Category Archives: Local politics

Grenfell: councillor was told about cheaper cladding plan before fire

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Rock Feilding-Mellen said he was emailed about potential cladding change but didn’t understand significance

Rock Feilding-Mellen, the Tory councillor in charge of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, was informed of plans to save money by swapping zinc cladding for aluminium in 2014 but initially told police he only knew about it after the June 2017 fire, a statement released to the public inquiry show.

The switch led to the use of combustible cladding that became the main cause of the fire’s spread. Feilding-Mellen, the cabinet member for housing at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, said he had no idea about the different properties of the two materials.

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Keir Starmer concedes Labour has lost the trust of working people

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Leader says party considering moving HQ out of London to show it represents the whole country after May election defeats

The Conservatives inflicted a historic byelection defeat on Labour and regained the Tees Valley mayoralty by a landslide as Keir Starmer conceded his party had lost the trust of working people across England.

The Labour leader, who called the local election results “bitterly disappointing”, is considering moving his party’s headquarters out of London to reflect Labour’s determination to show that it represents the whole country, party sources told the Guardian.

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Cressida Dick refuses to quit over vigil policing and dismisses ‘armchair critics’

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Metropolitan police chief stands firm after criticism from London mayor and home secretary

Britain’s most senior police chief defied pressure to resign as she dismissed “armchair” critics amid widespread outrage over officers manhandling women who were mourning the killing of Sarah Everard.

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, was publicly rebuked by the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for providing an unsatisfactory explanation of why police broke up a vigil for Everard in London’s Clapham Common on Saturday, near where she was allegedly abducted before being murdered.

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Greater Manchester given midday Tuesday deadline for tier 3 deal

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Government says it will impose tier 3 restrictions on the region if no agreement reached

The strictest Covid restrictions will be imposed on nearly 3 million people across Greater Manchester if no deal is reached by midday on Tuesday, the government has said in a dramatic ultimatum.

The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, warned northern leaders late on Monday night that if they fail to agree to pub closures and a ban on household mixing, the tier 3 measures will be brought in unilaterally.

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Plymouth divided over teenagers who tested positive for Covid after Greece trip

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Some locals believe the ‘Zante 30’ were selfish while others say they did nothing wrong

They’ve become known – somewhat infamously - as the Zante 30.

Just as the pubs, cafes and shops on the Barbican in Plymouth were gearing up for a bumper bank holiday weekend, with visitors and city residents expected to arrive on the Devon waterside to drink, eat and be merry, the news came.

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Police watchdog to announce decision on Johnson-Arcuri inquiry

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IOPC to reveal on Thursday whether PM will face criminal investigation into relationship

Boris Johnson will find out on Thursday if he faces a criminal investigation into his relationship with an American businesswoman while he was mayor of London.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is to reveal its long-delayed decision on whether to investigate him for possible criminal misconduct over his friendship with Jennifer Arcuri.

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Local elections and London mayoral race postponed for a year

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Elections delayed after officials said coronavirus crisis would affect campaigning and voting

Local elections and the London mayoral election have been postponed for a year to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The government made the decision to push back the 7 May elections after the Electoral Commission said the health crisis would have an impact on campaigning and voting.

“We will bring forward legislation to postpone local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections until May next year,” a government spokesman said.

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Salvini denies plan to visit Liverpool after mayor calls him fascist

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Steve Rotheram says far-right Italian politician is not welcome in the city

Italy’s far-right leader, Matteo Salvini, has denied he is going to Liverpool after the mayor of the city said “the only audience he’ll find here is one that won’t be shy in telling him what they think of fascists like him.”

The mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, said Salvini’s “division and hate” would not be welcomed in the city after reports Lega nel Mondo, a global network of the League established by Salvini in 2018, was holding an event in March.

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Welsh bill would allow 16- and 17-year olds to vote in local elections

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Planned changes would be biggest shakeup to country’s electoral system for 50 years

A bill is being introduced that would give the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds in many elections in Wales and empower local authorities to decide which voting system they use.

The Labour-led Welsh government said the planned changes would be the biggest in the Welsh electoral system since the voting age was reduced to 18 in the UK half a century ago. They come as a bill to reduce the voting age to 16 for Welsh assembly elections nears the end of its journey through the Senedd.

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Peterborough byelection result: Labour scrapes past Brexit party to hold seat

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Labour’s Lisa Forbes says result shows ‘the politics of division will never win’

Labour has held on to the marginal seat of Peterborough, overturning predictions that the contest could deliver a first byelection victory for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.

The victorious Labour candidate, Lisa Forbes, told her supporters after the count early on Friday: “Tonight’s result is significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win.”

