Starmer pledges to tackle new cost of living crisis at May elections campaign launch
The 7 May elections are taking place against a backdrop of “war on two fronts”, Keir Starmer has said, as he pledged action to tackle the resurgent cost of living crisis,Launching Labour’s English local elections campaign in Wolverhampton on Monday, the prime minister said: “We’re facing a war on two fronts – the Ukraine war, now four and a bit years in … and now the Iran war, which I know is causing huge concern,“People look at their screens and they’re worried when they see explosions, infrastructure blown up, the rhetoric that goes with it, worried about whether this is going to escalate even further,”Labour is braced for heavy losses in English council votes on 7 May, in particular in the north-east and London, amid challenges from Reform UK on the right and the Green party on the left,The contests are seen as a major test for Starmer’s premiership.
There are also national elections in Scotland and Wales.After 27 years of Labour government in Wales, several surveys suggest voters want change and that the contest for the next Senedd is a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, with Labour in a distant third.Starmer’s unpopularity also looks set to deny Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar a chance of victory over the incumbent Scottish National party in Holyrood.Starmer said Labour was going out into the English campaigns “on the front foot” and “relishing the opportunity to go to doorsteps and say to people: vote Labour for the following reasons: vote Labour because of our values, vote Labour because of our leadership, vote Labour because it makes a huge difference to so many lives across the country.”He stressed his party understood that “whatever is going on in the world, whatever is going on in politics, and there’s a lot in both, most people are concerned most of all about the cost of living”.
UK-wide measures announced by Starmer on Monday to help with soaring costs caused by the latest round of fighting in the Middle East include a lower energy price cap and an increase in the minimum wage – moves Labour hopes will stem the party’s haemorrhaging support,At Welsh Labour’s manifesto launch in Swansea, held at the same time Starmer was speaking in Wolverhampton, the party’s leader, Eluned Morgan, pledged to freeze income tax rates if re-elected, saying “times have been tough enough already”,Morgan said people wanted “a little more certainty,A little more stability,A little less dread about the next bill or the next news story.
”At Reform UK’s Wales manifesto launch this month, Nigel Farage suggested the Senedd election would be viewed as a referendum on Starmer’s leadership.Morgan has previously sought to distance her government from the Labour administration in Westminster, but she offered her support to the prime minister earlier this year after calls for his resignation, including a high-profile demand from Sarwar.Also in Wales on Monday morning, Plaid Cymru launched its bid to form the first non-Labour-led administration in Cardiff Bay since devolution began in 1999.Speaking at the Senedd campaign launch in Bedwas, near Caerphilly, the Welsh nationalist party’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, called the 7 May vote the “most important election in the history of devolution”.“Labour’s time is up – they are now out of the picture.
This campaign is a straight choice between Plaid Cymru and Reform, between hope and division, between credibility and chaos,” he said.“7 May is an opportunity to choose new beginnings for Wales, new ideas, a new energy, a higher level of ambition than ever before.”
Adults underestimate risk of abuse posed to women by ex-partners, UK data shows
The risk posed to women by ex-partners in cases of abuse is underestimated by large swathes of the British public, according to the charity Refuge.Data from the charity’s helpline found that 42% of people who call Refuge for help identify a former partner as their abuser, a statistic which underlines how common it is for an ex to be a cause of harm after a relationship has ended.Despite this, a survey of the wider national population found that many UK adults did not name a former partner as a probable culprit in ongoing abuse.YouGov data commissioned by Refuge found that, while 71% of UK adults identified that a woman is most likely to be abused by somebody she knows, of this percentage, only 12% recognised an ex-partner as the most likely to be the abuser, while 78% identified a current partner.Sasha* said she has experienced stalking and harassment since separating from her partner and father of her child in 2012
Sexual assault survivor calls failure of Travelodge boss to meet MPs ‘shocking’
A woman who was sexually assaulted by a man who was handed a key card to her room at a Travelodge has said she was shocked to learn the hotel chain’s boss cancelled a meeting with a group of MPs seeking to discuss concerns about the case.More than 20 MPs had demanded the meeting this month to discuss the matter – including details of the chain’s security processes and procedures that led to it offering the victim an “insulting” £30 refund after the incident.It emerged last week Keir Starmer had written to the company’s chief executive, Jo Boydell, saying he was “very concerned” about the meeting’s cancellation. The prime minister pressed the hotel chain to “seriously engage” with MPs over the “utterly appalling” assault.The survivor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was attacked by Kyran Smith in December 2022
Number of people helped by RNLI in UK and Channel Islands doubled in 2025
The number of people helped by RNLI lifeguards on the beaches of the UK and the Channel Islands doubled last year and the charity believes the Middle East crisis may lead to an even busier spring and summer in 2026.While RNLI lifeguards went to the aid of about 18,000 people in 2023 and 2024, this leapt to more than 35,000 in 2025, the spike put down to a combination of good weather and an increased interest in seaside pursuits.The charity, which is celebrating its 25th year of providing lifeguard cover, is preparing for another bumper year if more people decide to stay closer to home for holidays because of the rising cost of living and as travelling to some long-haul holiday destinations may be less tempting.Peter Dawes, RNLI lifeguard general manager, said: “The statistics vary each year depending on the weather. Last year, with the bulk of summer being reasonably good, a lot of people went to the beach
NHS restructure is greatest danger to Streeting’s effort to revive service
In the Great Hall at the University of East London last Wednesday, the perennially upbeat Wes Streeting was exuding even greater positivity than usual. After years of neglect under the Conservatives, he said, the NHS was starting to revive thanks to Labour’s medicine.In a bravura performance in front of an audience of health service bosses, policy experts and student nurses in their blue and green uniforms, Streeting reeled off a long list of improvements in his 20-month tenure as health secretary.The NHS backlog: down by 374,000 since Labour took over in July 2024. A&E waiting times: the best last winter for four years
NHS to miss targets for cutting A&E wait times and performance in England
The NHS is set to miss key targets to shorten waiting times for help at A&E, cancer care and planned hospital treatment, leaving millions of patients facing persistently long delays.The health service in England will not deliver a series of milestone improvements in its performance that ministers demanded it achieve by the time the fiscal year ends on Tuesday, a Guardian analysis of the NHS’s most recent data has found.The lack of progress raises questions about pledges made last week by Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to get key waiting times back on track by the end of the parliament in 2029.The findings will concern Keir Starmer, the prime minister, given Labour’s commitment to “get the NHS back on its feet” and the public’s strong desire to see an end to the routinely long waits for care that crept in from 2015.The gloomy picture on waiting times also comes despite the NHS handing hospitals an extra £120m in recent weeks to fund a pre-deadline “elective sprint” – of extra appointments and more operations – intended to bolster its chances of delivering the necessary improvements by 31 March
Table tennis can help manage Parkinson’s | Brief letters
Regarding your article (A moment that changed me: I thought my Parkinson’s was the end of my life, but dancing changed everything, 25 March), people with Parkinson’s might like to take up table tennis. I set up a Parkinson’s table tennis project in Newcastle in 2025 and we have evidence showing improvements in coordination, footwork, social skills and speech. One member who had to hold on to the table can now play freehand without falling.Philip CheungNewcastle upon Tyne How can you have a list of the best songs about the moon (You saw me standin’ alone: songs about the moon – ranked!, 26 March) without including The Waterboys’ great The Whole of the Moon? Chris EvansEarby, Lancashire Inconceivable that your best songs about our beloved lunar sphere failed to mention the B-52s’ seminal There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon). It couldn’t be much clearer guys – it is mentioned twice
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