Depute leader insists Graeme McCormick’s last-minute withdrawal proof party is united
The Scottish National party’s depute leader has denied that a party activist was “leaned on” to pull out of the leadership race against John Swinney.
The party’s depute leader, Keith Brown, said Graeme McCormick’s last-minute decision on Sunday night not to stand against Swinney was proof the party was united and focused on delivering independence.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Rishi Sunak’s party were expecting a difficult contest – but the results were even more dire than predicted, as political correspondent Kiran Stacey explains
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Good morning.
A fraught situation is intensifying in Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million displaced people have been sheltering. Israel’s armed forces have this morning called for those in the “eastern neighbourhoods of Rafah” to “temporarily” evacuate to an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi. It comes after months of warnings that there would be a ground invasion of the beleaguered city as Israeli forces pursue Hamas militants. To keep a close eye on further developments, follow the Guardian’s live blog.
China | Xi Jinping has arrived in Paris for a rare visit against a backdrop of mounting trade disputes with the EU. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is set to urge his Chinese counterpart to reduce trade imbalances and to use his influence with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Israel-Gaza war | Israel used a US weapon in a March airstrike that killed seven volunteer paramedics in southern Lebanon, according to a Guardian analysis of shrapnel found at the site of the attack, which was described by Human Rights Watch as a violation of international law. In Jersualem, authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, using newly approved laws. Critics called the move – which came amid faltering indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas – a “dark day for the media”.
Immigration and asylum | Rwanda has admitted it cannot guarantee how many people it will take from the UK under Rishi Sunak’s deportation scheme. It did not give assurances that the estimated 52,000 asylum seekers eligible to be sent to Kigali would be accepted, instead saying it would be “thousands”.
Agriculture | The National Farmers’ Union warned that farmers’ confidence has hit its lowest level in at least 14 years, with extreme weather and the post-Brexit phasing-out of EU subsidies blamed for the drop. Most farms are expecting to reduce food production next year, with arable farming particularly badly hit.
Transport | Train drivers in the Aslef union are embarking on another round of industrial action, despite tentative attempts by the industry to restart talks. Drivers will strike for 24 hours at each of England’s national train operators from Tuesday until Thursday, while an overtime ban will apply nationwide from today until Saturday.
Continue reading...Union to roll out 24-hour strikes across England’s train operators for three days this week and six-day overtime ban from Monday
Rail passengers face a week of disruption as train drivers embark on another round of industrial action on Monday, despite tentative attempts by the industry to restart talks.
Drivers in the Aslef union will strike for 24 hours at each of England’s national train operators over the course of three days from Tuesday until Thursday, while an overtime ban will apply nationwide from Monday until Saturday.
Continue reading...Reports say Sir Keir Starmer may risk union support and bow to pressure from business to amend new deal
Watering down Labour’s plan to strengthen workers’ rights would be disastrous for the party’s relations with the unions and could cost votes at the general election, the president of the Trades Union Congress has warned.
Amid reports that Sir Keir Starmer may bow to pressure from business and amend important parts of his “new deal for workers”, Matt Wrack said the Labour leader risked causing “significant anger” among union members.
Continue reading...Union cites extreme wet weather and post-Brexit phasing-out of EU subsidies as main reasons for slump
Farmers’ confidence has hit its lowest level in at least 14 years, a long-running survey by the biggest farming union in Britain has found, with extreme weather and the post-Brexit phasing-out of EU subsidies blamed for the drop.
The National Farmers’ Union warned there had been a “collapse of confidence” and that the outlook was at its lowest since the annual poll of its members in England and Wales began in 2010.
Continue reading...PM and allies seemingly intent on staying the course in face of conflicting calls on how to avoid wipeout when country goes to polls
As the terrible council and mayoral results rolled in for the Conservatives on Friday night, was there any part of Rishi Sunak that regretted sealing Boris Johnson’s fate as prime minister by resigning as his chancellor less than two years ago?
This could have been Johnson’s defeat, hurtling towards a Labour landslide at a general election, with Sunak and his allies plotting how to replace him thereafter.
Continue reading...Pat McFadden says local election results give the party confidence it can win ‘blue wall’ seats that are ‘turning red’
Labour is planning to target the south of England heavily at the general election as the local election results show some “blue wall” seats are turning red, Keir Starmer’s election chief has said.
The shadow cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Labour was advancing in southern Tory heartlands and it was wrong to think the Lib Dems were the only challengers to the Conservatives in the south.
Continue reading...Analysis shows almost 18% drop in party’s vote in areas of England where more than a fifth are Muslim
A senior Labour official has insisted the party wants better lives for Palestinian people as it prepares to shift its campaigning to win back voters opposing its position on Gaza.
Pat McFadden, the party’s national election coordinator, said it would “work to get people’s support back” as analysis showed that despite huge gains in council seats, seizing the West Midlands mayoralty, and Sadiq Khan, the Muslim mayor of London, winning a third term, there was an almost 18% drop in the Labour vote in areas of England where more than a fifth of people identified as Muslim.
Continue reading...Graeme McCormick claims he will gather requisite number of signatures to force contest instead of unopposed coronation
John Swinney could face a leadership contest before he becomes Scottish National party leader after an activist said he expected to win enough nominations to stand.
Graeme McCormick, a well-known party activist who stood to become SNP president in 2023, claimed he would gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership.
Continue reading...Charities say FoI disclosure that 369 such children were held over 21-month period is ‘hugely concerning’
More than 350 lone children were held in UK-run detention facilities in northern France over a 21-month period, according to documents disclosed under freedom of information laws.
