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Pink hair and red herrings: viral quiz invites you to guess politicians’ stripes from their photos

Guess the Party challenges players to pin candidates’ politics to their appearances, with guess rates varying wildly

Is a bristly grey moustache a telltale sign of a Reform candidate? Is pink hair a giveaway for the Greens? Perhaps a sharp suit is the best telltale for the Tories – or spectacles and a rucksack for Labour?

Players of a viral politics game have been finding out that it’s never that simple to judge the colour of a candidate’s rosette just by how they look. The game, invented by Sam Hamill-Stewart, challenges players to look at pictures of local election candidates and guess their party affiliation.

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© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters

© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters

© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters

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Keir Starmer makes late pitch to voters turning to Greens and Reform

As Labour faces record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections, prime minister says rivals are unfit to lead

Labour is braced for record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections in England, which could be decisive for Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister.

In a message to voters on Thursday, Starmer said Reform’s Nigel Farage and the Greens’ Zack Polanski were “not fit to meet this moment of great global instability” and that only Labour was putting the national interest first.

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© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

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Zack Polanski falsely claimed to be British Red Cross spokesperson, charity says

Green party leader also accused of incorrectly stating he was a full member of the National Council of Hypnotherapy

Zack Polanski falsely claimed to be a spokesperson for the British Red Cross while campaigning for the Green party leadership, the charity has said.

The claim was also mentioned on his personal website in 2020, where he said he was “really proud of the work we do”.

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© Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

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Lucy Powell says Labour has ‘no magic bullet’ as MPs brace for heavy losses in local elections

Deputy leader plays down leadership talk and says party must focus on long-term challenges rather than personnel

Labour’s deputy leader has warned there will be “no magic bullet” to solve Labour’s problems – or major challenges facing the country – as its MPs grapple with how to navigate the fallout out from the local elections.

Lucy Powell told the Guardian she understood there was “huge anger and despondency” from Labour MPs in the aftermath of the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal, but said the prime minister would not make a similar mistake again.

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© Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian

© Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian

© Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian

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Mandelson and McSweeney: a partnership forged on winning and crushing the Labour left

Former chief of staff who helped bring Mandelson out of Labour shadows for Washington post to be questioned by MPs on vetting process

Like many Labour stories, Peter Mandelson’s and Morgan McSweeney’s both start at Lambeth council.

Mandelson was in his mid-20s. It was 1979, and he was a new councillor under the leadership of “Red” Ted Knight. He came to despise the local party, describing the Lambeth Labour party’s leadership as “contributing very little to the economic development of south London, instead politicising everything, attacking the police and the Tory government, and making the council go broke.”

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© Composite: Shutterstock/EPA

© Composite: Shutterstock/EPA

© Composite: Shutterstock/EPA

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How safe is Starmer’s premiership after his Mandelson vetting statement to MPs?

Despite his explanation and the need for political stability, the PM is still unpopular – and Olly Robbins has yet to give his side of the story

Labour MPs frustrated with the lack of a clear mission from Keir Starmer’s No 10 have often urged the prime minister to be more forceful in his arguments, to prosecute his values, to find an enemy to define himself against.

The prime minister has found one: Olly Robbins. Starmer prosecuted his case against the former Foreign Office chief on Monday with the vigour of his former life at the bar.

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© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

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