Politics

The obnoxious hypocrisy of Starmer’s fury with JD Vance

Published

1 hour ago

8 June 2026

The obnoxious hypocrisy of Starmer’s fury with JD Vance

Why is it okay for Brits to be righteously angry over the death of George Floyd but not for Americans to be righteously angry over the death of Henry Nowak? Our cousins across the pond have every right to ask this question following David Lammy’s staggeringly imperious comments on Sky News on Sunday morning. With aristocratic swagger, our deputy PM lamented JD Vance’s meddling in our national life with his tweet about the ‘righteous anger’ we should feel in response to Nowak’s death. It’s inappropriate, Lammy sniffed. Yep, this is the same David Lammy who cheered the ‘righteous anger’ that greeted the killing of Floyd.

One is forced to ask: was it arrogance or stupidity that led Lammy to rebuke an American for doing exactly as he once did? Did he forget that he also used the phrase ‘righteous anger’ after Floyd’s death, and that he barked at America to turn this rage into ‘meaningful reform’? Or is he now so high on his own supply of moral vanity that he thinks different rules apply to him? I suspect it’s the latter, because even when the Sky News host – Trevor Phillips – played clips of Lammy and his Labour colleagues righteously raging over Floyd’s death, Lammy didn’t flinch. We are allowed to wag a finger at Trumpist America, but those rough Yanks must never do likewise with us – that was the patrician essence of the rictus smirk he wore even as his rank hypocrisy was played back to him.

Even by the low standards of our smug elites, the Victorian gasping over Vance’s comments has been wild. It feels positively pre-1776, with America’s old rulers telling Vance and the rest of the DC riff-raff to do as we say, not as we do. No sooner had Vance mourned the murder of Nowak by Vickrum Digwa – calling it ‘tragic’ and ‘enraging’ – than Downing St was noisily gnashing its teeth. ‘People [are] trying to interfere in our democracy’, said Keir Starmer’s spokesman. Yes, it’s the same Keir Starmer who, as leader of the opposition in May 2020, took to his despatch box in the Commons to express ‘shock and anger’ over Floyd’s death. And to vent his ‘abhorrence’ over Trump’s response to that death.

It takes cant to dizzying new heights for a PM who lectured America about Floyd’s death to get all uppity because Vance has ventured an opinion on Nowak’s death. Labour is stuffed with such moral pretenders. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, wrote a wordy public letter in 2020 to voice her ‘unspeakable outrage’ over Floyd’s death. Now she yaps about the ‘dangerous undercurrent’ of rage in response to Nowak’s death. London mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the ‘fury and anguish’ that swept the globe after Floyd’s death. Now he says we should stop playing ‘knockabout politics’ with Henry’s death. Why is it righteous fury when people like him mourn the death of a man 4,000 miles from Britain, but ‘knockabout politics’ when others do likewise following the cruel slaying of a boy in Britain?

Britain’s entire political class, not to mention the well-fed activists of the Oxbridge left, stand so morally exposed right now. Both the House of Commons and House of Lords held a minute’s silence for George Floyd. Not only have they done no such thing for Nowak, but MPs jeered and finger-jabbed at Nigel Farage when he dared to say we should ‘rage’ over that teen’s cruel, lonely death. Meanwhile, plummy leftists who took the knee, tore down statues and bored us rigid with their performative fury after Floyd’s death now warn us oiks not to ‘weaponise’ Nowak’s death. Only they are allowed to exploit human tragedy for moral kicks, okay?

It isn’t hard to see why Vance’s tweet rattled our ruling class. For he did something they are too craven and culpable to do – he tied young Henry’s death to the West’s violent drift from the virtues of its own civilisation. Yes, he was wrong to link the killing with Britain’s burning of its own sovereign integrity and the corresponding spike in undesirable forms of immigration – Vickrum Digwa was born here. But he was right to lament the ‘politics of self-hatred’ that led us to a situation where cops will prioritise a false accusation of racism over a dying boy’s begging for help. That atrocity in Southampton, where Henry said ‘I can’t breathe’ nine times as cops dragged him, cuffed him and basically called him a liar, was a microcosm of our institutionalised identity politics and its elevation of the cult of grievance over the enlightened virtues of reason and fairness.

The current Vance Derangement Syndrome is so telling. That Brits who wailed over the death of Floyd can reprimand Vance for mourning the death of Nowak reveals so much about the elites’ culture wars. To them, America is less a real place than a kind of moral playpen – a distant, unreal zone in which Europeans bereft of ideas for their own societies might puff out their chests and wang on about racism, slavery, whiteness, etc. In 2020’s Covid-addled, Floyd-enraged digital highways of voguish self-loathing, America became a stage for the pious of the world to act out the thin morality of their anti-Westernism. The possibility that actual Americans – like a then 35-year-old JD Vance – might have taken umbrage at this colonial-vibing venom for the American republic seems never to have crossed their minds. And now they froth like loons upon receiving a taste of their own medicine.

