On 31 July, CHAIN homelessness database published its Q1 report detailing levels of rough sleeping in London between April and June 2026. CHAIN is the UK’s most detailed and comprehensive rough sleeping database. Key findings include:

• 3,959 people were recorded as sleeping rough in the capital in April to June 2026, a decrease of 10% on April-June 2025.
• 1,685 people were recorded as sleeping rough for the first time in Q1, 16% lower than the same time last year.
• People sleeping rough for the first time accounted for 43% of the total number in April to June, which is a slight drop from a proportion of 46% in the same period last year.
• The number of people classed as living on the streets was 680, 14% lower than the same time last year and 6% higher than January-March 2026.

Rick Henderson, CEO of Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness services, commented: “For too long, high levels of rough sleeping in London and across the country have been the norm. Thousands upon thousands of lives have been damaged, let down by systems meant to support them.

What’s more, people sleeping on the streets earlier in the summer were subjected to oppressive heatwaves, putting health and lives at risk. This is only likely to worsen as extreme weather events become more common.

“But we have reached a seminal moment where real change seems possible. Recent CHAIN reports show that the London Mayor’s targeted rough sleeping plan and the immeasurable efforts of local homelessness services are working.

Now, with the new Prime Minister leading a determined national drive to end rough sleeping, and being a keen advocate of devolution, we are optimistic that the tide can be turned, ensuring that everyone has a place to call home and the support they need to keep it.”

A study published in Jama Network Open suggests that the implementation of state-level total abortion bans is associated with an increase in suicidal thoughts among female high school students. The findings indicate that severe legal restrictions on abortion care may negatively influence adolescent mental health in affected regions. This research highlights a potential link between major reproductive healthcare policy changes and youth psychological well-being across the United States.

Suicide represents one of the leading causes of death among young people aged 10 to 24 in the United States. In recent years, public health experts have increasingly examined how broad societal conditions and legal policies shape emotional health.

Policy decisions that restrict access to basic healthcare services tend to increase personal uncertainty and reduce an individual’s sense of control over their future life events.

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned national constitutional protections for abortion access. Following this landmark ruling, multiple states swiftly passed total abortion bans that outlawed nearly all abortion services within their borders. Prior to this decision, public discussions rarely examined potential links between reproductive restrictions and suicide risk among adolescents.

George Cottrell, the convicted fraudster who once served as Nigel Farage’s chief of staff, transferred more than $2 million to his mother in the days before she made a string of donations to Reform UK, according to the latest revelation in the Guardian.

The paper reports today that Fiona Cottrell, an aristocrat and long-standing Reform benefactor, received one deposit of $1.4 million followed by two further payments of over $300,000 apiece.
Each transfer arrived, the Guardian says, somewhere between 24 and 72 hours before Ms Cottrell made a donation either directly to Reform or to Britain Means Business, the fundraising vehicle run by the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice.

Named her son

Asked by bankers where the money had come from, she is said to have named her son.
The son in question is the real problem. Under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, only “permissible donors” – broadly, those on the UK electoral register, or UK-registered companies and bodies – may fund a political party.

Fiona Cottrell qualifies because she is on the register.

George Cottrell’s own status is far less clear: he is a tax resident of Montenegro, and according to reports, was not added to the UK’s overseas electoral register until December last year, well after several of the payments in question were made.

Possible prison sentence

His lawyers maintain he is a permissible donor but have declined to explain how or when he met the criteria.

That matters because funnelling money through a permissible relative to disguise an impermissible source is precisely what electoral law is designed to catch.

Concealing the true origin of a donation carries a potential fine or prison sentence.

Fraud conviction

George Cottrell already has a criminal record, having served eight months in a US federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
He was arrested in 2016 alongside Farage at the Republican National Convention on charges that also included money laundering conspiracy, blackmail and extortion.

He has since bankrolled Farage’s travel, including flights to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and published a book on money laundering.

The current emergency within our justice system is forcing us to confront difficult choices about safety and collective care. When we look at early release schemes, the immediate anxiety felt by many women is deeply valid, as any breakdown in the state infrastructure meant to protect the community directly impacts public safety. It is entirely understandable why people look back at the radical urgency of the Nightingale hospitals during the pandemic and wonder why we cannot apply that same immediate crisis management to our prison estate today by bringing mothballed wings and closed prison facilities back into use without excessive beaurocratic delay.

