Houchen's win in Tees Valley not necessarily a comfort to local Tory MPs

In the days running up to the elections, Number 10 was verging on the unsubtle. 

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'Stars could not be more aligned against us': Senior Tories predict loss in Blackpool by-election

Senior Tories are predicting they will lose the Blackpool South by-election as counting gets under way.

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Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting photo ID

Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station this evening after forgetting to bring photo ID.

The legislation requiring voters to bring a form of identification to vote was introduced by Johnson himself.

The former prime minister had been trying to cast his vote in the local elections in South Oxfordshire earlier today.

Elections are taking place in 107 local authorities across the UK, with 2,636 seats being contested.

Speaking about the new legislation in 2021, Johnson said: “What we want to do is protect democracy, the transparency and the integrity of the electoral process.

"And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask first-time voters to produce some evidence of identity.”

The Elections Act came into effect in 2022.

Tory MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt was forced to ask local members to act as his "emergency proxy" after he found out he had no appropriate ID to vote in the elections.

In a Whatsapp conversation seen by ITV, Hunt asked for help from members after what he dubbed a “bit of drama”, saying: “Turns out I have no appropriate ID to vote tomorrow”.

He added: "However. There is an emergency proxy option if you lose your ID. Deadline tomorrow. Who would like to do the honours?"

The Electoral Commission warned that the new voting regulations would make it harder for people to vote.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan claimed the restrictions were "designed to rig the next election" by stopping younger and marginalised people from casting their votes.

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The Conservative Party is braced for a bruising night tonight, with the party trailing more than 20 points behind Labour in the polls.

The Tories could lose up to half of the 1,000 council seats they are defending.

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Vote counting under way in local elections across England and Wales - what to expect

Vote counting is under way after polls closed in local elections taking place across England and Wales.

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Labour 'reported to police' for alleged breach of election law just hours before crunch poll

A Labour council group has been reported to the police by the Tories over allegedly "misleading" campaign literature, Conservative MP Ben Everitt told GB News.

The MP for Milton Keynes claimed the campaign literature, which relates to the failure to open a new GP surgery, "breaches election law".

The complaint comes just one day before voters go to the polls in the local elections. The Tories are gearing up for a bruising result, with the party trailing more than 20 points behind Labour.

The original leaflet, which Everitt said came from the Labour Party, said that a bid by a local GP surgery in Olney for cash to submit a planning application to expand their surgery was "refused by local NHS bosses because they have not been given the funding by the Conservative government to build the new facilities".

But the Tories claimed that it was Milton Keynes Council – of which Labour is the largest party - that stopped the development. Writing to Thames Valley Police, Everitt said: "I am writing to you to raise significant concerns regarding the conduct of the Milton Keynes Council Labour Party Group in this week’s local elections campaign.

"The Labour Group has been actively telling residents and the media that the proposals for the GP surgery in Olney were refused because the Conservative government failed to release the necessary funds.

"However recent revelations have revealed this to be a demonstrably false claim.

"Emails have now come to light that demonstrate that it was Milton Keynes Council that stopped the development, by advising against applying for planning permission."

He added: "The decision not to progress the new surgery was made at a meeting of the region’s Primary Care Delivery Group, which is part of the Integrated Care Board. Milton Keynes Council had delivered advice to that meeting which was to not proceed with the surgery, leading to such an outcome at ICB level.

"Milton Keynes Council received a letter from the ICB confirming the decision not to apply for planning permission, based on their advice, on April 11. They then choose, out of political motivation, to not release that letter until today, the day before polling day for the 2024 Local Elections."

But a Labour spokesperson rejected the allegations, accusing the Milton Keynes Conservatives of having "clearly misunderstood" the situation.

They said: "They are being rightly accused of, and held to account for, consistently failing to deliver the necessary funding for new infrastructure in Milton Keynes.

"Rather than wasting valuable police time and resources, the Conservatives should apologise to the people of Milton Keynes for letting them down for the last two decades."

