Congress Poised to Welcome First Transgender Member. Meet Sarah McBride

Philip Elliott
Thu, 13 June 2024 

The first transgender member of Congress is likely to be Sarah McBride, who just saw her main opponent in the Democratic primary end his bid. Credit - Kent Nishimura—Getty Images

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It’s all too easy to dismiss the political clout of LGBTQ Americans based solely on how well they have found toeholds in office. After all, just one-quarter of 1% of elected officials in the United States identify as part of the community. And that’s after so-called Rainbow Wave elections of recent cycles.

But one major glass ceiling is closer to shattering. Delaware state Senator Sarah McBride this week got a step closer to becoming the first transgender member of Congress, after Eugene Young, her most credible opponent in the September Democratic primary, ended his campaign on Wednesday. While others have until next month to jump in the race, it’s increasingly apparent that the field is clear for McBride to make history in a seat where Democrats hold a double-digit advantage in voter registration.

“I’m not running to be known for my identity,” McBride tells TIME. “I’m running to help Delaware families see results, and my record speaks for itself.”

McBride already holds the title of highest-ranking transgender elected politician in the nation as a state senator, just the latest in a C.V. full of firsts. That might make it easy to discount what appears likely to be her next history-making moment in November, as well as the political acumen that has taken her this far. Both would be a mistake. McBride was the first openly trans person to work in the White House during the Obama administration and was the first trans person to speak at a party’s nominating convention when Hillary Clinton accepted the nod in 2016. Joe Biden wrote the foreword to her 2018 memoir. McBride broke through again in 2020 as the first transgender person elected to any state’s Senate. (Danica Roem in Virginia was the first trans person elected to a state legislature with her 2017 bid for the state House of Delegates and followed last year with a state Senate win.) McBride brought together her state’s biggest labor unions and the state Chamber of Commerce to support a paid family-leave bill, and has been one of the best advocates against gun violence at the state level anywhere on the map.

And, barring some unforeseen complications heading toward Election Day in November, she stands to immediately become one of the most visible freshmen in Congress, one whose single vote will carry far more weight than most.

“Hopefully, it will help to humanize a community that has been long marginalized,” she said by phone Thursday, a day after Young's decision made her return to Washington more likely. It’s a responsibility she doesn’t take lightly in a body currently led by a Speaker who has railed against "radical gender ideology" and members like Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene, who once pointedly posted an anti-transgender sign outside her office, which sat directly across from the office of a member with a transgender child.

“[Republicans] have absolutely no policy solutions for issues that face this country, and seek to distract with manufactured culture wars,” McBride tells me. “It’s critical that we have members of the impacted community at the table.”

Lost on no one was her cash advantage. McBride ended March with $1.9 million in her campaign account, while Young had about $400,000. Labor groups, Democratic groups, and local elected leaders all piled up behind her to lend support and contacts. The LGBTQ donor network opened wide and often for her as well, no surprise given her years of working her networks and those of allies. (Young, the former director of the Delaware State Housing Authority, had the backing of Gov. John Carney and would have been the first Black person to represent Delaware in Congress.) It was also increasingly clear that, if needed, the Biden political machine could be summoned; McBride worked on the campaign of the late Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden and Joe Biden credits McBride for his evolution on LGBTQ rights.

This tracks with other LGBTQ strengths. So-called “pink money” has flowed almost exclusively to Democratic candidates for decades, and deep-pocketed donors quietly fueled races during the 1980s and 1990s, but now are among the loudest champions of pro-equality candidates. Groups like the Victory Fund and the Human Rights Campaign have robust political operations that, beyond endorsements and PAC donations, help bundle millions of dollars in direct giving to chosen candidates. One of the most coveted introductions in politics is a credible insider telling their like-minded friends about the campaign of an upstart like McBride or the hundreds of other LGBTQ contenders running in lesser-known races.

And while the number of LGBTQ elected officials nationwide stands at just shy of 1,300, it’s still a vast jump from where the century began. The tally, from the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s annual Out For America survey, includes 12 members of Congress, three Governors, and 62 mayors. But the figures show a pronounced lag for trans pols, which is not surprising given that the constituency inside the LGBTQ coalition often faces the steepest climbs and harshest opposition from critics. And even if she wins this fall, one trans voice among 435 voting members of the House is a step toward representation, but it’s a small one that comes late for the roughly 1.6 million Americans over the age of 13 who identify as transgender.

Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat is open because its incumbent, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, is seeking the Senate seat being vacated with the retirement of Sen. Tom Carper. Blunt Rochester, too, would make history as the first woman and first person of color to represent Delaware in the Senate. (She’s also a former Carper intern.)

Democrats are widely expected to hold both seats in a state that last elected a Republican to the House in 2008 and to the Senate in 1994. Republicans are not seriously targeting the seats and instead are trying to save their own endangered incumbents who face the tricky task of defending the narrowest House majority in the House on a ticket with former President Donald Trump as the headliner. The path to gavels in either chamber does not run through Delaware.

Oh, and for good measure, Blunt Rochester on Thursday—in an exclusive to TIME—endorsed McBride to replace her. “As Delaware’s Congresswoman, I know what it takes to deliver for our state and that Sarah will hit the ground running as our state’s lone member of the U.S. House,” Blunt Rochester plans to say in a statement later in the day.

McBride is careful not to take the news as a premature victory lap. But she is hardly ignorant of what her arrival signals to Washington and beyond. “I’m going to continue to work my heart out and take nothing for granted,” she says. Democrats are counting on that, and betting her diligence helps them hold a seat that is part of their cornerstone for a potential majority come early next year.

Trans People Are Sharing The Differences They Noticed After Transitioning, And It Proves How Much We Discriminate Based On Gender
BuzzFeed

Thu, June 13, 2024 




Recently, we asked the trans members of the BuzzFeed Community about the differences they noticed before and after transitioning. After all, trans people sometimes have a unique perspective on how society treats men, women, nonbinary, genderfluid, and non-gender-conforming people differently, having potentially had two or more gender experiences.

Vladimir Vladimirov / Getty Images

We received a ton of responses, so below are some of the most interesting and insightful ones.

Trans men who were AFAB noticed some differences in how they are perceived socially now, along with physical changes:


1.

"Four and a half years on [testosterone] here. I’ve always been boyish, so my friend group and fashion sense stayed the same. The main change I noticed was how others treated me. I get asked to help move stuff more and don’t get told to 'smile more' or get leered at by strangers, which is such a blessing I didn’t even consider.

Physically, I’m stronger, my proportions changed, and my feet grew and height increased. T didn’t make me aggressive, just very *excitable*. Overall, I am so damn happy I made the decision to transition, no matter if people have negative opinions on my identity. I am loved and cherished still, and my mental health has skyrocketed over the last four years."

