Vote Lib Dem or ‘regret it’ living under a Reform council, Davey tells voters
Voters in the home counties will “regret it for a long time” if they do not back the Liberal Democrats and wake up to a Reform-led council, Ed Davey has said.The Lib Dems leader has identified five councils – East Surrey, West Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex and Huntingdonshire – where his party could win overall control, as well as swathes of the former “blue wall” where Davey said it was a “straight fight” between his party and Reform at the English local elections.More than 5,000 councillors will be elected on Thursday, with more than half of these being in either London or the south-east.Some projections show the Lib Dems gaining 500 seats, with Labour losing as many as 1,800.The Greens are also expected to gain hundreds of seats, with top projections putting the figure at 1,700.
The pollsters More In Common expect the Lib Dems to take the newly created East and West Surrey councils.“If we are going to stop Reform, we are the party most capable of doing that, it is on a knife edge in some of these areas,” Davey said.“People could vote Labour or Green and then we will get narrowly beaten by Reform and people will regret it for a long time.”Unlike previous elections, Labour and the Conservatives have a fractured voter base, putting many seats up for grabs for the Greens, Liberal Democrats and Reform.Davey said the Lib Dems were a better bet than the Greens, adding: “We are finding that when people realise the choice is us or Reform, lots of people who were even thinking of voting Conservative were coming to us, certainly Labour and Green are coming to us.
Tactical voting will be key, Reform is working really hard, spending lots of their money, meaning results will be on a knife edge,”He said that in parts of the north of England polling showed a straight fight between the Lib Dems and Reform, including Stockport and Hull, and that areas such as Portsmouth in the south should consider voting Lib Dem to stop Reform,“I am determined we stop them now,” he said,A lack of opposition to Donald Trump and weakness over the war in Iran had hurt the chances of Reform and the Conservatives, he said, adding that it was a mistake for the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, to have tacked so hard to the right,“When you talk to that traditional one-nation, pro-Europe liberal Tory, they are pretty upset with Kemi Badenoch; they feel the Conservative party has left them,” he said.
“They look at us and see us standing up for Britain against Trump’s bullying, they like what we are saying on the economy and defence, and they feel more comfortable with us.”The Lib Dems were well placed to take these areas because, he said, unlike Labour and the Greens, they could convince disillusioned Tories to give them their vote.“There is a big difference between us and the Greens,” he said.“The Greens are basically taking votes from Labour.We are taking votes off the Tories to stop Farage.
I don’t think the Greens are going to play much role in stopping Reform, whereas we are literally central.”He said his party had been fighting hard on local issues, including fly tipping, potholes and sewage pollution in rivers.Davey also plans to campaign to reduce the price of a pint after it was reported that it had hit £10 in some parts of London.“I like a pint like everyone else and the idea of £10 a pint should make people think twice,” he said.As well as proposing to cut national insurance tax for employers if the Lib Dems were elected to government, “we would look at cutting VAT for hospitality as well”.
But more broadly, he said he had noticed the US president come up in conversations on the doorstep,“He is coming up all over the place, people will talk about potholes and then they will go on to Trump in the same conversation,The vast majority of people detest Donald Trump and they associate Nigel Farage as being Trump’s champion; he recently referred to Trump as the ‘boss in Mar-a-Lago’,”Davey reiterated that people who do not want “Trump-style policies” should vote tactically, including voting Liberal Democrat in areas where they were polling second behind Reform,“The fact Farage was cheerleading for Donald Trump and calling for us to get into the war has angered many,” he said.
