I have some questions for those tipped to contend the Labour leadership. My worry is any one of them could make things worse.
Angela Rayner
Why did she fail to pay her tax on time? As she lectures the rest of us to pay more taxes and to refrain from trying to find ways to reduce tax bills, surely she should have paid up to start with, or as soon as she knew she had made a mistake? Isn’t it one rule for her and different rules for others?
Why did new housebuilding fall whilst she was responsible for delivering 1.5 m new homes this Parliament? Does she now accept that target is a unattainable? When will she tell us the truth about new homes?
Will she accept that the Employment Rights Act has destroyed many new job opportunities for young people and helped drive unemployment up?
How would she describe Tories?
Ed Miliband
Is he proud of his accelerated closure of the North Sea oil and gas industry? What does he say to all those losing their jobs?
Why does he think we should import Norwegian gas instead of getting our own out of adjacent fields?
Why is it right to burden the world with 3 x as much CO 2 importing LNG than using our own gas?
Does he admit that for the next ten years we will have less nuclear power as he closes old stations and fails to bring any new ones on line apart from Hinkley he inherited?
Why has he been unable to cut our energy bills by £300?
Does he agree the UK will not be generating only carbon free power in 2030 but still needing gas power stations?
Wes Streeting
Why has he not made it easier for more people to get a GP or hospital appointment?
Why are Drs still going on strike after the big pay awards he made them to end the strikes?
Where is his alternative King’s Speech programme?
How would he get the UK back to work?
Andy Burnham
Why would he give up the big job of Mayor he said he wanted? Why should anyone believe his promises, as he promised to serve a full term and offered things he has not delivered?
Where is there a seat you could win in a by election? How does he win Makerfield with its small majority in 2024?
Why should the National Executive change its mind over telling him to do the job he has got?
Does he have so little belief in 403 Labour MPs that he thinks none of them could be PM?
Conclusion. So far a badly organised coup . None of the front runners have a good alternative programme to get people back to work, to control the cost of living and to smash the gangs. Pity the poor country with months of uncertainty and a badly damaged PM who might now survive.
May 15, 2026
Labour leadership. My worry is any one of them could make things worse.
No they couldn’t like the rest of the parties they are stuck with the same mantra, no bloody experience between the lot of them except for themselves, so now is time for a fresh new party which I think are for the common man or women and after a hundred years of liebour I give you the Reform Party let them have a go , so bring on a General Election you know it makes sense
May 15, 2026
O/T but interesting. Renewable Obligation Cerificates for wind and solar exceeded £100 billion last year and Renewable operators were paid £17.4 billion. Gas generation was penalised at £18 per MWH thereby giving Renewable operators an £18 bonus on every MWH they generate due to the link with gas£2,7 blind was paid in constraint payments when operators were asked to switch off.
It’s pretty obvious why we have the most expensive electricity in the world.
May 15, 2026
and have to keep importing over the undersea cables 20% of our electricity demand?
May 16, 2026
+1
May 15, 2026
Meanwhile, in today’s Telegraph their ‘world economy editor’ is making excuses for Starmer.
He claims other European leaders are even more unpopular.
So that’s alright then.
May 15, 2026
Indeed all the candidate are dreadful. Especially the deluded “let’s destroy the economy” with my mad religion Ed Miliband. Lets use other people’s oil and gas rather than drilling our own. And the burn US forests (young coal) at Drax lunacy.
I quite understand why Rayner got her second home SDLT surcharge wrong. The question was did the trust for her under 18 disabled son count as an existing property. Labour paid tens of thousands of pounds in fees to have a specialist tax KC—specifically Jonathan Peacock KC—review Angela Rayner’s financial and tax affairs. Following the review, Rayner acknowledged she had underpaid stamp duty on her Hove flat and paid the additional £40,000.
The higher Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge on second homes was originally introduced by Cameron’s appalling former Chancellor George Osborne.Osborne announced the policy in his Autumn Statement in November 2015, and the additional 3% surcharge officially took effect on 1 April 2016. He claimed the tax was designed to cool down the buy-to-let property market and free up housing for first-time buyers. Actually it what just another huge tax grab a wealth tax.
What a moronic tax system that is so absurdly complex great news for tax advisors and lawyer though.
Rayner is not exactly the sharpest tool in the box. She is also rather revolting – she says the tax accusations forced he to talk about her disabled son. But she loves doing this at very turn. A school box expressed support for Farage policies and she absurdly attacked the young boy and Farage him saying Farage would have an insurance system for the NHS and that her son would probably not have survived under that system. Her renters rights bill is a disaster for landlords and tenants.
