Rochdale by-election – dwell: Vote counting underneath method as polls shut in contest overshadowed by warfare in Gaza

The polls have closed within the contest to take over the Rochdale seat in Better Manchester.

George Galloway is assured of victory, making him the primary MP for the Employees Occasion of Britain.

The Unbiased has arrived on the Rochdale by-election depend because the final half hour of polling approaches.

Voters in Rochdale have simply half-hour left to forged their vote for the city’s new MP. As soon as the polls shut at 10pm the counting will start, with the ultimate consequence anticipated round 3am.

Right here’s a reminder of what to anticipate from tonight’s vote:

The variety of postal votes within the Rochdale by-election is excessive, standing at 21,810 out of an voters of 82,615 – greater than 1 / 4.

On the 2019 common election, 17.2 per cent of voters throughout the UK have been issued with a postal poll, official figures present.

Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm, and the result’s anticipated to be declared round 3am.

James Cleverly has overruled the Residence Workplace’s prime civil servant on funding safety for Jewish communities.

An extra £54m of money has been introduced for the Neighborhood Safety Belief (CST) to offer the safety measures till 2028, along with £18m beforehand allotted to the charity for 2024-25.

The extra safety bundle is “essential” amid an increase in antisemitism because the begin of the Israel-Hamas warfare final October, the Residence Secretary stated.

In a letter to Mr Cleverly, everlasting secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft raised considerations concerning the worth for cash of the three-year extension of the funding, saying it didn’t meet the “propriety or value-for-money assessments”.

He proposed limiting the direct award to CST for a 12 months and to make use of that point to run a contest for subsequent years, as “authorities grants ought to be topic to competitors by default” to attempt to make financial savings.

However Mr Cleverly directed Sir Matthew to take ahead the three-year extension. He stated: “Given the appalling rise within the variety of antisemitic incidents since 7 October, I don’t envisage that the present, enhanced danger goes to subside within the close to future.

“This isn’t the suitable time to set off a possible change in provider.”

The funding will present safety guards, CCTV and alarm techniques at Jewish faculties, synagogues and different neighborhood centres.

After visiting British and Ukrainian troopers at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire on Thursday, Mr Shapps was requested concerning the ongoing deadlock in the US Congress over President Joe Biden’s deliberate 60 billion greenback (£47.5 billion) navy assist bundle for Kyiv.

The Residence Workplace has a tradition of defensiveness and won’t change if it doesn’t wish to, the borders and immigration watchdog warned in a report produced earlier than he was fired.

The criticism from David Neal was set out in stark phrases amongst a raft of studies the Authorities division lastly revealed on Thursday within the wake of his sacking, after months of delays.

The previous chief inspector of borders and immigration’s exit got here after he was embroiled in a row with the Residence Workplace about considerations he was elevating in a report submitted over safety checks at airports – one in all two excellent paperwork nonetheless but to be revealed by the Residence Workplace.

Knowledge supplied to Mr Neal confirmed, in keeping with the Day by day Mail, that the UK Border Power didn’t verify the occupants of tons of of high-risk, non-public jets arriving at London Metropolis Airport – however the division disputed the figures.

In his annual report, protecting April 2022 to March 2023, Mr Neal stated the Residence Workplace had a reluctance to have interaction with suggestions for enchancment and he had skilled important pushback whereas drafting inspection studies, together with responses which went method past simply checking factual accuracy.

“A few of that is maybe all the way down to a tradition of defensiveness, however it isn’t good,” he stated, though he famous many senior officers “embrace the impartial oversight”.

The Residence Workplace is because of publish 13 of the 15 excellent studies submitted by sacked borders and immigration watchdog David Neal on Thursday afternoon, the PA information company understands.

Throughout his tenure, Mr Neal repeatedly raised considerations that the division was too sluggish to publish his studies.

For the reason that begin of the present parliament in December 2019, there was a complete of 21 by-elections throughout the UK:

Downing Road has stated the thought of black-only audiences for some nights of a West Finish theatrical manufacturing is “unsuitable and divisive”.

Slave Play on the Noel Coward Theatre, which options Sport Of Thrones star Equipment Harington among the many forged, can have two performances geared toward an “all-black-identifying viewers” that’s “free from the white gaze”.

Freedom of the press is “at risk” within the UK if a international authorities is allowed to purchase a nationwide newspaper, a Tory former cupboard minister has warned.

Robert Jenrick urged ministers to assist plans for authorized protections towards such a transfer, amid considerations over a proposed UAE-backed takeover of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator.

Talking at enterprise questions, Mr Jenrick instructed Commons Chief Penny Mordaunt: “If freedom of press means something, it means the liberty to criticise and to oppose. And that freedom is at risk if we change into the primary democracy on the earth to permit a international authorities to purchase a nationwide newspaper and media organisation.

“(Ms Mordaunt) could also be conscious that the noble Baroness Stowell (of Beeston) has laid an modification with cross-party assist to the digital markets Invoice within the Home of Lords that might forestall this taking place.

“Will the Authorities be supporting, or a minimum of not opposing, that modification within the Home of Lords?

“Have been it to come back to the Commons, I definitely can be supporting it and I might encourage all MPs to do the identical as a result of we should prize freedom of the press on this nation and this modification is our alternative to take action.”