But there’s something else at play, too. It isn’t really Vance and his social-media missives they fear – it’s us. They are consumed by fever dreams that Vance’s tweet will ignite the bovine rage of the British masses. The Westminster elites’ frantic policing of our post-Nowak emotions – especially our ‘righteous anger’ – is driven by a deep dread of working-class feeling. Just as they seek to temper our fury following Islamist attacks or further revelations about the rape gangs, so they want to crush our dismay over Henry’s death and our dissent over the neo-racialism of identity politics that exacerbated that horror. They might be pissed with Vance, but it’s us they hate.

Brendan O’Neill is spiked’s chief political writer and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. His latest book – After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation – is available to order on Amazon UK and Amazon US now. And find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy.

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Politics

Reform’s success is more than a ‘protest vote’

Published

7 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Reform’s success is more than a ‘protest vote’

The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey is the gold standard of its kind. Conducted annually since 1983 by the National Centre for Social Research, it does not merely track voting intention but probes the values, discontents and self-understanding of the British people. When its 43rd report turns its attention to Reform UK, the results demand careful reading, because they are simultaneously more encouraging and more challenging for the party than the headline writers have managed to convey.

The report, authored by Sir John Curtice along with Georgie Morton and Jerome Swan, was published on 2 June 2026. Its central finding has already been widely quoted: Reform’s support is driven not merely as a protest against the system, but by a settled, coherent and emotionally committed worldview. Curtice describes Reform supporters as having ‘a level of emotional attachment that neither Labour nor the Conservatives have managed to inspire in voters for decades’. It is an extraordinary achievement for a party founded less than a decade ago, and it should be recognised as such before the problems are discussed.

Reform has been continuously ahead in the opinion polls since the spring of 2025. The BSA gives this polling reality a structural explanation: Reform’s support is not a mood, it is a movement. As many as 23 per cent of Reform supporters say they identify ‘very strongly’ with their party, well above the 11 per cent figure for supporters across its competitors. In an age of political fragmentation, that degree of partisan loyalty is a formidable political asset.

The demographic base, whatever anxieties it may generate in some quarters of the party, is in many respects a strength. Support for Reform stands at 49 per cent among those who would vote to stay out of the EU, while just nine per cent of those who would vote to rejoin back the party. That community, the Brexit coalition, is large, its motivations durable and its appetite for representation acute. Reform has successfully positioned itself as its natural heir to what Curtice describes as the ideological coalition that took Boris Johnson to his 2019 landslide.

Crucially, the BSA confirms that the rise is not built on sand. Although Reform supporters are more likely to be unhappy about public services and the cost of living, the party’s growth since 2024 has been driven primarily by ideology rather than discontent alone. This matters enormously for the question of durability. A protest vote collapses when the object of protest recedes; an ideologically rooted vote persists. The implication, as Curtice notes, is that Labour improving NHS waiting times will not, on its own, puncture Reform’s rise. The party has captured something deeper in the national psyche.

The survey also finds that the average British respondent has moved in what the authors call an ‘authoritarian’ direction since 2022. Support for the welfare state is also in decline. In other words, the electorate is, on balance, drifting towards Reform rather than away from it. Public attitudes on affirmative-action policies, immigration and transgenderism have all moved in directions more congenial to Reform’s platform. The party is not swimming against the tide, but riding it.

Reform supporters are also notably engaged: 43 per cent say they have ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of interest in politics, somewhat higher than the 39 per cent figure among the public in general. They are not apathetic disengagers who have wandered in from the cold – they are active, motivated and committed. That is the raw material of a serious political organisation.

Now for the bad news for Reform. Twenty-eight per cent of men support the party, compared with 19 per cent of women, a nine-point gap that is wider than the five-point difference between the sexes in their propensity to vote Leave in 2016. The gender gap is sharpest among the young. Among those aged under 35, there is now a 13-point difference between men and women in support for Reform, compared with just six points in 2024.

This is not simply an inconvenience. It is a structural ceiling on the party’s growth. There are roughly equal numbers of men and women in the electorate, and no party has governed modern Britain while being unable to speak to one half of it. Nor is it reducible to a simple messaging failure: the gap reflects genuine differences on the issues Reform has chosen to lead on. It is simply a fact that women are less socially conservative.

