Every month, we’ll publish the power rankings of all the leading lights in the party based on our readers’ responses. Click here to fill in the survey, and the results will be published at the end of the month. Dan Thomas and Malcolm Offord have been added to the roster. Here’s how last month played out…
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The UK’s private security regulator has filled barely a quarter of the staff it needs to enforce new a anti-terror security law, even as its existing licensing operation buckles under rising backlogs, longer processing times, and a complaint uphold rate approaching 50%.
Martyn’s Law will require premises and events to assess terrorism risks and put protective measures in place, with the SIA acting as regulator for the new regime. The government has not yet confirmed a commencement date but has said there will be an implementation period of at least 24 months, from 3 April 2025, before the Act comes into force. Significant extra work will have to be done by businesses according to how many people they host…
Documents uncovered by Guido’s FOI Unit show that the Security Industry Authority has created 183 posts for it’s Martyn’s Law function but has so far only filled 45. Only three positions are currently advertised, and three more are at sift/interview stage. 132 roles haven’t even been posted yet…
The two biggest operational teams are also mostly empty. Inspections and Enforcement has 44 planned posts but has hired one person. Notifications and Assessment Casework – the team that will actually process cases under the new regime – has 43 posts and has also hired one. Total recruitment spend to date has been £85,000…
The SIA insists there is no risk to delivery and recruitment is staggered over five years. Its own performance data shows that average application processing times hit 19 working days in Q1 2026-27 which is the highest since records in this dataset began in 2022. Monthly complaints about processing delays, which had fallen to around 10 per month in mid-2025, jumped back to 20 in January and February 2026. The backlog of applications in progress climbed to 16,725 in March 2026, up from around 12,950 three months earlier…
The SIA’s own annual complaints board paper shows the complaint uphold rate rose from 40% in 2023-24 to 49% in 2024-25, meaning the regulator was at fault in almost half of all complaints. Upheld complaints against several internal teams have also surged year-on-year which the SIA says “warrants further investigation.” The regulator has been trying to procure quality monitoring software to help identify the causes of errors. This was first flagged in 2023-24 and is still not operational. The latest report says they are “looking at our options”…
A quango that is struggling to process its current workload without rising delays and a near-50% error rate is gearing up to process a huge number of applications from businesses in a year with three-quarters of the requisite posts not even advertised. What could go wrong?
Guido hears advisers of Andy Burnham are recommending the mayor calls a pretty immediate general election if he enters office later this year. The country could go to the polls before Christmas…
A source with knowledge of the discussions said: “It’s an active conversation.” In case people thought it was all Makerfield…
Guido speculated on the possibility last week. The Burnham Bounce won’t last for long – is the country ready for the LibDems to enter government again?
Burnham will likely feel the need to shed the 2024 manifesto at some point during any premiership. Some advising him are saying – the earlier the better…
Guido hears Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar – humiliated at the Scottish Parliament elections – is refusing to step down until Starmer does. Oh dear…
Around the time of the 2024 election Labour was almost at parity with the SNP in Scottish polls. By 7 May it suffered a -2.4% swing and only won 17 seats…
A growing consensus is that Sarwar should go. At the time of the loss he said: “My party is hurting – we’re disappointed, we advocate for change, we didn’t win that argument, but it’s my job to hold us together and that’s a job I intend to do.” Still clinging on…
Now Guido hears Sarwar accepts he may have to go after all, but is insisting that it goes down in a ‘dignified’ way. Interpreted by everyone as – after Starmer goes…
Andy Burnham has U-turned on his opposition to the EHRC trans guidance and his views on trans use of facilities in general. Right that’s it – Guido is launching a tracker…
Burnham said today that his views had changed since 2022 and added:
“I think the time has come to take the Supreme Court ruling and the guidance and implement it. But to do it in a way, obviously, that protects those spaces, but does not marginalise already marginalised communities… Let’s implement the guidance, but to do it in the fairest and most compassionate way possible.”
This is obviously the opposite of his previous statements. So far Burnham has U-turned on:
More to come! Follow along…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”