She also claims HMRC have said she had said she had done nothing wrong. No they did not they rightly accepted it was an innocent mistake and doubtless charged tax and interest and possbily a penalty of cerca £8K would be normal. I doubt very much they have said she did nothing wrong. Clearly it was an underpayment.
May 15, 2026
Why did Labour spend £thousands trying to find a way to get her off scot-free but failed, instead of saying ‘pay up you fool’.
May 15, 2026
I do not think they did, they paid just wanted to know what the full legal position was – but what an absurd system that is so complex you need to engage a barrister (thanks Osborne) and even HMRC did. To seem to know & took months.
So does Scum scum scum Rayner still keep the circa £17k tax free loss of office payment for “resigning” I assume so!
May 15, 2026
Angela Rayner talks up the NHS but she was first in the queue to sue them for compensation after the NHS SAVED HER AND HER SON’S LIFE during a difficult child birth.
She then used a portion of that compensation towards purchasing the flat that she failed to pay the full stamp duty on.
Tax rules are difficult and complex to achieve her aim of extracting as much as possible from those who have any money. She was advised to take expert advice and chose not to. She knew the law was complex but chose to avoid finding out rather than risk paying the tax,
Labour is full of hypocrites but this person tops the list. Perhaps she should be leader.
May 15, 2026
It was on the house near Brighton that the extra stamp duty was due I understand. Rather sloppy of her given her position but clearly not a deliberate attempt to defraud HMRC.
May 15, 2026
Streeting’s granddad Bill was a working-class Cockney Tory. I think Streeting is in that mould. Plus he’s intelligent and well-educated. And for him Economy and Security at home and abroad close to him. Like his granddad.
(His other grandad Bill also working-class Cockney was a burglar. But Streeting up front about. And has strong Christian values). He also has experience as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
May 16, 2026
Streeting was educated at Westminster City School a comprehensive state school in Victoria, London. He went on to study history at the University of Cambridge as an undergraduate student of Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he served as JCR President, graduating in 2004. Streeting briefly left the Labour Party because he opposed its decision to enter the Iraq War. Well done Streeting.
He is the most sensible of an appalling selection of contenders, but he obviously cannot even find enough supporters to stand as yet. Even if he won the dire selection of Labour MPs would prevent him doing any sensible things. Needless to say he supports net zero and appallingly even wants people to shut up about the obviously unsafe 15 convictions of Lucy Letby.
He does not seem to have ever held a proper private sector job like so many politicians.
May 16, 2026
Streeting has confirmed he will ‘take us back into the EU’.
Nobody cares about his grandparents.
May 15, 2026
Good morning.
As I have always said: “Show me a Socialist, and I will show you a hypocrite.”
With a change in ‘Leader’ of the Labour Party will not result in a change in government direction. We will not suddenly discover that we are no longer being drawn back into the EU but it will be the same as before. Same with climate / energy policy, MASS IMMIGRATION and so on.
As the song from the pop band, The Who once said; “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
May 15, 2026
I urge you to be more positive, as Sam Cooke wrote and sung ‘ A change is gonna come’ 1963.
May 15, 2026
Socialist are just gut emotion people in the main. They for example regulate to over protect employees and tenants but fail to see that no one will then want to employ them or rent to them. They thus harm the people they think they are helping. A bit dim in general must be genetic in part I think. They think government has a magic money tree! Doom loop lunacy economic currently from Labour.
May 15, 2026
What the country need is to under nearly everything done to the country by the appalling two Tier Kier and indeed by all the various governments since Blair right thought to Starmer it has all been socialist/consocialist doom loop, big state, open borders, green crap, tax to death, regulate to death lunacy.
May 15, 2026
to undo everything rather!
May 15, 2026
Scandinavians have relatively high taxation.
However, they get far better value for money.
We don’t want to become like Burger-King-endless-boring/soulless-suburbs USA where if you’re middle-class and work hard all your life and save and then you get some serious illness – that your health insurance doesn’t cover – and you end up losing everything paying for that operation.
May 15, 2026
‘we don’t want to become’? I think we arrived at that destination some time ago!
May 15, 2026
See Restore. That’s the plan.
May 16, 2026
Restore has sensible proposals but will be lucky to win one seat at the next General Election!
May 16, 2026
amid allegations we are not allowed to know!
May 16, 2026
What are you wittering on about?
