Politics
Embarrassing defeat for UK’s Starmer as Greens seize Labour stronghold
- Defeat increases pressure on unpopular PM Starmer.
- Labour pushed into third place in previously safe seat.
- Green Party win first parliamentary by-election.
MANCHESTER: Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour suffered an embarrassing election defeat to the left-wing Green Party on Friday in an area of Manchester it had dominated for almost a century, a resultthat underscored the breakdown of Britain’s two-party politics.
The loss of one of Labour’s safest seats, in the biggest electoral test in almost a year, piles further pressure on Starmer to prove that he should keep his job following weeks of political turmoil and calls for him to resign.
The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won the contest for the vacant parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party coming second, and Labour pushed into third place.
The result was “clearly disappointing”, said Labour Party chair Anna Turley.
John Curtice, Britain’s most respected pollster, called the result a “seismic moment”, which means the “future of British politics looks more uncertain than at any stage” since the end of World War Two.
Starmer had staked his personal authority on Labour winning the seat by blocking one of his rivals, the popular Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, from standing, and by visiting the constituency this week, when British leaders normally avoid campaigning in local areas if they risk losing.
The defeat comes after Starmer faced the most dangerous moment of his premiership this month when some of his lawmakers said he should resign over his decision to appoint Labour veteran Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, despite his links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Defeat piles pressure on Starmer before May elections
Labour won just over half the vote in Gorton and Denton at the last general election in 2024.
But Starmer’s unpopularity, sluggish economic growth and a series of scandals and policy U-turns contributed to a deep fall in the party’s support.
The Green Party won 40.7% of the vote on Friday in an election triggered when a member of parliament resigned for health reasons. Nigel Farage’s Reform Party came second with 28.7% of the vote and Labour finished third with 25.4%.
While so-called by-elections are often lost by the governing party, the scale of Labour’s defeat by the left-leaning Greens piles pressure on Starmer, who has brushed off calls to resign and has pledged to fight on.
Starmer was unlikely to face an immediate threat to his position if he lost, Labour lawmakers said before the vote.
But he could be challenged after May elections, they added, when Labour is expected to fare badly in local and regional polls, including for the parliaments in Wales and Scotland.
Old loyalties fracture as voters shift to insurgent parties
Gorton and Denton – which includes the area where the Gallagher brothers who formed Oasis grew up – was once part of Labour’s old coalition of industrial areas across England that was considered so impregnable that it was called the Red Wall.
But the election contest was an example of how the British electorate has become more volatile, with declining loyalty and growing support for insurgent parties on the right and left of politics.
It was the first time the Green Party, which supports leaving Nato and legalising recreational drugs, had won a one-off election for a seat in parliament or one in the north of England. That takes the party’s total number of seats in the House of Commons to five out of 650.
Nationally, five parties, including the Greens, Reform and the Liberal Democrats, are polling double-digit percentages, threatening the Labour-Conservative duopoly of the last century.
The Labour government’s main challenge at the next election is likely to come from Reform UK, which holds only a handful of seats in parliament, but has been leading in opinion polls for more than a year.
However, Friday’s result shows how Reform could struggle to win in some places, particularly ethnically diverse urban areas.
Reform’s candidate Matt Goodwin alienated some voters in Gorton and Denton, which had a large number of Muslim residents, with his past comments that millions of British Muslims “are fundamentally opposed to British values and ways of life”.
Farage said the result, in an area where some Muslim voters have called for greater support for Palestinians in Gaza, was a “victory for sectarian voting and cheating”.
“He arrived early on Monday morning with the aim of meeting and holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Iranian state news agency IRNA posted on Telegram.
Moscow’s TASS news agency confirmed earlier that Putin plans to meet Araghchi, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Earlier, Araghchi headed to Russia as peace efforts between Tehran and Washington hung in the balance, following a flurry of regional diplomacy and the collapse of planned talks in Pakistan.
Abbas Araghchi visited Oman between trips to Pakistani capital Islamabad and is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to the Iranian ambassador.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump scrapped a planned trip to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
In a sign that efforts were ongoing, the Fars news agency said Iran had sent “written messages” to the Americans via mediator Pakistan outlining red lines, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.
Fars said the messages were not part of formal negotiations, however.
US media outlet Axios reported on Sunday that Iran had sent a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage, citing a US official and two other sources with knowledge of the matter.
Iranian state news agency IRNA cited the report without denying it.
A ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran has so far held, but its economic shockwaves continued to reverberate globally.
Iran has sealed off the strait, cutting flows of oil, gas and fertiliser and sending prices soaring, raising fears of food insecurity in developing countries.
Hopes for a second round of talks in Pakistan had centred on a planned visit by Witkoff and Kushner, but Trump cancelled the trip, dismissing it as “sitting around talking about nothing”.
On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that if Iran wanted the talks, “they can come to us, or they can call us.”
Trump faces domestic pressure as fuel prices rise following Iran’s closure of Hormuz, with midterm elections due in November. Polls show the war is unpopular among Americans.
Safe transit
Asked whether cancelling signalled renewed fighting, Trump said: “No, it doesn’t mean that.”
On Saturday, Araghchi met Pakistan’s military chief Asim Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, before travelling to Oman and returning to Islamabad.
He later left for Russia for talks with senior officials, his ministry said.
Russian and Iranian state media confirmed Araghchi’s talks with Putin, citing officials from their respective governments.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Iran’s envoy to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, saying they would meet in St Petersburg, Russia’s second city.
Araghchi himself posted on X that the talks in Oman had focused on ensuring safe transit through Hormuz, “to benefit of all dear neighbours and the world.”
“Our neighbours are our priority,” he added.
