UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour has declared victory in London as it expects candidate Sadiq Khan to be re-elected as the Mayor of London.The full results are not yet in but Mr Khan has won four out of fourteen of the wards in the capital. The Tory candidate Susan Hall is expected to come second. Murmurs on Friday evening suggested the result may be closer than initially thought, as Mr Khan’s majority was expected to be hit by dissatisfaction with the Ulez scheme and the Labour party’s stance on Gaza.Pat McFadden, a senior member of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet, admitted that the party’s stance on Gaza, and Sir Keir’s support for Israel, had affected votes, saying that with “so many innocent people being killed I’m not surprised people have strong feelings about that”.Susan Hall’s campaign was hit by allegations of Islamophobia More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA former top prosecutor has hit out after the Conservatives twice reported Labour candidates to police just days before the local elections. The double whammy came as Rishi Sunak’s party faced predictions it would lose up to 500 councillors across England and struggle in two crunch mayoral votes. Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor, warned police forces were “being weaponised as part of the campaign by those who don’t care about the problems facing policing – particularly resourcing”. He also called for complaints during elections to be taken away from local forces and for prosecutions of “those with frivolous accusations for wasting police time”. Nazir Afzal is a former chief crown prosecutorOn Wednesday, West Midlands Police said it was assessing an allegation against Richard Parker, Labour’s candidate in the crunch election for the mayor of the West Midlands.That battle, alongside the vote for the mayor of the Tees Valley, was widely seen as crucial for Mr Sunak’s future, with rebel Tories ready to move against him had the party lost them. On Wednesday, The Independent revealed that the Tories had reported a Labour council group in Milton Keynes, a hotly contested bellwether seat, to Thames Valley Police. Labour sources condemned the complaint against Mr Parker as “shameful political game playing” as the Conservatives faced a disastrous set of election results. Labour claimed the use of police complaints by the Conservatives ahead of the local elections was “becoming more than a habit”.The double reporting of Labour last week follows the Conservatives’ push for an investigation into allegations Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner broke electoral law over the sale of her former council house. The Tories also reported Angela Rayner to the police over the sale a former home More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email London took center stage on Saturday as the counting of votes began in the capital city’s mayoral contest, a day after Britain’s governing Conservative Party suffered a drubbing in local election results.Sadiq Khan, the Labour Party mayor who is chasing a historic third straight election win, had been widely expected to win easily, but there are some concerns that the race may be tighter than previously thought. That’s mainly due to the fact that turnout at Thursday’s election — at a total of 40.5% — was higher in the outer suburbs than in the inner city. Khan’s main opponent, the Conservatives’ Susan Hall, focused her campaign on issues such as a levy imposed on high-polluting vehicles, which has resonated in the suburbs where residents depend more on their cars for work and essential travel. Also, there are concerns within Labour that Khan may have suffered from the blowback of the party leadership’s strong pro-Israel stance over the war in Gaza, which results Friday clearly showed depressed support in strongly Muslim areas in England.The result is due around lunchtime but officials have cautioned that it could run into the early hours of Sunday.Overall, the results of Thursday’s array of local elections cemented expectations that the Labour Party will return to power after 14 years in a U.K. general election that will take place in the coming months.Labour won control of councils in England that the party hasn’t held for decades, and was successful in a special election for a seat in Parliament. If those results are repeated in the general election, it would lead to one of the Conservatives’ biggest-ever defeats.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in the northeast of England was reelected, albeit with a depressed share of the vote. The victory of Ben Houchen, who ran a very personal campaign, appears to have been enough to cushion Sunak from any revolt by Conservative lawmakers.Sunak will be hoping that Andy Street will also hold on in the West Midlands, especially in Birmingham, which has a big Muslim community.Labour leader Keir Starmer conceded that the party has had issues with Muslim voters, but the results in general were positive for the man who is favorite to become prime minister at the next general election.“We’re fed up with your division, with your chaos, with your failure,” he said Saturday. “If you leave your country in a worse state than when you found it 14 years later, you do not deserve to be in government a moment longer.”He called on Sunak to call an election now. Sunak has the power to decide on the date, and has indicated that it will be in the second half of 2024.Thursday’s elections in large parts of England were important in themselves, with voters deciding on who runs many aspects of their daily lives, such as garbage collection, road maintenance and local crime prevention. But with a national election looming, they are being viewed through a national prism.John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said the results show that Sunak has not helped the Conservative brand following the damage accrued by the actions of his predecessors, Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss.“That in a sense is the big takeaway,” he told BBC radio.Sunak became prime minister in October 2022, after Truss’s short-lived tenure. She left office after 49 days following a budget of unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs for homeowners surging.Her chaotic — and traumatic — leadership compounded the Conservatives’ difficulties following the circus surrounding her predecessor Johnson, who was forced to quit after being adjudged to have lied to Parliament over coronavirus lockdown breaches at his offices in Downing Street.By midmorning Saturday, with most of the 2,661 seats up for grabs in the local elections counted, the Conservatives were down by more than 446 while Labour was up 173. Other parties, such as the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Green Party also made gains. Reform U.K., which is trying to usurp the Conservatives from the right, also had some successes, notably in Blackpool South, where it was less than 200 votes from grabbing second place. