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Telegraph
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
I'm the councillor who defected from Labour to Reform. Here's why
Some were surprised by my decision to leave the Labour Party and join Reform UK. But for me, it was the inevitable conclusion of months of reflection – on the state of our country, the failures of the political establishment, and the urgent need for change. I left because Labour no longer speaks for the people it claims to represent and I believe Reform UK does – and, crucially, it fundamentally understands working-class aspiration: the desire to get on, not just get by. I joined the Labour Party because I believed it was the natural home for those who wanted to see social mobility and opportunity for working people. But over time, like many, I grew disillusioned. Too many traditional working-class communities – especially those dismissed as 'non-voter areas' – were ignored, written off instead of being heard. What we should have been asking is: why are so many people disengaged? What can we do to restore aspiration and a sense of belonging? There's a reason so many of these communities voted for Brexit – it was the first time they felt they truly had a voice. Instead of listening, politics became a game: more interested in optics than outcomes, and more focused on slogans than solutions. Over the past year, I've been studying at King's College London, and one of the things that has stood out most to me is this: in politics, delivery is everything. Yet Westminster remains paralysed by bureaucracy, devoid of urgency, and increasingly disconnected from the realities of everyday life. Since coming to power, Labour has quietly created 27 new quangos, all while claiming to want to reduce them. The largest of all, Ed Miliband's £8 billion GB Energy, promised to create 70,000 jobs. Now, however, we're told it might deliver just 1,000 jobs over 20 years. The same inertia is visible in housing. As a young person, I know how difficult it has become to get on the property ladder. Labour's solution? More red tape. A £13.2 billion mandate for solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes will only push up costs and reduce supply. National security is being treated with similar complacency. Starmer pledged to smash the gangs, yet the numbers crossing the channel continue to rise. Only last month, three Iranian nationals who crossed the channel were charged under the National Security Act for espionage. The economic picture is equally bleak. Labour's changes to non-dom status reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of how global wealth operates. An exodus of the wealthy could cost the Exchequer £12.2 billion over this Parliament if just half of non-doms choose to leave Britain. The Government's handling of the Chagos Islands deal stands as one of the worst negotiated agreements in recent history. We are now set to pay up to £30 billion to lease an airbase we already own. At the same time, we are selling out the Chagossian people, who have scarcely been considered throughout this process, despite expressing a clear desire to remain under British sovereignty. Brexit was an opportunity to unleash our potential and revive national confidence. Instead, we're now watching ourselves creep back into the EU through the back door. Our waters have been handed over to the EU for another 13 years, and Spain is now carrying out passport checks on British soil in Gibraltar. This is not what the British people voted for in 2016. Nigel Farage speaks with the conviction and clarity the public deserves. He understands that success should be celebrated, that incentives matter, that hard work and enterprise should be encouraged, not punished. Most of all, he has endured years of vilification and stayed the course. Not for acclaim, but out of love for this country. Britain needs a Reform UK government with Nigel as Prime Minister. People ask me if I have any regrets. I do – not joining Reform UK sooner.
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Cuomo's Candidacy Is a Symptom of a Bigger Democratic Problem
To understand what ails the Democrats, consider the mayoral primary unfolding in New York City. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is one upset away from winning the Democratic nomination, leaving much of the political establishment stunned. But the actual problem for Democrats is Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor insisting on a comeback bid despite representing so much of what many voters have come to disdain about the Democratic Party. The dynamics of the race are a warning for Democrats everywhere. Mr. Cuomo has few new ideas, moved to the city only months ago and resigned as governor in 2021 after 11 women accused him of sexual harassment. (At the time, Mr. Cuomo apologized. During his mayoral campaign, he has denied wrongdoing and downplayed the accusations.) His candidacy has been propelled by name recognition in a state where he and his father served as governor, and by TV ads casting him as an expert manager and a tough guy willing to stand up to Donald Trump. Never mind that he shares some of the president's donors, or that over his 10 years as governor, he made many decisions that hurt New York City. Faced with more of the same, a significant part of the Democratic base seems to be veering toward drastic action by supporting Mr. Mamdani, a talented and charismatic Queens assemblyman who would have a shaky path to victory in the general election and who is making promises that could be difficult to deliver on. Polls suggest Mr. Mamdani, who has vowed to freeze rents on rent-stabilized apartments, could win 31 percent of the initial vote in the ranked-choice mayoral ballot. After years of being told to fall in line, Democratic voters are rejecting their party's establishment in large numbers — movement that could portend unpredictable primaries in the midterms and 2028 presidential race. Despite its national image as a liberal bastion, New York City often elects centrist mayors by way of sleepy campaigns. Mr. Mamdani is challenging that dynamic. A Mamdani spokesman told me the candidate's field operation, powered by roughly 40,000 volunteers, had knocked more than one million doors across the city. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
