“The three main parties are today facing ‘Fallout Friday’ as they suffer the results of a Ukip surge in local and European elections. … Labour was braced to fall short of expectations, the Liberal Democrats were warned they face ‘meltdown’ in many areas and the Conservatives expected to lose hundreds of seats and finish third in the European Parliament elections. … In the first two wards to declare last night, in the Labour heartland of Sunderland, though the opposition clung on Ukip scored 30 per cent and 33 per cent, having previously registered almost no support in the area.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
> Today:
> Yesterday:
“Some Conservative backbenchers have called for an electoral pact with UKIP going into the general election, with Jacob-Rees-Mogg warning UKIP could split the ‘small c Conservative vote’ and let Labour in. … Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps rejected a formal deal between the two parties, saying there was ‘no question of a pact per se’. … UKIP’s chairman Steve Crowther also poured cold water on the suggestion.” – BBC
“A Tory backbencher has slammed the party for ‘smearing’ Ukip – and called for a 2015 Election pact with Nigel Farage. … Douglas Carswell said the relentless attacks on ‘basically good people’ by the Conservatives had backfired completely.” – The Sun (£)
> Yesterday: Sunder Katwala on Comment: The Ukippers you can talk to – and those that you can’t
“Theresa May has been installed as the favourite to succeed David Cameron as her extraordinary confrontation with police leaders was hailed as one of the bravest political speeches of recent decades. … One senior Conservative woman said: ‘Theresa was already a contender to succeed David Cameron but some of my more boorish male colleagues haven’t taken the idea entirely seriously. That will now change.’” – Daily Mail
“Andrew Haldenby, director of the pro-market think-tank, Reform, sees Ms May as ‘the great reformer of this parliament’ on whose watch crime has fallen, even as she has coped with a 25 per cent budget cut over the life of the parliament.” – Financial Times
> Yesterday: WATCH: Theresa May – “The police must change, and so must the Federation”
“Anger is growing among senior party figures who believe that a ‘lacklustre’ campaign failed to tackle the threat from Ukip, underplayed the party’s position on immigration, and was out of touch with people on the street. … Doubts were also growing over Mr Miliband’s image after a series of interviews and disastrous photographs. … One leading Labour figure told The Times: ‘The narrative around Ed Miliband, because it’s the truth, is that he looks weird, sounds weird, is weird.'” – The Times (£)
“A former Labour minister has attacked Ed Miliband for making a ‘professional mistake’ with his grocery bill gaffe, as he warned that the Labour leader lacks ‘an immediate appeal to the electorate’.” – The Guardian
> Yesterday: Andrew Lilico on Comment: I wish that Miliband really was a geek – like me
“Senior Conservative and Liberal Democrats will seek to steady party nerves and demonstrate the Government has not run out of steam in the coming weeks, following what are expected to be poor results for the Coalition partners in the council and European elections. … David Cameron and Nick Clegg will mount a fresh attempt to turn the spotlight on the improving health of the economy and will set out the Coalition programme for the next 11 months in the Queen’s Speech.” – The Independent
“Up to 12,500 patients are dying needlessly every year on NHS wards because of blunders by staff, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt revealed last night. … He also said errors considered so serious they should never happen occurred six times a week. … Mr Hunt said: ‘These are utterly, utterly shocking things that are happening week in, week out in our NHS. … Every fortnight we put the wrong prosthesis on someone, every week we operate on the wrong part of someone’s body.'” – Daily Mail
“The Government borrowed £11.5billion in April – up £1.9billion on the same month last year. … Experts blamed a slump in tax receipts compared to 12 months ago. … Overall, Government borrowing in 2013/14 was £7.8billion less than in 2012/13. … The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that the deficit – the difference between what the Government raises and what it spends – will fall by 11 per cent this year. … But economists said the latest figures cast doubt on whether that will be achieved.” – The Sun (£)
“A massive 45,000 Romanians and Bulgarians registered to work in Britain in the first three months of 2014 after controls were lifted on them. … The number of National Insurance numbers issued to workers from the two new eastern EU countries also more than doubled in the year to March – from 29,000 to 65,000 – official statistics also revealed. … And total net immigration from everywhere soared to 212,000 for the whole of 2013.” – The Sun (£)
