Keir Starmer’s leadership on line after Labour’s disastrous election night
Hartlepool once nearly triggered Keir Starmer’s resignation; local election results overnight mean it may yet do so in the coming days.Five years ago, Labour crashed to a humiliating defeat in a byelection for the city’s Westminster seat, prompting Starmer to consider resigning as opposition leader.On Thursday night, the party lost every single council seat it was contesting in the town to Reform UK, putting Starmer’s leadership in question once more.The local Labour MP, Jonathan Brash, told the Guardian on Thursday night: “I think the very best thing the prime minister could do now is address the nation tomorrow and set out a timetable for his departure.“We can then have an orderly transition, one that, by the way, ensures the full breadth of talent within the Labour party is able to stand should it want to.
”In Downing Street, where extra advisers have reportedly been brought in to help the prime minister survive the next few days, officials will be watching carefully to see if others follow Brash’s lead,On Friday morning, most senior Labour MPs were keeping their powder dry after David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, urged colleagues to remain loyal,“You don’t change the pilot during a flight,” he said on Thursday night,“You carry on and you recognise too that governments sometimes, particularly incumbent governments, have it hard, but of course we will reflect on what we’re hearing from the electorate,There’s a lot of frustration.
”Starmer and his allies have long known that the local and devolved election results would be a perilous moment for the prime minister,Robert Hayward, the Conservative peer and polling expert, had predicted the party could lose approximately 1,850 councillors in England, and polls suggested it will lose the Senedd in Wales and fall further behind the Scottish National party at Holyrood,Early results from Thursday night showed Reform making significant ground, picking up council seats across the north and the Midlands, in former Labour heartlands such as Wigan, Bolton and Salford,Labour lost control of councils in Hartlepool, Tameside, Redditch and Tamworth,By early Friday morning, Labour had lost more than 229 council seats – more than half of those it was contesting.
Reform had gained 305 seats, making it the biggest winner from overnight counting.One bright spot for Labour came from London, where the party proved more resilient than some were expecting, holding on to Hammersmith and Fulham council and defeating a strong Liberal Democrat challenge in Merton.Hayward said: “The early results are as bad for Labour as predicted.They are probably slightly worse outside London, but slightly better inside the capital, which looks like it will be different from the rest of the country.”John Curtice, the polling expert and professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said the night was proving to be one of “substantial success” for Reform.
The Conservatives also suffered heavy losses to Nigel Farage’s party, losing 122 council seats in England.However, the Tories celebrated success in Westminster, where it regained control of the council from Labour.The Liberal Democrats said they were expecting an eighth set of local election gains in a row, while the Greens were hoping to make headway with results later in the day.As Starmer contemplates one of the party’s worst set of election results in history, he may take solace in the fact that every one of his likely challengers is facing heavy losses in their own patch.Labour lost control in Tameside, for example, which is the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s local council.
And it struggled in other places across the north-west, where the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, is hoping to find a Westminster seat in the coming months,Experts also expect the party to do badly in Redbridge, the council that is home to Wes Streeting, the health secretary,Hayward said: “The one bright spot so far for Starmer is that all his natural challengers are seeing their own base swept away,”
Seth Meyers on Trump’s poll ratings: ‘His disapproval is higher than Covid and January 6’
On Monday night, late-night hosts weighed in on Donald Trump’s erratic statements on Iran, rising oil prices and the shuttering of every budget-conscious traveller’s favorite low-cost airline.Seth Meyers opened his Monday night monologue with news of a new poll finding that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to the Iran war and Trump’s plan to peacefully guide oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz.“Oh wait, I’m getting word that the administration has unveiled a new name for the mission,” the host joked. “Let’s see, what is it called: Operation Clusterfuck.”Meyers then reacted to a new Ipsos poll which showed Trump’s disapproval ratings at a record 62%, in large part due to gas prices rising $1
The Parallax View: remember when Hollywood made potent political cinema?
Watching Hollywood cinema in 2026 can make for a curious experience. Take a look out the window and you’ll notice that the US, and indeed the world, is in a polycrisis – though you’d hardly know it from the films at the multiplex. The odd timely picture aside, Hollywood today directly engages with the present moment only rarely; more Minecraft Movie than One Battle After Another.In the 70s, when things were arguably last in a comparably sorry state – Kent State, Vietnam and Watergate for the US, economic crises and violent acts of world revolution globally – popular cinema responded very differently. Out of the establishment-sceptical New Hollywood that emerged after the demise of the Hays code, there came a wave of confronting social and political dramas, strongly allegorical sci-fi and paranoid thrillers, including one of the most deliriously entertaining examples of the latter ever made: The Parallax View
‘We got a drive-by egging in Baltimore’: Super Furry Animals on making The Man Don’t Give a Fuck
Gruff was the first person I ever met who could just churn out songs – good, catchy ones. I joined his band Ffa Coffi Pawb, but by 1992 they’d split and Gruff and I were living in Cardiff, as were Bunf, Guto and my brother Cian, the other future Furries. We started out doing techno sets, and I had a little home studio where we demoed ideas for songs. Our first singer, the actor Rhys Ifans, slept on a mattress in the corner.I had this Steely Dan album, Countdown to Ecstasy
Ittai Gradel obituary
With a doctorate in Roman religion and a university chair, Ittai Gradel, who has died of cancer aged 61, might have confined his achievements to a successful scholarly career. However, in 2008, bored with routine bureaucracy, he left his post at Reading University, and returned to his native Denmark to deal in antiquities.His disillusionment with academia was reinforced when, a few years later, he discovered that large-scale thefts had been taking place from the British Museum’s collections. At first reluctant to believe the accumulating evidence, Gradel contacted the museum in 2021 only when it became impossible to deny – and was told nothing was missing.Ill and increasingly impatient, he took his cause to the museum’s trustees, and at last the police were called
Man charged over bomb hoax after Peter Kay show evacuated
A man has been charged over a bomb hoax after a live show by comedian Peter Kay in Birmingham was stopped when a “potentially suspicious bag” was found around the venue.The Utilita Arena Birmingham was evacuated and a 19-year-old man was taken into custody, West Midlands police said on Friday evening.On Saturday, the force said: “A man has been charged in connection with the events which led to the evacuation of the Utilita Arena in Birmingham last night.“Omar Majed, 19, has been charged with false communications relating to a bomb hoax,” a police spokesperson said. “Majed, of Washwood Heath, Birmingham, has been remanded to appear before magistrates in Birmingham on 4 May
Guy Montgomery: ‘One fan took us back to his house and showed us all his guns’
Have you ever won a spelling bee?No! I don’t think I’ve entered any formalised spelling competition. When I was eight or nine, there was a guy who I used to copy during tests. We were doing a spelling test and the word was “vehicle” and he made an absolutely terrible attempt at it. I knew he’d spelled it wrong and was like, wait – have I been copying someone who’s more stupid than me this whole time?Which word do you hate the most?None! That’s crazy! I love all words. They’re just out there, doing their best
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