Labour lost seats including Jonathan Ashworth’s in Leicester, where angry voters say they felt ignored
When Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat to the pro-Palestine independent candidate Shockat Adam, it was widely seen as one of the biggest upsets of election night.
But a walk along Evington Road, a busy shopping street with a large Muslim population in the constituency, showed that all the signs were there.
Continue reading...Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed Terence Carney, 70, and tried to kill another man in attacks described as terrorism
A terrorist who murdered a pensioner in Hartlepool town centre as “revenge” for “the people of Gaza” has been jailed for 45 years.
Ahmed Alid, 45, an asylum seeker from Morocco, stabbed 70-year-old Terence Carney, a complete stranger he encountered on the street, on 15 October.
Continue reading...Bob Olley’s unsettling vision of clash between miners and police is part of 40th anniversary show in Bishop Auckland
Bob Olley was there 40 years ago at the “battle of Orgreave”. “I saw the violence,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought I was in a foreign country when I saw what the police did. It is hard to believe it happened in this country.”
The brutality he and others witnessed on 18 June 1984 as striking miners met 6,000 police officers on horses or wielding batons on foot will stay in the memory. It was in his head as, some years later, he embarked on his response to one of the world’s greatest artworks, Picasso’s Guernica.
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...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...£25bn of public money would have been saved between 2019 and 2023 if north had same care entry rates as south, report says
One in every 52 children in Blackpool are in care compared with one in 140 across England, leading to calls for more to be done to urgently tackle the widening north-south divide, brought on by “decades of underinvestment”.
Nine in every thousand children are in care in the north, compared with six in the rest of England, according to a report by Health Equity North.
Continue reading...Hi-tech ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London risks deeper regional inequalities, says thinktank
Investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are “profoundly skewed” towards the “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London, and risk deepening existing regional inequalities in England, according to research.
Ministers have promised to level up the country, narrowing the gap between the best- and worst-performing areas, but the rapid rollout of generative AI and automation could cut against that aspiration, according to the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW).
Continue reading...In unusual election pledge, Keane Duncan says he will use public money to buy 1867 hotel, forcibly if necessary
Built for wealthy Victorian holidaymakers as the biggest hotel in Europe, Scarborough’s iconic Grand has stood proud since 1867, perched high on the seafront, just metres above the sandy South Bay beach.
So for many in the town, it has been embarrassing to watch the Grade II-listed building suffer a sad reversal of fortunes in recent decades, becoming the “shame of Scarborough”.
Continue reading...Losing party says ‘Galloway only won because Labour did not stand’ and calls him ‘a damaging force in our public life’
Labour says George Galloway is “only interested in stoking fear and division”.
In a statement issued about the byelection result, the party apologised to the people of Rochdale for the fact that it did not have a proper candidate. (Azhar Ali, who was selected as Labour’s candidate, was disowned by the party after nominations closed because it was revealed that he had made antisemitic comments after the Hamas attack on Gaza. But it was too late to change nominations, and so he was listed as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper.) A Labour spokesperson said:
We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this byelection and apologise to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.
Rochdale deserved the chance to vote for an MP that would bring communities together and deliver for working people. George Galloway is only interested in stoking fear and division. As an MP he will be a damaging force in our communities and public life.
I think Mr Tice has rather lost his balance, and Mr [Nigel] Farage too, and I remind Mr Tice that I have on my telephone a text from him inviting me to be the Reform UK candidate in a by-election not that long ago.
I’d prefer not to publish it, but if he keeps telling lies about me I will have to tell the truth about him.
Absolutely none. Ask the police, ask the police if a single one of our supporters has been arrested or spoken to by them.
Continue reading...Ministers say smaller towns and cities in north of England and Midlands to benefit from scrapping of Leeds and Manchester lines
About £4.7bn that would have been spent bringing HS2 to Manchester and Leeds is to be reallocated to transport projects in smaller towns and cities in the north of England and Midlands, ministers have said.
The money is specifically for communities that are outside city regions, in places such as Blackpool, Hull and Leicester, as well as counties including Staffordshire and Lincolnshire, which don’t have directly elected metro mayors.