The education gradient presents a related challenge. Forty per cent of those whose highest educational qualification is below A-level support Reform, but just nine per cent of graduates do so. This is the most dramatic divide in the survey. It makes Reform structurally weak in the professional and managerial classes who disproportionately staff public institutions, shape media narratives, run businesses and dominate the leadership of local authorities. Winning councils, as Reform discovered in May 2025 and 2026, requires the capacity to govern, and governing requires some penetration of the graduate professional world.

The ethnic composition of Reform’s support base is a further limitation. Just one in 12 Britons from a minority ethnic background supports Reform. In large urban areas, this could pose practical problems for winning seats.

The welfare and spending data also contain a cautionary note. Reform supporters are considerably more hostile to welfare spending than the general public, with 78 per cent saying that unemployment benefits are too high and discourage people from finding work, compared with 60 per cent of the general public. Yet only 32 per cent of Reform voters want taxes and spending reduced – the most common response (42 per cent) is that both should remain at the same level. Reform’s supporters are hostile to welfare as a moral and cultural proposition, not as an economic one. The party’s rhetoric of smaller government may sometimes run ahead of what its own voters actually want delivered.

So, has Reform reached its high water mark of public support? Curtice states that ‘something like 30 per cent looks like not an absolute ceiling, but they are unlikely to rise much above that given the character of the campaign issues that they are emphasising’. That ceiling comment deserves scrutiny. At historic levels of vote-share concentration, 30 per cent was not a winning number. In fragmented contemporary Britain, it may be, which Curtice does acknowledge. But ‘potentially’ is not ‘certainly’, and Reform’s route to government requires either broadening its appeal or relying on a degree of vote efficiency that the BSA data cannot confirm.

What, then, should Reform take from this? Several things.

On the gender gap: the party needs to understand that this is not simply a communications problem, as if the right social-media campaign aimed at women would close a nine-point chasm. Women are, on average, more sympathetic to welfare spending and more cautious about the hardest edges of culture-war positioning. Reform does not need to abandon its platform, but it does need to demonstrate that its worldview has genuine application to the lives of women. The cost of living, public safety, housing, GP access and family stability – these are not ‘culture war’ issues, they are the substance of daily life. Reform’s instinct to lead always on immigration risks signalling to women that the party has not thought seriously about what concerns them most. Candidates and spokespeople who can speak to these concerns, without abandoning the broader Reform prospectus, are worth their weight in gold. The party should be looking deliberately for such voices.

On education and class: governing parties need graduates. The party needs, over time, to develop a language that speaks to the entrepreneurial, the technical, the practically educated, as distinct from the credentialled professional-managerial class that it is unlikely to win in large numbers. The small employers and own-account workers in the BSA data are already strongly disposed towards Reform – that is a constituency that could be deepened and organised.

The BSA, in short, confirms that Reform is a serious, durable political force with deep roots in a distinctive and politically committed section of British society. It also confirms that the path to government runs through territory the party has not yet entered: women under 55, graduates, ethnic-minority communities and the professional classes. These are not natural Reform voters and pretending otherwise would be foolish.

But the way to begin closing those gaps is not by softening the platform beyond recognition. It is by demonstrating, in councils, in parliament and in policy, that the socially conservative worldview the British Social Attitudes survey so precisely maps can be translated into competent, honest and effective government. That demonstration, more than any repositioning exercise, is what will determine whether Reform’s poll lead can translate into something more significant.

Will it be the foundation for something historically significant, or merely the high watermark of a long, important, but ultimately unsuccessful insurgency?

Gawain Towler is a commentator and an elected board member of Reform UK. This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on his Substack.

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Polanski defends call to release Palestinian revolutionary Marwan Barghouti

Published

14 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Zack Polanski and marwan Barghouti

Zack Polanski has defended his call to free the Palestinian revolutionary Marwan Barghouti. In doing so, he’s shone a light on a figure who is almost universally ignored by the Western media:

Good. Let's talk about Marwan Barghouti.
Imprisoned for 25 years.
An inter-Parliamentary Union report found he was not given a fair trial.
Nelson Mandela: “What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened to me."
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Free Marwan.https://t.co/EoTcJkttRd https://t.co/CNh7Z0mSz6
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 7, 2026

Polanski speaks up for Barghouti

Writing on Barghouti in 2025, Joe Glenton reported for the Canary:

He was sentenced to five life sentences in 2002. For murder charges he denies. By a coloniser court whose authority he rejects. In a trial which experts say was full of illegalities.
He’s a sort of Palestinian everyman, known for his calm demeanour, who learned Hebrew in jail and spent years in exile. He spent years in hiding, dodging Israeli assassination attempts.

