Labour has won control of a string of Leave-voting councils as results begin to roll in from the local elections across England and Wales.
The party seized control of Rushmoor in Hampshire from the Conservatives shortly after 3am – a council the Tories had run for the last 24 years – with a spokesman calling the result “truly historic”.
A spokesperson said the win – that saw the authority move from no overall control into Labour’s hands – was “a ground-breaking moment” after the defeat three years ago.
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‘A good night for Labour’
Labour also claimed victory in Thurrock, Essex, from no overall control, saying it was “exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election”.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives lost control of North East Lincolnshire after Labour won five of the seats up for grabs – with neither party now holding a majority on the council.
All four areas overwhelmingly voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, with Thurrock supporting it by 72.3%, North East Lincolnshire by 69.9%, Hartlepool by 69.6% and Rushmoor by 58.2%.
More than 2,600 council seats across 107 councils are up for grabs in England, alongside 11 mayoral elections, a parliamentary seat and police and crime commissioners throughout England and Wales – so there is still a way to go.
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But early signs show Labour is winning back seats in areas it lost over the Brexit debate, as well as making gains in traditionally Tory voting councils.
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‘We’re surging, they’re sinking’
Sky’s election coverage plan – how to follow
Thursday into Friday: From 12am until 6am, Jonathan Samuels will be joined by political correspondents Tamara Cohen and Gurpreet Narwan, as well as teams from across the country.
Friday: Lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge and chief presenter Mark Austin will be joined by political editor Beth Rigby and deputy political editor Sam Coates throughout the day, as well as economics and data editor Ed Conway and election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher.
Friday night: From 7pm until 9pm, Sophy Ridge will host a special edition of the Politics Hub, offering a full analysis and breakdown of the local elections.
The weekend: Sophy Ridge will host another special edition of the Politics Hub on Saturday from 7pm until 9pm. And Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips will take a look back over what’s happened from 8.30am until 10am.
How do I watch?: Freeview 233, Sky 501, Virgin 603, BT 313, YouTube and the Sky News website and app. You can also watch Sky News live here, and on YouTube.
And the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Beth Rigby, Jess Phillips and Ruth Davidson will go out on Friday, and Politics at Jack and Sam’s will navigate the big question of where the results leave us ahead of a general election on Sunday.
Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed told Sky News that while it was “early days”, the results so far were showing positive signs for Labour come the next general election.
“These are not polls,” he said. “These are people getting off their backsides, going out of their homes, into a polling station, putting a cross on a party that they want to govern their local area.
“People are crying out for change. I know that from speaking to people on the doorsteps and tonight, it looks like people around the country are voting for change.”
But while Tory MP James Daly said he “fully accepts” the loss of these councils, he insisted to Sky News his party could “still win in parts of the country where historically Labour have dominated” – including in Teeside, where Conservative Lord Houchen is defending his mayoralty.
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Other results in so far include Labour holding on to Sunderland Council, along with local authorities in South Tyneside, Chorley and Newcastle,
However, the Greens won a number of seats from Labour in Newcastle, with the party’s co-leader Carla Denyer telling Sky News it was over its position on the conflict in Gaza.
The Conservatives held on to Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire – an authority it has run for its entire 52-year history.
A man who murdered a 14-year-old boy with a samurai sword as he walked to school in east London has been sentenced to life in prison.
Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, nearly decapitated Daniel Anjorin during a 20-minute rampage in which he attacked five others in Hainault on 30 April last year.
Mr Justice Bennathan told Monzo on Friday that he would serve a minimum of 40 years in prison.
Including time he has already served in custody, it means he will be in prison for 38 years and 309 days before he is eligible for parole, at which point he would be at least 75 years old – though he may never be released.
Image: Daniel Anjorin. Pic: Metropolitan Police.
Image: Marcus Arduini Monzo. Pic: Metropolitan Police
Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Bennathan said: “In Hainault, east London, just before 7am on 30 April last year, the weather was good, and the streets were starting to fill with people on their way to work and even a few children heading off early to school.
“Over the 20 minutes that followed, that peaceful, busy scene was devastated as members of the public were attacked, police officers were gravely injured, a couple were terrified in their own home and a clever, talented young boy was killed.
“You, Marcus, did all of that. Daniel was a clever boy, he was gifted musically and played a variety of sports well. His loss is devastating to his parents, his brother and sister and his grandparents
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“I am very conscious that no sentence I can pass can even begin to temper Daniel’s family’s grief.”
Image: Judge
Daniel’s father Dr Ebenezer Anjorin spoke outside the court alongside Daniel’s mother, Grace Anjorin, after Monzo’s sentencing.
He said: “This has been a painful and deeply traumatic chapter in our lives. No verdict or sentence can bring back our son, Daniel, who we loved so dearly.
“But we are grateful that justice has been served. Daniel was taken from us in a way that no family should ever have to endure.
“His life had so much potential ahead. He was gifted academically, was kind and had a generous spirit that touched everyone who knew him. We carry that light with us even in this dark time.”
The family thanked police, the prosecution team and “all those who worked tirelessly to seek the truth”.
