Markus Andrews

The leadership of the DUP has apologised for “absolutely atrocious” remarks made by the party on gay rights over the past 50 years.The party has long opposed equality for same sex couples in areas such as gay marriage and the former party leader Ian Paisley previously led a Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign during the 1970s.In a 2007 interview with Ireland’s Hot Press magazine, Ian Paisley Jr reportedly said: “I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism. I think it is wrong. I think that those people harm themselves and – without caring about it – harm society. That doesn’t mean to say that I hate them – I mean, I hate what they do.”On Thursday evening, DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley said that some of the things said by the party over the past 50 years had been “absolutely atrocious”.Speaking at a Pink News event, Ms Bradley said: “I can certainly say I apologise for what others have said and done in the past, because I do think there have been some very hurtful comments and some language that really should not have been used.”DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson backed her comments on Friday morning, apologising to the LGBT community for hurt caused by past remarks. He said people should hold “deeply held views” on social issues in a respectful way.“There is no doubt that in the past things have been said that should not have been said across a whole range of issues, and not just by the DUP, I have seen people on marches and at rallies say things about the DUP that have been hurtful to us and our members as well,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.“I have seen things said about people from faith communities that have been hurtful and should not have been said.”I think it is right to apologise when we have said things that have been hurtful to others.“There are differences in our society, differences and deeply held views on social issues, and what I want to see in Northern Ireland is a discourse that is respectful of difference.”People can hold their sincerely held views without the need to say things that are hurtful to others. We can disagree but we can disagree well.“Where we have said things that have hurt others then it is right that we say sorry for that. Sorry needn’t be the hardest word.” Additional reporting by PA More

Keir Starmer has claimed Labour is “back” after his party fended off a by-election challenge from the Conservatives in West Yorkshire.Arriving in Batley on the morning after his party defied expectations to hold the seat, Sir Keir invoked a football reference, telling assembled reporters: “We’re gonna fight all the way, every inch of the way. And we’re going to win that battle. We’ve got to fight that. But Labour is back. This is just the start; I want many more days like this. Labour is coming home.”The slogan “Labour is coming home” was first used by Tony Blair at the party’s 1996 conference – a reference to the popular song “Football’s Coming Home”, released that year to coincide with the Euro ‘96 football tournament. Labour’s majority was cut to 300 votes in Batley and Spen, well below its 2019 vote share – but polls during the campaign had shown it losing the seat to the Conservatives, echoing the fate of other so-called “red wall” seats like Hartlepool.But candidate Kim Leadbeater ultimately came top by emphasising her local credentials in a three-way race with the Conservatives, and former MP George Galloway.Ms Leadbeater is the sister of Jo Cox, who sat as the consituency’s MP until her assassination by a far-right extremist during the EU referendum campaign.Sir Keir said: “Everybody knows Kim, however they vote, they all know Kim because of what she’s put in – she’s of her community, she’s for her community, she’s got integrity, she believes in truth and honesty and in bringing people together. And that is exactly what I want for our Labour party, the values of our Labour Party. “She will be a fantastic member of party of Parliament for Batley and Spen, a really fantastic member. I was elected into parliament on the same day as Jo Cox and we enter Parliament together, and there isn’t the day when we all don’t miss Jo. But Kim, she would be so proud to see you today, so proud to see you as a member of parliament.”Speaking to the BBC on Friday morning before Sir Keir’s arrival, the newly elected MP twice declined to say whether her party leader had been an asset on the doorstep or a drag on support.The result in the seat was a relief for Sir Keir, whose leadership was thought to be under threat of a challenge if he presided yet another by-election loss of a formerly secure Labour seat. More