—witchystar55

2.

"FTM, transitioned at 19. To be honest, I haven’t noticed that much difference in how people treat me. The biggest difference is that HRT has made my emotions a lot steadier, and I’m way more confident. It’s also weirdly difficult to cry —apparently, it has something to do with hormones changing your tear ducts."

—wes7887

3.

"I transitioned from female to male, and the biggest physical differences I've noticed are in how my body processes being cold and needing to pee. Before, when I was in either of those situations, they felt IMMEDIATE and UNBEARABLE. Being on testosterone makes them both things where I'm like, 'I should deal with that at some point,' but it doesn't need to be NOW.

Also, people like to talk about how much more rational men's clothing sizes are, but I haven't found that to be true at all. A 31-inch waist fits me very differently in different brands and even different styles in the same brand."

—anonymous

Doble-d / Getty Images

4.

"A lot of my friends have completely forgotten that I’m not a cis male and will talk/joke about certain things. And when I bring up something from my past about being raised a girl or not having a dick, they are dumbfounded, trying to rack their brain around how that’s possible, LOL."

—anonymous

5.

"Trans man here. I am honestly so shocked by how much easier life is for me now that I’m fully passing. I’m treated with so much more respect, and I no longer feel unsafe in most public areas. I don’t know if this is the same for every trans man, but I really do feel that now I am a man, the world feels structured to benefit me entirely. I’m not inherently happy about this, obviously. I’m just constantly reminded of how truly awful life can be for women."

—anonymous

6.

"I am treated completely differently [than] before my transition. To everyone, I was just one of those girls that always hung out with the boys. A major tomboy. Once I started hormones, I felt more like myself, and finally, everyone was able to start seeing who I saw all along. It was much harder before I passed. For those who don't know, 'passing' is when a trans person is seen as a cis person. Once I started passing, I was more welcome into male spaces.

Very few people at my current workplace know my trans status. I am seen as a cis male consistently for the first time in my life. It opened me up to a world of guy talk, which is wild. I honestly thought guy talk was a made-up thing in movies. But it's real, and I'm here to tell you that there are certain things men will not say in 'mixed company.' After being at my workplace for almost two years, it doesn't faze me anymore."

—anonymous

7.

"I'm over 30 and out as FtM for three years. I absolutely love that strangers are no longer asking and judging me about kids ('Do you have any/why not/when/who's gonna take care of you later?'). I also feel much more self-assured, nobody is second-guessing my technical competence (I work in IT), and as an extension, I am not second-guessing myself, either. I genuinely feel much more at ease and comfortable, and I'm happier. I also don't hesitate to speak up for either myself or others, and interestingly, I've become much less tolerant of misogyny and sexism in general."

—anonymous

8.

"This may be silly — or just plain obvious — but the men’s restroom is almost always in worse condition than the women’s restroom. I’ve seen unspeakable things stuffed in toilets, smeared on walls, and pooled at the bottom of stalls. It reminds me of that saying, 'You never know what you have until it’s gone.' I miss relatively clean public restrooms, but I am also way too dysphoric-ly stubborn to use the women's outside of absolute emergencies."

—anonymous

Alan George / Getty Images

9.

"Cis men really don't seem to wash their hands in bathrooms, at ALL."

—anonymous

10.

"I was assigned female at birth and began transitioning in my early 20s. I began 'passing' as a straight, cisgender male and noticed how I felt safe walking alone. People didn't bother me as much. I noticed that when I did group assignments, people would listen to me more and talk over me less. This all sparked a lot of feelings inside me, and it helped me work through a lot of internalized misogyny. If it hasn't already been done, someone needs to write a paper on the difference in culture between the men's and women's restrooms. The men's room is generally a mess, and eye contact or quick greetings seem forbidden. I miss the camaraderie of the women's room all the time — the sharing of tampons, a quick heads-up if the toilet paper is low, and a shoulder to cry on during a drunken meltdown. Now it's one stall that's being used by someone watching YouTube loudly on their phone and Zyn pouches lining the urinals. Love it."

—anonymous

11.

"I transitioned from female to male. There are a lot of differences, but one I did not expect is that — before I passed as a man — I would offer car rides home to strange women my age I saw walking on the road in my town, especially in the cold winter. Now that I pass as a man, I feel as though they would immediately assume I intended something bad (understandable from their position), so I just keep driving and hope they get home safe. The instant solidarity and connection I formerly experienced with women is not as readily experienced with men. I had to come out as gay to my managers at work just to get them to stop teasing me for 'flirting' with the female receptionist my age, whom I'm friends with outside of work. Literally cannot be friends with women or go out to dinner with them without everyone assuming we're a couple."

—anonymous

12.

"I'm transitioning FtM and passing most of the time. Women, when talking about reproductive issues or periods, pat my knee and say, 'You don't have to worry about that.' Doctors take me more seriously. I get fewer smiles back on the street. Uber and Lyft drivers don't try to make small talk, which I love. I still get clocked on the phone, and it's wild how condescending people are."

—anonymous

13.

"I've never experienced the men vs. women part; it's more that before I transitioned, I was catcalled a lot. [Now that I've] transitioned, I get left alone, which is lovely. The downside was I got a lot of harassment: things thrown at me by strangers in the street, threats, being filmed and harassed. I've also faced discrimination when applying for jobs."

—anonymous

14.

"I've noticed quite a few differences. As a woman, men paid unwanted attention to me. When I corrected them, they'd laugh it off claiming it was harmless. If I needed help, men would come do it for me as opposed to showing me how best to do a job, or just assisting the extra muscle I may need."

—anonymous

15.

"I am a transgender man who transitioned about 10 years ago. The first thing I noticed right away, especially being more of an opinionated 'nerd' type, is that I no longer had to bring backup to a discussion. I didn't have to google things to prove I was right about something. People just listened to me and believed me when I said things. It was a whiplash! Not that everything I say is always right, but people would actually engage with it instead of just being like, 'Oh, sweetie, you don't know what you're talking about.' Just in general, people treated me like I was another person on the same level and not in an infantilizing way.

I did mourn the loss somewhat of not being seen as a threat to women, though. I felt like I lost the ability to communicate with women my age without them being guarded or suspicious, but I don't blame them at all. I was taught to do the exact same thing."

—anonymous

16.

"FtM: Far less emotion (haven't cried in 15 years), far more body hair. :P

One thing that stands out was that when I was dining out with my ex-husband (not ex yet then, obviously), pre-transition, they would automatically give him the bill, and as soon as they clocked me as male, they asked if we wanted to split. Women are more weary of me now, I feel less comfortable complimenting both men and women for how that might come across, people don't interrupt me nearly as often now, and I feel like I'm taken more seriously, even if I'm spewing the same bullshit."

—anonymous

Thaninee / Getty Images/iStockphoto

17.

