Politics

Andy Burnham has announced his intentions to run in the first election for Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. The Labour frontbencher has been MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester since 2001 and announced his intentions in an interview with the Guardian. Speaking to students in Altrincham today, he said: "The North has been playing second fiddle for far too long. “The new role of Mayor of Greater Manchester would give the North a new voice and it is something that...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Dennis Skinner interrupted the Queen's speech, again, this time with a shout of "Hands off the BBC." Not bad and leads to the BBC correspondent Huw Edwards, to say "I better not comment on that." Here are a list of some of his other great put downs over the years 1990 “It tolls for thee, Maggie” As Thatcher faced the exit from Number 10 1991 “I bet he drinks Carling Black Label!” Famous lager slogan...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The Labour Party is planning to take seats it has not managed to win in decades at the next general election, due to a “bold and ambitious” plan to form the next government. Corbyn will be buoyed by a recent poll that his party members still back him, but there are concerns that the wider population may not be so favourable. Labour chiefs know the task to win enough seats to form a Government will...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor One of the stranger claims made during the EU referendum debate came from the PM when he said that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, is probably in favour of Britain leaving the EU. Cameron made these claims after Boris Johnson accused the PM of colluding with big business to ensure the UK remains in the European Union. The PM discussed the IS leaders hopes of a “Brexit,” as he said that allies...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor There were rumours of plots to oust the Labour leader, even after a decent enough showing in the recent local elections, but a new poll shows that he won’t be going anywhere any time soon. A YouGov survey for the Times, has discovered that almost two-thirds of party members would vote for Corbyn again if there was another leadership vote. The findings will blunt the knifes of any plotters in the party who can’t wait...

David Cameron has signed up with Tinder and LadBible to encourage younger people to vote in the EU referendum. Thousands of people are yet to sign up to vote in the referendum in June, which could hit the 'In' campaign most severely. More than 28 million households have been sent a leaflet on how to register before the deadline of June 78th, but the PM has gone one step further to engage younger voters. The Prime Minister has partnered with dating app...

Ukraine's politically-motivated entry 1944 won the 2016 Eurovision contest last night in a blatant attack on Russia's treatment of Crimea. The song, by Jamala, made references to "strangers" coming "into your house" and killing you. It continues, "you think you are gods, but every one dies". The 2016 contest was typically full of political motives, with Britain's entry also in the spotlight as the country takes to the polls next months in a referendum on whether to stay in the...

It's been a week since election day which saw Sadiq Khan elected Mayor of London. He has since been congratulated, attacked, had Katie Hopkins threaten to run down the street naked and survived his first feud with Donald Trump. These might not be the most pressing of issues, but they are certainly topics that rose to the fore in a Twitter analysis of Khan's first week as Mayor from social intelligence company Brandwatch. 59k tweets about the new Mayor were...

Global warming is spiralling out of control at the same time as our politicians try to figure out the best way to “maximise the economic recovery of oil and gas”. These aren’t just regular politicians doing this, these are politicians on the Energy and Climate Change Committee. Yesterday in parliament, fossil fuel representatives explained that the discovery of new oil reserves was at a sixty-year low. “The revenues have gone out of the industry,” cried one chief executive. Some companies are...