News Round-Up

• “Miliband front-runner to be Burnham’s chancellor” – Ed Miliband is pushing to be made Chancellor should Andy Burnham become Prime Minister, according to Labour sources, reports the Telegraph.
• “Andy Burnham: I’ll cut welfare bill to fund defence” – Andy Burnham has set out a two-stage plan to “change politics” and says the Makerfield by-election will serve as a “focus group for the country”, writes the Times.
• “Defence crisis sets Labour up for bloody civil war” – Labour MPs have formed a circular firing squad over the defence spending row, with Andy Burnham in danger of catching stray bullets during a drawn-out leadership contest, says the Telegraph.
• “I believe the vital by-election will be closer than expected” – With Nigel Farage’s war cry echoing from the local elections and every opposition voice in Makerfield now saying “Get Starmer Out”, the by-election looks set to be far tighter than anyone predicted, notes Robert Hardman in the Mail.
• “Starmer has chosen welfare over defence, and Britain will pay a terrible price” – Sir Keir Starmer’s prioritisation of welfare over defence will carry a severe cost for Britain, writes Tom Tugendhat in the Telegraph.
• “Dan Jarvis has disgraced himself and let our troops down” – Dan Jarvis should have refused to accept the role of Defence Secretary given the inadequate spending levels in the so-called Defence Investment Plan, argues Richard Kemp in the Telegraph.
• “Britain is facing a 1938 moment” – The resignations of John Healey and Al Carns expose just how dangerously unprepared the UK is for the conflict that lies ahead, says David Davis in the Telegraph.
• “The Waspi women are grifters” – Andy Burnham was right to U-turn on his pledge to “stick by” the Waspi women, having initially made the promise at a Makerfield hustings, says Michael Simmons in the Spectator.
• “A zombie government devoid of authority” – Sir Keir Starmer continues to go through the motions of governing even as his authority has been entirely extinguished, says the Mail in an editorial.
• “Makeshift barricade set on fire in Belfast on third night of riots” – A makeshift barrier was set ablaze near residential homes in Belfast on the third consecutive night of protests following Monday’s knife attack by a Sudanese migrant, reports the Mail.
• “Girl, 17, stabbed in the neck in Lancashire street attack” – A 30 year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 17 year-old girl was stabbed in the neck in a Lancashire street attack, reports BBC News.
• “Iraqi asylum seeker who raped girls is jailed for 29 years” – Bawan Harwe, 28, who groomed girls aged between 12 and 16 using a fake name before raping and abusing them, has been sentenced to 29 years in prison, reveals the Mail.
• “The lesson of Belfast’s riots” – With peace walls and CCTV sentry towers still dividing communities in Belfast, the fault lines behind this week’s disorder run far deeper than a single incident, says Max Jeffery in the Spectator.
• “The fire next time” – On his Substack, Andrew Sullivan argues that the white race riots in Britain herald the beginning of Europe’s future civil wars.
• “Hilary Benn: new powers will target ‘false information’ online during ‘crisis’ events like Belfast” – Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has confirmed that Ofcom will be handed new powers to clamp down on what the Government defines as ‘false information’ during events like the Belfast riots, reports Guido Fawkes.
• “Britain can’t trust Ireland to manage its borders” – The Irish land border remains the only frontier in Europe that is effectively unpoliced, raising urgent questions about whether Britain can rely on Dublin to control who crosses it, writes David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “How the greatest migration experiment since Brexit could transform Europe” – Switzerland is about to vote on a referendum that, if the ‘Yes’ side wins, would legally commit its government to cap immigration at below 10 million, says the Telegraph.
• “Palestine Action activists jailed over defence factory raid” – Four Palestine Action activists have been jailed for causing criminal damage to Elbit defence premises, with more than 70 supporters arrested outside court during sentencing, notes the Times.
• “Dozens of children put at risk after gender care failures at GP clinic, inquiry finds” – A safety inquiry into the WellBN clinic in Brighton found that 78 children were potentially harmed after being prescribed puberty blockers and other hormone treatments without proper checks, according to BBC News.