Also in 2025, a released Palestinian detainee reported that Israeli authorities were torturing Barghouti. His son Omar said:

I woke up to a phone call from a released prisoner this morning. He told me, “Your father was physically abused. They broke his teeth and ribs, cut off part of his ear, and broke his fingers in stages for fun…
What do I do? Who do I talk to? Who can we turn to? We’re living with this nightmare every day… Oh God, have mercy on me. My father is 66 years old now. Oh God, where will he find the strength?”

Polanski has attracted criticism from the British gutter press, because these people are still willing to take the genocidal Israel at its word:

Are people seriously voting for this guy? Really? @ZackPolanski is openly and proudly giving his wholehearted support to a CONVICTED TERRORIST WHO KILLED FIVE INNOCENT PEOPLE. That's who Marwan Barghouti is.
And that tells us exactly who Zack Polanski is too. This man is a… https://t.co/4AVYzBy5EF
— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) June 7, 2026

War crimes

There are many reports of Israel using torture against Palestinian detainees. As Alaa Shamali reported for the Canary in December:

Documented Palestinian testimonies reveal the use of sexual violence, including rape, as a systematic means of torture inside Israeli prisons, in one of the most serious violations suffered by Palestinian prisoners since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, amid widespread international silence and accusations of political collusion that provides cover for the continuation of these crimes.

Most recently, detainees claimed Israel uses dogs to rape them. The claims became so un-ignorable that even the usually compliant New York Times reported on them. And the evidence has only continued to grow since then:

Guards at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman torture camp have admitted their colleagues use dogs to rape Palestinian captives there, according to a prominent Israeli analyst.
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a geopolitical expert who opposes Israel’s genocide in Gaza, said he spoke to two guards… pic.twitter.com/xUJoIM2XSZ
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— Novara Media (@novaramedia) April 20, 2026

Clear messaging

So yes, this is why Zack Polanski is calling for Barghouti’s release.

Because Israel cannot be trusted to tell the truth about why it detained people, and because it cannot be trusted to keep them safe once they’re detained.

Featured image via Jon Rowley (Getty Images) / Uriel Sinai (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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Politics

100 days of Trump’s war on Iran: Trump rambles, prevaricates, and walks off an interview

Published

21 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

trump

In an NBC interview recorded on Friday, US President Donald Trump repeatedly defended his war of choice on Iran. He said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was a “good comrade” but disagreed with him, stating that strikes on Lebanon should be more surgical than they are.

However, the Financial Times (FT) reported that Trump later insisted he “calls the shots” and that Netanyahu has “no choice” but to accept any deal with Iran. The FT said they had verified a leaked call in which Trump called Netanyahu “fucking crazy” and told him he would be in prison without him.

“I call all the shots. Netanyahu doesn’t call the shots.” My telephone interview with Trump this afternoon. https://t.co/l4OSrFYw6z
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) June 7, 2026

Then, Trump began to call on Israel and Iran to “immediately stop shooting,” and said the peace deal was “proceeding,” cautioning against “ignorance or stupidity.” Probably yours, Trump.

It is foolish to believe that Trump is indeed not calling the shots.

The escalated attacks on Lebanon by Israel in the past week probably have his blessing, but he needs to disguise his hand in them using ramblings and prevarications, as his poll numbers are tanking.

Just like in real life, Trump’s behaviour in the NBC interview is CHAOTIC.

The interview with NBC finally ended with Trump walking off when pressed about his claims that the US elections in 2020 were rigged, and they are currently being rigged in California, calling the interviewer “crooked.”

Trump and his war on Iran

Sunday 7 June 2026 marked the 100 days since the US began its war of choice on Iran.

Trump boasted about his decapitation strategy, saying in the NBC interview he had achieved “regime change, actually.” He boasted that he had “wiped out” Iran’s military capabilities.

He acknowledged Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the former supreme leader, as part of Iran’s leadership structure, but had not met him. Trump said Iranian officials seek his “concurrence” and that “they do pay homage to him.”

Mojtaba won’t meet poor Donald. You did kill his father, the rambling president needed reminding, perhaps.

Trump went back and forth on the status of the deal throughout the interview. At times, he claimed negotiations were progressing and that Iran was “begging to make a deal,” calling them “desperate” and “proud” with “no choice.”

Other times, he suggested the deal could fall apart, saying his red line for restarting military action would be :

If we don’t make a deal, I’m going to blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you. That’s actually the easier path.

He said he will keep all 50,000 U.S. troops in the region for now, saying it would be “foolhardy” to send them home before a deal is reached.

How does one keep up with him?

Campaign promise on ending wars

When pressed on his long-standing campaign promise of “no new wars,” Trump flatly denied ever making such a pledge.

I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?

Obviously, in the real world, Trump campaigned heavily on the promise that he would not start a new war during this campaign in 2024.

