Reform mayoral candidate likens Jewish community group to ‘Islamists on horseback’

A Reform UK mayoral candidate has described members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch group as “cosplayers” and likened them to “Islamists on horseback” in comments made after an attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity.Chris Parry, who remains Reform’s mayoral candidate for Hampshire despite a previous controversy in which he said David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean, made the comments on Monday about Shomrim, a group of volunteers who safeguard communities including Orthodox Jewish families.Parry, a retired rear admiral, retweeted a post on X by Catherine Blaiklock, a co-founder of the Brexit party, hours after news of the attack on the ambulances in north London emerged.Shomrim works alongside Hatzola, the charity ambulance service that was targeted by arsonists early on Monday morning and provides emergency medical response and transportation to hospitals for both Jewish and non-Jewish people.Police said on Monday that counter-terrorism officers were leading an investigation into the arson attack on four ambulances

Hillsborough campaigners accuse Starmer of ‘insult’ after failing to introduce promised law

Families whose relatives were killed in disasters and who have suffered state injustice have written to Keir Starmer, accusing the government of an “insult” for failing to introduce the promised Hillsborough law in this session of parliament.Labour has promised for almost a decade to implement the law, which will impose a “duty of candour” on the police and public authorities, but the government pulled the bill in January during its passage through parliament.Families, including those whose relatives were killed in the 2017 terrorist bombing at the Manchester arena, insist the duty of candour must apply in full to the security services, MI5 and MI6. Starmer publicly promised again at the Labour party conference in September to introduce the law, but the government has resisted that and sought carve-outs, citing concerns about national security.The families and their lawyers have consistently acknowledged that the security services need to keep information confidential to protect national security, but argue in cases where security services are involved, the judge or chair of the inquiry should be given all the relevant information, then determine what can safely be made public

Thank you, Keir, for keeping calm | Brief letters

Let’s praise Keir Starmer (UK will not be drawn into wider war in Middle East, says Keir Starmer, 16 March) for remaining calm and statesmanlike in the face of infantile insults and playground bullying, in order to bring about a cessation of Donald Trump’s recklessness.Martin DattaLincoln Moby (‘The lyrics to Lola by the Kinks are gross – I was really taken aback’: Moby’s honest playlist, 22 March) describes the lyrics of Lola as “gross and transphobic”. He says he was “taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are”. This Kinks’ song came out in 1970, when transitioning wasn’t as openly talked about. Lola was groundbreaking in celebrating a trans character over 50 years ago

‘Anyone but Labour’ or ‘anyone but Reform’? Clash of animosities likely to define May local elections

Local elections are often regarded as a referendum on the sitting government, with many previous administrations taking a bloody nose from the electorate but successfully fighting back by the next general election.Senior Labour figures have taken to reeling off a list of midterm results – 1999, 2003, 2012 – to prove that point. “As we get closer to the general election, it will be less about people’s view of the parties generally and more about the actual choice in front of them,” one said.But even against that backdrop, this May’s local and devolved elections look to be a uniquely negative series of contests, in part because Nigel Farage now generates as much ill feeling across the country as Keir Starmer.Some voters are urgently hoping to teach the government a lesson, but others want just as strongly to keep Reform UK out of power

What’s at stake for UK in May’s elections: six key questions

On 7 May, three of the UK’s four nations go to the polls in a series of elections with much potential significance, not just for who ends up governing various bodies, but also for the future political direction of the country.Here is what is at stake.In Scotland, voters will select 129 members of the country’s parliament, via a mix of first-past-the-post constituency voting and proportional regional voting. In Wales, a revised proportional system will pick 96 members of an expanded Senedd.In England, there are first-past-the-post votes for members of more than 130 councils of various types – metropolitan, unitary, county, district and 32 London boroughs – as well as for six mayors

‘Unprecedented territory’: are UK polls as volatile as they seem? – in charts

Cabinet reshuffles, party infighting, policy reversals, byelections, defections and apparently huge swings in support – the UK’s political news cycle feels especially relentless at the moment.But if you look closely at the polls since last year’s local elections, remarkably little has changed.While there have been some noticeable individual polls, most movements have been limited to a small number of percentage points. The big parties are roughly where they were. Reform has had a comfortable lead for almost a year