May 16, 2026
2 million at Unite the Kingdom today. Robinson asks ‘how will you vote?’
RESTORE!
In politics if you offer people what they want, you get votes.
5,000 activists have volunteered to canvass in Makerfield (so far).
You have no faith in democracy.
I do have faith in democracy.
May 15, 2026
“None of the front runners have a good alternative programme to get people back to work, to control the cost of living and to smash the gangs.”
Correct – but given the make up of the appalling Labour Party MPs they would not be front runners if they advocated sensible policies. Streeting is the most sensible (of the appalling options) and it seems he cannot even get 81 MPs to back him as yet!
May 15, 2026
Starmer is so bad that of the 4 only Rayner is likely to make things significantly worse for both Labour and the country and Streeting if he were allowed to win (highly unlikely) could actually improve things a bit, though not in relation to the E.U.
Rayner is a rabble rousing left wing ranter who seems to have nothing between the ears (which is not inevitable – even with her background – Dolly Parton was brought up in even greater poverty but is extremely able and intelligent). Rayner does not even seem to understand either that homebuilders need to see a profit before they start building and more so called affordable homes are unaffordable for housebuilders. Likewise she cannot see that more bureaucracy and costs for employers will lead to less jobs and even more so more problems for landlording will lead to fewer landlords and much more homelessness.
Miliband has been put into the wrong job, the sphere where he has deviated from his usually more thoughtful self into a blind fanatacism.
I don’t why the left now think of Burnham as one of theirs (the left must be extremely stupid). In his leadership campaign of 2015 he was saying the first fundamental was to get a viable economic policy and in Greater Manchester though he has adopted many stupid policies and failed in most of his objectives (such as ending rough sleeping on the streets) he has at least unlike other Labour metropolitan mayors stopped the proposed charge on high emission vehicles coming into effect. His record is one of not just being a political salesman for a product but also adapting the product to make it more saleable to the customers which wouldn’t suit the left!
May 15, 2026
Labour are consistently demonstrating why they are unfit to govern. Those four desperate chancers add to Labour’s declining performance.
May 15, 2026
There is no one candidate that shines or looks up to the job.
But Starmer isn’t finished yet. As predicted he is hanging on and his name will be on the ballot paper so he could still remain as PM after all of the voting is done.
My concern is the contents of the King’s speech. Starmer will want to leave a legacy of some kind, and top of the list is getting us fully back under EU control, followed by an expansion of net-0.
While he is still PM Starmer will be pushing these relentlessly – He cannot succeed.
The problem is that getting a new PM in place could so easily be delayed for months, meaning too much progress will be made on his favourite schemes.
So, let’s not be too concerned about the machinations around this contest, We need all of our energy to observe and delay / suspend any moves on the EU front and climate change enthusiasm.
May 15, 2026
Even if there could be found a Labour MP that was up to the job of being PM, the backbenchers wouldn’t let him/her do what is needed for this country.
May 15, 2026
So true Dave
May 15, 2026
are there any backbenchers in that party that know what is needed for this country.?
May 15, 2026
@Steve Bullion – by his actions to date he demonstrates he has a different agenda. Back in the EU, yes although he was elected promising to stay out. Chagos has still to be given away his legal chums are in for large earnings and the UK taxpayer large handout for naught. He has no interest in the UK other than to destroy it in the nastiest way while kicking up division and hate
May 15, 2026
Another question for Ed: “If the UK achieved Net Zero by 2050, by how much would temperatures be reduced from what they are now (a) in the UK (b) worldwide.”
The alternatives at the end are to allow for the possibility that he really thinks there is scope to reduce UK temperatures in isolation.
May 15, 2026
As of 2026, the IPCC and broader climate science community increasingly consider the climate crisis/emergency/catastrophe models RCP8.5 (and its successor, SSP5-8.5) high-emissions scenario to be implausible.
https://www.aei.org/articles/rcp8-5-is-officially-dead/
May 15, 2026
The shallowness of the Labour talent pool is indicated by the appointment of James Murray MP to run the NHS. The NHS is one of the largest organisations in the world and employs 1.5 million people. Murray has never run any organisation or department at all either in the private sector or in the government, he has no experience of being anything other than a low-grade deputy politician. He has only been appointed because Starmer is unable to reshuffle his cabinet properly. The NHS management and unions must be rubbing their hands at the prospect, the patients not so much.
May 15, 2026
It’s interesting to see the odds the bookies are offering on the by-election outcome…
May 15, 2026
what are the odds on no damn improvement in governing?
