46 m. ago Diane Abbott slams Labour's 'disastrous' local elections and sends ten

Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has sent a strong warning to her Labour colleagues after her party suffered 'disastrous' results at the local elections last week

Politics

1 hour ago Kemi Badenoch admits Nigel Farage could become prime minister after Tories’ local elections ‘bloodbath’

The Tory leader was speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg after devastating local elections results, which left one pollster warning she only has 12 months to save her party

Politics

2 h. ago Streeting says Reform are real threat and may become Labour’s main rivals

Health secretary asks public to give government time as he calls Farage’s party a ‘serious opposition force’Politics live – latest updatesWes Streeting has said Reform is a real threat and could replace the Conservatives as the main opposition party by the next election, as he urged the public to give Labour the “benefit of the doubt”.The health secretary said Nigel Farage’s party was being treated as a “serious opposition force” after Reform’s success in the local elections, where it narrowly won a byelection from Labour and took 677 council seats, gaining control of 10 councils. Reform took most seats from the Conservatives, who lost 674, while Labour lost 187. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Streeting admits Reform could be main opposition by next election – UK politics live

Health secretary tells Sky News that the party are ‘definitely a threat’ following byelection and council resultsLabour targets international students claiming asylumThe Conservatives will come back from their poor results in the local elections but it will have to be a “slow and steady” effort, party leader Kemi Badenoch has said, PA reports.She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I am sorry to all of those councillors who’ve lost their seat”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Nigel Farage swipes the Tories 'will never recover' following their local elections wipeout

The Tories lost more than 600 councillors and all 15 of the councils they controlled going into Thursday's contest - among the worst results in the party's history.

Politics

8 h. ago Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer travel

International students in the U.S. are reconsidering their travel plans this summer after a wave of student status terminations and visa revocations

Society

13 h. ago Farage: Reform UK has ‘supplanted’ Tories after local elections sweep

The Reform leader said the Conservatives will ‘never recover’.

Politics

13 h. ago The country that has cut asylum claims by 90% by banning the burkha and refusing benefits to migrants who don't learn their language, revealed by SUE REID

Two bullet holes from the bad old days still scar the black metal doorway of Ishmail Schbaita's busy corner shop in Copenhagen. 

Events

14 h. ago Keir Starmer told to 'stop going further and faster' after Labour's local election battering

Labour figures are urging Sir Keir Starmer to change course after Reform UK made sweeping gains in local elections across the UK, as the Prime Minister has said he would go "further and faster" in response to his party's poor result

Politics

17 h. ago Local elections were ‘devastating’ for Labour, says top pollster John Curtice

Exclusive: Professor Sir John Curtice has warned that Starmer’s failings have opened the door for Reform, while fellow pollster Luke Tryl suggests the Tories only have 12 months to turn things around

Politics

17 h. ago Voices: The real problem for Labour is why votes for the party collapsed in its own heartlands

How the votes at the local elections were spread will give concern for Labour as much as Tories, says politics professor and electoral analyst Sir John Curtice

Politics

18 h. ago Where did Labour and the Tories suffer most in the local elections?

As Starmer and Badenoch suffer pressure following their parties’ crushing defeats, data correspondent Alicja Hagopian looks at where Labour and Conservatives performed the worst

Politics

18 h. ago What next for Labour after local elections? Warnings for Keir Starmer from his own party

One of Labour's metro mayors has warned losses in South Yorkshire are the "canary in the coalmine" - while a north east MP said the party needs a "change of plan" more than a "Plan for Change"

Events

18 h. ago New Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns vows to sack county council’s diversity officers

Dame Andrea Jenkyns has doubled down on Farage’s pledge to sack diversity officers in Lincolnshire but the county council has revealed it does not employ any

Events

20 h. ago Labour targets international students claiming asylum after losses to Reform in local elections

Exclusive: Ministers understood to be drafting white paper this month in move to reduce legal migrationMinisters will crack down on international students applying for asylum in the UK in a move designed to tackle migration figures, after a series of bruising losses to Reform in the local elections.An immigration white paper setting out the proposed reforms in mid-May will include measures to bring down the numbers of UK student visa holders who make asylum claims, the Guardian understands. Continue reading...

Events

20 h. ago Labour targets international students claiming asylum after election losses to Reform

Exclusive: Ministers understood to be drafting white paper this month in move to reduce legal migrationMinisters will crack down on international students applying for asylum in the UK in a move designed to tackle migration figures, after a series of bruising losses to Reform in the local elections.An immigration white paper setting out the proposed reforms in mid-May will include measures to bring down the numbers of UK student visa holders who make asylum claims, the Guardian understands. Continue reading...

Events

21 h. ago 'Britain wants Reform!': Nigel Farage hails 'unprecedented' local election results and says his councils will resist taking asylum seekers

Nigel Farage has declared 'Britain wants Reform' as he boasts of the party's 'unprecedented' results in yesterday's local elections, sparking a political earthquake for Labour and the Conservatives. 

Politics

21 h. ago Local elections in numbers: 677 new Reform councillors – while Labour gets no votes in some wards

The Independent’s data correspondent Alicja Hagopian crunches the numbers from this year’s local elections

Politics

22 h. ago New Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns vows to sack council’s diversity officers

Dame Andrea Jenkyns has doubled down on Farage’s pledge to sack diversity officers in Lincolnshire but the county council has revealed it does not employ any

Events

22 h. ago Voices: Yes, Nigel Farage really could be prime minister in 2029

The magic number of 30 per cent is what really matters in today’s politics – and Reform got there in the latest local elections, putting Nigel Farage in a very new position, writes John Rentoul

Politics