Politics
Rayner cleared in the nick of time for potential leadership run
Angela Rayner has been cleared of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness by HMRC, according to the Guardian. Coincidentally, this ‘redeeming’ news for Rayner comes just in the nick of time as her former boss’ position appears increasingly untenable.
As a result, likely runners Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham look set to face another contender. Nonetheless, it hardly feels like any of these contenders will actually provide any real difference to the public at large.
After all, they have all been perfectly happy to sell out their principles to get closer to power – that isn’t likely to change when the next job offers even more power.
As we all well know from the numerous examples we’ve seen over the years: power corrupts.
EXCL: Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs, paving the way for a potential leadership bid if Keir Starmer’s grip on power unravels.
The former DPM has settled £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty, but has not paid any…
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 14, 2026
Rayner will ‘play her part’ in making Starmer step aside
According to the Guardian’s political editor, Rayner has cleared her stamp duty debt of £40k but has not received any penalties from the HMRC for failing to pay it in the first place. Apparently, this is likely to make her a hopeful in the upcoming – likely fiery – leadership battle for the job of PM after they inevitably oust Starmer.
Journalist Pippa Crerar posted on X:
HMRC was also satisfied there was no tax avoidance.
Rayner tells me she was “bruised” by whole experience because of intrusion into her disabled son’s personal life, but also because it had appeared as though she was “in it for myself” rather than on the side of ordinary people.
Rayner indicated she may run in event of a contest as she would “play my part” and that she understood why Labour MPs were so upset following last week’s election crushing. She said Starmer should “reflect on” stepping aside.
Whilst Labour MPs are clambering to distance themselves from Starmer, it is hard to ignore the fact that many of these same MPs have had no issue up until now with the PM’s leadership.
Rayner, more specifically, had been seen as a genuine advocate for working class people in years gone by. Nevertheless, her apparent comfort to back down on her principles, and her sense of humanity, has not gone unnoticed.
For instance, despite full solidarity having been offered to her constituent – a Palestinian man – before entering government, he was later seen being forcibly removed from a public event. This followed an appeal to Angela Rayner for help and compassion after multiple members of his family were murdered by Zionist Israel.
Heartbreaking moment Dalloul al-Neder confronts Angela Rayner about his family who died in Gaza.@NadiaWhittomeMP reacts on the new Pod Save the UK with @cocobyname & @MrNishKumar. Listen here: https://t.co/0G12rmurTr#PodSaveTheUK pic.twitter.com/E7BWdXZ5Lj
— Pod Save the UK (@podsavetheuk) February 2, 2024
Rayner – where has your voice been?
The Morning Star reported at the time:
Dalloul al-Neder, who has lost his mother, brother, pregnant sister-in-law and two nieces during bombing in December, confronted Ms Rayner during the fundraising event at the Village Hotel in Cheadle.
“I lost my family in Gaza,” Mr Neder began as Ms Rayner looked on.“Why did you not demand a ceasefire?”
He was dragged away seconds after his intervention by a police officer.
Another protester shouted: “Fifteen thousand children and women are dead: where has your voice been?
“You call yourself a modern-day feminist? I don’t think so. Women are having to use scraps, tents, for sanitary towels.”
Therefore, it is surely pretty clear – as it is to the electorate – that any of these Labour MPs running for leadership might change the face at the top, but their priorities will unlikely change in practice.
Many in the UK also see the futility in any of the leadership ‘hopefuls’ for Labour:
Labour are finished, neoliberalism should never have been the guiding light for Starmer’s change’ schtick. — EuropeanPowell (@EuropeanPowell) May 10, 2026
Now they are paying the price.
Rayner was all for a free Palestine, but quickly threw her principles out of the window.
Burnham was already blocked over becoming an MP by…
The post above finishes:
Chaos, treachery, U-turns, the Epstein saga, McSweeney, Palantir, Blackrock, supporting genocide, purging the left, punching down instead of up.
