Conservatives continue to suffer heavy defeats as Labour, Lib Dems and Greens make gains
Prof Rob Ford, an elections specialist, has written an article for the Guardian trying to assess what would be a good result and a bad result for the political parties in the local election. You can read it here:
Results from more than 60 councils are expected overnight with the remainder expected to trickle in throughout the day on Friday.
Continue reading...Find out the scale of Conservative losses and the gains made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green party
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On 4 May, 230 English councils are holding elections with more than 8,000 seats being contested. Some are for metropolitan boroughs such as Liverpool city council and others for unitary authorities such as Herefordshire or North Somerset. Both structures are single-tier authorities with responsibility for the whole range of council services, including education, social care, rubbish collection and parks.
Continue reading...Opposition leader hails ‘very, very good’ outcome of local elections after his party takes control of key councils
Keir Starmer has said the Labour party is on track to win the next general election, after taking control of key councils in the English local elections, including Medway, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent.
Based on results counted early on Friday morning, the Labour leader said the party was heading for a result that if repeated across the country at a general election would give it an eight-point lead over the Conservatives.
Continue reading...Consul general calls for ‘constructive engagement’ with territory as Chinese vice-president says he will attend king’s coronation
Britain’s most senior diplomat for Hong Kong has called for an end to “megaphone diplomacy” between the UK and the Chinese territory, saying British and Hong Kong diplomats would make more progress with closed-door discussions.
Brian Davidson, the consul general to Hong Kong and Macau, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that the UK-Hong Kong relationship had weathered “some difficult headwinds” over the past four or five years, but that “we are looking to lean back into a constructive engagement to see where we can collaborate”.
Continue reading...With polls closing at 10pm, more than 8,000 council seats in England are up for grabs
Here is a comment from a reader.
Just been to the polling station: tellers outside were turning people without ID away instead of sending them in to be recorded for the so called evaluation. Numbers will be meaningless if this is widespread.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Johnny Briceño attacks his UK counterpart’s refusal to apologise for atrocities of slavery
The prime minister of Belize, Johnny Briceño, has sharply criticised Rishi Sunak’s refusal to apologise for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and said it was “quite likely” Belize would be the next member of the Commonwealth realm to become a republic.
Speaking to the Guardian in the country’s capital, Belmopan, Briceño argued the British government had a moral responsibility to apologise for the atrocities of slavery and added to the calls throughout the English-speaking Caribbean for financial reparations from the UK.
Continue reading...‘No major issues’ reported so far, as most voters in Leicester say they were made well aware of change
Despite warnings that the introduction of new voter ID requirements might lead to disruption at polling stations across England on Thursday, by lunchtime there were few reports of problems.
In Leicester, the city council said things were “so far, running smoothly”.
Continue reading...Camped outside Foreign Office, Beheshti is demanding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards be proscribed
Vahid Beheshti’s hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office took a surreal turn on Wednesday – its 70th day – when he attended a royal coronation tea party at Buckingham Palace, arriving by wheelchair and wearing a suit and red tie.
He has lost more than 17kg (37lb), or a quarter of his body weight, and he told the Guardian that “my body and joints are now racked in intense pain”. As he left his tent, draped in the Iranian flag and surrounded by flowers, he clutched an envelope containing a letter for the king. After carefully smartening himself up, he was wheeled to a taxi by his wife, Mattie Heaven, a Conservative councillor.
Continue reading...Labour leader’s spokesperson says Gray will become chief of staff even if watchdog recommends long delay to start date
The former senior civil servant Sue Gray will take up her new role as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff even if the government’s appointments watchdog recommends a long delay to her start date, Labour has said.
Labour insiders believe the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) will suggest that Gray should wait for a significantly shorter period than the maximum two years it could recommend for senior officials taking up a job outside government.
Continue reading...Philip Davies lobbied culture minister to include measure after being entertained at Mayfair casino
The Conservative MP Philip Davies lobbied the government on behalf of a casino to introduce a measure that was then included in last week’s gambling white paper, it has emerged.
The MP for Shipley, in West Yorkshire, wrote in February to the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, after being entertained at Les Ambassadeurs luxury casino in Mayfair, central London.
