Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper assures @TrevorPTweets that Labour has strengthened its vetting processes following the scandal surrounding Lord Doyle’s friendship with Sean Morton.

pic.twitter.com/H3satN60tJ

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 15, 2026

In a message posted to his Truth Social account, president Donald Trump has announced a plan which will surely repress the vote in the Midterm Elections:

“there will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!”

Trump’s authoritarian takeover and interference in the midterm elections under the guise of “election integrity” has begun. pic.twitter.com/FHYYKQ3u3h

— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) February 13, 2026

Given Trump’s dire polling, however, simply repressing the vote may not be enough.

Trump thanks you for your “attention”

The president’s post reads in full:

The Democrats refuse to vote for Voter I.D., or Citizenship. The reason is very simple — They want to continue to cheat in Elections. This was not what our Founders desired.

I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future. There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not! Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability, Illness, or Travel.

Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

He has, in his own words:

searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject.

We’ll be honest…we’re not sure what this means. At the same time, we’re confident he hasn’t done it.

Can you really imagine the tycoon-turned-politician searching the depths of anything? The man has all the depth of a contact lens.

Recently, Trump claimed the US is the only country which allows mail in ballots. This may shock you, but the truth is actually somewhat different to what president Trump suggests:

“We’re the only country with Mail In Ballots”

– Donald Trump

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✅ Fact Check: 70–80 countries worldwide
Roughly one-third of the world’s countries allow some form of postal voting. pic.twitter.com/f69uDu5BlJ

— Bricktop_NAFO (@Bricktop_NAFO) February 13, 2026

He has also threatened to deploy his masked ICE goons to disrupt voting:

There are 39 other countries with mail-in voting.
Trump’s plan is simple. If you block mail-in ballots, all ICE has to do is disrupt, intimidate and assault at polling places in blue areas to insure Trump remains King forever.
➡️ It’s really that simple ⬅️pic.twitter.com/3DdF782K8T

— BigBlueWaveUSA2026® 🇺🇸🌊🇺🇦 (@BigBlueWaveUSA) February 13, 2026

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If we were worried about upcoming elections, we’d probably focus on appearing electable. Trump, meanwhile, is spending all day, every day, ranting about how unfair everything is.

Voters aren’t stupid, though, which is why his polling looks like this (as per the Economist):

Cataclysmic

In addition to the above, we also have Trump’s (potentially criminal) handling of the Epstein Files. All in all, his party could see a real reckoning in the Midterm Elections. In fact, we’ve already seen what that could look like:

Democrats didn’t just see a 30-point shift in Texas and flip a State Senate seat red to blue: they did it while being outspent 20-to-1. This will send shockwaves through the Republican Party. pic.twitter.com/2UQI4v8Bls

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) February 1, 2026

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If the Democrats win big in the Midterms, Donald, and his cronies may begin to face accountability. The big question is whether the Democrats have the backbone to investigate Trump’s obvious wrongdoing, or whether they’ll let him wriggle out of it like president Joe Biden did.

Featured image via the Canary

Greg Jackson (Alamy)

7 min read33 min

“A very senior mandarin in the energy space said to me that the traditional model of the energy companies was to keep quiet and hope nobody understood what they were doing, and not to wake the sleeping dog,” Greg Jackson recalls, over a video call in a black hoodie, having just returned to the UK. “And I said, ‘Well, my job is to come in and poke the sleeping dog with a stick relentlessly’.”

Jackson has just returned from China, where he was part of the Prime Minister’s delegation. The Octopus founder is in as boisterous a mood as ever.

“Companies are often extremely entitled, or they behave in an entitled way. I’ve seen energy bosses demanding that the Energy Secretary actually make them more trusted,” a disapproving Jackson reports. “Trust is earned, not bestowed,” he adds.

Despite Jackson’s Octopus being only 10 years old, it has achieved continued astronomic growth after breaking ‘double unicorn’ status in 2022, reaching a valuation of $2bn, and has become one of the most recognisable in the UK, levering its outsider status for success.

In Whitehall, Jackson has seen similar achievements. The founder is a regular at political events, sitting on boards across Westminster while also recently securing a £25m investment from the government in his Octopus Energy spin-off, Kraken. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has described him as a “friend”, and insiders see him as the corporate figure who has the closest ties to the government.

In spite of this, Jackson recoils at the idea of being politically influential.

