Keir Starmer to launch local elections campaign with focus on cost of living

Keir Starmer will say that a vote for Reform UK will put at risk progress Labour is making on the cost of living, arguing that Britain’s values are being tested in a volatile world.Launching the party’s local elections campaign with a new slogan: “Pride in Britain”, Starmer will urge voters to stay the course with Labour. A dire set of results are predicted for the party in Wales, Scotland and English councils, especially in the north-east of England and London.Starmer will put the focus on government action on the cost of living as he launches the campaign at a rally in the West Midlands alongside the Labour deputy leader, Lucy Powell, and other cabinet ministers.But party chiefs have conceded the polls are likely to result in sweeping losses for Labour

Labour has left its loyal supporters disillusioned | Letters

I wonder how many members still clinging on to the Labour party winced at Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Ed Miliband’s stock is rising because he’s a rare commodity in Labour these days: a thinker, 27 March). Like everyone else, she recognises that Labour has become an intellectual vacuum, with its only clear features being unpleasant policies designed to exploit the far right’s prejudices.But the electorate is ahead here. They know that resurrecting the once admirable but now compromised Ed Miliband will do nothing to heal the existential injury in the party. Most people no longer hark back to the halcyon days of New Labour’s claim to build a better society

EU offers UK ‘emergency brake’ on youth mobility scheme numbers

An “emergency brake” could be put on the number of people coming to the UK from Europe as part of a new youth experience scheme, under terms being offered to Britain by EU negotiatorsBritain wants an outright cap, but the EU opposes this on the basis that the scheme is supposed to be a positive one aimed at celebrating and preserving links with the EU.Keir Starmer’s government agreed to work towards a “youth experience scheme” with the EU in May last year, but the specifics are still being negotiated.The scheme is part of talks in which the EU hopes to “reset” relations with the UK amid fears negotiations have been foundering before a planned July summit.The forthcoming talks are viewed in Brussels as the start of a new phase of relations and take place as the UK will also feel knock-on effects from internal EU changes such as a new migration pact among member states from 12 June.The EU’s pact on migration and asylum – which is aimed at governing flows of migrants across Europe and governs how they will be checked at borders – is expected to have an impact on Channel crossings

‘A cruel penalty’: disabled people face lower benefit payments if conditions not deemed lifelong

Hundreds of thousands of severely ill and disabled people making new claims will have their benefits cut if the government assesses that their condition might improve, charities have said.In April, the health element of universal credit – an extra payment for people assessed as too unwell to work or prepare for work – will be halved to £50 a week and frozen for new claimants unless their condition is found to be terminal or severe and lifelong with no prospect of improvement.Ministers had pledged last summer that the “severe and lifelong” clause – known as the severe conditions criteria – would shield the most severely disabled and ill people from the new lower benefit rate.But charities and disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have told the Guardian that a wide range of debilitating conditions may not meet the strict eligibility criteria, despite them often leaving someone unable to work. This includes multiple sclerosis, learning disabilities, bipolar, Parkinson’s, ME and long Covid

Reform insiders fear links to extreme figures such as Andrew Tate will scare off voters

Reform insiders are becoming increasingly irritated by the party’s association with Andrew Tate and other extreme online celebrities whose views are too toxic for the mainstream voters Nigel Farage needs to win over.Insiders have revealed that as Reform prepare for power they are trying to end their association with more controversial figures on the right such as Tate, whose extreme and misogynistic content could taint the party’s credibility.While courting online popularity before the party’s boom in the polls, their leader, Farage, appeared loth to criticise the online “manosphere” influencer. Tate is facing 21 charges for crimes including human trafficking should he ever return to the UK.In 2024, Farage said in online interviews that Tate was an “important voice” for the “emasculated” and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school”

Badenoch criticised for ‘peddling dangerous fantasy’ about North Sea oil drilling

Kemi Badenoch is “peddling a dangerous fantasy” about North Sea energy in her attempt to reverse a ban on new oil and gas licences, a leading campaign group has said.The Conservative leader is expected to call on the government to lift its suspension of the licences as part of a drive to reduce energy prices, as the party launches a new campaign aimed at boosting the fossil fuel sector.However, critics have questioned the efficiency of the policy, claiming it would be unlikely to cut household bills.Tessa Khan, executive director of the renewable energy campaign group Uplift described it as “vapid, political game playing at the expense of ordinary people”.“Kemi Badenoch is peddling a dangerous fantasy on the North Sea and is completely out of step with the UK public who just want an affordable supply of energy,” Khan said

Reform UK’s ‘pro-family’ policies are an exclusionary sham, minister says

Reform UK’s “pro-family” policies are a sham and exclude non-traditional families, the government’s early years minister has said before the rollout of hundreds of new Sure Start-style family centres across England on Monday.Olivia Bailey said she wanted the hubs to be inclusive for all families and transform communities, after what she called the “criminal” dismantling of Sure Start under the last Conservative government.“Sure Start is one of our proudest achievements as a Labour party,” she said. “Best Start is central to what we’re trying to do as a government. For the first time in a long time, even ever, this is a government that is really focusing on the early years and making sure that we give every child the best possible start in life

‘We’re quietly chirpy’: some Tories glimpse ray of hope, but others see abyss at May elections

“The Conservative party is coming back,” Kemi Badenoch declared at her party’s local election launch last week, surrounded by cheering supporters. And it’s fair to say that many of her MPs are, relative to their mood in recent years, quite cheery.To others in the Conservative family, though, this optimism appears disconnected from the reality of the situation facing the party. Even the MPs backing Badenoch agree that the Tories face heavy losses on 7 May, not just across English councils, but particularly in votes for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, where in both they are expected to be reduced to a handful of seats.This is in part a factor of circumstance

Reform candidate in Wales steps down after apparent Nazi salute

A Reform UK candidate for the Welsh Senedd elections in May has announced he is standing down because of his mental health, after a photograph emerged of him apparently making a Nazi salute as an imitation of Adolf Hitler.The announcement by Reform comes a day after Nigel Farage defended Corey Edwards, its lead candidate for the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, saying he may have instead been impersonating the John Cleese character Basil Fawlty.Reform has also experienced problems with candidate selection in Scotland, where four of its picks for elections there in May stood down or were suspended within a week of being announced by Farage.The photograph of Edwards, an ex-adviser to the Conservative former Welsh secretary David TC Davies, was published by the Nation.Cymru website and showed him raising his right arm, with a finger of his left hand under his nose