Lucy Powell says Labour has ‘no magic bullet’ as MPs brace for heavy losses in local elections
Labour’s deputy leader has warned there will be “no magic bullet” to solve Labour’s problems – or major challenges facing the country – as its MPs grapple with how to navigate the fallout out from the local elections,Lucy Powell told the Guardian she understood there was “huge anger and despondency” from Labour MPs in the aftermath of the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal, but said the prime minister would not make a similar mistake again,Powell, who called for Keir Starmer to be more explicitly progressive during her deputy leadership campaign, said she would not engage in leadership speculation with the party facing a potential loss of more than 75% of the council seats it is defending, as well as losing power in Wales and failing to beat the SNP in Scotland,But she warned restive MPs there would be “no one change” that would lead to a reverse in fortunes,“There’s no magic bullet here for us.
We are in a difficult world,” she said in an interview on the campaign trail in Leeds, where the party is facing off against both Reform and the Greens in different parts of the city,“I strongly believe that we’ve got the right agenda to start turning that around,To give people hope, an opportunity and see the change in their communities,”Asked if Keir Starmer was the right leader to deliver it, Powell said: “I’m not going to get into that,I think there’s no one change that [will affect] all of these situations.
We’ve still got to tackle these big issues, and we’ve got to do it in the right way with the right values.Having some side order conversation about personnel and people, I think misses the point.”Powell, a close friend and ally of Andy Burnham, who is reportedly preparing a leadership run, said she knew the stakes were very high for the country.“If we get that wrong, then Nigel Farage is walking into Downing Street.We can all pretend that one switch over here would magically transform that.
I just don’t believe that,” she said.Powell said she hoped the country could now begin to move on from the Mandelson scandal, having spent the early part of last week ringing MPs to try to shore up support for Starmer ahead of the privileges committee vote.“There’s a huge amount of anger, sort of despondency, I think.Every day that we’re still on the fallout from the Mandelson appointment is a day we’re not talking to our communities and our voters about what all our MPs and councillors want us to be talking about,” she said.Powell said she had always distrusted the former US ambassador, who was sacked after new revelations about his friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I don’t like the way he operates, it’s always all about Peter, and I don’t trust his judgment either.That’s a view I’ve long held.Not everybody held that view.He’s not someone I would have even countenanced personally, but, that’s mine and his history,” she said.But she said she believed that No 10 was now a different operation, with the departure of several influential aides who had been key to appointing Mandelson.
“Prime ministers do make hundreds of decisions.And they don’t get them all right.This one Keir got wrong … It does speak to an era, some people call it ‘the boys club’, but a culture there in Downing Street, in our politics.“There has been quite a big move away from that and a recognition that the government was needing more differing views and opinions.Even in exactly the same circumstances.
I don’t think that same decision would be made now.”Starmer is thought to have rejected the idea of a wider reshuffle after the May elections as a way of trying to cement his position by bringing back soft left figures such as Powell and the former deputy leader, Angela Rayner, back to the full cabinet.But Powell said she preferred her role to be solely political.“I’m personally quite sceptical about reshuffles as a device.We need to be governing for the whole country.
We need to be governing as one Labour party, bringing together all the different groups and factions in the Labour party,” she said.“But we also need to have a much stronger sense of politics.I’ve chosen to do this job entirely politically.I think I’ve made actually more impact doing it that way.”Powell said that she believed the party could do better than the polls were predicting – and that Mandelson was not the major issue on the doorsteps, but whether Labour could really deliver change.
“I think we have the best ground campaign by a mile in this country,There’s a lot at stake,I’m not really in the expectation management business,But what I think people find is that on the actual doorsteps, there are different conversations to be had,“There’s a lot of voters still quite unsure, especially in more Green-facing areas.
I think it’s very soft.All our amazing members and activists – they’re very motivated to have those conversations.”