He argued that his “military exercise” against Iran was not an endless war at all, saying:

I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months

Get it? If you call a war just a “military exercise,” as Trump insists it is, it stops being a war.

Trump, in fact, thinks previous wars are due to “stupid people” and his three-month war is okay, saying:

You were in Vietnam for 19 years because stupid people… Every war you were in for years. Look at Iraq. Look what you were. You were there for years.

Anti-Weaponization Fund

Trump defended plans for a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” even though his own Department of Justice has shelved the idea.

He still thinks it was “a great idea” and said he would be “disappointed” if it were not approved:

People have been destroyed by crooked politicians and they should be reimbursed for that.

The proposed $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was intended to reimburse those who claimed the Biden government weaponized the legal system against them.

Those who lined up to apply included Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys, George Santos, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Mike Lindell, more than 1,500 January 6 defendants, anti-abortion activists, and Moms for Liberty.

Claims of election fraud

The interview ended with Trump walking off after claiming that the 2020 election was rigged and that the same thing is currently happening in California.

He alleged that California election officials were taking too long to count votes, which he insisted was proof of cheating.

When asked for evidence, he did not provide any, saying that looking at the situation was enough. He then called the interviewer crooked and abruptly ended the interview, saying he had had enough.

He lasted in an interview for almost forty minutes, albeit prevaricating, rambling, and dodging questions along the way. Keeping his cool that long must mean that Trump is sensing he has got to play along with some rules, with his support fraying.

By Monday, just three days after the NBC interview, Trump was calling on Israel and Iran to stop fighting immediately.

He claimed both sides were looking for a ceasefire, and that final peace negotiations were moving forward, though he warned that ignorance or stupidity could still get in the way. Trump’s own stupidity probably prevents him from seeing it.

Featured image via Getty/Kevin Dietsch

By The Canary

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Politics

Tony award winner Bourzgui’s acceptance speech compares Zionists and billionaires to vampires

Published

28 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

tony award

Musician Ali Louis Bourzgui won a Tony award last night, 7 June, for his portrayal of a vampire in the musical adaptation of The Lost Boys. As he received his award, he compared Zionists and billionaires to the vampires of the show – people “who have shunned their own humanity in order to achieve a nonexistent sense of superiority”.

And in case anyone was still unclear what he meant, he used his speech to wish freedom to the Palestinian people from occupation, as well as to praise the immigrants and trans people constantly targeted by the US fascist regime:

Tony award winner speaks out

The full transcript of Bourzgui’s remarkable speech accepting a Tony award is below:

Sometimes humanity needs a fantastical lens outside of ourselves to look at and explore questions about our own nature. Vampires represent those who have shunned their own humanity in order to achieve a nonexistent sense of superiority.
The billionaires will never find happiness from their money. The colonizers will never find fulfillment from the land and lives they steal. The fascists will never find meaning from their conformity, not in this lifetime or eternity.
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People like to say that theater is a form of escape, but I’ve found more than ever that in this season and time that the theater is one of the last places people can come to worship the power of true collective human presence. We take a moment to recondition our addiction to desensitization. We ask how we can see ourselves in a stranger’s story and then carry that sentiment out into the world that needs us
to ask that more than ever.
This is dedicated to the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families who make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty.
For the queer and trans communities who have and always will exist no matter what people in power try to take away from them.
For the people of Palestine who deserve to live a free life, a full life without occupation.
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For Arab theater makers and artists, may we continue to tell our stories and show our faces so our humanity becomes undeniable and our families can no longer be written off as merely collateral damage. May they know the beauty of our kisses upon each cheek and the romance of a language rooted in passion for love and life itself.
If there’s one thing we can learn from vampires, it’s that life is short, but that’s its gift.
Find beauty in the ephemeral and gratitude in what is not promised, and always invest in the people that want to see you blossom into your truest self and hold that space for them in return.
I dedicate this award to my late mentor, Ralph Petillo. Thank you.
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Israel is a terror state. Billionaires shouldn’t exist. Free Palestine and someone find some more awards for Ali Louis Bourzgui.

Featured image via Getty/Theo Wargo

By Skwawkbox

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Politics

Starmer Getting On With The Job Amid Leadership Tensions

Published

43 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Starmer Getting On With The Job Amid Leadership Tensions

Downing Street insists Keir Starmer is is “getting on with the job” as he tries to push through major policies in what could be his final weeks in No.10.

On Monday, the prime minister gave tech companies three months to introduce measures to prevent children sending and receiving explicit images on their mobile phones.

“This is not an impossible challenge,” the PM said in a speech at London Tech Week. “These are some of the most innovative companies in the world and I believe they can solve it.

“But if they choose not to, then we will act and we will change the law because when it comes to the safety of our children, standing by is not an option.”

