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Labour humiliation as Plaid Cymru wins Caerphilly by-election

Disaster for Starmer after party surrenders 100-year hold on Welsh heartland with Reform in second Daily Telegraph link Labour has lost its 100-year hold on a key heartland in a historic shift in Welsh politics. In a disastrous result for Sir Keir Starmer, the party was beaten at a pivotal Senedd by-election by Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru. It is the first time Labour has lost a parliamentary vote in the former mining town of Caerphilly in more than a century, signalling a collapse in support that will fray nerves in Downing Street. It will also be seen as a disappointing result for Reform UK, who were polling slightly ahead and would have hailed a victory as a sign they were on track to unseat Labour at the Welsh elections next year. Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, did not appear at the count, despite joining the campaign trail on the day. The party is expected to blame tactical voting for the defeat. However, it will doubtless be buoyed by a clear surge in support havin...
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Rayner: I hope families learn from my tax ‘mistake’

Former deputy prime minister suggests others could be caught out by same ‘complex’ rules she broke daily Telegraph - Link Angela Rayner has said she hopes other families will learn from the “honestly made mistake” that allowed her to avoid a £40,000 tax bill. The former deputy prime minister, who was forced to resign over the scandal, suggested others could be caught out by the same “complex” rules that she broke when purchasing her second home. Ms Rayner quit her government roles last month after The Telegraph revealed she underpaid stamp duty on her new £800,000 seaside flat in Hove, East Sussex. At first, her team was adamant that she had done nothing wrong, insisting she had paid all tax due. However, following sustained pressure from the media, she later admitted that she had made a “mistake” and had not paid the full amount of tax. Ms Rayner bought the Hove flat after selling a 25 per cent share of the family home in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency for £162,500. The bu...

Sadiq Khan's grooming gangs 'cover-up' exposed as London Mayor accused of turning 'blind eye'

The London Mayor appeared to dismiss the suggestion that grooming gangs had been operating in the capital during a fiery City Hall exchange earlier this year GB News 20/10/25 link Sir Sadiq Khan has been accused of "turning a blind eye" to rape gangs in London after a new investigation claimed to find evidence of a "cover-up" in the capital. The investigation, conducted by The Daily Express and My London, revealed young girls had been raped in hotels by groups of men. However, Sir Sadiq was accused of ignoring concerns about grooming gangs operating in London following a spat with City Hall Conservative Susan Hall. The details of at least six potential victims were documented in the pages of four different His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services reports from 2016 to 2025. The cases ranged from a 15-year-old girl being raped by "numerous men" after going missing for four days to a 17-year-old being given alcoho...

Dozens in court over alleged support of Palestine Action

Twenty-eight people have pleaded not guilty after being charged under anti-terrorism laws with allegedly supporting the banned group Palestine Action. BBC News 15/10/25 link In the first of a series of complex hearings on Wednesday, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard about 2,000 people are likely to be charged with showing support in demonstrations for the group proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July. Judges face trying to find time and courtrooms to hold 400 trials of those accused of taking part in protests. While the judge began setting provisional trial dates for March, there is no certainty they can take place before the end of 2026 because of the ongoing legal battle over the group's proscription. The government proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July, after activists broke into an RAF base and damaged two military aircraft earlier in the year. Since that ban more than 2,100 people have been arrested at demonstrations in ...

Starmer’s moral weakness has been exposed

Good morning. This week has exposed the moral weakness of Sir Keir Starmer. Our virtue-signalling Prime Minister has raised the white flag to the enemies of Britain both within and outside our borders. Surely even he can’t be proud of the nation he is building? Allister Heath, Sunday Telegraph Editor 18/10/25 Did Sir Keir go into politics to suck up to China? Is this really why Sir Keir Starmer went into politics? To suck up to the Chinese Communist Party, and to preside over a country defiled by rampant anti-Semitism and sectarianism? A virtue-signaller extraordinaire, a holier-than-thou human rights lawyer, the PM has always seen himself as a social justice warrior. Yet after just 14 months in office, how does Starmer reconcile his erstwhile sanctimony and supposed commitment to anti-racist and humanist principles with the grubby reality of what Labour Britain is turning into? Our country has crossed the Rubicon with the ban on supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending ...

Israeli fan ban could be the spark that ignites a political powderkeg

West Midlands Police’s stance is a shaming moment for the UK and exposes sorry state of public order in this country link Daily Telegraph 16 October 2025 9:59pm BST So now we have it spelt out in black and white: an admission by a British police force that it is effectively unable to protect visiting Jewish football fans on British soil. This is, however you slice it, a shaming moment. Only last weekend, within hours of the Gaza ceasefire coming into effect, huge amounts of police resources were diverted to protecting pro-Palestine marches in the heart of London, attended by tens of thousands. But as for ensuring the safety of a few hundred Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters on the streets of Birmingham? All too much bother. It is a level of inconsistency that makes your head spin. On learning of the extraordinary move by West Midlands Police to advise the shutting out of Maccabi fans from next month’s Europa League match at Aston Villa, Baroness Fox lamented how she had “sat for hou...

The China spy case reveals Starmer’s contempt for the rule of law

It seems highly likely that Labour allowed a major trial to collapse for political reasons. Spiked 16/10/25 Link Keir Starmer’s Labour Party used to love to give lectures about respecting the rule of law. Quite literally, in the case of UK attorney general Lord Hermer. In October 2024, Hermer delivered a widely publicised Bingham Lecture, entitled ‘The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism’, in which he criticised calls to abandon institutions such as the European Convention on Human Rights. He argued that the rule of law ‘is not the preserve of arid constitutional theory’ and is the ‘bedrock’ on which democracy rests. Earlier this year, Hermer claimed that anyone who publicly criticises a judge or objects to a court decision is a ‘threat to the rule of law’. It’s not just Lord Hermer, of course. During the Brexit years, whenever Conservatives objected to legal decisions that seemed to favour the Remainers, Labour and its supporters reacted with outrage, slamming Brexiteers as enem...