“I’ve got literally no view of politics,” he says unconvincingly, before launching into a 10-minute explanation of UK-China policy and the benefits of free trade. Jackson’s ideology, if he has one, is neoliberal. He believes in low subsidies, high competition and transparency, making him an odd bedfellow of the Labour Party.

“I don’t believe in party politics, but I do believe in the power of competition and the power of free enterprise.”

A close adviser of a previous Conservative chancellor described Jackson as “very good at identifying power, getting close to it and using those relationships to build credibility. He’s always coming to the government with solutions rather than just problems. A lot of companies can learn from that”.

After the change of government in 2024, Jackson was appointed to the government’s Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, before becoming a Cabinet Office board member in July last year. In January, he was appointed as co-chair of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s attempts to use AI to improve customer service experiences.

He has been vocally supportive of a number of government policies: in the last year alone, he endorsed the Workers’ Rights Bill, supported plans to build a ‘clean-power army’, and co-signed the government’s “international investment summit”.

I’ve seen energy bosses demanding that the Energy Secretary actually make them more trusted

Rumours have swirled that Jackson was on Labour’s longlist for a potential investment minister, before it was offered to his former colleague Benjamin Wegg-Prosser and ultimately Baroness Gustafsson, who accepted (before later resigning). Jackson says he doesn’t know whether he was considered but would not have accepted the job anyway.

He has also faced sustained criticism from some in the labour movement. Energy tycoon and Labour mega donor Dale Vince has engaged in a war of words with Jackson over green energy, both accusing the other of doing climate deniers’ bidding.

Miliband has remained a supportive ally of Jackson, however, launching numerous major policies from his sites, meeting regularly with him in Whitehall and name-checking Octopus’ successes. Their friendship has caused controversy for them both.

In some ways, the two are unlikely allies. Despite his links to the Labour Party, Jackson is not and has never been a party donor, and labels himself a free marketeer. He prompted criticism in 2021 when he admitted that his companies do not have human resources departments.

One of Jackson’s biggest squabbles is with the GMB union, which represents Jackson’s workforce in Octopus.

A GMB spokesperson describes Octopus as having a “frat-boy culture”, describing it as “beyond baffling” that Miliband and other ministers “persist in indulging this divisive figure”.

“GMB members in Octopus are increasingly outraged by the government’s embrace of a man who refuses to recognise unions. Mr Jackson runs his firm in a way more attuned to a frat-boy culture than a professional business environment,” they say.

“Despite not having basics like a HR department and failing to meet the simplest balance sheet requirements designed to protect consumers, he is given key access. This completely undermines Labour’s pro-worker and pro-consumer position.”

Jackson maintains that he is not anti-union – rather, he simply believes they are not needed in Octopus.

In a statement, Jackson also refuted the GMB allegations around the company’s culture. He said:  “Octopus is repeatedly named one of the best places to work in the UK, has a negative gender pay gap (women earn more), and every employee is a shareholder. Hardly a frat-bro culture – rather a model modern employer.”

Despite Jackson’s clear influence on policy and political discourse, he has rarely faced accusations of sleaze, which has dogged Westminster’s lobbyists in recent years. Unlike many other businesses, Jackson is very open about the issues he is pressing on the government privately, whether that be onshore wind, energy pricing models or the futility of some forms of clean energy such as hydrogen.

“I think one reason we have cut-through is, ultimately, I’d rather share with people the uncomfortable secret truths and then discuss it than hide behind closed doors, just making it worse.”

Jackson’s ability partially comes from knowing his sector inside out, and from focusing on changes benefiting the consumer.

“He is left-field. He’s always wearing a fleece and jeans. He’s very down to earth and easy to get on with,” says one observer. “Octopus are doing some quite unusual stuff, and it’s compelling. He can walk into any room in Whitehall and say, ‘If you get rid of X, Y and Z random pieces of regulation, I can do this for consumers.’ It’s very persuasive – and he’s always in the room.”

Yet Jackson has not managed to convince the new government on his most controversial ask: zonal energy pricing. He argues that Octopus would be able to cut energy bills by £100 a year if the switch were made to a system whereby prices varied across regional zones in the country, depending on their supply and demand. The proposal was shot down by other major operators on the grounds that it would create a “postcode lottery” for energy.

Miliband considered the policy before ultimately dropping it over fears it could put off investors. The defeat marked a victory for Centrica, the owner of British Gas and chief rival of Octopus.

