Nigel Farage has been handed a local elections breakthrough just three days ahead of May 1 as fewer people than ever are planning to vote Labour or Conservative.
Record numbers of English voters are turning away from the two biggest parties, polling guru Sir John Curtice has said - and as a result, Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that Reform UK "has already won".
Curtice said that while Reform, along with its predecessors Ukip and the Brexit Party, has previously eaten into the Tory vote, it is now taking thousands of Labour votes too.
"Reform, in a sense, have already won these local elections. One of the targets they set for themselves is to create local party organisations," he told the Independent.
"Evidently, in the limited number of places we have elections, they have managed to create enough of an organisation to find 1,600 candidates, and they are fighting for more seats than any other party."
The leading pollster said that Reform polling at around 15 per cent was "great news" for Labour as it "murdered" the Tories - which came to a head at the General Election.
But now, he warned, Nigel Farage's party - polling at 25 per cent - had surged into a position to stake claim to "loads" of Labour seats.
"We are in very uncertain territory... partly because Reform are intervening virtually everywhere. There is no baseline against which to measure them."
And with Reform taking chunks out of the Tory vote, Curtice has also projected that the Liberal Democrats will romp through traditional Conservative heartlands - as highlighted by GB News back in March.
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Keir Starmer refuses to deny GB News viewers won't have to live next door to illegal migrants in Serco rentals
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to deny that GB News viewers will have to live next to illegal migrants
POOL
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to deny that GB News viewers will have to live next to illegal migrants following the damning news that private accommodation will be rented out to asylum seekers.
Pressed on whether viewers of Britain's News Channel would have to live next to the migrants following a grim milestone day of Channel crossings, the Prime Minister said: "This is a serious problem.
"The last Government lost control of our borders," he said - and pledged that Labour would tackle people-smuggling gangs through its Border Security Bill.
The Prime Minister also vowed that Labour was processing a "record backlog" of asylum claims, and said that 24,000 people had been removed from Britain since the General Election.
"If they've no right to be here, they shouldn't be housed here at all. They should be processed and removed," he said.
"While people are waiting for their claims to be processed, we've got to find somewhere to put them."
RECAP: Keir Starmer to cut legal migration in bid to stop surging Reform UK - as Channel crossings SOAR to 10,000 in spring sun
As GB News' Home and Security Editor Mark White reveals that 10,000 migrants have now crossed the Channel, Sir Keir Starmer will lay out a new plan to cut legal migration following Thursday's local elections - where Labour is bracing for a Reform UK surge across the country.
A new "white paper" will look to close a loophole which sees foreign students come to the UK on graduate visas before taking up low-paid jobs in the "gig economy" or care sector. It is expected to be published before May 19.
A Home Office source said: "We've made a really strong commitment that the Home Secretary wants to reduce net migration. We will use the immigration white paper as a tool for that."
Labour power-brokers have identified cutting migration as a way to cut the flow of support to Nigel Farage's party - but Reform is projected to secure hundreds of council seats, multiple mayoralties and could win the Runcorn & Helsby by-election.
One Labour peer, Lord Glasman, has warned that Starmer's party would "get its head kicked in" by the surging Reform.
And a senior trade union figure told The Telegraph that a "sizeable" chunk of its members would vote for Farage's candidates on May 1.
But despite the Prime Minister's long-held pledges to slash legal and illegal migration, the South Coast has overseen the arrival of even more small boat migrants today.
GB News can reveal that the number of illegal migrants to have arrived in Britain in 2025 alone has now crossed the 10,000 mark during a period of hot spring weather.
And more are expected to join - from Tuesday to Friday this week in both Dover and Calais, temperatures will reach the mid-twenties, making illegal crossings easier and more attractive for prospective asylum seekers.
Starmer, Sturgeon and Swinney all told to apologise to women over trans 'mess' - 'It's not some airy-fairy guidance, it's the highest court in Britain!'
Sir Keir Starmer, ex-Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and current FM John Swinney have all been told to apologise to women following the Supreme Court's gender ruling on April 16.
SNP MSP Michelle Thomson told the BBC: "In reality, let's be clear: Keir Starmer should also be apologising, Nicola Sturgeon should also be apologising because people expect Government to make clear policies that can be translated into law, and this has been quite a mess for some time, and has only been cleared up as a result of the ruling by the Supreme Court."
She told Swinney to "exhibit very clear leadership" on the issue and "come out really strongly" to warn organisations of the consequences of not following the Supreme Court's ruling on single-sex spaces.