The PM is also expected to finally unveil the government’s long-awaited defence investment plan ahead of a Nato summit being held in Turkey next month.

All of this activity is taking place against the backdrop of next week’s Makerfield by-election, when Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham appears on course to become an MP once again.

An opinion poll last week gave him a 10-point lead over his Reform UK rival, Robert Kenyon, and one Labour MP who has knocked on doors in the seat told HuffPost UK that “feels about right”.

Burnham admitted last week that he plans to replace Starmer as PM, with speculation mounting that he could launch his leadership bid within days of his return to Westminster.

The prime minister’s official spokesman denied that Starmer is in a hurry to create a legacy he can point to if his time in office is entering its final weeks.

He said: “The prime minister has made it clear that he is very much focused on the job in hand as the PM.

″[The tech announcement] is further evidence of the prime minister being determined to take action when it puts people at risk.

“He is getting on with the job and delivering for the British people in a number of different ways.”

Allies of Starmer have made it clear that he will definitely stand in any leadership contest, with former health secretary Wes Streeting also insisting that he plans to throw his hat into the ring.

Despite the sudden burst of activity emanating from No.10, Westminster is currently in a holding pattern as we await the verdict of the people of Makerfield.

Whether Burnham wins or loses, it still seems certain that Starmer will face a leadership challenge.

A month may have passed since the May 7 elections which saw Labour thrashed in England, Scotland and Wales, but the feelings of anger and disenchantment are still raw among the party’s MPs.

Starmer may well be “getting on with the job” right now, but it is unlikely that he will be able to for much longer.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

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Politics

The ‘Airbnb Of Campervans’ Has Your Summer Road Trip Plans Sorted

Published

56 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

The 'Airbnb Of Campervans' Has Your Summer Road Trip Plans Sorted

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.

I won’t bore you with details of the endless travel difficulties we’re experiencing right now. You get it – fuel prices are high, meaning lots of us are opting for staycations in the UK this year.

With the school holidays approaching, Airbnbs are getting booked up fast, and options for places to stay in the UK are dwindling by the minute. And while camping is always an option, it’s certainly not for everyone.

So, if you’re looking for the perfect in-between, I’ve found just the thing for you: the ‘Airbnb of campervans’.

Romanticised in everything from On The Road to Little Miss Sunshine, there’s nothing like a road trip to get some bonding time in, whether that’s with your partner, family, or friends.

Understandably, you might not want to invest in an entire campervan or motorhome to be responsible for year-round. But, if you’re anything like me, a road trip is something you’ll want to do at least once in your life.

For a happy medium, Goboony has a range of rental campervans and motorhomes to meet every need you could have. You only need a driving license to get behind the wheel, and you can choose from electric or diesel-powered vehicles.

Then there are sleeping arrangements to consider (some can sleep a whole family) and whether you want to take a furry friend along with you for the ride.

As well as a stylish motorhome for a few days, Goboony also offers insurance and around the clock roadside assistance, so you can travel to the prettiest spots in the UK without worrying about breakdowns (motor or emotional) or damage.

If you’re considering a mobile holiday this summer, I’ve gone ahead and picked out the chicest motorhomes on Goboony right now – all you have to do is find the best dates to suit you.

Best campervans for a staycation in the UK

Location: West Sussex
Vehicle type: 5 berth Mercedes-Benz Campervan
Sleeps: 5 people
Weekly mileage limit: 1,000 miles.

Location: Shawlands
Vehicle type: Vauxhall
Weekly mileage limit: 1,000 miles
Sleeps: 2 people.

Location: Glasgow
Vehicle type: Volkswagen campervan
Weekly mileage limit: 1,000 miles
Sleeps: 2 people.

Location: Greater London
Vehicle type: Citroën campervan
Weekly mileage limit: 1,000 miles
Sleeps: 3 people.

Location: Oxfordshire
Vehicle type: Lamborghini campervan
Weekly mileage limit: 1,000 miles
Sleeps: 4 people.

Location: Oxfordshire
Vehicle type: Volkswagen campervan
Weekly mileage limit: 1,000 miles
Sleeps: 6 people.

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Politics

Tired of the 3 AM Wake-Up Call? Here’s What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

According to Harvard Health, the term refers to a lack of sleep that happens not because someone can’t nod off, but because they wake up and can’t fall back asleep.

I have insomnia, but not the kind that means I struggle to fall asleep (in fact, the speed and ease with which I nod off at night put me off seeking help for years).

Instead, the problem happens in the early hours of the morning. It reaches roughly 3am, and my body wakes me up – a common enough process, but one which I, for some reason, don’t recover from.

