Yesterday Kemi Badenoch gave an interview to Sky News suggesting she would be happy to see Conservative councillors working with Reform UK councillors to deliver rightwing policies.
In an interview with the Sun published today, Badenoch rowed back on this. She said there would not be any deals because Reform councillors weren’t “serious”. She told the paper:
We’re not doing deals with Reform. I don’t want to see us helping Reform.
A lot of people in Reform are people we kicked out.
Conservative councillors don’t want to work with Reform because they’re not serious.
Kemi Badenoch has voted at Saffron Walden in Essex. As explained earlier (see 11.18am), Conservative prospects in Essex look bleak. Badenoch is MP for North West Essex.
Progressive voters have been driven away from Labour by a lack of argument and vision from Keir Starmer, according to a report using research from a senior pollster to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, Jessica Elgot reports.
It has become increasingly common now for some politicians to talk about the “Muslim vote” in negative, or even alarmist terms. Once seen as a reliable base for the Labour party, the Muslim community’s growing support for independent candidates and the Greens is now being framed by some as a threat to democracy.
As the country heads towards the local elections, Taj Ali investigates whether a singular “Muslim vote” exists, and examines how these divisive narratives around sectarian politics are shaping public debate and impacting communities across Britain.
A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of selling former Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s stolen phone, the Press Association reports. PA say:
Scotland Yard took the man into police custody last Wednesday and he was later bailed.
He is not suspected of involvement in the original theft on 20 October last year, the force said.
Concerns have been raised that the theft could result in important messages about Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador being lost.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “Officers investigating the theft of a mobile phone in Belgrave Road, Pimlico, on 20 October 2025 have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
“The arrest took place on Wednesday 29 April at an address in Peckham. The man was taken into police custody and later bailed.
“He is suspected of receiving the phone after it was stolen and then selling it on. He is not suspected of any involvement in the original theft.
“The phone has not been recovered.”
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has voted. He is MP for Kingston and Surbiton, and Kingston is a rock-solid Lib Dem council. This is what Dave Hill and Lewis Baston say about it in their London Decides guide to voting in the capital.
It seems amazing that in 2014 the Tories took control of the council from the Liberal Democrats, winning an eight-seat majority. Eight years on, they were reduced to a three-seat opposition as the Lib Dems piled up 41 and a lone Independent made up the numbers.
By November 2023, things had got even worse for the Conservatives: an earlier byelection win for another Independent had been at the Lib Dems’ expense, but when one of the Tories’ own councillors switched to the Independent cause, they found themselves outnumbered by three to two. The Kingston Independent Residents Group (KIRG) replaced them as Kingston’s principal opposition and has remained so.
One other councillor, elected as a Lib Dem, left the party in August 2024 and has been sitting as an Independent separately. It means the current party lineup is: Lib Dem 39; KIRG three; Conservatives two; Independents one. Can the big yellow balloon be deflated?
In his new biography of the former Labour PM Gordon Brown, James Macintyre writes about Brown’s attitude to money, and politicians who accept gifts. Macintyre says Brown thought it was “completely unacceptable” for Keir Starmer to accept gifts of clothes and spectacles. Brown “accepted no gifts while in office, declined his prime ministerial pension, paid his own way with suits, spectacles and decorating through his time in Downing Street and left office in considerable debt as a result,” Macintyre writes.
Nigel Farage, on the other hand, takes a rather different approach to personal enrichment. As Helena Horton and Anna Isaac report today, his income since he was elected as an MP has now reached £2m on top of his parliamentary salary, analysis of the register of MPs has shown.
Brown is remembered as an unpopular PM whose time in office did not last long. But his contribution to rescuing the world from the 2008 financial crisis was unrivalled, and he is the only living ex-PM who achieved as much, or more, before and after reaching No 10 as while they did while they were there. Macintyre’s authoritative and very readable book does justice to his achievements.
Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green party of England and Wales, has been in Penarth supporting Anthony Slaughter, his Welsh leader. Slaughter is the lead Green candidate for Caerdydd Penarth (Cardiff Penarth), and the latest YouGov MRP poll suggests the Greens are on course to win one of the six seats available here.
Helen MacNamara used to be deputy cabinet secretary. Now, as is fairly standard for anyone leaving a frontline Westminster job, she hosts a podcast, which means she able to speak out in a way she couldn’t when she was bound by civil service omertà. She says Keir Starmer should have used his email to civil servants (see 10.05am) to announce that Olly Robbins (OR) was getting his job back.
Had hoped there was a para here explaining OR had been reinstated and underlying principles of truth to power should be based on truth. Rather hollow without. The niceties of he should have said more afterwards entirely lost on basis of how No 10 and CO chose to play this. Remains unconscionable.
Eluned Morgan, the first minister and Welsh Labour leader, has cast her vote at St Davids City Hall in St Davids, Pembrokeshire. She is the first Labour candidate on the list for Ceredigion Penfro (Ceredigion Pembrokeshire). But she is at risk of not even being elected. In Wales there are now 16 constituencies each electing six MSs, but the latest YouGov MRP poll suggests that Plaid Cymru is on course to win four of the seats in Ceredigion Penfro, and Reform the other two.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