Matt Hancock’s affair with an aide came up on the doorstep in the Batley and Spen by-election, the chair of the Conservative party has said.Amanda Milling said the scandal was among issues raised by voters, after Labour retained the West Yorkshire consituency by just 300 votes.But she refused to be drawn on whether Boris Johnson’s handling of the situation – which at first saw him dismiss the matter as ‘closed’ – had gone down badly in the seat.”It was something that came up on the doorstep, I have to be honest about that,” she told Sky News on Friday morning after the result.”They had some issues over the weekend in terms of what happened. But Matt [Hancock] resigned and that was the right thing to do. There was a whole host of different issues that came up.”Ms Milling stated that “governing parties don’t win by-elections” and argued that “actually taking it to such a small number of voters was itself a tremendous result”, describing the result as “quite extraordinary”.Defending the government’s approach, she added: “Matt did the right thing at the weekend, which was to resign. Within 24 hours of the story breaking we had a new health secretary and Sajid Javid is doing a tremendous job.”But asked specifically about Boris Johnson’s handling, she said “There’s a lot of love for the prime minister, he gets a tremendous lot of love on the doorstep. As I say, Matt did the right thing to resign and within 24 hours we had a new health secretary.” The Conservatives had hoped to win the seat, following a similar victory taking a constituency off Labour in Hartlepool in early May.A poll released during the campaign had shown the Tories in the lead, but ultimately Keir Starmer’s party managed to cling on despite a collapse in the Labour vote.Mr Hancock resigned on Saturday following revelations that he broke social distancing rules while having an extramarital affair with an aide.The aide had also been appointed a non-executive director at Mr Hancock’s department and was meant to scrutinise him.There are also separate allegations swirling around whether Mr Hancock used a personal email address for official work – thought to be problematic for reasons of both security and scrutiny. More

Kim Leadbeater, sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, has won the seat of Batley and Spen for the Labour party in a hard-fought by-election that many predicted would be clinched by the Tories. The former personal trainer, 45, won the West Yorkshire constituency with a majority of 323 votes, defying critics who said she was on course to lose after a bitter campaign and challenges from George Galloway and the Conservative candidate, Ryan Stephenson.The “proud Yorkshirewoman” was born in Heckmondwike – within the boundary of the Batley and Spen seat – and her strong links to the area and high profile locally were hailed as part of the reason for her success.Having attended university in Leeds and then Huddersfield, she began teaching at Bradford College while working as a wellbeing coach and fitness instructor.In 2016 her sister Jo Cox, the former MP for Batley and Spen, was murdered by a right-wing extremist in the run-up to the EU referendum.Soon after Ms Leadbeater began volunteering with the More in Common Batley and Spen group, part of The Jo Cox Foundation, which was established in the wake of her death to promote more cohesive communities both locally and nationally. She then moved to work as an ambassador for the Jo Cox Foundation and was appointed MBE in the most recent New Year’s Honours for her work in tackling social isolation.Ms Leadbeater has “devoted much of her time to creating a positive legacy for her sister and has worked tirelessly to create as much positive energy and action from Jo’s horrific murder,” her LinkedIn profile states.In May her candidacy in the Batley and Spen by-election was confirmed.In the lead-up to the 1 July vote, campaigning became increasingly hostile with Ms Leadbeater having been heckled and pursued on the campaign trail by a group claiming to represent Muslim parents, who voiced their opposition to Labour’s stance on LGBT+ rights. “This is where I live, this is my community. Don’t come here and shout at me in the street. The Muslim community of Batley and Spen deserve better than this,” Ms Leadbeater told the main heckler in a video which was shared widely and came to define her campaign.Speaking after her victory was confirmed on Friday morning, Ms Leadbeater said she hoped to do her sister proud as the new MP.“It was a very big decision to put myself forward. It has been a very emotional campaign and today is very emotional for me for lots of reasons,” she told BBC Breakfast.“But if I can be half the MP Jo was I know I will do her proud and I will do my family proud.” Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer praised the new MP, saying she had “shown inspiring resilience in the face of hatred and intimidation”.He added: “She was unafraid to call it out and ran a positive campaign of hope. Kim embodies everything I want the Labour Party to stand for: passionate about her local community and determined to bring people together.”Brendan Cox, the widower of Ms Cox, said: ”She was incredibly brave to step forward into it, not just around the security side of things given what happened to Jo but also the context, it was a very bruising and pretty horrible campaign at times.“Lord Mandelson said that Ms Leadbeater had ”embodied the politics of hope of reaching out beyond the sectarian division that it’s communities against communities, just as her sister Jo Cox did”. More