"This is the Supreme Court that has made a ruling. It's not some airy-fairy guidance. It's the highest court across the UK," Thomson vowed.
"I think he [Swinney] needs to be very clear that where it is possible immediately and now they must adhere to the law."
Thousands of officials to be trained to 'manage the next pandemic' under new Labour plans
Thousands of public officials will be trained to manage crises like a future pandemic in a new "resilience" drive from Labour.
The UK Resilience Academy will train more than 4,000 people each year, working in both public services and the private sector, to better deal with crises.
Skills being taught including helping businesses keep running in the event of a disaster, crowd management skills, and crisis communications.
The Armed Forces and Civil Service will also be offered the training - which is set to fall under the purview of Pat McFadden's Cabinet Office.
He said: "Today, we're making a generational upgrade to crisis training for thousands of workers, and helping decision-makers identify vulnerable groups in a crisis."
The Cabinet Office chief has also launched a new piece of software which will be used to highlight where vulnerable groups are - including the elderly, and those with power outages and insecure food supplies - during crises.
'No place in British society!' Kemi Badenoch demands Irish rap group Kneecap be PROSECUTED over vile 'kill your local MP' chant
Kneecap allegedly told concertgoers to 'kill your local MP'
PATory leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded that Irish rap group Kneecap be prosecuted for allegedly calling for the death of Tory MPs.
Footage has recently emerged of the group at a November 2023 gig - which appears to show one member saying: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP."
Badenoch has now vowed that Kneecap's "anti-British hatred has no place in our society", and has called for them to face action.
Scotland Yard is looking into the incident, alongside footage from another concert from November 2024 in which a member of the band appeared to shout "up Hamas, up Hezbollah". Both groups are proscribed terrorist organisations.
Badenoch said it was "good" that police were looking into the allegation, adding: "Kneecap's glorification of terrorism and anti-British hatred has no place in our society.
"Now footage shows one of them saying: 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP'. After the murder of Sir David Amess, this demands prosecution."
Amess was stabbed to death by Jihadi Ali Harbi Ali while meeting constituents in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021.
Badenoch blocked a £14,250 Government grant to Kneecap while she was Business Secretary - but in November last year, the rap trio won a discrimination challenge over the decision to refuse them the funding.
Counter-terrorism police are also assessing footage reportedly from the November 2024 gig in London's Kentish Town Forum and the November 2023 concert.
'It's not about immigration, it's about who's going to fix the bins!' Kemi Badenoch lays out local elections pitch as just three days remain until crunch votes
Kemi Badenoch has vowed that this week's local elections are not about immigration, but about who is going to fix the roads or collect the bins.
The Tory leader has said her party needs to "fight for every single vote" and "remind people about our record and how well we have done at local government level".
"This is not a referendum on national issues, but local ones," she said.
"I've been travelling all around the country, and one of the councillors I was with, we were on a doorstep, and he showed a leaflet of Reform, saying 'we're going to stop the boats'. That's not what people are voting on on Thursday," she told ITV.
"We have said that we are going to tackle immigration, but this week's elections are about who's going to fix the roads and pick up the bins."
'There's going to be unrest' - Labour braces for major NHS and teaching strikes even if it accepts bumper pay rises
Labour has been warned of "unrest" and strikes from millions of public sector workers after it was recommended that they should be offered a four per cent pay rise.
Public sector pay review bodies are recommending pay rises of as much as four per cent for teachers and three per cent for NHS workers, The Times revealed - and it is expected that Labour will accept the recommendations in full.
Despite this, the pay hikes will not be enough to quell strike action.
And an NHS source said: "This will go down really badly... These are people who haven't had a lot given to them in recent years and we know that nurses are gingering up for some kind of industrial action, unions are very upset and it is going to be unrest all over again."
Care Minister Stephen Kinnock then said this morning: "We're all about putting more money into the pockets of working people, but we do also have to ensure that we are balancing the books, and we’ve got to work in terms of public sector pay within fiscal constraints.
"So, of course, we will give these recommendations careful consideration. But I would, of course, also urge our colleagues in the trade union movement to engage constructively with us and recognise the reality of the financial position."
RECAP: As Starmer looks to close legal migration loophole... Whitehall departments at WAR over 'Deliveroo visas'
The two Whitehall departments were reportedly locked in a bitter feud over the 'Deliveroo visa' pathway
PASir Keir Starmer's move to close a loophole on graduate visa-holders taking up low-paid jobs in the "gig economy" or care sector comes almost three weeks after reports emerged of a row between the Home Office and Department for Education over exactly that.
