Author: Miles Donavan

Good news for metro mayors: more voters have a positive view of them than a negative one Six in ten voters in devolved areas have no concerns about giving further powers to elected mayors, a new report by think tank Labour Together has revealed.  Notably, areas with the most advanced devolution settlements expressed the fewest concerns about increasing devolved powers. However, overall, people remain divided on the devolution process. Across the 14 areas, 30% believe that it has so far gone well, and 29% believe it has gone badly.  Individual mayors are generally popular, with 33% of people in the…

Planning committees are often dominated by councillors whose decisions reflect political convenience and vocal local opposition rather than the broader public interest. Christopher Worrall is a housing columnist for LFF. He is on the Executive Committee of the Labour Housing Group, Co-Host of the Priced Out Podcast, and Chair of the Local Government and Housing Member Policy Group of the Fabian Society.  The government’s proposal to overhaul the planning system, including potentially bypassing local authority committees for certain developments that are local plan compliant, is an overdue and essential step to addressing the UK’s chronic housing crisis. Announced alongside plans to…

Yet more embarrassment for Farage One of Nigel Farage’s biggest financial backers asked an associate to donate £50,000 on his behalf so that it would appear that the then Brexit party had a broader donor base than it actually did, it has been revealed. In yet more embarrassment for Farage, the Financial Times reports that in 2019, ‘businessman Christopher Harborne told the associate that he wanted to avoid the perception that Farage’s party, later renamed Reform UK, had just one big backer at the UK general election that year’. Harborne reportedly has joint British and Thai nationality and goes by…

Unison, the BMA, Unite and the NEU have all said a 2.8% pay rise next year isn’t enough Trade unions have criticised the government’s proposals to increase public sector workers’ pay by 2.8% next year, warning that it will go down badly with staff and fail to tackle the recruitment crisis in public services. Government departments have recommended a 2.8% pay rise for public sector workers, including teachers, NHS workers, and civil servants in 2025/26, which is only slightly above the Office for Budget Responsibility’s inflation forecast of 2.6% for that period.  In its evidence to public sector pay review…

Not going well for Tice… Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice endured a car crash interview as he tried to defend Brexit and ended up praising Joe Biden’s leadership. Appearing on Politics Live, Tice was asked by presenter Jo Coburn if he agreed with the comments made by his party leader that Brexit has failed and that the country had not benefitted from the decision to leave the EU? Tice claimed that the Tories failed to go faster on deregulation and then added: “The reason America’s doing well is because it’s got cheap energy, because it ‘drill baby drills’, they’ve…

Candy, a billionaire property developer and former Tory donor, has become Reform’s new treasurer. Nick Candy, the luxury property developer and an ex-Tory donor, is the newest recruit to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.  Candy has become the party’s treasurer, tasked with leading fundraising efforts for Reform ahead of the next election. What do we know about Nick Candy? Nick Candy is a real estate developer with an estimated net worth of £2 billion. He co-owns a luxury interior design and development firm, Candy London, with his brother Christian.  Nick Candy has been a Conservative member and donor since 2009, donating…

Researchers warned that the overwhelmingly negative coverage of Islam and Muslims on GB News ‘potentially fuelled community tensions and contributed to civil unrest’. GB News has been slammed for its ‘almost obsessive coverage of Muslims’, with a study finding that the right-wing channel accounted for half of all news broadcast coverage of Muslims over a two-year period, much of it negative. The study, carried out by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), a project which collects evidence of how Islam and Muslims are reported in the national broadcast and print media, found that over a two-year period, GB News mentioned…

‘This kind of stunt at sea is a serious risk to safety and life’ Oil giant Shell has dropped its legal action against Greenpeace UK, who it was suing for $2.1 million or £1.7 million in damages after protestors occupied one of its vessels for 13 days last year.  The dispute has been settled with Greenpeace agreeing to make a £300,000 donation to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Shell will not receive any payment as part of the settlement and says that the charity donation recognises its main concern “that this kind of stunt at sea is a serious…

Increased voter volatility has meant that this was the first UK election where four parties received over 10% of the vote, Voters are more willing to switch parties than at any time in nearly a century, with the 2024 general election the most disproportional in British electoral history, a new report has found. Analysis by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) shows that the parties’ votes have shifted more than at any time since 1931, with voters more willing than ever to ‘shop around’ and vote for smaller parties than in any other election in modern times. Increased voter volatility has…

Is he ever in his constituency? Nigel Farage is coming in for some heavy criticism once more, after it emerged that he will be making his sixth trip to the U.S. since being elected MP for Clacton, with many questioning his commitment to his constituents. The Independent reports that Farage ‘will be in the USA on Sunday for an astonishing sixth time since he was elected as the MP on 4 July after he was unveiled as one of the headline acts at the biggest MAGA gala since Donald Trump won the US presidential election’. He will be giving one…