U.K.’s Starmer says his government is a ten-year project despite calls to quit

admin — Sun, 10 May 2026 11:39:00 +0000

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. File picture
| Photo Credit: AP

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ‌vowed to fight on and said his government was a “10-year project” despite calls to quit after his party’s ⁠drubbing in local elections earlier this week.

Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party recorded the worst losses of a governing party in local elections in more than three decades, prompting ‌a growing number of lawmakers to call for his removal.

A former Minister in Mr. Starmer’s government said she ‌would seek the backing of other lawmakers to trigger a ‌leadership contest ⁠unless his cabinet took steps to remove him by ⁠Monday (May 11).

Asked by the Observer newspaper in an interview published on Sunday (May 10) whether he would lead his Labour Party into the next general election and serve a full second term, Mr. Starmer responded: “Yes, I ‌will.”

He added, I’m not going to walk away from the job I was elected to do in July 2024. I’m not going to plunge the country into chaos.”

If Mr. Starmer is removed ‌in the coming weeks, Britain would end up with its seventh Prime Minister in the past decade.

“A real kicking”

So far, Mr. Starmer’s cabinet has stayed loyal to the ⁠Prime Minister, despite Thursday’s election losses.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Minister, said she was confident the Prime Minister could turn things around, telling Sky ‌News on Sunday that Mr. Starmer would set out a “fresh direction” for Britain in a speech on Monday (May 11).

“We got a real kicking from the voters, there’s no escaping that,” she said of Labour’s performance in the elections. “We have to reflect seriously on that.”

Catherine West, who served as a junior foreign minister until Starmer sacked her ‌last year, said she would listen to Starmer’s speech on Monday before making a final decision about whether to seek the backing of the 81 members of parliament needed to trigger a leadership ⁠contest.

Asked on Sunday if she was likely to get the ⁠numbers, West told the BBC: “We will find out”.

Starmer must call Britain’s next national election by 2029 at the latest.

If he ‌were still in office at the end of a second five-year term, he would be the third-longest-serving continuous leader in Britain in the last two centuries after Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

Published – May 10, 2026 04:44 pm IST

Source link

Pakistan police charge man with cyber terrorism over misinformation that led to riots in UK

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 14:08:55 +0000

Demonstrators toss a trash bin during an anti-immigration protest in Britain.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistani police have arrested a man and charged him with cyber terrorism for his alleged role in spreading misinformation that led to widespread rioting in the U.K. earlier this month, a senior police investigator said Wednesday (August 21, 2024).

“The suspect was identified as Farhan Asif (32), a freelance web developer, “ said Imran Kishwar, deputy inspector general of investigations in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.

Explained | What inflamed the far-right riots in Britain?

The man is accused of spreading misinformation from YouTube and Facebook about the British teenage suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three girls and injured 10 other people on July 29, 2024 at a dance class in Northwest England.

The false information claimed that the suspect was a recently arrived asylum-seeker and had a name that suggested the teen was Muslim.

After the misinformation led to a violent mob attacking a mosque near the site of the stabbing the next day, police took the unusual step of clarifying that the suspect was born in the U.K. It’s been widely reported in British media that his parents are from Rwanda and said to have Christian beliefs.

Also Read: King Charles III ends silence on U.K. far-right riots

Channel3 Now, an account on the X social media platform that purports to be a news channel, was one of the first outlets to report the false name, Ali Al-Shakati. A Facebook account for the channel said it is managed by people in Pakistan and the U.S.

The site’s editor-in-chief posted an apology on July 31 for “the misleading information published in a recent article on our website, Channel3 Now. We deeply regret any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”

But the false reports were widely disseminated and are blamed for fueling more than a week of rioting that broke out across the United Kingdom and has led to more than 1,000 arrests.

Also Read: U.K. grapples with its worst riots in 13 years spurred by far-right agitators

Authorities have blamed far-right agitators for stoking the violent unrest by continuing to spread misinformation and promoting the violent demonstrations online.

At a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore, police said, “Asif was arrested at his house in the city for questioning.”

He said Asif has claimed that he was not the source of the misinformation but that he reposted it from social media.

The police have handed over the case to the Federal Investigation Agency, which handles cases relating to cyber terrorism. It was unclear if Britain had requested his extradition.

Source link

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer – Artifex.News

U.K.’s Starmer says his government is a ten-year project despite calls to quit

“A real kicking”

Pakistan police charge man with cyber terrorism over misinformation that led to riots in UK