UK politics - live: Reform level with Labour in new poll as Treasury responds to gloomy economy update
New poll by FindOutNowUK marks a fresh political blow for Sir Keir Starmer who has overseen a rocky start to his leadership of the country
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir Keir Starmer has been dealt a further blow with a new poll predicting Labour would lose its overall majority if an election was held now.
The poll by FindOutNowUK has put Reform level pegging with Labour on 25 per cent and the Tories five points behind on 20 per cent. According to the calculations, if the result was repeated in a general election Labour would lose 173 seats but remain the largest party on 238.
Reform would leap into second place from the five MPs to 170, taking deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel’s seats. The Tories would be left with just 89 seats and a viable government could only be formed with a deal between Labour and the Lib Dems on 70 seats and SNP on 42.
The poll, which comes after a survey by think tank More in Common that also found Labour would lose its majority, marks a fresh political blow for Sir Keir who has overseen a rocky start to his leadership of the country.
There are also fears over the economy with the pound plunging to its lowest level for over a year after a rout in the bond markets. And with government borrowing costs also increasing, Treasury minister Darren Jones has warned that “public services will have to live within their means”.
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Conservative MP calls for Lucy Letby retrial
Conservative former minister Sir David Davis has called for a retrial of child serial killer Lucy Letby.
During an adjournment debate in the Commons he told MPs: “There is case in justice, in my view, for a retrial. But there is a problem: one of the problems we face is that much of the evidence was available at the time.
“What I have described is an expert analysis of the case notes, which were there at the time, but it was simply not presented to the jury. This means the Court of Appeal can dismiss it, basically saying the defence should have presented it at the initial trial.
“It is in essence saying, ‘if your defence team weren’t good enough to present this evidence, hard luck, you stay banged-up for life’.
“Now that may be judicially convenient, but it’s not justice.”
Sir David said earlier in the debate: “There was no hard evidence against Letby, nobody saw her do anything untoward. The doctor’s gut feeling was based on a coincidence she was on shift for a number of deaths, and this is important, although far from all of them, far from all of them.
“It was built on a poor understanding of probabilities, which could translate later into an influential but spectacularly flawed piece of evidence.”
Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Farage says Reform will host inquiry after Tory amendment loses
Nigel Farage has confirmed that Reform UK will “absolutely” work to set up its own inquiry into grooming gangs.
He told GB News: “Oh, absolutely yes. If the Government does not give in, we don’t get a proper inquiry into this, and goodness knows, we do need one, then we will raise the money and we will appoint or find some sort of independent retired judges to run the thing.
“Yeah, no, no, we’re not going to back off from this. The country deserves to know the truth about, firstly, the extent of what happened, and secondly, the extent of the cover up, and who was involved in that cover up.”
All Labour MPs respect whip on vote
The division list showed no Labour MPs voted in favour of the Conservative amendment.
The 111 MPs who supported the amendment included 101 Conservatives, five Reform UK, two DUP, the TUV’s Jim Allister, UUP’s MP Robin Swann and Independent Alex Easton.
Chris Philp says Tories will not let Labour ‘forget this act of cowardice’ after amendment loses
The Tories accused Labour MPs of having “turned a blind eye to justice for the victims” of grooming gangs after a Conservative bid to launch another national inquiry was rejected in a Commons vote.
The Opposition amendment, if approved, would have prevented the Government’s Bill aimed at protecting children from making progress.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “It is disgusting that Keir Starmer has used his supermajority in Parliament to block a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.
“Labour MPs have put their party ahead of getting to the truth and turned a blind eye to justice for the victims. Labour MPs will have to explain to the British people why they are against learning the truth behind the torture and rape of countless vulnerable girls.
“We will not let them forget this act of cowardice.”
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