Continue reading...Gathering of councillors in north-west England has resulted in suspensions of candidates Azhar Ali and Graham Jones
After the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, local Labour party meetings became the source of major headaches for the party leadership.
While they were spaces for people to share their difficulties navigating rising levels of Islamophobic and antisemitic abuse, it was also where people expressed frustration at Keir Starmer’s handling of Labour’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Continue reading...Withdrawal of backing for Graham Jones, candidate for Hyndburn, follows Starmer’s action against Azhar Ali in Rochdale
Labour has suspended a second parliamentary candidate over their remarks about Israel, as Keir Starmer struggles to contain the fallout from the leak of a private meeting of party activists in Lancashire last year.
Party sources said on Tuesday that Labour had suspended Graham Jones, the candidate for Hyndburn, less than 24 hours after the party withdrew its support from Azhar Ali, its candidate for the Rochdale byelection later this month.
Continue reading...Scarlett Jenkinson’s relatives thank Esther Ghey for ‘incredible selflessness and empathy towards our family’
The family of Scarlett Jenkinson, who was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years for the murder of Brianna Ghey, have said they are “truly sorry” for the teenage killer’s “brutal” actions and paid tribute to Brianna’s mother.
Jenkinson, described by the judge as the “driving force” behind the murder, was sentenced on Friday for what the Crown Prosecution Service said was “one of the most disturbing cases” its lawyers had ever dealt with. Her accomplice, Eddie Ratcliffe, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Continue reading...Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, killed trans schoolgirl after developing ‘warped’ obsession with torture
Two teenagers who murdered Brianna Ghey have been named for the first time before sentencing.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16 and described by police as “really intelligent kids”, can now be named as the killers after a judge lifted reporting restrictions.
Continue reading...Government-backed scheme overseen by Tory mayor cleared of cronyism and corruption, but transparency found wanting
Taxpayers are not being guaranteed value for money or transparency at a regeneration project overseen by the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, according to a review that cleared it of cronyism and corruption.
An independent review of Teesworks, one of the highest-profile, government-backed regeneration schemes in Britain, found the project was excessively secretive and could not ensure public money was being well spent.
Continue reading...Programme’s lexicographer says audiences are consumed by correct pronunciation of the word ‘scone’
As the in-house lexicographer on Channel 4’s enduringly popular Countdown programme, Susie Dent has been arbitrating on word-related disputes for more than 30 years.
Now, Britain’s most famous word expert has revealed the question she is asked most frequently about the sometimes idiosyncratic English language: the correct pronunciation of the word “scone”.
Continue reading...Joe Outlaw is one of 2,921 inmates still on IPP sentences, which were abolished in 2012
It should be impossible to escape from a high-security prison, doubly so for prisoners held on the segregation unit, who are allowed only to exercise in a caged yard.
But on 21 June, the summer solstice and the hottest day of the year at that point, Joe Outlaw managed to break through the cage and get on to the roof of HMP Frankland, a Durham prison dubbed “Monster mansion” due to many of its inmates being convicted murderers, terrorists and sex offenders.
Continue reading...Bury North MP James Daly makes remark while outlining what New Conservatives group stands for
A Conservative MP has claimed most children who struggle in his constituency are the “products of crap parents”.
James Daly, the MP for Bury North, was outlining what the New Conservatives group of MPs stood for when he presented his perspective on how important a family unit is in giving children “stability”.
Continue reading...Ploughs and tractors deployed to rescue cars and jackknifed lorry from A9 and surrounding roads
A major incident has been declared in parts of Scotland where drivers are stranded in blizzard conditions after the arrival of Storm Gerrit.
Six ploughs and three tractors have been deployed in an attempt to rescue cars and a jackknifed lorry from the A9 and surrounding roads in the Scottish Highlands.
Continue reading...Last-minute Eurotunnel strike by French unions in Calais halts services as Storm Pia causes travel problems across country
Passengers are suffering fresh disruption in the Christmas getaway after severe weather left rail lines blocked around Britain, while a strike by French Eurotunnel workers has halted Eurostar trains and cross-Channel shuttle services.
Strong winds from Storm Pia, including gusts of up to 80mph in northern Britain, have blown down trees on tracks around the country.
Continue reading...