News Round-Up

• “Whitehall chief contradicts Starmer twice over Mandelson vetting” – The Cabinet Office’s top official twice contradicted Sir Keir Starmer’s claim that he should have been told about Lord Mandelson’s failed security check, reports the Telegraph.
• “PM’s fawning message to Mandelson revealed as Cabinet ‘readies a coup’” – A gushing text from Sir Keir telling Mandelson he’d be “brilliant” has surfaced in leaked Cabinet Office files – just as senior ministers are said to be sharpening their knives, says GB News.
• “Keir Starmer’s fatal blunder at PMQs and why he may resign” – Senior ministers are privately telling the Mail’s Dan Hodges they believe the PM has made his final mistake and could be forced to hand in his resignation as early as next week.
• “Cabinet knows that Keir Starmer is done for” – There’s little loyalty owed to a PM who shows so little interest in MPs – which is why a planned exit now looks likely, says Patrick Maguire in the Times.
• “‘How the civil service turned against Starmer” – Whitehall insiders are privately describing the atmosphere in government as grimmer than at the bleakest moments of the Johnson era, writes Tim Shipman in the Spectator.
• “Angela Rayner government would tank the pound, warns Swiss bank” – A leading Swiss bank has warned that sterling could crater to Liz Truss mini-budget levels if Angela Rayner ends up in Downing Street, says the Telegraph.
• “Rachel Reeves is crushing the economy” – The Chancellor’s core gamble – that piling more money into the public sector would somehow turbocharge growth – has spectacularly failed to pay off, writes Matthew Lynn in the Spectator.
• “VAT raid on private schools costs Scotland £60 million in first year” – Labour’s flagship VAT raid on independent schools has cost the Scottish economy £60 million and 900 jobs in year one – and is set to turn into a net drain on the public finances by next year, reports the Telegraph.
• “NHS drops plans to block patients from hospitals after Telegraph exposé” – A scheme that would have forced GPs to divert a quarter of all hospital referrals has been quietly killed off after it emerged it risked rationing care and papering over the true state of waiting lists, says the Telegraph.
• “Hermer’s disgraceful decisions are putting British lives in danger” – In the Telegraph, Kemi Badenoch accuses Starmer’s closest Cabinet ally of leading a witch hunt against British soldiers.
• “Revealed: Hermer’s ‘excessive’ fees for Iraq ‘witch hunt’” – The Attorney General has been accused by the Ministry of Defence of chasing “excessive” fees for pressing claims against decorated British soldiers on behalf of Iraqi clients whose allegations his own colleagues privately doubted, reports the Telegraph.
• “Hermer not fit to oversee Troubles bill, say SAS veterans” – Former SAS troops have called on the Attorney General to step back from his role in overseeing the Troubles legislation, saying a man with his record has no business sitting in judgment over soldiers who served in Northern Ireland, says the Telegraph.
• “It’s a simple moral issue: whose side is Hermer on?” – The Attorney General’s breezy declaration that he doesn’t care whether he represents a saint or a member of al-Qaeda has left MPs on all sides demanding answers, writes Johnny Mercer in the Telegraph.
• “In Dunkirk, I discovered why French police fail to stop migrants” – Officers on the northern French coast have been structurally unable to stop migrants boarding dinghies, reports Charles Hymas in the Telegraph.
• “Afghan asylum seeker in his 20s is arrested for harassing schoolgirls” – An Afghan asylum seeker has been arrested by Surrey Police after several children were approached outside a Church of England primary school in Laleham, says the Mail.
• “Three migrants guilty of gang-raping drunk woman on Brighton beach” – Three small-boat arrivals from Egypt and Iran have been convicted of repeatedly raping an unconscious woman behind a beach hut in Brighton in what the court called a predatory and callous attack, reports the Mail.
• “Epsom rape claims came after woman ‘made confused report’” – Surrey Police has closed its investigation into the Epsom rape allegation that sparked public protests, confirming the woman had sustained an accidental head injury before making a confused report and that no sexual offence occurred, says GB News.
• “Cocaine for sale in high street corner shops” – A BBC sting has caught corner shops in the West Midlands openly selling Class A drugs, laying bare what residents describe as a complete breakdown of law and order in their towns.
• “Poll finds Reform would need Tories to govern” – New Electoral Calculus research has confirmed what many suspected: no party is anywhere near a majority, and Reform can only get to power by doing a deal with the Conservatives, says the Mail.
• “How Gaza became one of the biggest issues of the local elections” – Gaza has become the defining fault line of this month’s local elections, echoing the Iraq War era, writes Robin Simcox in the Spectator.
• “Voters get the politicians they deserve – so get ready for PM Polanski” – If voters keep making choices like Polanski, they may end up getting exactly what they asked for, warns Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “Is Zack Polanski seriously questioning Jewish safety?” – The Green leader’s remarks on Jewish safety draw withering condemnation from Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Former senior Green politician denounces ‘Corbynite takeover’ of party” – A former Green Assembly member has compared Zack Polanski’s shape-shifting politics to Boris Johnson’s and warned that the party has effectively been captured by the hard Left, says the Jewish Chronicle.
• “The Green Party candidate who wants to ‘burn Zionism to the ground’” – An NHS doctor standing for the Greens with Zack Polanski’s personal blessing has been found to have called on people to destroy Zionism and repeatedly used the slur “Zios” on social media, reports Andrew Gilligan in the Spectator.
