Day: July 13, 2009 Articles

The elections on 4 June were dreadful for Labour. Putting aside the
wretched 15.3% of the vote we scored nationally in the European
elections, we faced near wipe-out in the local elections. Labour now
controls none of the 27 county councils and we have five seats or fewer
in 20 of them. In Lancashire we fell from 43 to 14 seats and in
Staffordshire from 32 to just 2. It made little difference whether a
council was performing well or not, the voters came out and defeated
Labour. This is disastrous not only because we expose people living in
those areas to Tory or Lib Dem rule, but because our local government
base will be an important part of our party’s fight back both before
and after the general election due within a year.

Despite mounting controversy, Britain needs to stick to its mission in Helmand

International support for the people of Iran must continue

Alexandra Kemp reviews Progress’ event ‘What do women have to do to get taken seriously?’