The two Whitehall departments were reportedly locked in a bitter feud over the visa pathway, which sees foreign students at UK universities graduate - only to end up working in low-skilled roles in the care sector or for food delivery companies.
The DfE is said to be encouraging universities to lobby against reforms to the graduate visa, which currently allows students to stay in the UK for up to two years after they finish their degree.
But research by the Government's Migration Advisory Committee has found that over 60 per cent of people on a graduate visa earned less than £30,000 after 12 months on the scheme.
As a result, the Home Office is pushing for a new requirement that students must find a graduate-level job to remain in the UK, according to the Financial Times.
The FT also reports that beneath the Home Office’s attempts to limit the graduate visa route are two sets of data:
- One shows a high number of overseas students moving from university into low-paid work, including social care;
- The other suggests tens of thousands of people have moved from a study visa into the asylum system.
Home Office data released last month showed 40,000 asylum claims in 2024 had come from people who had held a UK visa before - and around 40 per cent of these people had held a study visa.
A DfE spokesman said they "did not recognise" any dispute with the Home Office regarding the migration proposals, while a Government spokesman said: "The Home Office and Department for Education are working closely to take an evidence-based approach, linking migration policy to education and skills, so immigration is no longer used at the expense of homegrown talent."
Trans children to be tested for autism under new plans to find 'neurodevelopmental conditions'
Transgender children will be tested for autism under new plans to identify any underlying "neurodevelopmental conditions".
The NHS has revised its guidance so that every child referred to a gender clinic is "holistically assessed for neurodevelopmental conditions" such as ADHD.
Medics working at gender clinics across London and Manchester will be the first to use the guidance after Baroness Cass approved the plans earlier this year.
Previously, she identified a connection between young girls "struggling with gender identity, suicidal ideation and self-harm" and those with "undiagnosed autism, which is often missed in adolescent girls".
She found it to be the "common denominator" after research revealed that the chances of being autistic were three to six times more likely for transgender people.
WATCH: Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp speaks to GB News Breakfast
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp also spoke to GB News Breakfast this morning - with GB News' expectation that migrant crossings will reach 10,000 today in the firing line.
You can watch his interview with Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello in full here.
Serco to face 'dressing down' by Border Security Minister this week after asylum dispersal fury
Serco, the firm at the centre of a furious row over renting out private accommodation to asylum seekers, is set to be hauled into the Home Office this week for urgent talks with Labour's Border Security Minister, according to reports.
Representatives from the company will meet Angela Eagle this week following the fiasco, Politico reports.
Thanks to contracts awarded under Boris Johnson's Government, Serco is offering landlords five-year guaranteed full rent deals at the taxpayer's expense to house the migrants - sparking fears Britain's housing shortage could be worsened further.
The list of areas destined to house asylum seekers - mainly the Midlands and North West - was published on Serco's website out of the blue.
And you can read it, in full, below...
WATCH: Care Minister Stephen Kinnock speaks to GB News Breakfast
Care Minister Stephen Kinnock spoke to GB News Breakfast shortly before 7am this morning - with the NHS, migration and Reform UK all among the top talking points.
You can watch his interview with Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello in full here.
Keir Starmer: Labour 'leading the NHS out of the dark ages' as health app saves millions of appointments from cancellation
Sir Keir Starmer has claimed that Labour is leading the NHS out of the "dark ages" following new figures which say reforming the NHS app has resulted in 1.5 million fewer appointments being missed.
Ministers set out plans to expand the use of the app earlier this year, as part of the elective reform plan.
The scheme is aimed at delivering two million extra appointments by the end of the year, and giving people more flexibility in how, where, and when they get the care they need.
NHS England data from the app shows it has prevented 1.5 million appointments from being missed since the General Election, saving 5.7 million hours of staff time and £622million.
The Prime Minister - set to address the app's expansion in the North East later today - said: "Our NHS has been stuck in the dark ages held back by old-fashioned systems where patients are struggling for appointments and unable to access their own data.
"We saw during the pandemic how apps can totally transform everyday access to health services... there's no excuse for the lack of progress in the NHS we've inherited.
"NHS reform has to come through better use of tech. It's the fuel we need to power change.
"As we deliver our plan for change to end hospital backlogs, I want to see more and more people having the option to use the app, so that everyone benefits from more control and choice over their treatment."
You may like
