Zack Polanski calls two-party politics dead after mayoral and council wins
Zack Polanski has declared Britain’s two-party politics “dead and buried” as his Green party won its first two mayoral elections and gained councillors across England, winning four councils outright.As Labour losses piled up across the country and the Conservatives endured another disappointing set of results, Polanski sought to present his party as emerging from the results as the most viable option for opponents of Reform.“It is very clear that the new politics is the Green party versus Reform,” he said.Speaking at the Hackney count centre in east London, the scene of the first mayoral success, he added: “I said that the Green party were going to replace Labour.That’s exactly what we did in Gorton and Denton, it’s what we’ve done in Hackney, and we’re seeing that right across the country.
“In fact, in almost all of our seats, right across the country, whether they’re target or non-target, the Green party vote share is rising.”Late last night, the Greens also took a majority on Hackney council, ousting Labour for the first time since 2002, when the council had no overall control.With 127 of 136 councils having declared results by 11pm, the party was celebrating 297 new council seats, along with seats in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments for the first time.Prof Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said that the Greens’ failure to make more of an imprint in London reflected the capital’s unique status in England, with results appearing to favour the more traditional parties.“The Greens haven’t done perhaps as well as they were expecting, with the sense of that momentum that was gathering around the party in the capital seeming to be fizzling out slightly.
”In a blow to Keir Starmer, though, the Greens took control of Hackney council, where Labour had been in power for all but eight years since the borough was created in 1964, as well as unseating Labour from mayoral power in the east London borough after 24 years.The new mayor, Zoë Garbett, told reporters she was “elated” and promised it was just the beginning, after the party won with 35,720 votes to Labour’s 26,865.Her party colleague Liam Shrivastava was elected the new mayor of Lewisham hours later.“Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government,” Garbett said.“It’s not old politics … versus new parties.
This is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope.”The Greens also won overall majorities in Norwich and Hastings from no overall control, and took Waltham Forest from Labour.In Hastings, the party gained 10 additional seats, while Labour lost seven of its nine councillors.The council leader, Glenn Haffenden, said the results were “beyond our wildest dreams”.“We took over Hastings council two years ago when it was in severe financial problems,” he said.
“This latest budget we’ve passed, we’ve managed to have a surplus of money to actually spend back into Hastings,That has been a huge reason as to why people are voting Green,”Haffenden added: “I think Zack has been one of our biggest reasons as to why we’ve done so well in Hastings,I don’t want to put down our hard work we’ve done in Hastings, either,But I think Zack speaking nationally to people that are generally struggling with the cost of living, the broken Britain we’re seeing at the moment – it’s pushed us forward.
”In a sign of disenchantment in many London boroughs, which have long been a stronghold for the party, the Labour leader of Camden council, the borough that takes in Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency, lost his seat to the Green party.But the pollster and former YouGov chair Peter Kellner said the Green party was facing a similar challenge to that which confronted Reform in the 2024 general election – that while the party was picking up a larger share of votes, it was failing to turn them into seats and political power.“They are feeling the impact of the first-past-the-post system, and because its vote is more evenly spread they are not winning seats,” he said.“They would be much better off doing really well in a handful of places and nothing anywhere else, because they would end up with more political sway than if they come second in many places.”In Hackney, Garbett, who succeeds Labour’s Caroline Woodley as mayor, said in her speech: “All the work I’ve ever done has been to change the system and services that let people down, harm people and widen inequality.
Our borough has over a quarter of a million people.“So many people have been failed by the government and the systems – whether it’s parents, migrants, trans people, disabled people and younger people, the list goes on and on,” she said.Polanski said he was less interested in attacking Labour, but wanted to show it the winning formula combining vision and hope.“I’m not interested in just criticising the government,” he said.“When you combine hope and a plan, that’s when you win elections like Hackney.
”Polanski sees Hackney, which has one of the capital’s most diverse populations, as a bellwether for the Greens, with reports that he may use it to launch his own Westminster career,
Great Western Railway to be nationalised in December
Great Western Railway will be nationalised in December, the government has announced.The train service, which has been in private hands for 30 years, mainly run by First Group, will be the 11th train operator on the national railway brought back into public ownership.When the Labour government was elected in 2024, legislation was immediately passed to renationalise all passenger trains when contractually allowed, a process that is expected to conclude by the end of 2027.The date for GWR train services to be nationalised has now been set for 13 December, the Department for Transport (DfT) said, when new timetables around the country are set to take effect.GWR has worked closely with the DfT in recent years in upgrading the mainline and introducing a new fleet of intercity trains
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US employers added 115,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3%, a surprisingly robust gain to the labor market as the US-Israel war with Iran continued to drive up economic uncertainty.Economists projected about 55,000 new jobs and a 4.3% unemployment rate. A day earlier, the labor department announced 200,000 people filed for weekly unemployment benefits, a slight increase from the week before
UK schools should remove pupils’ online photos as AI blackmail threat grows, say experts
UK schools should remove pictures of pupils’ faces from their websites and social media accounts because blackmailers are using them to create sexually explicit images, experts have said.Child safety experts and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) warn that criminals are using AI to manipulate photos of children and then demand cash not to publish them.They are recommending educational institutions remove identifiable pictures of children from their websites and social media accounts – or consider not using them at all.The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said an unnamed UK secondary school had recently been subjected to a blackmail attempt after criminals used the institution’s website or social media accounts to take photos of schoolchildren and then, using AI tools, turned them into child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The blackmailers sent the images to the school and threatened to publish them online if they did not receive money
Meta sues Ofcom over fines regime for breaches of Online Safety Act
Meta has launched a legal challenge against the UK’s media regulator over the fees and fines regime it is enforcing under landmark digital safety legislation.The Facebook and Instagram owner is claiming that Ofcom’s methodology for calculating the charges is flawed and should not be based on a company’s global revenue. Breaches of the Online Safety Act can be punished by fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue (QWR) or £18m – whichever is higher.In the case of Meta, which reported revenues of $201bn last year, Ofcom could in theory impose a fine of $20bn for breaches. Under regulations introduced in September, Ofcom’s fees will also be based on a proportion of an organisation’s QWR and apply to businesses that made more than £250m of this revenue a year
Slimline Stokes makes impression with pair of wickets on red-ball return
To little fanfare, Ben Stokes has slipped out of the shorter formats. His last one-day international was at the 2023 World Cup, his last Twenty20 international helped England win its equivalent a year earlier. His most recent white-ball match of any description came during the Hundred in 2024, a tournament he has since shouldered arms to.Red-ball cricket is the thing that gets the England captain’s juices flowing these days and had he not fractured his cheekbone in the nets back in February, the plan was to be available for Durham from the start of the season. Fair play, given the additional money he could earn by diversifying in his final years
A Piece Of Heaven returns Chester to even keel after ground chaos
A Piece Of Heaven’s 7-1 success in the Chester Cup, the most popular and historic race of the year at the world’s oldest racecourse, was a fine way to round off the track’s May festival meeting on Friday, not least after a day when, for around an hour or so in early afternoon, the event had teetered on the edge of an expensive, embarrassing disaster.The odds that the middle day of Chester’s showpiece event would be abandoned, with around 15,000 spectators at the track for Ladies’ Day, seemed to be shortening at 2.30pm on Thursday, as a delegation of jockeys and trainers inspected the turf on the home turn.Several riders had reported slipping in the opening race, prompting emergency remedial work by Chester’s ground staff. A few minutes earlier, Maureen Haggas, assistant to her husband, William, at one of Newmarket’s biggest stables, had scratched Morshdi, the second-favourite, from the Dee Stakes, the day’s big Derby trial
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