News Round-Up

• “Labour Minister dismisses rape gangs as ‘dog whistle’ issue” – Lucy Powell, the Labour Cabinet minister, is facing calls to resign after dismissing the grooming gangs scandal as a “dog whistle” issue, the Telegraph reports. (Guido also has the story.)
• “How Reform’s Doge units will tackle council waste” – Nigel Farage has pledged to establish a mini-version of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in every council under Reform UK control, reports the Telegraph.
• “Reform’s councils begin war on Net Zero projects in countryside” – Richard Tice has declared that Reform’s local authorities will do everything to block renewable developments, reports the Telegraph.
• “Reform’s new MP: ‘We will stand up to sexual violence from illegal migrants’” – Reform’s first female MP Sarah Pochin says she is concerned by the attitudes of some in migrant hotels, the Telegraph reports.
• “Kemi Badenoch ‘will not chase Farage to the Right’” – Kemi Badenoch will not “chase Reform to the Right” despite suffering an historic defeat in Thursday’s local elections, Conservative strategists have decided, according to the Telegraph.
• “You can only defy the British people for so long” – The humiliation of the Labour and Conservative parties in Thursday’s elections has been on the cards, says Andrew Neil in the Mail. “You can only defy the wishes of the British people for so long.”
• “Tories are in retreat as Reform marches on… nothing will be the same again” – “Many people will wonder how the strange death of the Conservative Party came about,” writes Nigel Farage in the Telegraph. “In fact, there is no mystery.”
• “A Revolt Is Brewing in Britain, With Farage Leading the Way” – Reform UK’s rise is no fluke, it’s the beginning of a reckoning, says John Mac Ghlionn in Restoration.
• “Labour are on their final warning after Reform’s success” – A few years ago, Keir Starmer declared his mission was to transform Labour into the “political wing of the British people”. Well, it doesn’t seem to have worked, says Dan Hodges in the Mail.
• “The Conservative Party is no dodo. We can come back from the fire that has devoured us” – Kemi Badenoch must ignore the siren voices urging her to rush out policy proposals, think up gimmicks and cosy up to Reform, says Francis Maude in the Telegraph.
• “Reform’s gains show fight for the Right is on” – While Labour looks safer, local elections suggest Kemi Badenoch hasn’t long to save herself — and the Conservatives, says Paul Goodman in the Times.
• “Nigel Farage has blown apart two-party politics. Here’s what’s next” – Badenoch’s in a doom loop, the smaller parties are on the march and Starmer’s searching for a story — could it see him jettison two ministers and an entire department, asks Tim Shipman in the Times.
• “Labour’s catastrophic defeat is a massive economic risk” – The temptation to fight Reform by spending more money can only end in financial crisis, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “Anthony Albanese declares victory in Australian election” – Australia’s centre-Left Labour Government claimed victory on Saturday after a tense election shaped by concerns over housing, the cost of living and the shadow of Donald Trump, says the Telegraph.
• “Australian election: Trump helps topple second conservative leader” – Right up until the results came in, nobody expected the political earthquake that struck Australia, with most expecting Labour to struggle to form a minority government. Terry Barnes in the Spectator looks at what happened.
• “In Australia and Canada, Trump destroyed the Right: in Britain, it must unite to avoid that fate” – A backlash against US policy across the Anglosphere should serve as a warning to the Tories and Reform, argues Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph.
• “Domestic spy agency declares Alternative für Deutschland to be a ‘confirmed Right-wing extremist’ organisation, as authorities inch closer to banning the party” – All you need to do, to be a Nazi these days, is believe that being German involves something more than holding a specific passport, says Eugypppius.
• “US hits out at Germany’s ‘tyranny’ after AfD designated extreme group” – J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio have condemned the move in Germany that gives the authorities greater leeway to monitor the AfD and paves the way for a ban, reports the Telegraph.
• “Banning populists only fuels anger against elites” – Germany’s first step towards outlawing the AfD is just the type of hubris that gives rise to populism in the first place, warns Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph.