Mr Anjorin added that the family would “honour Daniel’s memory not in the shadow of this tragedy, but through the love and happiness that he brought to us and all those who knew him”.
Image: Daniel Anjorin’s parents make a statement outside court
Earlier, in a victim impact statement read to the court, Dr Anjorin condemned Monzo’s “wicked” actions and said that he could not begin to describe the “pain and anguish” the family felt at losing Daniel.
Mr Anjorin said: “We will not see him get married or have children. All the normal things parents hope for their children. All these hopes and aspirations have been cruelly snatched away from us through the wicked actions of Marcus Monzo.
“It has been the worst nightmare experience of our lives. To have to go through the pain of losing a child in such a cruel and savage way. No family should have to go through this.”
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Mr Justice Bennathan told Monzo that he would serve a minimum of 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Monzo tried “to kill as many people as he could” while under the influence of cannabis after he skinned and deboned his pet cat Wizard.
Monzo, a Spanish-Brazilian national from Newham in east London, admitted two charges of possessing an offensive weapon relating to two swords, which he said he bought for display purposes.
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Hainault sword attack like ‘horror movie’
He claimed he had no memory of carrying out the attacks and denied Daniel’s murder, along with four charges of attempted murder, wounding with intent, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article.
He was found guilty of Daniel’s murder and three charges of attempted murder at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.
Monzo was cleared of one count of attempted murder – instead found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm – and convicted of aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article.
During the trial, the jury was shown CCTV footage from the morning of the attack, with audible screams in one clip as Monzo drove his grey Ford Transit van at speed into pedestrian Donato Iwule.
Mr Iwule told jurors: “I thought I was dying” and “I saw blood coming out of my neck”, after he was struck with a sword before running away.
Witnesses described how Monzo was running around “like a maniac” and “looked a bit mad, like there was nothing there”.
Daniel, who had left home at around 7am wearing headphones and school sports clothes, suffered “a near-decapitation” when Monzo attacked him with the weapon from behind, prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jury.
PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield chased the armed attacker through alleyways before Monzo struck her three times with the 60cm blade using “extreme force”, the court heard.
Image: Officers attempted to arrest Monzo, spraying pepper spray and trying to strike him with a baton. Pic: Met Police
Image: Inspector Moloy Campbell was slashed on the hand as he raised his baton against Monzo. Pic: Met Police
He then entered a nearby house through the back door and walked upstairs before attacking sleeping couple Sindy Arias and Henry De Los Rios Polania, who he asked: “Do you believe in God?”
Mr Little said their lives were only spared because their four-year-old daughter, who was sleeping nearby, woke up and started to cry.
Monzo, who had been cornered by police, also struck Inspector Moloy Campbell once with the sword before he was finally disarmed and arrested after trying to climb onto a garage to escape.
Two men and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence after two aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, police have said.
A second woman has also been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East said in a statement: “A 29-year-old woman of no fixed abode, and two men; aged 36 and 24, both from London, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, contrary to Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
“A 41-year-old woman, of no fixed abode, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.”
Image: The back of one of the engines covered in paint
Police said the arrests on Thursday in Newbury in Berkshire, and in London, “are in connection with an incident in the early hours of [last] Friday during which damage was caused to two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton”.
The four people are currently in custody while enquiries are ongoing, police added.
Palestine Action said the arrests “further demonstrate that proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws – it’s about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine”.
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The group posted a video online claiming it was behind the vandalism at the Oxfordshire airbase last Friday, saying activists had damaged two military planes at the base.
Palestine Action – which focuses its campaigns on multinational arms dealers and has previously targeted corporate banks – said two activists “broke into the largest air force base in Britain and used electric scooters to swiftly manoeuvre towards the planes”.
Repurposed fire extinguishers were used to spray red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyagers, while further damage was made using crowbars.
“Red paint, symbolising Palestinian bloodshed was also sprayed across the runway and a Palestine flag was left on the scene,” a statement by the group said.
Brize Norton is the largest RAF station, with approximately 5,800 service personnel, 300 civilian staff and 1,200 contractors.
A security review was launched across the “whole defence estate” following the breach, which was condemned as “absolutely staggering” by Ben Obese-Jecty, a Tory MP and former Army officer.
Image: Police remove a person taking part in a Palestine Action demonstration in London on 23 June. Pic: PA
Image: A Palestine Action supporter during a march in London. Pic: PA
Sir Keir Starmer condemned the “act of vandalism” as “disgraceful”, adding: “Our Armed Forces represent the very best of Britain and put their lives on the line for us every day. It is our responsibility to support those who defend us.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday that Palestine Action will be proscribed as a terrorist organisation following the breach at RAF Brize Norton.
She said a draft proscription order will be laid in parliament next week, and if passed, it will make it illegal to be a member of, or invite support for, Palestine Action.
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What’s happening to Palestine Action?
Proscription can lead to prison sentences of up to 14 years for some offences, although some breaches are punishable with fines.
Saeed Taji Farouky, a member of the group, told Sky News the proscription was “completely irrational” and “without precedent”.
