“The Conservatives have suffered a “terrible night”, a minister has admitted, as Labour made “whirlwind gains” across the country. Sir Keir Starmer’s party recorded key victories in areas including Stoke-on-Trent and Plymouth, and believes that if the results so far were replicated nationally, Labour would enjoy a larger win in a general election next year than Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 victory. Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister and Tory MP for Plymouth, was drowned out by Labour celebrations as he lamented the performance of his party. Labour is increasingly confident that gains made in local elections overnight would allow the party to take at least seven areas from the Tories, including Aldershot, Hampshire, which has been Conservative for more than 100 years.” – The Times
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“Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives on Friday faced crushing losses in UK local elections as voters in many parts of England turned against the party after a tumultuous year. The Tory prime minister woke up to news that his party was on the ropes, with Labour making inroads in key target seats in the North and Midlands and the Liberal Democrats advancing in rich areas of the south. Early results suggested the Conservatives could possibly lose as many as 1,000 seats compared with their standing before the elections. Such losses would match or exceed some of the most pessimistic projections. However, counting in only about a quarter of the 8,000 council seats up for grabs took place overnight, and Sunak and his rivals will wait for more results to come in through Friday…” – The Financial Times
“Labour has said it is on track to win the next election, after taking control of key councils in the English local elections, including Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent. Based on results counted early on Friday morning, the party said it was heading for a result that if repeated across the country…would give them an eight-point lead over the Conservatives. Labour insisted this would be enough to win an election, taking into account a projected collapse of the Scottish National party. But it falls short of the 10-point lead experts said the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, would need…Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s campaign chief, said: “These results show that we are on course for a majority Labour government.”… The last time the same council seats were contested was in May 2019…” – The Guardian
“Rishi Sunak is facing a backlash from supporters of Boris Johnson and the Tory right with the party looking likely to lose hundreds of seats in the local elections. The Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), set up by supporters of the former prime minister after he was forced to resign, will hold a conference in Bournemouth on May 13. The event will be attended by leading supporters of Johnson, including Priti Patel, the former home secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, and Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary. Johnson is not expected to attend… Lord Cruddas, the Tory donor who has been critical of Sunak, is organising the conference…Rees-Mogg will go on to address the national Conservatism conference…” – The Times
“Rishi Sunak will publish long-awaited proposals to improve access to GPs next week, in a bid to bounce back from yesterday’s local elections. Downing Street has drawn up plans for a health-focused mini-relaunch in the coming days to demonstrate that the Prime Minister is focused on delivering on the public’s priorities. The package will include the Government’s delayed primary care plan which is designed to free up hundreds of thousands of GP appointments by asking pharmacists to issue more prescriptions. Mr Sunak was last night braced for the Conservatives to lose hundreds of seats in council elections across the country. Ministers fear that some councillors will blame the Government for their defeat.” – The Daily Mail
“Rishi Sunak faces a cabinet backlash over new planning restrictions after an analysis found that the number of homes built in England may fall by a third. The prime minister bowed to rebels in December last year by dropping mandatory targets for housebuilding and introducing an array of new planning restrictions. Labour has promised to reintroduce the targets, prompting criticism of the government by ministers and Conservative backbenchers. One cabinet minister told The Times that abandoning the planning rules was a mistake and that the Tory Party needed to show it was on the “side of aspiration”. They said they were concerned that the government did not have a solution to the “chronic” lack of new housing before the general election…” – The Times
“Michael Gove, Britain’s levelling up minister, is to push through two significant housing reforms to protect renters and leaseholders before the next election…Gove has been given the green light to bring forward a leasehold reform bill in the final session of this parliament, while next week he will publish a bill to end “no fault” evictions of renters. However, prime minister Rishi Sunak and Gove are facing criticism from Labour and some Tory MPs for not doing more to address the chronic housing shortage and bowing to anti-development “Nimbys”. Gove will next week publish a renters reform bill…which will abolish so-called “section 21 orders” that enable landlords to throw out tenants in England with eight weeks’ notice without any explanation.” – The Financial Times
“Sir Keir Starmer’s silence over the appointment of Sue Gray “condemns him”, Michael Gove has said. The Levelling-Up Secretary said he believed the former partygate investigator – who has now left to become the Labour leader’s chief of staff – was a woman of integrity. But he said Sir Keir had been “unchivalrous” by failing to share details of when he first approached her for the job. The Opposition leader has repeatedly refused to disclose the timeline of the talks held with the former senior civil servant. It emerged on Wednesday that the Labour leader initiated contact with Ms Gray about the position in October, at least four months before her appointment was announced.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Everyone got it wrong. David Cameron had famously tried to get net immigration down to the “tens of thousands” but the figures due later this month will show it well into the hundreds of thousands. New arrivals may encounter more friction: queues can be longer in airports, the paperwork more of a headache. But never have more people settled these islands than are doing so now, in these post-Brexit years. If British unemployment was low…this would be a good sign of a growing economy. But we have an unemployment crisis, with over a million vacancies across the UK, yet a near-record five million on out-of-work benefits… Brexit was an opportunity to wean employers off the drug of cheap foreign labour… A new economic model would have to be built.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Rail workers have voted to drag on their strikes for another six months of misery for travellers. Militant RMT boss Mick Lynch said the backing for walkouts until at least Christmas was a “de facto referendum” which showed the “huge anger” among rail workers. He said: “It is clear members are not prepared to accept a pay offer based on mass job cuts and major attacks on their terms and conditions. “This sends a clear message that employers need to face reality and make improved proposals.” Train operators have offered a five per cent pay hike for last year and four per cent for 2023. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he was “disappointed” by the RMT decision and urged it to let members vote directly on the deal.” – The Sun
“Senior Tory MPs, including former prime minister Liz Truss, will make an intervention if James Cleverly goes ahead with a visit to China, i understands. Mr Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, is mulling the UK Government’s first official visit to Beijing in five years, following his pledge to “engage” with China despite deepening tensions with the West. Although no date has been set and the plans remain under consideration, China is expected to issue a formal invitation for Mr Cleverly to visit Beijing following the coronation… But senior Tories have claimed an official visit to China would overstep the mark in efforts to foster diplomatic ties with the country… Ms Truss…is expected to speak out against any such move in a speech at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit in two weeks’ time…” – The I
It matters that we live in an old country because it means that our ceremonies are not simple flummery, as some claim, but have real symbolic meaning. Some sneeringly describe the Coronation as medieval. They mean it pejoratively, but actually it’s a simple fact. This medieval ceremony is not a distraction from reality, but rather an accurate picture of reality, the reality that the English, now British, state is itself still largely medieval in form…We are almost alone as a country in not having dismantled our original constitution to replace it with something supposedly more rational. Instead, we largely kept it but shuffled the powers around to create a flexible system based on the King in Parliament, hence parliamentary sovereignty, and, eventually, a democracy.” – The Daily Telegraph
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