Your Party have announced the results of the elections for seats on the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC). After months of endless controversy and bickering, the results are undoubtedly going to have an impact on the direction of travel for this new socialist party. As expected, both Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn have been elected as public office holders.

Corbyn posted a statement:

We have no time to waste. So let’s get to work.

Join us at https://t.co/kMShFQTxzH pic.twitter.com/iuqjE4AfTj

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 26, 2026

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Sultana’s team also released a statement:

Grassroots Left congratulates all those elected in the Your Party leadership elections, and extends our thanks to every member who voted, organised and campaigned for us.

Having won collective leadership at the founding conference, we are delighted that eight women have been elected to the CEC who support our programme for Maximum Member Democracy.

A significant number of members have signalled their desire for a democratic, accountable and transparent party. We will now be in the room and ensure your voice is heard.

Our party is strongest when members have real power: over policy, finances, selections, and decision-making – through transparent, accountable structures. All Grassroots Left members will push for this on the CEC. We will push to make sure the branches are recognised immediately, fully supported and that members are put at the heart of the party.

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Your Party must now work together to become a party of and for the whole left – with no more witch-hunts or stitch-ups. All those who have been expelled should be reinstated. We now need a culture of mutual respect, open debate, and a shared focus on the real issues facing us: inequality, insecure work, crumbling public services, fascism, and a political establishment that keeps letting working people down.

Grassroots Left will work with all those elected who are committed to rebuilding trust by putting the members first and fighting with the branches for accountable, transparent and democratic structures and strong socialist policies in Your Party.

Your Party election results

The fledgling party saw two slates form sparking toxic debate among members: Grassroots Left and The Many. Refusing the factionality, many Independent candidates also stood.

The total number of votes received were 25,347, out of a possible 40,985 members. This represents an impressive 61.8% turnout. 43 postal ballots were received, of which 29 were accepted which represents 14 members returning two ballots and one member returning just one. Two ballots were removed due to having already voted online.

The results for Public Office Holders: Zarah Sultana (GL), Jeremy Corbyn (TM), Laura Smith (TM) and Grace Lewis (GL).

Northwest: Sam Gorst (Ind), Dawn Aspinall (TM)

Northeast: Catherine Davis (TM) and Hannah Hawkins (TM)

Yorkshire and Humber: Monique Mosley (TM) and Sophie Wilson (GL)

East of England: Jo Rust (TM) and Solma Ahmed (GL)

East Midlands: Louise Regan (TM) and Riaz Khan (TM)

West Midlands: Megan Clarke (GL) and Sue Moffat (TM)

Southeast: Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi (Ind) and Cassandra Bellingham (TM)

Southwest: Candi Williams (GL) and Jennifer Forbes (TM)

London: Mel Mullings (GL) and Noor Jahan Begum (TM)

Scotland: Niall Christy (Ind)

Wales: Maria Donnellan (TM)

Results are in, now move forward

Now the results are in we can see there are fourteen for The Many, seven for Grassroots Left, and three Independents making up Your Party’s new CEC.

Let’s hope this at least allows the party to move forward from months of bickering and toxic briefing to a place where it can actually be effective from the grassroots.

After all, the far-right aren’t waiting around, neither should we.

Featured image via the Canary

The stage lights lift to reveal a young child from Gaza, aloof and tricksy, swallowed by darkness. Theatregoers have assembled at Arcola theatre to see A Grain of Sand — a stand-out one-woman play delivering a bird-eye view of children’s experience of genocide. First commissioned by the London Palestine film festival in 2024, the play is directed by Elias Matar and gracefully executed by Irish-Palestinian actress Sarah Agha.

Agha, playing Renad, wears the brightest smile, dungarees, and two tidy braids. She is  perched on a mound of sand, not pale or quartz, but muddy and sullied. She gazes tenderly at Gaza’s shoreline while Israeli fighter jets overhead hum and drum.

Gaza immortalised on stage

The young child was 11 years-old when she was killed by Israel, following its 2023 military assault on Gaza. Her spirit and testimony, one of many in the play, endures through Agha. The play’s message is clear, that no child will be expunged from the historical record – not like the countless lives disappearing from Palestine’s civil registry. Renad’s “verbatim testimony” is one of 18 collected experiences. Agha tells the Canary that these stories were taken from an anthology of poems and testimonies written by Gazan kids — A Million Kites. They form the backbone of the screenplay produced by Good Chance Theatre.