Labour are finished, watch them tear each other apart in their death throes.
Join the Green Party, the only truly viable party of the left.
We can’t keep doing the same thing and somehow expect a different outcome
We know by now that the Labour political elite are all more focused on bending to powerful people, rather than effectively defending and championing the ever-eroding civil rights and freedoms of ordinary people. Following Starmer’s purge of socialist, anti-Zionists from the Labour Party, this really was inevitable. Rayner may have been more loyal to working class people – but she could have done far better.
As a result, this misplaced priority is dragging the country further into decline. The rich and powerful may be capable of weathering instability and uncertainty. However, that burden becomes increasingly unbearable for poor people across the UK.
Therefore, it is essential that people don’t buy into the misleading portrayals of these MPs as somehow different to their soon-to-be predecessor as PM. They, too, have shown they are perfectly happy to sell out their principles, and their constituents, for the right price.
British people deserve far better than the political class corrupting and subverting our democracy.
Featured image via the Canary
BANGOR, Maine — Vice President JD Vance took his fraud-fighting tour to Maine on Thursday, attempting to cast President Donald Trump and Republicans as responsible stewards of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars in a pivotal purple state swing district.
The speech provided an opportunity for Vance — one of the administration’s top communicators — to throw out red meat to the MAGA base. He blasted Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, blaming a rise in fraud in the state on her and former President Joe Biden. He claimed Maine was “maybe the bronze medalist” for fraud in the U.S., trailing only Minnesota and California.
“Thankfully, one of them has already been kicked to the curb and one is on her way out the door,” Vance said, speaking in a hangar at the Bangor airport steps away from Air Force Two.
But hanging heavy over Vance’s remarks — and unsaid in them — was the growing discontent voters feel as Trump’s war with Iran propels inflation to a three-year high, and the White House pushes for an unprecedented $1.5 trillion in Pentagon funding from taxpayers.
Gontran Jean, who came to see Vance speak, told POLITICO he’s “not happy about” rising prices stemming from the war — but added, “we don’t really have a choice.” He said he would back Vance if he runs for president in 2028.
Vance also used his visit to offer an olive branch to Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins — a frequent Trump critic who earlier this week voted with Democrats to try and rein in Trump’s war powers. Back in January, Trump thrashed Collins and other Republican senators who voted with Democrats to curtail his Venezuela incursion, saying they “should never be elected to office again.”
Collins wasn’t present for Vance’s trip, with a spokesperson citing her perfect attendance for Senate votes. But Vance wasn’t bothered — and even heaped praise on the moderate senator.
“Here’s the thing I’ll say about Susan Collins, is sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins, I almost wish that she was more partisan,” Vance said. “But the thing I love about Susan is she is independent, because Maine is an independent state. And frankly, if she was as partisan as I sometimes wish that she was, she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.”
It’s the latest example of a needle Vance attempts to thread between Trump’s impulses and the political realities on the ground. Collins faces a tight-looking general election contest with populist Democratic candidate Graham Platner that could partly decide the balance of the Senate.
Vance’s speech was also the latest in a series of recent visits the presumed MAGA heir made to key states ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid, including Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona. Vance maintains he’s thinking only about the present and not future political ambitions.
Bangor sits in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which broke for Trump by more than 9 points in 2024 but has been held by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden since 2019. Last year, Golden announced he would not run for reelection, opening up a crowded primary for Democrats and a seat Republicans tabbed as a high chance to flip despite mounting headwinds for the party.
Vance in his remarks shouted out Paul LePage, Maine’s former Republican governor and the frontrunner in the district, and used the opportunity to hammer home his fraud-busting message.
The vice president called LePage “the biggest advocate for your tax dollars and the biggest threat to fraudsters that ever existed in the state of Maine.” Vance said “fraud has festered in Maine because this guy is no longer the governor.” In his speech before Vance took the stage, LePage vowed a renewed push to end fraud, which received raving enthusiasm from the audience.
