Markus Andrews

A senior member of Labour’s Blairite wing has said Keir Starmer must be replaced as leader to give the party a chance of winning elections. Andrew Adonis – who served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – said that Starmer was “a nice man and a good human rights lawyer” but lacked the political skills to succeed at the highest level.The centrist peer is the first senior figure to call for Sir Keir’s removal since Labour’s devastating by-election defeat in Hartlepool, which fell to Tories for the first time since the 1960s.Writing in The Times, Lord Adonis said that the defeat – and expected losses in council and mayoral elections – cannot simply be blamed on a “vaccine bounce” for Boris Johnson or the legacy of Brexit or Jeremy Corbyn.And he said that a shadow cabinet reshuffle would be no more than “displacement activity”.“The root cause of Labour’s malaise nationwide is the absence of a Labour leader trusted to deliver a better economic future meeting popular aspirations, an especially critical concern in northern towns that have fared so badly in recent years in terms of jobs, public services, education and prospects for young people,” said Lord Adonis.“I supported Keir to replace Jeremy. There was no one else credible and retrieving the leadership from the hands of the Marxist far-left was the first step towards electability. “I hoped that Keir, an effective ex-public prosecutor, might have sufficient leadership capacity and modernising social democratic vision to reshape Labour. “Unfortunately, he turns out to be a transitional figure – a nice man and a good human rights lawyer, but without political skills or antennae at the highest level.”And he concluded: “The question now is what Keir transitions to and when; and whether Labour needs to lose another general election, to Boris or Rishi Sunak, before choosing a leader who can win. “If this happens only after an unprecedented fifth defeat in a row, there may not be much of a Labour party left, and some other political vehicle – maybe a populist one – could seize the anti-Conservative cause in England.” More

It was a couple of hours before polling booths had closed on Thursday evening when rumours started swirling that Labour staffers were already leaving Hartlepool.They had, so it was said, seen enough. They feared just how humiliating things might become.At precisely 7.05am on Friday, in the town’s Mill House Leisure Centre, the full extent of those concerns was realised.In perhaps the most important by-election in a generation, this once impregnable Red Wall stronghold fell to the Conservatives for the first time in more than 60 years.Tory Jill Mortimer did not just beat Labour rival Paul Williams; she eviscerated him. She won by 6,940 votes.“The Labour campaigners have all shot off to Sunderland,” one blue declared. “But we’re coming for them there next.”Outside the centre, a local group calling themselves the Hartlepool Wombles had installed a massive inflatable of Boris Johnson. It stood there, taller than the pub it was anchored to, its thumbs up. “If he can get this town moving again, he’ll do me,” said landlord Taffy Turner.This was, for the avoidance of doubt, no ordinary Tory victory.Rather, analysts say, it appears to prove that even with Brexit now done, the prime minister retains his appeal in the sort of former Labour heartlands which he won so successfully at the 2019 general election. Simultaneously, it also raises questions about Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s ability to attract voters in the very same kind of post-industrial areas that were once his party’s bedrock.“Let me tell you,” said a jubilant Mike Young, leader of the Tory group on the local council. “Peter Mandelson [previous member of parliament for Hartlepool] said that Labour need not worry about the working class – they needed to court the liberal middle class – because the workers would have nowhere else to go. Well, tonight, they have found somewhere else. They have found us.”As other Tories became increasingly confident in the build up to polling day, Young himself – a business consultant living in the town – had kept his powder dry. “I don’t want a Neil Kinnock moment for us,” he had told The Independent days earlier. “People try and predict Hartlepool at their peril.”But by the early hours of Friday morning, even he was sensing victory as the scale of Mortimer’s win became ever more apparant. “I’ve had a bath, had a Domino’s and I’m feeling celebratory,” the 39-year-old said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life. I never thought I’d see it.”Sources suggested that when the first box of ballots was opened in front of both independent observers and candidates, the papers were a mass of Tory votes.Mortimer herself – a councillor from North Yorkshire – had built her campaign on perhaps two things. One: a promise to bring jobs, investment and opportunities to Hartlepool. Two: an absolute refusal to answer any questions from the media.She was in no more mood for answering questions on Friday morning. How did it feel to be the first ever female MP for Hartlepool, The Independent asked her in the centre’s hall. “It’s been a long night,” she said. Okay.Her victory speech at least offered something. “Labour have taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long,” she declared. “I heard this time and time again on the doorstep and people have had enough and now, through this result, the people have spoken and have made it clear it is time for change.”She promised jobs and opportunities.For every winner a loser. Dr Williams – who, in 2019, was unseated as MP in Stockton South – appeared only briefly and looked every bit as dejected as you’d probably expect from someone who had now lost two Labour safe seats in the space of just 18 months.Yet his campaign manager, the shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon, was insistent a good campaign had been fought. He held no truck with doubts – already being trumped by some party members online – over Sir Keir’s leadership.“I’m clear on this,” he said, “Keir Starmer has been an asset on the doorstep. We have not felt the same hostility we did in 2019. He has earned us the right to be heard. People have been warm and welcoming. In the end that hasn’t been enough this time but we can move on from here.”Indeed, such an opportunity will come sooner than many may have realised – or perhaps, in the Labour party at least, wanted.As Hartlepool wakes up on Friday to a Tory parliamentarian for the first time in 60 years, another former Red Wall seat will almost certainly be coming up for grabs.In West Yorkshire, Labour’s Tracy Brabin looks all but certain to be elected as the region’s newly created mayor. That means she will have to stand down from her position as MP for Batley and Spen, triggering another electoral contest in another Labour heartland.It will be one the Tories will now feel they can win. Who would bet against a Boris inflatable – thumbs up and gurning – turning up there too? More

