Greater Manchester Police (GMP) revealed that the Force is assessing a complaint made in relation to the weekend’s policing.

One horrified mum said how her tearful daughter was nearly knocked to the floor when a mounted police officer rode his horse into the crowds.

The Bantams lost 1-0 at Bolton Wanderers in the first leg of their EFL League One play-off semi-final on Saturday, with the game kicking off at 8pm.

Just over 2,000 supporters travelled across the Pennines for the weekend’s fixture and tempers flared as fans emerged from Bolton’s Toughsheet Community Stadium after the game, at about 10pm.

Chaos at the Bolton Wanderers v Bradford City play-off match at the weekend (Image: UGC)

GMP, who have jurisdiction in Bolton, said at the weekend that a 51-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of affray and a 46-year-old man was detained on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.

A number of fans have since reached out to The Bolton News sister paper Telegraph & Argus and raised concerns about the policing of the match.

Declan Holmes, a lifelong Bantams supporter, attended the game and claims “police caused all the problems on Saturday night”.

He said: “They were using their horses as weapons and abusing every ounce of authority they had.”

Claire Hickey, a 42-year-old school teacher from Eccleshill, took her 11-year-old daughter Scarlett to the match, as she does for every Bradford City game.

She claimed even before the crunch tie mounted police were “reckless in their actions, riding into oncoming traffic and screaming at traffic when they were the ones who were clearly not in control of their animals.”

Police allegedly used horses as “weapons” to separate Bolton Wanderers and Bradford City supporters after their play-off match at the weekend (Image: UGC)

This came to a head when video footage seemingly showed one officer on horseback stepping on another officer who was either detaining or tending to somebody lying on the ground.

It drew gasps from those who were watching nearby, with one fan remarking, “they’re knocking each other out now”.

GMP revealed today that an officer was seriously injured on the night after being kicked in the head by someone while making an arrest.

Both Declan and Claire raised a lack of segregation as the two sets of fans left the ground as a major issue.

Declan said: “No segregation after the game, just let all the fans mix, then decided to jump in with their horses to split up instead of creating a segregation from the off.”

Claire said all fans were “mixed together” and “for the most part, there were no problems” until police got involved.

She added: “I have brought my children up to have the utmost respect for the police force and for the job they do, but last night I think that all went out the window when one male on horseback nearly knocked my daughter to the floor.”

Claire claimed mounted officers rode horses into the fans to try to separate them.

Police allegedly used horses as “weapons” to separate Bolton Wanderers and Bradford City supporters after their play-off match at the weekend (Image: Declan Holmes)

She said: “One gentleman, an older gentleman, on his own, told the policeman to stop treating his horse like a weapon, he was not abusive nor threatening in his comment or manner, but the police man took offence and drove his horse into him knocking my daughter sideways and frightening her to tears in the process.”

At the coach park, Claire saw a supporter who was fighting and then tackled by the police.

She said he was thrown to the floor and then five other police officers got involved physically, which she said “was completely unnecessary and obviously riled those around.”

Claire added: “While I am not saying that the Bradford City fans were without fault, they were definitely not the raging hooligans they were made out to be.”

A spokesperson for GMP said: “Officers working at the Bolton Wanderers vs Bradford City match at the weekend arrested two people following an altercation outside the ground.

“One man was arrested on suspicion of affray and another was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.

“An officer received a serious injury during the incident.

“For all sporting events, we implement a comprehensive policing service to ensure the safety of those in attendance.

“This includes specialist resources from within different teams across the force, and extensive planning alongside our partners.

“These extra teams and units are utilised where necessary to support operations and provide a further layer of security for the public.

“We are in receipt of a complaint with regards to the weekend, and this will be assessed appropriately in the coming days.”

A group of world-leading scientists have warned Fifa its current heat safety measures for the men’s 2026 World Cup are “inadequate” and could put players at risk of serious harm.

In an open letter, external, international experts in health, climate and sports performance say the governing body’s guidelines are out of step with the current science and “impossible to justify”. They call on Fifa to introduce stronger protections, including longer cooling breaks and clearer protocols for delaying or postponing games in extreme conditions.