Political blame game begins and passengers left adrift after Spirit ceases operations
US airlines and government officials battled on Saturday to deal with stranded passengers and stricken employees after discount carrier Spirit Airlines abruptly ceased operations – and a political and business blame game got under way over the collapse of the low-cost carrier.“If you have a flight scheduled with Spirit Airlines, don’t show up at the airport; there will be no one here to assist you,” the US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, warned at a press conference after laying out measures for customers booked with the Florida-based company to obtain refunds or find discounted flights on other airlines.Spirit’s airport check-in desks sat empty across the country on Saturday after the company went out of business in the early hours, posting on its website that after 34 years of flying it had “started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately”.At the Orlando international airport overnight, a digital departure display sign was filled with bright red notifications of canceled Spirit flights.There were no more Spirit planes in the air, with their distinctive bright yellow paint, after the last flight landed in Dallas, Texas, after midnight and Spirit’s management announced it was the end, after talks for a government rescue failed
Spirit Airlines ceases operations and US transportation secretary announces measures to help passengers
The US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, has announced a series of measures to help Spirit Airlines passengers following the low-cost airline’s collapse early on Saturday after running out of cash and the failure of rescue talks with the Trump administration.Duffy said that larger US airlines, including United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest, had agreed to cap ticket prices specifically for Spirit customers who need to rebook canceled flights, subject to a Spirit flight confirmation number and proof of payment.American Airlines and Delta Air Lines would also offer reduced fares on high-volume Spirit routes, and ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant has committed to freezing fares across routes that overlap with the failed carrier. A third airline, Frontier, would offer a 50% base-fare reduction to affected travelers, it was announced.Duffy also said in a statement on X that most major US carriers will extend travel pass benefits and spare seats to Spirit pilots, flight attendants and other employees who need to return home after being stranded by the company’s collapse
Less financial stability, smaller social safety nets: inside the gen Z investing boom
Apps, AI tools and shaky job prospects are pushing gen Z into markets earlier, blending caution with risk-takingAmbrico Ranginui first heard of cryptocurrencies when he was 12 years old. By the time he was 16, he had saved enough from birthday gifts and his allowance to invest.“Growing up in a single-mum household, it made me quite a determined person to get ahead,” Ranginui said. “I wanted to find new avenues to make money and crypto was so fascinating at the time.”He’s part of a new boom of gen Z investors who have jumped into markets more enthusiastically than previous generations, and are putting money into everything from safe-haven bonds to AI startups, earlier than ever before
Exxon and Chevron quarterly earnings fall despite soaring oil prices
Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported drops in profit in their first quarter despite surging oil prices, a result of stalled deliveries and supply disruptions in the Middle East.Exxon’s quarterly earnings fell to $4.2bn from about $7.7bn the same quarter last year, a decline of about 46%, while Chevron’s profits fell to $2.2bn from about $3
Firm bookings, fast refunds: easyJet and On The Beach aim to reassure jittery travellers with holiday pledges
Forget the best infinity pool or alluring sea view: travel firms are now competing for the summer holidaymakers’ pound with pledges of the least likely cancellation – or the fastest refund.Airlines and travel companies have been vying to announce fresh commitments to reassure jittery consumers who are booking flights ever later since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.The hostilities have been driving up oil prices, with jet fuel costs rising even more sharply. More worrying for many thinking of a summer trip, as the standoff and blockades around the strait of Hormuz continue, is the prospect of scarcity leading to flights being axed.Some European airlines such as Lufthansa have already cancelled thousands of flights owing to rising fuel costs, while Virgin Atlantic has introduced a fuel surcharge on long-haul flights
Octopus Energy boss: some people would accept blackouts if bills cut
The boss of the UK’s biggest energy supplier has suggested that some households would accept an occasional electricity blackout in exchange for much lower energy bills.A year on from Europe’s largest power outage – which left tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access – the chief executive of Octopus Energy argued against costly investments in the UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills.Greg Jackson told an industry conference that many households in Spain, where Octopus Energy has a growing business, would say they were happy to accept “the odd blackout” in return for electricity costs that are 25% lower.“To be really clear, I’m not advocating for blackouts, but if you asked Spanish consumers, ‘would you accept the odd blackout in return for electricity costs that are 25% lower, or don’t have spikes, or a more reliable economy?’ enough of them would say yes,” he said.People would be “far less bothered” about a blackout now than they might have been in the past, Jackson added, because they could continue watching things on their laptop during a power outage
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