Armour-clad Starmer is ready for battle
Photo byBattle-ready, armour-clad Keir Starmer put on a pair of shinpads after returning to Downing Street from the photoshoot at the BAE Systems' Govan shipyard where he unveiled Labour's military spending spree*. War-war on the Clyde in Glasgow was followed by jaw-jaw in No 10 for the football-loving Prime Minister. Starmer, 63 in September, hosted a Show Racism the Red Card awards evening. The PM still enjoys regular kickabouts with old team-mates and quipped he'd asked for a script referring to him as an 'ageing midfielder' be changed to 'box-to-box midfielder'. The Arsenal fan was observed chatting excitedly with Tottenham Hotspur and England former star Ledley 'he's only got one knee' King. After another trophy-less season for Starmer's club, the encounter prompts questions about how far Arsenal are from silverware. The answer is 4.5 miles – the distance in north London between the Emirates and Tottenham Hotspur's stadium after Spurs lifted the Europa League cup in May.
* Treasury T&Cs apply to future military expansion
As Jonathan Reynolds and Angela Rayner, the Business Secretary and Deputy PM, mastermind what they call the biggest upgrade to workers' rights in a generation, the conditions of parliament's own wage slaves are eroding. Bermondsey shop steward Neil Coyle is seeking a meeting with brother Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, son of late peer and trade union bigwig Doug Hoyle. The subject? The draining of a redeployment pool for security guards deemed insufficiently fit to protect MPs. Uniformed officers removed from duty are now only to be permitted to seek alternative posts for the duration of notice periods. Talk is of a challenge under disability law, another area the government is committed to strengthening.
Two chatting Labour MPs stumbled on the strategic chaos at the heart of the government's benefit cuts. The second of the pair called into Downing Street for a pep talk and spotted a flip chart justifying PIP cuts: the third point on the list emphasised dignity for the most severely disabled. He argued it should've been the first. 'Hmmm,' replied the MP who'd been in the day before, 'that wasn't even on the board when we went in and expressed concern for those who unable to work.'
The Govan shipyard graced by Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey was rescued from closure in 1971 by the historic Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in. Trade unionists led by Communist firebrands Jimmy Airlie and Jimmy Reid forced Ted Heath to U-turn and sink Tory plans to end shipbuilding on the Clyde. The irony that a couple of comrades saved a launch pad for Starmer's bomb bonanza wasn't lost on a Labour Socialist Campaign Group MP, who groaned that every revolution devours its own, and it will be cuts to key public services that are likely to fund rearmament.
[See also: Britain's ghost children]
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Scotsman
37 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Hamilton by-election: How Labour 'defied the odds' and Reform ripped up the rulebook
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Anas Sarwar was buzzing. The triumphant Scottish Labour leader told journalists his party had defied the bookies, the pollsters and the pundits by winning the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, and it was now 'game on'. He had a point. Almost everyone thought the SNP would keep hold of the seat, albeit with a much reduced majority. In the end, Labour's candidate, Davy Russell, beat his Nationalist rival by 602 votes. It was a narrow victory, but a win is a win. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad On Friday, as Labour held a victory rally in Hamilton, one party spinner purchased a "humble pie" - technically, an apple flan - from the Bayne's bakery next to their campaign HQ and used it to tease journalists who had written off Labour's chances. A Reform UK election billboard poster in Larkhall | PA Alas, it wasn't long before Professor Sir John Curtice, the polling guru, rained on their parade with some cold, hard numbers. The result, he said, was actually 'way below' what Labour needs if it wants to win next year's Holyrood election. "I think the honest truth is that neither Labour nor the SNP can be really particularly happy with this result,' he told The Scotsman. Professor Sir John Curtice has an important message about how to restore the public's trust in politics and democracy (Picture: Leon Neal) | Getty Images Instead, the most important development in terms of its wider implications lies elsewhere. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Hamilton by-election was a tight three-horse race between Labour, the SNP and Nigel Farage's Reform UK. The latter came in third, but still secured a remarkable 26 per cent of the vote, outperforming its national polling. In light of this, Sir John said, the possibility that Reform might come second next year, ahead of Labour, 'is not an outcome that we can presume is out of the bounds of possibility'. Like it or not, Reform is now a force to be reckoned with in Scottish politics, and all without having a separate leadership team in place north of the Border. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The spectre of Mr Farage dominated the by-election campaign, and his visit to the constituency on Monday received huge amounts of coverage. His rivals also spent a great deal of time talking about him. The First Minister repeatedly portrayed the by-election as a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform - an analysis that turned out to be somewhat flawed, to put it mildly. "Reform's performance, 26 per cent, is more than you would expect in Hamilton, if the result there were simply reflecting what the opinion polls have been telling us,' Sir John said. "Now there are [a few] possibilities. One is that the Reform campaign in the constituency might have been particularly effective. I certainly think that Mr [Ross] Lambie was a relatively strong candidate. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "And it may well be that Labour and the SNP made the cardinal, classic mistake of giving lots of lovely publicity to your opponent's election campaign. "Or it may be that the polls are indeed underestimating Reform somewhat. We did see Reform doing better than expected in the English local elections, and then the polls caught up with what the local elections were saying." The polling expert added: "For those of us who weren't consumed by the day to day events in Hamilton, we were going 'hang on, the only thing that anybody is hearing about this by-election campaign is what Nigel Farage is saying, as advertised by Anas Sarwar and John Swinney'." Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse was prime territory for Labour, and exactly the sort of seat it should be winning. Nevertheless, a narrative developed during the campaign the party was in trouble, and there was speculation it could even come third. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That did not happen, and Mr Sarwar is quite right to celebrate a hard-earned victory. Anas Sarwar, leader of the Scottish Labour party, celebrates with deputy leader Jackie Baillie. | Lisa Ferguson Mark Diffley, the pollster, said it was a 'big win' for Labour. However, he said it was 'not right' to say the party had hugely outperformed its polling. 'National polling puts Labour at 20 per cent, down two points from 2021 Holyrood election,' he wrote on social media. 'In this by-election, Labour's vote share fell by two points from the Hamilton result in 2021.' Labour bosses credited their victory to activists rolling up their sleeves and hitting the doors. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "For a long time, people looked at the SNP and thought they had the strongest communications strategy, the strongest digital outlook and they had the strongest field operation,' Mr Sarwar said. 'I genuinely believe we beat them in all three of those areas. We ran the most significant and best ground operation in any constituency in the history of the Scottish Labour party in this by-election." Meanwhile, John Swinney, the First Minister and SNP leader, told journalists he would 'consider the implications' of the result. 'There's nothing quite like being on the doorsteps for several weeks to hear what people are thinking and feeling, and you hear it very directly,' he said. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Asked about a potential Cabinet reshuffle, he said: 'Obviously I've got to consider all the issues about the ministerial team. [Energy Secretary] Màiri McAllan will be concluding her maternity leave soon, so these issues will be considered.' While his rival celebrated in Hamilton, Mr Swinney took questions at the SNP's HQ near the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. It was, understandably, a muted affair. But spare a thought for the Scottish Tories, who secured just 6 per cent of the vote. The party will meet for its annual conference in Edinburgh next weekend, where leader Russell Findlay will have the unenviable task of trying to build some momentum.