In Agha’s words, the show “immortalises” the hundreds and thousands of children Israeli occupation forces have killed. These deaths are no lapse in international conventions — they’re deliberate. The play conveys this without thrusting upon viewers the gore and depravity clogging our newsfeeds which – while educating the world of Israel’s crimes – also inures us to suffering. Instead, it invites you into the lives and children’s fantasy-prone imagination.

Daisy testimonies

Like a matryoshka doll, Agha pulls out story after story, each nested within each other. But where one story ends and another begins isn’t always clear. Their tales, memories, and fantasies are relayed with tact, levity, and acerbity, despite the difficulty, Agha explains, of being an adult actor playing a child and the “added complexity of it being a child from Gaza”.

The interlaced stories evoke emotions and sensorial experiences of life in Gaza, through a child’s eyes —  the aroma of Ouzi rice as it simmers, screeching missiles, shells whistling, chairs falling, drones hissing, and the cacophony of shrieking children, and the haunting silences in between.

As a survivor of war, I’m reminded of my Iraqi father’s words: “you hated the sound of F-16s, you wept inconsolably.” Children, as I’m painfully reminded by those in the play, are rarely handed the mic to speak — their voices muffled beneath the toll of war.

Hell with the lid off

Before Israel’s onslaught transformed Gaza into “hell with the lid off” (a term coined by James Parton), people’s ‘everyday’ wasn’t much different from yours or mine. The play delivers flashbacks to when Gaza was in better shape. Renad, seeking safety and trying to drown out the terror of her missing family, retreats into the folktales her Siti (Arabic for grandma) told, and shares these with us.

Peppered throughout the play, these folktales stand as a monument to Palestinian heritage. They braid together motifs, legends, fables, and mythical creatures. The most striking is Al-Anqaa, a firebird, synonymous with the phoenix and born from Arabic Islamic literature. It also appears as  the protagonist of Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “Death of Al-Anqaa,” symbolising the Palestinian experience and perseverance.

If you pay close attention to Gaza municipality’s insignia, you’ll also find the fire bird proudly at its centre.

Renad looks up at the sky, searching for a signal, and Al-Anqaa swoops in — the all-knowing, all-seeing protector of the land of Palestine. The mythical figure reflects Renad’s dissociative state, with her relationship to the sunbird shifting between dour and tongue-in-cheek.

Imagination holds a lifeline

For Gaza’s children imagination is the magic carpet that transports them to a safe space in times of genocide. Zainah, aged 13, expresses this in her cerebral poem where her imagination opens doors to unsuspecting sites of refuge – none of which reality permits.

I hid inside the paintings of artists who paint freedom…Or maybe I hid in the sea, where no one could find me…mov[ing] from one place to another, like a bottle of oil someone threw on the shore. Am I free if I become an object?

The abject helplessness her magical thinking conveys is overwhelming. For Agha, motifs and metaphors form a visual language “to help communicate something horrendous” – a coping mechanism in other words. As one child recounts:

When drones invade my brain I think of Siti’s stories

The actress added that  “we cannot summarise or depict how bad the situation is — that’s not what the play is trying to do. The use of metaphor helps me. I need moments of levity, colour, to get me through to the next scene — otherwise I can’t carry it alone.” But warns that “we can’t just rely on a bird” if we’re to effect change.

The sore spots

This levity contrasts with the hair-raising attacks and flashpoints of Israel’s military assault, retold from the perspective of the children no longer with us. Among the tragedies is the senseless raid on al-Shifaa, Gaza’s largest hospital, and the fatal strike on the Abu Hajjaj family residence. The sole survivor, 9-year-old Elham, was left orphaned and severely burned. Despite its lighter notes which darken as it progresses, the play puts its finger on all the sore spots.

As the first UK show to represent a televised genocide, “still unfolding,” Agha reminds us, A Grain of Sand is ultimately a political act. It’s not a play about sentimentality but an elegy for Gazan children. Behind the scenes, multiple discussions were held, she explained, and these eventually spawned an advisory group made up of Gazan artists and writers. Their pain and anguish is felt in every second, minute, and passage – ultimately responding to the impossible question of how, in the midst of a genocide, do you produce art responsibly and truthfully?

There is no single template but as Agha says:

like a grain of sand on a beach, there are thousands, 2.2 million stories and more, we can’t do it all. You cannot account for every grain, but just one is relevant to make up the entire shoreline.

