British Politics

Labour has dominated the mayoral elections, claiming 10 of the 13 posts being contested in cities and metropolitan regions across England. The Tories have won two of the contests so far, and West Yorkshire, which will be electing a mayor for the first time this year, is yet to return a result. Labour’s winners include […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will carry out a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet team on Sunday as the fallout over the party’s dismal election performance continues. Sir Keir has come under fire after opting to sack his deputy Angela Rayner from her role as party chairman and national campaign co-ordinator on Saturday, with Greater […]

Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as mayor of London in a closer contest for the capital than many had predicted. Opinion polls had suggested his Conservative rival Shaun Bailey would be a distant second in the race for City Hall. Khan took 1,206,034 votes after second preferences were taken into account (55.2%), compared to […]

Alex Salmond will not return to the Scottish Parliament after he failed in his bid to pick up a seat on the North East regional list. The former first minster had hoped to boost the Scottish independence cause by returning to frontline politics with his Alba Party. But his party failed to pick up a […]

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has been sacked as party chair and national campaign coordinator following poor local election results across England. Labour received a drubbing in the local elections in England, losing control of a host of councils and suffering defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the Hartlepool by-election – the first time […]

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has suggested he would entertain becoming leader of the Labour Party “in the distant future”. Burnham was speaking to the media after being re-elected to office with a landslide level of support. Asked on Sky News whether he wanted to lead the party following reports he would be a […]

Labour candidate Dan Norris has been elected West of England mayor, beating Conservative candidate Samuel Williams. Former government minister and Labour MP Dan Norris secured victory in a second preference vote run-off against his Tory rival. Norris secured 59.1% of the vote in the second round compared to Williams’ 40.9%.  The position has been held […]

Andy Burnham has been re-elected as the mayor of Greater Manchester. The Labour politician received 67% of the vote with his main opponent, the Conservative’s Laura Evans, receiving just 16.8%. The Greens came third on 4.5%, followed by the Liberal Democrats. Burnham added 4% on his vote share from four years before when he was first elected […]

Mark Drakeford has vowed to be “radical” and “ambitious” in government as his party looks set to remain in power in Wales. Labour has equalled its best ever Senedd election result by winning 30 seats – just one short of a majority – though it is not expected to take any of the remaining four […]

Financial scandals are never fatal for PMs, but they do lasting damage There is a familiar sequence. Another allegation about the misconduct of Boris Johnson erupts on the front pages. Those that despair of Johnson’s leadership say to themselves or aloud that “surely this one will get him”. A poll is published a day later […]

Politicians are badly letting down the electorate, and more than ever we need a coherent opposition. UK politics has failed us badly and the people know it. But opposition politicians have swallowed the Brexit pill and say we are in a long game. Labour’s loss in Hartlepool shows that our political landscape needs restorative action […]

The results in Scotland and Wales shows voters turned their backs on Boris Johnson, so why not in England? Why can so many English people not see through Boris Johnson? The Scots and Welsh clearly can – it was as heartening to see the election results north and west of Little England as it was […]

It would be little surprise if Boris Johnson turned out to be the ‘chatty rat’ the leak inquiry has yet to identify. Anyone who knows me also knows that I have something of an addiction to my phone. Nor is this a new thing. As far back as 1997, journalist John Williams, who was with […]

The electorate may still view Boris Johnson favourably, but the prime minister may not get the same reception internationally. Current reporting would suggest that a large proportion of the electorate is not too concerned about Boris Johnson’s competence or character, as long as they believe that the country is being tolerably well run – vaccination […]

Nicola Sturgeon has said voters showed that racists and fascists are “not welcome anywhere in Scotland” after two far-right candidates picked up less than 200 votes and one was ejected from the count. Glasgow Southside independent candidate Jayda Fransen confronted the SNP leader and first minister during the campaign on Thursday, accusing her of supporting […]

Mark Drakeford’s Welsh Labour has declared its strong Senedd election performance as “an extraordinary set of results in extraordinary times” as the party look favourite to retain control of the Welsh government. The party has exceeded expectations as counting for the Welsh parliament election continues, having so far lost just one of its seats and […]

Welsh Labour appears to have exceeded expectations as counting for the Welsh Parliament election continues. Only one of Wales’ so-called red wall seats, the Vale of Clwyd, fell to the Welsh Conservatives, while Labour sources are also confident of unseating the former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood in Rhondda. Changes to ensure social distancing at […]

Boris Johnson met a 30ft inflatable version of himself during a victorious visit to Hartlepool after his party won a historic by-election. The PM said the £2,000 replica reminded him of Superintendent Ted Hastings from Line Of Duty, while a member of the press asked if he thought it looked like TV host Chris Tarrant. […]

Liverpool has elected its first black female mayor as Labour held on to the role despite corruption allegations. Joanne Anderson was named as the successor to Joe Anderson, after the former mayor chose not to stand following his arrest as part of a Merseyside Police fraud investigation. After her victory, Anderson, no relation to her predecessor, […]

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is “extremely confident” the party is heading back into power at Holyrood – although she conceded winning an overall majority of MSPs there is a “very, very long shot”. As early results started to come in from Thursday’s Scottish parliament elections, the Scottish first minister downplayed the prospect of winning a […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that he will do “whatever it takes” to rebuild trust in the party following its “bitterly disappointing” by-election defeat in Hartlepool. Starmer has come under fire from all sides after Labour suffered a crushing defeat. In a stunning result, the Conservatives took the seat – which had been […]

The SNP will be the “leading and largest party” in the new Scottish parliament, deputy first minister John Swinney has declared – though he said it was still too early to say if the party would win an overall majority at Holyrood. Swinney, also the education secretary in the Scottish government, comfortably held his Perthshire […]

Former prime minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill are due to appear before MPs next week, amid controversy over lobbying. Greensill will answer questions from the Treasury Committee next Tuesday, and Cameron will follow on Thursday, as part of the Lessons from Greensill Capital inquiry. Links between Greensill, which was founded by the financier, […]

Boris Johnson has described the early election results as “very encouraging” after hopes of a Labour revival were dealt a crushing blow when the Conservatives won the Hartlepool by-election. Speaking to reporters in Coventry, the prime minister said: “I know that the results have been coming in since this morning and there’s clearly a lot […]

TIM WALKER on Michael Gove’s reverse Midas touch. Michael Gove – the man who assured British fishermen that Brexit would make them rich – appears not to have lost his reverse Midas touch. Since joining the board of trustees of Dorneywood, Rishi Sunak’s grace and favour country retreat in Buckinghamshire, the value of its investments has plummeted […]

There is a strong case for Britain to spend more on international aid, based purely on self interest… yet even that cannot convince the government Last month saw an announcement that could be UK’s most positive impact on the world in decades – a new vaccine, not to tackle Covid-19, but malaria. A team from the University […]

Campaigning in the Hartlepool by-election, Sir Keir Starmer said repeatedly that Labour had a “mountain to climb” if it was to regain power. Now that the votes are in and counted, that task looks every bit as formidable as the party seeks to chart a route back to No 10. It is hard to see […]

Hopes of a Labour revival under Sir Keir Starmer have suffered a blow after the Conservative Party comfortably won the Hartlepool by-election. The Leave-supporting North East constituency went blue for the first time in its 47-year-old history, as Boris Johnson demolished another brick in Labour’s so-called “red wall”. Voters in the town backed Tory candidate […]