Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2025 and the May 2026 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con [8] +1 (+1/0) -3 (+1/-4) +1 (+1/0) -10 (+2/-12) – – -1 (0/-1) -12 Lab -1 (0/-1) [10] -2 (0/-2) -4 (0/-4) -15 (0/-15) – – – -22 Lib Dem +3 (+4/-1) +2 (+2/0) [18] – +1 (+1/0) – – +1 (+1/0) +7 Grn -1 (0/-1) +4 (+4/0) – [3] – – – – +3 Ref +10 (+12/-2) +15 (+15/0) -1 (0/-1) – [2] – ...
Lib Dems call on Farage to intervene after Nottinghamshire Reform council bans local journalists reporting Davey calls on Blair to give evidence in Parliament following White House Gaza meeting Adult mental health waits stretching to more than 1,000 days Rennie comments on report showing bill for flood schemes is spiralling Lib Dems call on Farage to intervene after Nottinghamshire Reform council bans local journalists reporting The Liberal Democrats have written to Nigel Farage to demand he intervenes after Reform's Nottinghamshire County Council Leader blocked his councillors from speaking to local journalists from Nottinghamshire Live and the Local Democracy Reporting Service. ...
Nigel Farage's description of migrants as "a threat oi our national security [and] our women and children," and his plans to deport "absolutely everyone" arriving by small boats, has received a tepid response from Britain's political establishment and media. The Conservatives merely complain that the plans are stolen from the. Labour concentrates on their impracticality. No-one expresses outrage that this is absolutely the wrong tone to take and the wrong thing to do. Last month Pope Leo reminded us that:"In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost [migrants'] courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to ...
In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature (like this one) plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign. Should I receive the nominations, I intend to stand for Party President. A Truly National Party I am a Northerner, and it matters deeply to me that our party speaks to—and for—the whole of the UK, not just privileged parts of the South. Too many communities have endured decades of chronic underfunding, leaving structural problems ...
Tuesday brought the announcement of Reform UK's plans for immigration and asylum, plans which were then relentlessly platformed by the BBC and other media outlets in an exercise that felt like a day-long party political broadcast for the UK's seventh largest party. Even cursory examination revealed the plans to be as impractical and they were immoral, but it's all too clear that Nigel Farage is setting the agenda on the immigration debate, and Labour's initial response by Party Chair Ellie Reeves criticised the plans for their "lack of detail" rather than their lack of humanity. Fortunately the Liberal Democrat response ...
Thu 28th
12:51
Reform UK chose woman from Yorkshire who had been dead for six months as their Croydon mayoral candi...
This just in from Inside Croydon: Following the General Election, Zia Yusuf, Reform's then party chairman (until he had a falling out with Farage; there may be a pattern here), sent an auditor into the branch, making serious recommendations over financial records, the holding of branch meetings and the staging of campaign events. Versions vary, but it appears that at the start of 2025, Reform UK's HQ imposed on its Croydon branch an "approved" candidate to challenge Tory Jason Perry to become the borough's next Mayor. Her name was Sharon Carby, 70, from Bradford. Carby had died in July 2024. ...
Last week, The Guardian reported that the UK Government is considering scrapping the commitment to spending 80% of foreign aid on programmes that have gender equality as at least one component. This is the latest of a series of Government decisions to leave the most marginalised women around the world at even greater risk. Cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) have disproportionately affected programmes focusing on women and girls, but Starmer has decided to slash ODA to 0.3%. In the Comprehensive Spending Review, women and girls were not included in the priority list for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office ...
Our climate is broken. And it is we who have broken it. The greenhouse gases that we have pumped – and continue to pump – into the atmosphere have driven up average global temperatures, which in turn has led to more extreme weather, droughts, wildfires, heatwaves, floods, rising sea levels and irreversible changes in the way our planet works. We know that we need to take action to address climate change. For many, this is about mitigating further damage by reducing substantially our emissions of greenhouse gases. This is embodied in the aim of achieving 'net zero' emissions, in line ...
Government has no money of its own, yet successive governments have spent taxpayers' money on failed projects with impunity - and immunity! When considering one of the recent less than helpful policy choices foisted on us by Labour, putting up National Insurance on employers' contributions - which has in practice stopped many companies from taking on new employees despite Labour pinning everything on growth! – it got me thinking about how poor policy decision-making often is at the top. Presented with the key facts, almost anyone could have told Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves (and they did) that this NI ...
This was a Radio Luxemburg, under-the-bedclothes record for me in 1973. At first I wasn't sure I liked it: then I was knew that I did.
Thu 28th
09:31Liberal Democrats call on Nigel Farage to sort our Nottinghamshire's Reform UK council
NEW: 'No idea, genuinely': Watch as Reform economic chief gets confused over existing relationships between Notts County Council and regional leaders. Cllr James Walker-Gurley, a new Reform cabinet member in Notts, sat down with us last week. It didn't go well.@laurenamonaghanpic.twitter.com/6SjvTFtejL — Andrew Topping (@AToppingJourno) June 23, 2025 Today's Guardian reports that the Liberal Democrats have written to Nigel Farage to demand that he steps in to reverse the "dangerous and chilling" decision by Nottinghamshire's ruling Reform UK group to stop talking to local newspapers and the BBC. The Lib Dems, says, the paper, have suggested that the move may ...
Reform has shed the following councillors so far: Donna Edmunds (suspended by Reform UK and then quit the party) Luke Shingler (now an independent) Desmond Clarke (resigned as councillor) Andrew Kilburn (resigned as a councillor) Wayne Titley (resigned as a councillor) Mark Broadhurst (expelled by Reform) Adam Smith (suspended by Reform and then expelled) John Bailey (resigned as a councillor) Daniel Taylor (suspended by Reform UK) Sam Booth (resigned as a councillor) Ed Hill (expelled by Reform) David Maclean (resigned as a councillor) Robert Bloom (resigned as a councillor) Paul Bean (suspended by Reform UK) In addition, Martin Sarfas stood ...
Cole-Hamilton calls for stronger response to nitazenes ahead of Scottish Drugs Forum Cole-Hamilton: Scotland deserves better than Farage Nigel Farage accused of plan to 'rip up Welsh countryside' with fracking Scot Lib Dems comment on Simpson defection Reconviction rate increases among prisoners Cole-Hamilton calls for stronger response to nitazenes ahead of Scottish Drugs Forum Speaking ahead of the Scottish Drugs Forum on Wednesday 27th August, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has called on the SNP government to take strong action on the growing number of drug deaths caused by synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, which can be hundreds ...
We are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
The Guardian reports that government figures released on Tuesday reveal that UK companies spent up to £65m last year on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU, with 328,727 such licences issued last year, at a cost of between £113 and £200 each. The paper says that Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of European negotiations, has pledged to eliminate such costs as by promising a new agreement with the EU in the next 18 months: Keir Starmer announced a new agreement with the EU in May, as part of which ministers agreed to pursue ...
On Sunday we had an action day in Blaydon - or rather a half action day as in the afternoon many of us were attending Pride Picnic in the park in Saltwell. Having agreed to deliver a particular patch, I arrived to discover most of the houses were on a hill and were detached with long drives. Trust me to get that one!
