Georgina Quach

Good morning. This is the last instalment of our three-part guide to the timeline of local election results, what to look out for and what ought to happen if the polls are about right. We end by looking at the results declared on Saturday and Sunday. The London mayoralty declares in a fun and, for the UK, an unusual way: instead of announcing all the results at once, the results will be counted and announced from London’s 14 Greater London Assembly constituencies. At sometime around 1pm it shou…

Good morning. It wasn’t just Rishi Sunak who suffered a humiliating defeat in the local elections last week: I did too. I wrote half a dozen times in this newsletter that I thought the London mayoral election would be narrow. Thanks so much for sending in your great questions ahead of our webinar today. I’ll be joining my colleagues in the studio at 1pm BST to discuss them (register to attend the webinar and submit a question here). I wrote — quite a few times — that I thought the race between…

Good morning. Some thoughts on two parties today: one that scares the Conservative party and shapes much of its leadership’s thinking, and another that they should probably be worrying about a lot more. One neglected story of the local elections is just how well the Lib Dems did: they finished second, with 522 seats, narrowly ahead of the Conservatives, who won 515 seats. This isn’t the first time this has happened in a local election: in 1996, under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown, the Lib De…

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Local initiatives are combining wellbeing and employment assistance to help people enter the workforce

Good morning. In today’s newsletter we’re covering: But we start with Russia’s effort to conclude a major gas pipeline deal with China, which has run aground over what Moscow sees as Beijing’s unreasonable demands on price and supply levels, according to three people familiar with the matter. Beijing’s tough stance on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline underscores how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left President Vladimir Putin increasingly dependent on Chinese leader Xi Jinping for economic su…

Good morning. The big theme of Labour’s campaign thus far has been what it will not do — it will not prevent Diane Abbott from standing as a Labour candidate, it will not increase any of the taxes most of us pay, and now, it will not unpick the measures Rishi Sunak has put in place to reduce immigration. In large part because Keir Starmer already has such a big lead in the opinion polls, his priority in this election campaign is reassurance — most importantly of the voters who have switched fro…

Also in today’s newsletter, Kamala Harris draws level with Donald Trump in polls and tech stocks sell-off reignites

Targeting pay by subject floated as a potential solution, but a broader focus on improving job offer and reducing stress is needed

The UK must equip law enforcement to tackle increasingly sophisticated criminals and give victims confidence to report