"I transitioned FtM nine years ago. One thing I will notice about the 'men vs. women' environments is that it is so much less scary in the world passing as a man. Men leave me alone or say, 'What’s up man?' whereas when I was a girl, I was terrified to walk down the street. I feel very lucky to be who I am, but I think the world has a lot to learn. Trans people are just people. That’s it."

—anonymous

18.

"I’ve applied to jobs under my dead name and birth gender and never got a call back or any kind of acknowledgment that they received it. Applied to the same jobs as my new name and current gender and moved on to the interviewing process so fast."

—anonymous

Trans women noticed a lot of the same differences, but on the other side:

19.

"I transitioned MtF. One of the biggest differences was how small I started to feel. Taking hormones, shrinking muscles, and always being scared of what people are thinking about you and how you look. I'm 6 ft., but I would feel tiny when out with people."

—anonymous

20.

"Men started opening doors for me, which I'm happy for now that I’ve lost my boy strength; I had to relearn basic tasks like opening heavy doors. Men are much more likely to help me with physically difficult things, warn me something is heavy, and unfortunately, mansplain and give unnecessary help with non-physical tasks. I’ve had a few gas station clerks ask for my number, or say I’m pretty and ask if I have a boyfriend. Ewwphoria at first. It quickly got old.

Women are much more friendly and willing to help me, like offering to stand guard while I use a public restroom that won’t lock if I do the same for her or help me push my car out of a parking space when it wouldn’t start. Now they usually make eye contact and smile as we pass each other; I didn’t realize before just how separated these two genders are in public, but now I’m finally joining the half of the population that I should have been with from the start.

Physically, the changes estrogen made to my body and mind feel absolutely wonderful. There are things I didn’t expect, like my feet shrinking and having to buy smaller shoes, and my thighs and butt getting too big even to pull my men’s pants up all the way, never mind buttoning them. I’m so glad my body odor smell changed for the better and is rarely even present; I can easily skip a shower or even two. Sunscreen is more important than ever, though, as is eating healthy if I want to feel well and stay in shape. And the loss of strength, wow…it was true what I heard about thinking you know what to expect, but being surprised when it happens; nothing could have prepared me. I struggled to enter a building a few times because opening doors isn’t even the same."

—slaughterdog

21.

"I definitely can tell I am treated like less of a person after transitioning. I am MtF, and my ideas [are ignored], but then when a male says the same thing, they listen."

—anonymous

Maskot / Getty Images/Maskot

22.

"I was a professional in the finance industry for eight years and was a senior member of my department and seen as a subject matter expert before I came out and began transitioning (MtF). My workplace was quite progressive and supportive, but when I changed my name and started using she/her pronouns, I noticed an immediate change in the way customers treated me. My expertise in my field was suddenly second-guessed or questioned where I was the authority before."

—anonymous

23.

"Interestingly, my son told me I'm a far better mom than I ever was a dad!"

—anonymous

24.

"As a trans woman, I have noticed that clothes shopping has become a lot more fun, and I am starting to notice that I am starting to be attracted to both men and women."

—anonymous

Nonbinary people had their own set of observations, as well:

25.

"I'm genderfluid and recently had top surgery. I do dress pretty femme most of the time, but the fact that everyone seems to think that I still have to cover my chest even though there are no breasts there anymore has me baffled! I literally have the same chest as a FtM person, but because I present femme, it's inappropriate. So weird!"

—chaoswitch

Jonathandowney / Getty Images

26.

"I feel infinitely better in terms of my overall wellbeing. While dysphoria often can be related to your personal feelings about your body, people often underestimate the impact of social dysphoria: the distress caused not by your body image but by being constantly misidentified in public. It was so depressing always being called 'ma’am' in public no matter how I dressed or acted. I just was never read as male until I started testosterone, and it’s really nice not having people’s incorrect assumptions thrown in my face all the time.

One BIG thing I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen discussed much is the difference in how people treat you when they view you as a gender-nonconforming man vs. a gender-nonconforming woman. Before being on testosterone, I was always read as a butch lesbian, and now I’m read as a femme man. When people thought I was a butch lesbian, I was frequently treated with hostility, but that hostility was generally less overtly threatening. While I now am the beneficiary of male privilege, I’m also physically threatened and publicly harassed a lot more for being gender-nonconforming. I would get stares and under-the-breath comments before, whereas now I get open threats, yelled slurs, and loud comments intimating a desire to commit violence far more often. While I don’t want to downplay the negative experiences people read as butch women receive, I have observed that straight men are a lot more threatened by — and feel that they have more justification for being violent toward — effeminate men (and trans women) than people they read as butch cis women."

—anonymous

27.

"I will say that one of my experiences as a mixed-race nonbinary trans man is that my treatment has gotten a lot worse than when people thought I was a woman. I am Choctaw and Iraqi, and now that I am perceived as a man, I often face an increase in racism.

Which is depressing stuff, for sure! So let me tell you about the positives.

My father accepted me immediately. After I came out as trans, he came out as bisexual. We've gone to Pride together multiple times and are able to be ourselves without fear when we're with each other.

My boyfriend and I can share a closet. I have saved so much money on my wardrobe, it's incredible. And in regards to my boyfriend, he has been sweet, compassionate, and understanding beyond belief.

When I got on testosterone, my body stopped hurting. For most of my life, I was a survivor of chronic pain and fatigue. When I got on T, both of them went away. I talked to my doctor, and we did some tests. It turns out that for most of my life, I suffered from a hormone imbalance caused by aromatase deficiency. Getting on T literally made my life easier. It also led to me getting tested and finding out that I am intersex, which is something I hold with a lot of pride. So, literally, because I am transgender and moved forward with transitioning, my physical health improved DRASTICALLY, and I learned something about myself that explained what my puberty was all about because it definitely wasn't typical.

I promise it gets better, especially if you move to a more accepting area, like I did recently. All in all, it's been a beautiful journey, and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store."

—anonymous

A big thank you to our trans readers for their insightful comments! Hopefully, reading these can help other trans people to navigate their transition and find the joy they deserve on the other side. ❤️🏳️‍⚧️

Looking for more LGBTQ+ or Pride content? Then check out all of BuzzFeed's posts celebrating Pride 2024.

Zachary Ares/BuzzFeed

Against the backdrop of rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment, these Nigerian fashion labels feel forced to show in private

Bolaji Akinwande, CNN
Thu, June 13, 2024 

Since its inception in 2011, Lagos Fashion Week has been a twice-yearly highlight of the African fashion calendar, a multi-day showcase attracting the continent’s top design houses, big name sponsors, as well as an international audience.

In a deeply religious and conservative Nigeria, where LGBTQ people suffer extremely high levels of homophobia, intolerance, and even violence, Lagos Fashion Week quickly established itself as an inclusive space for marginalized communities and unconventional brands to be seen and heard.