• “Failing police force spent 46 constable salaries on diversity” – West Yorkshire Police spent more than £1.4 million on 19 diversity staff last year – equivalent to 46 constable salaries – even as the force faced serious performance failings, claims the Telegraph.
• “Britain’s debt interest bill risks eclipsing Italy’s” – The costs of servicing Britain’s £3 trillion debt are set to surpass Italy’s next year if the Iran war continues to drive up prices, says the Telegraph.
• “Genuine hope an Iran peace breakthrough could be imminent” – Details of a plan to end the war between the US and Iran on all fronts – including Lebanon – have raised genuine hopes that a peace breakthrough may be close, according to the Mail.
• “Why the Establishment will do anything to stop Farage becoming PM” – In an extract from his new biography of Nigel Farage in the Mail, Lord Ashcroft says he’s arguably the most consequential British politician of the age and examines why the Establishment is so determined to block his path to power.
• “Poll: Reform members would want hung parliament deal with Tories” – A new survey has found that 90% of Reform UK members believe the party should form a coalition or do a deal with the Conservatives in the event of a hung parliament, reports the Mail.
• “Green Party considers ban on circumcision for young children” – The Green Party is considering a ban on circumcision for young children, a procedure common in Jewish communities, says the Mail.
• “‘Zionism is Racism’ motion back on the Green agenda” – A motion declaring Zionism to be racism has returned to the Green Party’s agenda after it failed to pass at the spring conference when members filibustered to prevent it being heard, according to the Mail.
• “Will the Hinkley C nuclear power station ever open?” – The prospect of Britain facing a period with zero nuclear power is looking increasingly likely as questions mount over whether Hinkley C will ever come online, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “‘Our heat pump broke down in the depths of winter and my wife got pneumonia’” – A reader’s account of being left without heat during winter after their pump failed – and the poor customer service that followed – raises serious questions about the reliability of the technology, says the Telegraph.
• “Is Gulf Stream collapsing? Mysterious cold blob found in Atlantic” – Scientists warn that a mysterious “cold blob” detected in the North Atlantic signals that a critical ocean current may be on the verge of collapse, according to the Mail.
• “BMW’s legendary M3 is going green: 1,000bhp performance EV teased” – BMW has teased an electric M3 producing more than 1,000bhp, raising the question of whether such brute performance can finally win over committed petrolheads, notes the Mail.
• “DisInformation Chronicle podcast with Oxford Professor of Medicine Carl Heneghan” – On his Substack, Paul Thacker hosts Oxford Professor of Medicine Carl Heneghan in a podcast examining ideology and institutional failings at public health agencies.
• “Brexit’s damage to economy is fact, claims BBC” – The BBC faces accusations of bias after asserting that Brexit’s economic damage is established fact and that there is no proof it’s had any positive impact, says the Telegraph.
• “TV has abandoned a crucial duty – sending up posh liberals” – As well-to-do progressives have come to dominate television, the long and vital tradition of satirising the middle class has been quietly abandoned, writes Gareth Roberts in the Telegraph.
• “David Hockney, OM, blockbuster artist whose vivid paintings were loved by millions” – David Hockney, widely regarded as Britain’s greatest living artist and celebrated for works including A Bigger Splash, has died aged 88, reports the Telegraph.
• “David Hockney: a sublime artist – and the life and soul of every party” – Laure Freeman in the Times pays tribute to David Hockney – Yorkshire lad, Renaissance man and superlative draughtsman – who had staged more than 400 exhibitions by 2023 and declared he was “just getting going”.
• “CBS News hires Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips as global correspondent” – British journalist Trevor Phillips has been appointed global correspondent at CBS News, becoming one of the most prominent hires made by embattled editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, reveals the Guardian.
• “Is Harry and Meg’s pal the right man to run UK’s biggest arts centre?” – Misan Harriman, the Chairman of the Southbank Centre under-fire for ‘anti-Zionist’ social media posts, promised his 567,000 Instagram followers that “I will never let the truth slip away” – yet his social media profile contains a glaring omission, reports the Mail.
• “Every single person who still cringes at the memory of trying to bullshit their way through an interview or exam question: today, the slate is wiped clean” – JK Rowling marvels at the sheer idiocy of Peter Kyle endorsing the Government’s defence plan without having read it.

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