With almost all council elections declared, Conservatives are on course to lose up to 500 seats
At the start of a long weekend of election results, the first outcomes have been every bit as dire for the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak as analysts had predicted. Here is the state of play.
Continue reading...Find out who’s up and who’s down in the latest polls – and how many seats each party is likely to win in the next general election
The next UK general election is looming, with most analysts expecting it to be called late this year.
After 13 years of Conservative rule, Keir Starmer’s Labour has been consistently ahead in the polls since the start of 2022.
Continue reading...Pollsters say early results suggest Tories could lose half of council seats contested, putting party on course for as many as 500 losses
Keir Starmer has hailed Labour’s “seismic” win in Blackpool South in a night of local elections that provided further evidence that the party is heading for a large majority at this year’s general election.
The Labour leader called the result in the Blackpool South byelection “truly historic” after the party’s candidate, Chris Webb, won the seat with the third biggest swing from the Conservatives to Labour in postwar history.
Continue reading...Civil servant Josie Stewart spoke to media after government presented ‘dishonest account’, tribunal told
A Foreign Office civil servant felt “morally compelled” to speak to the media about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after the government presented a “dishonest account” of what happened, an employment tribunal has heard.
Josie Stewart was sacked by the Foreign Office (FCDO) after blowing the whistle on the failures of the withdrawal from Kabul and disclosing emails indicating Boris Johnson’s involvement in an “outrageous” decision to prioritise the evacuation of staff from the animal charity Nowzad, despite his denials.
Continue reading...Results from more than 100 English councils, as well as for several mayors, are announced. So far the Conservatives have lost control of several key councils but have won the Tees Valley mayoral contest. Find out what happened in your area
PM backs action in case of disorder on campuses after claims that pro-Palestinian protests create hostile atmosphere
The prime minister has backed a police crackdown on any outbreak of disorder on university campuses after Jewish students said pro-Palestinian encampments were creating a “hostile and toxic atmosphere”.
In recent days, new encampments have been set up at the universities of Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle, among others, after violent scenes on US campuses resulted in mass arrests of students and staff.
Continue reading...Swinney tells campaign launch event he can bind party together, restore trust and achieve Scottish independence
Kate Forbes has ruled herself out as a candidate in the Scottish National party leadership contest, clearing the way for John Swinney to become the next first minister.
Forbes, a former finance secretary who came to close to winning last year’s contest, confirmed growing suspicions she had reached an agreement with Swinney to back his bid.
Continue reading...Former finance secretary who was narrowly beaten by Humza Yousaf in last year’s SNP leadership contest, has announced that she will not standing this time
Swinney has confirmed he is standing for SNP leader.
John Swinney is about to speak at his press conference in Edinburgh.
Continue reading...Johnny Mercer says he will ‘do all I can’ to change rules after veteran turned away from polling station
The veterans minister has apologised to former military personnel who have been prevented from using their veterans ID in order to vote in the local elections in England on Thursday.
Downing Street said it would “look into” changing the controversial new rules, which require photo ID in order to vote, to allow veterans’ ID cards on to the list of valid identification.
Continue reading...Parliamentary commissioner for standards says there was not sufficient evidence to justify opening investigation into John Baron
Parliament’s standards watchdog has turned down a request to investigate a senior Conservative MP over whether he used his role on the Commons Treasury committee to lobby for changes to City rules.
The parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, said a request submitted on behalf of campaign group Unlock Democracy had not provided any evidence that John Baron MP was not acting in the public interest, or breached any rule related to lobbying, that would be sufficient to justify opening an investigation.
Continue reading...Dozens of demonstrators in Peckham surround coach before it can take people to barge in Dorset
A standoff was under way in London on Thursday after a coach sent to collect asylum seekers and take them to the Bibby Stockholm barge was surrounded by protesters.
Dozens of demonstrators blocked the coach before it was able to pick up passengers, surrounding it on all sides. Hours later, the bus was still at the scene while protestors were also sitting in front of a number of police vans carrying a number of people who were arrested.
