Politics

It seems Angela Rayner is in hot water again. The Labour deputy leader might have thought she had escaped unscathed from claims about the sale of her ex-council house. But Greater Manchester Police (GMP) now says it is reassessing its previous decision not to investigate allegations that she gave false information on official documents, in a potential breach of electoral law. A sub-optimal start for Labour’s local election campaign today… For her part, Rayner continues to protest her innocence. She insists that the row is ‘manufactured’ in an attempt to ‘smear’ her. She told Newsnight last week that there had been ‘no wrongdoing’ and “no unlawfulness’, adding: ‘I’ve been very clear

The fall-out continues from Friday’s attack on Moscow concert hall attack in which 139 people were reported dead. Russian officials have directly accused Ukraine and the West of being involved – despite, er, the Islamic State claiming responsibility and releasing video of the atrocity. But in their bid to prove their side of events, the Russian state press is now citing an unlikely ‘expert opinion’. Step forward George Galloway, the newly-elected MP for Rochdale, who is quoted approvingly at length in Russkaya Gazeta today, giving an ‘expert opinion.’ The quotes appear to be a distilled version of comments which Galloway made on his YouTube channel on Sunday. He suggested to viewers

Rishi Sunak doesn’t speak much about his five priorities these days, apart from inflation, which ‘halved’ as promised. On NHS waiting lists, small boats, the economy and the public finances, the news hasn’t been nearly as positive – and people have noticed. Satisfaction with the National Health Service has hit its lowest point since records began, according to this morning’s British Social Attitudes survey, which reveals that fewer than one in four respondents were happy with their experience of accessing and receiving healthcare. The main gripe is those sky-high waitlists that the government promised would be falling by now: 71 per cent cited the struggle to get both GP and

Abdul Ezedi is dead and gone. The Clapham acid attacker was laid to rest in a Muslim burial at a cemetery in east London after a funeral at a mosque in the west of the capital. This is what his family and friends wanted for him. Given that we know he was a loyal customer of his local halal butchers in Newcastle right up until the end, we must presume it is what he would have wanted for himself too. Head-in-the-clouds vicars are a longstanding stereotype. But judges are supposed to be different Even the liberal dolts of our establishment – church leaders, immigration judges and the like – appear