Two more Reform local election candidates accused of offensive posts

Reform UK’s checks on candidates are “clearly not fit for purpose”, Labour has said after two more candidates in May’s local elections were accused of making offensive or potentially racist social media posts.Meanwhile, it emerged that Restore Britain, the party set up by the MP Rupert Lowe after he left Reform, appeared to have accepted a donation from someone who has called publicly on social media for “another Hitler” to come to power.Reform has faced a series of controversies about some of its candidates in the local elections in England on 7 May, as well as some people standing for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, despite Nigel Farage saying the party had greatly improved its vetting.Images of Facebook posts by Alan Stay, a candidate for Reform in the Isle of Wight, show he shared racist and sexist messages, including one that repeatedly used an explicitly racist epithet, arguing that it was not a harmful word. The post was made in response to a news story about a DJ losing their job for playing a record that featured the word

Mandelson scandal is biggest crisis for diplomatic service in decades, says ex-Foreign Office chief

The Peter Mandelson security vetting scandal is the biggest crisis for the diplomatic service in decades, a former Foreign Office chief has said.Simon McDonald, who was the permanent under-secretary of the government department until 2020, has spoken out in defence of Oliver Robbins, saying the civil servant was “thrown under a bus” by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, when he was dismissed from his role on Thursday.Robbins was sacked as permanent secretary of the Foreign Office hours after the Guardian revealed that Peter Mandelson failed his security vetting in January 2025, during the process to appoint him as ambassador to the US.It is said that Robbins knew about Mandelson’s failure to pass the UK Security Vetting (UKSV) assessment but did not forward that information to ministers. Starmer claims he was not made aware of the outcome of the vetting process until this week

‘Pure shock’: how ministers reacted to revelation of Mandelson vetting failure

When the Guardian revealed that Peter Mandelson had failed his vetting checks before being appointed as British ambassador to Washington, members of Keir Starmer’s cabinet, who were scattered around the world on government business, were caught by the same element of surprise.In Washington for the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had just come out of a meeting with the Ukrainian finance minister when she was told the breaking news.“I didn’t know anything about the vetting process,” she told reporters. “I’m the chancellor, I’m not the foreign secretary and I’m not 10 Downing Street, so I can’t give you any more information on that.”David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, was on a military flight back from the Middle East when he was summoned to the cockpit by the captain who told him that No 10 needed to speak to him over the radio

Green MP: Labour caricatures working-class people over greyhound racing

Labour is “offensively caricaturing” working-class people by saying they do not want a greyhound racing ban in England, the Green party MP Hannah Spencer has said.The sport has traditionally been associated with working-class culture and has historically been popular in so-called red wall areas, which Labour insiders suggest is part of the reason why there are no plans for England to follow bans announced last month in Scotland and Wales.The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said in parliament on Thursday that the gambling industry “brings joy to a lot of people”. She said: “The industry as a whole brings positive benefits to the United Kingdom.”Spencer, who won the Gorton and Denton byelection in February and has four rescue greyhounds, said: “Lisa Nandy just continuously offends people by saying that working-class people don’t care about dogs or each other

‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington

The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody

Keir Starmer faces ‘judgment day’ as Mandelson vetting debacle grows

Keir Starmer’s claim he was “staggered” not to have been told of Peter Mandelson’s vetting failure has provoked incredulity across Westminster and accusations that he sacked a senior civil servant to save his premiership.Senior government figures said the prime minister faced “judgment day” next week when Olly Robbins, who is understood to be furious at being forced to quit the Foreign Office, is expected to appear before a powerful committee of MPs.With Starmer’s position remaining precarious ahead of a statement he intends to make to MPs on Monday, the Guardian revealed on Friday that Starmer was left in the dark about information relating to Mandelson’s security vetting failure by two other top civil servants.The cabinet secretary, Antonia Romeo, and Catherine Little, the Cabinet Office’s permanent secretary, became aware of the situation last month.Government sources denied the two officials had been “sitting on” the knowledge that UK Security Vetting (UKSV) had advised that Mandelson should be denied clearance to become the UK’s ambassador to the US