And comment:
“GCSE and A-level results will fall at some schools this summer following a crackdown on resits, watchdogs are warning. … Ofqual, the exam standards watchdog, has disclosed that ‘greater variation’ in results across schools is likely this year because of sweeping reforms to public exams. … Teenagers taking GCSEs will be sitting all their exams at the end of the two-year course for the first time this summer after ministers acted to end a growing resitting culture.” – Daily Mail
“New rules making it easier for prisoners to be granted days out from jail were pushed through two years ago. … The Coalition gave prison governors ‘exceptional’ powers to grant controversial temporary release licences to serious and violent criminals. … The bombshell memo seen by the Sun admits the changes will mean ‘an increase in the number of applications for overnight release’. The rules were changed due to capacity problems in Open jails.” – The Sun (£)
And comment:
“This is at odds with the rhetoric of those who would have the UK leave the EU tomorrow. What they fail to acknowledge is that the creation of the European Union and the single market was, in itself, one of the biggest deregulations in history. The separate regulatory regimes of 28 member states have in large part been swept aside in favour of a single body of regulations establishing common standards of food safety, health and environmental standards, consumer protection and so on. This makes the EU the most extraordinary platform for reducing regulation ever conceived.” – Ken Clarke, Daily Telegraph
“Shoppers should go to their local high street instead of using websites such as eBay if they want to ensure that their personal information is secure, a minister has said. … Brandon Lewis, the communities minister, said that while the internet offered ‘speed and convenience’, it lacked the security that dealing face to face with a shopkeeper would offer.” – Daily Telegraph
“A ‘political fix’ is putting Gatwick airport in pole position to get a new runway, London mayor Boris Johnson claimed, as he appealed to the Airports Commission to take a longer view and reconsider building a new hub. … The mayor has submitted a new dossier to the commission, which had made its scepticism over his favoured plan of a Thames estuary airport project clear but revised its timetable to allow Johnson to address critical questions.” – The Guardian
“The government is expected to announce on Friday that the Weald Basin in southern England contains billions of barrels of shale oil, delivering a potentially huge boost to an embryonic industry in the UK. … The announcement will set the scene for a stand-off between Britain’s small band of domestic shale explorers and the well-heeled residents of one of the Tories’ traditional heartlands.” – Financial Times
“The SNP used its parliamentary majority to water down crucial concerns about an independent Scotland’s membership of the European Union, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. … Nationalist MSPs on a Holyrood committee examining the issue softened criticisms of the Scottish Government’s stance in a major report to be published today, against the will of opposition members.” – Daily Telegraph
“AstraZeneca is facing mounting pressure from its shareholders to do a deal to sell itself to US rival Pfizer, it emerged last night. … Days after it rejected a £69billion bid for the company, the British drug maker’s largest investor has urged it to return to the negotiating table. … US mega-fund Blackrock, which owns a 7.8per cent stake in the company, has told the board it was wrong to walk away from talks.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“Russia yesterday lashed out at Prince Charles for comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler, publicly questioning his fitness to be king. … As controversy continued to rage around the world, Russia’s foreign ministry said his remarks were ‘unacceptable, outrageous and dishonourable’ and ‘not worthy of a future British monarch’. … Russian diplomats insisted on meeting counterparts in London, where they are understood to have demanded an official explanation.” – Daily Mail
And comment:
“A Tory MP stunned telly viewers by saying “f******” live on air. … Former police minister Nick Herbert turned the air blue on BBC2’s Daily Politics during a discussion on the Police Federation. … He was quoting from a tweet about Theresa May by former Met officer Peter Kirkham, who was also a guest on the programme.” – The Sun (£)