Reform cold calling public in bid to find ‘paper’ candidates for local elections

Reform UK has been cold calling people asking them to become “paper” candidates for the party at the local elections, as parties dash to sign up enough names before Thursday’s deadline.Nigel Farage’s party has been ringing members of the public asking them to stand despite apparently knowing very little about them except that they have signed up for Reform’s email updates.Those who have been asked to stand include members of other parties and even a Guardian journalist, who was asked in a call last week: “Will you come in to become a paper candidate today and help us to win the election?” The caller added: “Just have your name on the ballot and maybe you will actually win the election.”Prospective paper candidates are told they would not need to do anything apart from provide their name and address. They are then asked if they are bankrupt and if they have any criminal convictions, before being offered a candidate application pack

British Medical Association accused of hypocrisy as its own staff strike over pay

The British Medical Association has been accused of the “height of hypocrisy” for offering its own staff below-inflation pay rises while demanding a 26% increase for resident doctors.Tens of thousands of medics walked out of the NHS in England on Tuesday, the 15th time they have staged industrial action since March 2023 in their campaign for “full pay restoration”.At the same time, hundreds of BMA staff staged strike action themselves after the doctors’ union offered them a below-inflation pay rise of 2.75%.The BMA rejected an offer from Wes Streeting, the health secretary, that would have given resident doctors a pay rise averaging 4

Reform UK would stop visas for people from countries seeking slavery reparations

Reform UK would stop issuing visas to people from any country that continues to demand compensation from the UK for its role in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, the party has said.Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, told the Daily Telegraph that the call for reparations was “insulting”.He claimed 3.8m visas had been issued over the last two decades to people from countries calling for reparations.For four centuries, seven European countries, including the UK, enslaved and trafficked more than 15 million Africans across the Atlantic

‘Seismic change’: how election wins for nationalists in Celtic nations could reshape UK

In four weeks, the shape of British politics is likely to change dramatically. For the first time, nationalists who aspire to break up the UK are expected to be in control of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland simultaneously. “The change will be seismic,” said Angus Robertson, a senior minister in the Scottish government.Opinion polls consistently suggest that after the elections on 7 May, England will be flanked by countries run by restless centre-left nationalist parties – Plaid Cymru in Cardiff, the Scottish National party in Edinburgh and, in Belfast, Sinn Féin, which shares power with the Democratic Unionists.That raises the prospect of significant constitutional disputes that would thrust Keir Starmer’s Labour government in London – or, if he is ousted after May’s elections, that of his successor as prime minister – into very difficult waters

Labour should hold a referendum on whether Britain should rejoin the EU | Letter

The prime minister’s comments about seeking closer relations with the EU are to be welcomed as a step in the right direction (Starmer calls for ‘ambitious’ new UK-EU ties as Trump threatens to quit Nato, 1 April). Yet a piecemeal approach to repairing the damage done by Brexit is unlikely to succeed.A genuinely “ambitious” plan would be for Labour to announce a referendum on whether the UK should open negotiations on re-entry to the EU, promising a general election to secure a mandate to implement the proposal should the British public vote in favour. It would allow the government to seize the initiative, providing it with an issue around which to rally a broad base of electoral support.This would also expose the increasing reluctance of Reform UK and the Conservatives to defend Brexit and silence accusations of the betrayal of British voters

Starmer attacks Greens, saying vote for Labour rivals puts new workers’ rights at risk

Keir Starmer has used a series of new workers rights that come into force on Monday to attack the Green party, saying a vote for Labour’s rivals puts such progress on sick pay, parental leave and zero-hours contracts at risk.The prime minister also took a swipe at business figures and opponents of what he described as the biggest strengthening of workers’ rights in a generation, dismissing “vested interests” who had warned against them.However, in a sign of how he views the threat from the populism of Zack Polanski’s Greens and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the run-up to local elections in May, Starmer said that having “a serious, credible economic strategy” set Labour apart from others.“No other party offers both the economic credibility and the political will to do this,” he wrote in an article for the Guardian.“A vote for any other party puts that progress at risk – whether through choices that would take us backwards, or approaches that simply don’t stand up to the realities of governing