“Let’s kick Janet Mills to the curb, and let’s send Paul LePage to Washington,” Vance said.
Until several months ago, I only associated the word “Cornetto” with the ice cream brand (and their tasty bottom-of-the-cone chocolate nubs).
What a waste the years prior were. Ever since I tried buttery, pillow-soft Italian cornetto pastry in a bakery dangerously close to my home, I’ve become addicted to the fluffy delight.
But despite being told the creation is basically an “Italian croissant,” I’ve since been roundly rebuffed for repeating that information.
So what is the difference?
Texture has a lot to do with it
According to Italian food YouTuber Giada de Laurentiis, “In France you’d start your day with a flaky, buttery croissant and a cafe au lait, while in Italy breakfast would be a soft and sweet cornetto with a cappuccino.”
That’s because, though they’re both laminated doughs that involve a lot of fiddly folding and time-consuming proving, they each have different ingredients.
The plainest of plain cornetto contains flour, eggs, sugar, milk, butter (or oil, or lard), yeast, and salt; while a French croissant uses more butter, skimps on the egg, and uses less sugar.
Eggs typically make bread and other doughs softer and fluffier (which is one of the reasons why, say, brioche has less bite than baguettes).
That’s because, as pastry chef, recipe developer, and author Nicola Lamb writes in her cookbook Sift, “yolks contain the powerful emulsifier lecithin, which helps retain bubble structures by stabilising the at-odds fat and water in the dough.“
So… how do I tell them apart?
Absent of a label, cornetti may be more likely to be filled with things like chocolate, jam, or custard than croissants.
The “cornetto,” whose name translates to “little horn,” may also have less defined layers ― its topmost layers are also far less likely than a croissant’s to “shatter” when you pick them up.
However, saying that, levels of cakiness differ by region and personal preference.
“Just to confuse things, in parts of Northern Italy cornetti are called “brioche,” though this can have different meanings from one region to the next,” tour site Carpe Diem Tours said.
They don’t make it easy, do they?
Two Just Stop Oil supporters who sprayed Heathrow departure boards with orange paint during the Oil Kills international uprising to end fossil fuels in July 2024 have been found guilty in a retrial after the jury in an earlier trial failed to reach a majority decision.
Phoebe Plummer and Jane Touil were appearing before Judge Duncan at Isleworth Crown Court for the second time on a charge of criminal damage over £5,000 for their action on 30 July 2024 to demand a fossil fuel treaty to end oil and gas by 2030.
The jury took four-and-a-half hours to reach a majority verdict of 10-2. Following the verdict, Touil said:
Since I took action, global fossil fuel use and emissions have continued to rise. More than ever, we need a global fossil fuel treaty to help governments rapidly phase out fossil fuels.
What we do at this moment in history matters. But there is a difference between laws and morality. The courts apply the law made by powerful people. Morals come from within. It is our morals that give us our conscience. I have always tried to live according to my conscience.
Plummer said:
The climate crisis is the greatest injustice that humanity has ever faced. We should all consider what to do at this time. No individual caused this crisis and no one is solely responsible for stopping it. But we can choose what we do to alleviate suffering.
I feel compelled to act to be a responsible citizen, a loving aunt and a good person. It compels me to hope for a better future and one where my nephew grows up.
I didn’t think the action would change government policy. But non violent civil resistance is a necessary part of tackling the climate crisis and I’m grateful and proud to have been part of that.
Plummer was remanded for 58 days and Touil for 14 days following the 2024 action in which the pair used fire extinguishers to spray diluted water-based paint in Heathrow Terminal 5 including at the departure boards. The Crown alleged that the action caused £8,000 worth of damages and that three of the display screens needed to be replaced.
Judge ruled out various defences for Heathrow action
At trial, Judge Duncan ruled out several legal defences for the action including those of ‘reasonable excuse’ under Articles 10 and 11 of the ECHR, ‘necessity’ and ‘self defence’ on the grounds that the threat from climate change was not proximate enough and the actions too far removed from the threat.
