News Round-Up

• “What happens if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election?” – From a swift transfer of power to all-out Labour civil war, the Times examines the four most likely scenarios should Andy Burnham triumph at Makerfield and Starmer refuse to go quietly.
• “Starmer fights back as ministers must decide whose side they’re on” – Sir Keir Starmer is comparing Andy Burnham’s approach to Ed Miliband’s failed 2015 election campaign as he builds a team to defend his premiership against a mounting internal challenge, reports the Telegraph.
• “Burnham accuses Reform of ‘desperate’ smear over lockdown claim” – A row has erupted after Reform reported Andy Burnham to the police over a lockdown claim, with the Greater Manchester Mayor dismissing the move as a “desperate” smear, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour ‘rushes through’ mayoral voting changes to block Reform” – A switch away from first-past-the-post, as mandated by the Labour Government, is predicted to benefit Labour’s candidate in in Manchester, assuming Burnham wins, writes the Telegraph.
• “Rupert Lowe releases independent grooming gang report” – The Great Yarmouth MP has published an independent report on grooming gangs, slamming the “appalling cowardice of those responsible for refusing to resist such horrors”, reports George Bunn in GB News.
• “White supremacists fund Rupert Lowe’s Restore party” – Donors to Rupert Lowe’s Restore party include a campaigner who founded a group calling for the expulsion of every non-white and Jewish person from Britain, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Protesters try to block people seeing Tommy Robinson at Oxford Union” – Police placed a cordon to separate far-Right supporters and far-Left campaigners from clashing outside the Oxford Union ahead of a debate featuring Tommy Robinson, writes Francine Wolfisz in the Mail.
• “Tommy Robinson’s nightmare in the city of dreaming spires” – Left-wing campaigners significantly outnumbered supporters of Tommy Robinson during his controversial appearance at the Oxford Union, says the Telegraph.
• “Channel migrants placed on Question Time by campaigners” – A charity ran a long-term campaign to place Channel migrants on Question Time as part of a coordinated effort to shift public opinion on migration, according to the Telegraph.
• “Asylum seeker who posed as child to enter UK groped schoolgirl” – An asylum seeker who falsely claimed to be a minor when entering the UK has been convicted of groping a 15 year-old girl on a train, a year after sexually assaulting another woman, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour considers allowing murderers to avoid life sentences” – A Law Commission proposal for a US-style first and second-degree murder system could allow convicted killers to escape mandatory life sentences under plans being considered by the Government, says the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer ally Lord Hermer says quitting EU ‘damaged’ Britain” – Attorney General Richard Hermer is set to attack both Nigel Farage and the Conservatives in a speech blaming Brexit for damaging Britain, writes Greg Heffer in the Mail.
• “I voted Remain in 2016. The last 10 years have made me a convinced Brexiteer” – In the Telegraph, Nigel Biggar argues that a decade of events – including the frothing inarticulacy of the Remain camp – has transformed him from a half-hearted Remainer into a committed Brexiteer.
• “The 14-point Iran deal in full – and how it favours Tehran” – A detailed breakdown of the emerging US-Iran nuclear agreement reveals that its terms on limiting Iranian nuclear activity come bundled with significant economic concessions to Tehran, reports the Telegraph.
• “Israel must now bear the brunt of fighting Iran alone” – In the Spectator, Jonathan Spyer warns that with Hezbollah having re-entered the conflict in March and northern Israeli border communities depopulated by attacks, Israel faces the Iranian threat increasingly without allied support.
• “Oxfordshire seeks first ban on Union flags in street” – The Liberal Democrat-led Oxfordshire County Council has applied for a High Court injunction to prevent people placing Union flags on or near public highways, in what would be a first-of-its-kind ban, reports the Telegraph.
• “Kemi Badenoch to scrap financial crisis safety rules” – The Conservative leader is expected to pledge an “economic revolution” in a Thursday speech, including scrapping the post-2008 bank ring-fencing scheme introduced in the wake of the financial crisis, says the Times.
• “A Reform government will strengthen the rights of women and mothers” – Reform UK sets out plans to overhaul the Equality Act, arguing that the legislation has failed to deliver equal treatment before the law, and that a Reform government would restore protections specifically for women and mothers, writes the Telegraph.
• “How once booming Aberdeen is a warning of what Net Zero will do to UK” – In the Mail, Stephen Daisley argues that Aberdeen’s decline from a city synonymous with opportunity into one gutted by the eclipse of fossil fuels stands as a stark warning of what the Net Zero agenda holds in store for Britain.
• “Britain will never be the ‘Saudi Arabia of wind’” – In the Spectator, Ross Clark argues that Britain’s wind energy ambitions fall far short of the grand claims made for them, with UK households also subsidising energy consumers abroad.
• “Why artificial intelligence will win the green energy war” – Eric Worrall on Whats Up With That? predicts that AI will win the green energy war.
• “Do Los Niños cause climatic cooling?” – We’ve seen a lot of news stories about an upcoming El Niño, that may turn into a so-called “super” El Niño over the next year. Andy May disentangles them on Whats Up With That?
• “The media’s silence on the recently published rape gang inquiry: fake news by omission” – On his Substack, C.J. Strachan writes that the media’s near-total silence on the crowd-funded Restore Britain rape gang inquiry amounts to fake news by omission, with Google apparently suppressing related searches in a final insult to victims.
• “The justice, stupid” – On his Substack, David McGrogan examines the question of where the tiers of justice come from and what that reveals about the system.
• “James O’Keefe infiltrates NJ Antifa: Rutgers director, T-Mobile AI leaders, OpenAI engineer and ACLU board member caught on camera” – On X, James O’Keefe reveals undercover footage purportedly showing a Rutgers University director, T-Mobile AI leaders, an OpenAI engineer, a Princeton Theological Seminary reverend, and an ACLU board member discussing a Port Newark – Elizabeth blockade riot, road spikes, and tyre-slashing in New Jersey.
• “Cosmetics brand Lush’s trans tiger display ‘glorifying’ mastectomies” – A display by cosmetics brand Lush featuring a tiger with stripes suggestive of “top surgery” scars has been accused of glorifying mastectomies, reports the Telegraph.
• “BBC jobs bloodbath: Radio 4’s The World Tonight is axed after 56 years” – The BBC is cutting 550 jobs from its news, television, and radio operations as part of a sweeping cost-cutting drive that will also see Radio 4’s flags hip programme the World Tonight axed after 56 years on air, writes Lettice Bromovsky in the Mail.
• “Prince George attending Eton has sent the embittered Left into a meltdown” – In the Telegraph, Michael Deacon says that Zarah Sultana led a sanctimonious race to criticise the Royal Family over Prince George’s place at Eton, with a statement he describes as imbecilic and full of falsehoods.
• “Everyone is trying to tear down Churchill, but the facts are all on his side” – Sir Winston Churchill is facing a full-scale assault from both the extreme Left and the extreme Right, but the facts remain firmly in his favour, says Andrew Roberts.
• “Britain braces for six-day 30C heatwave from tomorrow” – Southern England is set to experience temperatures of at least 28C every day for six days, with the Met Office issuing a health alert as the mercury is forecast to hit 30C, notes Mark Duell in the Mail.
• “The Free Speech Union has serious concerns about the Government’s proposal to ban under-16s from some social media platforms (but not others)” – Watch me talk about the free speech risks of the Government’s social media ban.

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