For more than a decade, Nigerian label Orange Culture has staged catwalk shows featuring male models in skirts, makeup, or wearing ribbons down the runway as a way of provoking conversations about how fashion can be used to break down gender norms. Maxivive — which describes itself as “a Lagos-based fashion organization founded… on ideas of nonconformity and the subversion of norms” — has also made waves showcasing graphic, gender-bending pieces addressing issues around sexuality and identity over consecutive seasons.

Lagos Fashion Week has been running since 2011. The above show is Cute-Saint in October 2023. - Sunday Alamba/AP


Over the past few years however, members of the LGBTQ community in Nigeria say Lagos Fashion Week’s inclusive stance has come under pressure amidst a growing culture of hostility towards non-binary and gay people in the country.

In 2014, despite widespread international condemnation, Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation — adopted the SSMPA law (Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act) which bans gay marriage, same-sex relationships and membership of gay rights groups with punishments including a prison term of up to 14 years for those convicted. Gay rights activists say these sentiments are filtering down into what was one of Nigeria’s most open-minded industries: Fashion.

Kayode Timileyin is the founder of Queercity Media and Production, one of the leading non- governmental queer organizations in Nigeria as well as being the festival manager for Lagos Pride, a week-long celebration in June to commemorate Pride month in Nigeria. “There is a history of anti-queerness when it comes to fashion week in Nigeria,” he told CNN.

Independent brand Udiahgebi like to play with gender stereotyping and androgyny in its collections. - Udiahgebi

The brand said they were received positively after showing privately away from the glare of Lagos's main Fashion Week. - Udiahgebi

Activists point to the city’s Spring-Summer 2022 showcase, featuring the late Fola Francis — the first-ever transgender person to be cast by labels to model on the city’s catwalk. Francis tragically drowned in December 2023.

While her debut was hailed as a watershed moment in both African fashion and for the queer community at large (she walked twice, for labels Cute-Saint and Fruché), it also sparked controversy. At the time, Francis said she faced a public backlash from some sections of Nigerian society and pointed out that despite her boundary-breaking appearances, no images of her were posted on Lagos Fashion Week’s social media accounts. In an interview with digital LGBTQ magazine Xtra shortly after the event in November 2022, Francis said “I heard the Lagos Fashion Week’s team decided not to post any of my pictures from the runway or include (them) in any press releases. Why am I not surprised?” (The magazine said they approached Lagos Fashion Week at the time, who did not respond to their requests for comment.)

After casting non-binary models to walk on its catwalk during the Spring-Summer 2023 shows, subversive fashion house Maxivive had its show cancelled by organizers just days before it was meant to go ahead. While brand founder Papa Oyeyemi told CNN he would prefer not to talk about the cancellation, discussion within the industry centered around the presentation having been deemed “too gay” by organizers.

A look from Weiz Dhurm Franklyn who say they use "unique cultural styles" and "daring design patterns". - Ofure Ighalo

“For the presentation to get cancelled at the last minute was very disheartening,” one non-binary model booked to walk for Maxivive told CNN (they wished to remain anonymous for their safety). “Queer people exist in Nigeria and fashion is meant to be expressive, not restrictive.”

Tosin Ogundadegbe, a Lagos-based fashion stylist known as “The Style Infidel” on social media said that the fashion industry in Nigeria still has a long way to go when it comes to inclusivity. “The traditional fashion schedule suffers from (a lack of) inclusivity on the runway — we only see representation of marginalized communities at private shows.”
Finding the freedom to be who you are

Indeed, amid what’s perceived as a growing pressure for organizers to adhere to anti-gay laws and increasingly divisive politics around gender, sexuality and inclusivity in Nigeria, an increasing number of fashion labels have chosen to show “off-schedule” via “underground” private presentations where they feel they can be more free to embody the ethos of their brands, rather than in the glare of Lagos Fashion Week.

Tzar Studios is a "visually provocative" menswear brand that has also embraced the trend to show its collections off-schedule. - Tzar Studios

From labels such as Tzar Studios, a “visually provocative contemporary menswear brand… inspired by the ethos of the metrosexual man,” to ready-to-wear brand Weiz Dhurm Franklyn, these clandestine, “invite only” shows are curated by designers who keep locations discreet and hand-pick trusted journalists, influencers, celebrities and fashion industry figures to sit in the audience.

Udiahgebi, a fashion brand known for its androgynous pieces, has successfully hosted private shows in this way. The house cast five non-binary models to walk in its first-ever runway show in 2022 to a positive reception, brand creative director Chiemerie Udiahgebi Ugwoke told CNN.

“The feedback after my show was alarmingly good,” they wrote over email. “I was not expecting positive reviews from the attendees because… I took gender-neutral clothes (featuring see-through fabrics, animal prints and cut-outs) and played with them in a way I felt was more likely to attract negative reviews considering the society we live in.”

Models walking for Maxivive during Lagos Fashion Week in October 2021. - Sunday Alamba/AP

Aso Nigeria, another androgynous and inclusive fashion label, cast Fola Francis in both its private runway show in December 2022 and a fashion advertising campaign released in February 2024. Brand founder Aanuoluwa Ajide-Daniels told CNN that including a trans woman was “essential to the idea of the brand, and something that will be seen throughout the lifespan of Aso.”

“I see fashion as art, it is meant to start a conversation and also provoke thought,” said Kayode Timileyin. “However, over the years, (Lagos) Fashion Week continues to hush down and limit these conversations.” While championing an inclusive future for the artists and fashion designers of Africa cannot solely be done behind closed doors; for now, many designers believe it is the only — and an essential — way to be able to freely express who they are.

Lagos Fashion Week did not respond to CNN’s repeated requests for comment.

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Interview: Idaho prisoner Thomas Creech ‘fully expected to die’ at failed execution

Kevin Fixler
Wed, June 12, 2024 at 11:34 a.m. MDT·6 min read

Idaho’s failed effort earlier this year to execute a prisoner for the first time in 12 years, stunning top officials, has again paralyzed the state’s ability to carry out the death penalty and left Thomas Creech, death row’s longest-tenured member, bracing for what may come next.

Creech, 73, incarcerated for nearly 50 years for multiple murders, was strapped to a bed in the Idaho Department of Correction’s execution chamber at the maximum security prison in February. There, for about an hour, the prison system’s clandestine three-member execution team searched for a proper vein, poking him with needles attached to lethal chemicals ready to enter Creech’s body but to no avail, and state prison leadership called off his execution.

Creech still lives and breathes today.


In the 3 1/2 months since Idaho’s first-ever unsuccessful lethal injection, Creech, too, remains rattled by the unprecedented experience, which had him questioning reality, he said this week in a phone interview with the Idaho Statesman.

