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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...
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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 ...
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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...
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‘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...
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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...
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Starmer is always the wrong man at the wrong time

Since I last wrote, two Jewish men were stabbed in broad daylight. The news is sickening, another sign that the British Jewish community is now expected to accept fear as a fact of daily life. As David Frost has written in The Telegraph, “this has happened because we have let it happen”. The national terrorism threat level has now been raised to “severe” – indicating that the authorities believe an attack in Britain is “highly likely”. Telegraph Politics Annabel Deadman 01/05/26 In response to the stabbings, Starmer pledged more money for police patrols in Jewish areas and more barricades for synagogues, schools and community centres. There were the usual platitudes over tackling the “root causes”. By which you can be 100 per cent certain that he does not mean the presence in this country of thousands of people for whom hatred of Jews is quite literally a matter of faith. The pattern is all too familiar; when West Midlands Police decided to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending...
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Streeting ready to launch leadership challenge against Starmer

The PM was alerted to the Health Secretary’s intentions after a staff member accidentally texted details of his plans Daily Telegraph 01/05/26 Wes Streeting has the backing of enough Labour MPs to launch a leadership challenge within days, The Telegraph has learnt. The Health Secretary has recruited more than 81 MPs – the minimum required to trigger a challenge – and is now contemplating his next move. Sir Keir Starmer was alerted to Mr Streeting’s intentions when a Downing Street staff member was accidentally texted details of his plans, including the “five pillars” of his campaign and his “PFG”, meaning plan for government. Some of Mr Streeting’s supporters want him to strike as soon as next Friday, the day after the local elections, to capitalise on the anger among Labour members at what are expected to be disastrous results for the party. He could either announce a formal leadership bid or resign from the Cabinet in the hope that others will follow and force Sir Keir to ste...
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