Markus Andrews

Disgruntled Tory MPs have told Boris Johnson that momentum behind a challenge to his leadership is now “unstoppable” after the Conservatives lost almost 400 councillors and a string of flagship councils. The prime minister admitted the Tories had experienced a “tough night” in London and the south but insisted that the party had made “quite remarkable gains” elsewhere in the country as Keir Starmer’s Labour failed to make a breakthrough in the so-called red wall heartland.Tories were also buoyed by Durham Police’s announcement of an investigation into an alleged breach of Covid regulations by Starmer, which they hope will offset future attacks on Mr Johnson over Partygate.But this did little to settle nerves among MPs in traditionally rock-solid Tory seats in the affluent capital and the southeast, where the party saw Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet fall to Labour after decades under Tory control – and Woking captured by the Liberal Democrats.Public anger over Downing Street parties was now permanently “baked in” to voters’ views of the prime minister, acting as a drag on the party’s performance across the country, warned Conservative MPs.The Tories lost overall control of John Major’s home council of Huntingdonshire and David Cameron’s West Oxfordshire, as well as Wokingham in Buckinghamshire – long represented in the Commons by John Redwood – as Lib Dems made big inroads into the so-called blue wall, with their overall tally of councillors boosted by more than 180.Celebrating successes that also saw the Lib Dems take Hull from Labour and gain control of new unitary authorities in Westmorland and Somerset, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “The tectonic plates of British politics are shifting. Now it is up to Conservative MPs to shove the prime minister into the abyss.”Mr Starmer said that results in London – as well as Crawley and Southampton, which they snatched from Tories, and Kirklees, Rossendale and Worthing, where they gained overall control – marked a “massive turning point” for Labour, whose overall gains topped 260.But elections guru Sir John Curtice calculated that Sir Keir had performed worse outside the capital than predecessor Jeremy Corbyn did the last time the seats were contested in 2018.Prof Curtice said that the BBC’s projected vote share of 35 per cent for Labour, 30 for Conservatives and 19 for Lib Dems from Thursday’s votes would give the Tories “no prospect of being able to remain in office” after the next general election, and would set the scene for Mr Starmer to enter No 10 propped up by Mr Davey’s party.One Conservative former minister told The Independent that shoring up support in red wall areas cannot compensate for the crumbling of traditional strongholds.“These are the Boris heartlands, but they are not the Tory heartlands,” said the MP, who is mulling a no-confidence letter for the PM. “It’s no good saving the soup if you lose the meal.”Another ex-minister said that it was clear that the party had been gearing up for a leadership contest in recent days, and that the result of the local elections would make no difference to that process.And another said that, while the investigation into Mr Starmer may stave off a challenge to Johnson’s position for some time, it was now “probably a question of when not if”.Veteran backbencher Sir Roger Gale, the first Tory to announce no confidence in Mr Johnson, suggested a challenge could come within as little as three weeks, telling The Independent: “There’s a tide that’s flowing that’s unstoppable. Something has got to happen.”While he avoided meltdown in this week’s election, Mr Johnson faces “danger ahead”, with the prospect of further police fines, the Sue Gray report into Partygate and difficult by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton, all against the backdrop of inflation soaring as high as 10 per cent and “catastrophic” increases in energy bills, said Sir Roger.With the Ukraine conflict now settling down into what could be a lengthy war of attrition, Sir Roger said that he no longer believed the crisis required Tories to hold back from a change of leadership.Some 54 Tory MPs must send a letter of no confidence to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to trigger a leadership challenge, which requires a majority of MPs to succeed.Prominent backbencher Tobias Ellwood said that it was now time for all of the party’s MPs to confront the question of whether they want Mr Johnson to stay on in the face of evidence that Tories are “haemorrhaging” votes.The former defence minister agreed it was “a huge ask” for Tory MPs to consider dumping a charismatic leader who had won them a big majority in Westminster.But he told the BBC: “It’s now a requirement because the trust has been breached with the British people. And it is the duty of every single Conservative MP to make that assessment and then act accordingly.”Across the country, regional and national Tory leaders blamed Mr Johnson for undermining support for the party locally.In Cumberland, where Labour swept to an overwhelming majority in a council area represented by Tories in Westminster, former Carlisle City Council leader John Mallinson said voters no longer had “confidence that the prime minister can be relied upon to tell the truth”.Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who saw his party slump from second to third place north of the border, said there was “absolutely no doubt” that voters were sending a message about Partygate.Mr Ross did not restate his earlier call for Johnson to go – which he retracted after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – but warned: “The PM simply can’t ignore the message that’s been sent by voters not just in Scotland but across the UK.”Tory leader in Wales, Andrew RT Davies, blamed the “national picture” for undermining a Welsh Conservative brand that he insisted had been warmly received on the doorstep.One senior Tory backbencher told The Independent it was now “clearly very much in the interests of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats to keep Boris in place”, said the MP. “He is clearly leading us down not up.”And another senior MP said anger and mistrust were now “baked in” into many voters’ views of Mr Johnson.“Once you lose faith in somebody it’s very hard to get it back,” the former minister said. “I think he will get to the autumn. My hunch is the moment of maximum danger for him will be party conference, because there will be a feeling that the dip in the polls is permanent and we’re running out of time to get a new leader before the next election.”One Tory MP in a red wall area said results may not be “catastrophic” enough to see a flurry of no-confidence letters next week, but could persuade some supportive backbenchers to change their minds.“Some MPs in the south will be thinking, ‘Bloody hell – we can’t carry on like this’,” said the backbencher. “It’s clear now some voters will never forget or forgive Partygate. I think the Sue Gray report is still a moment when more MPs get tipped over the edge and will make their minds up with letters.”David Simmonds, whose Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner seat in northwest London borders Mr Johnson’s own constituency, said that the prime minister had serious questions to answer.And he warned that the police investigation into Sir Keir would not take the pressure off the prime minister, because “two wrongs don’t make a right”.Mr Simmonds would not say whether he was considering a letter, but told The Independent: “What people won’t forgive is if we’re seen limping on in government.“If we’ve got bogged down because of the actions of the leader in respect of Partygate, then that needs to change.” More

Lutfur Rahman has been elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in London, seven years after he was removed from the same post for multiple breaches of electoral law.He beat Labour incumbent John Biggs in the second round by 40,804 votes to 33,487.Mr Rahman was banned from politics for five years after an electoral commissioner ruled he had “driven a coach and horses through election law” and had run a “ruthless and dishonest campaign” in 2014 that included “corrupt and illegal practices”.The commissioner said Mr Rahman had built a political career on “ignoring or flouting” the law and silencing his critics with accusations of racism or Islamophobia.However, a lengthy police inquiry decided there was insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.He was later struck off as a solicitor and handed an £86,400 legal costs order. A separate judge also ruled he had misled mortgage lenders and failed to declare income from rental properties to the taxman, after he declared himself bankrupt in the face of legal bills. Andrew Wood, an independent councillor for Canary Wharf, said Mr Rahman’s remarkable comeback had in part been caused by Mr Biggs, who he said had isolated white working-class voters by introducing low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), which limit car access to roads in residential areas. More

Far-right and conspiracy theorist political parties have so far won zero seats in the local elections.Extremist groups attempted to win places on councils across Britain as voters went to the polls in 200 local authorities on Thursday.But with almost all the results declared on Friday evening, none of their candidates had been elected and few had received more than a handful of votes.Counter-extremist group Hope Not Hate called the results “disastrous”, adding: “The UK’s electoral far right have been roundly rejected at the polls.”The anti-Islam For Britain party, headed by former Ukip leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters, had targeted 14 seats from Exeter to the Wirrall.Its national manifesto proposes policies including banning the burqa, scrapping hate crime legislation and stopping “anti-white discrimination”.Ms Waters received the highest number of votes out of For Britain’s candidates – 203 – but still came third with only 14 per cent of the vote in Hartlepool.Some representatives received as few as 11 votes and the party has not yet made any statement on the results.Britain First, which was allowed to re-register as a political party last year despite leader Paul Golding having convictions for a terror