The Home Office has admitted that it failed to keep data on how many properly trained staff looked after the children held in four short-term holding facilities near Calais and Dunkirk in 2022 and 2023.
Continue reading...West Midlands mayor had been expected to hold on but was defeated by Labour by 1,508 votes to cap awful results for Tories
Good morning. The local elections are over, all but three results (one council, and two police and crime commissioner posts) are now in, and they have been just about as dire for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives as the national opinion poll figures implied they would be. On the plus side for Sunak, the rebels in his party who were hoping that terrible results would provide the springboard for a no confidence motion seem to have accepted that they don’t have the numbers, and the notional “coup” has been called off. But that won’t stop Tory MPs being pitched into a difficult debate about their future, and last night Andy Street made a defiant intervention, telling his party not to drift to the right.
Street had been expected to hold on as mayor of the West Midlands. He was defeated by Labour by just 1,508 votes, and in an interview with Sky News afterwards he said the message for his party from his campaign was that it should not give up on moderate conservatism. He said:
The thing everyone should take from Birmingham and the West Midlands tonight is this brand of moderative, inclusive, tolerant conservatism, that gets on and delivered, has come within an ace of beating the Labour party in what they considered to be their backyard - that’s the message from here tonight.
I would definitely not advise that drift.
The psychology here is really very straightforward isn’t it: this is the youngest, most diverse, one of the most urban places in Britain and we’ve done, many would say, extremely well over a consistent period.
The public are not rushing to vote for Sir Keir, though they feel sorely let down by us. They want a reason to vote Conservative, but we are failing to provide them with one. We need to be frank about this if we are to have any chance of fixing the problem.
On tax, migration, the small boats and law and order, we need to demonstrate strong leadership, not managerialism. Make a big and bold offer on tax cuts, rather than tweaking as we saw in the Budget. Place a cap on legal migration once and for all. Leave the ECHR to stop the boats. Tangible improvement to our NHS and tougher sentences for criminals. Start holding failing police chiefs to account so that antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and knife crime are actually sorted out. Take back control of our streets from the extremists. And instead of paying lip service in guidance on transgender ideology in schools, let’s actually change the law to ban the abuse of our children.
Continue reading...Union leader Sharon Graham says Keir Starmer risks ‘limping into Downing Street’
Labour’s biggest union backer has warned it may divert election funding earmarked for the party, amid claims that Keir Starmer is diluting plans to overhaul workers’ rights.
In an interview with the Observer, Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the Labour leader risked “limping into Downing Street” if he backed down in the face of intense lobbying from businesses.
Continue reading...The results of mayoral elections in Greater Manchester, London and the West Midlands are among those expected on Saturday
Rishi Sunak is braced for the result of key mayoral elections in London and the West Midlands, after the Conservatives were trounced in the first day of local election results.
As Friday’s result declarations closed, the Conservatives had suffered a net loss of 371 seats, and lost control of 10 councils.
Cheshire
Dorset
Hertfordshire
Kent
Merseyside
Sussex
Thames Valley
Warwickshire
West Midlands
Wiltshire
Continue reading...Campaigners are calling for public inquiry into high number of patient fatalities over a decade at crisis-hit service
More than 30 patients died after risks were not acted on in the decade following a controversial service redesign at a crisis-hit NHS mental health trust, according to an analysis by campaigners.
The report by the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk also logged nearly 20 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) who have died since 2013 after communication failures, while family concerns were ignored in 15 cases.
Continue reading...With public finances in a worse position than expected, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering pushing back further pledges
Jeremy Hunt and his team are considering not holding another tax-cutting autumn statement before the next election, amid uncertainty about the public finances.
The chancellor has already hinted that he plans to pledge further tax cuts – including another down payment on Rishi Sunak’s ambition to abolish national insurance – before a general election, which is expected to be held in the autumn. He also remains under pressure from the right of the party to lower taxes.
Continue reading...Spread of Tory losses leads former minister to say there’s ‘no such thing as a safe seat any more’
The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at the general election.
The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to clinging on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.
Continue reading...Tory council representation has imploded, but Labour’s gains have not been seismic. These charts show what this may signal for a general election
Conservative representation has collapsed to its lowest level since 1998 in the areas that voted in Thursday’s local elections, according to a Guardian analysis.
The Tories now control 19% of seats in the 98 council areas that had announced results by 20:40 on 3 May – their lowest level since Labour’s Tony Blair swept to power in the late 1990s.
Continue reading...As party narrowly misses out on overall majority, co-leader says it has won spread of urban and rural seats
The Greens are celebrating a spectacular win in Bristol, where it became by far the largest party, as it headed for a record number of councillors in local elections across England.
Party officials said they believed they were on track to finish with more than 800 members on more than 170 councils.
Continue reading...Glossy promotional leaflet handed out to asylum seekers detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy
Asylum seekers who have been detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy are being handed a colourful promotional document entitled: “I’m being relocated to Rwanda. What does it mean to me?”
The news came as the government faced a second legal challenge over the prime minister’s £500m policy and it emerged that dozens of asylum seekers were being forcibly taken to detention centres.
Continue reading...Party source describes region as ‘beating heart of general election battleground’ as prime minister says Labour threw ‘lot of mud’
The results of the London mayoral contest and London assembly elections are due on Saturday. Labour’s Sadiq Khan is seeking a third term and polls have put him comfortably ahead of Tory Susan Hall, despite jitters in Khan’s campaign team.
Following the closure of the polls tonight, Khan said his campaign and Labour activists “sent out a message of fairness, of equality and of hope”.
Continue reading...