Call to action

By pulling back the curtain on the unspeakable cruelties foisted upon children, the show renders Israel’s excuses inadmissible. It tears away the mask and lays bare the mental horror children endure. But the full depth is accessible only to viewers able to activate their imagination, to pause, and awaken their psyche. Beneath the theatrics, tricksy stories, and fables, there lies an urgent call to action.

Following its initial run at the Arcola Theatre, the tour resumes in Canterbury on February 26, 2026, with the final show set to be staged in Dublin. The full list of dates for the second leg of the tour are accessible here.

Featured image via Good Chance Theatre

Only, the story gets even more bloody ridiculous than that. The Met documents passed to Mandelson’s lawyers actually implicated the speaker for the Lords, Michael Forsyth, who had nothing to do with the whole sorry affair.

Met police blunder

Yesterday, 25 February, the Canary reported that Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle had admitted he was the one who tipped off police to the likelihood that disgraced former peer Peter Mandelson was planning to flee the country and fly to the British Virgin Islands. The tip-off led to Mandelson’s arrest and a renewed police raid on his home.

Mandelson is under investigation after the latest Epstein file release showed him sending confidential government information to serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. The ‘insider trading’ information would have enabled Epstein and his associates to make an illegal fortune. Former prince Andrew is also under investigation for similar communications.

New information has now revealed that the senior Met officials met with Hoyle on the afternoon of 25 February. They offered an apology to the speaker for revealing that he was the source of the flight-risk tip-off. Internally, the police are treating the incident as a serious breach of protocol.

A Met spokesperson said:

The Met has apologised to the Speaker of the House of Commons this afternoon for inadvertently revealing information during an investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office.

However, the BBC reported that officers twice informed Mandelson’s lawyers, Mishcon de Reya, that Forsyth was the source of the tip-off. This is apparently because the Met doesn’t know its ass from its elbow, and confused the speakers for the Commons with the Lords.

‘To prevent any inaccurate speculation’

When the media immediately announced Forsyth as the informant, the Lords speaker said the reporting was “entirely false and without foundation”. Instead, Hoyle publicly stated that he was the previously-anonymous source.

On 25 February, Hoyle told the Commons that:

To prevent any inaccurate speculation, I’d like to confirm that upon receipt of information, I felt it was relevant I pass this on to the Metropolitan police in good faith, as is my duty and responsibility.

The Commons speaker also revealed that the information on Mandelson’s flight-risk was given to him by an an individual in a position of authority in the British Virgin Islands.

The Met police then conducted their own investigation of the veracity of the information. Whilst Mandelson was released on Tuesday morning, the day after his arrest, he reportedly surrendered his passport as a condition of his bail. The ex-peer denies all wrongdoing.

Activists from action group “People against Genocide” have used modified Transit vans to block the entrance to an Israeli weapons factory. Access to the Elbit Systems’ Filton factory was blocked as of 7am today. Palestine Action activists were jailed for over eighteen months without trial for damaging the same factory in August 2024. It was among the pro-Israel groups that pressured the Starmer government to mendaciously ‘proscribe‘ Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ group.

Members of People Against Genocide “locked on” inside one vehicle while others climbed on top of the second van to blockade the site.

Elbit claims that its Filton facility is a research, development, and manufacturing centre. However, previous raids found the military quadcopter drones awaiting shipment to Israel. The occupying force uses these lethal quadcopter drones to murder Palestinians, and, in total, Elbit supplies the occupation with 85 percent of its killer drone fleet.

The Filton protest is part of a wider campaign against firms enabling Israel’s genocide. On 25 February 2026, People Against Genocide activists sprayed the front of the Birmingham offices of Chubb Insurance, a week after targeting Chubb’s London office. Chubb insures Elbit subsidiary UAV Engines, which manufactures engines for Israel’s drone fleet. Without insurance, UAV could not produce these engines in the UK.

A spokesperson for People Against Genocide said of today’s action:

Yesterday we were in Birmingham, hitting Elbit’s insurer. Today, we strike at them directly, by shutting down their key facility at Filton, Bristol. While the genocide of the Palestinians continues, we will not rest in terms of targeting the British-based companies and facilities, who contribute to these war crimes. Elbit, it is time to go!

The very name, People against Genocide, was likely chosen to shame the Starmer regime if it tries to proscribe the group too.

Judge Justice Chamberlain said last year that while Palestine Action was proscribed, the ban does not prevent other groups or individuals undertaking similar actions.

The Palestine Action ban has been ruled unlawful, but remains in place while the Home Office appeals the decision.

