#uk-elections

#uk-elections

Several were congratulatory - he's a popular figure in the Park ward of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, having served there for Labour since 2021. But there were also more than 200 posts containing vile abuse, including branding him a paedophile and a terrorist, with another asking how many women and children he had sexually assaulted. The Halifax-born politician was also told to "get out of the UK", "speak English" and another poster said he was a "cancer" who needed to be deported.

This year saw the prime minister sharpening his argument against Nigel Farage and - by extension - against those within his own party, from the cabinet down, who fret he's not the best frontman for the fight that beckons with Reform UK. There is a defiance and steeliness to the prime minister; with this performance, he reminded his internal critics just who it was who won that whopping majority in the election 15 months ago.

The victory was achieved through hard graft and sending teams of MPs and other activists for weeks to campaign hard in a seat which had become an almost existential question for the Labour Party.