Heat is expected to be an issue at this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, with researchers warning temperatures at 14 of the 16 stadiums being used could exceed dangerous levels.

In parts of the southern US and northern Mexico, average daytime highs are typically in the low to mid-30Cs and can rise towards 40C during hotter spells.

When temperature, humidity, wind speeds and the strength of the sunshine are factored in, players in these World Cup host cities are at greatest risk of experiencing extreme levels of heat stress on the body.

Fifa says it is “committed to protecting the health and safety of players, referees, fans, volunteers and staff” and that climate-related risks are assessed as part of tournament planning.

The care home is continually monitored by Ofsted over safeguarding concerns

A child suffered a “possible fracture” to their finger at a care home that Ofsted continues to raise concerns about. Ofsted has carried out its latest monitoring visit at Clare Lodge care home in Lincoln Road, Glinton, on March 25.

The care home, which is overseen by Peterborough City Council, continues to be monitored by Ofsted as it was rated inadequate at its last visit in February. In its latest visit, inspectors recognised that the manager and leadership team had “implemented an action plan to address the concerns raised” at the previous election.

However, inspectors said that not all concerns had been addressed to “ensure children are fully safeguarded and supported”. In their report, inspectors said a child injured their finger at the care home and staff didn’t “seek timely medical attention” for the child.

The report added: “A first-aid trained staff member assessed the child and offered first aid. However, the child had a bruise and asked to go to hospital. When the child was seen by a nurse two days after the incident, they had swelling to their hand and an appointment was arranged at the hospital. The child had a possible fracture to their finger.

“There has been no reflection or learning taken from this incident by managers about whether earlier medical advice should have been sought.”

Inspectors also said there was an incident where police were called to the care home, and “some learning” had been identified. The incident is being investigated by managers.

Inspectors added: “A concern in relation to the management of this incident by two members of staff has been raised, however this has not yet been explored by managers. The two members of staff continue to work with the children and managers have not ensured that they understand their roles and responsibilities.”

Ofsted also said the care home’s record and reporting “required improvement”. Inspectors praised that new risk assessments developed by the managers were “more robust” and gave staff strategies to follow. However, staff had not yet seen the risk assessments.

While on their visit, inspectors said there was an “unpleasant odour” in some areas of the home, including the main corridor and where the children lived. The odour was noticed at the last inspection. Since the previous inspection, new systems had been introduced for monitoring and oversight. The manager now completes fortnightly audits to “increase their oversight”.

Inspectors said improvements to the systems were “at an early stage” and they required time to “become embedded”. Currently, the care home has a consultant acting as the manager as the previous manager had left.

A Peterborough City Council spokesperson said: “We acknowledge receipt of the report and are addressing the concerns raised and want to reassure that improvements are underway. We remain dedicated to providing high-quality care for the vulnerable girls at Clare Lodge, ensuring they are supported, protected, and given a voice.”

Clare Lodge cares for girls up to 16 girls between 10 and 17 years old. At the time of inspection, five children were living at the care home.

May 7 will go down as the worst election in the history of Welsh Labour. More than a century of electoral dominance ended with the party sitting in opposition in the Senedd (Welsh parliament) for the first time.

Given Welsh Labour’s once-hegemonic position, the scale of the defeat is astonishing. This was not simply a loss, but a collapse. The party now holds just nine seats in the Senedd, with few new figures emerging to shape its future direction.

The unavoidable question is where Welsh Labour goes from here, and whether it can recover.

The answer depends not simply on new policies or a change of leader, but on whether the party is capable of a genuine reckoning with both its ideological direction and the consequences of nearly three decades in government. That process will be difficult while Welsh Labour remains divided between its Westminster wing in London and its devolved leadership in Cardiff Bay.

Adaptation and exhaustion

No party in the democratic world has enjoyed such sustained dominance as Labour in Wales. As the political scientist T.J. Pempel has argued, dominant parties survive by remaining flexible and evolving into broad “catch-all” movements capable of appealing to diverse groups of voters.