Featured image via the Canary

In many British homes — whether it’s a Victorian terrace in Manchester, a new-build flat in Birmingham, or a compact London apartment — the bathroom is often the smallest room in the house. Yet it’s also one of the most used.

The challenge? Creating a space that feels light, open and modern without knocking down walls or embarking on a full-scale renovation.

The good news is that you don’t need extra square footage to make a bathroom feel bigger. What you need is smart design — particularly when it comes to lighting, layout and reflective surfaces.

Here’s how UK homeowners are transforming small bathrooms into brighter, more spacious-feeling rooms with a few well-chosen upgrades.

1. Light First, Everything Else Second

If there’s one thing that makes a small bathroom feel cramped, it’s poor lighting. Many UK bathrooms suffer from limited natural light, especially in older terraces and internal new-build layouts.

A single ceiling pendant simply won’t do the job.

Layered lighting is key. That means combining:

• Overhead ambient lighting
• Task lighting around the basin
• Soft backlighting for depth

This is where integrated mirror lighting has quietly become one of the smartest upgrades in modern bathroom design.

An illuminated mirror distributes light evenly across the face while also reflecting it back into the room. The result? Fewer shadows and a noticeably brighter space — without adding bulky wall fittings.

More homeowners are turning to streamlined solutions like a LED bathroom mirror from LED Mirror World, which combines mirror and lighting into one clean, minimalist feature. It’s a subtle shift that makes a significant visual difference.

2. Go Bigger with Your Mirror (Even in a Small Room)

It sounds counterintuitive, but a larger mirror often works better in a compact bathroom.

A generous mirror:

• Reflects more light
• Creates depth
• Visually doubles the wall space

In tight UK bathrooms where every centimetre counts, extending the mirror width across most of the vanity area can dramatically open up the room.

Round mirrors are particularly popular right now for softening sharp lines in modern interiors, while rectangular backlit designs suit more contemporary schemes. The key is proportion — the mirror should feel deliberate rather than squeezed in.

3. Choose Floating Fixtures for Visual Space

Another clever way to make a small bathroom feel bigger is to lift elements off the floor.

Wall-mounted vanities and toilets create visible floor space underneath, which tricks the eye into perceiving a larger room. The more uninterrupted flooring you can see, the more spacious the room appears.

Pairing a floating vanity with an illuminated mirror enhances that effect. The gentle halo of light around a backlit mirror adds depth to the wall, subtly separating surfaces and reducing visual heaviness.

4. Tackle Condensation the Smart Way

Let’s be honest — condensation is a very British bathroom problem.

Between chilly mornings and steamy showers, mirrors quickly fog up, especially in bathrooms without windows. Not only is this inconvenient, but over time excess moisture can contribute to mould issues.

Modern LED mirrors often come with built-in demister pads, which gently warm the glass to prevent fogging. It’s one of those small luxuries that feels surprisingly essential once you’ve experienced it.

Instead of wiping the mirror down after every shower, the surface remains clear and usable — particularly helpful during rushed weekday mornings.

5. Keep the Palette Light (But Not Clinical)

White has long been the go-to for small bathrooms, and for good reason. But that doesn’t mean the space needs to feel stark.

Warm neutrals, soft greys, and muted greens work beautifully in UK homes, particularly when paired with natural textures like oak, stone or brushed brass.

Reflective surfaces also play a role. Gloss tiles, polished taps and illuminated mirrors all help bounce light around the room.

The goal isn’t to make the bathroom feel flashy — it’s about creating a gentle brightness that makes the room feel calm rather than cramped.

6. Energy Efficiency Matters More Than Ever

With ongoing concerns around UK energy costs, efficiency has become a genuine design consideration.

LED lighting uses significantly less electricity than traditional halogen or incandescent bulbs, while also lasting much longer. Integrating LED lighting directly into the mirror eliminates the need for separate wall lights, reducing both energy consumption and visual clutter.

Brands such as LED Mirror World have leaned into this shift by designing mirrors that balance energy efficiency with everyday practicality — offering dimmable controls, colour temperature options and sleek frames that suit modern British interiors.

For homeowners looking to update their bathroom without increasing running costs, this kind of upgrade ticks several boxes at once.

7. Create a “Hotel Feel” Without the Hotel Budget

One of the most noticeable trends in UK bathroom design is the desire for a hotel-inspired aesthetic.