Pressure to end the war has intensified as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had no intention of lifting their blockade, which has roiled energy markets.
“Controlling the Strait of Hormuz and maintaining the shadow of its deterrent effects over America and the White House’s supporters in the region is the definitive strategy of Islamic Iran,” the Guards said on their official Telegram channel.
The United States has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports in retaliation.
In a statement carried by state media, Iran’s military warned that continued US “blockading, banditry and piracy” would draw a response.
Israel strikes Lebanon
Israel and Hezbollah traded blame over violations of the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the military was “vigorously” targeting the Iran-backed militia as both sides claimed new attacks.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, with Israel responding with strikes and a ground invasion.
But claims that both sides have breached a 10-day ceasefire agreed earlier this month have continued.
Netanyahu told Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting that Hezbollah’s actions were “dismantling the ceasefire” while Hezbollah said it would respond to Israeli violations and its “continued occupation”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Sunday killed 14 people, including two women and two children, and wounded 37.
The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes had struck after evacuation warnings in Kfar Tibnit.
An Israeli strike on Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, another of the flagged villages, destroyed a mosque and another religious building, the news agency said.
Israel, which reported a soldier killed in combat in south Lebanon, says it can act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.
“This means freedom of action not only to respond to attacks…but also to pre-empt immediate threats and even emerging threats,” Netanyahu said.
- Netanyahu plans to lead his party’s list in October elections.
- Opinion polls sees Bennett as best candidate to defeat Netanyahu.
- Bennett supports Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Sunday he would join forces with former premier Naftali Bennett ahead of this year’s elections, in a move aimed at unseating incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lapid, himself a former premier, said they would run on a joint list in the parliamentary election due in October, with a formal announcement expected later on Sunday.
In a post on X, Lapid said the pair would “announce today the first step in the process of repairing the State of Israel: the merger of Yesh Atid and ‘Bennett 2026’ into a single party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett”.
“The move brings about the unification of the Repair Bloc, enabling all efforts to be focused on leading Israel toward the necessary repair.”
Both have been outspoken critics of Netanyahu’s handling of the country’s wars since October 2023, with Lapid going so far as to label the recent two-week ceasefire agreed with Iran a “political disaster”.
Right-winger Bennett, a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and centrist Lapid previously formed a coalition government in June 2021.
It was replaced at the end of 2022 by the current administration led by Netanyahu, after Bennett said in June of that year that his coalition was no longer tenable and Lapid served a brief stint as caretaker prime minister.
Opinion polls suggest Bennett is the candidate best placed to defeat Netanyahu in the October vote.
The 54-year-old son of American immigrants and a former high-tech entrepreneur, Bennett sold his start-up in 2005 for $145 million (110 million euros).
As a former Israeli commando officer, he has a profile that resonates with part of the country’s younger generation after more than two years of the Gaza war.
Once a Netanyahu adviser, Bennett has over time become a staunch opponent of his former mentor’s policies.
He led several right-wing parties before forming a broad unity government in 2021.
His new running mate, 62-year-old Lapid, is the son of the late journalist and minister Tommy Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, and acclaimed author Shulamit Lapid.
A prominent television journalist, Lapid entered politics in 2012 by founding Yesh Atid, which went on to become the country’s second-largest political force.
He has since served as opposition leader, aside from his brief stint as prime minister.
Netanyahu plans to lead his party’s list in the general election that must be held no later than the end of October.
At 76, the leader of the right-wing Likud party is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, with more than 18 cumulative years in office across multiple stints.
- Analysts, diplomats say terrorist group stages attacks.
- Russian mercenaries wounded in battle: Russian media.
- Nationwide operations continue to repel insurgents: military.
Mali’s Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed in an attack on his residence near the main army base outside Bamako on Saturday, France’s RFI radio and two relatives said on Sunday.
A relative of Camara’s told Reuters he had been killed, while a Malian journalist known to be a brother-in-law of the defence minister posted about his death on Facebook.
A spokesperson for Mali’s defence ministry and a government spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday. A statement by the armed forces said operations were continuing in various parts of the country to repel the insurgents.
A Reuters witness reported gunfire in Kati on Sunday morning.
Major shock for Mali’s military leaders
The United Nations called for an international response to violence and terrorism in West Africa’s Sahel region following Saturday’s assault, for which authorities have not provided a death toll.
“The secretary‑general is deeply concerned by reports of attacks in several locations across Mali. He strongly condemns these acts of violence,” a UN spokesperson posted on X.
If confirmed, Camara’s death would represent a major shock for Mali’s military leaders, said Djenabou Cisse, associate fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), which specialises in West African security.
The current government, led by Assimi Goita, took power after coups in 2020 and 2021 and has pursued closer ties with Russia while spurning Western military cooperation — a strategy Camara promoted.
“As a key figure within the junta and a central architect of the Mali–Russia rapprochement, his removal would underscore JNIM’s capacity to strike at the core of state power,” Cisse said.
Fate unclear of strategic city Kidal
In addition to Kati, Saturday’s strike hit near Bamako airport and in localities further north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao.
The fate of the strategic city of Kidal, a former stronghold for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), was unclear on Sunday.
Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at German think tank the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said the attack was a setback for Russia, which backed the military-led government after it kicked out French, US and other Western forces.
“For Russia, the attack has been a disaster,” Laessing said. “They were unable to prevent the fall of the highly symbolic Tuareg stronghold of Kidal and now need to leave this northern city.”
Saturday’s attacks are the latest sign that Mali’s government has failed to deliver greater security despite promising to do so.
The government has recently pursued closer ties with Washington, which has sought to rebuild cooperation on security and explore mining opportunities.
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