Reform wins across northern England overturn decades of Labour control
Nigel Farage chose Sunderland for the launch of Reform UK’s local election campaign because, he said, it was where he had first sensed the “big political earthquake” underfoot.A decade ago next month, the city was the first to declare its vote in the Brexit referendum – a thumping 61% opting to leave the EU – and the aftershocks are still being felt across Labour’s heartlands.From the Lancashire coast to Roker pier, Labour’s “red wall” suffered an astonishing collapse on Friday as hundreds of council seats fell to Reform UK, overturning half a century of political control in Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside.In what will be one of the keenest-felt defeats, Labour lost control in Barnsley for the first time in the council’s 52-year history.The results were ominous for several of the party’s big beasts.
In Wigan, the constituency of the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, Reform UK won all but one of the 25 seats up for grabs, while Labour won none,In Tameside, a borough spanning the constituencies of the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and the chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds, Labour also lost control,One of the most brutal defenestrations, though, came in Sunderland, where Farage’s party won 58 of the 75 seats up for grabs,Labour was left with just five councillors after starting the day with 48 on the council it has run since 1974,Reform’s newly elected councillors include a man who appeared to say in 2024 that Nigerians in the city should be melted down to “fill in the pot holes”.
Another is a pub singer who rose to minor local fame for singing Sexbomb on ITV’s Benidorm.In the town of Houghton-le-Spring, south of Sunderland, Denise Ralph, 67, said she and her husband had ditched Labour for the first time to vote for Reform UK – and nor were they sentimental about it.“I’m sick of Labour, sick of them not getting things done,” she said, round the corner from the constituency office of Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary.Among Ralph’s complaints were the taxes on small business and the state of the high street.She and her husband had made a 30-mile round trip by car because the only items available at their closest town centre were “vapes and Christmas cards”.
Her husband, Brian Ralph, 69, added: “Labour’s not working so we wanted to try a change,In the general election we will probably vote for Reform again,”At Just the Sound record store, owner Stewart Smith, 79, said he was sad about the collapse of the historic Labour vote in the former shipyards and pit villages,Like many around here, Smith had voted Labour all his life – but opted for the Greens on Thursday,“Keir Starmer is a nice honest fella, but he’s not a politician.
I mean, ha’way,” he said, listing Labour’s missteps from the winter fuel allowance to the Peter Mandelson scandal.“I was afraid with these elections that Labour would hardly win a seat [in Sunderland].I didn’t want that, but they’ve only got themselves to blame.”His friend Steve Owen, 66, said he could not see Labour winning the next election with Starmer in charge, adding that the party began haemorrhaging support within months of the 2024 election when the U-turns began.Owen said: “We get a lot of ex-miners, factory workers and bus drivers in here, and the phrase they all use is: ‘I’m never going to vote Labour again as long as I’ve got a hole in my arse.
’”Two of Labour’s north-east MPs, Ian Lavery and Kate Osborne, were among a growing number calling for Starmer to go,But in Sunderland’s Silksworth sports centre, one of the city’s MPs, Lewis Atkinson, insisted that voters were “sick of soap opera politics” and did not want a return to “the revolving door of No 10”,Atkinson, who was elected in 2024, added that the public had sent a “really clear message” to Starmer and his ministers, and that “people like me need to listen to that”,
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
US added 115,000 jobs in April in surprise gain amid Iran war uncertainty
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
County cricket as it happened: Nottinghamshire v Surrey, Glamorgan v Somerset and more
The vacancy sign over one England openers slot continues to swing. The selectors fancy James Rew, but he keeps wicket and bats in the middle order for Somerset. How to square the circle? Friday’s answer was Rew opening for Somerset for the first time in his first-class career. It was a short-lived experiment, Rew lasting just seven balls before being bowled for four.Around Rew there were runs for young Josh Thomas (71) and Tom Lammonby (45) before Glamorgan debutant Tom Norton picked the first of three wickets
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
Iran war costs Toyota £3bn as prices of materials soar and sales fall
British Airways fares to rise in attempt to offset £1.7bn fuel cost hit
GameStop CEO opens eBay storefront to pay for potential eBay acquisition
Gas-fired power still looks a safe bet for Centrica in the renewables era
Senate Democrats press top media regulator Brendan Carr to back off ABC
Financial stability risks are rising as AI fuels cyber-attacks, IMF warns; oil below $100 on Iran peace hopes – as it happened