Day: May 1, 2025

Labour face first electoral test since general election with more than 1,600 council seats up for grabs

Good morning. It’s started. People are already voting in the 2025 local elections. They are England-only, and there are around 1,600 council seats up for grabs (in some other years, there are more than 8,000 seats up for election in England alone), and so in some respects it’s a minor set of local elections. But you will never find a political commentator willing to say an election is not important and this year there is plenty to get excited about. That is partly because it is Labour’s first electoral test since the general election (and no governing party in modern times has seen its popularity collapse so quickly, as John Curtice pointed out this week). But mostly it is because two-party politics has collapsed, there are now five political parties that competitive in England and the rise of Reform UK means a realignment of the right is already happening. These elections will show how developed that process is.

Today people are voting for:

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Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policy

Almost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels during construction within two years, the government will announce after Keir Starmer rejected Tony Blair’s criticism of net zero policies.

Housebuilders will be legally required to install solar panels on the roofs of new properties by 2027 under the plans.

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Wall Street Journal article saying headhunters were contacted branded ‘absolutely false’ by chair Robyn Denholm

Tesla has denied a report that its board sought to replace Elon Musk as its chief executive amid a backlash against his rightwing politics and declining car sales.

Robyn Denholm, the chair of the board at the electric carmaker, said in a statement on Tesla’s social media account on X: “Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment firms to initiate a CEO search at the company.

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Revival of the ‘profoundly moving’ Irish pub drama will open at the Olympia theatre in Dublin before arriving in London this autumn

Brendan Gleeson will make his West End debut this autumn in a revival of The Weir, directed for the first time by its playwright Conor McPherson.

Gleeson, whose films include The Banshees of Inisherin and Paddington 2, described McPherson’s play as “profoundly moving, inspiring and ultimately hopeful”. He will play one of the four men sharing stories in a remote Irish pub with a woman who has newly arrived in the area.

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