The defendants were allowed to argue belief in consent: that they honestly believed the owners of Heathrow would have consented to the damage if they knew of its circumstances. However, evidence of the relevant circumstances was to be limited to the fact that it was a climate protest with all evidence about the scale and urgency of the climate crisis ruled ‘irrelevant and therefore inadmissible’.
In giving evidence, Touil said:
I genuinely and sincerely believed that if the shareholders [of Heathrow] had a full understanding of the situation we are in they would have given their consent to our action.
Most people believe there is something that is wrong with climate but not many people have access to the full situation because the fossil fuel industry has used their immense wealth to ensure that governments do not act and it is not reported in the mainstream media.
So I don’t know if shareholders have a full understanding, but I know that if they did, they would be doing all in their power to stop fossil fuels because there will be no business as usual, no functioning society, half the population could be wiped out along with 50% of global GDP. I think shareholders want to protect their investment but they also want a future for their kids.
In her evidence Plummer said:
I want to make it very clear that this was not a protest against Heathrow, or anyone flying through Heathrow that day. It’s true that the aviation industry is especially harmful to the climate in terms of emissions, though it is a small number of frequent fliers and private jet users who cause the vast majority of this harm, not families who save up for a holiday once a year.
But this wasn’t about getting people to stop flying. I made this individual change to live in line with my values, but honestly I know that it’s pretty inconsequential. Even if we all woke up tomorrow and stopped flying and went vegan, it would be like mopping up a spill from an overflowing bath whilst leaving the tap on.
All individual changes are like this when we are facing a systemic issue. If fossil fuels are extracted from the ground, then they will all be burnt, even if it’s not on a flight that you’re on. We need systemic change, that has always been Just Stop Oil’s demand.
My intention was not to cause damage. My intention was to take part in an act of nonviolent civil resistance, raising a serious alarm bell to the catastrophic future in store for us if we persist in our addiction to fossil fuels.
Featured image via Just Stop Oil
By The Canary
Occupation soldiers have murdered 16-year-old Palestinian Yusuf Kaabneh in the occupied West Bank for trying to stop extremist settlers stealing his father’s sheep. The boy was murdered near Sinjil, by IOF troops protecting the settlers as they stole the family’s livelihood.
150+ attacks a month in West Bank
Settlers committed at least 1,800 attacks during 2025, attacking Palestinian dwellings, crops and water sources and stealing livestock, as well as attacking people. The occupation has murdered more than one child a week since the beginning of 2025 and wounded over 850 others:
Israeli settlers reportedly stole this man’s sheep. When his 16-year-old son confronted them, an Israeli soldier shot the boy dead. pic.twitter.com/3yoNU8iXbU
— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 14, 2026
Israeli troops, courts and the whole apartheid state system protect the perpetrators, who act with impunity and inhumanity.
Israel is a terror state and we must not turn our eyes or condemnation away from its crimes.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
Eurovision bosses have spoken out after fans noticed that pro-Palestine protests had been cut from the Israeli act’s performance video on the contest’s official YouTube channel.
On Tuesday night, Israel’s Eurovision representative Noam Bettan sang his entry Michelle during the live semi-finals in Basel, Austria.
During the opening section of his live performance, chants of “stop the genocide” – and, reportedly, “free Palestine” – could be heard coming from the audience.
However, when footage of Noam’s rendition was uploaded to YouTube, it was quickly noticed that Eurovision had removed the audio of these protests.
A spokesperson for the contest told Middle Eastern Eye that this decision was made as they “believe the focus of the Eurovision Song Contest should be on artists and music”.
Earlier this week, a rep confirmed: “[Austrian’s national broadcaster] ORF is broadcasting a clean audio feed live from audience microphones before and during every performer’s song.
“One audience member, close to a microphone, loudly expressed their views as the Israeli artist began his performance, and during the song, which was heard on the live broadcast.
“They were later removed by security for continuing to disturb the audience.”