“I laid on that table and fully expected to die that day. And actually, to be honest with you, I still feel like I’m dead and this is just the afterlife,” Creech said from the prison south of Boise. “They laid me on the table, putting needles in my arm, and the worst of everything was I looked at my wife, I seen her sitting there, total devastation and fear in her beautiful face. And I never want to see that again.”

That uncertainty of what may follow has taken a toll on his psyche, he said, and also raised constitutional rights questions over whether the incident qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. On the other side, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, who attended Creech’s scheduled execution, at the time called the situation a miscarriage of the state’s legal due process.

“Justice has now been delayed again,” he said in a statement. “Today is a sad day for the families of his victims and a continuation of the pain they have endured for almost five decades.”

But armed with fresh legal arguments off the latest and unexpected development in Creech’s lengthy history, his attorneys have filed new court cases and refiled appeals to prevent another attempt on their client’s life.

State officials have gone quiet since while the prison system works to review and develop updated execution procedures to prevent a repeat occurrence while retaining lethal injection as its preferred method. Meanwhile, they’ve also restocked with another batch of lethal injection drugs, having now spent $150,000 on six doses of the deadly chemicals — enough for two executions under current protocols.

No one has been willing to say yet whether the state still has Creech in their sights among Idaho’s nine-member death row.

Creech: ‘I’m not trying to get a free pass’

Creech, by definition a serial killer under FBI standards, has been convicted of killing five people, including three in Idaho. His most recent murder took place when he bludgeoned to death a partially disabled fellow prisoner with a makeshift weapon — a tube sock filled with batteries — in May 1981.

During a formal review in January to consider dropping Creech’s sentence to life in prison, county prosecutors presented images of his latest victim in the brutal prison beating, with his blood splattered on the walls and floor of his cell. But Creech’s case was buttressed by dozens of supporters, several of them former state corrections workers, including two who showed up to offer testimony. So did a current IDOC guard.

Creech has turned his life around in prison, his friends and advocates have said. In 1996, Creech met his wife, LeAnn Creech, after her son, a prison guard at at the time, introduced them. They wed two years later.

“I’ve been with him for nearly 28 years, and I can tell you that he’s not the same person he was when he was young,” LeAnn Creech told the Statesman by email. “He is kind and loving and caring. There are so many people that know him and know that he’s the person today that he was always meant to be.”

After the state’s parole board deadlocked in their vote on whether to grant Creech clemency, he was returned to death row and soon scheduled to die.

Idaho’s death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise houses the state’s eight male prisoners sentenced to death, including its longest-serving member, Thomas Creech.

But Creech also at points, including under oath, has claimed to have killed as many as 42 people, including through various murder admissions and signed confessions over the years. The state in its objections to him receiving a reduced sentence argued that he got away with multiple murders across the Western U.S.

Creech disputed the inflated tally and told the Statesman the actual number is in the single digits, though he was still vague on the real total. His mind is “kind of jumbled,” five decades later and off the recent execution attempt, Creech said.

He lied about the dozens of murders on the stand at his trial for a November 1974 double-homicide in Valley County, Creech said, at the urging of his then-attorney in an attempt at publicity. But he acknowledged by phone that he did shoot to death the two men, Edward T. Arnold, 34, and John W. Bradford, in that incident.

“I’m not trying to get a free pass or anything,” Creech said. “I’m not going to act like I’m a saint or angel of any kind. I’ve done some bad things, hurt people, hurt my family. I’m very remorseful, and not that person I was 30 years ago.”

Idaho death row prisoner Thomas Creech, 73, center, seated with attorney Chris Sanchez, left, and investigator Christine Hanley from the Federal Defender Services of Idaho, at his commutation hearing in January.

Idaho could implement firing squad

Idaho, in its years-long, desperate search for lethal injection drugs resorted last year to passing a new law that made a firing squad the state’s backup execution method. Labrador helped co-author the bill, which the Legislature overwhelmingly passed and it was signed by Gov. Brad Little.

Lethal injection drugs, which have become harder to come by and more expensive, have suddenly become more available to the state prison system, though the state refuses to say where they obtained them. IDOC has so far waited on overhauling its execution chamber to provide for the firing squad.

Creech told The New York Times last week that he would probably prefer the firing squad over lethal injection, if faced with a do-over to execute him. Whether another death warrant will be served to him for now is unknown, despite his and and his attorneys’ ongoing objections.

“If they execute me tomorrow,” Creech said, “they are executing somebody that doesn’t deserve it. Because I’m a completely different person.”

UK

Tory donations top £570,000 in first week of election campaign - down from £5.7m in 2019

Sky News
Updated Fri, 14 June 2024 



The Conservatives have raised just 10% of the donations they managed to collect in 2019 under Boris Johnson in the first week of the election campaign.

Electoral Commission data released today shows the Tories raised £574,918 in the period 30 May to 5 June, compared with the £5.7m they received from 6-12 November five years ago.

The figures show political parties reported £3.2m in donations in the first week of the election campaign.


Mr Sunak's party raised £574,918 through donations alone, on top of £22,453 that came from public funds.

Meanwhile, Labour generated £926,908 from donations alone and £652,411 from the public funds that are given to opposition parties with more than two MPs.

Farage predicts how many votes Reform might win - live updates

They show a complete turnaround in Labour's fortunes from the 2019 election, when the party raised just £218,500 in the first week of that campaign.

This time round, the single biggest donation given to Labour totalled £500,000 from film company Toledo Productions.

The slump in donations will come as an additional blow to Rishi Sunak, after his party was overtaken by Nigel Farage's Reform UK in a single poll by YouGov.

Mr Sunak batted away Mr Farage's assertion that his party now represents the opposition to Labour after the poll put Reform on 19% of the vote and the Conservatives on just 18%.

The Electoral Commission figures showed that Reform received £140,000 in donations, while the Liberal Democrats declared £454,999, the SNP £127,998 and the Co-operative Party £120,000.

Plaid Cymru did not declare any donations but it did receive £33,194 in public funds.

The Social Democrat Party and the Climate Party both also declared £25,000 each but did not receive any public funds.

Louise Edwards, director of regulation and digital transformation, said: "This is the first of the pre-poll weekly reports, which we publish in the lead up to the general election.

"We know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from, and these publications are an important part of delivering transparency for voters.

"While there is no limit to what parties can raise, there are spending limits in place ahead of elections to ensure a level playing field."

The figures published by the commission, which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK, do not represent all donations because only those over £11,500 have to be declared.

In 2019, the threshold was lower, at £7,500.

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The donations received by Mr Sunak are a far cry from the vast donations Mr Johnson received from big business and wealthy donors in the run-up to the 2019 election, which he ran on the platform to "get Brexit done".