offence and hate crimes, fielded three candidates.It won no seats but celebrated the 508 votes for its party chair Ashlea Simon, after she finished second in a Salford ward.On its social media channels, the group said Ms Simon “trounced” the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Green Party, although the winning Labour candidate won more than twice as many votes.Britain First said it was “onwards and upwards” for its political ambitions, adding: “Rome wasn’t built in a day, so the saying goes, and the same is true for Britain First as a political party.”Boris Johnson responds to election resultsIts official policies include deporting asylum seekers, banning abortion, castrating rapists and jailing journalists for “false reports”.The British Democrats, who purport to “defend and preserve the distinctive identity of the British nation” and claim the “very existence of the indigenous population is under unprecedented threat”, lost in the four seats they contested.The party’s candidates came bottom of the list in Bexley and Basildon, and third in Bradford and Maidstone, having received between 100 and 253 votes each.The fascist National Front also failed to win any seats, finishing with just a handful of votes in Derbyshire and West Yorkshire. Several new conspiracy theorist groups also fielded candidates, following an explosion in activity during the coronavirus activity.The anti-lockdown Let London Live group, fronted by prominent activist Piers Corbyn, saw poor results in Southwark, Hillingdon and Camden.Mr Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy, came 9th of 12 candidates in the seat he contested, with 200 votes.The Freedom Alliance, which purports to “provide real opposition to the state’s Covid narrative”, fielded a significant number of candidates across England but received under 1 per cent of votes in all council areas so far declared.Save Us Now, which focuses on 5G conspiracy theories, won a total of 63 votes in two wards in Gateshead. More

As a former Tory councillor in Wandsworth, James Cousins is still getting used to the idea of voting against his old party. But he decided to cast his ballot for Labour on Thursday, backing the Conservatives’ nemesis in local elections for the first time.Wandsworth council, his former employer, had been a blue stronghold for 44 years before it turned red this week, after Labour gained 12 seats and the Conservatives lost 18 there.This central London borough was far from alone in changing allegiance to Labour. Keir Starmer’s party also won large victories elsewhere in the capital, including in Westminster, which until Friday had only had a Conservative-run council. More

Online tech giants will have to abide by new rules aimed at making sure they pay a fair price for news content under plans announced by Boris Johnson’s government.The Digital Markets Unit (DMU) will bring in a new code of conduct aimed at making sure Google and social media firms agree to “fair financial terms” for content published on their platforms.The tech watchdog will also be granted fresh powers to issue fines of up to 10 per cent of turnover for non-compliance, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.The DMU regulator was set up last April with the aim of redressing the “imbalance” between tech giants such as Facebook and news publishers.Based within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the tech watchdog was instructed to boost competition, set fair prices for content, as well as giving users more control over their data.The DCMS has now confirmed it intends to go ahead with its proposals to further empower the regulator, following a consultation.However, it is unclear when exactly the changes will come into force, as the government has only said the necessary legislation will be introduced “in due course”.If legislation is passed, the DMU will have the power to enforce new tailored codes of conduct for firms dominating digital markets, outlining how they should treat their users and other companies fairly, with “tough sanctions” for those ignoring the rules.Digital minister Chris Philp said “the dominance of a few tech giants is crowding out competition and stifling innovation”.He added: “We want to level the playing field and we are arming this new tech regulator with a range of powers to generate lower prices, better choice and more control for consumers while backing content creators, innovators and publishers, including in our vital news industry.”Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said the Queen’s Speech on 10 May represented a “golden opportunity” for the government to introduce the legislation to empower the regulator.“The rules governing competition in the UK’s digital markets are in desperate need of an upgrade, so it’s encouraging that the government intends to introduce new rules to tackle the entrenched power of tech giants,” she said.“For the sake of UK consumers and businesses, it is essential that the Digital Markets Unit is properly empowered … the government must give it the tools it needs to do its job.”Owen Meredith, chief executive of News Media Association, also urged the government to take advantage of next week’s Queen’s Speech: “This pro-competitive and pro-innovation intervention is long overdue and we now urgently need to get on with passing this important legislation so the DMU has the tools it needs to get on with the job. “The Queen’s Speech on Tuesday is the obvious opportunity to take this forward via a Digital Competition Bill.” More

