The UK’s main opposition Labour Party yesterday called on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call a general election, after seizing another parliamentary seat from the Conservatives and making gains in English local elections.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said its candidate’s win in Blackpool South in northwest England sent a clear message to Sunak, who has until January next year at the latest to call polls.
“That wasn’t just a little message, that wasn’t just a murmur. That was a shout from Blackpool: ‘We want change,’” he said on a visit to congratulate Chris Webb, the new member of the parliament (MP) of the district.
Photo: Reuters
“Blackpool speaks for the whole country in saying: ‘We have had enough now, after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline, we want to turn the page and start afresh with Labour,’” Starmer said.
Labour, out of power since 2010 and trounced by former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party at the last general election in 2019, won Blackpool South with a 26 percent swing — the third-largest margin from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since World War II.
The vote was triggered by a lobbying scandal that saw the area’s Conservative MP resign. Polling on Thursday coincided with a mix of council, mayoral and other local contests across England.
The polls represent the last major ballot box test before Sunak faces a nationwide vote expected in the second half of the year.
The Conservatives are defending hundreds of seats they secured last time local elections were held in 2021 and are tipped to suffer heavy losses.
Early results showed that Labour was making gains in council seats, but all eyes were on key regional and London mayoral races, the outcomes of which were only expected later yesterday and today.
Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden described the results so far as “disappointing.”
Starmer said it showed that Labour, beset by ideological infighting and claims of anti-Semitism under hard-left former leader Jeremy Corbyn, was once again an electoral force.
Labour was now “a fundamentally different party” than four years ago, Starmer told Sky News television.
In London, Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win a record third term.
However, mayoral contests in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, in northeast England, are predicted to be tight.
A victory for the Labour opposition in either of the regions, home to bellwether constituencies, would be hailed as further evidence voters are ready to return the party to power nationally.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS