Author: Miles Donavan

Members will vote throughout August Voting is now open in the Green Party’s leadership election. Members will have until 30 August to decide who they want to be their next leader. Vying for the top job there are two candidates. On the one hand, there is the party’s current deputy leader and London Assembly member Zack Polanski. On the other, there’s two sitting Green MPs – Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay – the latter being one of the party’s incumbent co-leaders. The contest has been the most high profile in the party’s history with more media interest in it than…

‘Farage just looked unhinged and like a giant manbaby’ Nigel Farage has again proved his support for free speech only goes so far, shouting down a senior US Democrat who criticised Donald Trump at an event about free speech. At a free speech event on the Online Safety Act on Wednesday, US congressman Jamie Raskin had begun making remarks on the history of free speech in the US.  The Democrat moved on to talking about the current threats to free speech posed by President Donald Trump, when Farage interrupted, preventing Raskin from finishing his speech. On The News Agents podcast…

‘It’d be interesting to hear actually Kemi, what you believe would be a fair hourly rate’ An NHS doctor tore into Kemi Badenoch’s claims about junior doctors’ pay on LBC.  During a phone-in on Tuesday, Badenoch, who recently declared the Tories would ban doctors from striking, complained about resident doctors’ calls for pay restoration. The Conservative Party leader complained that resident doctors were asking for a 28% pay rise, was “just not affordable” and “six times more than inflation”.  Niamh, a doctor from Bristol who called into the programme, challenged Badenoch: “And it would be interesting to hear actually Kemi…

Has the Green Party’s success under Adrian Ramsay’s leadership opened the door to Zack Polanski’s more ambitious leadership bid? I first met Adrian Ramsay 15 years ago during my first year of university. He had stepped down as a councillor earlier that year, but remained one of the central figures of Norwich Green Party. What was abundantly clear from the first interactions I had with him was that he was a rare individual in the Green Party at the time – a keen strategist with an unrelenting focus on transforming the party into an organisation that was professional, that could…

Is this an historic moment? Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana recently confirmed their plans to establish a new political party on the left of British politics. In doing so, they launched a website – yourparty.uk – which gives an overview of what the party’s priorities will be and also allows people to sign up to a mailing list for more information and updates. According to Sultana, 600,000 people signed up in five days, meaning that following its launch more than 100,000 people were signing up on average each day. How significant is this though? The sheer number of people signing…

The investigation concerns a potential breach of rules around declaring interests Nigel Farage is under investigation by the parliamentary watchdog over a potential breach relating to declaring his financial interests.  Farage said the probe was in relation to a complaint by a peer, who he did not name.  The investigation relates to a potential breach of Rule 5 of the MPs’ code of conduct which states MPs must declare any change to their interests within 28 days.  Farage has insisted the matter does not relate to “any undeclared income”. There are several possible reasons Farage may be under investigation for…

Why are we so behind other European countries when it comes to parental leave? Eve McQuillan is a researcher and campaigner who works on issues ranging from International Affairs to Housing. My favourite fact about the animal kingdom is that it is lionesses, not lions that are the primary hunters. So when it comes to Sunday’s game, I’m not surprised that it was the lionesses who, finally, brought football home. Lions might protect the territory of the pride (and have great hair), but it’s lionesses who hunt and care for the cubs. What does this have to do with parental…

Police want to question Robinson in connection with the incident Tommy Robinson has arrived in Tenerife, Spain as British police seek to question him in relation to the alleged assault of a man at St Pancras station. A video shared on X shows the former English Defence League (EDL) leader boarding a 6:45am flight from Stansted to Tenerife on Tuesday. The British Transport Police (BTP) said: “Following a report of an assault at St Pancras station last night [July 28], officers have confirmed the suspect, a 42-year-old man from Bedfordshire, boarded a flight out of the country in the early…

The council doesn’t have a dedicated DEI budget to begin with The leader of Shropshire Council’s opposition group, Reform councillor Dawn Husemann has said the right-wing party will look to cut council spending on diversity initiatives. Reform won 15 seats on the council, making it the second largest party, but still a long way behind the Lib Dems, who won 42 seats in May. Husemann told the BBC she believes the council’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training is “fundamentally discriminatory” and that Reform will immediately be looking at reducing the council’s DEI spend. But there’s one major flaw in…

Critics point out that Palestinian statehood ‘is not a bargaining chip’ Prime Minister Keir Starmer emerged from yesterday’s emergency cabinet meeting to announce that the UK government will recognise Palestine as a state. However, Starmer introduced some caveats. He said Palestinian statehood will be recognised in September at the ​​United Nations General Assembly unless the Israeli government “takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”, agrees to a ceasefire and revives the prospect of a two-state solution. In a speech delivered yesterday, Starmer said: I’ve always said we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a…