Politics

After the SNP fell short of a majority by just one seat in the Scottish Parliament elections, a stand off has formed between Nicola Sturgeon and the UK government. The First Minister has heralded a pro-independence Scottish parliament majority in Holyrood - arguing that when you take the Green party's gains north of the border into account, there is a clear case for a second independence referendum. Sturgeon plans to press ahead and legislate for a border poll – suggesting that the only way Boris Johnson can stop her is to go to court. The UK government response so far is to not engage and instead talk about the whole of the UK working together to make the Covid recovery a success.

The London election results have finally been declared and it turns out the poll were not lying: Laurence Fox is not to be the capital’s mayor. The onetime actor lost his £10,000 deposit last night after managing just 47,364 votes or, as he preferred to call it, ‘a football stadium's worth of voters.’ This was despite boasts of a £5 million war chest, the benefit of having been an ITV star for years and reams of publicity in the national press.In fairness to Fox he was not alone in this feat; other than Labour, the Tories and the Greens every other mayoral candidate lost their deposit last night. For the third time running the Lib Dems came fourth with 4.

It’s not just the Labour party which is institutionally incapable of understanding why the Conservative party kicked the hell out of them in these elections. It is also, of course, the BBC. The prime offender was — hold your breath in surprise — Emily Maitlis on Newsnight. Furlough and vaccines were the sole reason the Tories did well, according to this very affluent, metropolitan, liberal woman, who has a child in boarding school, natch. Dimbo voters again then, too dense to grasp the ‘realities'. But then there was Huw. There always is Mr Edwards. Conducting an interview with Labour’s Lucy Powell, he exuded sympathy and gratitude. No hard questions. Just ameliatory bilge.

Sir Keir Starmer has just accepted that Labour needs to 'change' and 'reconnect' with voters, following the Hartlepool by-election result. In a rather stressed and evasive TV interview, the Labour leader repeatedly said his party needed to change, but refused to say whether there would be a reshuffle, or indeed what the party's message would be. He insisted that this went 'beyond' a reshuffle or other questions of personnel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utFBBwoqvdY The reason that Starmer was asked so often about whether there would be a reshuffle is that many in his party are pressing for a number of big changes. The three people in the firing line are shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds, Starmer's political secretary Baroness Chapman, and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.

Having claimed earlier in the week that would he take 'full responsibility' for Labour's election results, it took until 4 p.m. for Keir Starmer to emerge and face the media on what went wrong in Hartlepool. In contrast to a jovial Johnson who got to do his piece to camera in front of a twenty foot blow up Boris with a newly-elected Tory MP in Teesside, Starmer had to do his in his London office – hardly a surprise given there were few newly gained seats for him to visit.A grim-faced Starmer give a painful five minute long interview that reminded Mr S of Ed Miliband's infamous 'get round the negotiating table' rehearsed attempts ten years ago.