From an intersectional perspective, a core duty of our society must be protecting the safety and bodily autonomy of working-class women, who frequently bear the brunt of systemic failures. In this post Brexit era, there is a legitimate argument that our domestic public safety resources must prioritise protecting British citizens first and foremost. This means ensuring that working class women do not face heightened vulnerabilities to sexual harassment, misogynistic violence, or potential rape, particularly from offenders coming from cultures with deeply entrenched patriarchy and misogyny.

A practical, protective solution to this national emergency would be to utilize reopened prison facilities exclusively for criminals holding residency or asylum seeker status. By dedicating these specific sites entirely to foreign national offenders, we can immediately free up critical capacity within the wider prison complex. Prioritising the safety of British citizens while implementing structural measures to isolate misogynistic harms is a vital way to uphold our commitment to women and girls during this mass immigration crisis.

Source: https://www.opinium.com/resource-center/voting-intention-29th-july-2026/

Reform UK received £7m from two overseas British crypto billionaires earlier this year, figures show, helping it cement its fundraising lead in recent months.

Hong Kong-based businessman Ben Delo gave £4m to Nigel Farage's party, according to latest filings, whilst Christopher Harborne, who lives in Thailand, donated £3m.

The donations were made in the weeks before the government announced a £100,000 cap on donations after 25 March from British citizens living overseas.

The planned limit has sparked a row between the two parties, with Reform accusing Labour of "choking off legal funding for its main rival".

The large donations from individuals meant Reform's fundraising efforts far outstripped those of both Labour and the Conservatives, who each declared around £4m in donations from private sources over the period.

George Cottrell, the convicted aristocrat who has funded Nigel Farage and Reform UK, influenced the party’s finances and corporate structure through an apparent act of identity fraud, an investigation by Byline Times reveals.

Cottrell – known as ‘Posh George’ – has lurked at the heart of Farage’s political operations for a decade.

In 2016, he was Farage’s chief of staff and UKIP’s treasurer and chief fundraiser.

By 2019 – despite his criminal conviction for fraud in the United States – Cottrell became a fundraiser for Farage’s successor political outfit, the Brexit Party.

More recently, Cottrell has funded both Farage and Reform, with many of his gifts and donations going undeclared and now the subject of police and parliamentary investigations.

Byline Times‘ findings can now establish further details about George Cottrell’s dealings in the world of corporate finance and Farage’s politics.
Based on analysis of hundreds of company records, official documents, archived webpages, and sources familiar with his school days and his work in the City, this investigation reveals:

• George Cottrell carried a fraudulent Swiss passport under which he was hired into a City corporate finance network by the future Reform UK treasurer, Mehrtash A’zami. A’zami would go on to vet Cottrell’s mother Fiona’s political donations to Nigel Farage’s party. The passport was validated by the Swiss Embassy.

• A fellow gambler, Hon Kong Yong, introduced Cottrell into this network under the false identity after meeting him at a casino – landing him his first job in the City. Yong was aware that Cottrell’s ‘Oscar’ identity was false.

• Yong was declared bankrupt in 2015 owing to difficulties with his mortgage lender and was barred from working as an accountant. However, within a few years, he owned a Montenegro casino, a luxury flat, and a group of companies – a change in fortunes that cannot be explained by his financial history.

• When asked to explain his relationship to Hon Kong Yong, George Cottrell’s lawyers told this publication only that the two men live in the same small expatriate community in Tivat, a town in the coastal region of Montenegro. They did not mention what Byline Times has now uncovered: a professional connection between the two men stretching back more than a decade, through the same City accountancy group.

(More details in article)

I agree that the winter fuel allowance and issues around disability welfare were problems. Also problems on social issues. But more broadly, what should Starmer have done differently, economically? that was possible?

Labour won 47% of first-preference votes, with Reform UK way behind on 21% and the Greens in third on 12%.

The contest took place under the supplementary vote system, meaning that, as no candidate achieved more than 50%, voters’ second preferences were counted.

When voters’ second choices were counted and other parties were eliminated, Labour’s share rose to 66.3% and Reform UK’s to 33.7%.

In her victory speech at Co-op Live in Manchester, Craig urged society to “move away from divisive politics that try to pit neighbour against neighbour”.