Continue reading...Welsh first minister urged to pay back £200,000 to firm whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes
There is growing anger and concern within the Labour party that the new Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, took £200,000 from a company whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes, with insiders warning it was critically undermining his authority and could cost the party votes at the general election.
Gething, who made history when he became the first black leader of a European country in March, is facing growing calls to pay the money back and order an independent inquiry into the donations, which helped him secure a narrow victory in the race to replace Mark Drakeford.
Continue reading...Birthplace and parents’ names are being removed from passports and birth certificates as Mauritius stakes claim to the island
Exiled islanders from the disputed British-owned Chagos Islands are finding their heritage has been removed from new identity documents in an apparent move by Mauritius to stake its claim to the territory.
British ownership of the Chagos Islands has long been challenged by Mauritius, where most islanders were shipped in the 1960s after being evicted from their Indian Ocean homeland to make way for a US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island.
Continue reading...Party stands by members set to contest key seats who have claimed climate crisis does not exist and Islamophobia is ‘made up’
Reform UK has chosen to stand by candidates who have promoted conspiracy theories online, called the climate emergency “make-believe” and expressed vaccine-sceptic views.
Those fringe views, and more, were put forward by a group of seven candidates selected to stand for the rightwing populist party at the next general election – including several who will contest seats that some analyses consider to be their top targets.
Continue reading...Spokesperson confirms ‘informal meeting’ has taken place between leadership frontrunners John Swinney and Kate Forbes
The SNP government has headed off Labour’s attempt to force an early Holyrood election, as the frontrunners to succeed Humza Yousaf met for informal talks in an attempt to avoid another divisive leadership contest.
Anas Sarwar’s motion of no confidence in Yousaf’s administration – which would have forced all government ministers to resign – was defeated by 70 votes to 58 on Wednesday afternoon after the Greens voted with the SNP.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Revised proposals will allow employees to choose a zero-hour option, prompting fears of undue pressure from employers
Labour is facing criticism over plans for a loophole that would allow employees to work under zero-hours contracts, despite the party having pledged to ban them entirely.
Keir Starmer’s party is preparing to announce details of its promise to overhaul workers’ rights if it gets into power – a centrepiece of its early plans for government, but subject to fierce lobbying from businesses.
Continue reading...Refugee Council sounds warning after children wrongly issued with notices of intent by Home Office
Lone child asylum seekers are at risk of being sent to Rwanda because the Home Office has wrongly classified some as adults, it has been claimed.
The Refugee Council, which works with these children, has warned of the risk after more than a dozen of the children it works with were wrongly issued with notices of intent for Rwanda.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mayor says Conservative government has put obstacles in his way each day of his eight years in office
Sadiq Khan has called the Conservatives’ treatment of London “unpatriotic” as he accused the government of putting obstacles in his way every day of his eight years running the capital.
The London mayor accused the Tories of “trying to do us down” at every opportunity for political reasons in long-running battles over police funding, cuts to London’s transport budget and in planning decisions.
Continue reading...Shocked people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria herded on to coaches as 200 tents removed and streets cleaned
The convoy arrived just after sunrise: a stream of police vehicles, council trucks, mounted cranes and coaches, ready to dismantle a tent city of migrants and refugees in the heart of Dublin that had become too big, too visible, too political.
They fenced off streets and herded shocked, sleepy men from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and other countries on to buses and began to extirpate about 200 tents, gradually extinguishing all traces of the camp, but no amount of sweeping and hosing could remove the whiff of elections and diplomacy gone wrong.
Continue reading...MP says trade in remains is ‘gross violation of human dignity’, as skulls from Pitt Rivers collection removed
An auction house has withdrawn 18 ancient Egyptian human skulls from sale after an MP said selling them would perpetuate the atrocities of colonialism.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, believes the sale of human remains for any purposes should be outlawed, adding that the trade was “a gross violation of human dignity”.
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