It was also confirmed that three more audience members had been “removed from the arena by security” for what the EBU and ORF described as “disruptive behaviour”.
BBC News subsequently reported that one of the audience members removed from the arena had “Free Palestine” written across his chest.
Noam also told the BBC that he was “aware” of the protests during his performance, which came as a “little bit of a shock”.
“[I] looked for the flags of the people who love me and want me to do my best, and that really carried me,” he added.
The continued presence of Israel has been a contentious issue for several years now, with many critics calling for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest in solidarity with Palestine.
After it was decided last year that Israel would be invited back to Eurovision in 2026, five countries withdrew from the contest, including “Big Five” member Spain.
The “naughtiest show on television” is finally back, and Rivals’ second season pays homage to the late Dame Jilly Cooper, who wrote the source material beloved by millions for decades.
Dame Jilly, the author of Rivals and 10 other novels set in the world of Rutshire, died suddenly in October 2025 at the age of 88, but before her death, she gave her input into the second series.
According to the show’s creative team, Jilly signed off on all the scripts for season two, and was giving production team notes up until a few days before her death.
“Jilly signed off every script of the 12 and was on set for quite a lot of production as well,” executive producer Alexander Lamb told Tech Radar.
“So it feels that this series totally has Jilly’s seal of approval. She’s an exec producer, which she’s credited for, and was giving me notes on the Thursday before she died on episode 12.”
Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock
“Her fingerprints are all over this series, and we’d also sat with her and talked about season three and the future, about how to mould the other books around Rivals,” he added.
“We’ve got her blessing on things. We’ve got her notes written down. She’s always with us.”
Jilly’s agent, Felicity Blunt, was one of the executive producers of the show and, according to the showrunner and self-proclaimed Jilly Cooper superfan Dominic Treadwell-Collins, was “Jilly’s representative on Earth, like the Pope is for God.”
“Jilly always said that her job was to entertain,” Felicity told Deadline. “We all try and ensure that that is our North Star. So this season is 150% a tribute.”
The show frequently pays tribute to Jilly with the author even making a cameo in season one.
While the series has expanded beyond Jilly’s source novels and characters, the writing still takes inspiration from the literary icon.
“If you are a Jilly aficionado, you will be able to point to certain scenes, beats or words that she uses,” Felicity – who also happens to be the sister of Emily Blunt and wife to Stanley Tucci – told the outlet.
“We are able to play out the repercussions of some of the bigger dramatic beats of series one, and I think we do that really effectively and still utterly in sync with Jilly’s voice and her storytelling practice. She read every script, celebrated all our choices and gave us complete permission to deviate from the text.”
At the season two premiere of Rivals, Emily Atack opened up about losing the novelist mid-way through filming the series.
“Losing her halfway through the shoot, it was really kind of bizarre and it just gives the show a whole new layer of love and sentiment to it,” she told the press.
“All we want to do is make her and her family proud and it’s a love letter to Jilly this.”
Rufus Jones, who plays Emily’s on-screen husband, also revealed at the premiere that Jilly did manage to see some of the second season before her death.
“She saw some of the assemblies and some of the episodes, you know, the rough episodes, so she got to see something,” the actor explained.
According to Emily, Dame Jilly was “nothing but complimentary and happy” about the episodes.
“You know, she was a mate by the end of it. It’s still a big loss,” Rufus added.
Looking at the rave reviews from critics and 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, we’re sure the late Dame would be proud of how well her characters have been brought to life.
The first three episodes premiere on Friday 15 May, on Disney +, followed by one a week until 5 June. The second half of the season will air later in 2026.
Birmingham-based criminal-defence lawyer Akhmed Yakoob has become an unlikely kingmaker in his city’s local politics, built on his relentless self-promotion, on his ‘straight-talking’, no-holds-barred online persona and on the public’s growing distrust of mainstream politics.
