The most dangerous stat you’ll read today:

“1 in 8 prisoners were born overseas”

It’s being weaponised by far-right figures to stoke fear.

But here’s the crucial detail they’re not telling you: On its own, the “1 in 8” stat means nothing.

We need to know how it compares to the general population.

And this is where things start to look bad for the far right.

London is thriving. And the right can’t stand it.

They talk down our capital constantly, but the city is measurably becoming a better place to live.

6 facts that shatter their doom narrative: 1. London is getting safer

Knife crime is lower now than in 2016. The murder rate fell 28% from 2019 to 2023.

In fact, you’re less likely to experience crime in London than you are nationally.

It was a great week to be Labour.

Votes at 16 rightly grabbed the headlines, but there was plenty more good news for progressives.

7 things to celebrate: 🧵 1. £500m for youth services

The money will fund schemes helping children struggling with:

• Mental health difficulties
• School exclusion
• Crime

Experts are warning the economy is about to implode!

Well, that’s what GB news wants you to think. It’s a masterclass in cherrypicking and scaremongering.

Let’s reveal the truth together… 🧵 “Four graphs prove the UK economy is in serious trouble,” the story warns.

And just one look at them will make you want to sell up and move to Dubai.

But even a GCSE economics student could spot the fatal flaws.

There’s a VERY good reason asylum seekers get circus tickets and Amazon parcels.

But the Mail on Sunday was never going to tell you that.

Here’s the crucial detail they left out: 🧵 The paper wet the bed over Kent County Council’s spending on asylum seekers:

• £162,077 at Amazon
• £70,056 at Argos
• £6,055 at a swimming pool

Yes, that’s taxpayers’ money. And it’s so easy to explain.

Labour racked up the wins this week.

Lots of new initiatives to build a fairer, greener country. (Though much of it didn’t make the papers.)

7 announcements you might have missed: 1.⁠ ⁠Letting local people save community spaces

A new Community Right to Buy gives residents the chance to take over pubs, cafes, or sports centres before developers can buy them.

A great example of Co-operative Party ideas taking the fight to Reform.

Yields hitting Truss levels does NOT mean the economy is crashing.

Anyone who says this doesn’t understand economics. I covered this stuff for years at Bloomberg.

Quick explainer that a child could understand: 🧵

https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1942587341589410290

Lots of things affect bond prices. Sometimes it’s a domestic issue, sometimes it’s global.

Right wingers are desperately trying to argue this move is domestic – that investors are worried about the UK economy.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to check.

16,500 millionaires will leave Britain? Total rubbish.

Yet leading figures of the right have fallen for it, including the Shadow Home Secretary!

It takes just 30 seconds to expose the truth: Look at who’s repeating this line with absolutely no fact checking.

None of them thought to ask the most important question:

Who’s behind the story, and why?

Everyone says Labour has no story. They're completely wrong.

A golden thread runs through its agenda.

It’s part one of a powerful framework to demolish the *three big myths* about Labour’s first year: Everything Labour does is about one thing.

It's not obvious at first.

But once you see it, you notice it everywhere.

Labour secured a ton of wins this week.

While Middle East tensions grabbed the headlines, Labour made demonstrable progress towards building a fairer, stronger Britain.

5 eye-grabbing changes:

(and this is only since Monday) 1. £9bn for crumbling schools and hospitals

Labour is investing more than £6bn a year to make NHS buildings safer, including removing RAAC concrete.

Another £3bn goes to transforming schools and colleges.

Labour has already done more on asylum than the Tories managed in 14 years.

And no one needed to be sent to Rwanda.

5 measurable signs of progress: 1. Asylum decisions more than doubled

Labour inherited a massive 175,000-case backlog from the Tories.

But by March, the Home Office was making 116% more initial decisions than before.

Labour is rescuing the NHS faster than anyone predicted.

The latest stats show their strategy is creating tangible improvements – and a brutal reality check for the Tories and Reform.

5 undeniable signs of progress: 1. Waiting list falls to two-year low

Backlog inherited: 7.62m
Backlog today: 7.39m

That’s a drop of 230,000, and the first time in 17 years the waiting list has fallen in April.

Labour is fundamentally re-engineering Britain.

It’s become almost impossible to do basic things like building homes or fitting a heat pump. Now a flurry of new laws are ending that era of national self-sabotage.

5 examples to be excited about: 1. Fast-tracking two new reservoirs

Without them we face holding back housebuilding, even higher water bills, and risk of drought.

The same law also speeds up other developments like railways and clean energy projects.

Reform is stumbling harder than anyone expected.

Their local election victories were a brief flash of glory. But the reality of governing has quickly exposed their inexperience.

5 early failures: 1. Scrapping floods committee… in a flooding hotspot

Reform-run Lincolnshire Council abolished its flooding scrutiny committee, which holds Anglian Water and the Environment Agency to account.

This was Lincolnshire in January:

This is nonsense.

A department store blames Labour for its collapse. But the CEO’s political leanings, the store’s history, and the local public’s reaction tell a very different story.

Here’s what really happened: 🧵 CEO Tony Brown wants you to believe Labour killed Beales.

He’s plastered Rachel Reeves’s face across ‘closing down sale’ posters and blamed tax rises for making his business “unviable”.

But Beales was already collapsing under the Tories.

Reform’s victory could be the start of its downfall.

On the surface, it feels like momentum. But look back at history, and the warning signs are clear.

Here’s what they are:

(and how Labour can benefit) Until now, Reform wasn’t really a political party. It was a pressure group with a fan club.

Shouting from the sidelines, but not in charge of anything.

Now it controls ten councils – and that changes the dynamic.

This might be the most delivery-focused government we’ve ever had.

Labour has already ticked off 10 manifesto promises – just months into power.

The full list: 1. “We will abolish non-dom status and end the use of offshore trusts to avoid inheritance tax”

A new residence-based inheritance tax system replaced the non-dom system last month.

Rachel Reeves just won over America’s most powerful banker.

He says her economic plan is making Britain a better place to invest.

Here’s why it matters for Labour’s re-election chances:

(even if you think they’re an unlikely alliance) JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told the FT:

“There’s much to like about the new government’s pro-growth agenda.”

But there’s a problem…

It’s not obvious yet, but the EU rejoining process has already begun.

Not through campaigns or slogans – but technical deals and unsexy laws.

5 signs it’s happening: 1. Youth mobility scheme

Rachel Reeves has confirmed the Labour is discussing a scheme to allow young Brits to work in Europe.

That’s a big shift from ‘No plans for a youth mobility scheme’, which was the line before the election.

Nine months ago, the NHS was at breaking point.

The turnaround under Labour has been remarkable – and barely anyone’s talking about it.

5 seriously impressive stats: 1. Waiting list down for a sixth month

The number of treatments waiting to be carried out has consistently fallen under Labour.

Labour just saved our steel indusutry.

The Tories would never have done it in a million years.

4 times they willingly let the sector fail: 1. Redcar steelworks collapse

More than 2,000 people lost their jobs when the coke ovens and blast furnace closed in 2015.

A cross-party report found the Cameron government was too slow to act on industry recommendations to save the industry.