Skip to main content

Posts

Starmer’s gamble could be his ultimate demise

Telegraph politics 27/02/26 Keir Starmer gambled – and lost. Gorton and Denton, where the Green Party stormed to victory, may turn out to be shorthand for his ultimate demise. The question for Labour’s so-called soft-Left – sometimes considered by its own members to be “incapable of organising its way out of a paper bag” – is whether they can achieve their aims under Starmer’s leadership, or whether they conclude that they need one of their own in Number 10. There’s no two ways about it, this by-election was a disaster for Keir Starmer. “There can no longer be any doubt that he is doomed to be a one-term Prime Minister,” said former Labour MP Tom Harris this morning. On the strength of this result, he’ll be lucky to be the half-term PM. Every major decision in the run-up to the Gorton and Denton poll rests squarely with Starmer. The Burnham block backfired spectacularly – Manchester’s mayor has so far been conspicuously quiet following the result. Labour poured so much energy int...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

Starmer in crisis as Labour falls to third in by-election

Green Party wins Gorton and Denton seat after bitter contest, while Reform UK comes second Daily Telegraph 27/02/26 Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership has been plunged into further crisis after the Green Party swept to victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Labour was defending a commanding 13,413 majority in what should have been an easy defence in one of its safest seats. But in a tight three-way race between Labour, Reform and the Greens, Hannah Spencer secured a comfortable victory with 14,980 votes, a majority of 4,402. Ms Spencer, a Manchester plumber, becomes the Green Party’s fifth MP. On a disastrous night for Sir Keir’s party, Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia was beaten into third place by Reform. Matthew Goodwin, Reform’s candidate, won 10,578 votes, while Ms Stogia won 9,364 votes, 25.4 per cent of the vote, down from 50.8 per cent at the 2024 general election. The result shows how Labour has haemorrhaged votes to both the populist Left and Right since its landsli...
Post a Comment
Read more

This abominable by-election is a final warning for Britain’s democracy

Too much immigration allied with growing Left-wing extremism has become a toxic mix Daily Telegraph 25/02/26 Our democracy is dying in plain sight, and we don’t have the right to stay silent. The sectarian horror of the Gorton and Denton by-election cannot be the future of British politics. We must not become a country where our race or religion determines how we vote, where segregated communities live parallel lives and despise each other, where our liberal elites, out of cowardice or suicidal empathy, pretend not to notice. We cannot sleepwalk into becoming a Lebanon-on-Thames. This is an emergency, a last warning, and we must act now. We should start by calling out the Greens for what they have become: a hateful, despicable, extremist party that has identified an entrepreneurial opportunity in weaponising tribalism, division, stagnant living standards, misinformation and envy. Their behaviour in Gorton and Denton has been abominable. Following a playbook pioneered by far-Left ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labour accuses Greens of ‘manipulating’ Muslim voters

Cabinet minister claims Zack Polanksi’s party is ‘whipping up hatred’ in run-up to Gorton and Denton by-election Daily Telegraph 25/02/26 Labour has accused the Green Party of “manipulating” Muslim voters and stirring up hatred on the eve of the Gorton and Denton by-election. Senior Labour figures rebuked Zack Polanski’s party over campaign materials written in Urdu that tell Muslims to “punish Labour for Gaza”. The ballot in Gorton and Denton is set to take place on Thursday, and new polling suggests there could be a single percentage point between Labour, the Greens and Reform UK. Just under 40 per cent of Gorton’s population is Muslim, making it fertile ground for the Greens, while the white working class is dominant in Denton, meaning the area has more potential for Reform. Green Party campaign leaflets in both English and Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, feature a picture of Hannah Spencer, the party’s candidate, wearing a keffiyeh – a scarf associated with Palestin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reform would create Ice-style agency amid plans to deport nearly 300,000 people per year

Reform UK will create an "Ice-style" agency as the party's shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf is set to announce plans to deport nearly 300,000 people a year. Mr Yusuf is set to announce plans to create a new agency, the UK Deportation Command, with the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a time and deport up to 288,000 annually on five flights a day. Experts have previously said the costs of such an expansion would be massive, as of April 2024 there were approximately 2,500 detention spaces. Mr Yusuf will tell a press conference later today: "For decades, the Tories and Labour have turned the other way while the very fabric of our society has been under assault. "The social contract has not merely been broken; it’s been shattered. Under a Reform government, His Majesty’s parliament will be sovereign once again. "We will secure our borders, leave the ECHR, and deport those here illegally. My message to the British people is simple: I will secure our b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Keir Starmer 'readies plans to SACK Wes Streeting for plotting to take his job'

Keir Starmer has been accused of planning to sack Wes Streeting over alleged plotting to seize the Labour leadership from under him. The Prime Minister is said to be eyeing a reshuffle that would demote the Health Secretary and return Angela Rayner to the fold, despite claims she too had designs on No10. "We're hearing he wants to show strength and get shot of Wes,” a Labour source has suggested. Both Mr Streeting and Ms Rayner have routinely rejected any suggestions that they were seeking to supplant Sir Keir, yet speculation has remained rampant ahead of the upcoming Gorton & Denton by-election, which is being held on February 26. This reached fever pitch earlier this month, when the Prime Minister narrowly clung onto power amid intense renewed scrutiny over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. The crisis saw Cabinet ministers lining up to profess their loyalty and Sir Keir engage in crunch talks with Labour MPs to preserve his premiership. Party in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tories plot to 'hammer nail in coffin' of Chagos deal

Tories plot to 'hammer nail in coffin' of Chagos deal within hours as crunch Washington meeting could prove fatal for Keir Starmer's 'surrender' pact Sir Keir Starmer’s £35billion Chagos deal faces a “relentless” challenge after a top Tory told GB News she intends to put the “nail in the coffin” of the Prime Minister’s handover of the Indian Ocean archipelago. Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel is jetting off to Washington tomorrow to meet with senior officials in Donald Trump’s administration. Dame Priti’s trip comes after concerted efforts by Tory veteran Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to encourage the White House to move against the Prime Minister’s deal. The Witham MP, who is also scheduled to discuss the significance of the special relationship at the Hudson Institute next Wednesday, made clear to GB News that she will “keep fighting against the deal until it is scrapped once and for all”. Speaking to The People’s Channel ...
Post a Comment
Read more