MPs wary of move against Starmer while war is raging

A week after Labour’s election victory in July 2024, officials at Labour HQ held their first crisis meeting about the May 2026 local elections.The party had just secured a 174-seat majority and already strategists were predicting it would be very tough, though none were assuming the prime minister’s own position would be vulnerable.Now, according to multiple officials, it will be nothing short of a “bloodbath” – though it is an open question whether the parliamentary Labour party will use it to depose Keir Starmer.One Starmer ally said it would be impossible to spin the results. “There’s no point us doing expectation management, as the results are going to be terrible anyway,” they said

Keir Starmer to launch local elections campaign with focus on cost of living

Keir Starmer will say that a vote for Reform UK will put at risk progress Labour is making on the cost of living, arguing that Britain’s values are being tested in a volatile world.Launching the party’s local elections campaign with a new slogan: “Pride in Britain”, Starmer will urge voters to stay the course with Labour. A dire set of results are predicted for the party in Wales, Scotland and English councils, especially in the north-east of England and London.Starmer will put the focus on government action on the cost of living as he launches the campaign at a rally in the West Midlands alongside the Labour deputy leader, Lucy Powell, and other cabinet ministers.But party chiefs have conceded the polls are likely to result in sweeping losses for Labour

Labour has left its loyal supporters disillusioned | Letters

I wonder how many members still clinging on to the Labour party winced at Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Ed Miliband’s stock is rising because he’s a rare commodity in Labour these days: a thinker, 27 March). Like everyone else, she recognises that Labour has become an intellectual vacuum, with its only clear features being unpleasant policies designed to exploit the far right’s prejudices.But the electorate is ahead here. They know that resurrecting the once admirable but now compromised Ed Miliband will do nothing to heal the existential injury in the party. Most people no longer hark back to the halcyon days of New Labour’s claim to build a better society

EU offers UK ‘emergency brake’ on youth mobility scheme numbers

An “emergency brake” could be put on the number of people coming to the UK from Europe as part of a new youth experience scheme, under terms being offered to Britain by EU negotiatorsBritain wants an outright cap, but the EU opposes this on the basis that the scheme is supposed to be a positive one aimed at celebrating and preserving links with the EU.Keir Starmer’s government agreed to work towards a “youth experience scheme” with the EU in May last year, but the specifics are still being negotiated.The scheme is part of talks in which the EU hopes to “reset” relations with the UK amid fears negotiations have been foundering before a planned July summit.The forthcoming talks are viewed in Brussels as the start of a new phase of relations and take place as the UK will also feel knock-on effects from internal EU changes such as a new migration pact among member states from 12 June.The EU’s pact on migration and asylum – which is aimed at governing flows of migrants across Europe and governs how they will be checked at borders – is expected to have an impact on Channel crossings

‘A cruel penalty’: disabled people face lower benefit payments if conditions not deemed lifelong

Hundreds of thousands of severely ill and disabled people making new claims will have their benefits cut if the government assesses that their condition might improve, charities have said.In April, the health element of universal credit – an extra payment for people assessed as too unwell to work or prepare for work – will be halved to £50 a week and frozen for new claimants unless their condition is found to be terminal or severe and lifelong with no prospect of improvement.Ministers had pledged last summer that the “severe and lifelong” clause – known as the severe conditions criteria – would shield the most severely disabled and ill people from the new lower benefit rate.But charities and disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have told the Guardian that a wide range of debilitating conditions may not meet the strict eligibility criteria, despite them often leaving someone unable to work. This includes multiple sclerosis, learning disabilities, bipolar, Parkinson’s, ME and long Covid

Reform insiders fear links to extreme figures such as Andrew Tate will scare off voters

Reform insiders are becoming increasingly irritated by the party’s association with Andrew Tate and other extreme online celebrities whose views are too toxic for the mainstream voters Nigel Farage needs to win over.Insiders have revealed that as Reform prepare for power they are trying to end their association with more controversial figures on the right such as Tate, whose extreme and misogynistic content could taint the party’s credibility.While courting online popularity before the party’s boom in the polls, their leader, Farage, appeared loth to criticise the online “manosphere” influencer. Tate is facing 21 charges for crimes including human trafficking should he ever return to the UK.In 2024, Farage said in online interviews that Tate was an “important voice” for the “emasculated” and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school”