The Treasury Minister was called out by interviewers this morning after claiming that food prices are coming down, despite this not being the case.  Speaking on Good Morning Breakfast about the news that UK inflation has fallen to 3.2%, Laura Trott said it was “great news for people at home” as it meant prices were falling. Trott told the presenters: “Crucially we saw food prices coming down and this hasn’t happened by accident, this has been a result of the government working very hard with the bank and policy committee to make sure we got these inflation rates coming down steadily now ..read more

Voters still support the Labour Party’s plan to end the VAT exemption on private school fees, despite the right-wing press launching a moral panic over the issue. In recent weeks and months, the right-wing press has attacked Labour’s plans, but voters are still backing the policy, according to the findings of an exclusive poll carried out by Savanta for Left Foot Forward. The poll, which asked voters if they supported or opposed a plan to end the VAT exemption on private school fees, found that 42% of those asked were in favour of ending the VAT exemption on private school fees, while 23% oppo ..read more

Rishi Sunak was left humiliated at Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon, after trying to attack Labour’s Deputy leader Angela Rayner over her tax affairs, with Keir Starmer accusing the billionaire Prime Minister of ‘smearing a working class woman’. During a heated exchange, Sunak tried to use the police investigation into Rayner’s tax affairs as a deflection strategy. Greater Manchester Police is looking into claims Rayner may have broken electoral law in the early 2010s. The MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne was registered on the electoral roll at her Stockport council house from 2007 until 2015 ..read more

Last year the Liberal Democrats celebrated local council victories after making gains in traditional Tory areas in England and taking control of 12 councils.  In the upcoming May local elections the Lib Dems are looking to defend about 400 seats and continue to make progress in Tory ‘Blue Wall’ areas ahead of the next general election. So what would success look like in 2024 for the Lib Dems? In 2023 the party made a 3% gain in council seats on the previous year, so will be hoping to maintain a similar trend this year. Ed Davey said the party hopes to pick up voters who feel fed up by the ..read more

The Tories have been shamed by the government’s own environment data which has revealed Conservative MPs sit in three quarters of the constituencies worst hit by sewage spills last year. The Prime Minister’s own seat in Richmond, North Yorkshire, came out tenth worst on the list of constituencies in England affected the most by the discharge of raw sewage blighting the area’s waterways.  Analysis conducted by the Liberal Democrats and reported first in The Times found 75 out of the top 100 worst affected constituencies are held by Tory MPs, in a further blow to the party’s abysmal record ..read more

A Tory minister endured a humiliating interview today when answering questions about the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill, which forms a key part of his plan to stop small boat crossings across the channel, is currently going through a Parliamentary ‘ping-pong’ stage, with the Commons rejecting the Lords’ latest amendments, one of which would have granted a removal exemption for people who had supported the UK’s armed forces overseas. The bill has faced a number of legal setbacks, after the Supreme Court ruled last year that it could le ..read more

Progressive parties have been called upon to build an alliance in order to oust the Tories in the upcoming May elections, after new research revealed an overwhelming number of Tory-run councils won on less than 50% of the vote in the last elections.  Labour’s lead in the polls should not lull voters into a “false sense of security”, the political pressure group Compass has warned, after research by the organisation found that 83% of Tory majority-run councils up for re-election in May were won on a minority share of the vote when last contested.  Due to the First Past the Post (FPTP ..read more

Polling of voter intentions in the West Midlands Mayoral Election race has left political commentators surprised, and reflects just how bad a defeat the Tories could face at the upcoming elections.  With less than three weeks until local elections across the country, research company Redfield and Wilton strategies carried out a poll asking people in the region who they would vote for as West Midlands Mayor.  The current Tory mayor Andy Street was first elected in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021 on a comfortable win against Labour. He continues to hold a positive net approval rating o ..read more

When England’s water industry was privatised in 1989, we were told it would lead to ‘shareholder democracy’. Instead, what we’ve seen is a monopoly which has resulted in consumer bills soaring, while infrastructure deteriorates and the debt of water companies soars. Since the 1990s, investment by the 10 largest water and sewage companies has fallen by 15%. Now new research published by the Financial Times has found that 16 water monopolies have paid out a total of £78bn in dividends in the 32 years since privatisation. The paper states: “The £78bn payout is nearly half the £190bn the companies ..read more

Having a privatised water system has not only cost us on an environmental level but comes at a large customer expense, while we continue to hear how the mega-rich investors and companies are reaping rewards.  England is now the only country to have a fully privatised water and sewage system, while Welsh water is also run privately but now as a not for profit. As a result, we’re left with almost all UK’s waterways being considered too polluted to swim in and an eye-watering financial cost as customer bills flow into the pockets of company shareholders.  In England water company debt h ..read more