News that Durham Police will investigate claims that Keir Starmer broke lockdown rules will come as a blow to the Labour leader, who thought he had put the incident behind him months ago.But Labour will be relieved – and Conservatives furious – that the force held back the announcement of the new investigation, launched on 30 April, until after polling had closed in the local elections.Durham Constabulary announced in February that it would take “no further action” after viewing video of Sir Keir, taken through a window during a visit to the city in April 2021.The footage showed the Labour leader drinking from a bottle of beer, with other party workers in the same room, part of the constituency offices of City of Durham MP Mary Foy.At the time, the UK was in Step 2 of the phase-out of coronavirus restrictions, with pubs and restaurants permitted to serve outdoors, but indoor mixing between different households banned apart from for essential work reasons.Specific rules had been set out to allow Covid-secure campaigning for the 6 May local elections and Hartlepool byelection, which was the reason for Starmer’s visit to Durham that day.Since the pictures first emerged, Sir Keir and Labour have insisted that it was a work event and that any food or alcohol consumed was part of the normal requirement for people to eat and drink while working.Durham Police said in February they had reviewed the video footage and would take “no further action”.A spokesman said then: “We do not believe an offence has been established in relation to the legislation and guidance in place at that time.”However, the issue was revived last week by Tory MP Richard Holden, who wrote to Durham’s chief constable Jo Farrell urging her to reopen investigation.With local elections less than a fortnight away looking set to be dominated by Partygate, the move appeared part of a determined attempt by the Conservatives to take the sting out of Labour attacks.While deputy chief constable Ciaron Irvine did not at that point say the force would review the inquiry, his promise to make enquiries with the original investigation team was seized upon by the Tories and their supporters as an indication that Starmer was once again under suspicion.Labour’s position was undermined when the party was forced to admit that deputy leader Angela Rayner was present in the room, saying that its previous denials were mistaken.And Conservative-leaning newspapers devoted front pages day after day to the supposed scandal, establishing that a curry order totalling £200 was put in for up to 30 aides late that evening.Questions were asked over whether Starmer and his team went back to work, possibly as late as 11pm, after consuming the meal.The row provided Conservative candidates with a response to voters who raised Partygate on the doorstep, effectively suggesting that while Boris Johnson may have breached rules, other politicians were doing the same.It meant that Sir Keir was repeatedly forced onto the defensive in TV and radio interviews. And it made Labour campaigners hold back on criticisms of Johnson over Partygate, for fear of throwing the spotlight once more onto their own leader.Starmer always insisted he was happy to co-operate with police and was confident that they would find no Covid restrictions had been broken.‘We were working, we stopped, we ate,” he said. “No breach of the rules. No party.”Labour insists that the incident – branded “Keir’s beers” by critics – bears no comparison to the string of parties held in Downing Street during Covid restrictions.The Metropolitan Police are investigating 12 such events, including some which were explicitly intended as social events, including a number of leaving dos and a “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden.Some observers suggest that Starmer overplayed his hand by calling for the resignation not only of the prime minister but also chancellor Rishi Sunak after they received £50 fines for attending Mr Johnson’s birthday party in No 10 in June 2020.Suggesting that Mr Sunak’s inadvertent involvement, which arose from him turning up a few minutes early for a meeting, is a matter for resignation sets a very low bar, which may come back to bite Starmer if he is fined by Durham Police. More