May 16, 2026
Yes. We in Restore are doing well seeing nobody has ever heard of us.
May 15, 2026
I don’t see it matters to much they are all flawed Socialists. I think it matters that 2TK is removed as he is a different animal altogether, he is either delusional or the worst type egotist that so far he has demonstrated his desire to divide, create hate with maximum destruction – a need to be the Ruler. With 2TK even Socialism isn’t the aim it is something more sinister,as they say ‘something of the night’ a dictating ruler.
Start at the basics everyone that disagrees with him is an extremist, a right wing terrorist were he will re-interoperate the law to have them cancelled. Then there is the EU, Gibraltar, Chagos the prancing around believing himself to be some sort of global ‘hit star’. All while the country he governs, his main management job, goes down the drain, the economy disappears, borrowing rises. People, the Media add to the deflection they blame Reeves, blame Miliband all conveniently forgetting he is there boss, he gave them their jobs and he approves their output, their direction – he owns their choices.
The only thing the Country desperately needs is a General Election
May 15, 2026
The current labour leadership contest winner will be the media celebrate that can shout the loudest ….not on new policy or ability to manage the country …..maybe the same for all parties ….time for a quiet but forceful leader, a person that will stick to their manifesto
May 15, 2026
glen ….’stick to their manifesto’ !! grin. have you been on a long liquid lunch?
May 15, 2026
Its poets day
May 15, 2026
Lord Redwood
All good points. But each point could be in any camp its called Socialism, well meaning soundbites were no one ‘pays’ or at least those that want rule by the politburo in their own image wont pay. Democracy and the people they ‘pretend’ to defend are mere pawns the Politburo’s money tree. Yet with just a small iota of brain activity they would realise everything they (if that was really the aim) want bestow on others can be achieved by having an economy, wealth creation, a society allowed to contribute equally to the best of their ability. Socialist command and control is not about the people, the nation, its and egotists personal esteem manipulating for their ‘own’ personal gain of the back of others. Socialism is about creating a divide and division as a means of Rule. Socialists as we see tend to be the ‘haters’
Steel: now in the News. Before nationalisation, Sheffield, South Wales, and Scotland became the heart of the booming global empire. That is a ‘Global Empire’ for Steel. Socialism, Labour lets have some of that, if we are in control we will get the Glory – so the nationalised it. Were is it today?
Motor Industry: While in private hands the UK became the largest exporter of cars in the world and the second-largest car manufacturer in the world after the US. Then nationalisation, because Socialist command and control a Socialist government can do it better. It failed. Can any one name a UK owned motor manufacturer? Save you the time the last ones were Morgan, that is now Italian and Caterham now Japanese.
Ship Building: The UK shipbuilding industry a global powerhouse, producing over 80% of the world’s shipping tonnage. Nationalised, and were is it now. The UK Royal Navy is forced to rely on France, Spain & Poland just to have ships for its depleted fleet. Cunard the big liners etc all foriegn owned and built
Aircraft Industry: Gone from being a dominate player, into a spare parts industry – you get the picture. Even the much lauded missile(Storm Shadow) production is French owned and produced.
Socialism and Socialist tend to be delusional, as it is only those that reach the top of their club, without experience or the wherewithal should rule, only their own personal command and control can deliver. 100% delusional.
Yesterday: Joe Bamford offered this observation
“Do people really want to turn further Left, with the country nationalising businesses?” he said. “I lived through that. I lived through [Harold] Wilson’s governments, I lived through three-day weeks. I remember it, and I’m not sure that is ever the right solution for Britain.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/14/lord-bamford-you-cant-get-away-with-60k-benefit-handouts/
May 15, 2026
I think a number of us on this site would echo Joe Bamford’s comments, having lived through the downs, struggle to remember any ups.
May 15, 2026
Everyone knows, including TwoTierKier himself that no one in the Labour Party cant un-seat him, he wanted 5 years of destruction, his command and control of the Party is such he will get his 5 years of destruction. In some ways albeit different ways the Labour Movement is as delusional as is TwoTierKier, they created a monster and they have no plan, although he does and that doesn’t include them or the Party. I can even see 2TK ordering the NEC not to back their own candidate in Makerfield.
May 15, 2026
Burnham has helped 2TK, taken the pressure off delayed the chattering. The NEC is prepared to let Burnham stand to be an MP, when and if he becomes and MP it might all kick off again. The of course the HOC summer recess if planned well will kick things further down the road. All playing into 2TK’s hands.