Defeated by-election candidate George Galloway has said he will challenge the result of Thursday’s contest in the courts.The former Labour and Respect MP stood in Batley and Spen but came third with 21.8 per cent of the vote, while Labour slid home with a narrow majority of 300.Speaking after the result, Mr Galloway said he had “multiple grounds” to overturn the result.He alleged that a “false statement” had been made about him laughing while the winning candidate Kim Leadbeater was abused.The heated campaign in the seat had seen some canvassers allegedly pelted with eggs and kicked in the head, though it is not clear who was behind the attacks. “The whole election campaign was dominated by lazy and false tropes about our campaign, about the thousands of people that voted for us, about their motives for doing so, in a way which defamed them as much as it defamed me,” Mr Galloway said.”So on multiple grounds we will apply to the courts for this election result to be set aside.”The final result saw Labour narrowly win with 35.19 per cent of the vote to the Tories 34.33 per cent, while Mr Galloway ended on 21.87 per cent.During the course of the campaign Mr Galloway had predicted that Labour would lose.The former Labour MP, who also previously sat as a Respect MP on an anti-war platform, largely targeted Labour voters.He made unseating Keir Starmer as Labour leader one of his campaign messages, playing off Sir Keir’s unpopularity in the constituency, according to polling. Speaking to the BBC after the result, winning Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater said: “I think sadly we’ve seen some nastiness during this by election campaign, and there are some divisions that need to be healed, but I think if anyone can achieve that, then, then I can.“I conducted a very positive campaign, I focused very much on the good people of Batley and Spen.” More

Labour’s new MP for Batley and Spen has refused to say whether Keir Starmer was more of an asset or problem on the by-election campaign trail.Kim Leadbeater narrowly hung onto the West Yorkshire seat by 300 votes, defying expectations of a Tory win but losing ground on her party’s 2019 result. The result is a relief for Labour leader Sir Keir, who is unlikely to face a widely-rumoured leadership challenge in the aftermath of the surprise victory.But asked during an interview on the BBC whether Keir Starmer was “more asset than problem” at the by-election, Ms Leadbeater said: “The focus of the campaign was very much listening to local people and speaking to local people and sometimes national issues came up, but I have to be honest, the vast majority of conversations were about very local issues. “People want to feel that we’ve got an MP who cares about this community, you know, and as someone who’s lived here their whole life and has lived in various different places across the constituency, I think that’s where the connection came from during the campaign, you know, the fact that I was local. “So national still plays a part but for me this really was about the local issues that people care about and they want someone they can trust and put their faith in going forward and I think the fact that I’m born and bred here has been really important to people.”Pushed to directly answer the question of whether Sir Keir was an “asset” or not on the doorstep, she would only reply: “I think, like I say, most of the conversations weren’t about the Labour leadership, most of the conversations were about people’s day to day lives. I think that’s probably all I can say really.”According to a Survation poll of the constituency conducted in mid-June, Sir Keir had a net favourability rating of -32 per cent in the constituency, compared to a +18 rating for Boris Johnson.Insurgent candidate George Galloway, who won nearly 22 per cent of the vote in the by-election to come third, tried to capitalise on Sir Keir’s unpopularity in the seat – running poster with the message “Starmer Out”.In a statement, Sir Keir praised the “inspiring resilience” shown by Kim Leadbeater in her victory “against the odds” in the Batley and Spen by-election.”This is a fantastic result for the brilliant and brave Kim Leadbeater who will be an incredible Labour MP for Batley and Spen,” he said.”Kim has shown inspiring resilience in the face of hatred and intimidation. She was unafraid to call it out and ran a positive campaign of hope. Kim embodies everything I want the Labour Party to stand for: passionate about her local community and determined to bring people together.”We won this election against the odds, and we did so by showing that when we are true to our values – decency, honesty, committed to improving lives – then Labour can win. This result shows Labour at its best. This is just the start.” More