He branded it a “knee-jerk reaction from the government” because the group “was able to humiliate them and show serious flaws in the defences of the RAF base”.
A man seen “smiling” on CCTV after stabbing his wife to death as she pushed their seven-month-old baby in a pram has been found guilty of murder.
Habibur Masum, 26, launched the “ferocious” attack on 27-year-old Kulsuma Akter after tracing her to a refuge where she went to escape his “violence, jealousy and controlling behaviour”, a court heard.
She suffered more than 25 knife injuries after Masum found her through her phone location and confronted her in a street in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on 6 April last year.
Image: Kulsuma Akter was stabbed to death in Bradford. Pic: Family handout/PA
Image: Habibur Masum. Pic: West Yorkshire Police
After fleeing the scene, he got on a bus where CCTV footage showed him smiling, prosecutor Steve Wood KC told Bradford Crown Court.
He said the image “removed all possible doubt” about his intent and state of mind.
“There were no tears, there was no distress. Perhaps, members of the jury, the smile you can clearly see form as he gets on that bus is as a result of him thinking at that point he’s getting away. The smiling killer,” he told the court.
Image: Habibur Masum on a bus prior to the murder. Pic: West Yorkshire Police/PA
After a four-day manhunt, Masum was arrested 150 miles away in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where he lived when the couple first came to the UK, having met and married in Bangladesh.
He had already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a knife but denied murder, claiming he had intended to kill himself in front of his wife but “totally lost control”.
On Friday, Masum was convicted of murder, alongside one count of assault, making threats to kill, and one charge of stalking. He was cleared of another charge of assault.
He had no visible reaction as the verdicts were read out. Judge Mr Justice Cotter told him he will be sentenced on 22 July, when the minimum term for his life sentence will be decided.
Image: Masum seen smiling on CCTV. Pic: West Yorkshire Police
Told social worker husband ‘would kill her one day’
Mr Wood described Masum’s relationship with his wife as “abusive… characterised by his jealousy, possessiveness and controlling behaviour”.
After moving to Oldham, Greater Manchester, together in 2022, she left him – moving in first with her brother in July 2023, before being relocated to the Bradford refuge by social services in January 2024.
She left the relationship after he held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her in response to a “completely innocuous” message she received from a male colleague in November 2023, the court was told.
Ms Atker told a social worker afterwards that she “believed that one day her husband would kill her”.
Masum denied the November incident and claimed his wife had fabricated a domestic violence case against him as a way to stay in the UK – as he wanted to return to Bangladesh.
He was subject to court bail conditions ordering him to keep away from her at the time of the murder.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigated both West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester Police’s prior contact with Ms Atker, saying in a statement on Friday that the probe concluded in December – but will not be made public so as not to prejudice the victim’s inquest.
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‘He walked away and left her there to die’
3pm attack in front of onlookers
During the trial, Mr Wood told the jury Masum managed to track Ms Akter to Bradford and, days before the attack, tried to lure her into leaving the refuge by pretending to be from a GP’s surgery and offering her fake appointments.
She was walking with a friend and pushing her son in a pram at 3pm on the day she died when she was confronted by Masum, who she thought was in Spain.
CCTV showed Masum walking with Ms Akter until he stopped her, spun her and the pram around, and pulled a knife from his jacket.
Image: Footage of Masum being arrested. Pic: West Yorkshire Police/PA
“He tried to encourage Kulsuma back into the relationship,” West Yorkshire Police’s senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Stacey Atkinson said outside court after the verdict.
“When she dismissed that, he repeatedly stabbed her in front of horrified onlookers. He left her there to die. He walked away and utilised public transport to facilitate his escape out of Bradford.”
Ms Akter fell to the ground after she was stabbed, in the attack described by Mr Wood as a “cold-blooded, calculated, premeditated murder”.
“As a final act of sheer gratuitous violence, he kicks Kulsuma before moving away, but not before ensuring that he disposed of the knife,” he told the court.
Ms Akter’s stab injuries included ones to her body, neck, and face, he added.
Image: Masum was arrested more than 150 miles away from where the incident took place
Claims he wanted to ‘kill himself in front of her’
Giving evidence through a Bengali interpreter, Masum told the jury he tracked down his wife “still optimistic” he could save his marriage, but if that did not work he thought: “I will just kill myself in front of her.”
He broke down in tears as he claimed he “totally lost control”, later saying that the next thing he could remember was walking along the road with bloodstains on his hand.
Image: Masum walking away after the attack. Pic: West Yorkshire Police/PA
But speaking after the court hearing, West Yorkshire Police’s DCI Atkinson said Masum had “realised the extent of evidence against him” so was trying to lean on “diminished responsibility”.
Describing the nature of the murder, she said it was “really unusual” to see “an event unfold on CCTV as it did”.
“Kulsuma suffered a brutal attack in broad daylight whilst her baby son was in his pram,” she said in a statement.
“Kulsuma’s family have been left absolutely devastated by her death, I hope today’s conviction will bring them a sense of justice in knowing that the man responsible for her death has been found guilty.”
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