Keir Starmer is “obsessed with media reality” and has no message for voters, Dominic Cummings has claimed after a set of torrid election results for Labour. Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff declared that the “centre ground” pursued by Sir Keir was “a pundit fiction” and “does not exist”. And he claimed that like nearly all politicians in Westminster Sir Keir “obsesses on media reality not actual reality” and was failing to win support because of it.”He’s played the lobby game (badly) for a year without a message to the country, now the pundits will a) savage him, b) tell him he needs to focus on them more,” the former Vote Leave chief said in a stream of tweets on Friday.”He’ll listen to the babble! What will he not do? Focus on public priorities [over] media priorities. We have a Downing Street and opposition who see their job as media entertainment service and neither knows how to be this better than Tony Blair or Mandelson. Neither will try to be… a government.”Mr Cummings claimed that it was “measure of how bad Keir Starmer is” that “until I googled yesterday I didn’t know who Shadow chancellor is and when I looked at photo I had zero recognition”.Referring to Anneliese Dodds, Mr Cummings said “she never touched my consciousness in a year”.The Independent has verified that Mr Cummings is in fact behind the Twitter account used to post the string of messages.The former Vote Leave chief said a sign of Sir Keir trying to improve would be a “sustained effort on violent crime” that went on “month after month after month”. He also suggested bringing in “serious people from outside SW1 to help” and producing policies to help improve policies . “The optimal political strategy for Conservative and Labour is almost identical and would be described by pundits … as ‘incoherent/mad’ because it does not fit SW1 ideas of left, right centre, but would be wildly popular. Neither will do it because both are oriented to media reality [ahead of] actual reality,” he said.He added: “If Labour had a leader 80% as good at comms as Blair and focused on actual reality, they’d win next general election easy. They don’t/won’t.”The former advisor said it was “impossible now to be confident what will happen” at the next election and that “both parties could easily be hated or held in contempt at same time”.Mr Cummings ran the Vote Leave campaign during the EU referendum and was Boris Johnson chief of staff until mid November, when he stepped down early. He was dramatically pulled back into politics last month after Downing Street accused him of being behind various leaks about the prime minister’s conduct during the pandemic – sparking a major row with his old boss.The former advisor’s comments come after Labour dramatically lost a by-election in the formerly safe seat of Hartlepool, which it held in 2017 and 2019. Early council election results declaring today also show the Tories taking former Labour strongholds across England, particularly in the north and midlands. More

