Government papers say Mandelson received £75,000 after being sacked and that Starmer knew vetting flagged his continued contact with Epstein.
Justice Secretary David Lammy condemned as an “absolute travesty” the leak of details from a closed National Security Council meeting on the UK’s response to the US-Israel-Iran conflict. Reports said ministers discussed whether to allow US forces to use British bases for strikes on Iranian missile sites and raised escalation and legal concerns. Lammy said the cabinet opposed offensive action against Iran and focused on defensive measures.
New campaigning data and modelling, reported by GB News, suggest Labour could be left controlling as few as two of London’s 32 borough councils after the 7 May elections. Tony Travers of the LSE said the capital could be heading for a “political earthquake,” with the Greens targeting inner-London seats and Reform UK seeking gains in outer boroughs. The article also cites Labour’s third-place finish in February’s Gorton and Denton by-election.
Iranian state media report that Mojtaba Khamenei, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, has been selected as Iran’s new supreme leader. The reports have not been accompanied by detailed public documentation of the Assembly of Experts’ deliberations, and some officials and clerics had previously denied a final decision. Uncertainty remains over whether he has formally assumed the role and how interim constitutional structures apply during wartime.
Claim: Reform UK, senior Conservatives and Donald Trump say the UK should “drill” the North Sea to bring down energy prices and boost security. Reality: UK oil and gas prices are largely set on international markets, so extra UK extraction would only marginally affect what households pay—especially in the near term. New exploration takes years (often decades) to turn into production, so it won’t change the next price-cap periods.
