Affordable fresh food is the recipe for a healthy Britain | Letter

Your article on UK food prices being on track to be 50% higher by November 2026 (4 May), read alongside your editorial on unhealthy Britain (3 May) describes a single story from two ends. Food has become unaffordable and the households absorbing those price rises are getting sicker.By the time poor health shows up in the data, families have been cutting food quality, quantity and variety for years. The Bread and Butter Thing runs affordable food clubs from Maidstone to Northumberland, supporting more than 10,000 households each week. Last week alone, 439 new members joined our network

The British public need to be better prepared for emergencies | Letter

Your editorial (Britain’s fragile systems: when global shocks hit your shopping bill, 1 May) makes clear that the public need to be more fully informed about global threats and actively engaged in a national resilience plan. The UK remains dangerously exposed to external shocks, whether from cyber-attacks, extreme weather triggered by climate change, or hostile state interference with our democratic processes and critical national infrastructure.A cross-party House of Lords special inquiry committee, which I chair, has been set up to examine national resilience. “Keep calm and carry on” doesn’t cut it: a plan for the 21st century needs to recognise the interconnectedness of threats: a cyber-attack can quickly escalate into power cuts, transport chaos, supply chain disruption and the collapse of public services. And this is not a case of “what if”: hybrid warfare emanating from Russia, China or Iran as cyber-attacks, disinformation or the sponsorship of proxy terrorist attacks is already commonplace

‘Worst year in memory’: parties describe climate of abuse on campaign trail for May elections

Candidates and political parties have described a climate of abuse in this year’s local and devolved elections, including death threats and intimidation while campaigning.Politicians from a range of parties have reported abuse and harassment in the lead-up to the elections in England, Scotland and Wales, with the Green party describing this year’s campaign as the worst in memory.Labour’s Dan Jarvis, the security minister, condemned “the rising tide of vile abuse, harassment and intimidation aimed towards elected officials and candidates” online and in person. “Anyone engaging in this sort of behaviour is directly attacking our democracy and we all must do more to stop it becoming normalised,” he said.A spokesperson for the Green party said some candidates had received death threats or been “yelled at or chased down the street”, and some had withdrawn from campaigning in certain areas due to harassment

Election monitors note instances of voters in England turned away over ID

Instances of voters being turned away from polling stations owing to confusion over photo ID requirements have been recorded by European election observers watching voting in England on Thursday.While the problem is not regarded as widespread, it has been noted by the delegation from the Council of Europe, which will issue a report on the local elections in England as well as the Scottish and Welsh government elections.The potential threat of interference by Russia or another hostile state was among issues discussed during talks this week involving the 17-member delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which represents 46 European member states. While Russian interference is understood not to be considered an issue in these elections, the visit is part of moves to share information among European states.The delegation will publish a report on Friday that is expected to address issues including the extent to which there have been concerns over the organisation of polling stations, training of staff, access for people with disabilities and where there has been any harassment or any form of interference

May elections: Badenoch rows back on Reform pacts as millions cast their votes – as it happened

Yesterday Kemi Badenoch gave an interview to Sky News suggesting she would be happy to see Conservative councillors working with Reform UK councillors to deliver rightwing policies.In an interview with the Sun published today, Badenoch rowed back on this. She said there would not be any deals because Reform councillors weren’t “serious”. She told the paper:double quotation markWe’re not doing deals with Reform. I don’t want to see us helping Reform

Starmer’s failure to demonstrate strong values ‘driving away progressive voters’

Progressive voters have been driven away from Labour by a lack of argument and vision from Keir Starmer, according to a report using research from a senior pollster to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.Downing Street is understood to have been briefed on the research, which has also been handed to allies of the potential leadership candidates Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner.Labour is braced for dismal results in Thursday’s elections, which could result in Starmer facing a leadership challenge.The report from UCL’s Policy Lab, using research from the eminent pollster Stan Greenberg, suggested voters felt that Starmer had a “discomfort” with progressive values. Key fights that the government could pick included a more robust challenge to Donald Trump and a more passionate defence of environmentalism