Everitt told GB News: "It's just so frustrating that yet again the Labour Party in Milton Keynes is putting politics before people.

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"There's only so much I can do in Westminster if the blockage is local Labour politicians playing political games with people's services.

"I wish they'd just let me do my job for the people of Milton Keynes.

This is about getting people the services they deserve."

Thames Valley Police have been contacted for comment.

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UK judges will still rule in favour of ECHR despite Rwanda act, claims Farage

Nigel Farage has said the government deserves some credit for deporting illegal migrants from the country but said he believes the government is still in ‘desperate trouble’.

Farage also said he believed the trouble would now just start for the government and predicted that judges would rule in favour of international agreements such as the ECHR rather than the Safety of Rwanda Act.

Speaking on GB News, Nigel Farage said: “Just to get a sense of perspective on this: this is somebody who illegally came to Britain, wasn't granted asylum which is unusual of itself, and is then given £3000 of taxpayers money to voluntarily board a plane to Rwanda, where he'll be able to live for five years without rent and in a country where three grand goes a long way.

“And it's ludicrous to link that the Rwanda plan that was set up by Boris Johnson two years ago.

“This government is in desperate trouble, dire trouble; predictions of perhaps, in this coming general election, the worst results ever, in their nearly 200 years of existence.

“And Sunak knows this issue of people illegally crossing our borders and being allowed to stay is driving voters, particularly the red wall, mad. So the fact that today they've started rounding up a few people and detaining them, on the face of it, you have to give them credit for.

“I mean, several years too late, but on the face of it, let's give them credit.

“I suspect this is where the problems are just beginning. We will see all sorts of other people on that list simply disappear off into the community and be virtually impossible to find.

“And for those that we do have in detention and plan to take care of and that is when the lawyers and the judges will kick in. We are still signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights. We've incorporated it into British law by the Human Rights Act. And whatever the Rwanda Act says, in terms of it taking supremacy over the Human Rights Act, I would tell you that when this comes to court, British judges will rule in favour of our international agreements.

“So it's all well and good, sounding tough, but can you actually deliver and I still really, really doubt it.

“It may well be that disapplying those sections of the Human Rights Act works in British law. But we are still a signatory to an international treaty via that court in Strasbourg, and I just don't see a Conservative Prime Minister overruling a judgment of that court.

“Do you know what, if he did, half of his own party would be in rebellion. Many, many Conservatives support us being part of that European convention. Now, if he does it, it'd be very brave and bold, but I believe that an international treaty is what will take precedence and I think our judges and ultimately, our Supreme Court would rule that way.

“Look, I hope I'm wrong. I'm sick to death how every month we see of these young men, undocumented young males of fighting age coming into our country about whom we know nothing of their backgrounds and their histories.

“I hope he can solve it. I just don't believe all the while we're part of that treaty, that it actually can happen and really, Brexit should have been about leaving this particular treaty as well. Sadly, it wasn't.

“I don't doubt amongst some of those that are crossing the English Channel, there are some genuinely fleeing persecution. But the wholesale abuse of our generosity, people pretending they're under 18 when they're in their 30s. People claiming to convert to Christianity from Islam, which of course we know they're not actually doing. People claiming they're gay, and therefore can't be sent back to the country that they claim to originally come from.

“The whole thing is a complete and utter racket. And I'd remind people since 2016, we have taken in half a million refugees. They've come from Hong Kong, they've come from Afghanistan, they’ve come back from Ukraine and elsewhere.

“It's not as if we’re not the most generous country out there because we are. What we cannot allow is for human traffickers to put people in danger is to cross the English Channel. 90% of them are male, 80% of them are very young males.

“This has got to stop and the only way we're going to stop it is by not being part of that European convention and by saying that nobody that comes via this route will ever be allowed to stay.

“That is what Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia did, back in 2013. Within two weeks, the boats stopped coming. That is the only way we're ever going to solve this and I believe that right from the start.”

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Why people are calling for investigation into £200k Vaughan Gething donation

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