Continue reading...Campaigners say defeat of amendment to close loopholes on party funding leaves UK open to ‘malign influences’
UK elections remain at risk from interference by hostile states after the government voted down a move to close loopholes on foreign donations to parties, campaigners have warned.
The chair of parliament’s security committee was among those who backed an amendment to the national security bill that would have obliged political parties to carry out due diligence on the true source of donations from companies and individuals.
Continue reading...Latest updates: PM and Labour leader face off in final prime minister’s questions before voters head to the polls
George Osborne, the Conservative former chancellor, has come out in favour of banning smoking over the long term, and taxing orange juice, to promote public health.
He proposed the ideas – neither of which have much chance of featuring in the next Conservative manifesto – in evidence to the the Times Health Commission, a year-long project to investigate ideas that would improve health and social care.
Since the dawn of states, [the government] has regulated certain products and medicines, and made certain things illegal. I don’t see why you can’t do that in a space such as food. Food’s been heavily regulated since the 19th century.
Of course you’re going to have lots of problems with illegal smoking, but you have lots of problems with other illegal activities. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and ban them and police them and make it less readily available. I thought that was a compelling public health intervention.
We’re making sure that we stop those sort of cold calls and those spoof text messages that pretend to be from somebody else, that’s the first thing.
The second thing we’re doing is we’re making sure there’s more ability for the police to pursue fraudsters and that’s where the national fraud squad with 400 new investigators and a new national fraud intelligence unit comes in. That’s a huge development.
Continue reading...Department is worst for publishing spending data, records show, with ministers apparently in breach of guidelines
Treasury ministers appear to have broken government guidelines by failing to publish details of their department’s spending for several months, and in some cases more than two years.
Public records show the Treasury is the worst department in Whitehall for publishing key data on what its officials are spending public funds on, despite its role overseeing spending across government.
Continue reading...Party, which has been without accountants since October, risks losing £1.2m funding if it misses deadline
The SNP has signed a contract with a new auditor more than six months after the previous company quit, the party has said.
The party has been without auditors for its accounts since October, with the Westminster group left with only weeks to file with the Electoral Commission or risk losing £1.2m in funding from UK parliament authorities to support its work.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says there will be no further British evacuation flights from wartorn Port Sudan
The final UK rescue flight from Sudan is expected to take off on Wednesday, the government has said.
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said British nationals who wanted to leave the country need to make their way to the Coral hotel in Port Sudan by 10am local time (9am BST), adding that there would be no further British evacuation flights from the city.
Continue reading...New fraud strategy responding to web- and phone-based scams will result in recruitment of 400 new ‘specialist investigators’
Ministers have announced a clampdown on the use of cold calls to sell financial products and on technology which allows mass texting of numerous phones as part of a strategy to combat fraud, now the UK’s most common crime.
The new fraud strategy, a response to the massive growth of web- and phone-based scams, will alsoresult in what was billed as 400 new specialist investigators across police and the National Crime Agency recruited as part of a revamp for how the the crime is investigated.
Continue reading...James Cleverly urges British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan
The final UK evacuation flight is expected to take off from Sudan on Wednesday, the foreign secretary has announced.
James Cleverly urged British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan.
Continue reading...Head of civil service Simon Case faces fresh questions after ministers fail to publish outcome of inquiry
Sue Gray is refusing to cooperate with a government inquiry into her departure from Whitehall amid concerns that the investigation is politically motivated and not based on any official process.
Simon Case, the head of the civil service, faced fresh questions over his handling of the controversy after ministers failed to publish the outcome of the inquiry despite widespread briefing that it would find she had broken the civil service code.
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James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has also been giving interviews this morning. He told Sky News that Keir Starmer would have “some serious questions to answer” if today’s Cabinet Office report says she started talks about taking a job with Labour while still working with the civil service team giving advice to the privileges committee in relation to its inquiry into Boris Johnson and Partygate.
Labour sources have told the Telegraph that Gray was not involved in the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team’s (PET’s) work with the privileges committee while she was in contact with Labour.
Continue reading...Labour leader says he is confident Gray, offered the role of his chief of staff, has not broken any rules
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has denied having recruitment discussions with the senior civil servant Sue Gray while she was investigating the former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Starmer said he was confident Gray, who was offered the role of his chief of staff, to lead Labour’s potential transition into government, had not broken any rules.
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