It was Thursday night and after a long final day campaigning in the Batley and Spen by election, David Hall, leader of the Conservatives on the local Kirklees Council, was in an upbeat mood.The 46-year-old was born, raised and still lives in this West Yorkshire mill town constituency but, as a lifelong Tory, had never voted for a winning MP here.“That’s how long it’s been Labour,” he said. “You have to be knocking on for 50 to have helped elect a Conservative here. But we’ll never have a better chance of rewriting history than tonight.”Seven hours later, shortly before 5am at Huddersfield’s Cathedral House, his hopes were dashed.In an astonishing Labour victory – and one which will come as huge relief to Sir Keir Starmer – Kim Leadbeater held onto a seat which had been widely predicted to turn blue for the first time since 1997.The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox won 13,296 votes compared to Tory rival Ryan Stephenson’s 12,973. George Galloway – whose campaign, many feared, could decimate the red vote – came third with 8,264.“The priority now is to catch up on some sleep, maybe have a few glasses of fizz, and then there is lots to do,” said Leadbeater in a victory speech which then went onto make a pointed reference to the perceived toxicity of Galloway’s operation. “I think the campaign has highlighted that there is lots to do but I will do my very best to represent all of Batley and Spen. I am absolutely delighted that the people of Batley and Spen have rejected division and they voted for hope.”Her success – a narrow majority of just 323 – was an astonishing turn-around after pollsters, political commentators and bookies all predicted a comfortable Tory win here.Even in the immediate hours after polls closed at 10pm, optimism among blues remained at what might be termed Hartlepool Levels. Hall was far from the only Conservative who felt a historic victory could be on the cards. Melanie Stephen, another councillor in the constituency, said that a campaign that had focused on jobs and investment had “offered a real alternative to disillusioned” voters.By contrast Labour’s mood was gloomy. One party official had already begun to talk of possible lessons learned. Even Leadbeater herself appeared to admit she may have lost, in a statement posted on Twitter. “Whatever the result tonight,” she wrote, “the first priorities of the new MP must be to bring our community together and start working for local people.”Galloway’s campaign manager James Gill, meanwhile, was so certain of Labour’s fall he declared the party was likely to drop into third place behind both the Tories and his own man. “If they knew we’d begun this campaign, just me and George, from the boot of a car, I don’t know if Labour would laugh or cry,” he said, all waistcoat and wide smile, both of which would later disappear.Because, as the hours passed, and the ballots were piled up on trestle tables, the mood changed.By 4am, John Craig, the indefatigable Sky News correspondent, described things as “squeaky bum time”. At 4.30am, when the Tory MP Andrew Jones was asked by The Independent whether his party had won, he shrugged. “I’ve been here almost seven hours,” he said. “And I still have no idea.”Soon after that, two bundle recounts were called. “Don’t you love this drama?” enthused Craig as daylight appeared outside.By the time the candidates were called onto the stage, it was the 45-year-old Leadbeater who – eagle-eyed reporters noted – was the only one carrying a piece of paper: her victory speech.It was a climactic end to an oft-troubling contest.Accusations of intimidation, violence and criminal damage marred the past weeks. Labour activists reported being egged, insulted and threatened by Galloway supporters. They accused him of whipping up Muslim anger and hatred here by misrepresenting Labour’s position on Israel and Palestine; and of trying to turn neighbour against neighbour. A video emerged of Leadbeater being accosted in the street over her views on LGBT+ education in schools. The party reported intimidation at polling stations on Thursday to election officials. “It was schoolyard bullying stuff,” one Labour official said.In response, Galloway’s team accused Labour of criminal damage to a PA system and of taking down its