• “‘Extremism’ label will only help the AfD” – The latest move against the AfD will only backfire, says Katja Hoyer in UnHerd.
• “Miliband sacks Dame Mary Archer from Net Zero adviser role” – Dame Mary Archer has been sacked from the board of Ed Miliband’s Net Zero department in what has been described as an attempt to “suppress all opposition” to his policies, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ed Miliband’s team of climate extremists is leading us to disaster” – Looking at the Energy and Climate Change Secretary’s top team, it’s almost as if we have Extinction Rebellion directing the UK’s energy policy, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Do Green voters know what they’ve done?” – Those who voted Green in ignorance of its trans and Left-wing extremism will spend the next four years regretting their vote, says Julie Bindel in the Spectator.
• “NHS trust uses derogatory ‘terf’ slur in official guidance” – An NHS trust has come under fire for using the derogatory term ‘terf’ in a guide on how to support transgender staff, the Telegraph reports.
• “The Kneecap row makes our cultural elite look like brazen hypocrites” – More than 100 of Britain’s leading pop stars – including Paul Weller, Brian Eno, Thin Lizzy and Primal Scream – have signed an open letter, stoutly defending Kneecap’s “artistic freedom of expression”. The Telegraph‘s Michael Deacon suggests this commitment to free speech won’t extend to less woke causes.
• “BBC to launch review of Gaza coverage after antisemitism claims” – The BBC is to appoint an independent figure to investigate its Arabic channel after several of the channel’s contributors posted anti-Jewish sentiments and expressed support for Hamas, the Telegraph reports.
• “Iceland has abandoned free speech” – A gay-rights activist faces new charges for thoughtcrime, says Andrew Doyle on Substack.
• “Bridget Phillipson’s perfect storm for schools” – In its manifesto, Labour pledged to recruit 6,500 new teachers and the Education Secretary reiterated this a few days after the election. It’s not exactly going to plan, says Toby in the Spectator.
• “Labour VAT raid blamed for closure of ‘outstanding’ prep school” – A private school has said it is closing down in part because of higher taxes imposed under Labour, reports the Telegraph.
• “Net Zero and Slave Labour” – Paul Sutton composes an ode to Ed Miliband.
• “Woke is sinking fast. Ireland’s elites want to go down with the ship” – The liberal establishment is unwilling to admit the foreign origins of the dogmas it now clings to, says Michael Murphy in the Telegraph.
• “David Horowitz, intellectual godfather of the Trump administration” – Telegraph obituary for David Horowitz, who has died aged 86.
• “Inside town convulsed by fear after 300 male migrants arrived at hotel” – Six months on from moving into a hotel in Altrincham, the Mail has discovered many of the original migrant arrivals have been evicted, only to start living in tents nearby.
• “Britain is ‘compliant servant of communist China’, says Trump’s tariff chief” – Donald Trump’s tariffs tsar has accused Britain of being a “compliant servant of communist China” at risk of having its “blood sucked” dry by Beijing, in an interview with the Telegraph.
• “CCP releases White Paper on COVID-19 origin: A desperate struggle in its death throes” – On America Out Loud, early Chinese Covid whistleblower Dr Li-meng Yan gives her take on China’s latest Covid origins propaganda.
• “Don’t ask about pronouns, university students told” – Asking someone for their pronouns is now not inclusive, university students have been told, as interrogating them could pressure them to ‘out themselves’ as transgender, the Telegraph reports.
• “Our local shuttered brewery tells the story of Labour’s assault on small businesses” – They endured Covid and declining alcohol consumption, but Labour’s tax hike was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Exmoor Ale, writes William Sitwell in the Telegraph.
• “This is unacceptable! We cannot tolerate this kind of identity politics in our society, it will bring us to ruin like it has elsewhere” – Watch on X Singapore’s Prime Minister hold an emergency press conference after content urging Muslims to vote for Islamist candidates circulates online.

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