For years, Welsh Labour did just that. The party normalised a form of progressive Welsh identity politics that stopped short of supporting independence, while reshaping debates around devolution, national identity and governance. In doing so, it assembled a broad coalition of centre-left and Welsh-identifying voters.

Yet the political terrain Welsh Labour helped create has also exposed its vulnerabilities. Having pushed this soft nationalist positioning as far as it could, tensions with the UK Labour party has weakened Welsh Labour’s ability to sustain a convincing message about “standing up for Wales”.

And having made those ideas politically mainstream, the party now struggles to present itself as their most credible champion. Plaid Cymru has increasingly occupied the political space Welsh Labour once helped define.

At the same time, the wider UK Labour party under prime minister Keir Starmer has struggled to respond effectively to the rise of Reform UK. Its rightward shift on issues such as immigration, combined with a broader lack of ideological clarity, has alienated some progressive voters and encouraged others to look elsewhere on the left.

This has left Welsh Labour politically squeezed. Its rhetoric about “standing up for Wales” increasingly rings hollow, while Plaid Cymru advances a left-leaning platform explicitly framed around Welsh interests and greater autonomy from Westminster. For many voters, the question has become: what is the point of Welsh Labour?

Learning to lose

Defeat, however, need not be fatal.

Dominant parties elsewhere, such as the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, have recovered by learning to lose and realigning with new political realities. But such renewal requires leadership, ideas and organisational coherence. Welsh Labour currently lacks all three.

Dominance has hollowed out and inhibited the party’s intellectual capacity. Former first minister Mark Drakeford arguably shaped Welsh Labour’s political identity throughout much of the devolution era. But his retirement has left a vacuum, with no obvious successor providing ideological direction.

The party can also no longer rely on claims of administrative competence and delivery after voters rejected that argument at the ballot box. Incumbency became a burden.

À lire aussi :
The Welsh Conservatives survived the Senedd election – now they must decide what they stand for

These weaknesses are compounded by the lack of fresh voices in the Senedd group. With Ken Skates installed as interim leader, the party currently offers continuity at precisely the moment reinvention is needed. It illustrates how decades of dominance narrowed, rather than renewed, the pool of credible alternatives.

More damaging is the intensifying internal conflict within Welsh Labour. In the aftermath of defeat, long-running tensions between Labour politicians in Cardiff Bay and Westminster have become increasingly public.

Former Welsh government minister Mick Antoniw described the defeat as having been “manufactured in Downing Street”. Meanwhile the UK government’s secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens has laid the blame at the door of the Welsh government.

While the Welsh government must accept responsibility for the failures of 27 years of government, Stevens’ post-mortem fails to mention Keir Starmer once. It is an incredible oversight considering the scale of his unpopularity.

The UK government’s at-times-hostile attitude to further devolution – alongside disputes over rail funding linked to the HS2 project – have further eroded the perception that Labour stands up for Wales.

Far from offering a self-reflective post-mortem, Stevens’ intervention risks deepening, rather than resolving, Welsh Labour’s internal tensions.

An existential moment

This is Welsh Labour’s core dilemma. If it is to recover, it must undergo a period of serious reckoning with its record, its ideological direction and the consequences of dominance. But without resolving the tension between its Westminster and Welsh wings, that process appears unlikely.

Welsh and UK politics have changed dramatically. Nationalist parties now dominate the three devolved legislatures, and the Labour party is in crisis. This reflects a wider shift in which Labour increasingly governs as an English party, with Welsh voices peripheral. For a party that has shaped Welsh politics for more than a century, this moment is existential.

Unless Welsh Labour confronts this reality and reconciles its divisions, learning to lose will be difficult. Defeat will not be a prelude to renewal, but the start of a more terminal decline.

Catching diseases from animals is rare, but not impossible; you only have to look as far as the Hantavirus outbreak for confirmation of that.

But in an equally unlikely turn of events, cases of ‘rain rot‘ have been increasing among a small number of sexually active men, despite normally occurring in sheep, horses and cows.

Otherwise known as dermatophilosis, the skin condition has caught the attention of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), after it reported on nine cases of men with the disease diagnosed in Barcelona.

