Labour beats Tories in by-election

Sajid Javid
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Updated 03 December 2022
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Labour beats Tories in by-election

  • Polling experts said the scale of the Conservative defeat in the Chester by-election was in line with national polls giving Labour a 20-point lead

LONDON: Britain’s opposition Labour Party has secured a resounding victory in a vote for a parliament seat in northwest England, showing the scale of the challenge facing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to win a general election in the next two years.
Adding to the gloom for the Conservatives, who are trailing in nationwide polls and seemingly heading for defeat in a national election expected in 2024, one of the governing party’s most experienced frontline politicians, Sajid Javid, said he planned to stand down.
Javid joins a growing group of Conservative lawmakers who will quit Westminster at the next national election, as the party faces the possibility of being out of power for the first time since 2010.
Polling experts said the scale of the Conservative defeat in the Chester by-election was in line with national polls giving Labour a 20-point lead.
It offered the first electoral judgment since the party embarked on a chaotic bout of infighting, ousting Boris Johnson and Liz Truss as prime minister, the latter after markets took fright at her unfunded fiscal plans.
Sunak became prime minister on Oct. 25, inheriting a divided and fractious party at a time of economic crisis, tasked with tackling soaring inflation and restoring the confidence of financial markets.
Governing parties rarely do well in so-called by-elections, which take place outside the schedule of national elections when a lawmaker leaves their position.
In Chester, Labour candidate Samantha Dixon secured 61 percent of the vote, compared to 22 percent for the candidate from the Conservatives. Labour’s outright majority rose to 10,974 from 6,194.
Labour have held the Chester seat since the 2015 national election, when the party scraped through with a majority of just 93 there, the smallest in the country.
Chester was held by the Conservatives between 2010 and 2015.
Charles Walker, one of those Conservative lawmakers who will stand down at the next election, said Sunak was doing the right things against a difficult backdrop, but defeat at the next national election was likely unavoidable.
“It’s almost impossible to see us coming back from this,” Walker told Times Radio. “I hope what Rishi Sunak does is make sure Labour doesn’t wipe the floor with us, so that ... we form a viable opposition.”
Javid said that the Conservatives had asked lawmakers to confirm their intentions for the next election, to allow the party to prepare.
He played his own role in the year’s drama - resigning as Health Secretary in July, minutes before Sunak quit as finance minister, triggering the unprecedented ministerial rebellion that brought down Johnson.
Javid, who had also served as chancellor of exchequer under Johnson, then said he would stand to replace him, but withdrew before the contest began. He also stood to replace Theresa May as leader in 2019, and was eliminated midway through the race.
“After much reflection I have decided that I will not be standing again at the next general election,” Javid said.
British polling expert John Curtice said the 13 percent swing from Conservative to Labour in Chester suggested that Labour would win an outright majority in parliament at the next national election, but noted that local votes were rarely a good guide.
“Rishi Sunak is being reminded by the voters of Chester that he’s got quite a lot of work to do to get his party back in a position where we might consider the prospect of the Conservatives winning the next general election,” he said.
The vote was triggered after Labour lawmaker Christian Matheson resigned.
An independent panel said he had breached parliament’s sexual misconduct policy for making “unwanted and unwelcome” advances towards a junior staff member.

 


UK police ban Palestine Action protest outside parliament

Updated 3 sec ago
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UK police ban Palestine Action protest outside parliament

LONDON: British police have banned campaign group Palestine Action from protesting outside parliament on Monday, a rare move that comes after two of its members broke into a military base last week and as the government considers banning the organization.
The group said in response that it had changed the location of its protest on Monday to Trafalgar Square, which lies just outside the police exclusion zone.
The pro-Palestinian organization is among groups that have regularly targeted defense firms and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
British media have reported that the government is considering proscribing, or effectively banning, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organization, putting it on a par with Al-Qaeda or Daesh.
London’s Metropolitan Police said late on Sunday that it would impose an exclusion zone for a protest planned by Palestine Action outside the Houses of Parliament — a popular location for protests in support of a range of causes.
“The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest,” Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said.
“We have laid out to Government the operational basis on which to consider proscribing this group.”
Palestine Action’s members are alleged to have caused millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer and, in the incident last week, damaged two military aircraft, Rowley added.

Italy against suspending EU-Israel accord, foreign minister says

Updated 7 min 13 sec ago
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Italy against suspending EU-Israel accord, foreign minister says

ROME: Italy is against a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement over alleged human rights violations in Gaza, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.
“Our position is different from that of Spain,” Tajani said on the sidelines of a meeting with EU colleagues in Brussels, referring to Spain’s support for a suspension of the deal.
Tajani said it was important to keep relations open with Israel, saying that this had facilitated the evacuation of some civilians out of Gaza.