posters. Gill refused to accept his man’s supporters were guilty of anything. “We condemn any [bad behaviour],” he said. “But show me evidence that these are members of our campaign. There is none.”After the declaration, meanwhile, Galloway himself took to the car park – trademark fedora and all – to suggest, in Trump style, that it had not been a fair election. “On multiple grounds we will apply to the courts for this election result to be set aside,” he said.Good luck with that.Either way, just as in Hartlepool, the implications of victory will be felt far more widely than in Batley and Spen alone; not least for the fact that it will relieve growing pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.Yet it should perhaps also be a reminder to Labour that a key chunk of its historic electoral coalition – northern working class Muslims – can no longer be blindly counted on to vote red.“If we’ve scraped through on this one, we got lucky,” one local member, Gulfam Asif tells The Independent. “But if we don’t learn lessons we won’t be lucky again. We must start listening to our communities and stop taking them for granted.” More

The husband of murdered MP Jo Cox has warned of the “worrying tone of political debate” in Britain following the Batley and Spen by-election.Brendan Cox said some candidates who contested the seat where his wife was killed by a neo-Nazi in 2016 had sought to “divide communities, to turn people against each other, and pour petrol on flames rather than bringing communities together”.He told The Independent the campaign had tipped over from robust political debate into “intimidation and abuse”, after physical attacks on canvassers.Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater, who is Ms Cox’s sister, was chased by an anti-LGBT+ activist shouting about “indoctrination” in schools days before voters went to the polls.Tracy Brabin, the West Yorkshire mayor and former Batley and Spen MP, said another group of Labour campaigners were “kicked in the head” and pelted with eggs on Sunday, sparking a police investigation.The previous day had seen hundreds of protesters descend on Batley after far-right candidate Anne Marie Waters called a day of action, while activist Laurence Fox held a “free speech” rally in the town on 24 June.The campaign had been dogged by accusations between different parties of smear campaigns and dirty tactics, including the removal of posters and use of fake political leaflets.Mr Cox said there was a “fine line between robust political debate, which is absolutely essential, and intimidation and abuse”.He added: “I think at times it has crossed over into intimidation and abuse, whether that’s of Kim or whether that’s of activists on the street. Whichever party is at the receiving end of that, I think it is a real problem for our politics.“The reality is that people who are willing to use violent rhetoric, to rile people up and to generate a level of hostility and anger, share responsibility in the consequences of that.”The election came almost exactly five years after Ms Cox, then Batley’s sitting Labour MP, was murdered by a neo-Nazi after leaving a constituency surgery.Labour’s Batley and Spen candidate heckled and chased on campaign trailFollowing the terror attack, the message that people have “far more in common than things that divide us” from her maiden parliamentary speech became a rallying cry in a push for a kinder politics.Mr Cox said he believed that politicians who play on division would be “on the losing side of history” and highlighted the huge advances in equality in his late wife’s lifetime.But he added: “The tone of the political debate is something that should worry us – the willingness of people to scream and shout at each other, to paint these very simplistic pictures or us versus them, of goodies versus evil.”Mr Cox acknowledged that there were pre-existing “tensions and divisions” in Batley, which have been stoked by the row over the use of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad at Batley Grammar School in March.Several far-right candidates who ran in the by-election used protests against the teacher their key campaign point, claiming they were proof of “Sharia law” and “Muslim dominance”.Meanwhile, a leaflet from George Galloway’s team said he would “campaign for the freedom of religious people not to have their faith or their prophets maligned and ridiculed” and “demand parental involvement in the school curriculum”.Mr Cox accused Mr Galloway of “playing factional community politics” and called the far-right candidates, including former Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, a “political and electoral irrelevance”.“These are all individuals on their own petty little ego trips,” he added. “None of them have anything resembling a political movement or force behind them.” More