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Tories on course for just 14 seats at election

Leaked polling shows ‘existential threat’ to party – and victory for Reform Daily Telegraph link The Tories would win just 14 seats if a general election were called now, according to polling circulating inside Conservative Party headquarters and leaked to The Telegraph. The research suggests the Tories would be obliterated in what one insider described as an “existential threat” to the most successful party in British electoral history. The findings – which predict that Reform UK would win a 46-seat majority – will inevitably raise serious questions over Kemi Badenoch’s leadership of the party. One Tory HQ insider said the results showed the party was in danger of “being consigned to the history books”. While Mrs Badenoch is widely recognised to have improved her performance in recent weeks, her critics complain she was too passive in her first months in charge, allowing Nigel Farage and Reform “to fill the political vacuum”. The polling, carried out by Stack Data Strategy,...
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Labour’s Yorkshire strongholds are collapsing: the party has no future

Labour may soon be no more than a metropolitan fringe movement that can only govern in a Left-wing coalition Daily Telegraph 20/11/25 link As the psychodrama over Sir Keir Starmer’s future plays out in Westminster, an equally captivating spectacle is unfolding across the last of the Labour strongholds. The second wave of the Red Wall revolt – this time in the reddest of red seats – is gearing up to be even more momentous than the first. The most “iron red” areas – the mining towns and steel seats that held strong even during Boris Johnson’s insurgency of 2019 – are poised to ditch the party of their ancestors. The tsunami that threatens to rip through the most Labour corners of the country makes the Red Wall hurricane of the Brexit wars feel like a mere breezy interlude. That seats from Doncaster to Wigan have stayed Labour since they voted for Brexit in 2016 is testament to the stickiness of the Red vote. For all the talk of realignment, Labour’s credentials as the party of ...

France brands US-Russia peace deal a ‘capitulation’

Europe denounces 28-point plan that would require Zelensky to give up Donbas and halve size of Ukraine’s army Daily Telegraph 20/11/25 link France has accused the US of trying to force Ukraine to “capitulate” to Russia with its latest plan to end the conflict. A 28-point proposal has been drawn up by Washington and Moscow, which would involve Ukraine ceding land to Russia and halving the size of its army. Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s foreign minister, said: “Peace cannot mean capitulation. We do not want the capitulation of Ukraine.” Several European leaders hit out at the plans, which were negotiated in secret over the last few weeks. Arriving at a European Union meeting in Brussels, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top foreign diplomat, said the proposal would now be the focus of the talks, instead of how to hit Russia’s economy and oil exports. The Telegraph on Wednesday reported that Mr Trump’s latest strategy would force Ukraine to cede de facto control of its eastern Donbas region,...

Ofcom declares ‘sovereign immunity’ in free speech battle with US website

UK regulator has been sued by online message board 4chan over its enforcement of the Online Safety Act Link Daily Telegraph 19/11/25 Ofcom has claimed it has “sovereign immunity” as it seeks to fend off a US free speech lawsuit from the website 4chan. Lawyers for the regulator told a US court that there were “substantial grounds” for throwing out the lawsuit. 4chan, a notorious online message board, has sued Ofcom in the US, claiming that the regulator’s enforcement of the Online Safety Act contravenes American laws, including the First Amendment, which protects free speech. It comes after Ofcom investigated the company under the Act and fined the company £20,000, which it has refused to pay. In a notice filed to a federal court in Washington, its first response to the lawsuit, the regulator said: Ofcom is a UK public regulatory authority and has substantial grounds for seeking dismissal of this lawsuit based on sovereign immunity.” The US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act sh...

Labour backlash growing over asylum crackdown

Mahmood’s party colleagues describe her planned overhaul of migrant system as ‘cruel’ and ‘divisive’ Daily Telegraph 16/11/25 link Shabana Mahmood is facing a growing Labour backlash over her plan for the biggest overhaul of the asylum system since the Second World War. The Home Secretary is proposing fundamental reforms to increase deportations and reduce the pull factors making Britain Europe’s destination for “asylum shoppers”. However, Labour MPs accused the government of promoting rhetoric that risked “divisiveness” and fueled racism and abuse, with one claiming the plans were “performatively cruel” and “economically misjudged”. Refugee status for those granted asylum will be made temporary and reviewed every 30 months. They will be returned home if their country becomes safe, mirroring an approach that Denmark has adopted. Refugees who arrive illegally will have to wait up to 20 years before they qualify for permanent residence, four times the current timeframe. Even ...

Hard-working families are being destroyed to pay for the children of the benefits class

We are stuck in a compassion trap where the productive are forced to provide for the rest of society Daily Telegraph 17/11/25 link There are two ways to raise a family in Britain. The first is the traditional route: you take a job, work until you are financially secure enough to be able to afford a stable home where your children can go to the same school for at least some period of their lives, take on a mortgage, pay for childcare, keep working, and end each day torn up about the amount of time you spend with your family. The second route is simpler. You just have children, whether or not you can afford them, and rest secure in the knowledge that the parents of the first family will also pay for yours. The so-called two-child benefit cap – now apparently for the chop – did little to alter this reality. Despite the harsh language, it never prevented families receiving larger housing elements in their Universal Credit payments, and it didn’t cap their eligibility for child bene...

Rayner plots move against Starmer

Former deputy prime minister ‘offering Cabinet roles to MPs in exchange for support’ Daily Telegraph 15/11/25 link Angela Rayner is laying the ground for a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer. The former deputy prime minister and housing secretary is already offering Cabinet roles to MPs in exchange for their support, The Telegraph has been told. A source familiar with Ms Rayner’s moves said she was “on manoeuvres” and was “getting her ducks in a row” for a leadership bid, adding: “The unions will back her and help her.” Ms Rayner has also joined Tribune, a pressure group of MPs on the soft Left of the Labour Party, led by the architects of the welfare rebellion. Senior figures in the group say it currently has 70 members but is on course to reach 100, making it the biggest caucus of Labour backbenchers. It could be used as a leadership vehicle for a candidate in the future. Ms Rayner was forced to resign from her Cabinet roles in September after The Telegraph rev...