In Norway’s Arctic, meteorologists have a first-row seat to climate change

Updated 23 min 39 sec ago
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In Norway’s Arctic, meteorologists have a first-row seat to climate change

TROMSO: In the cold of the Norwegian Arctic, meteorologist Trond Robertsen manually recorded precipitation levels for over two decades, witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change.
At 66, Robertsen retired after enduring spartan conditions during missions that totalled eight years on two islands of the Svalbard archipelago: Bjornoya (Bear Island) and Hogen.
To reach the remote Bjornoya, where the only humans are the nine employees of the small weather station, the meteorologists have to fly in by helicopter as they are rotated on a six-month basis.
“The idea is to not stay too long, because it’s a different rhythm, and you are isolated,” Robertsen told AFP.
It is demanding work.
“It’s a 24/7 occupation,” he said. “We are doing it all day, all night.” The team worked shifts to cover all hours of the day, he explained.
Weather observation starts in the early morning at 6:00 am.
“It’s manually done, then you have to go outside and check the bucket that is collecting precipitation,” said Robertsen.
“During wintertime you have to melt the snow and ice into water” to determine how much has fallen.
The data is then transmitted the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Tromso and Oslo.
“This tiny little observation is actually quite crucial for the weather forecasting systems up north, because observations are so sparse from that area.”
Bjornoya sits in the middle of fishing grounds, and the weather reports published twice a day are closely followed by the fishing boats in the area.


Since his first missions to the Arctic in the 1990s, Robertsen has witnessed the changing climate.
“When I started going up north, there was a lot of ice. In the later years, it’s less ice and fewer polar bears. You can see the climate change,” he said.
Polar bears have been classified as a vulnerable population since 1982 on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, with the loss of Arctic sea ice the most pressing threat against the species.
However, their precise numbers, are almost impossible to assess.
In winter, employees of station always venture out in pairs and have to be armed due to the presence of polar bears, but according to Robertsen it’s rarer to encounter them today.
In April, during his last mission to the island, Robertsen had an accident while doing carpentry: he slipped and ended up cutting one finger clean off and half of another.
Due to tough weather conditions, he had to wait some 26 hours before being evacuated by helicopter and transported to a hospital.
“It was a heavy snowstorm coming in, only the day after the helicopter came,” he recounted.
Looking back, Robertsen does not regret the years spent under the austere living conditions.
“The Arctic has given me so many experiences and memories so it is a small fee to pay back with my left little finger and part of my ring finger,” he said.


More evacuation orders issued as firefighters battle major wildfire on the Greek island of Chios

Updated 33 min 20 sec ago
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More evacuation orders issued as firefighters battle major wildfire on the Greek island of Chios

ATHENS: Greek authorities sent new evacuation notifications for two areas near the main town of the eastern Aegean island of Chios Monday morning, as firefighters struggled to control a major wildfire raging on the town’s outskirts for a second day.
The fire department said 190 firefighters were battling the blaze Monday. They were backed up by 35 vehicles, five helicopters and two water-dropping planes. Strong winds in the area since Sunday have hampered firefighting efforts.
Push alerts have been sent to mobile phones in the area urging people to evacuate a total of 16 villages, settlements and neighborhoods on the outskirts of Chios town since the blaze broke out on Sunday.
The fire started in three separate locations. Authorities have sent a specialist fire department arson investigation team to the island to look into the causes.
Wildfires are frequent in Greece during its hot, dry summers, but authorities have said climate change has been fueling bigger and more frequent blazes.
In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 people died, including some who drowned trying to swim away from the flames.


Sri Lanka seizes $76m smuggled drugs this year

Updated 47 min 16 sec ago
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Sri Lanka seizes $76m smuggled drugs this year

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s anti-narcotics drive has resulted in the seizure of more than three tonnnes (6,600 pounds) of illegal drugs with a street value of $76 million this year, officials said Monday.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said most of the illegal drugs originated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and were being smuggled into the island by sea.
He said there were an estimated 400,000 addicts in the nation of 22 million people.
“We need to reduce demand while keeping up detections,” Wijepala told reporters in Colombo.
Police chief Priyantha Weerasooriya said the drugs seized had a street value of 23 billion rupees ($76 million). That was close to the 28 billion rupees’ worth of drugs seized in the whole of 2024.
More than 1,000 people were arrested for drug dealing and smuggling, he added. They included a 38-year-old Thai woman, arrested at Colombo airport on May 30 carrying nearly 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine, the largest detection of the drug at an entry point to the South Asian nation.
Also last month, three others — from Britain, India and Thailand — were arrested trying to smuggle in nearly 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of synthetic cannabis.
All four suspects, including the Thai woman arrested with cocaine, could face life imprisonment if convicted.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously seized large quantities of heroin off the country’s shores, suggesting the island is being used as a transit hub for narcotics destined for other locations.
In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to heroin smuggling.
Sri Lanka’s largest single seizure of narcotics occurred in December 2016, when Customs found 800 kilos of cocaine in a transshipment container of timber destined for India.