Author: Miles Donavan

The Act will strengthen renters’ rights, banning no-fault evictions and limiting rent increases Just over a year after it was first introduced to Parliament, one of the Labour government’s landmark pieces of legislation, the Renters’ Rights Bill, was given Royal Assent last night and is now law. This is huge news for the estimated 11 million private renters in the UK. These reforms have been a long time coming, after Theresa May first pledged to end no-fault evictions in 2019, but the Tories failed to pass the Renters Reform Bill while they were in power. The legislation has passed, but…

‘You’ve missold yourself now in effect in a post-hoc fashion. You’ve sold yourself as Danny Kruger Tory, you’re now Danny Kruger the Reform guy.’ Ex-Tory MP Danny Kruger was grilled this morning over his refusal to call a by-election after joining Reform. On Times Radio, presenter Stig Abell told Kruger that “the common sense thing to do” would be to call a by-election after he became a Reform MP last month. Abell said: “You were elected by your constituents as a Tory, you espoused Tory policies, you’re now a member of Reform. The common sense thing to do is to…

With the next state pension age increase imminent, the government must act urgently to support those who struggle to make it to 67 and beyond. This entails getting four things right. This is the last year that every person in the UK is guaranteed a state pension by age 66. The state pension age will start to increase to 67 from April 2026. And the timeline for further increases – scheduled for 2044 – is currently under review. It is right that the government keeps the state pension age under periodic review. The Pensions Act 2014 requires this at least…

‘For the Conservative Party, it risks chasing votes from Reform at the expense of the wider electorate.’ Former Prime Minister Theresa May has criticised her own political party for ‘taking a populist tilt to the right that risks emboldening Nigel Farage’. In a speech to fellow members of the House of Lords on Monday, Politico reports that May criticised the Tories’ decision to attack judges as well as its decision to repeal the Climate Change Act 2008, which requires the government to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Despite the catastrophic effects of climate change which has included…

‘That seems to me to be completely illogical from Nigel Farage’ Nigel Farage has finally responded to Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s comments that it “drives her mad” seeing Black and Asian people in adverts. During a press conference yesterday afternoon, Farage said that Pochin’s remarks were “ugly” but refused to call them racist. He said: “Taken on their own they could be read to be very very unpleasant indeed.” Farage added: “I am unhappy with what she has done, I can’t underestimate that and she fully knows how I feel.” The Reform leader then defended Pochin’s comments, saying: “But it…

Despite making record profits and paying record returns to shareholders it resents paying taxes. Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward. The scandal-ridden banking sector is the darling of successive governments who shower subsidies, gifts and favours upon the industry in the hope that it will deliver economic renaissance. It never has. Finance is central to the workings of a capitalist economy. We all make use of banks, debit/credit cards, insurances, pensions; foreign exchange…

Disappointment with the government is “not a reason to embrace a convicted criminal with what I see as very, very dangerous views’ Former Tory MP, writer and broadcaster Rory Stewart has taken apart the arguments of far-right thug Tommy Robinson, after the pair clashed on X. Robinson, a former member of the racist BNP and founder of the English Defence League, has been busy organising and attending far-right protests after his release from prison. Amid an alarming increase in support for the far-right, along with Tory and Reform MPs pushing bigoted and xenophobic views, Stewart warned that no matter how…

‘We’ve grabbed you as the winner of this but actually the rest of this room’s media is going to the person who came second, Llŷr Powell from Reform’ The mainstream media has come in for criticism, after outlets interviewed Reform representatives instead of the Plaid Cymru’s new Senedd member, Lindsay Whittle following his by-election win last Thursday.  At the election count itself, BBC Wales Politics journalist Teleri Glyn Jones began her interview with Whittle by saying: “We’ve grabbed you as the winner of this but actually the rest of this room’s media is going to the person who came second,…

It shows once more how spineless the Tory party has become in a race to the bottom with Reform UK. Spineless Tory MP Chris Philp refused to say whether Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s disgraceful comments about Black and Asian people were racist, despite other politicians saying so. Pochin made racist comments about Black and Asian people when appearing on a TalkTV phone-in on Saturday, in which she said that ‘it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people’. Her comments caused widespread condemnation, with calls for Pochin to resign and Health Secretary Wes…

‘Guess we now know why Farage seems to make only cameo appearances in Parliament and Clacton’ Nigel Farage has come under fire for spending the equivalent of 25 eight-hour working days, or five regular working weeks, recording personalised videos on Cameo since the 2024 general election. According to an investigation by The National, entries in the MPs’ register of interests show that the Reform leader has worked an estimated 199 hours and raked in a staggering £154,775 from the video-sharing app.  The website allows fans to purchase personalised video messages from celebrities, athletes, influencers, and other public figures. Farage’s personalised…