“Progressive voters obviously can’t stand Trump, but even Tory voters and some Reform voters [can’t either] if they have seen that Farage wants to bring Trump-style policies to the UK,” This article was amended on 5 May 2026,An earlier version paraphrased Ed Davey as saying people should consider voting Green in Portsmouth to stop Reform; in fact, he said people should vote Lib Dem there,
Man produces sperm from testicular tissue frozen as a child in breakthrough trial
In a groundbreaking fertility trial, a man whose testicular tissue was frozen before he underwent chemotherapy as a child to be re-transplanted 16 years later has been able to produce sperm.It is the first time a transplant of cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissue has been demonstrated to restore sperm production in an adult patient. The 27-year-old man had the sample frozen when he was 10, before undergoing potent chemotherapy as part of treatment for sickle cell disease.“This is a huge finding,” said Prof Ellen Goossens, of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, who led the trial. “Many more people will have hope that they can have biological children
Coalition accused of secretly giving big tobacco lobbyists private platform in parliament
Anti-smoking campaigners have accused the Coalition of secretly giving tobacco giants access to a parliamentary inquiry, a move they say undermines more than 15 years of precedent to protect public health.On Monday, representatives from tobacco company Philip Morris appeared before a Senate committee considering the illegal tobacco trade in Australia.Chaired by South Australian Liberal senator Leah Blyth, the committee also heard from anti-smoking campaigners, health groups and Australian Border Force, but Labor, the Greens and the Australian Council on Smoking and Health raised concerns that executives from cigarette manufacturers were allowed to give evidence in a closed session in Canberra.The committee published a full program for Monday’s hearings, but did not list evidence from Philip Morris or any other “in camera” – or private – session.Labor senator Jana Stewart and Greens senator Jordon Steele-John objected to the in-camera evidence by representatives of Philip Morris on Monday afternoon
Lorraine Ribbons obituary
My wife, Lorraine Ribbons, who has died aged 72, worked for many years as a volunteer for the Association of Children with Heart Disorders (ACHD), visiting young people with heart conditions in hospitals, arranging for them to go on holidays and providing support.Two of her three children were born with heart conditions and that led her into volunteering from the late 1970s onwards, befriending and counselling other families in the same situation.A trained nurse, through the auspices of the ACHD she gained access to the cardiac wards of Edinburgh Sick Children’s hospital and was encouraged by the consultants there to roam around providing emotional and practical help.She also took it upon herself to arrange holidays and weekend breaks, setting up accommodation in the countryside, where they would take part in activities such as pony riding and archery.The holidays were often transformative for the youngsters, giving them a chance to be apart from their parents and to get up to the kind of high-spirited stuff that all teenagers like to be involved with – without someone breathing down their necks saying: “You can’t do that
Martha’s rule may have saved more than 500 lives in England since 2024
More than 500 people have received potentially life-saving care thanks to Martha’s rule, which gives hospital patients the right to seek a second opinion about their health.They were moved to intensive care or a specialist unit after they, a loved one or a member of NHS staff triggered the patient safety mechanism, which the NHS in England began using in 2024.Martha’s rule lets patients, relatives and staff call a helpline run by the hospital if they are worried about the person’s condition or treatment and ask for a “rapid review” of their care.In the 18 months between September 2024 and February 2026, a total of 524 adults and children about whom concerns had been raised were moved to an intensive care or high-dependency unit, a specialist hospital or a specialist ward at the hospital where they were already an inpatient.Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said the figures proved that Martha’s rule is “already having a life-saving impact”
Solicitors report late flood of no-fault evictions before ban in England
Solicitors say they have been inundated with requests to serve last-minute section 21 no-fault eviction notices before they are banned when the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force in England on Friday.The legislation, which has been hailed as the biggest change to renting in a generation, bans no-fault evictions, limits rent increases and abolishes fixed-term tenancies.On the eve of the new rules, solicitors said they were working long hours to keep up with the sudden demand for eviction notices, while Citizens Advice said thousands of people facing a no-fault eviction had approached it for help in the last month.In March, the service helped 2,335 people dealing with a no-fault eviction, up 16% on the same time last year, as well as more than 1,800 people dealing with disrepair such as damp and mould, and more than 1,000 with rent increases.Thackray Williams, a London- and Kent-based law firm, said it had received a wave of last-minute instructions from landlords looking to evict their tenants and sell their properties because of the legislation
Trial of non-invasive endometriosis scan boosts hopes for quicker diagnosis
A non-invasive scan for endometriosis has shown promising results in a trial, boosting hopes for far quicker diagnosis.The trial, which included 19 women with the condition, suggests that an experimental radiotracer, called maraciclatide, can “light up” endometriosis on a scan. The current need for a surgical investigation is seen as a major obstacle to timely diagnosis, with women in England typically waiting nearly a decade.Prof Krina Zondervan, head of department at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health (NDWRH) at the University of Oxford, and co-lead on the study, said: “The most prevalent subtype of endometriosis currently evades reliable detection, leaving women no choice for diagnosis other than invasive surgery. If these results are confirmed in larger phase 3 studies, imaging with maraciclatide could transform clinical research and practice and potentially empower the development of treatments for women across the globe
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