Reform UK takes Killingworth seat from Labour
Despite the win, Clark said Reform was not a "serious threat" politically in the area."Reform has gained a seat and obviously we would have preferred to hold that seat," Clark told the Local Democracy Reporting Service."It is always difficult when your party is in power. If Reform was a serious threat I would expect them to take both these seats."
Smith said: "This is the beginning for Reform in North Tyneside. "Just on the door steps, talking to people, Reform have been very positively received and people are wanting change."He also said that his first priority as Killingworth's councillor was to get his "head around everything"."I'm not a political-type person," Smith added."I was working in a JD Gym as a cleaner before this. "It's about seeing how things operate - work out our priorities and who we can work with."The turnout for Killingworth was 30.3% compared to 24.7% for Longbenton and Benton.
Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Epping asylum hotel numbers rose from 28 to 199 in three months
A council at the centre of a legal case to block a hotel from housing asylum seekers was among the top 10 UK local authorities which saw the biggest rise in numbers staying in this kind of accommodation in recent months. Epping Forest District Council in Essex went from housing 28 asylum seekers in hotels in its area in March this year, to 199 by the end of June. The latest data breakdown, published by the Home Office on Thursday, comes two days after the council secured a High Court temporary injunction blocking the use of Epping's Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds. The legal case followed protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel. There were 124 local authorities across the UK housing asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June, according to the Home Office data. This is around a third of all UK authorities. The Home Office has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and, when there is not enough housing, can move people to alternatives such as hotels and large sites, like former military bases. The latest figures show that Manchester City Council was the local authority with the biggest numerical jump in people staying in hotels, from 874 at the end of March to 1,158 at the end of June. This was followed by Birmingham City Council, which rose from 1,018 to 1,226 over the same period. Both Warwick District Council and West Northamptonshire Council followed, seeing rises of 197 over the three-month period. The former went from housing 168 asylum seekers in hotels to 365, while the latter saw a rise from 201 to 398. Blackpool Borough Council had the same numerical rise as Epping Forest, both increasing by 171 people between March and June. But the overall numbers for Blackpool are higher – housing 389 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June, up from 218 at the end of March. Protests have also been held outside the Britannia International Hotel in London's Canary Wharf amid reports it was set to be used to offer temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. The latest data showed that while there were 319 asylum seekers being housed in hotels in that local authority of Tower Hamlets, there were none at the end of June there. Last month, there was a protest outside a hotel reportedly housing migrants in Bowthorpe near Norwich. The number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the Norwich City Council area rose by 46 between the end of March and the end of June, from 161 to 207.
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
What the UK's migration numbers really show
The number of asylum seekers housed in government hotels has risen in the first year under Labour, piling further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to get a grip on the growing number of people making dangerous Channel crossings. It follows a High Court ruling on Tuesday that banned the use of The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, for asylum seekers after lawyers argued it had become a 'feeding ground for unrest' following a string of violent protests at the site. As Labour braces for a fresh round of legal action from revolting councils seeking similar bans in their areas, new Home Office figures reveal that the number of people claiming asylum in the past year soared to a record 111,000, while small boats continue to cross the Channel at increasing rates. The government has been repeatedly accused of failing to tackle immigration, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage saying the 'public is right to be very angry' over the rise in asylum seekers being housed in hotels and shadow home secretary Chris Philp claiming ministers had 'lost control of our borders'. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has claimed that the country 'is well past breaking point', while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch questioned whether it would be possible to 'set up camps' for migrants, rather than housing them near local communities. While the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels is up eight per cent year-on-year, the numbers have been consistently falling since December last year. The number of people in hotels - 32,059 - is also significantly lower than the peak of over 56,000 under the Tory government in September 2023. Labour has also made progress on cutting the backlog of asylum claims and speeding up the number of deportations, with enforced returns up by 25 per cent and an increasing number of criminals deported in the year to June. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday that the numbers showed Labour had 'strengthened Britain's visa and immigration controls, cut asylum costs, and sharply increased enforcement and returns'. The bad news: asylum claims and small boats at record levels The number of migrants being housed temporarily in hotels has risen by eight per cent to 32,059 in the year to June. This was up from 29,585 at the same point last year, when the Conservatives were in power, but down from 32,345 in March, and has been falling since last December. That figure is still far below the peak of 56,000 asylum seekers living in hotels in September 2023. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp slammed 'weak' ministers for there being 'more immigrants in hotels than at the time of the election'. But Labour has blamed the Tories, with Ms Cooper on Thursday saying the party 'inherited a broken immigration and asylum system that the previous government left in chaos'. The party has said it is committed to ending the use of asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament and had already reduced asylum costs by 11 per cent. Enver Solomon, chief executive of charity the Refugee Council, said that 'there's still far too many people in hotels', adding: "Everyone agrees that hotels are the wrong answer – they cost the taxpayer billions, trap people in limbo and are flashpoints in communities.' The rising numbers in hotels come as a record number of people – 111,084 – submitted claims for asylum in the year ending June 2025, the highest number for any 12 months since records began in 2001. Small boat migrants – numbers of which have topped 50,000 so far this year under Labour – accounted for 39 per cent of these claims, but many thousands of people also claimed asylum after travelling to the UK on legal visas. In the year 2025 so far, some 6,700 people have claimed asylum after coming to the UK to study, and 5,900 people after arriving for work. Most applicants were from Pakistan, accounting for 10.1 per cent, followed by claimants from Afghanistan and Iran. Labour has made progress on slashing the backlog, with the number of people awaiting a decision continuing to fall. The total number waiting was 70,532 in June this year, down from more than 90,000 at the end of 2024, after the former Tory government stopped processing applications while they waited to see if they could send people to Rwanda under their failed deportation scheme. The numbers waiting for more than 12 months for a decision are also falling significantly, although some 19,000 are still waiting. Mr Solomon, of the Refugee Council, said that the government can be proud of the "genuine achievement" of bringing down the numbers but warned that "this good work is being put at risk by poor-quality decisions", with "nearly half of appeals" succeeding. Marley Morris, at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), agreed that there were 'signs of progress' since the Home Office sped up processing times. However, she said it needs to 'improve the quality of initial decision making and speed up the appeals process', and expand the 'stock of temporary accommodation' available for migrants to reduce spending on hotels, which cost £2.1bn in 2024-25. One area where Labour is making real progress is in the significant upturn in deportations. Enforced removals have increased by 25 per cent, with 9,100 people returned to their country of origin in the year to June. Voluntary returns - those leaving without enforcement - are also up by 13 per cent, with 26,761 people opting to leave the UK. This brings the total number of removals to over 35,000 in the year to June. There has also been a significant increase in assisted returns, where the Home Office provides support or even financial incentives for migrants to leave the UK. That figure has nearly doubled from 4,032 to 9,227. Earlier this year, The Independent revealed that the Home Office had paid £53m for assisted returns in the past four years, with each migrant receiving up to £3,000. The Home Office has reallocated some 1,000 staff to immigration enforcement, which it notes may have boosted returns. In particular, an increasing number of foreign criminals are being deported, with 5,265 offenders returned – around half of which were EU nationals. Earlier this year, the prime minister announced that specialist immigration enforcement teams were being sent into prisons to 'speed up the removal of prisoners who have no right to be in this country'. The latest figures are the highest number of criminals removed in years, but are still below the peak in 2016. Migrants and asylum-seekers coming from Albania, Romania, Brazil, and India are among the top nationalities being deported, figures show. But the top return destination for migrant removals is France, with 8,403 people sent there in the past year. The government's new one-in, one-out deal with France will allow a small number of migrants to be returned after crossing the Channel. But the numbers are small – understood to be around 50 people a week – and so far none are known to have been sent back.
Telegraph
18 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Sturgeon's trans ideology ‘hurt Scottish independence drive'
Nicola Sturgeon's attempt to force trans ideology 'down people's throats' has damaged the Scottish independence movement, the author of Trainspotting has claimed. Irvine Welsh, 66, said the former first minister 's embrace of the 'fringe' trans issue undermined the case for independence by pushing away potential supporters. The writer was one of the most high-profile supporters of Scottish independence during the 2014 referendum, describing its outcome as a 'disaster' for the country in an interview a decade on from the vote. Speaking at the release event for Reality is not Enough, a new documentary about his life, Mr Welsh told the Daily Record: 'Something that should be a fringe issue was allowed to leak right into the whole independence debate. Basically, it's nothing to do with it at all. 'The idea of the independence movement was to live as an independent nation and be a model of how things should be. 'To do that you need to pick the issues that can pull people along with you, issues that mean people are going to be to your side. She was out of step with what people feel and believe in the way that social engineers always are.' Ms Sturgeon oversaw the controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which was overwhelmingly passed by Holyrood in December 2022. The legislation would have allowed trans people to change legal gender by simply signing a declaration with no medical diagnosis. But it was ultimately vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women's safe spaces. Mr Welsh's comments come amid a fresh row over the political legacy of the former SNP leader following the publication of her memoir Frankly. In the book, Ms Sturgeon admitted that she 'should have hit the pause button' on controversial self-ID plans. But, in media interviews promoting the book, she suggested that some of its opponents were transphobic. Mr Welsh also accused the former first minister of forcing her beliefs on the trans issue 'down people's throats'. He said: 'Sturgeon was out of step on what people felt about the trans debate. It was a fringe issue on which she had an obscure and contentious view that she tried to force down people's throats. 'Don't start telling people what a man is and what a woman is when you don't even know yourself.' The writer added: 'I'm against racism and sexism and homophobia and I'm pro-everybody living the life that they want to live, but you should trust people and trust society to get to these conclusions on its own. 'In football terraces you used to have all these idiots doing ape chants when a black player got the ball. If anybody did that now, people would just laugh at them, shout them down or ridicule them. 'That's something that's happened organically because society has grown up and people have moved on. People want to look after each other and want to include each other. As soon as you have an external force saying, 'you will do this' there is a reaction against that. 'Start social engineering and telling people this is what they should be doing and you'll push them right into the arms of Reform and Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate. These guys are w---ers.'
