Leaks show Paul Mason secretly advised UK Chancellor John Healey to escalate Ukraine war
Leaks reveal failed journalist Paul Mason secretly advised ex-Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his Defence Secretary and now-Chancellor John Healey, and top aides on important security matters.
Mason’s belligerent pronouncements on the need for Britain to “deter” Russia through a massive military build-up influenced Labour’s policies and rhetoric.
Mason was secretly working with notorious British military intelligence operative Chris Donnelly to turn Labour toward a hardline position on Russia and defense spending.
Since the Ukraine proxy war erupted, Donnelly has secretly guided London on escalation strategies, including attacks on Kerch Bridge, and the creation of Gladio-style terrorist armies in Ukraine.
All along, he and Mason have fed lines to Healey and other Labour frontbenchers on the conflict, while advising how Britain should respond to political and military developments, even authoring key speeches for Healey.
Healey has consistently pushed for Britain to prime itself for direct conflict with Russia, even resigning over Starmer’s supposed refusal to increase defense spending. Leaked emails indicate these positions were influenced by Mason and Donnelly’s covert influence. As Chancellor, Healey can now fund their apocalyptic vision.
John Healey, whose dramatic June 11 resignation as Britain’s Defence Secretary precipitated Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s fall, has returned to government as Chancellor under newly-anointed premier Andy Burnham.
Healey’s departure was triggered by Starmer and his administration being “unable” and “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country,” making Britain “less safe.” This followed four years in opposition, then two in government pushing for more militaristic stances on Russia, and demanding ramped up state spending on defense. As Chancellor, Healey now has the chance to fund Britain’s military to the hilt at the expense of the country’s already hollowed-out social sector.
Leaked emails reviewed by The Grayzone reveal how Healey’s militaristic stances on Russia were secretly influenced by a brain trust consisting of the former celebrity leftist and failed journalist Paul Mason, and the scandal-stained British intelligence veteran Chris Donnelly.
See the leaked email communications between Paul Mason, Chris Donnelly, John Healey and other advisors here.
Mason and Donnelly exploited their high-level access to Healey to foment wider support within the Labour party, and Starmer’s government, for the most aggressive policies possible on the Ukraine conflict. Along the way, Donnelly consistently advised Healey to support dangerously escalatory actions, arguing if Moscow was provoked as a result, then “so be it.”
Donnelly is most notorious as the founder of the Integrity Initiative, a covert information warfare network spanning Europe, encompassing networks of pro-war influencers and journalists, and dedicated to the mission of flooding Western media with anti-Russian propaganda.
For his part, the self-described “antifascist” Mason now cools his heels at a NATO-funded think tank after burning out as a maverick lefty correspondent for Channel 4 and the BBC. Mason’s public image as a celebrity leftist imploded after The Grayzone exposed him as a security state collaborator who covertly pitched the UK government on his own Integrity Initiative-style propaganda network, while furnishing British officials with a bizarre “mind-map” of the antiwar left containing targets he sought to neutralize. Those targets included this publication, which Mason plotted to sue for our factual reporting on his machinations.
Emails reviewed by The Grayzone show both figures were in continuous contact with Healey from 2021 onwards, providing him with advice on how to escalate conflict with Russia and increase the defense budget, while angling for plum appointments as national security advisors.