With success came critics, who are capitalising on recent problems – including Ofgem’s anonymised rebuke of companies for failing financial resilience targets. Jackson, who admits Octopus was one of the firms that failed the test, argues the requirements are too stringent. Centrica’s CEO Chris O’Shea described it as “criminal” that Ofgem had not punished firms like Octopus further.

Jackson’s portrayal of rival energy companies is compelling – he paints them as a cartel, cautiously protecting margins at the expense of consumers. “One of them texted us to say they had 150 lobbyists up against us,” Jackson says of the zonal pricing spat. “We have two on our side.”

While he only has two lobbyists, Jackson in himself has the executive lobbyists are scared to represent. One tells The House: “You never want to represent someone who knows all the decision-makers better than you.” 

We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

Laundry day (or days, as the case may be) can be a real pain, especially in the wintertime.

Between the mud from the eternally-soggy weather, and that gross mildew smell, it’s such a faff making sure your clothes are properly clean.

Some will suggest drying your washing outside to help keep things fresh and avoid making any condensation problems in your house worse.

But I, for one, do not trust British winters (or springs, or even most summers) with my washing – the rain is just far too unpredictable.

Yes, you can crack some windows open for a bit (and we do!), but in my experience, that can only do so much.

So, if you want to level up your laundry day, whatever the weather, here are some of the best buys on the internet, according to the customers who’ve fallen in love with them.

Haris Malekos

6 min read7 min

Late last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves defended her decision in the November Budget to freeze the threshold at which graduates start to pay back their loans as “fair and reasonable”.

She was responding to Martin Lewis, the TV personal finance expert, who earlier that week argued it was “not a moral thing” to do because it was essentially treating debt like tax. “It’s a contract that the government signed with young people who had not been given any education on these loans,” Lewis said, who urged Reeves to “please have a rethink”.

Since then, the Labour government has faced a backlash from a generation of ‘Plan Two’ graduates, seemingly leading ministers to strike a more emollient and open-minded tone on the question of whether student loan reform should be on the table.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said last week it was a “debate clearly rumbling and worth having”, while Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell has this week acknowledged that there are “absolutely” issues around the Plan Two student loan interest. 

Under the Plan Two agreement, graduates are charged interest on loan repayments equal to Retail Prices Index (RPI) plus up to three percentage points. However, monthly repayments often do not meet interest, leaving many graduates with debt larger than what they originally borrowed, years after leaving university. Some people have shared details of such cases on social media, fuelling the growing wave of outrage.

Former education secretary Alan Johnson, who is now chancellor of the University of Hull, last week told BBC’s Today programme that the current system is “horrendous”.

It is noteworthy that there are now significantly more MPs with Plan Two student loans than ever before, which is helping calls for reform gain traction in Westminster. Plan 2 loans were issued to English undergraduates who started courses between 2012 and 2022.

PoliticsHome understands that several Labour MPs in this cohort have had discussions with sympathetic ministers about what can be done to help address the sense of unfairness.

It is currently seen as unlikely that the Labour government will commit to a task as significant as overhauling the student loan system, especially given the many other major policy challenges that it is already grappling with, like thorny and complex SEND reforms.

Speaking on Thursday, Reeves said she would lower student loan repayments by cutting inflation. “But by getting inflation down, we can also reduce the interest on student loans and I think that will make a big difference in making that more affordable,” she said.

However, there are no signs of the debate disappearing. 

Two Labour-aligned think tanks, The Institute for Public Policy Research and Labour Together, are preparing new pieces of work in this area, PoliticsHome understands, while Plan 2 MPs like Labour backbencher Chris Curtis are publicly calling for changes to the system. Clips of New Statesman journalist Oli Dugmore calling for reform on BBC Question Time have gone viral.

It is for this reason that other political parties are starting to look at it.

PoliticsHome understands that the Conservatives, under whom the current student loan system was created, are looking at student loans as part of work on their wider higher education policy. The Tories have been warned that they must rebuild support among young people to have a route back to power, with just 8 per cent of 18-24-year-olds and 25-39-year-olds voting for them at the 2024 general election, according to YouGov.

Former Conservative education secretary Justine Greening told PoliticsHome that Kemi Badenoch’s party should take the lead on student loans to help “reconnect with young voters”.

