For some months now Tory ministers have been trying to do individual deals for youth mobility visa schemes with European countries – mirroring those the UK already have with Iceland, Japan, India and Australia. It is a brutal admission of how damaging leaving the European Union has been to the prospects of our young people– This week the EU itself offered to short-circuit this process by negotiating a bloc-wide mobility scheme. For the sake of British business and British workers Labour must grasp this opportunity, not spurn it. Quite how many times a young worker from the UK has been passed o ..read more

Rishi Sunak may have chickened out of calling an election this May, but we still have the opportunity to create enormous change. Here in Milton Keynes, Labour stands poised to take majority control of the City Council, the first Labour majority on the local authority in 28 years. The history of Milton Keynes is entwined with the history of the Labour Party. We’re the most successful of Labour’s postwar new towns. We’re home to the Open University, Labour’s pioneering project to widen participation in higher education. Not only that, but we serve as a bellwether for Labour’s success. Winning in ..read more

Keir Starmer is more trusted than Rishi Sunak to handle the crisis in the Middle East, despite Labour’s recent tensions over Gaza, an exclusive poll for LabourList reveals. More than half of voters said they could not trust the Prime Minister to deal with the issues in the region, while 40% said they trusted the Labour leader to handle the situation. The poll of 1,066 adults, carried out by Savanta on April 15 for LabourList, found that only 37.7% trusted the Prime Minister on the Middle East crisis, with 54.6% distrusting him to handle the situation. Keir Starmer had the trust of 40.1% of tho ..read more

More than half of Labour voters and a quarter of Tory voters say the row over Angela Rayner’s housing arrangements “sounds like a smear campaign”, an exclusive poll for LabourList and Labour Business reveals. Around a third of all voters in the poll said the deputy leader being a woman was a relevant factor in the level of press attention given to the story. Some 30% said it was a factor, while 34% cited her personality, 28% cited her being from a working-class background, and 25% cited her being northern. Just over half (51%) said increased scrutiny of Labour as the election approaches was a ..read more

Open Labour is currently looking at how Labour transitions from opposition to government. While currently likely, we’re not treating it as a certainty. We see a rocky road to Downing Street, despite strong polling. The Tories and their media outriders will ratchet up their desperate attacks as the general election approaches. They’re currently targeting Angela Rayner. She’ll be a key campaigner in the election campaign and so effective they want to drive her off the campaign trail. When it isn’t Angela, it will be someone else. The Mail group previously flailed at and missed Keir Starmer. The ..read more

Peers including the former Conservative minister Michael Heseltine have demanded answers as to why former Labour mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has been left in legal limbo for more than three years. Anderson and others were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation in December 2020, prompting him to stand aside and the party to suspend him pending the outcome. Anderson was then released under investigation with no charges brought, but an inquiry is still ongoing more than three years later. Lord Heseltine, who served as Deputy Prime Minister under John Ma ..read more

Labour has called on the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate fake penalty charge notices created as part of Susan Hall’s mayoral campaign. Flyers for the Conservative candidate for London Mayor use yellow and black colours, mimicking a parking notice, and include the words: “Driving charge notice – do not ignore”. The local election leaflet goes on to claim that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is planning to introduce a pay-per-mile scheme across the capital – a scheme that he has previously ruled out for as long as he is in office. The flyers have been branded “deceptive” by fact-checkers. We ..read more

LGBT+ Labour stands in solidarity with trans, non-binary, and questioning young people who are trying to access support and healthcare. So should all politicians in our country. It is because of this perspective that we urge Labour to exercise caution in responding to the review of gender identity services for children and young people published 10 April 2024. The health and well-being of vulnerable people is on the line, and Labour can’t afford to engage uncritically with any single report. The mental health of the trans* community in the UK is in a dire state. Analysis by Just Like Us (the L ..read more

Labour’s national executive committee has stepped in again in Birmingham City Council, LabourList understands, reappointing the council’s current leader, deputy leader and other key positions for another year. Councillors were informed in an email that the NEC has decided to reappoint the council’s current leader, deputy leader, chair, secretary and chief whip for 2024/25, with the leader due to appoint and announce cabinet members by May 10th. Elections for all other roles will be held on May 11th at the Labour group’s annual general meeting, the email added. A report into the local Labour gr ..read more

With the eyes of many a political pundit fixed on local election battles in the “red wall”, you could be forgiven for not putting the contest in areas like Adur on the south coast top of mind. After all, the council has been in the control of the same Conservative leader since the turn of the millennium. Yet voters appear on the brink of turning another Sussex district council red for the first time in its history, after Labour seized control in neighbouring Worthing in 2022. That would mark an historic transformation in itself. But it would be all the more noteworthy for the further looming c ..read more