Elections

The effective slow disenfranchisement of the white working-class vote is Labour’s biggest problem in the Batley and Spen by-election

Its 10-year anniversary has just passed unheralded, so what did we learn from another divisive single-issue poll? When the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum rolls around in 2026, it’s a fair bet it will pass amid much clamour. The celebrations – and the criticism – are likely to be loud. Yet the ten year anniversary of another […]

Former MP and veteran campaigner George Galloway has announced he is running in the forthcoming Batley and Spen by-election with the explicit aim of ousting Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party. Galloway, who was expelled from Labour in 2003, said he is standing as a candidate for his Workers Party of Britain in […]

Voters in Batley and Spen will go to the polls on July 1, with the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox hoping to retain the seat for Labour. Kim Leadbeater has been selected as the Labour candidate for the by-election in the West Yorkshire constituency previously represented by her sister. The by-election was triggered after […]

An alliance of councillors could form to take control of Durham County Council off Labour for the first time in more than 100 years, it has emerged. Independents, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are holding meetings to discuss how they would share power in what was once a stronghold of the Labour party. Labour has 53 […]

Keir Starmer is under pressure from within his own party to make electoral reform a manifesto commitment following four consecutive general election losses and the recent local election setbacks. The pressure comes after a recent Best for Britain poll had shown at least half of its respondents backed electoral reform to make the number of elected representatives […]

Efforts to explain recent political developments through the prism of regions misses more pertinent points about England’s electoral map On Crosby beach on the north shore of the River Mersey, Antony Gormley’s sculptures of naked metal men famously stand stoically in the face of the waves of the Irish Sea. Much of this coastline is lined by […]

Voters are going to the polls in a by-election to choose a new MP for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency. Polling stations opened Thursday morning in the North Lanarkshire seat in the race to replace incumbent SNP MP Neil Gray. Gray stepped down to contest the same seat in the Scottish Parliament election and became […]

The SNP and Scottish Greens have hit out at plans for voter identification contained in the Queen’s Speech, while the Scottish secretary says it “delivers for Scotland”. Proposals in the UK government’s legislative programme would require voters to have photo identification in Westminster elections. Of the 33 Bills set out in the Queen’s Speech, 30 […]

Civil liberties groups, electoral reformers and senior MPs on both sides of the Commons have condemned government plans to introduce a requirement for voters to prove their identity before casting their ballot. Downing Street said it was a “reasonable approach” and 99.6% of people in pilots requiring people to show photographic ID had managed to […]

A senior Tory has revealed plans to repeal the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which some speculate could pave the way for an early general election. Commons leader Jacob Rees Mogg said the government would introduce legislation on shelving the Act in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday. The Act – introduced by former prime minister David Cameron […]

The government is pushing ahead with changes to electoral law that could make it easier for Conservatives to win future mayoral elections. Home secetary Priti Patel has already unveiled plans to introduce the first past the post electoral system used to elect MPs in Westminster. Mayors across England are elected from the existing supplementary vote […]

There are few European leaders more colourful and controversial than Bulgaria’s Boyko Borisov. Now, demographic forces unleashed by the pandemic could topple him and offer a new start for the EU’s poorest nation The beginning of the end for Bulgaria’s bruising former bodyguard turned prime minister Boyko Borisov came last summer, when a photo surfaced showing […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Labour has all but conceded defeat in the Hartlepool by-election after a shadow cabinet member admitted the party was “not close to winning this”. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon, who led the opposition party’s campaign to hold the North East town, said it looked clear that Labour had not “got over the line”. Such a […]

A new poll has revealed the Tories could be on course to win the Hartlepool by-election after its candidate polled 17 points ahead of Labour. Tory candidate Jill Mortimer could win 50% of the vote with Labour GP Dr Paul Williams on 33%, if undecideds were removed, according to Survation. Independents Thelma Walker and Sam Lee […]

The Alba Party’s manifesto is the only one “taking Scottish independence seriously”, Alex Salmond has said. At the launch of his party’s proposals, the former first minister took a swipe at the SNP and the Scottish Greens – the latter of whom he has previously accused of being “as weak as dishwater” on independence. During […]

Outspoken lockdown critic Laurence Fox is tied with an intergalactic bin in last place in the race for London mayor. The new Comres poll has Labour candidate Sadiq Khan clearly in the lead with 41% of the vote, followed by the Conservative Shaun Bailey at 28% with Lib Dem Luisa Porritt and Green Sian Berry significantly behind with […]

Germany’s Greens have chosen co-leader Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for the federal election in September. Baerbock’s candidacy was announced on Monday morning after beating co-leader Robert Habeck to the role. Baerbock, 40, dismissed concerns about her lack of political experience during her acceptance speech. “Democracy lives off change. Yes, I was never a chancellor and never a […]

The Tories are on course to face their worst defeat of a candidate for the London mayoral race since the office was created Polling shows Sadiq Khan is set to secure a second term as London mayor on May 6. He is easily beating his Conservative rival, Shaun Bailey, who looks likely to suffer the […]

Two citizens’ assemblies should be held in Northern Ireland and the Republic to lay the groundwork for a border poll which could be held in the next decade, a Fine Gael TD has said. Neale Richmond will present his new paper Towards A New Ireland at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, on Monday. The paper […]

New analysis has suggested more than nine million people in Great Britain are not correctly registered for the May 6 elections, as the deadline to register to vote passes at the end of Monday. Council and mayoral positions in England and Scottish and Welsh parliament seats are all up for grabs during the May 6 votes, […]

Alex Salmond has claimed his Alba party is being censored by the broadcasters ahead of the Scottish elections. The former first minister said the broadcasters “are simply failing in their democratic duty” because Alba has been excluded from the televised debates featuring leaders of parties who currently have MSPs at Holyrood. Salmond took umbrage with […]