80 m. ago Britons name ‘none of the above’ as most popular candidate before local elections

Labour’s Keir Starmer, Reform’s Nigel Farage, the Conservative’s Kemi Badenoch and Lib Dem’s Ed Davey all trailing as voters prepare to go to the polls on Thursday

Politics

97 m. ago Reform UK could scoop 500 council seats to make Nigel Farage the biggest winner of this week's local elections

Nigel Farage 's party have consistently outperformed the Tories in recent national opinion polls and even risen above Labour in some surveys.

Politics

4 h. ago Phasing out fossil fuels ‘doomed to fail’, says Tony Blair as he calls for rethink of net zero policy – UK politics live

‘Any strategy based on either phasing out fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail,’ says former PMSeverin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.Keir Starmer is not expected to campaign in the Hamilton byelection, a critical contest for Scottish Labour which takes place in early June, Anas Sarwar has confirmed.I wouldn’t expect Keir to be campaigning in the byelection. That’s not to say he won’t, but I’m not expecting Kier to campaign in the byelection.I’ll be on the stump campaigning for a Labour win. I’m the candidate for first minister next year. I’m the one that wants to remove the SNP from government.Next year, we’ve got to demonstrate to people that for all Nigel Farage might want to come here with his easy answers and create a bit of a circus, the reality is a vote for Reform only helps the SNP. If you want to get rid of the SNP, only Scottish Labour can beat them. Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago Plan to phase out fossil fuels ‘doomed to fail’, says Tony Blair as he calls for rethink of net zero policy – UK politics live

‘Any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail,’ says former PMSeverin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.Keir Starmer is not expected to campaign in the Hamilton byelection, a critical contest for Scottish Labour which takes place in early June, Anas Sarwar has confirmed.I wouldn’t expect Keir to be campaigning in the byelection. That’s not to say he won’t, but I’m not expecting Kier to campaign in the byelection.I’ll be on the stump campaigning for a Labour win. I’m the candidate for first minister next year. I’m the one that wants to remove the SNP from government.Next year, we’ve got to demonstrate to people that for all Nigel Farage might want to come here with his easy answers and create a bit of a circus, the reality is a vote for Reform only helps the SNP. If you want to get rid of the SNP, only Scottish Labour can beat them. Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago Olympic boxing champion explains decision to stand for Nigel Farage's Reform UK

Former boxer Luke Campbell, who won a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics, is standing as the mayoral candidate for Hull and East Yorkshire for Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK party

Sport

6 h. ago Tory plight could worsen, warns William Hague as Nigel Farage's Reform firms up poll lead

The Conservatives are predicted to lose hundreds of council seats on Thursday, May 1

Events

8 h. ago Senior Labour council leader says Government must do more to counter Reform UK

Sir Stephen Houghton, chairman of the body representing metropolitan district councils, questioned benefits changes and investment strategy.

Politics

28 h. ago Voices: Nigel Farage is on the brink of another election breakthrough but then what?

With voters set to desert Labour and Tories at the local elections in favour of Reform UK, will the populist protest party be able to run services and balance the books of hard-pressed city councils? Of course not, says Sean O’Grady

Politics

36 h. ago Populists like Farage promise voters a simpler life. In fact, they produce ever more hassle and chaos | Andy Beckett

Centrists won’t beat Reform UK by echoing its messages. They should emphasise the true unworkability of policies like BrexitIn the middle of an election or the early stages of an administration, populist politics can feel like a liberation. The unsayable is said. Political rules are broken. Constitutional restrictions are flouted. Populist rallies are boisterous, seemingly uninhibited, with enemies of the movement taunted or intimidated.For many voters, and even some activists and politicians, conventional politics can be boring, with its careful rhetoric and predictably choreographed campaigns, its compromised and complicated centrist policies. Populism promises something much more visceral, with larger-than-life leaders and dramatic national goals: “make America great again”, “take back control”. Digital media, with its constant hunger for brevity and straightforward narratives, is a perfect environment for populism’s seductive claim that politics is actually quite simple.Andy Bec...

Politics

54 h. ago Tory peer Ben Houchen says party might form governing coalition with Nigel Farage's Reform after next election to kick Labour out of power

Lord Ben Houchen said there would have to be a 'conversation' about a pact of some kind with Nigel Farage 's party if it meant booting Labour out of Downing Street after a single term.

Politics

55 h. ago Badenoch ‘not worried’ donor announcing £1m for Reform could be first of many

It has been reported that Bassim Haidar has announced he is giving £1 million to Reform.

Economics

3 d. ago In Kent, the ‘silent Reform voter’ may give Nigel Farage his greatest victory

On the campaign trail in Ramsgate, the Reform leader was keen to talk immigration and his distrust of the Tories Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Nigel Farage under pressure over Reform candidate's vile Hitler post

Labour has said that unless Reform condones 'extreme views', voters will think that it shares them after campaign group Hope Not Hate claim to have unearthed a number of alarming cases

Events

4 d. ago Fact check: Reform UK’s council election claim, Pope Francis and St George’s Day

Round-up of fact checks from the last week compiled by Full Fact.

Politics

5 d. ago Farage accused of being ‘out of touch’ after ‘overdiagnosis’ comments

The Reform leader told a local elections campaign event that overdiagnosis is ‘creating a class of victims’ in the UK.

Politics

5 d. ago Nigel Farage says Reform UK 'open to doing deal' with other parties to form next government in Wales

He said his party wanted to 'reindustrialise south Wales', adding: 'The fact that we've all bowed down to this god of net zero, closing down steelworks, closing down some of the coal that we still need, all of this is madness'

Politics

6 d. ago Reform UK council candidate helps Nigerians get UK study visas

Christopher Adegoke is standing as Reform's candidate for the Hucknall West ward on Nottinghamshire County Council at next month's local elections .

Politics

6 d. ago Kemi Badenoch vows 'no electoral pact' with Nigel Farage's Reform UK after Tory Robert Jenrick discusses 'coalition' at the next general election

The leader's spokesman dismissed talk of a link-up at the national level after Jenrick suggested action would be needed to prevent the 'nightmare scenario' of Keir Starmer winning in 2029.

Politics

6 d. ago Robert Jenrick vows to 'bring coalition together' of Reform and Tories in latest sign of tensions over whether to do a deal with Nigel Farage

Mr Jenrick was recorded telling Conservative students 'I'm determined to ... bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.'

Economics

6 d. ago Nigel Farage thinks net zero is the new Brexit. Starmer can prove him wrong | Rafael Behr

Labour must deliver the green transition voters want, leaving Reform and the Tories on the side of economic decline and dictatorsWhich former British prime minister described the climate emergency as “a clock ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of pistons and turbines and furnaces and engines quilting the Earth in an invisible and suffocating blanket of CO2”?The florid style gives it away. You’d guess Boris Johnson even if you’d forgotten that the master of Brexit bombast also had a sideline in net zero evangelism. It wasn’t the most memorable part of his repertoire and it didn’t catch on as a Conservative catechism.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics