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The Times •

The army of digital sleeper agents who propelled Labour to power

It’s mid-June and Emma Reynolds, now the MP for Wycombe, is doing what her colleagues are doing all over the country — knocking on doors.

Treading the well-worn path of an election candidate, she picks a street and spends the day hoping to convince those over the threshold to vote for her.

But in sharp contrast to the last time that she ran, in 2019 in a different seat, many already know who she is.
The Times •

Support for Stonewall crumbles after Cass review

A decade ago, as same-sex marriage became legal, Stonewall was riding high.

Lauded for its key role in pushing for equal rights and campaigning prowess, it was helping government departments and schools expand their diversity offering and become more welcoming to all.

Now, the NHS has distanced itself and other public bodies are reviewing their associations with the charity, as the fallout from a landmark report on gender identity shines a spotlight on the organisation.
The Times •

Meet Labour’s Wellingborough candidate scenting victory against Tories

Gen Kitchen has been making friendship bracelets. The 28-year-old Labour candidate is a massive Taylor Swift fan and she’s taken to making the keepsakes with Swift’s song titles in them, a hobby among fans, for her team to help them to wind down away from the campaign trail.

One member of Kitchen’s team has one decorated with colourful beads and lettered discs spelling out The Man, one of Swift’s hit songs. Another reads We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

It is the message Kitchen’s team is hoping the voters of Wellingborough give the Conservatives at the ballot box when she tries to turn the constituency Labour for the first time since Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.
The Times •

Who is the Tory candidate in the Kingswood by-election?

It is lunchtime on a weekday and on Hanham high street, on the outskirts of Bristol, would-be shoppers are greeted with “closed” signs on many of the shop doors.

A café, its front painted bright pink, is locked up tight while the Wetherspoons pub across the road is closing down too.

Now added to the vacant premises, with condensation in the windows and post piling up inside, is the office of Chris Skidmore, the former Conservative MP. A sign in the window tells constituents it is now closed.
The Times •

Mid Beds by-election: Claws out in three-way fight for Nadine Dorries seat

Nadine Dorries was never one to mince her words. The former Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire was known for speaking her mind with passionate language that often got her into trouble.

Now, the same attitude has erupted onto the streets of her former constituency, where a by-election will be held next month to replace her, with activists accusing each other of being “Tory enablers” in the street as the consequences of neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats wanting to give the other a clear run against the Tories plays out.
The Times •

Parliament in decay: MPs endure flooding, rats and broken toilets

When Queen Elizabeth died last year, visitors queued for hours to make their way through Westminster Hall to see the monarch lying in state and soak up the atmosphere.

Parliamentary cleaners were left soaking up something very different, as the antiquated plumbing which snakes around the Palace of Westminster buckled under the pressure, providing yet another example of the crumbling mess at the heart of Britain’s democracy.
The Times •

Wakefield’s Conservatives fear the writing is on the red wall

When Allan Couch went to bed on Wednesday night, the red wall outside his home in Wakefield was intact. By the time he woke next morning it had crumbled, perhaps due to nearby tree roots, and he was left picking up the bricks.

Couch, a former Conservative council candidate who quit the local association, fears the red wall his party snatched three years ago could start to suffer a similar fate this week.
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