The Badenoch dilemma: what to do now the Tories are no longer the default rightwing option | Henry Hill A ‘Kemi bounce’ has geed the party up, but as it heads into the May elections it still lacks the policies to win voters over, says commentator Henry Hill

"Historically, the Tories could coast on simply being “the rightwing option”. In a world with more than one such option, their offer isn’t nearly refined enough"

@HCH_Hill on Tory Spring conference & the 'Kemi bounce'🤔

#r4today #LVIPolitics #KemiBadenoch

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

While people feel the foundations of their lives are shaking, this deep crisis will continue | Clive Lewis The partisan debate since the Gorton and Denton byelection risks blinding us to the truth. People are rejecting wholesale the way our politics has developed, says Labour MP Clive Lewis

Legitimacy “will be rebuilt only through a visible rebalancing of power away from concentrated wealth back towards democratic control”

@labourlewis.bsky.social on the wider crisis in 🇬🇧 politics

#LVIPolitics #GortonandDenton #KeirStarmer #r4today #Labour

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Suddenly the party of free speech, er, doesn’t want free speech🤦‍♂️🤔

#ReformUK #NigelFarage #r4today #SkyNews #LVIPolitics #SeneddElections #Election2026

Labour is stubborn in defeat because it knows this: we face the belated end of the political 20th century | John Harris In Gorton and Denton, I heard again and again that people wanted seismic political change – Labour and the Tories are no longer part of that conversation, says Guardian columnist John Harris

@johnharris1969.bsky.social wonders at #KeirStarmer's peevish #GortonAndDenton response: lauding #ReformUK supporters as 'hero voters' yet slamming Greens as extremists

Tension btw Westminster & real world cannot be sustained much longer

#LVIPolitics #r4today

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Libby Purves worries the Green manifesto lacks coherence or seriousness

Well, maybe

That’s the flaw (or joy) in populism: simple slogans for complex problems, not coherent detail

Please make the same criticism of Reform!!

#GreenParty #HannahSpencer #ReformUK #LVIPolitics #r4today

Peter Brookes on Keir Starmer’s reaction as Gorton & Denton goes Green 😂😂

#GortonAndDenton #HannahSpencer #r4today #LVIPolitics #MattGoodwin #GreenParty #KeirStarmer #Labour #skynews #GortonandDentonByElection

“Working hard used to get you a house, a nice life. What does working hard get you now?”

@frasernellson.bsky.social on the power of #HannahSpencer asking the big Q & winning the #GortonandDentonByElection

#r4today #KeirStarmer #NigelFarage #LVIPolitics

Graceless & mistaken of Reform to blame the 4000 #GortonAndDenton loss on sectarianism - but it plays to their ➗populism so 🤷

But if Labour comfort themselves their loss is mainly down to Muslim 🗳️it’ll slow the changes they need to make

#HannahSpencer #r4today #LVIPolitics

“Working hard used to get you a house, a nice life. What does working hard get you now?”

The killer Q from  Hannah Spencer which will resonate with everyone under 40 & chill the blood of Keir Starmer & Kemi Badenoch

The Q for #GE2029

#GortonAndDenton #HannahSpencer #r4today #LVIPolitics

Greens🥇win first ever HoC by-election comfortably, 47% of the vote, 4000 majority, defeating Reform🥈& pushing Labour into🥉

Keir Starmer threatened by insurgents on left & right

#GortonAndDenton #HannahSpencer #r4today #LVIPolitics

Caerphilly, Gorton & Denton: both by elections saw the anti-Reform vote combine to win

What does this mean for #ReformUK & tactical voting #GE2029?

Worrying for Labour & Conservatives that it’s Plaid & Greens who are the beneficiaries

#GortonAndDenton #r4today #LVIPolitics

Sir Chris Wormald forced out as head of Civil Service The Cabinet Office says the move is

Much more embarrassing for Keir Starmer is that he only appointed Sir Chris Wormald to the post 14 months ago, against the advice of some, has now changed his mind & bundled him out with lots of taxpayer 💰 💰

#LVIPolitics #AntoniaRomeo
#KeirStarmer

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Starmer appoints Antonia Romeo as head of the civil service PM ‘delighted’ to fill position with ‘outstanding public servant’ – who becomes first woman to hold cabinet secretary role

Another glass ceiling broken as Keir Starmer appoints Antonia Romeo as the first woman Cabinet Secretary, after stints running 3 govt depts as Permanent Secretary

Gets things done, apparently - so much needed

#LVIPolitics #AntoniaRomeo #KeirStarmer

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The Tony Blair Story With full access, the story of one of Britain's most successful and controversial leaders

The Tony Blair Story, just starting on @Channel4 now & on More 4, is a must watch for all #LVIPolitics & #UVIPolitics students

#TheTonyBlairStory

www.channel4.com/programmes/t...