• “Green leader Zack Polanski meets hard-Left New York mayor’s team” – The self-styled “eco-populist” has been quietly meeting aides of hard-Left New York mayor Zohran Mamdani for tips on turbocharging his social media operation ahead of the local elections, says the Mail.
• “No men, no Zionists and no Tories: Britain’s unlawful rental market exposed” – Straight men, Zionists and people with Right-of-centre or gender-critical views have been found to be routinely blocked from renting properties in open defiance of equality laws, reports the Telegraph.
• “Why is the RAF suspending cadets for criticising Islam?” – Air cadets are being suspended for criticising Islam while Islamist extremism goes unchallenged within the ranks – and the consequences for national security could be huge, warns Hugo Timms in Spiked.
• “The neglect of free speech in universities is a national embarrassment” – It shouldn’t have taken government regulation for seats of learning to finally act on cultural dysfunction, says Max Thompson in the Telegraph.
• “Nobody knows who’s in charge in Iran” – With senior IRGC commanders and the former Supreme Leader dead, Iran’s chain of command has descended into a murky power struggle that nobody on the outside – or inside – can fully read, writes Con Coughlin in the Telegraph.
• “Putin sends ship full of weapons through Channel” – The Admiral Grigorovich has brazenly escorted three vessels including the sanctioned Sparta straight through British waters, making a mockery of the Government’s threats to seize Russian shadow fleet ships, reports the Telegraph.
• “Putin is warned he faces being toppled in a revolution” – Russia’s Communist Party leader has delivered a bombshell parliamentary speech warning that the Kremlin is heading for revolution if it keeps listening to wealthy expats in Monaco rather than its own citizens, says the Mail.
• “How Tommy Robinson won the battle for MAGA’s heart” – After bypassing a US ban, Tommy Robinson has outmanoeuvred Sir Keir Starmer’s diplomatic efforts to secure the ear of Trump’s America, writes Colin Freeman in the Telegraph.
• “Tucker Carlson has had a change of heart” – Once the loudest voice of the Trump era, the former Fox News host has now publicly admitted he misled the millions who trusted him, says Ben Stockton in the Telegraph.
• “Ex-boss at Lucy Letby hospital suspected of perverting course of justice” – A former senior manager at the Countess of Chester Hospital has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after detectives raided a property as part of the ongoing Operation Duet investigation, reports the Guardian.
• “Genetic data of over 500,000 volunteers leaked in UK Biobank breach” – The confidential genetic and medical data of half a million UK citizens has been stolen from the UK Biobank and put up for sale in what is one of the most serious health data breaches in British history, says the Mail.
• “Single men shouldn’t be able to have a surrogate baby” – Society has crossed a line that treats babies as products to be purchased, warns David Shipley in the Spectator.
• “Covid vaccine severe side effects and deaths for 1 in 7 recipients?!” – Do not misread the Wong et al. study as proof of serious adverse effects in one in seven recipients – because that is simply not what it shows, says Dr Raphael Lataster on the Okay Then News Substack.
• “Robot beats elite table tennis players at their own game” – Sony AI’s robotic system Ace has beaten elite table tennis players in three out of five matches, reports the BBC.
• “BP’s new boss hit with shareholder revolt over climate rules” – New BP CEO Meg O’Neill has faced a bruising baptism of fire as shareholders clashed with the board over plans to scrap climate reporting and shift the AGM online, says the Times.
• “The contract for crisis” – Britain’s Contracts for Difference renewable subsidy scheme has been shown to swap the occasional misery of a gas price crisis for the permanent misery of a subsidy one, writes Richard Lyon on his Substack.
• “Guardian: At 1.5°C 90% of coral reefs will die” – The Guardian has warned that 90% of coral reefs will die if warming hits 1.5°C – somewhat undermined by the fact that the world has already breached that threshold and the reefs are still there, says Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
• “New paper: US temperature extremes have declined since 1899” – A new study has found that both hot and cold temperature extremes across the US have actually fallen since 1899, reports Anthony Watts on Clintel.
• “How environmentalism’s ‘follow the science’ became the enemy of scientific progress” – The green movement’s demand that everyone defer to settled consensus has quietly morphed from a defence of science into one of the most effective weapons against genuine scientific inquiry, says Marc Oestreich on RealClearEnergy.
• “Earth Day’s flawed premise: the planet does best when the country does more” – Every Earth Day, environmentalists demand that prosperous industrial civilisations feel guilty for their existence – but the evidence suggests wealthy, productive nations are precisely the ones best placed to clean up the planet, writes Chris Johnson in the Washington Examiner.
• “Obama-appointed judge Denise J. Casper blocks Trump administration’s efforts to stop ‘green new scam’” – A federal judge appointed by Barack Obama has halted Trump administration moves to rein in wind and solar development, ruling they are likely unlawful, says Breitbart.
• “The new age of transgender rage” – A year after the Supreme Court ruled that gender means biological sex, the Government has still failed to implement workable guidance – and the fury on all sides is growing, writes Max Jeffery in the Spectator.
• “Legal rocket needs to end last outliers of transgender ideology” – A few stubborn pockets of transgender ideology remain embedded in sport and law, notes Oliver Brown in the Telegraph.
• “Millwall may sue council over KKK figure wearing club badge in booklet” – Millwall are considering legal action after Westminster City Council plastered the club’s badge onto a Ku Klux Klan figure in a children’s educational booklet distributed across local schools, according to GB News.

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