Reform UK overtakes Labour for first time in nationwide opinion ballot – UK politics dwell | Politics

Labour reportedly dropped a plan to ban overseas political donations after an intervention from Waheed Alli, the Labour peer who paid for Keir Starmer’s garments and glasses. Jessica Elgot has the story.

Thomas-Symonds says Keir Starmer confirmed his dedication to working with the EU on safety throughout his go to to Brussels yesterday.

On legislation enforcement, he says the UK needs extra cooperation on tackling small boats and other people smuggling.

And, on commerce, he confirms that the UK needs a brand new sanitary and phytosanitary settlement (protecting meals security guidelines), progress on the mutual recognition {of professional} {qualifications} and extra cooperation on vitality and the inexperienced transition.

And he says Keir Starmer plans to fulfill Ursula von der Leyen, the European Fee president, at a summit in Might to resolve these points.

He ends by once more proposing “ruthless pragmatism”.

The time for ideologically pushed division is over. The time for ruthless pragmatism is now. It’s by way of a brand new partnership between the UK and the EU that we’ll ship for the folks of the UK and for folks throughout the continent.

As Politco reviews, the UK-EU summit is predicted to be held in Britain. Final night time António Costa, president of the European Council, recommended it will by on 19 Might.

Thomas-Symonds says the UK and the EU each know that “low development just isn’t the future of our economies”.

They’re each dedicated to “analysis and innovation, lowering crimson tape, a brand new expertise agenda, boosting productiveness [and] a extra resilient financial system”, he says.

He goes on:

In a extra unsure world, we’re frequently reminded that allies are safer collectively than they’re aside.

Good morning. A very good rule of thumb in political reporting is that any information story about voter intention polling is incorrect. That’s as a result of information tales, by definition, are about what new and what’s completely different, and polls that present something uncommon (or at the very least something considerably uncommon) are most likely outliers. In polling, what issues is the development (as a result of polls are a dependable information to voting tendencies) however not a lot the precise numbers (the place polling is way more hit or miss).

So it it’s with some reservation that we begin with YouGov polling, for the Instances and Sky Information, exhibiting Reform UK in first place, and forward of Labour for the primary time in a nationwide opinion ballot. It has Reform UK on 25%, Labour on 24% and the Conservatives on 21%.

As Anthony Wells, head of European political and social analysis at YouGov, informed the Instances, the Reform UK lead is effectively throughout the margin of error, and it will be extra lifelike to see Nigel Farage’s occasion stage pegging with Labour. Wells mentioned:

We’ve had Labour and Reform extraordinarily shut over all our polls to this point this yr and this survey exhibits a slender Reform lead,” he mentioned. “Whereas it stays throughout the margins of error it reinforces the truth that Reform is roughly equal in help with Labour with Conservative slipping again once more.

So why cowl it prominently? As a result of, whereas the figures could not matter a lot, the development does, and that is affirmation that help for Reform UK has been rising considerably because the common election. Here’s a ballot tracker from Electoral Calculus.

This doesn’t imply Farage is in ballot place to be the following PM. The subsequent election is years away, Reform solely has 5 MPs and its surge is miniscule in comparison with the SDP’s within the early Nineteen Eighties. The SDP-Liberal Alliance hit 50% within the polls at one level, nevertheless it received crushed by first-past-the-post on the 1983 common election and ended up with simply 23 MPs.

However politics has modified rather a lot within the final 40 years, and even when Reform’s prospects of overtaking the 2 essential UK events nonetheless look slim, these figures will alarm MPs from each the Conservatives and Labour.

Right here is the agenda for the day.

9.40am: Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cupboard Workplace minister, offers a speech on the UK-EU discussion board’s annual convention.

10am: The Immediately presenter Nick Robinson interviews Wes Streeting, the well being secretary, for a world most cancers day occasion.

10am: Schooling specialists, together with the Nationwide Schooling Union, give proof to the Commons schooling committee in regards to the kids’s wellbeing and colleges invoice.

11am: Hilary Benn, the Northern Eire secretary, offers a speech on how Stormont has been working.

11.30am: Downing Avenue holds a foyer briefing.

11.30am: Ed Miliband, the vitality secretary, takes questions within the Commons.

2.30pm: Sir Matthew Rycroft, everlasting secretary on the Residence Workplace, offers proof to the Commons house affairs committee.

2.30pm: Gareth Davies, head of the Nationwide Audit Workplace, offers his annual speech to parliament.

And within the night Keir Starmer is having dinner in Downing Avenue with the Danish prime minister, Mette Fredriksen.

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