South Western Railway, the first train operator renationalised back in May 2025, paid out a whopping £8.25 million in Delay Repay compensation last year, with about a third of its trains running late. Campaigners reckon the real cost, with taxis and hotels for stranded passengers included, is closer to £15 million. Under Burnham’s nationalisation drive, more of these costs will land with the taxpayer…
Telegraph travel correspondent Simon Calder told the BBC the government “may possibly come to regret” its promises, since “simply bringing it into public ownership does not mean that we’re suddenly going to discover that all the trains to and from London Waterloo run on time.” The DfT maintains that cancellations are down and this is all apparently “benefitting passengers”. An onslaught of Delay Repay compensation bills are now heading directly for your wallet…
The Green Party executive’s election team is preparing for an election in 2027. No one is listening to Burnham’s denials…
Candidate statements have leaked for a series of London-based roles for which Green members are voting this month. Faaiz Hasan, who is one of two national election co-ordinators on the Green Party Executive, is hoping to be re-selected as the London election co-ordinator.
In a leaked statement Hasan, who worked on Gorton & Denton and the recent Holborn by-election, said Green Party priorities for the next twelve months are:
- “Election readiness: prepare target seats, candidates and campaigns now for the May 2028 Mayor and GLA elections, and a snap general election in 2027.
- Campaign capacity: we are now competitive in seats we never used to contest and must recruit experienced, winning campaigners.
- Reflect our communities: our strength is increasingly in diverse wards. Organisers with community ties, language skills and local trust are best placed to mobilise voters, recruit diverse candidates and win seats.
- Mobilise our membership: our mass membership is our decisive advantage, but few members are active in elections. Every campaign needs active-member targets for each ward.
- Close the technology gap: complete the canvassing app rollout across London so we never again fight at a disadvantage.”
Hasan also boasts that the London Greens spent £250,000 in the May 2026 locals, “around 50 times the original pre-surge plan.” The London Greens had a team of ten field staff and London’s share of membership fees called in early was £230,000. All before the party started blowing itself up…
The Greens’ next scheduled leadership ballot also takes place in summer 2027. That’s one election Zack Polanski will be sweating about…
Alex Challoner, who was knocked off the longlist for the Tory London mayoral selection, has backed James Cleverly as voting opens today.
Challoner, who founded Cavendish Communications, made a bid for the Tory nomination with a policy blitz but didn’t make the shortlist of three announced at the end of last month. Challoner tells Guido he now backs Cleverly:
“London needs a champion. It needs someone who can reach every part of the capital and connect with every community in our great city. And it needs a mayor who can unleash London’s full potential. That is why I am backing James to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London.
James spent his life in this city, and he knows that a family in Bexley and a family in Brent want the same things: safe streets, a home they can afford and the chance to get on in life.
The coming election is our party’s best chance of winning in years. It is not just about who will be the next mayor, but it will be a battle of ideas over what London’s future should look like. James has a clear vision for London as a city that is proud of its success, aspirational and affordable, and the engine of the British economy.
Above all, James loves this city. He has the drive to make the capital better for every Londoner, not just a few. James is the only candidate that can take the fight to Sadiq Khan and I will do everything I can to help him win.”
Cleverly for his part said: “It’s great to have Alex’s support and I look forward to working closely with him to make the case for change, and lay out my plan to make London a city we can all be proud of again.” Always nice to get a rival…
Voting opens at midday today and runs for two weeks. The other candidates are Westminster City councillor Festus Akinbusoye and former Richmond Park PPC Sara Gezdari. Meanwhile Khan can’t decide if he wants to do it again…
Lisa Nandy has rejected claims she disrespected veterans after a DCMS press release last night said she “believes that we owe it to our brave veterans to repair these relationships with our friends in Europe” by rejoining the Erasmus Plus scheme. To which Tory Chairman Kevin Hollinrake said “Our veterans’ sacrifice is not a prop for Labour’s EU agenda. Suggesting that Brexit broke the bonds they helped forge – and that Erasmus will fix them – is outrageous…”
This morning Nandy pushed back, saying on Sky News:
“I strongly, strongly disagree and it’s Remembrance Sunday. It’s not a time for politicking. And I’m actually kind of quite horrified that the chairman of the Conservative Party has chosen to do that.
“They are the only party that is talking about Brexit and the European Union today. What we are announcing this weekend is that we’re going to widen the Erasmus scheme.”
Only Labour could bungle a Remembrance Sunday message by turning it into an advert for rejoining Brussels’ student exchange scheme, and then accuse the Tories of being the ones bringing up Europe…
Lisa Nandy on Sky News this morning:
“There are choices to be made, and in a very, very difficult, spending environment where there isn’t a lot of money to come by and where the global economic situation is very tough, we’ve got to make choices.
“But we’ve made our choice clear. We are going to fund defence to the tune of 3.5% by 2035. That’s a commitment we’ve made to our NATO partners. We want to do that sooner. We want to hit 3% by 2030. And that involves cuts, as you rightly say, to other departments that really do affect people’s lives.
“But we’re not being complacent about this and we’re not delaying.”
Along with the usual guff about cutting welfare “in a Labour way”…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”
