So much fun to be on the pod with Anoosh this week chatting about the Green Party. I have written about it in this week's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social politics column so you can read more there if you fancy it! www.newstatesman.com/the-politics...

Andy Burnham is the Green Party's biggest threat yet

The glow around Zack Polanski is beginning to fade

newstatesman.com

Anoosh Chakelian@anooshc.bsky.social · 11h ago

Latest @newstatesman1913.bsky.social pod! I'm joined by the great @meganekenyon.bsky.social to discuss the Green Party's Zack Polanski (and Andy Burnham) problem, and the result of the Greater Manchester mayoralty by-election!

Scoop: Mainstream - the Burnham-backing soft-left group of MPs - has called on the new Labour leader to appoint a "progressive chancellor", in a statement showing tacit support for Ed Miliband.

💥ONE YEAR OF YOUR PARTY💥 At 8.11pm on 3 July 2025, a surprise post dropped on on X. After 14 years, Zarah Sultana was leaving the Labour Party to co-lead the founding of a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Excl: Did the public actually want Starmer to stay on and fight? Analysis shared with @newstatesman1913.bsky.social by Stack Data Strategy suggests that Starmer's decision to quit on Monday had the lowest support of any recent mid-term prime ministerial resignation (Johnson, May, Truss etc).

Excellent piece by @meganekenyon.bsky.social on Badenoch's grim tirade at PMQs today: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

PMQs Review: Kemi Badenoch loses her head

Keir Starmer stepped up to the despatch box this afternoon for his first PMQs since he resigned. As he shuffled into the chamber and took his seat on the

newstatesman.com

For today's NS Morning Call, I wrote about Alan Milburn's landmark report on Neets and what this means for the govt. Ft references to my epic colleague @anooshc.bsky.social's not to be missed report on the subject from earlier this year. @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

My colleague @anooshc.bsky.social spoke to Alan Milburn while he was conducting his review into youth unemployment, and to some of the people affected: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Young, down and out of work

How Britain failed a generation of Neets

newstatesman.com

Lots of Today prog focus on young grads failing to get their first jobs, which is of course a problem - but here's the real Neet story, about the majority who are not only not working, but are now not applying to:

Young, down and out of work

How Britain failed a generation of Neets

newstatesman.com

The debate over how the Green Party should play the Makerfield by-election intensified again this weekend. I offered my two cents in today's morning call (@newstatesman1913.bsky.social) www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Just spotted some discourse about the lanyard class, so I'm using that as an excuse to plug my visit to LanyardFest '26 www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...

The Mecca of the lanyard class

This is the reality of the British economy: conferences, video games and more conferences

newstatesman.com

I wrote about the Green Party’s campaign in Makerfield after a turbulent 24 hrs in which its candidate selections had to be re-opened & also looked at whether the Greens standing aside would make that much difference to Burnham’s changes of success. @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

Superb piece from @meganekenyon.bsky.social at the Labour left's fury at the idea that they might accidentally have made Wes Streeting PM www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

"When it became about Wes, it was doomed"

The Labour left is furious at the Health Secretary's allies for co-opting the challenge to Starmer

newstatesman.com

Scoop: Left-wing Labour MPs Chris Hinchliff and Neil Duncan-Jordan are launching a new "programme for change inside the Labour Party", called "Socialism 2026". @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/wes...

Socialism 2026: left-wing Labour MPs want a better party

Chris Hinchliff and Neil Duncan-Jordan are gathering MPs around a new socialist platform

newstatesman.com

Our tracker is now on 40 MPs - latest is Rachael Maskell who said the Prime Minister "cannot continue" but urged caution about triggering a contest too quickly. @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Tracked: the Labour MPs calling for Keir Starmer to go

Read their statements on the Prime Minister's future

newstatesman.com

Cat Eccles becomes the latest MP to be added to the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social s list of MPs calling for Keir Starmer to go. Brings our total up to 39 MPs. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Tracked: the Labour MPs calling for Keir Starmer to go

Read their statements on the Prime Minister's future

newstatesman.com

How would a Labour leadership election work? Here’s a handy guide by me for @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. After Catherine West’s unexpected intervention this weekend, read it if you want to understand what might come next!

Our tracker is on 29 MPs so far, who have called on Keir Starmer to resign follow this damaging set of results for Labour: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Tracked: the Labour MPs calling for Keir Starmer to go

Read their statements on the Prime Minister's future

newstatesman.com

Greens seeming to do v well in Manchester City Council elections - expected to take around 15 of the 32 seats up for grabs (they have currently taken 14). Labour, meanwhile, have lost 17 seats.

Soft-left sources denying that there are no safe-Labour seats left for Burnham: "It might be true that there are no safe Labour seats, but there are safe Burnham seats. His personal popularity and brand is strong enough to return him to parliament - anyone who denies this is denying reality."

Garbett elected with 47.2 per cent of the vote

megan kenyon@meganekenyon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEW: Zoe Garbett has been elected mayor of Hackney in a big win for the Greens in one of their main target areas. The party has never had a mayor before.

NEW: Zoe Garbett has been elected mayor of Hackney in a big win for the Greens in one of their main target areas. The party has never had a mayor before.

New: Understand Zack Polanski will be attending the Hackney count later today. Green Party clearly confident they will win there.

A fiery take from a soft-left source who texts: "Rejected by the public. Increasingly rejected by his own party. If Keir truly listens to these results he will set out a date for his departure. If he doesn’t, he’ll go down in history as the man whose hubris killed the Labour Party."

Green target results not expected till later today but party sources sounding predictably confident. One tells me the party is feeling good about taking Hackney Mayor - though not complacent - and is still confident of a breakthrough in the Senedd but perhaps not with multiple seats.

Reform has taken its first London borough - Havering. The @newstatesman1913.bsky.social ran an on-the-ground report from Havering by Maya Sall this weekend - read it here. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Inside “Hexit”, Reform’s plan to break up London

Nigel Farage backs a campaign for Havering independence. Sound familiar?

newstatesman.com

“Margaret Thatcher ruined my life. I moved from south Wales to south London, and it’s still shit.” Great report from Lambeth by @meganekenyon.bsky.social - England's 2nd most-complained-about council, where Morgan McSweeney cut his teeth + local Labour figures admit “the energy is with the Greens”

The battle for Lambeth, Labour's London stronghold

Can the Greens take Steve Reed's fortress?

newstatesman.com

A century of Labour hegemony in Wales could be ended in one night - brilliant report around the country on perhaps the most symbolic election coming up on polling day by @meganekenyon.bsky.social:

Welsh Labour is dying

The forces of nationalism and nihilism are tearing the country apart

newstatesman.com

An interesting development that could happen after 7 May is the Welsh Green Party seeking independence from the central party. This would mean Welsh Greens forming a similar arrangement to Scottish Greens, who split in 1990. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Could the Welsh Greens split from Zack Polanski's party?

It's only a matter of time before the parties "consciously uncouple"

newstatesman.com

Statements that have now come to light from a handful of @TheGreenParty candidates are totally unacceptable & require immediate action. There’s no place for anti-semitism or any hate speech in the party. This is a society-wide problem & needs to be rooted out wherever it’s found

This is a great on-the-ground dispatch from Stevenage by our @anooshc.bsky.social in the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social today. Read it ahead of the vote on Thursday! A big week for British politics. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Stevenage Woman keeps thinking about Nigel Farage

The Shy Reform effect (including among its own candidates) could reshape this classic Labour-Tory bellwether

newstatesman.com