Labour’s crushing defeat at the Hartlepool by-election and early local election results shows the party has failed win back Brexit-backing voters, the nation’s top polling expert has said.Professor John Curtice said Sir Keir Starmer’s party shows “no sign at all” of winning back Leave voters in red-wall areas in the north of England and Midlands.The polling guru said Brexit was still having a negative impact on the perception of Labour in its traditional heartlands, following the remarkable 16-point swing to the Tory party in Hartlepool.“A lot of that is undoubtedly fuelled by the fact the Brexit Party, which performed better in Hartlepool than it did anywhere else back in 2019 … has disappeared,” Prof Curtice told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“Leave voters definitely prefer the Conservatives to Labour – a lot of that vote has gone to the Conservatives,” he said, adding that Labour was now “primarily dependent on the views of Remain voters”.The expert said the same pattern was playing out in the handful of English local election results declared so far. “We’re seeing Labour losing ground quite heavily … above all in places that voted heavily for Leave.”Prof Curtice added: “There is absolutely no sign at all of Labour making ground back amongst the Leave voters that they lost in 2019.“Labour’s strategy on Brexit is to keep schtum in the hope voters will move on. The truth is voters have not moved on. Keeping schtum is not enough.”But he pointed out the Hartlepool loss was not entirely down to Brexit. “What Labour will be concerned about is that they haven’t at least managed to hold their own share of the vote. “Labour’s share of the vote is down by 9 points. So it’s not simply a case of Brexit Party going to the Conservatives.”Sir Keir is already facing a huge backlash from the Labour left over the Hartlepool result. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell claimed Brexit could not be used as an excuse, saying the party went into the by-election campaign “almost policy-less”.He added: “In any election you need to have an argument, you have to put up an argument and I think the Labour Party went into this election campaign almost policy-less.”Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle mocked Sir Keir’s attempts at “flag waving”. The left-winger claimed the leader could learn from the Democrats in the US “where policies united the party, the left was brought into top table, not pilloried”.Labour’s shadow communities secretary Steve Reed said Sir Keir needed more time to shift the perception of the party. “We have not yet changed the Labour party enough for people to feel able to go out and trust it with their and their children’s futures.”New Labour veteran Peter Mandelson told the Today programme that the “two Cs: Covid and Corbyn” were to blame. “If you take the last 11 general elections, it’s lose lose lose lose Blair Blair Blair lose lose lose lose.” More

Gavin Williamson has said the government plans on scrapping face masks in secondary school classrooms as early as 17 May – despite opposition from scientists and unions.The education secretary told The Daily Telegraph the measure is set to be dropped under the third stage of England’s roadmap out of lockdown.Boris Johnson is expected to confirm the change in advice on Monday, according to the newspaper.When schools fully reopened in early March after lockdown pushed much teaching online, new government advice recommended masks in secondary school classrooms in England to prevent the spread of coronavirus.Last month, Mr Williamson extended the advice to run until 17 May – but said he expected to scrap it after that.Since then, unions and scientists have pressed the government to keep masks in secondary school classrooms past this date, telling the education secretary they were “extremely concerned” the measure could be dropped within weeks.In an open letter earlier this week, education unions, public health experts and parents warned the education secretary such a move would “have consequences for the health” of children, their parents and the wider community.But Mr Williamson toldThe Telegraph: “As infection rates continue to decline and our vaccination programme rolls out successfully, we plan to remove the requirement for face coverings in the classroom at step three of the road map.”He added: “Removing face masks will hugely improve interactions between teachers and students, while all other school safety measures will remain in place to help keep the virus out of classrooms.”Deaf children told The Independent the measure had been difficult for them, leaving them struggling to understand what classmates with their mouths covered were saying.Last week, concerns about face coverings disrupting pupils’ learning and wellbeing were raised during the education select committee, during which a Tory MP said she had heard many stories of children “really suffering” from wearing masks.“Particularly as we’ve entered hay fever season and the pollen can lodge in the mask as the extra heat contributes to children who have skin conditions like teenage acne,” Caroline Johnson added.In the open letter to Mr Williamson, scientists and unions said face coverings “minimise educational disruption” by allowing students to keep attending school while protecting their families.The group – which includes members of Independent Sage – said masks help keep those at school safe, allow for wider restrictions to be safely relaxed as soon as possible and are “a critical part of the overall effort to reduce community transmission”.Their letter added: “To strip these necessary Covid protections, when there are already too few mitigation measures in schools, and when rates of Covid-19 are still significant would have consequences for the health of our children and their parents as well as their communities.”A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As infection rates continue to decline and our vaccination programme rolls out successfully, we plan to remove the requirement for face coverings in the classroom in line with step three of the road map.”Virus transmission in schools continues to drop, with the latest data showing a significant decrease in students and staff testing positive and cases isolated quickly thanks to our twice-weekly rapid testing programme.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