The single largest donation to the Conservatives in the first week of the 2019 election campaign was the £1m it received from theatre entrepreneur John Gore.

By contrast, the value of the single largest donation for the Tories over the same period this year was £75,000 and came from the entrepreneur Bassim Haidar.

Today a number of Conservative candidates reposted videos in which Mr Johnson appealed to local voters to support the party on polling day on 4 July.

The most recent YouGov poll put Labour out in front on 37% of the vote, followed by Reform UK on 19% and the Conservatives on 18%.

The Lib Dems polled 14% of the vote, followed by the Greens on 7% and the SNP on 3%.

Read more:
Nigel Farage demands to be involved in leaders' election event
The Conservative candidates ditching the Tory brand

Responding to the poll, Mr Sunak said a vote for Reform would "give a blank cheque to Labour".

Speaking to journalists at the G7 summit in Italy, the prime minister said: "We are only halfway through this election, so I'm still fighting very hard for every vote.

"And what that poll shows is - the only poll that matters is the one on 4 July - but if that poll was replicated on 4 July, it would be handing Labour a blank cheque to tax everyone, tax their home, their pension, their car, their family, and I'll be fighting very hard to make sure that doesn't happen."

Sky News has contacted the Conservatives for comment.



Love Actually producer helps Labour raise more than other parties in first week

Christopher McKeon, PA Political Correspondent
Fri, 14 June 2024 


A £500,000 donation from the producer of Love Actually and Notting Hill helped Labour raise almost £1 million in the first week of the General Election campaign.

Figures released by the Electoral Commission on Friday show Labour received £926,908 in donations between May 30 and June 5, compared to £574,918 received by the Tories.

The bulk of Labour’s money came in the form of a £500,000 donation from Toledo Productions Ltd, whose owner Duncan Kenworthy produced several romantic comedies starring Hugh Grant.


Love Actually producer Duncan Kenworthy gave Labour £500,000 in the first week of the campaign (Ian West/PA)

It appears to be Mr Kenworthy’s first donation to a political party, although the producer did donate £5,000 to David Miliband’s unsuccessful bid for the Labour leadership in 2010.

Other significant donations to Labour included £100,000 from entrepreneur Tony Bury and £70,000 each from businessman Clive Hollick, also a Labour peer, and hedge fund manager Stuart Rosen.

Labour also benefitted from £652,411 in public funds from the House of Commons following the dissolution of Parliament, bringing the total raised by the party during the week to £1.58 million.

Labour’s sister party, the Co-operative Party, received £120,000, largely in the form of a £90,000 donation from Autoglass boss Gary Lubner.

(PA Graphics)

For the Conservatives, the largest donation was £75,000 from Lebanese businessman Bassim Haidar, who told the Guardian in May he was “urgently” looking to leave the UK after both main parties promised to scrap the non-dom tax status.

Mr Haidar also provided £13,085-worth of “travel” for the Conservative Party.

The party also received £75,000 from former oil services company chairman Alasdair Locke, and £50,000 each from former party treasurer Lord Michael Farmer and gas turbine company Centrax Industries, controlled by the Barr family.

The Lib Dems raised slightly less than the Conservatives, receiving £454,999 in the first week of the campaign, including £150,000 from businessman Safwan Adam.

Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives raised £574,918 in donations in the first week of the campaign (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The party also received £100,000 from food company GADF Holdings, owned by Neale Powell-Cook and David Mordecai.

Donations for Reform UK totalled £140,000 during the week that saw Nigel Farage declare that he would stand as a candidate in Clacton.

This included £50,000 from aerospace engineering company HR Smith Group and another £50,000 from Fitriani Hay.

Ms Hay, a racehorse owner, has donated more than £500,000 to the Conservatives since 2015 and gave £100,000 to Liz Truss’s leadership campaign in 2022.

The SNP raised £127,998, while the Climate Party and the Social Democratic Party received £25,000 each.

Friday’s figures are the first in a series of weekly reports that will be released by the Electoral Commission over the course of the campaign.

Political parties are required to provide weekly reports of donations of more than £11,180, after the Government increased the threshold from £7,500 in January.

Parties still have 30 days after receiving a donation to check that it is from a permissible source and decide whether to accept it.

Louise Edwards, director of regulation and digital transformation at the Electoral Commission, said: “We know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from, and these publications are an important part of delivering transparency for voters.

“While there is no limit to what parties can raise, there are spending limits ahead of elections to ensure a level playing field.”

For most parties, the spending limit for the General Election will be £54,010 multiplied by the number of seats they are contesting.


Love Actually producer puts Labour donations on top in first campaign week

Henry Dyer

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, 14 June 2024 

Keir Starmer’s party received a total of £926,908 in the first week, according to the Electoral Commission.Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Labour received more donations than the Conservatives in the first week of the campaign, including £500,000 from the producer of Love Actually and Notting Hill, figures show.

Donors gave Labour £926,908, but only £574,918 to the Tories in the week starting with the dissolution of parliament on 30 May, according to Electoral Commission records.

Labour’s biggest donation, drawing them ahead of the Conservatives, was £500,000 from Toledo Productions Ltd, a film production company controlled by the producer Duncan Kenworthy, who worked on several Richard Curtis films. It marks a return to political donations for Kenworthy, who gave David Miliband £5,000 towards his campaign for the Labour leadership in 2010.

Conservative fundraisers may also be alarmed by the identity of two donors to Reform on 5 June, two days after Nigel Farage announced he would stand in the general election and take over as leader of the party. Reform raised £140,000 in total, all coming after Farage’s announcement.

Fitriani Hay was Liz Truss’s biggest donor for her leadership campaign in 2022, giving £100,000. She had previously given more than £500,000 to the Conservatives. Now Hay, the wife of James Hay, a former BP executive who has a construction and luxury goods empire, has given Farage’s party £50,000.

Her donation was matched by HR Smith Group Ltd, a company owned by Richard Smith, who gave the then Brexit party £100,000 through a subsidiary of HR Smith, Techtest, during the 2019 European election campaign. HR Smith Group also gave £10,000 to Iain Duncan Smith’s constituency association in August 2021.

Reform’s third donor, Peter Hall, gave £40,000 two days after giving £25,000 to the Social Democratic party. In October 2022, Reform and the SDP agreed a general election pact, standing aside for each other in six constituencies.

Further donations to Reform are expected to be published soon, with sources telling the Guardian that the party had raised £1.5m in the days after Farage’s announcement.

The Lebanese businessman Bassim Haidar gave the Conservatives £75,000 and paid for travel worth £13,000. Haidar, a non-dom, said at the beginning of May that he had decided to “urgently” leave the UK to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax after the Conservatives introduced policies to scrap non-dom tax status.

