Like [Keir] Starmer, the chancellor is also fighting for her political life whether because the prime minister himself falls, or chooses to move his chancellor in a reset reshuffle. Against that backdrop, Reeves hopes to project calm and competence next week, after a tumultuous 18 months.
Iran and the regime he's led for so long, it's a source of evil—murdering its own citizens and sponsoring and exporting terror. I think few people will mourn the ayatollah's death, not least the families and friends of the thousands of protesters murdered on the streets of Iranian cities.
The Greens were doing a lot of stuff with the mosques, persuading people there they were best placed to defeat Reform. When progressive voters were looking for a party to coalesce around, persuading the networks in the Muslim community that you were the party best placed to win made a huge difference.
Labour strategists were desperate to say the party was on course to win, but the party's trouncing at the hands of the Greens has made this look laughable in hindsight. Hollie Ridley, Labour's general secretary, sent a note to No 10 at the end of January saying it was clearly a two-horse race with Reform UK, and only 3% of voters saying they would stick with the Greens.
Shabana Mahmood herself has said that illegal immigration was putting immense strain on the country and undermining the contract between the government and its citizens. This week, Mahmood visited reception and removal centres for asylum seekers near Copenhagen, the Danish capital, to examine how a tougher set of policies were working in practice.
Recent trends indicate that parties like the Green Party of England and Wales and Reform UK have been making significant inroads in areas that have traditionally leaned toward Labour. Political analysts suggest that this shift reflects a fragmentation of the centre-left and right-wing protest voting dynamics in urban constituencies.
Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term, but I do understand that voters are frustrated, they're impatient for change. I came into politics late in life, as it happens, to fight for change for those people need it. The people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to doctors appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay their bills, and to have decent and better life.
Labour simply refused to acknowledge it. Until very recently, No 10 strategy, as defined by Morgan McSweeney, was built around neglecting, even insulting, progressive voters, and seeking to win back defections to Reform. Come the next general election, so the argument went, progressives would sheepishly have to back Labour, just as leftwing voters in France got behind Emmanuel Macron when push came to shove.
I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I'm heading to Parliament. And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine, we will finally get a seat at the table.
Above all else, what mattered was the emphatic rejection of Nigel Farage's poison, as a resounding 67% of progressive voters chased off Reform's mere 29% support. The darkness of Reform's apparent poll lead starts to melt away. The Gorton and Denton result avoided a split between anti-Reform parties that would let Farage's party slither into the seat despite overwhelming opposition.
Church House has provided a veneer of spiritual legitimacy to Reform's anti-migrant and anti-Muslim politics, and their cynical scapegoating. As followers of Jesus, we must refuse to let the architecture of [the venue be used as a moral backdrop for policies that contradict the very heart of the Christian faith].
For two months, news desks on both sides of the Atlantic have been trawling through the Epstein files, daily releasing sensational details. This one story now years old is crushing out many others. The name of Jeffrey Epstein this past week has claimed precedence over Donald Trump, China, Iran and Ukraine. Each night's BBC television news has demoted Keir Starmer, the NHS, tax reform and student loans.
As a political statement, it is very much A Deliberate Choice and a sign that Spencer is plugged into the taste of the high street and younger voters. A brief moment in popular culture that informs a political campaign? We've been here before. Someone on Kamala Harris's campaign team adopted the Brat aesthetic on social media and she caught the attention of the younger voter by successfully meme-ing a colour into a political symbol.
Britain once ruled over the largest empire in history. For many Britons, it remains a source of pride. Others argue its power was built on a legacy of brutality, colonial conquest and the enslavement of millions. Can Britain reckon with that past and make amends?
People look at Holyrood and think: Lets give them all a bloody nose', says Alex, a betting shop manager. Speaking in a focus group of people who voted Labour at the 2024 general election, Alex captured the downbeat mood of a cohort bitterly disappointed with the Labour government's early performance, frustrated by the record of the Scottish National party and wearied by what they described as scandal after scandal polluting public life.
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