Home secretary will defy ‘plain wrong’ calls from unions and leftwing MPs that she is alienating Muslim voters
Shabana Mahmood will press on with hardline immigration policies despite calls for a reversal from unions and left-leaning Labour MPs after the Green party’s byelection victory.
Senior Labour sources insisted that the home secretary would continue to roll out changes to asylum policy, dismissing as “plain wrong” claims that it would further alienate Muslim voters.
Continue reading...Hannah Spencer elected as party’s first MP in northern England, as Labour sees a 25.3% drop in vote compared to 2024
The Green party has pulled off a landmark victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in a significant blow to Keir Starmer.
Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green party councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England after overturning Labour’s 13,000-vote majority.
Continue reading...Hannah Spencer elected as party’s first MP in northern England, as Labour sees a 25.3% drop in vote compared to 2024
The Green party has pulled off a landmark victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in a significant blow to Keir Starmer.
Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green party councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England after overturning Labour’s 13,000-vote majority.
Continue reading...Voting begins in one of the most eagerly awaited and fiercely contested byelections of recent years
Good morning. In Gorton and Denton, on the outskirts of Manchester, people have started voting in one of the most eagerly awaited, and fiercely contested, byelections of recent years. All the polling suggests the result will be very close. The political scientists argue that, if a party wins a contest like this by just a few hundred votes (or perhaps ever fewer – Reform UK won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection last year by just six votes), it is irrational to draw broad conclusions about the state of UK politics over a result that could easily have gone the other way had it not been for a few random incidents (like activists not closing the door in a cafe). But politics isn’t rational; a win will firm up a narrative that will shape the way the main parties do politics in the months ahead. (And, whoever wins, the result will confirm that we now have multi-party politics trying to operate in an electoral system constructed for two-party politics, which is quite different.)
Here is Josh Halliday’s preview.
The choice at today’s by-election could not be more stark. Unity or division. Driving down the cost of living with Labour or driving a wedge between communities under Reform. Moving forwards together, or opening up anger and division that holds our country back.
Reform’s Matthew Goodwin thinks people who aren’t white can’t be English and wants women who choose not to have children to pay more tax. Vote Labour in Gorton and Denton today to send him and his toxic politics packing.
Continue reading...Minister told MPs the deal had been been paused, but that was immediately denied by the Foreign Office
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published figures showing that local authorities in England dealt with 1.26m flytipping incidents in 2024/25 – 9% increase on the previous year.
And there was an 11% increase in incidents involving a “tipper lorry load” amount of rubbish. There were 52,000 of these, up from 47,000 in 2023/24. Defra said these alone cost councils £19.3m.
These figures show the equivalent of 142 monster landfills a day took place, confirming what communities across the country know all too well – our beautiful countryside is being used by criminal gangs as their personal landfill.
For far too long, waste gangs have pocketed millions in illegal earning, poisoning our environment and our health without consequence. The Liberal Democrats are demanding an end to this environmental vandalism.
Continue reading...Scotland’s first minister criticises byelection campaign video that claims his rival ‘will prioritise Pakistani community’
The SNP leader John Swinney has demanded that the owner of Facebook act on Reform UK’s “racist” byelection advert that attacks the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar.
The Facebook video, which incorrectly claims Sarwar has promised to prioritise Pakistani communities, is now subject to formal complaints from Scotland’s two main political parties. Scottish Labour contacted Meta, Facebook’s parent company, about the video two weeks ago and has yet to receive a reply.
Continue reading...Slicker presentation, a shift away from two-party politics and now hundreds of new councillors mean Reform is likely here to stay
In May 2014, Nigel Farage stood in front of the television cameras and declared his party’s victory in the European elections was “about the most extraordinary result that has been seen in British politics for 100 years”.
A year later, the Conservatives won an unexpected majority at the general election, restricting Ukip to just a single seat, with Farage failing in his attempt to win South Thanet.
Continue reading...‘Any strategy based on either phasing out fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail,’ says former PM
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Keir Starmer is not expected to campaign in the Hamilton byelection, a critical contest for Scottish Labour which takes place in early June, Anas Sarwar has confirmed.
I wouldn’t expect Keir to be campaigning in the byelection. That’s not to say he won’t, but I’m not expecting Kier to campaign in the byelection.
I’ll be on the stump campaigning for a Labour win. I’m the candidate for first minister next year. I’m the one that wants to remove the SNP from government.
Next year, we’ve got to demonstrate to people that for all Nigel Farage might want to come here with his easy answers and create a bit of a circus, the reality is a vote for Reform only helps the SNP. If you want to get rid of the SNP, only Scottish Labour can beat them.
Continue reading...Labour won the seat last year with more than 50% of votes – now polls suggest it will just hang on or lose to Reform UK
On a weekday morning, an advertising van is weaving its way through the narrow streets of Runcorn town centre. On the side is a black and white picture of Nigel Farage with a quote from the Reform UK leader: “We are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare.”
