‘Anti-politician mood is deeper and more profound than before’
MP Lisa Nandy reveals Labour’s electoral challenges and why it is not complacent about victory
By SARWAR ALAMJun 01, 2024
THE Labour MP, Lisa Nandy, believes whichever party wins the next general election faces a battle to overcome a public perception that politicians can no longer “transform people’s lives”.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak shocked the nation last Wednesday (22) when he announced that the general election will take place on July 4.
The Labour party currently holds the largest polling lead over the Conservative government since Liz Truss was prime minister. The latest YouGov/Times voting intention poll has the Tories on 20 per cent and Labour on 47 per cent, while an average of major polls collated by the Economist gives Labour a 23-point lead.
Speaking at an event hosted by the UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE), Nandy, the shadow minister for international development, said her party was not complacent over a general election win.
“It’s a very odd dynamic. David Lammy (shadow secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs) and I do a lot of travelling. We’ve been in the Middle East, in particular, in recent months – and we are being treated by many of our partners as the incoming government,” said Nandy.
Lisa Nandy
“But we’ve got to win an election and we really don’t take anything for granted, not least because I’ve given up predicting anything in British politics after the events of the last decade.”
Nandy was elected MP for Wigan in 2010. During her time in parliament, the 44-year-old has seen five different Tory prime minister.
“I’ve had 14 years of a ringside seat to the destruction that’s been done to people in places like Wigan and around the world,” she said.
“It might sound like a cliché, but actually, there is a level of anxiety and anticipation about the next general election because everything is at stake, not just for Labour, but for the country.”
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, last Thursday (23) told voters at an event in Gillingham, southeast England, that he wanted to renew, rebuild and reinvigorate Britain. He focused on deprivation and the invisible barriers that prevent many from improving their lot.
Referencing children who live in innercity areas where big corporations such as Google have a presence, he said: “They cannot imagine themselves ever making that journey from their school to those jobs. It’s a few hundred yards.”
Nandy believed that a Labour government will have to work to rebuild the public’s trust in politicians.
“The biggest challenge for us is getting into government and then in actually being able to deliver for people, and overcoming this sense that politics really has lost the ability to transform people’s lives,” she said.
“We will inherit a very difficult economic situation for most people in this country now. The fact that people are really struggling to just afford basic essentials, mortgages, rents, food.
“Also, particularly, we saw during Covid the disgraceful way that the government behaved – making the rules, breaking the rules, lying about it, laughing about it. That has really damaged people’s faith in politics.
“When I was first elected in 2010, there was a very anti-politician mood because it was in the wake of the expenses scandal. But I feel this is something much deeper and much more profound.”
Local elections earlier this month showed the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict had the potential to play a significant role in voter intentions, especially among Muslim voters.
The Labour party increased its vote share in most areas, and even won control of councils in places it had not won for decades. But it also saw a decrease in its vote in crucial areas with a high number of students and Muslims.
In 58 local council wards analysed by the BBC, where more than one in five residents identify as Muslim, Labour’s share of the vote was 21 per cent down on 2021, the last time most seats were contested.
Labour’s Ellie Reeves admitted the party had “a lot of work to do” to rebuild support among Muslim voters before the general election.
Nandy, who is the former chair of Labour Friends of Palestine in the Middle East, called for an immediate ceasefire and urgent focus on a two-state solution. She said the international community had not done enough to seek a lasting solution to the regional conflict before the latest outbreak of war.
Shadow defence secretary John Healey, David Lammy, Sir Keir Starmer, Nandy, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner in November last year
“If I could give one message to those people both here in the UK and over in Israel, Palestine and the wider Middle East, it’s that we are absolutely not indifferent to what is happening,” said Nandy.
“That’s not just because this regional crisis is having knock-on effects across the rest of the world, it’s because actually Britain has a long and deep involvement in Israel and Palestine and and we could not care more about helping to resolve it.
“The last generation really has dropped the ball. We’ve had 50 years of people talking about a two-state solution, while the prospect of a two-state solution disappears literally in front of children’s eyes in the West Bank.
“There’s nothing good that comes out of a moment like this, except that we’ve got to focus our minds. Our generation has to pick this up and make sure that we are the last generation to be dealing with what’s been a decades-long crisis.”
Nandy said that Gaza was a “perfect example” of how the Labour party would engage with the rest of the world.
