‘People need hope’: Greens court voters in battle for north-east council seats

“Thank you very much to all you would-be penguins huddling together for warmth,” said Jamie Driscoll to the dozen supporters braving bitingly cold, blustery weather to begin knocking on doors and delivering leaflets.The former Labour North of Tyne mayor is one of the Green party’s highest-profile recruits. Standing for Newcastle city council in the central Monument ward, he was giving a pep talk to a group that would probably have been even bigger, were some not in London for a demonstration against the far right.Driscoll is standing for election to a council with a minority Labour-led administration. The Greens, the Liberal Democrats and Reform expect to do well

Your Party to focus local election efforts on backing independent candidates

Your Party is to focus its local election efforts on a number of urban areas with large Muslim populations where Labour support has weakened, throwing its support behind supporting independent candidates and community groups.Party insiders have intentionally narrowed their focus to key targets including the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Redbridge, where locally rooted independent campaigns are already braced to challenge Labour.Jeremy Corbyn’s allies will back 250 candidates, the majority of them standing under independent or local banners rather than the Your Party brand.At the seemingly chaotic party conference in November, the party appeared to accept a targeted approach was necessary rather than standing everywhere. One insider said the approach was to “focus on particular areas and bastions” where the party could build durable local bases, rather than compete everywhere at once

Starmer calls for ‘ambitious’ new UK-EU ties as Trump threatens to quit Nato

The UK will seek an even deeper partnership with the EU because of the instability wreaked by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, Keir Starmer has said, adding that the moment called for a more ambitious deal with Brussels to strengthen trade and defence.His comments came as the US president again said he was considering pulling the US out of Nato, which he described as a “paper tiger”. Trump has frequently lambasted the UK and European nations for failing to support the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and criticised their militaries.In another barb at the prime minister, Trump told the Daily Telegraph he believed King Charles would have backed his strikes on Iran. The king is scheduled to visit the US later this month, and will address Congress on 28 April

Reeves criticises Trump for starting Iran war with no ‘clear plan’ to get out of it – as it happened

In her interview with Jeremy Vine, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, also said she was “angry” about Donald Trump’s decision to go to war in Iran.double quotation markI’m angry that Donald Trump has chosen to go to war in the Middle East, a war that there’s not a clear plan of how to get out of. It’s why we didn’t want to enter this.Yes, it will have implications for our economy. I get that

Energy crisis: why ‘keep calm but cut down’ may be a better message for Labour

Labour ministers asked in recent days about the looming energy crisis sparked by the Iran war, including Keir Starmer himself, have essentially stuck to that reassuring wartime slogan: keep calm and carry on.“I think people should go about their lives as normal, knowing that the government is taking action to bring energy bills down,” James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday.But there are growing fears the government’s “don’t panic” messaging may be underplaying the scale of the challenges ahead and crowding out sensible advice on cutting consumption.“It’s the wrong message,” says Andrew Sissons, the director of the climate programme at the research foundation Nesta, referring to the government’s communications on the war’s impact. “The reality is that the global supply of oil and gas is going to be down by maybe 20%

Nigel Farage’s biggest problem? Donald Trump

By day 31 of the war in the Middle East, Nigel Farage had become somewhat less vocal about the closeness of his relationship with Donald Trump.“Trying to read what’s really in the minds of people in the White House right at the moment is a mug’s game,” said the MP, as he unveiled his party’s latest “pledge” to cut the cost of living on Tuesday.Perched on a stool against the backdrop of departing flights, Farage had come to Heathrow airport to promote a plan to scrap taxes on short-haul journeys.Yet when the questions inevitably came about the conflict’s potentially catastrophic impact on Britain’s economy, the Reform leader was forced to grapple with what has suddenly become the primary barrier to people voting for his party: Donald Trump.The US president is now underwater in terms of his favourability even with Reform voters, who were previously the only set of UK party supporters who saw him positively, according to polling by More in Common