After the disruption, I stay up for hours, only feeling able to sleep when it’s time to get up and go to work. This persists no matter how much shut-eye I do (or don’t) get, how much exercise I do, or how early I go to bed.

If that sounds familiar, you – like me – may have something called sleep maintenance insomnia.

What is sleep maintenance insomnia?

According to Harvard Health, the term refers to a lack of sleep that happens not because someone can’t nod off, but because they wake up and can’t fall back asleep.

In America, it’s believed to affect as many as one in five people (and while there doesn’t seem to be much data on the phenomenon in the UK, one in three adults here are thought to experience acute insomnia at some point).

Harvard Health added that the condition might be especially common in women during midlife.

Health problems, family stresses, depression, and even hot flashes might play a role.

As, they say, can age: “as we grow older, the normal sleep cycle becomes shorter, and we spend less time in deep sleep”.

How can I manage sleep maintenance insomnia?

Dr Karen Carlson, a doctor who runs classes focusing on women’s sleep quality at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, told Harvard Health that going to bed really early to “make up” for missed sleep might not help.

“What sometimes happens is that women are going to bed early trying to sleep and then they wake up at 3 or 4am – and they’re not really meant to sleep more than six or seven hours, but they’re in bed early trying, and they awaken early.”

What may help, however, is “clock blocking”, or ignoring any screen which tells you the time, Johns Hopkins shared.

So, too, can getting up out of bed to do something screen-free and relatively mindless, like folding laundry after about 20 minutes of being awake ― or, as Johns Hopkins sleep expert Dr Luis F. Buenaver said, try to “Read a book, with just enough lights on so that you can see the print comfortably”.

Try as much as you can to stick to your regular routine the day after a bad night’s sleep, he continued.

Speak to your doctor if sleep issues persist for weeks and/or affect your day-to-day life.

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Politics

Hugh Laurie Defends House From Claims It’s Repetitive

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

It may have been more than a decade since House came to an end, but its leading man Hugh Laurie has made it clear he’s still poised and ready to jump to the show’s defence at any given moment.

The British actor played Dr Gregory House in all eight seasons of the US medical drama, which came to an end in May 2012.

Over the weekend, one viewer claimed they’d just started watching the show from the beginning, but found it a little far-fetched and repetitive.

“Same narrative every episode,” they claimed on X. “Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies.

“Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired.”

“Eight seasons of this?” they pondered.

Days later, Hugh responded to the post directly, with a counterargument.

“Thanks for your critique,” he wrote back. “We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only six minutes long. NBC weren’t happy.”

Hugh continued: “Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.

“One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??

“The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.”

When another X user replied questioning whether it was “really worth going to such an effort to put someone who thinks it might be a bit ‘samey’ in their place” given how long ago the show – which they pointed out “was a popular, long-running series and consensus is that you were great in it” – came to an end, Hugh issued another curt reply.

“I put no more effort into my message than you have into yours,” he noted. “It just happens to be closer to my heart.”

During House’s original run, the show was nominated for 25 Emmys, winning five, including for its writing and directing.

All eight seasons are now available to stream for free on Channel 4.

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Politics

9 Lightweight Waterproof Jackets To Keep You Chic And Dry This Summer

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

9 Lightweight Waterproof Jackets To Keep You Chic And Dry This Summer

Ah, summer, the time when weather swings between scorching heat waves and drizzling showers. Or at least, in the UK that’s what it means!

While you might’ve been looking forward to sporting skirts and flip flops under sunny skies this summer, the weather clearly has other plans.

And we’ll forgive you for begrudging the fact you don’t want to wear a jacket after May, desperate times call for desperate measures. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like you’re going to need a raincoat this summer.

That shouldn’t come at the expense of a cute outfit, though, so to help you stay chic and protected from showers, I’ve rounded up nine of the best waterproof jackets, rain coats, and trench coats to shop now.

9 waterproof jackets for women to shop now

Feel like embodying the drizzle? This black coat will not only keep you dry, but help you blend in with the crowd. Don’t worry though, you won’t look drowned out by trying to keep safe from the rain, as the Curve has a waist tie to keep things flattering.

Waterproof: Protection from light rain.

Trust Damson Madder to create the solution to navigating the rain in style. The redesign of its bestselling Liu raincoat is designed to be purposely oversized, both for fashion, darling, but also so you can fit jumpers etc beneath it. Those waist ties mean you can cinch it in to be as flattering as you like, and the wrists do the same, so you can avoid getting soggy sleeves.

Waterproof: Shower-resistant

The weather in this country is unpredictable at best, so having a coat you can pull out or stash away in an instant will be a handbag essential this summer (by the looks of things). This one from M&S is super lightweight and floaty, which means it easily packs away into a little bag once the downpour stops.