“David (Lammy), Keir (Starmer), John Healy (shadow secretary of state for defence) and I have been very clear that we see defence, development and diplomacy as the three pillars of our engagement with the world. We see the three things as having to work hand in hand,” she said.
The closure of the Department for International Development (DfID) and cutting the aid budget in 2020 led to further strained relationship between Britain and some of the poorest countries in the world, added Nandy.
“Over the last six months, I have spent a lot of time across the Global South and the Middle East, and Africa, and nobody’s talking about to me about Brexit.
“But they are talking to me about the decision to not just abolish the Department for International Development, but also the decision to slash funding overnight which literally pulled the rug out from under some of the poorest people in the world and left a lot of our allies to plug the gap,” said Nandy.
She vowed that a Labour government would never let that happen again as it did not reflect British values.
“What I really started to feel very profoundly is this sort of cynicism that drove people like Boris Johnson to abolish the department, calling DfID the ‘giant cashpoint in the sky’, and to claim you could help children here or children abroad, but not both, it’s just not reflective of the country that we live in.
“My constituents in Wigan give more as a proportion of their income to charities like Oxfam than my colleagues in Westminster. Our local firefighters go off and do post-conflict reconstruction work in their spare time. I’ve got doctors volunteering in hospitals in Gaza right now.
“This is not a British government story. It’s not a Labour government story. Actually, it’s a British story about the ordinary extraordinary people who have always made a contribution to the world, and continue to do so even when their government does not.”
UK MPs are set to hold a key vote on assisted dying on Friday, which could either advance or halt a proposed law that would allow terminally ill adults to end their lives under strict conditions.
The vote follows several hours of debate in the House of Commons and will decide whether the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill moves to the House of Lords for further scrutiny or is dropped altogether.
As MPs gather for the third reading — their final opportunity to debate the bill’s content — demonstrators from both sides of the issue are expected outside parliament.
“This is about real people facing the prospect of a painful and undignified death either for themselves or a loved one,” said MP Kim Leadbeater, who is leading the bill. “The injustice and inhumanity of the status quo means we cannot wait any longer to offer them the hope of a better death.”
The legislation would apply to adults in England and Wales with an incurable illness and fewer than six months to live.
It would require patients to administer the life-ending medication themselves, with approval needed from two doctors and a panel of experts.
If passed, the law would bring England and Wales in line with other countries that permit some form of assisted dying.
Concerns and changes
Supporters of the bill say it would offer more protection and choice to people nearing the end of life. Opponents argue it could put pressure on vulnerable individuals.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has raised concerns, stating last month that it had “serious concerns” about safeguarding people with mental illness, and said it could not support the bill in its current form.
MPs initially backed the bill by 330 votes to 275 in November. Since then, changes have been made, including a ban on advertising assisted dying and provisions allowing health workers to opt out of taking part.
The current vote comes as several MPs have shifted their stance, and political parties are allowing a free vote. The outcome remains uncertain.
Vote tally and next steps
An ITV News tally of about half of all MPs suggests 153 support the change, 141 are opposed, 21 remain undecided and another 21 are expected to abstain.
Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords must pass the bill before the end of the current parliamentary year, likely in the autumn, for it to become law.
If approved and granted royal assent, assisted dying services would not begin for at least four years.
Legal and regional developments
The government’s impact assessment, published this month, estimates that 160 to 640 assisted deaths could occur in the first year of implementation, rising to about 4,500 by the tenth year.
Prime minister Keir Starmer is expected to support the bill, but some cabinet members, including the health and justice secretaries, have spoken against it.
Assisted suicide is currently punishable by up to 14 years in prison in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Separate legislation is being considered in Scotland, and the Isle of Man passed an assisted dying bill in March, becoming the first British territory to do so.
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Zhenhao Zou, 28, was jailed on Thursday after being found guilty of multiple offences. (Photo: Reuters)
A CHINESE postgraduate student convicted of drugging and raping 10 women in the UK and China has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a London court.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, was jailed on Thursday after being found guilty of multiple offences. Police say there is evidence he may have targeted more than 50 other women.
Zou targeted young Chinese women, inviting them to his flat in London under the pretext of studying or having drinks, before drugging and assaulting them. He filmed nine of the rapes using hidden or handheld cameras. Only three of the 10 victims have been identified so far.
‘Planned and executed a campaign of rape’
Sentencing him at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Rosina Cottage said there was “no doubt that you planned and executed a campaign of rape” that had caused “devastating and long term effects”.