Yakoob has regularly promoted his legal services through catchy TikTok videos aimed at young people drawn to glamour and conspicuous wealth. He films himself next to his Lamborghini. Many in Britain would once have found his brash, Americanised style of marketing distasteful. Yet that style clearly resonates with a section of younger voters who feel alienated from traditional British politics, and who increasingly consume news and current affairs through social-media snippets, rather than through party manifestos or serious debate.
To some, Yakoob may appear clownish. But dismissing him as a joke misses the point entirely. He played a critical role in the election of nine independent councillors on Birmingham City Council in last week’s local elections. With the council now under no overall control, that bloc of councillors will inevitably seek influence and leverage through deal-making with larger parties.
When one looks closely at Yakoob’s campaigning themes, two issues dominate: bin collections and Palestine. The former is at least a local-government issue. The latter has virtually no relevance to the practical services local authorities are supposed to provide to residents.
The more important question is this: how have we reached a point where sectarian politics can secure sizeable clusters of council seats and where similar identity-driven politics delivered five parliamentary victories for independent candidates two years ago?
Having worked for more than 25 years within Muslim communities, I have seen first-hand how Palestine has repeatedly been used as a political football to suit the agendas of different groups in Britain. The first people to recognise its emotional and political potential were Islamist groups, affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood and toxic agitators such as Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri Muhammad, the self-styled ‘Tottenham Ayatollah’. They understood early on that Palestine could be weaponised emotionally to cultivate grievance, anger and communal identity politics.
Such is the gravitational pull of the Palestinian issue that for some British Muslims, it can cloud basic common sense. Many of those most animated by the issue will never visit the West Bank, let alone Gaza, yet they are drawn into the black-and-white thinking that now dominates discourse around Israel and Palestine. Israel is viewed as wholly evil, incapable of doing anything right, while everything Palestinian is automatically cast as virtuous.
The contradictions are glaring. Some passionately denounce Israel while taking Teva-manufactured medication for blood pressure or chronic illness, apparently oblivious to the fact that the medicine helping to prevent catastrophic health events originates in Israel. That is how emotionally charged and irrational this debate has become in certain circles.
On the far end of this polarised spectrum, some have even come to see Hamas as ‘freedom fighters’. The cognitive dissonance runs so deep that they refuse to acknowledge the most basic reality: that Hamas’s barbaric actions on 7 October 2023 directly triggered the catastrophe we are witnessing in the Middle East today.
It is precisely this constituency that Yakoob appeals to – people angry about Palestine, angry about Britain and emotionally invested in a permanent victim narrative claiming that ‘Muslims have it bad in Britain’. This narrative persists even among those whose families own extensive property portfolios across the Midlands and the north of England, and who enjoy opportunities unavailable to millions across the world.
Yakoob himself is not the root cause of the problem. He is a symptom of a much deeper malaise: the catastrophic failure of successive integration policies that abandoned muscular liberalism in favour of passive multiculturalism. Rather than confidently promoting shared civic values, governments retreated into hand-wringing platitudes about ‘communities coming together naturally’.
Indeed, the current Labour government appears determined to continue with the same failed ‘melting pot’ fantasy – the kumbaya politics of assuming that social cohesion somehow emerges automatically without challenge, accountability or a firm defence of democratic norms. Ordinary British people increasingly see through this. They are tired of sectarianism, tired of anti-Semitism and tired of the relentless ‘Britain is uniquely awful’ rhetoric pushed by parts of the activist left.
A closer examination of Yakoob’s own public record reveals a deeply divisive and polarising figure who has nevertheless succeeded in mobilising thousands of voters.
In March 2026, Yakoob was arrested on suspicion of racially abusing a West Midlands police officer. Footage showed him detained in the back of a police van and, true to form, he turned the incident into yet another performance for the cameras, using confrontation and controversy to reinforce his outsider image. He was later released on bail in what is becoming an expanding catalogue of allegations surrounding him.