The starting gun has been fired in the byelection that has been on the horizon since the sitting MP Mike Amesbury announced his intention to resign, and which could prove a huge test for Keir Starmer’s government.
Continue reading...Contest in Runcorn and Helsby will be a challenge for Labour
Around 80 Labour MPs could refuse to back government plans to cut billions from the welfare budget, Amy Gibbons and Tony Diver claim in a story for the Daily Telegraph. They report:
The Telegraph understands that around 80 Labour MPs – roughly a fifth of the parliamentary party – “won’t tolerate” billions of pounds of welfare cuts set to be announced by the Chancellor later this month.
The anger is said to have spread beyond the “usual suspects”, with MPs who would not typically criticise Sir Keir threatening to “give the government a slap” over the proposals.
Our Labour values are built on a simple but powerful idea: that every individual, regardless of background or circumstance, should have the support they need to make the most of their lives. Everyone who is capable of working deserves the security, dignity and agency that employment offers. Of course, there are some people who are not able to work and they must be treated with compassion and respect. But for those that can, we must restore the pathways to opportunity which are currently so sparse for millions of people. It is exactly what a Labour government exists to do …
As MPs, we understand that delivering this new social contract requires hard choices to be made. We welcome the work that has begun to rebuild our welfare system, and we are fully supportive of it. We believe reforming our broken system is not only necessary, but also a truly progressive endeavour. And so we have established the Get Britain Working Group to make that argument, insistently.
The radical package of reforms will see:
-£5bn in savings by making it harder to qualify for Personal Independence Payments - a benefit not linked to work that is meant to help people with the additional costs of their disability
This government is determined that instead of facing a life on benefits … we stretch every sinew and pull every lever to ensure that we can get those people into work, because that is the best way for them to have a successful and happy life into the future.
So I think it’s quite right to look at a benefit system which is clearly broken.
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...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...Polls suggest party could eat into Tory vote in Lancashire town’s Westminster byelection as well as in mayoral and local elections
Reform UK’s best hope of making headlines this week is Blackpool South’s byelection, but polling also shows the insurgent rightwing party is ahead of the Conservatives in two mayoral races.
While Labour are the frontrunners to regain Blackpool South – which fell to the Conservatives as the “red wall” crumbled in 2019 – the battle for second place there could be crucial to Rishi Sunak’s future.
Continue reading...Alarm grows over possible pension cuts as research suggests Jeremy Hunt tax cut announcement was ‘blunder’
Labour is to wage a new campaign to win over Tory-supporting pensioners in an attempt to neutralise one of the government’s last remaining electoral strengths, amid evidence the Conservatives are now performing as badly among the age group as they did under Liz Truss’s leadership.
With less than a fortnight to go until local elections in England, which some Tories fear could trigger an attempt to topple Rishi Sunak, the Observer understands that Keir Starmer’s top officials are reorienting their campaign after detecting alarm among pensioners over the impact a Conservative tax-cutting pledge could have on pensions and the NHS.
Continue reading...Infighting, suspensions and bizarre allegations have dogged efforts to restore order as the party prepares for May’s byelections
Less than two weeks before local elections that some senior Tories fear could unleash another party meltdown and an attempted putsch against Rishi Sunak’s leadership, Downing Street had hoped that Friday’s prime ministerial speech on the weighty issue of welfare reform might finally begin to restore the party’s reputation for competent governance.
It was a potent sign of Sunak’s struggles in keeping his party on track that, soon after his speech had concluded, some of his MPs found themselves discussing whether or not one of their colleagues had deliberately intoxicated a friend’s dog. “How can somebody possibly get a dog pissed?” wondered one. “Bizarre.”
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...MP for Blackpool South, who offered to lobby for gambling industry, loses appeal against 35-day Commons suspension
Rishi Sunak may face another difficult byelection after an MP lost his appeal against a 35-day suspension from parliament for lobbying ministers on behalf of the gambling industry.
Scott Benton, the MP for Blackpool South, formerly a Conservative, had asked for a reconsideration of the standards committee verdict that he had committed an “extremely serious breach of the rules”.
Continue reading...Despite victory in two Conservative safe seats, a Labour government is not a foregone conclusion, say party hawks
For the past few months, with Labour enjoying a stubbornly large double-digit lead in the polls, close allies of Keir Starmer remained obsessed with the notion that complacency will slip into the mindsets of MPs, advisers and activists.
In a breathless week that saw Labour veer from having to abandon one byelection before scooping previously safe Tory seats in two others, the obsessives were given three opportunities to drive their point home.
Continue reading...Prime minister makes appeal after heavy byelection losses to Labour and support lost to Reform UK
Rishi Sunak has called on British conservatives to “come together” after two heavy byelection losses to Labour.
The loss of votes to Labour and an emboldened Reform UK party came as a twin blow to the prime minister, and were just the latest in a series of byelection defeats for Sunak.
Continue reading...