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Why the election results are bad for Starmer’s leadership rivals

Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting among senior Labour figures facing a fight to cling on to their own seats at the next general election Daily Telegraph 08/05/26 In the immediate aftermath of what is promising to be the worst set of local election results in Labour’s history, Sir Keir Starmer has vowed “not to walk away” from No 10. Whether Sir Keir gets to choose the timing or manner of his eventual departure remains to be seen, but the election results also contain portents of doom for his leadership rivals. The swing away from Labour to Reform in areas where Labour front-runners have their constituencies means they may well be facing a fight to cling on in their own seats at the next general election. In the interim, what any successor to Sir Keir is set to inherit is a depleted and demoralised Labour Party that has lost a large swathe of its activist base and will continue to fight on two flanks – Reform to the Right and the Greens to the Left Angela Rayner Tameside In quick...

Local elections 2026: Labour loses first councils as Reform surges

Daily Telegraph 08/05/26 Labour has lost control of its first five councils following a surge in support for Reform UK. Sir Keir Starmer’s party no longer has a majority on councils in Tameside, Exeter, Redditch, Hartlepool or Tamworth. The Prime Minister is expected to face calls to resign should Labour perform as badly as predicted in the run-up to polling day. Tameside, which covers Angela Rayner’s constituency of Ashton-under-Lyme, had been under Labour control for 47 years. Reform won all 12 of the seats up for election in Hartlepool, a traditionally safe Labour “Red Wall” territory, with Sir Keir’s party losing seven. Both parties now have 15 seats on the council. Reform also gained all nine seats up for election in Tamworth. Out of nine of the 27 seats on Redditch Council up for election, Reform won eight. Six of those were from Labour, which will now have to govern as a coalition or minority administration. A Reform spokesman said: “It’s clear that Labour voters are s...

We all know who is to blame for the rise in anti-Semitism – and it is not Israel

Only the Right will do what is required to lance the boil of Islamic extremism Daily Telegraph 05/05/26 We can’t go on like this. That’s what everyone I speak to says. But why bother voting when things are so bad and there are another three years of this grotesque incompetence and barefaced lying to go? If you think you may have better things to do than popping to the polling station – refilling the bird feeder, say, or power-washing the patio – I beg you to make the effort. On Thursday, we have the chance to register our dismay at this appalling Labour Government and our complete and utter rejection of the sanctimonious, anti-British lawyer who leads it (or tries and fails to). The Prime Minister’s presence was not wanted on the campaign trail by Labour councillors who have twigged that Sir Keir is to voters what hantavirus is to cruises. Both are poisonous. Instead, the PM was in Armenia doing his favourite thing, pledging to give away money we don’t have to the EU. My, how he ...

The Hijacking of Britain’s Green Party - And What’s Really Behind It

Matt Goodwin 05/05/26 The Green Party in Britain is no longer a well-meaning movement for people who care deeply about the environment. It’s been hijacked by extremists and has become a Trojan Horse for much darker undercurrents in British society. That is the key, indisputable fact that’s emerged in recent days and weeks as Britain braces for a crucial set of local and devolved elections later this week. On the surface, what’s become clear is that the Green Party is now riddled with antisemites and conspiracy theorists. In fact, there are now so many examples it’s hard to know where to begin. How about the two Green candidates who were arrested last week for stirring up racial hatred - one of whom posted a picture of a man holding a placard that read “ramming a synagogue isn’t anti-Semitism, it’s revenge”. The other, Saiqa Ali, posted an image on social media of an armed man in a Hamas headband, an Islamist terror organisation, with the slogan: “resistance is freedom”. That c...

‘Toxic’ Starmer kept away from campaign trail

Senior Labour figure says councillors ‘don’t want him near our voters’ Daily Telegraph 04/05/26 Sir Keir Starmer has been kept away from the local election campaign trail over his “toxic” image, The Telegraph has been told. The Prime Minister is playing a limited role in Labour’s attempts to get out the vote, taking part in fewer than a dozen visits since the beginning of March. Labour is forecast to surrender up to 2,000 council seats in England on Thursday, as well as ceding the Welsh Senedd and losing out to the SNP in Scotland. A challenge to Sir Keir’s leadership is then expected within days, with his own MPs and ministers already conceding in private that he cannot stay on in the long term. Sir Keir’s historic unpopularity is expected to cause Labour to shed votes in multiple directions, losing support to Reform UK on the Right and the Green Party on the Left. One senior Labour figure told The Telegraph: “He really is toxic. There’s a visceral loathing of him and it’s sp...

Welfare pays more than work for 600,000 households

Rise revealed by Conservative analysis will provoke calls for overhaul of £155bn benefits budget Daily Telegraph 03/05/26 More than 600,000 households received more in benefits than the average worker’s salary, the first analysis of its kind has revealed. The figures show that 625,618 households were each given more than £32,200 in welfare payouts last year – the average annual salary of a British worker after tax – despite the introduction of a benefits cap. The analysis, by the Conservatives, also revealed that 16,000 of those households received more than £60,000 in welfare payments – almost twice the average annual take-home pay. The figures will provoke calls for an overhaul of the £155bn benefits budget and for reform of the welfare cap to ensure that “work always pays”. Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to cut welfare spending in order to bolster Britain’s defence budget, with Labour preparing to unveil its defence investment plan “within weeks”. Neil O’Brien, the shad...