She said that while Zou appeared “well to do, ambitious and charming”, this image masked a “sexual predator”. He had treated his victims “callously” as “sex toys” for his own gratification, she said, and posed a “risk for an indefinite period” due to his desire to assert “power and control over women”.
Zou, wearing a dark suit and glasses, listened to the sentence via a translator. He will serve a minimum of 22 years, taking into account time already spent in custody.
A former engineering student at University College London, Zou was found guilty in March of 28 offences. These included 11 counts of rape, three counts of voyeurism, one count of false imprisonment, three counts of possessing butanediol with intent to commit a sexual offence, and 10 counts of possessing an extreme pornographic image.
He raped three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2023. Two of the rape charges related to one woman.
Victims speak of trauma
Several victims gave impact statements during the sentencing, describing the psychological effects they continue to suffer. These include nightmares, self-harm, and isolation.
One woman said she remembered “wandering like a trapped animal trying to find an exit” after the attack.
“What happened that night is etched into my soul forever,” she said. She added that Zou’s family was “very powerful in China” and that she feared he would “seek revenge”.
Police appeal for more victims to come forward
After the sentencing, Saira Pike from the Crown Prosecution Service said Zou was a “serial rapist and a danger to women”.
“His life sentence reflects the heinous acts and harm he caused to women and the danger he posed to society,” she said.
She said that analysis of footage and online chats had shown the former student’s “meticulous planning and the horrifying execution of his crimes”. Pike also praised the “courageous women” who came forward and whose evidence, along with Zou’s own videos, helped secure his conviction.
Since his conviction, 24 women have come forward following an international police appeal, saying they believe they may have been assaulted by Zou.
The Metropolitan Police believe there may be more victims and have appealed for them to come forward.
Commander Kevin Southworth said, “Our investigation remains open and we continue to appeal to anyone who may think they have been a victim of Zou.”
“Please come forward and speak with our team – we will treat you with empathy, kindness and respect.”
Zou also studied in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2017.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Mother (C) of First Officer Clive Kunder, co-pilot of the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, mourns after his mortal remains were brought to his residence, in Mumbai. (PTI Photo)
AIR INDIA said on Wednesday (18) it will cut international operations on its widebody aircraft by 15 per cent for the next few weeks, citing ongoing safety inspections and operational disruptions following last week's deadly crash of one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Authorities continue to investigate the crash of flight AI171, which killed 241 people and marked the world's deadliest aviation disaster in a decade.
Inspections had been completed on 26 of Air India’s 33 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft, and those 26 have been cleared for service, the airline said.
The cuts to some routes, effective until at least mid-July, were being implemented "to ensure stability of operations, better efficiency and minimise inconvenience to passengers," the Tata Group-owned airline said.
The remaining planes will be checked in the coming days and additional checks are also planned for its Boeing 777 fleet, Air India added.
In an interview with Indian broadcaster Times Now, Chandrasekaran said Air India flight 171's right engine was new and installed in March 2025, and that the left engine was last serviced in 2023.
The Dreamliner was fitted with GE Aerospace's engines. "The plane was well-maintained, with its last major check in June 2023," Air India said.
"Its right engine was overhauled in March 2025, and the left engine was inspected in April 2025. Both the aircraft and engines were regularly monitored, showing no issues before the flight," the airline added.
It said the pilots were accomplished flyers. "The flight was led by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot and trainer with over 10,000 hours flying widebody aircraft.
"First Officer Clive Kunder, had over 3,400 hours of flying experience."
The London-bound jet burst into a fireball when it smashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad moments after take-off, leaving at least 38 people dead on the ground.
Initial checks since the crash on Air India's Dreamliners "did not reveal any major safety concerns", the country's civil aviation regulator said earlier this week.
India's aviation investigative unit said on Thursday (19) the probe was "progressing steadily".
"Key recovery work, including site documentation and evidence collection, has been completed, and further analysis is now underway," the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said in a statement.
Air India also cited geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and "night curfews in many European and East Asian airspaces" as contributing factors behind flight cancellations, which have totalled 83 over the past six days.
