has run promotional codes including “RemigrationNow”, and sells a collection of Hitler’s speeches, Goebbels’ Battle for Berlin, a 1941 SS Main Office publication (The Rise of the Reich) and white supremacist texts, alongside some general history and politics titles.

---

The Reform Connection

Reform donor and crypto-billionaire Ben Delo gave the festival’s welcome address. The end-of-festival drinks on Sunday, held in the same room as the bookshop, were “courtesy of the Ben Delo Foundation”, while the brochure’s “special thanks” name Delo and five of his Foundation staff.

Delo, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025 over a breach of anti-money laundering laws when running his crypto trading platform BitMEX, was reported as having recently relocated from Hong Kong to Britain.

Strict caps on overseas donors are coming into force, and it remains unclear whether his £36 million summer donation to Reform will be deemed ‘permissible’ (though Reform insists it will be).

Reform UK’s Danny Kruger MP had a keynote session to himself, titled “Will Reform be allowed to rule? How to take on ‘The Blob’”, in conversation with Baroness Fox.

Seventeen peers spoke, not counting Fox, and most were Conservative or non-affiliated. The introduction to the festival brochure declared: “Genuine democracy means more than putting an X in a box.” It was perhaps fitting, given the number of unelected peers speaking.

The MPs who spoke were Conservative Esther McVey, independent Rosie Duffield, who quit Labour in 2024, and the aforementioned Kruger.

---

Sponsors and Sessions

Meanwhile, a pro-Israel campaign was the credited partner of the anti-Zionism and Islam sessions, despite the festival’s official bookshop stocking antisemitic texts. The venue itself was the Church of England’s conference centre.

Other partners included GB News, the climate ‘sceptic’ Global Warming Policy Foundation, and the Prosperity Institute (formerly the Legatum Institute).

The festival was heavy on anti-trans discourse. Analysis for Byline Times shows that 24 of 30 places across seven sessions on sex and gender were held by people with a publicly gender-critical record, and none by anyone with a trans-inclusive one.

For a festival of free speech, no session appeared to look at the arrests of Defend Our Juries protesters, who have held up placards symbolically supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action since it was banned 15 months ago.

Byline Times has approached the Battle of Ideas festival, Claire Fox, the Labour peers, Ben Delo, and the Labour Party for comment.

In response to Byline Times’ previous questions about the bookshop and the photograph of two Muslim men she posted on X, Oldspeak’s owner Joanne May shared the request on the platform and posted: “Haven’t you got anything better to do?”

May then blocked this author’s account on X, with some of her followers responding with abuse, including racist language. One account – registered as having been set up in Croatia – sought to identify “the Jew” behind this publication’s right of reply requests.

Sharing this reporter’s Byline Times email in full to her X followers, May said: “Oh no. @josiahmortimer thinks I’m going to be sitting at home worried that he’s spending his time writing about me.”

“They also think I might believe they will print any answers I give in good faith. They have also never heard of sarcasm. @BylineTimes” – appearing to refer to some of Oldspeak’s social media posts that this publication put to her.

---

Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@bylinetimes.com