If Burnham isn’t elected he is OK with that, he remain the Mayor of Manchester, he is in a no loose situation
Just shenanigans and theatre to preen ego and create deflection giving time for the cards to be shuffled
May 15, 2026
Ed Miliband is without doubt is the most dangerous of the Labour leadership candidates. He is deliberately destroying our energy, industry and consequently national security. He intends to shut down the North Sea permanently.
https://gbbc.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Premeditated-Industrial-Destruction-Final-6th-April-2026-with-added-security-issue-v2.pdf
May 15, 2026
Agreed, none of them inspires any enthusiasm. But it is not just the PM and the third-rate challengers that are the problem.
It is the entire Labour approach which is wrong.
May 15, 2026
My question. How have so many cabinet ministers become multi-millionaires?
Reply Names and guesses of wealth deleted. Anyone who has been on a six figure income for many years, saves for a good pension through a funded scheme and bought a main home and a London flat on borrowings is likely to have assets over £1 m.
May 15, 2026
Just pause for a moment and consider all those Labour accuse of being ‘fat-cats’ with pension schemes of a £1m + whose estates will be clobbered by Rachel (from complaint) IHT rules.
Plenty with little to justify such comfortable retirement as opposed to those who went without life’s expensive pleasures, who lived frugally, bought wisely, paid their dues and find with their death not far away the value they imagined would pass on will know have a good chunk taken away at 40%.
As the famous football ‘Pools’ winner once said ‘I’m going to spend spend spend – and she did dying in almost poverty.
May 15, 2026
MT
It is more than 40%, though, as that is just the inheritance tax, then there is the tax on withdrawal by the surviver at there own tax rate, another 20-40%
Thus your unspent pension fund will be more than halved after tax.
What a great incentive to save and plan !
May 15, 2026
All good questions to which none of the potential candidates have answers.
May 15, 2026
Meanwhile, those who lend to the government are becoming increasingly nervous about doing so, as it becomes clear that one of the left-wingers will be ‘elected’ by Labour, and will borrow more to hand out ever more to the increasing number of unproductive drones, whose essential funxtion is to vote Labour out of gratitude. Thirty-year gilt yields have just passed 5.845%.
May 15, 2026
Test post
May 15, 2026
Were the Conservatives to decide not to field a candidate at Makerfield, they could hardly be accused of political chicanery.
May 15, 2026
Part of the game. They play it here in Wokingham, put a name on the list and then go quiet with no intention of getting anyone elected
May 16, 2026
I see Jacob Rees-Mogg agrees with me.
May 15, 2026
It’s what the media dare not print interests me more
May 15, 2026
Via Guido
New Statesman, Burnham said Labour should be making “a stronger argument about Brexit having been a mistake”.
“I want to rejoin the EU. I hope it happens in my lifetime… I believe in the unions of all kinds. The union of the UK. The European Union, and the benefits it brought this country. Trade unions… People prosper more when they’re part of unions. That’s my belief, and I’ll say it clearly.”
Makerfield voted 65% Leave in 2016 and was 75th most Leave-heavy voting seat
Comments
Mike Fish: On BREXIT, the blob has tried to undermine BREXIT at every turn. Any ‘failures’ of BREXIT aren’t because we left the EU, it’s the failures of our institutions. If there needs to be a reset, then it’s our institutions that need a reset.
May 15, 2026
O/T : “Pity the poor country with months of uncertainty and a badly damaged PM who might now survive.”
Although the organisers of the “Unite The Kingdom” march may complain that 2-tier policing means that their march will be controlled using facial recognition technology whilst the annual Palestinian Nakba Day march will not they should be very happy that the police will hopefully stop any violence or trouble occurring as this will be used by Lord Hermer and the PM as an opportunity to demonstrate their resolve to use the “full force of the law” against the marchers.
May 15, 2026
@Original Richard – that’s called ‘freedom’ in this new two tier country. If the lord and master’s thoughts are not challenged things go ahead. If he is challenged things get cancelled.
That why 2TK will be still PM until his 5 years of havoc and destruction come to an end, but even the it presupposes elections will be allowed.
May 15, 2026
There is no way out. We are unable to escape this intolerable situation.
This is the medical definition of ‘stress’.
We are living through the Fall of Britain.
May 16, 2026
Lynn,
Clearly illustrated by the Governments approach to the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ Rally!
May 16, 2026
Yes. Funny that they find they can stop people entering the U.K.
May 15, 2026
Shaping up to be a coronation