Author: Miles Donavan

‘This conference really isn’t proving to be the Boost Kemi needs.’ It’s another disaster for the Tory party and Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, after a chocolate bar given out by the Conservatives at their annual party conference misspelled Britain. In an embarrassing blunder, Party officials handed out chocolate bars with the quote, “When Labour negotiates, Britian loses”, emblazoned across it – a quote attributed to Kemi Badenoch. The Sun reported that the chocolate bar was included in a goodie bag given out at the party’s conference in Manchester. Tory party organisers are blaming the mistake on a “printing error” and have…

Reform’s cost-cutting efforts in Kent have failed Reform-run Kent County Council has indicated that it will likely increase council tax in January after failing to make the savings anticipated through its Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)-style unit.  When Reform won control of 10 councils in England in May, Nigel Farage promised his councillors would slash wasteful spending.  Now, they are poised to raise council tax by 5% next year, the maximum amount allowed. Reform councillors in Kent admit services are already stripped back, with demand for children’s and adult social care surging. The Financial Times has reported that Reform’s cabinet…

Badenoch has struggled to make an impact, with a number of the party’s senior figures defecting to Reform UK amid dire poll ratings. In yet another sign of just how clueless Kemi Badenoch is, the Tory party leader mistakenly claimed that Northern Irleand voted for Brexit. In an interview with BBC News NI, she said: “The last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave.” In fact, Northern Ireland voted by 56% to 44% in favour of staying in the EU in the 2016 referendum, which saw the UK overall vote to leave by a majority of 52% to…

‘British Conservatives drawing inspiration from an immigration crackdown so controversial that […] Germany’s far-right AfD has distanced itself from it’ Kemi Badenoch’s announcement that the Conservatives plan to create a UK version of Donald Trump’s notorious Immigration Customs Enforcement agency has drawn widespread criticism.  At her party’s annual conference yesterday, the Tory leader announced that if the Conservatives win power again, they would set up a removal force similar to Trump’s Ice agency. Ice removed nearly 200,000 people in the first seven months of Trump’s second presidency, the US media has reported. Ice is notorious for its brutality, with masked…

‘You don’t know that if I had rushed out all of those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well’ Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had a meltdown ahead of her party’s conference, after hitting back at Laura Kuenssberg over the Tories’ poor performance in the polls, telling the presenter ‘you have no idea’. It comes as questions are raised over Badenoch’s future as leader of her party, amid a collapse in poll ratings and reports that allies of Robert Jenrick are collecting no confidence letters, calling for her to quit. According to YouGov research from mid-September, just…

Voting opens for the Labour deputy leadership race on Wednesday Labour Deputy leadership contender Lucy Powell has received the backing of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and centre-left group Mainstream. Kinnock said that Powell will ensure the Labour movement is “heard and heeded” if elected to replace Angela Rayner as deputy leader. Voting for the contest between Education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Powell opens on Wednesday, and the results will be announced on 25 October. In his endorsement, Lord Kinnock said: “I’ve known Lucy as a friend and comrade for over 20 years. She is totally Labour and embodies the…

Left Foot Forward interviewed the Green Party leader at the party’s conference in Bournemouth Zack Polanski has said that the Green Party is ‘fired up’, ‘unified’ and ready to ‘seize the moment’ against the ‘creep of fascism’. He made the comments in an interview with Left Foot Forward at the Green Party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth. Polanski said: “I think even the unfriendliest journalist who came to this conference would recognise that the membership are fired up, ultimately re-unified – I think that’s really striking too. I’m not saying everyone agrees on every single thing – that would make a…

Members overwhelmingly voted for the motion Members of the Green Party of England and Wales have voted to call for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. The IDF is the national military of the State of Israel. Attendees at the Green Party of England and Wales overwhelmingly backed a motion which called for the proscription of the IDF. Proscribing the IDF would make both membership of and expressing support for the IDF a criminal offence. The motion also called for Israel to “fully withdraw all troops from Gaza and end surveillance andmilitary operations in…

The remarks were quickly twisted into yet another outrage cycle by the right-wing press. The Labour conference opened with Keir Starmer branding Reform UK’s immigration plans as “racist,” warning that proposals to revoke the residency rights of long-settled migrants could “tear this country apart.” The comments, made in the PM’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg, were about Reform’s idea to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain. Starmer’s pitch was clear that Labour needs to be united against their common opponent – Nigel Farage. But the remarks were quickly twisted into yet another outrage cycle by the right-wing press. The Daily Mail, now firmly…

“The party’s going from strength to strength” Ellie Chowns is one of the four current Green MPs, having been elected in North Herefordshire. Left Foot Forward caught up with her at the Green Party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth to discuss this year’s Green Party leadership election, the mood in the party and how well the Greens are likely to do in next year’s local and Senedd elections. Chowns was a candidate in the leadership election earlier this year, standing on a joint ticket with her fellow MP Adrian Ramsay. She was ultimately unsuccessful in her bid for the top job,…