She told PoliticsHome: “The very system that was supposed to support aspiration and social mobility has now become a system that has the opposite effect. Many young people, especially with fewer family resources to fall back on, are understandably scared of the student debt that they are going to have to take out if they want to get to university.

“It means that tuition fees and student loans are a mainstream ‘retail’ policy, just like income tax rates. If it wants to build a connection to those generations, then the Tory party needs to lead on this and come up with real solutions.”

A former Conservative adviser who worked close to the issue in recent Tory administrations was sceptical about a “total rewriting” of the system, however.

“My sense is that officials know a lot of people have issues with the student loan system, but anything to make it more affordable is going to result in the taxpayer picking up more of it, which isn’t fair for half of the population who don’t go to university,” they said.

Reform UK, which, if a general election were held tomorrow, would be in a strong position to form a government, according to opinion polls, pledged in its 2024 manifesto to scrap interest on student loans and extend loan capital repayment periods to 45 years. 

When asked about the party’s current position, a Reform source told PoliticsHome: “We are prepared to be radical to end the injustice of high student debt.”

“Young people should learn vocational skills that earn good wages, or degrees that are genuinely useful to them and the country,” they added.

PoliticsHome understands that Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats are planning to release a university policy paper in the coming weeks.

There is some nervousness among Lib Dem figures about making universities a major policy focus, with the coalition-era U-turn on tuition fees and subsequent electoral backlash felt to be a ghost not yet fully exorcised, PoliticsHome understands. 

However, the party is understood to be considering how students can be protected from changes to their contract, capping total payments in real terms, and whether the use of RPI can be replaced.

Meanwhile, a Green Party spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “The government has become a Student Loan Shark, with people on Plan 2 student loans — the vast majority — finding themselves saddled with debt for over 30 years. We strongly oppose plans to freeze the loan repayment threshold and want to see the exorbitant interest rate cut. 

“Ultimately, the Green Party wants to see the restoration of grants and the end of tuition fees. Education is a right, not a privilege, and we need to see it as public investment, not private debt.”

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At the very real risk of criticism from traditional working class Labour types, and their new right counter parts in Reform, I donned velvet smoking jacket and cravat last Thursday to attend at Conservative Party party.

Yes, yes “typical tory posh type, wets and bankers (they might not actually use a ‘b’)  living it up, while ordinary folk struggle with the cost of living”. I mean I sort of get it, but it was the dull the first time I heard it and it hasn’t improved with age.

I don’t, despite a friendly jibe from journalist Camilla Tominey, habitually dress in such attire but the theme of the night was the 1920’s, and almost everyone had risen to the challenge. One or two of the men had opted for the easy ‘black-tie as their dressing up option, one former Cabinet minister had not, but we excused it as him thinking it was “whatever I was wearing in the office at 19:20”

I mention bankers because this was a fundraiser dinner with a room full of people who far from thinking the Conservative party is dying, are funding it’s renewal. Yes, Reform have their backers with big pockets, as did Labour and presumably still do, just, but that old myth “the money’s dried up” seemed put to bed early on Thursday.

The 1920’s was an interesting theme: UK politics was dominated by David Lloyd George’s Liberal-Conservative coalition government, grappling with post-war economic slump, industrial unrest, and Irish independence demands. The year saw the passage of the landmark Government of Ireland Act 1920, partitioning Ireland, while Labour rapidly emerged as the main opposition to the Conservatives.

The most notable point was the mood.

The Conservative party is feeling both bullish and more confident, whilst completely aware that the brand, if not the leader needs a huge amount of work, and that persuasion is now less about appeasing the angry but persuading the indifferent.

This is the ‘delusion’ opponents like to refer to, that the Tories don’t get what is still required of them. They do, they are acutely aware of it, but they’re no longer afraid of it.

Reform have, they will under this article and online, continue their now well-rehearsed critiques. But those Conservatives who’ve stayed to fight are growing impervious to it. As I’ve mentioned before, a relentless series of attacks from Reform has hardened attitudes, as one shadow cabinet figure put it:

“Apart from giving Labour a free ride whenever they do it, the attacks on us, especially when Kemi is getting the attention they want, works both ways. Their base love it, but others are put off. People talk about indifference – well ok, but our people are starting to ignore it. They won’t be bullied off the pitch, especially when parts of Labour seem to want to do that to the PM!”

It’s a sentiment I’ve heard a lot recently. The Conservatives understand the Reform threat, and their own difficult issues, they just aren’t intimidated by any of it, even if it’s a daunting challenge with no god given rights to success.