Think:

• Even lighting
• Clean lines
• Minimal visible fixtures
• A sense of calm

An illuminated mirror is often the feature that pulls this look together. It frames the vanity area, creates symmetry and adds that soft glow associated with boutique bathrooms.

Importantly, this can be achieved without changing the entire layout. Swapping out a standard mirror for a well-designed LED alternative can refresh the room instantly — no tiles ripped out, no plumbing moved.

A Small Room, Reimagined

Small bathrooms aren’t going anywhere. In fact, as urban living continues to prioritise compact layouts, learning how to design them well has become more important than ever.

The secret isn’t about cramming in more features. It’s about choosing fewer, smarter ones.

Better lighting. A well-proportioned mirror. Floating elements. Energy-efficient upgrades.

These aren’t dramatic renovations — they’re thoughtful refinements.

And often, it’s something as simple as upgrading to a quality LED mirror that shifts the entire feel of the space from cramped to considered.

In British homes where space is limited but style matters, that’s a change worth making.

Demonstrators, campaigners and parliamentarians gather outside the Department of Health and Social Care to protest against the planned clinical trial to assess the risks and benefits of puberty blockers in gender questioning children (Alamy)

4 min read8 min

Last week, the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) wrote to King’s College London, the trial’s sponsor, urging the university to suspend the trial due to concerns over the participants’ well-being. The government agreed to pause the Pathways trial while clinicians scrutinise further evidence.

The study looks at the possible prescription of puberty blockers among young people with gender incongruence. It was set to enrol 226 children aged between 11 and 15. However, the MHRA said it wanted to introduce a minimum age of 14 for participants, and expressed concern about potential long-term harms.

“This trial will only be allowed to go ahead if the expert scientific and clinical evidence and advice conclude it is both safe and necessary,” a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said in response.

As The House magazine reported last month, Health Secretary Wes Streeting is faced with groups of Labour MPs with strongly-held, opposing views on the subject.

For Labour MPs who support the trial, it is an important route to gender-affirming healthcare that will improve the quality of life of children with gender dysphoria and alleviate mental health problems that arise from it.

However, those opposed to the trial, which make up a smaller cohort of Labour MPs, say it is unethical and that not enough is known about the lasting impact of the hormone injections.

MPs in the latter group are making a renewed push to stop the trial altogether.

PoliticsHome understands that Preet Kaur Gill, who is a Parliamentary Private Secretary to technology secretary Liz Kendall, is organising a meeting with Streeting alongside several clinicians and Labour MPs to raise concerns over the Pathways trial. In January, Gill endorsed Blue Labour — the Labour caucus which promotes more socially conservative positions.

Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, said blocking puberty in young children was “profoundly unethical” and that the trial should be banned over the MHRA concerns.

“It beggars belief that the government ever gave the go-ahead for this trial,” he told PoliticsHome. “A ‘pause’ will not do. The government must cancel the whole trial altogether.”

He added: “Children struggling with their gender identity need love, support and compassion, but they must not be medicalised in this way.”

David Smith, Labour MP for North Northumberland, who also opposes the trial being resumed, added: “To quote it [the MHRA letter] directly, it says, ‘unlike patients with precocious puberty, the proposed cohort in this trial have normal biological hormonal and sexual development but a psychological condition of gender dysphoria’.

“It goes on to raise concerns about the possible long-term harms, such as irreversible bone structural change in participants, raises concerns about cognitive effects, and the long-term potential loss of their fertility.”

Streeting banned the sale of puberty blockers for gender-questioning under-18s indefinitely soon after Labour entered government in 2024. He pointed to the review carried out by Baroness Cass into gender identity services, which raised safety concerns around the lack of evidence for the hormone treatments.

The same review recommended the Pathways trial as a means of research into whether or not puberty-suppressing hormones helped children with gender dysphoria.

Cass told The Observer she was “disappointed” by the MHRA’s intervention and believed that the regulator had bowed to political pressure. Gender-critical campaigners like author JK Rowling have publicly pressured ministers to cancel the trial.

“There are no new research findings and the MHRA hasn’t presented any new evidence,” she told the newspaper. “It feels to me like they are responding to political pressure rather than to science.”

A Labour MP who sits in the party’s LGBT+ caucus said they would be “absolutely furious” if they were Streeting. 

“[He] has been put in an extremely awkward position by this massive and unfounded change of heart by a supposedly impartial regulator,” they told PoliticsHome.

“This decision by the MHRA, taken without new evidence, only makes that task harder and undermines public confidence that the system is acting in the best interests of patients.”