Uk Labour Party

Poll projects major political earthquake across Britain with Labour losing Wales and England’s Red WallGood morning. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is publishing a revised women’s health strategy for England today. As Andrew Gregory reports, the strategy implicitly accepts that women have been let down by a (largely male) medical establishment which has not always taken their health concerns seriously.But, for Labour, this is not just a health announcement. The English local elections are just over three weeks away, and Labour is using this announcement as a platform to attack Reform UK, saying that Nigel Farage’s party can’t be trusted to stand up for women.1. Reform want to reopen the debate on abortion limitsNigel Farage has described the current 24-week abortion limit as “utterly ludicrous” and called for Parliament to revisit it - raising concerns about rolling back long-established reproductive rights.Today Labour is taking action to fix a system that has too often ignored women - cutting waiting lists, improving care and putting women’s voices at the centre.But Reform’s record speaks for itself. From attacking reproductive rights to undermining protections at work, they simply can’t be trusted to stand up for women.If these results come to pass, we will be looking at a major political earthquake across Britain.It could be the worst local election ever for Labour in England, a collapse for the Conservatives in their historic Blue Wall heartlands, and a brutal third place for Starmer’s party in Wales. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor says the party ‘would always do well to listen to what Angela has got to say’Good morning. Keir Starmer has been handling the Iran war reasonably well, according to the consensus view at Westminster, and certainly better than Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, who have been in contortions over whether they do or do not support Donald Trump. But this has not altered the fundamental, big-picture assessment of British politics, which is that he is deeply unpopular with voters and that Labour can’t win the next election if he remains in charge. This may be a flawed analysis – consensus views often are – but it is what many Labour MPs think, which is why a question mark hovers over Starmer’s leadership.And that is why Angela Rayner’s speech last night, at a private meeting with the soft-left Mainstream group, are so significant. She did not explicitly call for new leadership, but she did convey that message implicity – and more bluntly than in any of her other interventions since she resigned as deputy PM in September last year.It is down to us to rebuild this nation and this party – the question is are we up for this fight? I know we in this room are.As a party, and as a movement, we cannot hide, we cannot just go through the motions in the face of decline. There’s no safe ground and we’re running out of time.We cannot talk about earning a settlement if we keep moving the goalposts. Because moving the goalposts undermines our sense of fair play. It’s un-British.Let us be a country that has sustainable economic migration rules, but one that upholds the British values we want all who live here to respect. Not special treatment. But the stability and a fair pathway forward after the sacrifices many have made to build a lawful life in the UK.We’ve got to, all of us, haven’t we, work together to pull together a plan that turns the country around …I understand the frustration people feel. We heard that at the by-election, and of course, Angela is reflecting some of that.I think where I would agree, and I think everybody across government would agree, is sharing an impatience with the pace of change, and that applies to every single one of us.And I get the sense, I haven’t read the full context of Angela’s remarks, but I get the sense that that frustration is actually what is running through her remarks. It absolutely runs through every government minister as well. Continue reading...