Sistine Chapel preparations ahead of conclave to elect new pope
Day: May 3, 2025
Shadow chief treasury secretary Richard Fuller says Nigel Farage’s party must do more than just ‘point at problems’
Reform UK will find out there are “no simple answers” to local public finances and have to make “difficult choices” after the party surged in local elections, a senior Tory MP has said.
Richard Fuller, shadow chief treasury secretary, said it was now up to Nigel Farage’s party to see if they can deliver in the areas where they have won council seats and mayoral polls.
We have to acknowledge Reform did very well yesterday.
They won the Runcorn byelection off Labour. They’ve won some mayoralties and now they will get the chance to show what they can actually do when they give them power.
Nigel Farage hailed Friday’s local election results as “the end of two-party politics” and “the death of the Conservative party” as Reform UK picked up 10 councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday’s poll.
Kemi Badenoch apologised to defeated Conservative councillors after the Tories lost more than 600 councillors and all 15 of the councils it controlled going into the election, among the worst results in the party’s history. Conservative figures have sought to deny that the results are “existential” for the party.
Several Labour figures have called on the prime minister to change course after Reform UK won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection by six votes and took control of the previously Labour-run Doncaster Council. Backbench MP Emma Lewell, who has represented South Shields since 2013, said it was “tone deaf to keep repeating we will move further and faster on our plan for change. What is needed is a change of plan.”
Keir Starmer warned against parties offering “some simple, ideological fix”.
In a Saturday op-ed for The Times, Starmer wrote that he wanted “national renewal”. He added: “But that can only be built if people across the country have security in their lives and that will only happen if we have a secure economy, a secure health service and secure borders. Change on that scale will take time.”
In further signs of fracturing political loyalties, a BBC projection of how the voting would have looked in a UK-wide election put Reform first on 30%, Labour on 20%, the Liberal Democrats on 17%, the Conservatives fourth with 15% and the Greens on 11%.
After losing his legal challenge over personal security, the Duke of Sussex, has appealed to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the home secretary, Yvette Cooper. Asked whether Starmer should “step in”, he replied: “Yes, I would ask the prime minister to step in.” He then said: “I would ask Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to look at this very, very carefully and I would ask her to review Ravec [Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures] and its members.”
The cramped conditions of Victorian prisons in England and Wales are limiting the rehabilitation opportunities for thousands of offenders, an official watchdog has said. As the Guardian launches a visual investigation into the state of Victorian prisons in inner cities and towns, the chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, said 19th century jails could also be “incredibly noisy and distressing” for autistic people.
Focus on Reform or reassure the left – Keir Starmer’s next move could define his premiership
In a week of difficult local elections, there was a special guest in No 10 to give a pep talk to staff: Arsène Wenger, the former manager of Arsenal, beloved of the prime minister. Keir Starmer has sought his advice before, on the importance of building a team. And they have faced some common challenges, rebuilding their clubs and parties from low ebbs to extraordinary success.
Now Starmer may face a similar challenge – and criticism – to Wenger in his later years: whether he can adapt his tactical rigidity when results start to suffer.