David Cameron is to appear before MPs next week to be grilled over his lobbying of government ministers on behalf of failed finance firm Greensill Capital.The former prime minister will face sustained questioning by the cross-party House of Commons Treasury Committee on 13 May.And financier Lex Greensill, who got a job inside government under Cameron’s administration and recruited him as a senior adviser after his departure from office, will also face the committee on 11 May.The committee is conducting one of seven inquiries into the Greensill affair, which saw Mr Cameron lobby Treasury ministers including chancellor Rishi Sunak by text message for the company’s inclusion in multi-billion pound government Covid support schemes.Committee chair and former Treasury minister Mel Stride said: “The Committee is determined to answer the key question as to whether HM Treasury responded appropriately to the lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital, including that carried out by David Cameron.“We also want to establish what lessons there are from Greensill’s collapse for the operation of the financial system.“Following our first evidence session of the inquiry last week with experts, next week we’ll hear from two of the key figures: Lex Greensill and David Cameron.“The committee will want to carefully examine their actions in relation to Greensill Capital and its interactions with HM Treasury.”Select committee hearings allow witnesses to be put under sustained and forensic questioning over a period of two hours or more in televised sessions.Treasury documents released under freedom of information laws showed that Mr Cameron sent multiple texts to Mr Sunak as the coronavirus pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, pleading for access to government-backed loans under the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).At one point, Mr Sunak told the former PM that he had “pushed” his officials to explore options for Greensill’s inclusion, but after a number of meetings with senior Treasury officials the company was told it was not eligible for the scheme. Greensill was later accredited to the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS), giving it the ability to offer government-backed loans of up to £50m.Mr Cameron also phoned two other Treasury ministers and lobbied a 10 Downing Street aide. Separately, he took Mr Greensill for private drinks with health secretary Matt Hancock in 2019, when the company was seeking to win NHS contracts.In a statement last month, the former PM insisted he had done nothing wrong, but accepted his communications with ministers should have been “done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation”. He denied reports that he stood to gain £60m from Greensill share options had the company succeeded, but declined to say how much they would have been worth. More

Elections 2021 – when will we know the results?Political leaders across the country have joined millions of Britons this morning by casting their votes on what prime minister Boris Johnson has described as a “very big day” for the UK.Today’s elections are the biggest set of local and devolved contests in decades outside of a general election.On what has been called “Super Thursday” by some, voters in Scotland and Wales will have their say on their national representatives in Holyrood and the Senedd respectively.Meanwhile in England, there are a number of mayoral contests, including a ballot in London, where Sadiq Khan is seeking re-election for a second term.There are also more than 140 councils running elections today and a potentially dramatic by-election in the north-east constituency of Hartlepool.The results of these votes could have profound implications for the future of the United Kingdom and the two major parties, Labour and the Conservatives.Show latest update

1620312630How are polling stations staying safe during the pandemic?This year’s local and devolved elections are unlike any other due to social distancing restrictions required for the coronavirus pandemic.The first wave of Covid-19 stopped elections completely in May 2020, with some votes, such as the London mayoral election, postponed by a year.Now, voting is taking place with a range of measures designed to limit the spread of coronavirus. These include: Using one-way systems, hand sanitiser and perspex screens for staffEncouraging mask-wearing in polling stationsSocial distancing in queuesEncouraging voters to bring their own pencils or penConrad Duncan6 May 2021 15:501620311565Voters queue outside a Glasgow polling station as they wait to cast their ballots while following social distancing rules: More