The Conservative Party said he has ‘never bought a tin of baked beans in his life’ when quizzed about the cost of living crisis. Oliver Dowden was asked about supermarket own brand products on LBC after environment secretary George Eustice was criticised for suggesting consumers should swap to value goods as the cost of living crisis continues.He told the radio station: “I’m afraid I rarely get the opportunity to go to the shops, given my extensive duties as chairman of the Conservative Party, but when I pop down to my local Tesco’s, of course I buy own-brand products.“I wouldn’t know the price of a tin of baked beans – I’ll tell you why, I have never liked baked beans. I’ve never purchased a tin of baked beans in my entire life.”He got the price of a pint of milk about right, guessing it cost “around 50p”.Mr Eustice was branded “out of touch” as he was rounded on by political rivals and social commentators after saying shoppers could “contain and manage their household budget” by changing the brands they buy in supermarkets and elsewhere.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it showed how “out of ideas” the government is when it comes to understanding the issues facing those on the lowest incomes.The Liberal Democrats said the cabinet minister was living in a “parallel universe”, while Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said that, for many people, there was “nothing” else they could cut to help make ends meet.Mr Dowden defended the government’s actions to help people with the cost of living and said more measures could be taken.He told BBC Breakfast: “No government is going to be able to buy people out of all of these problems, I just have to be honest with your viewers.“It’s not going to be possible, but we have taken unprecedented action”.He added: “You would expect when people are hurting – and I know people are hurting and I hear this on the doorstep and we all see it and I know your viewers will feel the same way – they’re sat around the kitchen table or in the front room thinking ‘how are we paying those bills?’.“It’s incumbent on the government to look to see every further measure that we can take but what I would say is that we’ve already taken an unprecedented amount of action”.The Tory chairman defended Boris Johnson over the partygate scandal and accusations he misled parliament as he downplayed Conservative losses and Labour gains in the local elections.He said: “Of course we’ve had some difficult results and you can see that in London.“I would say, though, that we are mid-term and it’s quite a mixed picture because you look elsewhere, whether that’s in Hartlepool or Nuneaton and Thurrock, we’ve actually made gains and I think if you take the whole picture of this, it really doesn’t demonstrate that Labour has the momentum to form the next government.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

Tory infighting has begun in Scotland as the party prepares to slip to third place in the local elections in what one frontbencher admitted are “disappointing” results.Under the popular Ruth Davidson, the Conservatives displaced Labour as the most popular Unionist party – but have lost more than 10 per cent of their vote in some wards, in early results.The elections guru John Curtice forecast that, while the Tory party had escaped its “worst nightmares” in England, it looked “highly likely that its fears north of the border will be realised”.Miles Briggs, a frontbencher at the Holyrood parliament, said his party had suffered from anger over the Partygate scandal and the fine handed to Boris Johnson for breaching his own Covid rules.He said voters had refused to cast their ballots in the main, rather than switching to other parties, but admitted: “There’s some good news but it’s really disappointing.”Asked about the impact of the No 10 parties, Mr Briggs said: “Yes I think that’s part of it. You can’t deny that and I think, speaking to people yesterday, they certainly weren’t happy with the actions of the prime minster and his team.”But one former Conservative member of the Scottish parliament called that “nonsense” and instead turned his fire on flip-flopping by Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader.Mr Ross was one of the first Tory MPs to call on Mr Johnson to quit over the scandal – but then withdraw his letter demanding a no-vote confidence, after the Ukraine war broke out.“Whatever today’s results show Douglas Ross owns this, not Boris,” Adam Tomkins, a constitutional lawyer at the University of Glasgow, tweeted.“It was Douglas who U-turned, Douglas who flipped, and Douglas who backed the PM. He and his team need to own the consequences, not pass the buck.”The Scottish National Party is certain to win the elections, maintaining its iron grip on the nation’s politics as it pushes for s second independence referendum next year.Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said: “The Tories are being rejected. Their vote is down and I think what really is important today is that the voters have sent a message to Boris Johnson.”However, on Glasgow City Council, the SNP leader was overtaken by the Scottish Greens on first preference votes in the city’s Langside ward.Susan Aitken suggested the co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Greens at Holyrood may have led to the surprise result in her ward.Scottish Labour took overall control of West Dunbartonshire Council – unseating minority SNP rule – after the proportional voting system left no party with a majority in any local authority area after the last elections, in 2017.Voters were electing more than 1,220 councillors across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, against a backdrop of the SNP’s commanding poll lead of around 45 per cent of the vote. More