In May 2025, he was charged by the National Crime Agency with money-laundering offences allegedly committed between February 2020 and January 2021. Yet even then, he brushed aside the seriousness of the allegations with characteristic swagger, remarking that ‘Today’s newspapers are only going to be used to wrap up tomorrow’s bag of chips’.
Other remarks are also cause for concern. In June 2024, Yakoob was heard suggesting that ‘over 70 per cent of hell is going to be women’. Then, during a Sky News interview in March 2026, he reportedly suggested to voters that ‘the Zionists control everything’ – rhetoric that veers dangerously close to classic anti-Semitic conspiracy-theory tropes.
I grew up in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s, when local and national politics revolved around issues such as council tax, Europe, standards of living, economic opportunity and Britain’s place within NATO. Those issues still matter profoundly today, arguably more than ever. Yet the politics now emerging on the streets of Birmingham bear little resemblance to the civic politics many of us once knew.
What we are witnessing points to two uncomfortable truths. First, how deeply divided Britain has become. And second, how identity politics has been allowed to fester unchecked for decades. How have we arrived as a country when a young British Muslim who has never worked, who still lives in his mother’s home and who has little stake in Britain’s economic future can be mobilised more passionately around Palestine than around building a career, contributing to society or strengthening the nation in which he lives?
No, Yakoob is not the disease, but he is a symptom of our age – and of weak, hesitant governments that lacked the courage to challenge sectarianism before it embedded itself into our politics.
Fiyaz Mughal is founder of Faith Matters and Tell MAMA.
(Alamy)
4 min read
Former minister Josh Simons is stepping down from Parliament to allow Andy Burnham to run as a Labour candidate.
Simons, MP for Makerfield, posted on X that he was standing aside so the mayor of Manchester could enter Parliament and “drive the change our country is crying out for.” Burnham will have to be approved by the NEC to stand as a candidate and step down from his current position as mayor.
Simons said it had not been an easy decision but he said Burnham provided the last chance to provide the change the country needed.
In his statement, the outgoing MP said: “For decades, Westminster has overseen the managed decline of towns like mine. We have talked big, then acted small, stuck in a politics of incrementalism that cannot meet the moment. We have lost the trust of those our party was built to serve. It is my unwavering belief that nothing short of urgent, radical, courageous reform will make a difference. That must start with a change in leadership.
“Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield. I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter Parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying out for.”
At the last election, Simons won a majority of 5,399 votes, with Reform coming in second place. Makerfield has been Labour since its inception, but has been moving rightwards for the last decade. A victory for Burnham in a by-election would in itself therefore make a strong case that he should be allowed to run for the Labour leadership.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “We look forward to the contest and we will throw absolutely everything at it.”
Simons added: “This has not been an easy decision. This is my family’s home, where only a few weeks ago, doctors and nurses at Wigan Infirmary saved our newborn son’s life. But we all must make choices and in recent days I found myself with a difficult one: defend the status quo or step forward and act.
“I have made my choice. I am in politics because politics is how you change lives for the better. My party has one last chance to do that: deliver for the people and places I represent, drive economic growth, secure our borders, reform our state and politics, and change a status quo that is not working. That is the fight. I believe Andy is the one to lead it.”
Burnham has been trying to locate a seat in the North West for the last few days, as Keir Starmer has faced mounting leadership challenges since the local elections.
Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary on Thursday morning after he had lost confidence in the prime minister. He said a future leadership contest should be broad and protracted to allow the best candidates to challenge one another.
Burnham said he will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the by-election, claiming he grew up close to Makerfield for 25 years.
In a statement, he said: “Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.”
Burnham addded that he wanted to recognise the “difficult decision” taken by Simons.
The Manchester mayor added: “Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again.”
In the recent local elections, Reform UK won all eight wards by a comfortable margin. The breakdown of the results were:
Reform: 50.4 per cent
Labour: 22.7 per cent
Green: 10.9 per cent
Conservative: 9.9 per cent
Lib Dem: 3.8 per cent
Other: 2.2 per cent
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