All men who presented with rain rot reported they’d been having sex with other men, suggesting this possible STD is disproportionately affecting the gay community. Cases have also been reported in Lyon, Paris, and Germany.

But what on earth is rain rot, and can it actually be labelled a sexually transmitted disease? And what are the symptoms if you’re worried you could be affected?

We asked a doctor to find out…

What is ‘rain rot’ and what are the symptoms?

It’s medical name is dermatophilosis, and it’s a skin infection which Dr Lawrence Cunningham tells Metro is caused by a bacteria called Dermatophilus congolensis.

This condition has earned the name rain rot because of its prevalence in more tropical regions and how closely the infection tracks with damp weather.

‘But what makes this bacterium unusual is its ability to survive in both wet and dry conditions,’ Dr Cunningham, for UK Care Guide, explains.

In terms of symptoms, they aren’t hugely serious, however they can cause discomfort.

‘What rain rot does is create crusty, scabby patches on the skin that can get quite uncomfortable if left alone,’ Dr Cunningham says.

In the men diagnosed in Europe, they experienced an itchy folliculitis-like rash characterised by papules (solid raised bumps), vesicles (small fluid-filled sacs or blisters), pustules (puss-filled pimples), scabs, nodules (abnormal lumps), or even scaly lesions.

Of course, these are unpleasant but this is often as serious as the condition gets, with complications being few and far between.

‘The main concern is a secondary bacterial infections if the skin gets badly damaged, particularly from scratching the affected areas,’ the doctor adds.

‘Left untreated, there’s a small risk of the infection reaching deeper tissues, but with proper medical attention, serious complications are rare.

How does it transfer from human to human?

Usually infection of humans will happen due to direct contact with an infected animal, known as a zoonotic infection, according to health officials.

This means people working with livestock are particularly vulnerable, with Dr Cunningham noting: ‘People handling animals without gloves, grooming them, treating wounds, are the ones most at risk.’

But the bacteria can also survive on surfaces like contaminated brushes, grooming tools and horse tack, so you could pick it up there, too.

‘From what I’ve seen, it’s almost always farm workers or vets who pick it up, and usually after repeated or prolonged contact rather than a single brief touch,’ the doctor explains.

‘But most clinicians could go their entire career without seeing a confirmed case. I’ve only come across a small handful myself.’

However, none of the human cases reported by the CDC involve animal exposure, with the government body pointing to the infection being ‘sexually acquired’.

A human catching rain rot from another human is even rarer, although Dr Cunningham says this could happen though direct skin-to-skin contact.

‘Given these recent reports about transmission in certain communities, I’dpoint to intimate contact. Prolonged skin-to-skin exposure where the bacteria has enough time to transfer and take hold.’

All men in the study had high exposure to STIs, several patients reported partners with similar symptoms, and lesions were commonly located in sites exposed during sexual contact.

Attendance at a sexual venue could also be a factor in this outbreak with eight patients reporting visiting a sauna, where humid conditions would favour the bacteria.

This means it could technically fall under the STI umbrella, although this doesn’t mean it behaves like the likes of chlamydia or gonorrhoea.

What’s the treatment and should you be worried?

The incubation period for rain rot is typically one to four weeks after exposure, with people seeing symptoms within the first two weeks. In the case of the outbreak, symptoms typically occurred around the six day mark.

But Dr Cunningham stresses that it’s important not to panic, because this disease isn’t anything you need to be worried about.

‘Doctors can diagnose it through skin samples or bacterial cultures,’ he says. ‘It’s straightforward testing, and most labs can identify the bacteria without difficulty.

‘Antibiotics are the best way to treat this initially, and they work well when you catch it early.

‘Depending on how widespread the infection is, that could mean topical antibiotic creams for localised patches or oral antibiotics for more extensive cases.’

Ultimately, Dr Cunnginham wants you to know that Dermatophilosis is very treatable and still quite rare, and public awareness means just means you’re more likely to seek help early, which is exactly what makes the difference.

Do you have a story to share?

Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.

MORE: I had a chemical pregnancy — but my baby still counts

MORE: The sex was incredible – but five inches held him back

MORE: The hazardous sex act women adore and men think is ‘magnificent’