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global justice now
US-UK tech pact: UK Government must “stop selling us out to big business,” campaigners say
Sep 18, 2025
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now said:
"Trump’s state visit is being used to cement the power of the Big Tech oligarchs and their super rich financial investors over the UK. The investments announced will only help the people of the UK if corporations can be properly regulated and taxed – but the government is giving up its ability to control the development of this technology as it bends over backwards to please the robber barons. We risk losing more jobs than we gain, busting our climate targets, and giving away our data and other resources – all to help the richest people in the world build greater monopolies.
“Starmer promised he would build a strong British tech industry, but this deal is not that. Instead it’s turning us into no more than an aircraft carrier for US Big Tech. Meanwhile, deepening tech militarisation and collaboration with corporations like Palantir which are helping Trump kidnap people from off the streets should shock anyone who cares about human rights. Once we’re totally locked into dependence on these gigantic private monopolies we will regret this deal – the government must change course, stand up to Trump and stop selling us out to big business.”
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UK-US TRADE: “Caving into a bully is not something to be celebrated”, campaigners say
May 08, 2025
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now said:
Today’s deal between the UK and US was about appeasing Trump. While there are limited tariff reductions, we remain in a much worse position than we were six months ago. What’s more, Trump could impose new tariffs at any time because Starmer has proven to him that his threats work: caving into a bully is not something to be celebrated. Today’s press conference also fires the starting gun on a genuinely scary, fuller trade deal, and there are strong indications our rights, standards and protections will be up for grabs in that larger agreement. Unless we stand up to this deal, the British public will pay a very high price for Starmer’s friendship with Donald Trump.”
Pandemic Treaty reaction: "Further delays are the direct result of rich countries actions"
May 29, 2024
In response to further delays to the pandemic treaty, Tim Bierley, campaigner at Global Justice Now said:
"Further delays in pandemic treaty negotiations are the direct result of rich countries - including the UK - frustrating the process at every step. During the Covid-19 pandemic we saw vaccine apartheid play out on the global stage, with over a million people dying from a lack of access to vaccines. Instead of pushing for clear and binding commitments to ensure this gross injustice is never repeated, rich countries seem content to sing from the Big Pharma hymnbook, prioritising patents and profit over people.
"Enough - rich nations must back a strong pandemic treaty which ensures knowledge and resources are shared equitably across the world, and global south countries are supported in upscaling their capacity for medicines production. Anything less is sabotaging our response to the next health crisis before it's even started."
Campaigners criticise Rishi Sunak’s failure to attend Macron finance summit
Relying on private sector is ‘putting sharks in charge of the swimming pool’, campaigners say
Jun 22, 2023
Campaign group Global Justice Now has criticised Rishi Sunak for signing a letter ‘he doesn’t seem to have read’ as the prime minister prepares to avoid fellow leaders at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, starting in Paris today.(1)
Heads of government including the leaders of Germany, Brazil and Barbados are joining French president Emmanuel Macron at the summit, which aims to address a variety of global financial challenges including how to pay for agreed climate action and reversing the spike in global poverty caused by the pandemic.
Yesterday Sunak was among the signatories of a letter produced by Macron and signed by 13 international leaders calling for “a green transition that leaves no one behind”(2). But campaigners slammed the focus of the letter on private sector solutions, and highlighted Sunak’s refusal to properly tax polluters, cuts to the aid budget and more, amongst policies they say run directly counter to building a more green and resilient economy.
Izzie McIntosh, climate campaign manager at Global Justice Now said:
“Last year Rishi Sunak had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the COP27 climate summit, now he’s set for a Boris Johnson-style no-show at this crucial meeting on how to pay for the green transition.
“While it is welcome that Sunak has signed up to leaving no one behind, his actions point in the opposite direction – from slashing the aid budget, to failing to properly tax fossil fuel companies, to neglecting the growing debt crisis in the global south. It’s no wonder he won’t show his face in Paris – he doesn’t seem to have read the invitation.
“The Macron summit is asking the right questions, but after decades of leaving everything to the market, governments must stop passing the buck to the private sector to address global inequality. The market has got us into this, it won’t get us out. We need large-scale financial reform otherwise we’re putting sharks in charge of the swimming pool.
“Governments must take the lead. That means interventions to make polluting corporations pay for climate damage, force the rich to pay their rightful taxes, require banks to cancel unjust debts, and finally end the decades-long stitch up at the IMF and World Bank. It is a shameful failure that Sunak is making only a superficial effort to address these challenges.”
The Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan agreed at COP27 last year highlighted that a global transformation to a low-carbon economy is expected to require investment of at least $4-6 trillion per year, and that “delivering such funding will require a transformation of the financial system and its structures and processes, engaging governments, central banks, commercial banks, institutional investors and other financial actors.”(3)
ENDS
1. Western leaders snub Macron’s Paris summit on global finance, 21 June 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/g7-leaders-emmanuel-macron-global-finance-climate-summit-paris/
2. Macron and world leaders call on private finance to help reduce global poverty, 21 June 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/21/macron-and-world-leaders-call-on-private-finance-to-help-reduce-global-poverty
3. COP27 Implementation Plan, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cop27_auv_2_cover%20decision.pdf
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