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Peterborough prepares for byelection that could elect first Brexit party MP

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A decade ago it was the UK’s fastest growing city, but hit by cuts and buy-to-let, support for Nigel Farage’s party is high

On Thursday, voters in Peterborough will take part in one of the most intriguing parliamentary byelections in recent memory. The constituency saw a knife-edge duel between Labour and the Conservatives at the 2017 general election and at last month’s European poll, 38% of voters in the city backed the Brexit party. A first seat in the House of Commons for Nigel Farage’s party is a distinct possibility. If that happens, it will send tremors through middle England, of which Peterborough is typical in many ways, not just geographically.

Economically, Peterborough performs averagely amid struggles with productivity. Wages are stagnant and it has been reshaped by migration, with foreigners arriving to work in the surrounding farmlands and distribution depots, contributing to a decade as the UK’s fastest growing city between 2001 and 2011.

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UK politicians accused of racist rhetoric against Travellers

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MPs and councillors have branded group illiterate and violent over past two years

Politicians have been accused of using racist rhetoric against Travellers to help push through sweeping bans against unauthorised encampments.

In a range of documents and speeches, Travellers have been branded illiterate, violent and lawless by MPs and councillors over the last two years, as a deepening housing crisis has led to an increase in roadside encampments.

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Northern Ireland local elections: smaller parties make gains

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Results reveal slight loosening of traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold


Centrist parties have thrived and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has consolidated its support, results of Northern Ireland’s local elections show.

With all first preference votes now counted, the Alliance and Green parties, as well as other small parties and independents, made gains, revealing a slight loosening of the traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold. The DUP won 24.1% of first preferences, a modest increase from the 2014 local election, and Sinn Fein won 23.3%, a slight drop, confirming both parties still dominate the political landscape.

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Local elections 2019: May says results show voters want main parties to ‘deliver Brexit’ – live news

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Lib Dems and Greens surge as Tories and Labour suffer large losses in council elections in England

This is from Tony Robinson, the former Black Adder actor and longstanding Labour activist. It speaks for itself ...

I’ve left the Labour Party after nearly 45 years of service at Branch, Constituency and NEC levels,partly because of it’s continued duplicity on Brexit, partly because of it’s antisemitism, but also because its leadership is complete shit.

Here is a picture of Stuart Davies, the Tory activist who heckled Theresa May as she started speaking at the Welsh Conservative conference. “Why don’t you resign,” he shouted.

As the man shouted “we don’t want you here”, a small group of delegates at the Welsh Conservative conference at Llangollen Pavilion clapped and chanted “out”, in an apparent call for the heckler to be removed. As the Press Association reports, the prime minister then drew laughter and applause from a majority of the hall as she told the conference: “It’s great to be back in North Wales again - I have to say my experience of North Wales is that everybody I meet here is friendly.”

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Tories should expect to lose 800 seats in local elections, says analyst

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Voters are predicted to punish the party for its failure to pass a Brexit deal

The Conservatives can expect to lose 800 or more seats at the local elections this week, as voters punish Theresa May’s administration for failing to pass a Brexit deal, a leading Conservative analyst has said.

In his latest projection for Thursday’s polls, in which more than 8,000 council seats in England are being contested, the Tory peer Robert Hayward suggested his party could lose about 500 to the Liberal Democrats, and 300 to Labour.

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Tories and Labour accused of racial discrimination in Portsmouth

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Conservatives have launched inquiry into alleged racist incidents in local party

Portsmouth’s major political parties are struggling to contain claims they have racially discriminated against local minority ethnic council candidates.

The Conservatives have launched an inquiry into alleged racist incidents in the local party. A leaked letter shows a former council candidate for the party has claimed he was marginalised, bullied and racially abused.

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Brexiters’ language worsens threats against MPs – Nicky Morgan

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Former minister’s comments come as PM faces renewed plots to depose her

Nicky Morgan has blamed the language used by some vehement Conservative Brexiters of helping to inspire threats against MPs, as Theresa May prepares for the return of parliament against a backdrop of renewed plots to depose her.

Amid signs that Tory MPs will be no more united on Brexit when the Commons returns on Tuesday than before the Easter recess, Morgan, the former education secretary, criticised an article by her backbench colleague, William Cash.

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Sheffield’s anti-Trump lord mayor ready to run for MEP

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Green party’s Magid Magid says he wants to be a voice for young people and refugees

The departing lord mayor of Sheffield has said he intends to run in European elections in response to growing political turmoil and the rise of far-right groups.

Magid Magid, 29, said on Tuesday he wanted to become Yorkshire and the Humber’s first Green party MEP if the UK participated in the European elections due on 23 May.

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Meet the world’s first ‘minister for the unborn’

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The Welsh government has given Sophie Howe statutory powers to represent people who haven’t yet been born

Sophie Howe is a public servant with a particularly tricky constituency. The people she represents are remote and unresponsive and they never show up to voice an opinion or tell her if she’s doing a good job.

They don’t even vote. That’s because they haven’t yet been born. Howe is the world’s first – and only – future generations commissioner with statutory powers. She’s there to represent the unborn citizens of Wales.

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