Author: Miles Donavan

“Does this man believe in anything?” Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has said that cabinet ministers should not be politicians, leading to accusations that he wishes to make UK government unaccountable. Farage, who spent years campaigning against an alleged ‘democratic deficit’ in the EU, has now been accused of wanting to advocate for exactly the very same system of unaccountable leaders and bureaucrats he once fought against. Appearing on LBC, Farage said: “I think the way we run our country is ridiculous, we put cabinet ministers in charge of departments, over which they have absolutely zero knowledge. They’ll often last in…

Will Badenoch have the courage to act against Hall, given that she’s joined such an extreme group? The Tory party’s drift to the extreme right is continuing, after it emerged that the party’s leader in the London Assembly has joined a campaign for mass deportations to send hundreds of thousands of Londoners with the legal right to live in the capital back to their countries of birth. Susan Hall, who was also the Conservative Party’s London mayoral candidate and who was defeated by Sadiq Khan, is no stranger to controversy. While running for London mayor it was revealed that she…

Find out who voted which way MPs have voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group. The House of Commons voted 385 to 26 in favour of proscribing the organisation, alongside two white supremacist groups – the Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement. The vote on the three groups was not taken separately. Therefore, MPs were asked to vote for or against all three of the groups together. As such, many MPs who opposed the proscription of Palestine Action may have abstained on the vote so as not to be voting against the proscription of the Maniacs…

The ex-Tory MP has used racist language in the past The former Tory MP Anne Marie Morris has joined Reform UK, it has been announced today (2 July). Marie Morris was the MP for Newton Abbot from 2010 to 2024. Speaking on the news, Reform’s chair David Bull said: “She brings a wealth of experience with her and will be a crucial part in developing the party’s social care policy as we look to build our policy platform ahead of the next general election”. Marie Morris was a controversial figure during her time in the Conservative Party. In 2017, she…

Nine people are standing for the deputy leadership Members of the Green Party of England and Wales will be electing a new leadership team this summer. While voting won’t open until August 1, nominations have now closed. And we now have a full list of candidates for both the party’s leadership and deputy leadership. There are just two candidates in the running for the role of leader. Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns are standing on a job share ticket. The pair are both MPs (for Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire respectively). Ramsay has also been co-leader of the party since…

Social security reform cannot pick up the pieces of policy failure elsewhere. Helen Goodman was a Labour MP from 2005-19 and DWP Minister in Gordon Brown’s government. Helen now chairs Church Action on Poverty and is a Trustee at Z2K. Just how did the government botch the Benefits Bill so badly? A question many of us have been asking. I think it’s because they’ve been insufficiently strategic. Social security reform cannot pick up the pieces of policy failure elsewhere. Undoubtedly there are serious problems: the fact that one young person in eight is not in employment, education or training; that…

‘Just because young people see Reform’s content doesn’t mean they’re buying into it.’ Reform UK are in for a shock! Despite Nigel Farage insisting that younger voters are being drawn to the far-right party, the evidence suggests otherwise. A new poll for YouGov, carried out as part of a study with the University of Exeter, found that that nearly two-thirds (61%) of 18 to 30-year-olds said they were very unlikely to ever vote for Nigel Farage’s party. Those asked were asked to rate on a scale of 0 (very unlikely) to 10 (very likely) to say how likely they were…

The bill eventually passed after a series of last-minute climbdowns that stripped back much of the controversial reform package to avoid rebellion. Keir Starmer’s Welfare reform bill has passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons after it was approved by 335 to 260 votes. The bill eventually passed after a series of last-minute climbdowns that stripped back much of the controversial reform package to avoid rebellion. The result saw the government’s working majority cut from 165 to 75. While 49 Labour MPs voted against the bill, some 42 Labour MPs also signed a new wrecking amendment against it…

“We don’t want our music killing people” A major indie band has announced it is removing its music from Spotify over the news that the streaming giant’s co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek’s investment firm has made major investments in the defence company Helsing. Deerhoof – who have toured with the likes of Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Flaming Lips and Beck – made the announcement on their Instagram account on June 30. In that post, the band said: “We’re taking Deerhoof off Spotify. “”Daniel Ek uses $700 million of his Spotify fortune to become chairman of AI battle tech…

Opposition is almost universal across the political spectrum A new poll has indicated that more people oppose the government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits than support then. According to the poll, conducted by YouGov, 40 per cent of the British public oppose the cuts, compared to 26 per cent who say they support them. Opposition to the cuts is almost universal across the political spectrum, with Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Reform voters all opposing them. Only among Tory voters is support for the cuts higher than opposition. Opposition is strongest among Green voters. The poll comes ahead of a…