Author: James Carter

The newly elected mayor of Saint-Denis, one of Paris’s most densely populated and culturally diverse suburbs, has placed a Palestinian flag in the municipal council chamber — a provocative political statement from a man who won office just weeks ago with a fraction of the area’s total population backing him. Bally Bagayoko was officially installed as mayor of Saint-Denis on 21 March 2026, having won the election in the first round with 50.77% of the vote — 13,506 ballots — defeating incumbent mayor Mathieu Hanotin. However, the turnout stood at just 42.84%, corresponding to a 57.16% abstention rate, meaning Bagayoko’s…

The hospitality group behind some of London’s most celebrated restaurants is set to expand into the capital’s hotel market with a new property in the heart of Mayfair, marking the UK debut of a freshly created premium brand. Minor Hotels, which owns The Wolseley Hospitality Group and operates a portfolio that includes The Wolseley, The Delaunay, Colbert and Zedel, will open The WestDill Mayfair Hotel London in the fourth quarter of this year. The property will occupy a Grade II-listed former NatWest bank building on the corner of Piccadilly and Albemarle Street, following a comprehensive transformation of the historic structure.…

Tucker Carlson has issued a public apology for his role in supporting Donald Trump’s rise to power, telling his audience he is “tormented” by his endorsement and accepts personal responsibility for helping bring about what he now views as a deeply troubling presidency. The former Fox News host made the admission during a conversation with his brother Buckley Carlson — a former Trump speechwriter — on Monday’s episode of The Tucker Carlson Show. Speaking directly about their shared culpability, Tucker told his brother: “You wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him. We’re implicated in this, for sure. It’s not…

Benjamin Netanyahu faces the prospect of arrest if he travels to Hungary later this year, after the country’s incoming prime minister declared he intends to halt Budapest’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court and enforce the warrant issued against the Israeli leader. Péter Magyar, who is set to replace longtime Netanyahu ally Viktor Orbán as Hungary’s prime minister, said on Monday that his government would stop the ICC withdrawal process by 2 June — the deadline by which the move could still be reversed — and that once Hungary remained a member of the court, any individual subject to an…

Sir Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation covertly attempted to secure a senior ambassadorial posting for a peer who was later suspended from the Labour Party over links to a convicted child sex offender, while instructing the Foreign Office’s most senior official to conceal the plan from the Foreign Secretary, a parliamentary committee has heard. Sir Olly Robbins, dismissed last week as the Foreign Office’s permanent under-secretary amid the escalating Mandelson vetting scandal, told the Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday that Number 10’s private office contacted him in March 2025 to find a “head of mission” diplomatic role for Lord Doyle…

Shabana Mahmood told a heckler to “f*** right off” during a live podcast recording in London’s West End, before accusing those who challenge her immigration stance of harbouring a form of racism rooted in the belief that a “brown woman” should not be permitted to hold certain views. The Home Secretary was appearing on comedian Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast at the Duchess Theatre when a man in the audience confronted her, sarcastically claiming he wanted to “personally thank” her for “out-reforming Reform.” Two further hecklers chanted “refugees welcome” before being removed from the venue by security. Rather than deflecting…

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has extended its polling advantage to ten points, according to a new YouGov survey that will provide significant encouragement to the party ahead of next month’s local elections and comes at a moment of acute pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership. The poll places Reform on 27 per cent — up three points from the previous week — with the Conservatives and Greens level on 17 per cent each, Labour fourth on 16 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats on 14 per cent. Restore Britain, the new party led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, registered…

Sir Keir Starmer’s political position has been severely weakened after the senior civil servant he publicly blamed for the Mandelson vetting scandal struck back, telling MPs he had been subjected to an “atmosphere of pressure” from Downing Street and had felt the appointment was being driven through regardless of security concerns. Sir Olly Robbins, who was dismissed from his role as the Foreign Office’s top official last week, gave explosive testimony to a parliamentary committee in which he said No10 had “chased” the posting and been “dismissive” of the need for formal security vetting. He described walking into a situation…

He wants to legalise every drug known to man, shut right-wingers out of society, and once claimed he could make women’s breasts grow larger through the power of hypnosis. Meet Zack Polanski — Green Party leader, self-styled political radical, and arguably the most colourful figure in British politics right now. This week, Polanski added a new entry to his already extraordinary public record, questioning on his own podcast whether people with right-wing views should simply be excluded from the society he intends to build. For a man whose past includes charging women £222 a session for hypnotherapy breast enlargement treatments,…

One of Labour’s most prominent green backers has turned on the party’s flagship home energy programme, arguing that nearly £2.7 billion earmarked for heat pump subsidies should be diverted to fill the Government’s growing defence spending gap instead. Dale Vince, founder of green energy company Ecotricity and a long-standing Labour donor, said the Boiler Upgrade Scheme — which offers households up to £7,500 towards the cost of installing a heat pump under Ed Miliband’s Warm Homes Plan — amounted to handing public money to people who already had the means to pay for the upgrades themselves. With Britain facing mounting…