Politics

Mainstream media outlets have today spun a successful election result into one that looks like defeat for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. Despite Labour winning more seats than all other parties combined the BBC pointed to "mixed results" for Labour, highlighting losses in safe Tory seats such as Wandsworth and Westminster. The local election result was the best in 47 years for Labour with gains made on 2014. The party got a high share of the vote which would...

"Being a Remainer and voting Labour is like being a vegetarian and ordering steak", was the meme making the rounds on social media before yesterday's local elections. And so it proved to be as the first results trickled in this morning. With UKIP all but obliterated across the country Labour failed to make expected gains in key areas, with Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet going to the Conservatives in London. Although many commentators have pointed to the unrealistic expectations of picking...

It has been a disastrous night for UKIP, which has lurched to the extremes of crude anti-Muslim rhetoric under Gerard Batten, its fourth leader since Nigel Farage. Winning just two seats in the council elections across England yesterday, the party has lost 92 councillors so far. Other far-right parties – such as the British National Party and Anne Marie Waters’ For Britain Movement – have also failed across the board, too. Yet as they are beaten at the ballot box,...

It's polling day for councils around the country and the definite winner for the nation's favourite story on social media is #dogsatpollingstations! These are some of our favourite dogs at polling stations that you have plastered all over Twitter. And don't forget, if you want to to see an actual dog at a polling station, or take your dog to the polling station or indeed exercise your democratic right to vote, they are open until 10pm tonight. You can find...

Nigel Farage is calling for a new referendum on the abolition of the House of Lords after the Government suffered set-backs on the Brexit process. Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Farage blasted the Lords for its intervention and suggested the House had "signed its own death warrant". He said: "By defying Brexit, the Lords shows what a travesty British democracy has become. "Ever since the great battles which led to the Parliament Act 1911, debates about the composition and power...

The father of Game of Thrones star Rose Leslie has been suspended by the Tory party over non-payment of council tax. But Councillor Sebastian Leslie, who was revealed in December to be thousands of pounds in arrears, insists he is only defying the system to highlight a legal campaign. Until last week, the Aberdeen councillor had not attended any council meetings for four months and is now under investigation over bringing the party into disrepute. Confirming that he was now...

A shift towards Liberal and Labour votes could leave the Conservatives facing an election wipe-out in the local elections today. According to political traders the Liberal Democrats could seize key seats in the poll, including a stronghold in Richmond. Labour currently hold control over 20 out of 32 boroughs in the capital, and could be set to take Wandsworth with traders giving Labour a 51 per cent chance of winning an overall majority in one of the tightest races in the London boroughs....

The Home Office has been engulfed in a fresh crisis after accusations emerged that it told 7,000 foreign students to leave the UK in error. In Sajid Javid's first day in office new revelations have been leaked of a shocking blunder that could have left students homeless and detained. According to the Financial Times the Home Office may have falsely accused thousands of foreign students of faking their proficiency in English and ordered them to leave the country. A large majority...

Diane Abbott has said the newly-appointed Sajid Javid cannot form another human shield for Theresa May as suspicions rise that Amber Rudd became a fall guy for failures that took place under her role as Home Secretary. The Labour Shadow Home Secretary said the change that was brought about by Rudd's resignation last night will mean nothing unless May's "hostile environment" policy is brought to an end. She said: "The new home Secretary cannot form another human shield for Theresa May....