Wales Online
44 minutes ago
- Wales Online
Cardiff Council leader confirms he will seek to run in the 2026 Senedd elections
Cardiff Council leader confirms he will seek to run in the 2026 Senedd elections The leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas, has previously refused to say whether or not he will run in the 2026 Senedd elections Huw Thomas has confirmed his plans (Image: Cardiff Council ) The leader of Cardiff Council has confirmed that he will be putting his name forward for consideration as a Labour candidate in the next Senedd election. Cllr Huw Thomas refused to say whether or not he would stand in the 2026 Senedd election when asked in September 2024. All four Labour constituency members of the Senedd in Cardiff have ruled themselves out of the running. The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Cllr Thomas what his plans were for next year's elections Cllr Thomas, who was attending a topping out ceremony for a new block of council flats in Grangetown, said: "I will be putting my name forward for consideration, yes." For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here . Cllr Thomas became the youngest leader of Cardiff Council in May 2017 at the age of 31. Originally from Aberystwyth, the ward councillor for Splott was first elected to the local authority in 2012. The current constituency member of the Senedd for Cardiff West, Mark Drakeford, is best known for leading Wales as the First Minister during the Covid-19 pandemic. Article continues below Mr Drakeford, who currently serves as the Welsh Government's cabinet secretary for finance and Welsh language, has said he will not be running for re-election. Vaughan Gething's time as First Minister was short lived. The current constituency member of the Senedd for Cardiff South and Penarth quit four months into the job following pressure over donations he received in the Welsh Labour leadership contest. Mr Gething then announced in September 2024 that he will not seek re-election in 2026. The other two constituency members of the Senedd in Cardiff, Jenny Rathbone for Cardiff Central and Julie Morgan for Cardiff North have also announced that they won't seek re-election. Ms Rathbone, who has served as an MS since 2011, sits on the climate change, environment and rural affairs committee and the public accounts committee. Ms Morgan has also been an MS since 2011. Over the years, she has been on a number of committees and served as the deputy health minister at one point. Before her time in Cardiff Bay, she also served as a politician in Westminster for 13 years after being elected as the MP for Cardiff North in 1997. The Senedd will undergo a number of major changes next year. Article continues below When people go to the polls in May 2026, they will be using a new voting system and there will be 16 new constituencies. On top of this, the Senedd will be expanded to 96 members instead of the 60 that currently sit and anyone standing for election must live in Wales.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
The SNP must not complain about Hamilton by-election humbling
'We cry to God Almighty, how can we escape this agony? Fool, don't you have hands? Or could it be God forgot to give you a pair? Sit and pray your nose doesn't run! Or, rather just wipe your nose and stop seeking a scapegoat.' – Epictetus I'm not preaching a religious message at you; you can ignore that part if you so wish. But this was the quote that came up in my Daily Stoic book for June 5, and I really felt that by the end of the Hamilton by-election it had become immensely relevant. Labour's Davy Russell, who had taken no part in any debates throughout the campaign and had had minimal interaction with the media, clinched a shock victory at South Lanarkshire Council HQ, gaining the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Holyrood seat from the SNP. The cheer was so loud journalists could not hear the exact number of votes Labour had received, but the fact it started with an eight was enough. The bookies had Labour in third place, and you could sense the relief as I heard one campaigner say: 'I actually feel quite emotional.' READ MORE: SNP activists reveal HQ silenced Reform strategy concerns Meanwhile, bullets have left guns slower than the SNP crew dispersed from the count floor. I wanted to hear from Katy Loudon, but she was nowhere to be seen. After a third defeat in a row – following her losses in Rutherglen at the 2023 by-election and General Election – you wonder whether it may be the last time we see her at a parliamentary count as a candidate. SNP minister Mairi McAllan (below) did, however, choose to criticise Labour's campaign as 'dreadful' in the aftermath, and that's where I feel Epictetus' words come in. (Image: PA) Yes, it was shocking Russell did not show up for debates, and it may seem unfair that after their popularity has plummeted so much on the back of countless broken promises they still won. But winners they are. That is sport sometimes. You don't always win by playing pretty. While Labour's tactics were risky and made Russell look like he was running scared, they seem to have played a clever game and protected their local candidate by going back to basics – chapping doors, speaking to people and figuring out exactly where their voters lived. Their Get Out the Vote campaign appeared to be hugely successful. READ MORE: How did Labour win Hamilton by-election with invisible man candidate? No matter what they might have thought of Labour's approach, all that matters is it worked, and the SNP simply cannot be overheard complaining. Their tactic of framing this as a two-horse race between them and Reform failed and perhaps it is proof that negative campaigning – positioning themselves as the only party that can beat Reform – is not going to work come the Holyrood election next year. By-elections are often outliers, and it is sometimes tricky to draw solid conclusions from them. What we can say is Reform are going to get MSPs next year and neither Labour nor the SNP can afford to be complacent. Labour, after all, won on less than a third of the vote. Both parties must keep a close eye on this new adversary but nor can they get too caught up in their web. The SNP became distracted by the new kids on the block and took their eye off their game in the process. It is time they focused on themselves and their message. If they can do that, the rest, they will hope, will take care of itself.