For the avoidance of doubt, Prosper UK, and the phantom secret army of Lib Dems people like to suggest are really in control were not in attendance. Perhaps they are they exercise this ‘control’ remotely but I couldn’t see much sign of that in the Leader’s speech.

Kemi Badenoch got a great reception given her own personal renewal, because she’s leading opposition to this Government – which is her job – and because she’s sticking to her strategy (certainly, doubts about that strategy, are expressed on ConservativeHome all the time) of not being distracted and being honest with people, both party and voters.

I’m going to suggest that, whatever those doubts, her sticking to a consistent course and not being buffeted off it by events, defections or the arrival of new campaign groups, is the right strategic plan.

A year ago I envisaged the Tories like once dominant athletes, still training to get back to winning ways, laughed at by new athletes and long standing rivals as they tried desperately to re-find their form. Evidence they were, or could, was pretty scant, but they were getting on with getting on, and my suggestion was that they ignored the taunts and just kept putting in the hard yards because the big race – where it counts – was still years off – and those taunts were transparently designed to put people still running in a blue rosette off their stride.

Speaking of which the shadow Chancellor, for all the attempts to undermine him as ‘chief wet’ or old face of an old regime seemed both buoyant and as much enthused by the direction Kemi was taking the party – by any criteria not ‘left’ – as those who backed her before the leadership contest. Even the doubters, seem both on board and relieved she is not the party leader who is in serious trouble now. That’s quite a turnaround in a year.

One of the reasons the tables have turned is Labour and Starmer’s undeniably and seemingly inescapable doom loop of scandal and incompetence that dogs this Government.

Part of the reason for that is the PM’s unbreakable habit of constantly changing tack. New initiatives – mainly launched when their myriad predecessors have failed ignominiously – flip-flops, U-turns have made him the ultimate weather-vane.  Leadership in the model of a forcibly released and rapidly deflating balloon, heading in random directions, nudged in random directions by rapidly released wind, not strategic thought.

Farage, from whose iron throne direction comes in House Reform, is also prone to changing his mind. Junking his election ‘manifesto’ in a year, rapid clarification on announced policy to cover the gaps in detail, and the switchero on the two child benefit cap. If only he’d informed his two new recruits before the vote.

Farage and Reform, are not, for the umpteenth time, to be underestimated. Reform are not dismissible clowns or as extreme as Polanski, and Starmer are desperate to suggest. They aren’t however inevitable winners either. Not ones Tories should bow to and offer a free ride. They chose not to deserve that, but demanding a fight to the death with the Tories, which neither are going to win.

They themselves, on the evidence of Thursday, are the very epitome of their latest insult – NPC – ‘not proper Conservatives’ – because the proper Conservatism Badenoch and her team are pursuing is not as Reform and Labour like to portray it, and not controlled by a ‘secret cabal of wets’. It also isn’t going to be ‘stopped by her party’ if they were in power – the other canard bandied about these days  – which of course concedes the idea that they could be in power again.

So consistency, Conservative values, and telling the truth. That’s what is being offered, and in a political world where all of that’s in short supply elsewhere, that’s not a bad tack to hold to.

Here’s the fly in the ointment.

All of that said, no party, whatever they claim, including those shadow Cabinet members, and LOTO staffers, ‘Lords, Ladies and gentlemen’ who rose to applaud their leader on Thursday even before she spoke, and those that spoke to me after afterwards, none are yet articulating the full policy platform that matches the scale of the issues Britain faces.

No politician is there yet. If Farage predicts an election next year, and performatively put his party on an ‘election war footing’ – something neither Reform, the Tories or Labour are ready for, it ignores the fact that for all the slogans, from every side, there is still a gap of real credible solutions. All have supplied some, nobody the full package.

Badenoch vows they will – long before any election – Reform still seems to be offering withering diagnosis, but still short on solutions. I’m not suggesting they’ll stay that way but if they think slogans are enough, they are either mistaken, or hoping to do what Starmer did, and offer very little until they are ‘in’. Well we’ve seen how that works out.

As MPs are on recess, and have a chance to take the temperature away from the suffocation of the ‘bubble’, offering people honest consistency and a bit more articulation of the actual vision, not one filtered by opponents, might get them the increased hearing they need and that those opponents insist they can’t get.

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