Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Find Out Now 17% (-2) 17% (+2) 13% (nc) 17% (-1) 26% (+1) -9% (vs Ref) 20-21/5 GB YouGov ...
"Why, if the homes are unregistered and therefore illegal, are English councils still placing children in them? And how can the system be reformed so this doesn't continue to happen?"Noel Titheradge investigates a continuing scandal. James Meek looked at housing in Andy Burnham's Manchester om the eve of the last general election: "Burnham presides over a scale model of a future Starmer Britain, one where a social democratic leader full of genuine desire to mend the broken, over-marketised public realm is hamstrung by lack of resources and constrained by fear of frightening away the wealth-holders. Like England, Greater Manchester has ...
[IMG: Chris McSweeny] Winning Lib Dem by-election candidate Chris McSweeny. Four principal authority council by-elections this week to kick off the new cycle. Good to see a full slate of Lib Dem candidates, up one on the last time these seats were contested. Those candidates also scored two important wins for the Liberal Democrats: Alfrick, Leigh & Rushwick (Malvern Hills) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 25.8% (+10.6) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 22.3% (+3.2) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 19.4% (New) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 16.9% (New) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 10.8% (New) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 4.7% (New)No MHI (-65.6) as previous.Liberal Democrat GAIN from ...
[IMG: Jake Austin - Makerfield candidate] Jake Austin. A Liberal Democrat press release brings the news: Jake Austin has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Makerfield in the upcoming by-election, pledging to champion local issues that matter most to residents. Jake is passionate about revitalising our high streets, improving public transport across the North West, and providing affordable homes for the next generation. Jake was born and raised in Hindley, and has lived in Greater Manchester his whole life. Working in fundraising, Jake is also a Liberal Democrat Councillor. In 2024, Jake was the Liberal Democrat candidate in ...
When 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos addressed last Saturday's London peace rally for Palestine he confronted some upside-down thinking, and turned it the right way up. "These are NOT hate marches", he said, "Quite the opposite! These are NOT no-go areas for Jews...Quite the opposite! A majority of Jews of the world do NOT support Israeli policy...Quite the opposite!" A good number of Lib Dems attend these Palestine marches each month. We all know the misconceptions spread by journalists and politicians. Few have attended a march, yet they're happy to label them extremist, pro-Hamas, hate-led, and often predict arrests. This ...
Fri 22nd
12:02
The amended EHRC code is an attack on trans rights. Lib Dems should be at the forefront of challengi...
The amended Equality and Human Rights Commission Code of Practice on services, public functions, and associations was laid before Parliament yesterday. It will become law in 40 days unless Parliament acts. That window matters, and Liberal Democrats should be using it. I have read the code carefully. The headline is this: it does not just reflect the Supreme Court's ruling in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers. It goes further, resolving almost every area of discretion against trans people and in favour of those who want to exclude them. It makes inclusion legally risky and exclusion legally safe. That ...
Readers may have noticed over the past few days a few personal announcements as to what certain Peers will be doing now, so we thought that we'd better provide readers with a complete list. And, with thanks to Humphrey Amos from the Lords' Whips Office, we can announce that our Lords Spokespeople are as follows: Leader – Jeremy Purvis Deputy Leaders – Kath Pinnock and Mike Storey Chief Whip – Dave Goddard Attorney General – Martin Thomas Business and Industry – Chris Fox Cabinet Office – Mark Pack Culture, Media and Sport – Jane Bonham-Carter, Dominic Addington (Sport) and Liz ...
In my eight years as Chair of the Parish Council, I've held a number of roles. At one point, I was Chair, Acting Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer, a period which caused me huge levels of stress and was, in organisational terms, highly unsatisfactory. But sometimes, especially with a micro-parish, needs must. The show must, if you like, go on. In my earlier incarnation, I was the Wildlife portfolio holder, which was a source of great amusement given that I still couldn't confidently identify even the obvious stuff and was still convinced that wolves stalked the land. Now, I hold ...
Congratulations to the Daily Star. Thanks to a nomination from a Liberal England reader, it has won our Headline of the Day Award.
It is a sure sign that the government is getting too obsessed with social media when the Speaker of the House of Commons scolds Labour ministers for making major announcements on TikTok before Parliament. The Guardian reports that, speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, ahead of Rachel Reeves' cost of living plan announcement, Lindsay Hoyle criticised ministers for announcing policies on social media before updating MPs: The chancellor received a dressing down from deputy speaker Judith Cummins as she prepared to set out measures to mitigate the economic impact of the Iran war, several of which had already been ...
Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2026 and the May 2027 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con – – – – – – – +1 (+1/0) +1 Lab – – – – – – – – 0 Lib Dem – – [1] – – – – +1 (+1/0) +1 Grn – – – [1] – – – – 0 Ref – – – – – – – – 0 SNP – – – – – – – – 0 Plaid – – ...
[IMG: Social media post by Rob Kenyon] Just one of Rob Kenyon's many objectionable social media posts. Reform often boasts about how good its candidate vetting is. But even with plenty of examples of its failure already widely known, this is a shocking failure of vetting for their Makerfield Parliamentary by-election candidate: On a deleted social media account, Reform UK's candidate in the upcoming Makerfield parliamentary by-election, Rob Kenyon, made creepy comments about women, peddled baseless conspiracy theories, and called for a method of torture prohibited by international human rights law. After Rob Kenyon was announced as Reform UK's Makerfield ...
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first adapted for the screen in 1967 by ABC Weekend Television. I was reminded of this when I watched the first episode of A Very Peculiar Practice on BBC4 last night and Liz Crowther was in the cast. That's because Liz Crowther played Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1969. Broadcast in ten 30-minute episodes, the series was written by Trevor Preston and directed by Helen Standage. According to Wikipedia, only the first and eighth episodes have survived, along with an audio recording of episode 7. But ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: There was a treat in the House of Lords this week – two maiden speeches from Liberal Democrat peers, Rhiannon Leaman and Mike Dixon. I know many readers enjoyed Sarah Teather's maiden speech, so here now are Rhiannon's and Mike's too. And even if you think you know them already, I think you'll ...
Embed from Getty ImagesIt's easy for a Liberal Democrat with a good memory to find Zack Polanski irritating. His story that he stood for his local council as Lib Dem because he cared about proportional representation, but then joined the Greens because he found he agreed with them more, doesn't square with what we recall of him. He didn't just stand for his borough council, he also stood for the London Assembly and was dead keen to be our candidate in the 2016 Richmond Park by-election. His complaints when he wasn't selected filled Lib Dem social media for ages afterwards. ...
The argument for standing aside in Makerfield sounds "strategic", but from a Liberal Democrat perspective it is strategically short-sighted, democratically unhealthy, and misunderstands how Reform is defeated. Political parties exist to represent voters, not simply to game outcomes between larger parties. If Liberal Democrats believe in liberal values, civil liberties, internationalism and local democracy, then voters everywhere deserve the opportunity to vote for those values. Writing off entire areas risks accelerating decline, not preventing it. The claim that standing and polling poorly makes the party "look inept" ignores Liberal Democrat history. The party's biggest advances often began from tiny bases ...
For most of the modern political era, economic debate has revolved around one central question: how do we create more jobs? But what happens when technology begins reducing the need for human labour just as our population is ageing and demand for care, health and support is rising sharply? Artificial intelligence is already reshaping parts of the economy at extraordinary speed. Entry-level legal work, coding, administration, customer service and research are all changing before our eyes. At the same time, Britain is growing older. More people are living longer, often with complex health or care needs, while birth rates fall ...
It's time to catch up with the trip now that I'm back, so let's do just that... Early morning, Antwerp, and my first intention was to deal in a little nostalgia. But isn't Antwerpen Central just a little special? There's some outstanding architecture (and a very convenient zoo). And, as a place to start your journey in earnest, it's so much of an improvement on any of the Brussels stations. Sadly, it was early, and I had miles to go before I slept. The obvious route to my intended destination would be via Amsterdam and a series of German high ...
In an Essex district, three excellent candidates stood for election to the county council. Two were experienced councillors, one Labour, one Conservative, well-known, well-liked, well-dug-in to their communities and having done plenty for those communities. One was a Liberal Democrat challenger in a division where the sitting Conservative was standing down. This candidate too was highly popular, a district councillor who had accomplished much. All three lost to Reform. The Reform candidates were unknowns. Their party did not think fit to tell the voters anything about them. They did little locally. Whereas those three losing candidates all ran campaigns highlighting ...
The Manchester Evening News wins our Headline of the Day Award. "Ambition? I had ambition once," remarked one of the judges.
The Mirror reports that Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, has voiced her frustration about the amount of information being redacted about Peter Mandelson's appointment, accusing Ministers of putting "obstacles" in the way of the truth over the former Ambassador's appointment. The paper says that one of Keir Starmer's top aides was confronted by senior MPs who accused the Government of changing the goalposts over which documents it plans to release. This is despite the fact that the PM has committed to releasing all relevant files and messages around the decision to name Mandelson as ambassador to ...