Political parties may have received other donations, but newly increased thresholds to the transparency regime mean that only the details of gifts of more than £11,180 sent straight to parties’ headquarters, made either one-off or cumulative, are published by the Electoral Commission.

Details of donations made in the general election campaign will be published twice more before polling day, covering the period up to 19 June.

Political parties standing across the UK can spend up to £35.1m in the year up to and including polling day.

Will Nigel Farage's Reform UK 'beat' the Tories in the election?

With some polling figures putting the Tories and Reform UK nearly neck and neck, could Farage's party really end up with nearly as many MPs as Sunak's?

James Cheng-Morris and Ellen Manning
Updated Fri, 14 June 2024 at 4:33 am GMT-6·7-min read

Nigel Farage's Reform UK has been steadily closing the gap on the Conservatives in the polls. (Alamy)


Leading pollster John Curtice has poured cold water on suggestions that Reform UK is now beating the Conservative Party in the general election polls.

As representatives from seven parties took prepared to take part in a TV debate on Thursday, a YouGov survey for The Times newspaper said Reform’s support had increased by two points to 19%, putting them ahead of the Tories for the first time.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage took the the opportunity to hail the poll results in the debate, declaring: “We are now the opposition to Labour.”


But Curtice urged caution, insisting that single polls should not be relied on. He told Radio 4's Today programme: "This is one poll - we’ve actually, I think, had four other polls published in the last 24 hours - none of which have had Reform ahead, not even all of which have had Reform gaining ground, but quite a couple of them certainly suggesting it’s also got very close."

He said it may not be the case that Reform are ahead - and could be on average four or five points behind. But he said: "This is still bad news for the Conservatives. The only way Rishi Sunak can hope to get even to base camp in narrowing the lead that Labour have started off with this campaign was to squeeze the Reform vote."

He added: "Rather than making progress, things are actually going backwards, not least of course because of Nigel Farage’s decision to fight this campaign."

With many speculating that Reform UK with Farage at the helm could "beat" the Tories, Yahoo News UK takes a look.
What do the latest polls say?

YouGov’s voting intention tracker, updated on Tuesday, suggests the Tories and Reform UK are neck and neck.

With Labour well ahead on 38%, the Tories are trailing on 18% – compared to a high of 53% under Boris Johnson in 2020 – with Reform UK just behind on 17% and the Liberal Democrats on 15%.

However, there are multiple polls taking place at any one time by a number of different companies.

According to the PA news agency, an average of all polls that were carried out wholly or partly during the seven days to June 13 puts Labour on 43%, 21 points ahead of the Conservatives on 22%, followed by Reform on 14%, the Lib Dems on 10% and the Greens on 6%.

And while Reform’s average is up one percentage point on the figure for the previous week and the Tories are down one point, there is still an eight-point gap, on average, between the two.
Could Reform UK get more MPs than the Tories?

Unless something remarkable happens, in short: 'No' - and that's because of the first past the post (FPTP) voting system in which the candidate with the largest number of votes in their constituency is elected.

According to the Electoral Reform Society, which is against FPTP, this system leads to a situation where “even if millions of voters support the same party, if they are thinly spread out across the UK they may only get the largest number of votes in a couple of these contests – so only win a few MPs".

“Tens of thousands of voters supporting a different party, but who live near each other, could end up with more MPs. This means the number of MPs a party has in parliament rarely matches their popularity with the public.”

Rishi Sunak on the campaign trail on Wednesday. (AFP via Getty Images)

Farage knows this well. As the leader of UKIP in the 2015 election, he saw his party win 12.6% of the nationwide vote and one seat. The Liberal Democrats won 7.9% of the vote... and eight seats.

Indeed, YouGov last week released a poll – put together using the multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) surveying technique, from a sample size of nearly 60,000 respondents – which suggested the Tories would win just 140 seats, having won 365 in 2019. But this is still 140 more than the zero it projected Reform UK to win, in spite of its strong polling figures.

The model had Reform UK "performing strongly in a number of seats but still a long way off winning in any", with projected second-placed finishes in 27 constituencies.

YouGov's MRP projection. (YouGov)

Granted, this model was formed between 24 May and 1 June, before Farage's headline-grabbing intervention on Monday last week in which he announced he would be standing as an MP.

But, even as Reform UK polls closer than ever to the Tories, it's difficult to imagine the party winning more than a handful of seats.

Chris Hopkins, director at polling firm Savanta, told Yahoo News UK that in one respect, Reform UK is at an advantage compared to Ukip in 2015 because "Ukip took votes from both Labour and the Conservatives, and we are not seeing that with Reform UK – they are all coming from the Conservatives.

"That is the consequence of Rishi Sunak making immigration a centrepiece of the campaign and failing to deliver on it. Even if you have voters that are neutral on immigration, they would say the small boats policy has been a disaster."

But even so, Hopkins said, Reform UK is still "at a huge electoral disadvantage" in that its votes are not very concentrated, they are very evenly spread.

"There are going to be some races where Reform UK is strong - the Nigel Farage factor in Clacton is really interesting - but realistically its ceiling is five seats: and that’s a high ceiling."
Could the Lib Dems be the official opposition party?


Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey on a campaign visit in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, on Wednesday. (PA)

Like Reform UK, Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats are performing well in the polls.

In a sign of how defensive the Tory campaign is becoming, one online party advert claims voting for Reform UK or the Lib Dems could give Labour 100 extra seats, resulting in the biggest majority in its history.

It depicts a scenario where the Conservatives are beaten into third place behind the Lib Dems, with just 57 seats, despite getting 19% of the vote and without Reform winning a single seat.

Read more: Pollsters got it wrong in 2015, so could Labour’s lead be overestimated? (The Guardian)

However, it remains unlikely the Lib Dems will finish second. YouGov’s MRP poll projected the party performing strongly, winning 48 seats. This would be up 37 from 2019, but still nowhere near the Tories’ projected 140.

However, amid all this talk about projections, it’s worth remembering they are still only polls and not a definite indicator of how people will vote on 4 July. The 1992 and 2015 elections are notable examples of how polling didn’t match the end results of Tory wins.
What is proportional representation?

Proportional representation, as defined by the UK parliament, is an electoral system "in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each party. For example, if a party gained 40% of the total votes, a perfectly proportional system would allow them to gain 40% of the seats."

This differs from the first past the post system, as set out above, in that a relatively high vote share rarely corresponds with increased seats for the smaller parties. In 2019, for example, the Lib Dems won 11.5% of the vote but only 1.7% – 11 – of the 650 seats.

Unsurprisingly, both Reform UK and the Lib Dems support proportional representation.

The Lib Dems this week made it part of their manifesto, with the party saying it would introduce the single transferrable vote method, a form of proportional representation which allows electors to rank their preference of candidates on the ballot.