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailOne in five asylum seekers due to be deported to Rwanda is from Afghanistan, according to a charity supporting the refugees.Care4Calais says that from the first group it has contacted, 18 per cent were Afghans and another one in five – 21 per cent – were Syrians.It’s not known whether the Afghans found by the charity included workers who supported the British armed forces overseas, such as interpreters and pilots.On Wednesday ministers released pictures of the first asylum seekers being rounded up for deportation to Rwanda after a controversial bill legalising such flights finally obtained royal assent last week.The House of Lords fought to have Afghans who supported British forces exempted from the legislation, but ultimately lost when it was forced to give way to the government in parliamentary “ping-pong”.People protest against the Rwanda deportation bill outside Downing Street More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak may be a devoted “Swiftie” – but the prime minister’s government has provoked fury by reportedly blocking efforts to help save real swifts from extinction.Mr Sunak last summer went to a Taylor Swift concert in Los Angeles and even took part in a cycling class set to the “Shake It Off” singer’s music. But the Tories are said to have vetoed a popular campaign to change the law to create homes for swifts, the globally threatened bird species whose populations have plummeted by more than half in the UK.The government denied it had blocked the move – but campaigners claim a purported official letter proves ministers “have no plans to legislate”.Conservationists backed by the RSPB want swift bricks to be compulsory in all new housing to provide homes for these birds.They say nesting sites are being increasingly blocked off by insulation and house-improvements across the UK. Modern buildings have fewer bird nest places, and those in old buildings are being destroyed.Swift populations in the UK plummeted by 60 per cent between 1995 and 2020, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, leading to the bird being added to the red list of species most threatened.Conservationists say nesting sites are being increasingly blocked off by insulation and house improvements More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak is nervously awaiting the result of the West Midlands mayoral contest after suffering a series of humiliating setbacks in the local elections.With the worst local election results for the Tories in 40 years, the prime minister’s fate could be tied to whether Tory mayor Andy Street holds on when the votes are counted on Saturday.Labour insiders think Mr Street will scrape a “frustratingly narrow victory” that could be enough to see off an attempted coup by Tory MPs. They point out Mr Street had “campaigned as an independent” and not allowed Mr Sunak to campaign with him, nor did his electoral literature mention the Conservative Party.But a senior Labour figure admitted: “It would be better for us if he [Sunak] limps on.”In a worrying sign for Downing Street, the leader of a right-wing group of MPs has made it clear Mr Sunak will face increasing demands to move even further to the right in areas such as immigration and the culture wars should he cling on.Rishi Sunak looks on as Ben Houchen celebrates being returned as Tees Valley mayor More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak’s Conservative are on course for one of their worst local elections defeats, with polling experts suggesting they are on track to lose some 500 council seats.While Labour are benefiting most, the Tories have also been troubled by the ascendancy of Reform UK, which – with 17 per cent of the vote – were just 117 ballots away from snatching second place in South Blackpool, where Sir Keir Starmer’s party inflicted a crushing by-election defeat on the Tories.And despite so far failing to win a single council seat, the insurgent right-wing party also succeeded in pushing the Conservatives into third place in 16 town hall seats in Sunderland.And polling guru Sir John Curtice said Reform UK could have done greater damage to the Conservative vote had it fielded more candidates in the local elections.Noting that the Tory vote dropped “most heavily” in wards where Reform fielded a candidate, Sir John wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “The only silver lining for Tory HQ was that Reform only contested one in six of the wards where there was an election on Thursday. A full slate would have been even more devastating.”How and when did Reform UK emerge?The party was initially founded as the Brexit Party in 2018, with the backing of former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.While it stormed to victory in the European elections of 2019, winning nearly a third of the vote while campaigning for a no-deal Brexit, it ultimately stood aside against Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in 2019’s general election, receiving just shy of 650,000 ballots – 2 per cent of the national vote.Nigel Farage stood down in March 2021 More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour’s Sadiq Khan takes on Tory rival Susan Hall to win a third term as London mayor, with poll results prior to the actual vote unanimously suggesting he’d win comfortably.But, nevertheless, as London waits for the count to begin on Saturday, several journalists at outlets including GB News and the Byline Times have reported anxieties within the Labour camp and, somewhat incredibly, confidence in Conservative Camp Headquartrs that the result will be tight enough for a historic upset.While polls had tightened in the run-up to the vote, with Savanta putting Ms Hall 10 points behind Mr Khan’s 42 per cent, the incumbent Labour mayor himself fuelled such nerves when he warned – two hours prior to polls closing – that “low numbers of people voting” meant the “real risk” of Tory victory.Susan Hall’s campaign for London mayor has been fraught with controversy More