Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker will launch a bid to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader after the election, it is understood.

The Brexiteer Conservative is expected to attempt to replace Mr Sunak if the party is defeated on 4 July.

Mr Baker hinted at a leadership run if he retains his Wycombe seat at the general election.

bHe said: "One thing at a time. I want to represent the people of Wycombe the best that I can, as I always have done.

"Then let's see what happens."

It is understood he will announce his intentions after polling day.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/23066599

Since 2017, Wikipedia editors have compiled a list of news sources from which articles are highly likely to employ systematic bias, lack professional editing and/or journalistic standards, regularly misrepresent sources, and/or fabricate information.

While its list is by no means a complete list of publications with the aforementioned problems, it has helped make Wikipedia articles more reliable by basing them off of sources covering the same events and information from a less biased point of view.

To make Lemmy news communities better than their Reddit counterparts, I think avoiding links to those sources in favor of more reliable alternatives would be worthwhile.

Starmer responds to questions from the Big Issue journalists and from vendors. Nothing particularly groundbreaking here but it all sounds good.

A Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic and other offensive language.

Farage said he was “dismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.

The channel also secretly filmed George Jones, a longtime party activist who organises events for Farage, making homophobic comments, calling the Pride flag “degenerate” and LGBT people “nonces”.

The emergence of the footage, filming of which concluded last week, comes on the same day that Reform dropped an election candidate in another seat, after the Guardian informed the party that Raymond Saint had been on a list of members of the British National party.

The Conservatives, Greens, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK sent candidates from one of the five Bristol constituencies, but Labour only offered a city councillor, Kelvin Blake.

There was frustration and concern after the event that each of the five representatives had made statements that were not in their parties’ manifestos and were not party policy.

Most polls suggest that Sunak will retain his seat, as every prime minister has before him. But his national approval rating is so low that an Ipsos survey released Saturday found that Sunak was only four percentage points ahead of Binface on favorability. Binface, in turn, was viewed more favorably than former prime minister Liz Truss.

Archived copies of the article: archive.today web.archive.org ghostarchive.org

Rishi Sunak has intervened in a row between Kemi Badenoch and actor David Tennant, saying the Doctor Who star is "the problem".

Tennant suggested at the British LGBT Awards last week that he wanted a world where the equalities minister "doesn't exist any more", and said she should "shut up".

The prime minister posted on X, external that freedom of speech was the "most powerful feature of our democracy", adding: "If you’re calling for women to shut up and wishing they didn’t exist, you are the problem."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters he "wouldn't have engaged the way he (Tennant) did," adding that "robust" discussions should be respectful.

Previously

A slightly too wordy and too long article that I nonetheless basically agree with. Key paragraphs:

Starmer’s strategic sense has been impressive, from opening his leadership consensually with qualified support for, and constructive criticism of, lockdown, to encouraging Boris Johnson to get his denials of Partygate on the record and leaving them there, to, most of all, his relentless focus on the voters he actually needs to win, rather than the ones who make the most noise.

This, of course, is the source of the biggest criticisms of Starmer from the left: that he won the leadership by relentlessly focusing on the voters he needed to win within the Labour Party, and then pivoted towards the national electorate rather than sticking with a prospectus whose chief appeal was to people who had already been shown to be a minority of a minority. I am not wholly unsympathetic to this view: his ten pledges were mostly bad, and he shouldn’t have made them; but dropping bad policies is better than sticking to them, and winning is better than losing.

After all, Jeremy Corbyn didn’t keep any of his promises, which may be why a recent election leaflet endorsing his bid to be the independent MP for Islington North gives so much prominence to his role in saving the Number 4 bus route.

A man who threw objects towards Nigel Farage while he was campaigning in Barnsley has admitted using threatening behaviour.

Josh Greally, 28, from Chesterfield, was filmed throwing items while Reform UK leader Mr Farage was on an open-top bus in the town centre on 11 June.

At Barnsley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, Greally admitted using threatening, abusive, insulting words and behaviour with intent to cause fear.

He will be sentenced on 28 August.

David Tennant has been embroiled in a war of words with U.K. Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch just days after he was honored at the British LGBT Awards.

Tennant, who picked up the Celebrity Ally award at the ceremony, gave an acceptance speech in which he said how important Pride was to his family, saying “we have skin in the game.” During his speech he also mentioned the U.K. Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, who has said she would exclude trans women from single sex spaces.

“I suppose if I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special or award or special mention because it’s common sense, isn’t it?” Tennant said in his speech. “It’s human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist anymore — I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up — whilst we do live in this world I am honoured to receive this.”

After the video went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, Badenoch responded on the platform, saying: “A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only Black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win….Do not let the bigots and bullies win”

Five more police officers are alleged to have placed bets on the timing of the general election, the Metropolitan Police has said.

The force said it had been passed information about the officers by the Gambling Commission after Rishi Sunak's close protection officer was arrested last week over alleged bets on a July election.

The Conservatives' election campaign has been plunged into crisis over the issue, with two Tory candidates and two party officials currently being investigated by the watchdog.

I spent the day interviewing Reform UK candidates at a private event in Stafford and here's what they said:They know that their Brexit plans will make the UK...

A car has crashed into the gates of Rishi Sunak's official country residence, police have confirmed.

The incident took place on Tuesday shortly after midday, when the white Volkswagen Scirocco hit the barriers at the entrance to Chequers - the grace and favour manor house in Buckinghamshire which prime ministers are allowed to use while in office.

Rishi Sunak was not at the property at the time.

Thames Valley Police said the driver, who was a 44-year-old man from the county, had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and drink driving, and was the only person in the car.

A spokesperson also said he had "suffered serious injuries" and had been taken to hospital, "where he remains".

They added: "While we are still in the very early stages of our investigation, there is currently no evidence to suggest there was any intention to harm anyone."

Refreshing sanity from Conservative Home, of all places!

There's no equivalence between what Kevin Craig did (placed a bet on himself to lose) and what Craig Williams is accused of (using inside information to place a bet), and no need for a new law, given that what Williams is accused of is already illegal.