The Tugendhat v Braverman 🥊has been quite something 🍿⬇️

A sign of the depth of the rift on the right, there for a decade but bursting into the open for a bloody🩸#GE2029 death fight

#r4today #ReformUK #Conservatives #LVIPolitics

How the Downing Street machine ensured Starmer survived to fight another day There was a very real chance the PM would be out after losing two senior staffers but some well-organised support bought him some time

What a day in Downing Street! @kiranstacey.bsky.social's inside story on how the new team in No 10 coped & helped Keir Starmer fight another day

#AnasSarwar #KeirStarmer #Mandleson #MorganMcSweeney #r4today #LVIPolitics

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Sarwar has shown his ruthless streak. But will his swipe at Starmer mean anything to voters? Scottish Labour leader is gambling that by declaring his loyalty to Scotland, the electorate will rally behind him

What was Anas Sarwar thinking? 🚀his leader, calling for #KeirStarmerResignation in the run up to important elections! @severincarrell.bsky.social analyses his huge gamble

#AnasSarwar #KeirStarmer #Mandleson #Holyrood26 #r4today #LVIPolitics

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Why has Peter Mandleson been so important to New Labour?

In the Brown Govt he went into the Cabinet for the 3rd time (after 2 scandals & resignations) This🎞️is from then, pre #Epstein revelations
#Mandelson #EpsteinFiles #r4today #LVIPolitics

youtu.be/b3NzOSFaBh8?...

Despite Peter Mandleson’s huge PERSONAL failings, Matthew Parris recalls his giant POLITICAL achievements

#PeterMandelson #Mandelson #KeirStarmer #EpsteinFiles #Epstein #r4today #skynews #LVIPolitics

Oh dear! This #BBCLauraK Reform: Ready to Rule? programme is going to be part love in* part self-justification for her & #bbcqt having Farage on so, so often

*remember her & Boris Johnson❤️ 🤦‍♂️😱

#MustWatch #LVIPolitics #NigelFarage #BBCLauraK #ReformUK

Reform: Ready to Rule? With Reform UK leading in the polls, Laura Kuenssberg explores the party’s ambitions, organisation and growing influence, asking whether it can evolve into a credible party ready to govern.

Reform: Ready to Rule? @bbclaurak.bsky.social talks to leading Reform’ers as the party professionalises, prepares for key elections & potentially a BIG leap to power

On @bbciplayer.bsky.social or BBC TWO NOW

#MustWatch #LVIPolitics #NigelFarage #BBCLauraK #ReformUK

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

‘You can tell the mood has changed’: How Plaid Cymru led the Welsh fightback against Reform Nigel Farage’s party was on the charge in Wales – but after the seismic Caerphilly byelection, progressives now believe they can come out on top in May

In Wales after Caerphilly & Nathan Gill @guardianpolitics.bsky.social's Bethan McKernan finds #ReformUK has plateaued whilst #PlaidCymru enjoys momentum ahead of May's #Senedd elections

#LVIPolitics #Senedd26 #r4today #NigelFarage #RhunApIorwerth

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In Gorton and Denton, I found a long-festering sense of fury that Labour has no idea how to tackle | John Harris The people I met were disconnected and angry at the same time. Even if Labour somehow wins this byelection, how does it arrest the slide into hopelessness, asks Guardian columnist John Harris

In #GortonAndDenton @johnharris1969.bsky.social finds "a long-festering sense of disconnection & fury reaching a new extreme" with Labour challenged by Reform & the Green call to “Make hope normal again.”
#LVIPolitics #r4today #KeirStarmer #NigelFarage

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘It’s about ego’: Matt Goodwin’s journey from far-right expert to firebrand Reform candidate Anti-immigration activist is contesting poll in borough where he previously researched far-right extremism

Who is Matt Goodwin, Reform UK's by-election candidate? @danielboffey traces his career so far, from academic to would be #ReformUK MP

#MattGoodwin #GortonandDenton #NigelFarage #r4today #LVIPolitics

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

1) The imminent end of the 2 party system’s been trailed for 40+ years

2) Farage’s big achievement since #GE2024 isn’t breaking the 2 party system but positioning ReformUK as 1 of those 2 big parties. Can Kemi get that spot back?

#NigelFarage #KemiBadenoch #r4today #LVIPolitics

Another entertaining opinion poll projection of a new House of Commons

Certainly multi party, fractured voting. But in a GE would tactical voting & a Keir V Nigel Presidential contest drive votes back to two big parties?

#r4today #NigelFarage #KeirStarmer #LVIPolitics #GE2029

With Suella Braverman’s defection, rewatch her greatest 📺with @krishgm.bsky.social 😫🤦‍♂️

She made her name here, as ERG whip AGAINST her own Tory govt during BrexitSo this new defection/ betrayal is no surprise

#ReformUK #SuellaBraverman #NigelFarage #r4today #LVIPolitics

x.com/brexit_sham/...

“To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”

@blowercartoons on Starmer & the blocking of The King of the North

#AndyBurnham #KeirStarmer #GortonAndDenton #Labour #r4today #LVIPolitics

Now the nutters have gone it’s time for Kemi Badenoch to take the Tory party back to One Nation to fill the yawning hole at the centre of British politics says Matthew Parris

#KemiBadenoch #RobertJenrick
#NigelFarage #r4today #LVIPolitics

Robert Jenrick is right: Kemi Badenoch SHOULD have kicked Liz Truss out of the Conservative Party

She did the country🇬🇧 & #Tory Party immense harm, the voters of SW Norfolk had the 🧠to kick her out 🗳️!

It’d have been Kemi’s best way to a fast reset. Opportunity missed🤦‍♂️

#r4today #LVIPolitics