LONDON: After Labor lost control of 36 councils and 1,436 councilors in local elections and finished second with Reform UK in the Scottish Parliament, embattled PM Keir Starmer brought back former Labor PM Gordon Brown and appointed him as “Special Envoy on Global Finance and Co-operation” to “work with our international partners to build a stronger Britain”.Conservative MP Andrew Griffith tweeted a meme of Brown on a DeLorean outside Number 10 with the words “Back to the past”, adding: “As the ‘Hail Mary’ goes, bringing back Labour’s biggest loser, who sold off £40 billion of Britain’s gold before Labor was defeated in the general election, probably needs a little work…”So far, 30 Labor MPs, including Barry Gardiner and Nadia Whittome, have called on Starmer to resign. But 80 Labor MPs must support anyone seeking to challenge their leadership under party rules. On TV, voters said they were fed up with the high cost of living, rising taxes, shrinking living standards and illegal immigration.By Saturday night Reform UK, with only four councils left to declare, had received 1,449 councilors and 14 councils, and the Greens had received 397 councilors and four councils. Labor MP Dan Cardon wrote atBirmingham City Council went from Labour-run to no overall control, with wins from several parties and 13 independent candidates, mostly Muslims, on the Gaza ticket. The coalition of independent candidates was organized by activists Akhmed Yacob and Shakeel Afsar. The officer was part of the mob that came to attack the Smethwick Hindu Temple in Birmingham in 2022.