The party previously sought to change the UK’s voting system while in the coalition government under then-leader Nick Clegg, but voters rejected the plan in a 2011 referendum.

'You're lying, Nigel': Oldham street cleaner grills Farage over claim there are 'streets in town where nobody speaks English'

Charlotte Hall
Thu, 13 June 2024

-Credit: (Image: PA)

A street cleaner from Oldham challenged Nigel Farage following comments he made about streets in Oldham where he claimed 'no one speaks English'. The man, named only as Mike, called Nick Ferrari's LBC show this morning (Thursday) and accused the Reform UK leader of lying.

It comes after Oldhamers defended their hometown and dubbed Mr Farage's comments 'stupid and inaccurate' following his appearance on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on June 4.

Mike said: "I think you're talking a pack of lies, Nigel. You made a statement, you [could] name a street that can't speak English. The last 10 years of my working life, I've worked for Oldham street cleaning. And the biggest Asian area is Glodwick.

READ MORE: The people of Oldham have reacted to Nigel Farage's comments - and haven't held back

"Now I don't know a street in Glodwick where the whole population couldn't speak English. Many people couldn't, but not the whole street."

Mr Farage claimed he was 'very clear' people in the healthcare industry had told him 'the numbers not even bothering to learn English were alarming'. Mr Ferrari challenged the politician, saying: "But this gentleman works in Oldham, surely he knows better than you."

Oldham streets (stock image) -Credit:Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News

Residents, councillors and MPs hit back at Mr Farage's comments. When the Manchester Evening News visited the streets of Glodwick last week, people strongly refuted his claims.

Mahbub Alom, 33, laughed at Mr Farage's comments and said: "It's a joke... a bad joke. As a local shopkeeper, I know better than anyone else. I serve the Pakistani, Bengali and even Jamaican. For anybody who believes Farage, tell them to come and visit, see for yourself."

Teacher Adila Rafa, 25, said MR Farage's comment was 'just bullsh**'. "There are schools on every corner, and surely we get educated and learn the language," she said. "We need people to stop believing stupidity."

Samir Reman, 47, felt the town said: "We're three to four generations in now, though. Everyone has been born, raised and educated in this country. If you spoke to me over the phone, you wouldn't even think I was Asian."

UK

Labour consider biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades as Keir Starmer strives to deliver key manifesto pledges

Kate Devlin
Fri, 14 June 2024 at 7:10 am GMT-6·3-min read

Labour is mulling the biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades as Keir Starmer seeks to deliver on his key manifesto commitments.

The move could see the Labour leader heading up new groups designed to cut through civil service silos and delays.

Under the plans Labour could force departments to work together under ‘boards’ designed to pursue its “missions” for government, the Financial Times reports.

These missions include creating economic growth, rebuilding the NHS, investment in green energy and tackling crime.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer launches his party’s manifesto at Co-op HQ in Manchester (PA Wire)

The boards would make use of private sector expertise, in what could be seen as a controversial move, under plans reportedly being overseen by Sue Gray, the former senior Whitehall official who carried out the Partygate report into Boris Johnson.

Sir Keir has already signalled that his promises to change the country will not happen overnight. The Labour leader has consistently warned that the UK needs a decade of national renewal, as he argued his party would be the best to lead that.

And more than halfway through the campaign, Labour appears on course for a comfortable trek to Downing Street. The party remains more than 20 points ahead of the Tories in many opinion polls, after a disastrous few weeks for Rishi Sunak.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff was a top civil servant who wrote the Partygate report into Boris Johnson (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Wire)

Tom Baldwin, a former Labour communications director and Starmer’s biographer, told the FT he expected a piecemeal approach to any changes, adding: “Keir Starmer and Sue Gray tend to feel their way towards solutions. If one thing doesn’t work, they try something else and become progressively more radical, but always for pragmatic reasons.”

Alex Thomas, programme director at the Institute for Government think-tank, said: “If they went for a full-fat version, which gave missions their own budgets with a named responsible official, that would be radical — the biggest change to how the civil service and government have been organised for several decades.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, has been working for months to test the party’s policies and assess any potential pitfalls.

The Conservatives have vowed to axe 72,000 civil service jobs, but Labour has declined to match this.

Rishi Sunak has had a disastrous election campaign (Christopher Furlong/PA Wire)

Mr Sunak has had a difficult start to the election campaign.

At the weekend he faced claims he had gone into hiding after he was forced to make a grovelling apology for leaving the D-Day commemorations early to take part in a TV interview.

The Tory leader was also ridiculed for claiming his family had had to go without Sky TV when he was a child.

Reform leader Nigel Farage mocked the prime minister after a Tory candidate used pictures of him on her leaflets.

The arch-Brexiteer is plastered across the leaflets of right-wing Conservative Dame Andrea Jenkyns.

Mr Sunak, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen, and there is no reference to the Conservative Party or use of any of its branding.

Labour Party Manifesto Key Points: Keir Starmer Promises To 'Stop The Chaos' Of Tory Rule

Ned Simons
Thu, 13 June 2024

OLI SCARFF via Getty Images

Keir Starmer launched Labour’s general election manifesto on Thursday as he pledge to “change” the country if he becomes prime minister.

In keeping with Labour’s cautious approach to the campaign, there are no big headline grabbing surprises in the 133-page document.

But Starmer defended the manifesto from suggestions it was too boring to capture the imagination of voters.

“I’m running as a candidate to be prime minister, not a candidate to run a circus,” he said.
Here are some of the key points:

Anthony Devlin via Getty Images

At the core of Labour’s plan sits its “fiscal rules”. These are (1) to move the current budget into balance so day-to-day costs are met by revenues and (2) that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the fifth year of the forecast.

A promise to cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments each week, during evenings and weekends, paid for by cracking down on tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes.

There will be 8,500 additional mental health staff recruited.

A total of 6,500 new teachers will be recruited in “key subjects” to set children up for life, work and the future, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools.

There will be 3,000 new primary school-based nurseries.

Free breakfast clubs in every primary school.



Planning reform to build 1.5 million new homes and no fault evictions will banned.

The minimum wage age bands will be scrapped so all adults are entitled to the same pay.

More neighbourhood police paid for by “ending wasteful contracts” will be hired to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Launch a new Border Security Command with hundreds of new specialist investigators and use counter-terror powers.

A publicly-owned clean power company, Great British Energy, will be created with the aim of cutting bills and boosting energy security, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

Railways will be brought into public ownership when the existing private contracts expire.

The voting age will be lowered to 16.

Members of the House of Lords will be forced to retire at 80.

Efforts will be made to “rebuild” the UK’s relationship with the EU but there is no mention of any attempt to backtrack on Brexit.

Labour will “set out the path” to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.

A Labour government will recognise a Palestinian state as “a contribution to a renewed peace process”.