French trawlers have called off a protest at Jersey harbour without resolution of a dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights which has seen the UK accused of breaching its trade deal with the European Union.Around 60 French boats arrived off St Helier in the early hours of this morning, with flares blazing, in what one local fisherman described as looking like an invasion.They were greeted by Royal Navy gunships HMS Severn and HMS Tamar, deployed last night by Boris Johnson to “monitor the situation” amid increasingly bellicose language from both sides of the Channel.And French authorities dispatched two police coastal patrol boats to the English Channel island as a precautionary measure.The Athos and Themis remained in French territorial waters but were kept on hand to “ensure the security of navigation and safeguard human life”, said the maritime prefecture in the Normandy port of Cherbourg.The protesters entered the harbour shortly after 6am and delayed for more than four hours the departure of the cargo vessel and ferry Commodore Goodwill, which connects the Channel Islands to the British mainland.But they left around lunchtime after talks in the harbour with representatives of the Jersey government.Mr Johnson spoke by phone with members of Jersey’s government including chief minister John Le Fondré to reiterate his “unequivocal support” for the island and assure them that the Navy’s offshore patrol vessels will remain in the area “as a precautionary measure”. In Paris, Europe minister Clément Beaune told the AFP news agency that France “won’t be intimidated by these manoeuvres”.The European Commission appealed for “calm”, but warned that conditions which the UK has attempted to impose on licences for French ships operating in Jersey territorial waters breach the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement sealed by Mr Johnson on Christmas Eve.Commission spokesperson Vivian Loonela said the additional conditions were attached to licences to 41 EU vessels issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Friday to come into effect the following day.She said they did not meet the TCA’s requirements that limits on fishing activities should be non-discriminatory, based on a clear scientific rationale and notified in advance to those affected.“Until we have received further justifications from the UK authorities we consider that these new conditions should not apply,” said Ms Loonela.“Full compliance with the TCA is essential in this process.”A Commission spokesperson refused to say whether France would be within its rights to retaliate by cutting off electricity supplies to the island, as Paris has threatened.Disputes about the application of the TCA are subject to a long drawn-out process in which the aggrieved party can take the issue to an arbitration tribunal with representatives of both the UK and EU. Only if that tribunal’s ruling is ignored can the complainant country retaliate in a “proportionate” way by suspending its obligations towards the other sides, for instance by withdrawing access to fisheries.The Commission said it was currently in discussions “in good faith” with Defra.An official from the French presidential administration said the deployment of the French boats to Jersey “speaks to our concern, and frustration, and is an appeal, which we will also express, for the correct application of agreements,” sealed when Britain left the EU.And Mr Beaune said that Paris want “a quick and full application of the deal” not only in the Channel Islands but also in relation to licences which are awaited in the Hauts de France region around Calais and Boulogne.A representative of Normandy fishermen confirmed shortly after noon that the trawlers were heading back to port after talks with Jersey officials which he described as not being very positive.The island’s foreign minister Ian Gorst said the UK was “absolutely not” going to war with France over Jersey’s fish.But he added: “Let’s be clear, the threats emanating from Paris, and then the threat today of a blockade of our harbour here in St Helier, are totally disproportionate to the technical issues that we’re facing with the implementation of the Brexit trade deal.“We take those threats very seriously: we’re grateful to the prime minister for his full support, and what we need to do now is find diplomatic solutions to the issues that we’re facing.”Asked if it was disproportionate to send Royal Navy vessels to patrol the waters around Jersey, Mr Gorst said: “A minister in Paris threatened over technical issues on fishing licences to cut off Jersey’s electricity.“We have to take such threats seriously and respond appropriately.”Jersey fisherman Josh Dearing described the scene at the port of St Helier on Thursday morning as “like an invasion”.The 28-year-old said: “There were probably about 60 boats. There were a few hand-held flares and smoke flares going off and apparently a few bangers and stuff going off from the French.“It was quite a sight. It was impressive, I looked from the shore this morning and it was just like a sea of red lights and flares already going off at sea. It was like an invasion.”The president of Jersey Fishermen’s Association, Don Thompson, said the “big question on everybody’s lips right now is ‘will our government capitulate to that sort of tactic?’”.He told ITV’sGood Morning Britain: “The French fishermen out there want conditions removed from their licences so that they can fish with no constraints in our waters, whilst our boats are subject to all sorts of conditions about how much they can catch, where they can go.”Mr Thompson said such tactics might be used “again and again in the future”, adding: “They’re not very happy fishermen down here this morning, suspecting that we probably will see our government give in to that.”French fisherman Romain Davodet said he was unable to work normally under new rules which imposed “too many” restrictions on numbers of fishing days or areas available for fishing in Jersey waters.Defra refused to comment on ongoing talks over the dispute. More