Waterproof: Shower-proof

The best part of summer is the outfits, and you don’t want to have to sacrifice a great outfit combo by smacking a waterproof over the top. Luckily, this unisex Hunter option showcases what’s underneath while keeping you dry, making it the perfect accoutrement to your festival ‘fit.

Waterproof: Water-repellant.

Uniqlo is there for us through all the seasons, so naturally it has a packable parka that comes in a range of summery colours. I’m also a fan of this wine-coloured parka that’s not quite so lightweight, but will transition nicely from season to season.

Waterproof: Water-repellant.

Trench coats are a staple for a reason, not least because they’re needed in this in-between of spring and summer we’re in, but also because they look timeless. This one from Damson Madder is reversible, so you can choose between gingham and red, depending on what matches your outfit. It even has a funnel neck, so you’ll be bang on trend – even if you do have a soggy head. But that’s what hats are made for!

Waterproof: Shower-proof.

If the sun isn’t going to shine, you might as well do it. This shorter Rains jacket is made from a glazed shell, which will match the glossy eye looks you’re donning this season.

Waterproof: Protection from light rain.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking: who has £500 to drop on a rain coat? To which I’d rebuff: think about cost per wear. We live in a rainy country, so there’s an absolute guarantee you’ll get plenty of wear from this stylish Barbour x Ganni collab. Still can’t justify it? This leopard print coat from George is a more affordable alternative.

Waterproof: Waterproof.

Sometimes fashion is not the main motive, but if you want to stay stylish and protected on everything from dog walks, to long hikes and office commutes, this Regatta number has got your back. Literally.

Waterproof: Water-repellant.

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Politics

Polanski warns UK food system is close to collapse

Published

3 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Zack Polanski Food insecurity speech

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has warned that food insecurity is not a distant threat. He says it’s already impacting customers, farmers and workers in the food industry.

In a speech to the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union on 8 June, Polanski warned that the UK’s food system is close to collapse. He spoke of pressures from rising temperatures and global instability and called for urgent action to support the UK’s food resilience.

The speech comes as figures from the Autonomy Institute show that UK fruit and veg prices could rise 170% by 2050. And the climate crisis is likely to become the leading driver of fresh produce inflation in the UK.

Speaking at the union’s keynote address, Polanski accused the government of ‘just not getting it’ when it comes to the crisis facing the UK’s food system. And he called for government to produce a real plan to boost UK food production and support customers struggling to afford groceries.

Last week, Green MP Adrian Ramsay challenged ministers in parliament over two suppressed government-commissioned reports warning of serious risks to the UK’s national security, including ecosystem collapse, biodiversity loss, food security and water supplies.

Polanski called for:

Support for farmers to adapt their practices to a changing climate to make UK crop growing more resilient.
Stronger regulation of supermarkets to ensure farmers get a fair deal for their produce.
Free school meals for all primary and secondary pupils to support families struggling to put food on the table.
A £15/hour minimum wage for all workers to tackle the cost of living crisis.

Polanski added:

Just a couple of weeks ago, we saw the hottest May day ever recorded in the UK. By the beginning of May, the UK had received received 23% less rain than average. The Climate Change Committee warns that within 25 years we could see temperatures above 40°C.
That doesn’t just mean more people getting sick from extreme heat, or more pressure on infrastructure that just isn’t built for these temperatures. As many of you in this room well know, it has terrifying implications for the most fundamental need we all have – food.
And right now, from food growers to customers – and everyone in between – the crisis is already making itself felt.
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That’s something you all know well – and it’s time we started listening to you.
Because whether you get up at the crack of dawn to serve pasties to hungry commuters, spend hours rising dough, or work in rain or shine picking fruit – your work is what keeps this country moving.
But all too often, that fact is forgotten. Your work is sneered at, shrugged off, or taken for granted.
Your pay doesn’t match the importance of the work you do – and doesn’t keep up with your rising bills. Your hours get longer, you’re expected to work in increasingly hot or wet conditions, you’re on a precarious contract so you’re scared to take sick leave or have a day off to spend with your kids.
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And all the while, when you go to the supermarket to put food on the table, the prices there are rising too – while the farmers that produced it aren’t being paid fairly either.
The system is broken. And under increasing strain from the climate crisis, it’s close to collapse.

Dr Will Stronge, CEO at the Autonomy Institute, said:

We have been cautious in our assumptions – looking only at heatwaves, and only against a stable inflation backdrop. The conclusion is still stark: within fifteen years, climate change will be the biggest single factor driving up the cost of fresh food.
Politicians cannot afford to wait and see. The time to build food resilience into our industrial strategy is now, before the pressures become acute.
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Featured image via Jon Rowley / Getty Images

By The Canary

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