Broker tips: Caerphilly by-election, Canada tariffs, NHS, Keir Starmer, Prince Andrew, China
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Sunday 26 Oct 2025
(Sharecast News) - Labour's new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has said the government must listen to its members instead of being guided by a "narrow group of voices" as it battles to stave off electoral disaster in next May's local elections. Powell defeated the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in the deputy leadership contest, which concluded on Saturday. She said she had been given "a clear mandate that members want their voice to be heard at the top of the party". The Manchester Central MP won 54% of the vote, polling 87,407 votes, while Phillipson received 73,536. Turnout was just 16.6%, which some Labour insiders say points to widespread disillusionment within the party. The result was announced on Saturday against the backdrop of Labour's catastrophic byelection performance in Caerphilly. The party came third, behind Plaid Cymru and Reform, polling just 11% of the vote in a previously safe seat that had been held by Labour since the creation of the Welsh Senedd in 1999. - Guardian
Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he will raise US tariffs on Canada by 10% in retaliation for an anti-tariff advertisement sponsored by the Ontario government, which has further strained one of the world's largest trade partnerships. The statement, posted on Trump's Truth Social account, came after several days of public disputes over the ad, which referenced Ronald Reagan's support for free trade and provoked the US president's anger. "Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now," Trump said Saturday on social media. He further accused the ad of being a "fraud" and said the "sole purpose" of it was "Canada's hope that the United States Supreme Court will come to their 'rescue' on Tariffs that they have used for years to hurt the United States", he added. - Guardian
As hospital beds fill up, seriously sick patients are sent to makeshift wards - cupboards, offices and corridors - to be treated by a doctor. Others are left languishing in waiting rooms, sometimes for days on end. In one particularly hard-hit hospital, a Costa Coffee cafe is turned into an emergency ward as medics struggle to cope with rising demand. It's only October, yet the picture across NHS wards up and down the country is one of concern, with medics telling The Independent they fear a winter crisis on a scale only seen at the height of the pandemic. One A&E consultant warns the health service is facing something akin to "armageddon". - The Independent
Wes Streeting appeared to put further pressure on Keir Starmer's leadership after Labour's defeat in the Caerphilly by-election last Thursday. The health secretary told the Sunday Times that the defeat in the Welsh Senedd election was the prime minister's "Hartlepool [by-election] moment" in a significant parallel to a defeat which almost saw Sir Keir quit as Labour leader. Although he insisted that the prime minister can bounce back, Mr Streeting's comparison has added fire to speculation over Sir Keir's leadership to some in the party. With Labour now polling below 20 per cent in a number of different polls, discussions about ousting him among MPs and ministers are heating up. - The Independent
Prince Andrew faces a pincer movement from parliament and Buckingham Palace to strip him of his dukedom and banish him from his 30-room mansion in Windsor. MPs are set to discuss Andrew's future, defying years of convention that usually prevents politicians from criticising the royal family. The Liberal Democrats have signalled that they intend to use their next Opposition Day debate to allow members to consider officially removing Andrew's Duke of York title and discuss his continued use of Royal Lodge. Although such debates are rarely binding, it will allow the Commons to "express its will" and heap pressure on the government and the King to act. Andrew, 65, agreed last weekend that he would no longer use his title after the spiralling scandal over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, the late paedophile financier. However, an act of parliament is required to formally remove the dukedom. - The Times
An aggressive cannabis lobby is fuelling a dangerous complacency about the risks the drug poses to teenagers' mental health, Britain's top psychiatrist said. Dr Lade Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said young people were damaging their brains by smoking high-strength cannabis and risking psychotic episodes that could ruin their lives. "When you start smoking with your mates at 14 or 15, you are literally growing your brain in a cannabis soup," she said. "There's no doubt at all. Cannabis is a cause of psychosis." Cannabis is consistently the most consumed illegal drug in England and Wales. In the year to March last year, 2.3m people were estimated to have used it. - The Times
Labour's flagship workers' rights bill risks crippling the jobs market, the party's "favourite" think tank has warned in a fresh challenge to Sir Keir Starmer. The Resolution Foundation has told The Telegraph it would come out against plans championed by Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, that will give workers a day one right against unfair dismissal. It said the policy risked blighting the job prospects of millions of people while offering "little obvious gain to workers". It also warned that the new rule would "inhibit hiring", risked plunging tribunal courts into crisis and would "only benefit employment lawyers". The foundation warned that the jobs market was already slowing down, with the number of employees on payrolls falling by 127,000 over the past year in the wake of increases to National Insurance. - The Telegraph
Britain must support China's ownership of Taiwan or risk a breach in diplomatic relations, China's ambassador to the UK has suggested. Writing in The Telegraph, Zheng Zeguang said that the "key to ensuring the sound and steady development of UK-China relations" lay in the British government accepting that "Taiwan has never been a country" and that "both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to [...] China". The intervention comes at a time of heightened tension between London and Beijing over the Chinese spy case, and amid calls to cancel the construction of a "super-embassy" in London amid fears it could be used to tap into sensitive data cables. In the article, Mr Zheng writes that Britain made an "unequivocal commitment" to defend China's ownership of Taiwan when diplomatic relations were established with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1972. "This history must not be forgotten," he said. - The Telegraph
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