India's aviation investigative unit said the probe was "progressing steadily" (PTI photo)
Routes with reduced frequency until July 15, 2025:
North America
Delhi-Toronto: Reduced from 13x weekly to 7x weekly Delhi-Vancouver: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly Delhi-San Francisco: Reduced from 10x weekly to 7x weekly Delhi-Chicago: Reduced from 7x weekly to 3x weekly Delhi-Washington (Dulles): Reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly
Europe
Delhi-London (Heathrow): Reduced from 24x weekly to 22x weekly Bengaluru-London (Heathrow): Reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly Amritsar-Birmingham and Delhi Birmingham: Reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly Delhi-Paris: Reduced from 14x weekly to 12x weekly Delhi-Milan: Reduced from 7x weekly to 4x weekly Delhi-Copenhagen: Reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly Delhi-Vienna: Reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly Delhi-Amsterdam: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
Australia
Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Sydney: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
Far-East
Delhi-Tokyo (Haneda): Reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly Delhi-Seoul (Incheon): Reduced from 5x weekly to 4x weekly2
1Suspended until June 30 .
2To operate 3x weekly from June 21 to July 5 , and 4x weekly from July 6 to July 15 .
(with inputs from PTI)
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Family members and relatives of Megha Mehta, who died in the Air India plane crash, during her funeral at a crematorium, in Ahmedabad, Sunday, June 15, 2025.
MORE than a week after an Air India flight crashed in Ahmedabad, 220 victims have been identified through DNA testing and the remains of 202 of them handed over to their families, Gujarat health minister Rushikesh Patel said on Friday.
The London-bound Air India flight AI-171 was carrying 242 passengers and crew when it crashed on June 12, killing all but one person on board. Nearly 29 others were killed on the ground when the aircraft hit a medical complex in Meghaninagar shortly after take-off.
Authorities have been using DNA testing to identify the victims as many bodies were charred or damaged beyond recognition. “So far, 220 DNA samples have been matched, and relatives of these victims were contacted. The mortal remains of 202 victims have already been handed over to their kin. The process to identify more victims is underway,” Patel said.
According to Patel, among the 202 identified individuals, there are 160 Indians — including 151 passengers — along with seven Portuguese nationals, 34 British nationals and one Canadian.
He added that 15 sets of remains were sent by air, while 187 were transported by road. Earlier, the state government had said DNA samples were collected from 250 victims, including those on board and those killed on the ground.
Airline says aircraft was 'well-maintained'
Air India, in a statement on Thursday, said the aircraft involved in the crash was properly maintained before the flight. “The plane was well-maintained, with its last major check in June 2023,” it said.
“Its right engine was overhauled in March 2025, and the left engine was inspected in April 2025. Both the aircraft and engines were regularly monitored, showing no issues before the flight,” the airline said.
Indian authorities have not yet released the cause of the crash involving the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said the investigation was “progressing steadily.”
“Key recovery work, including site documentation and evidence collection, has been completed, and further analysis is now underway,” the bureau said.
At least 38 people died in the residential neighbourhood the plane struck. The crash resulted in widespread destruction, making identification of some victims difficult. Civil hospital medical superintendent Rakesh Joshi said that by Thursday evening, 215 victims had been identified by DNA testing, all but nine of them passengers.
Joshi added that the remains of about 15 victims had been transported by air. Six people injured in the crash remain hospitalised, with one expected to be discharged soon and the others in stable condition.
Details of passengers and crew
According to Air India, the flight had 169 Indian passengers, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and one Canadian on board, in addition to 12 crew members.
The airline also shared details of the flight crew. “The flight was led by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot and trainer with over 10,000 hours flying widebody aircraft,” it said. “First Officer Clive Kunder had over 3,400 hours of flying experience.”
The aircraft caught fire shortly after take-off and crashed within minutes, turning into a fireball as it fell onto the ground.
India’s civil aviation regulator said preliminary checks on other Dreamliner aircraft had not revealed any major safety concerns since the incident.
BIRMINGHAM City Council will become the first in England to recognise Sikh and Jewish identities in its data collection.
A motion tabled by the Birmingham Labour group was passed at a full council meeting. It will change how information is collected from residents in the future. Current council questionnaires do not include the categories, despite the presence of over 30,000 Sikhs and around 2,000 Jewish residents in the city.
The Labour group said the change would help the council better understand its communities and tackle discrimination. It added that Sikhs and Jews have been legally recognised as ethnic groups for more than 40 years, but public bodies have not routinely collected data on them.
The motion was brought by councillor Jamie Tennant and seconded by councillor Rinkal Shergill.
Tennant said he would encourage other councils to follow Birmingham’s lead.
Shergill said the move was important for communities not recognised in NHS data despite being disproportionately affected by certain diseases and during the pandemic.