Starmer is in the West Midlands. Also in attendance is Deputy Labour Leader and Starmer-sceptic Lucy Powell. Labour fears cataclysm on 1st May…
Starmer is determined to make hay from Iran situation for 1st May elections.
“This is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it…. that’s my values, that’s my principles.”
Guido’s Senior Reporter Ellie Wheatley asked Nigel Farage how many applications Reform had got for its recently-opened General Election candidate scheme. Farage said about 600 had applied in the first two days. The Reform leader added:
“We have to put 5,432 candidates in the field for May the 7th. It is an absolutely gargantuan job, not just for us, but for the other parties as well… my focus clearly has got to be our focus all of us has got to be making sure we really are battle ready for May 7th including another 900 seats that’ll be fought that weren’t being fought yesterday morning.”
Guido hears the mood in Labour HQ is measurably more maudlin…
Care minister Stephen Kinnock tried to defend Starmer’s U-turn on cancelling local elections this morning on Sky News. Asked what exact change in legal advice forced Labour to make the decision, Kinnock eventually gave up, saying he is only a “care minister”. Tough gig…
Labour is set to allow at least 23 councils to cancel their local elections this coming May, according the BBC. That’s around 4 million people denied the vote…
Today is the deadline for 63 councils to ‘request’ to delay their elections until next year. So far most of those councils are Labour-led, three are Tory-led and one is LibDem-led. Some of the councils are being delayed for a second year running. Nigel Farage said on X:
“How dare the Tory fraudsters complain about cancelled elections. 7 Conservative councils colluded with Labour to cancel elections last year. Three will repeat it for a second year in a row. Never trust what they say.”
He added that “we will use every means possible, starting with our judicial review.” Seven councils are yet to decide whether they will ask to cancel their elections. Meanwhile, Reform was on track to win all four of the mayoral elections that Labour cancelled at the end of last year. Give the people the vote…
At 5 p.m. this is the state of play in numbers. 15 out of 23 councils declared:
County councils: Reform has control of seven, there are eight under no overall control.
Reform has gained one new mayor. Labour has retained three mayors and lost one. The Tories have gained one mayor from Labour. Hull still to come…
BBC’s projected national share:
UPDATE: Reform wins Hull. That’s two mayoralties in total…
Robert Jenrick is currently on the BBC responding to the grim results coming in for the Tories. He was quick to attack Labour, praising Kemi Badenoch for doing an “excellent job”:
“Well clearly this is a very tough night for the Conservative Party and we’ve lost many good councillors. I think what we’ve actually seen overall in the course of the last 24 hours is a massive rejection of the Labour Party. We’ve seen what should have been Starmer’s honeymoon just nine months after winning a landslide election victory turn into a complete nightmare. The public have rightly rejected the Labour Party and the Labour Party will need to learn from that. I think Kem Badenoch is doing an excellent job. She’s only been leader for 6 months. She’s begun the process of renewing the party of listening to the public. We have to redouble those efforts.”
Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi still hasn’t made an appearance yet. Tory sources promise “she’ll be out soon”…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”