Latest news with #LukeAkehurst


BBC News
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Beamish Museum win sparks joy and happy memories
Congratulations have flooded in to an open-air attraction which has been named museum of the the Living Museum of the North, scooped the £120,000 prize money on its 55th anniversary of its attraction, near Stanley in County Durham, brings to life the history of the region from the 1820s to the 1950s. Fans and regular visitors have been taking to social media to offer congratulations and share memories. Receiving the award, Beamish chief executive Rhiannon Hiles said: "This is just perfect to get us on the map and really, really showcase what we do up in the North East of England." She described the win as absolutely amazing, and praised "our brilliant team".Staff and volunteers had gathered in the 1950s cinema to watch the award ceremony and broke into loud cheers at the they spoke of how thrilled, amazed and overjoyed they described it as a win for the whole of the North East, which "shows what the region is worth". Many others echoed the view that it was a broader win for the Luke Akehurst, whose North Durham constituency covers Beamish, posted on social media: "Congratulations Beamish - the Pride of North Durham."Chris Loughran, chair of Beamish, said: "We're proud to be a place, a space and an anchor for all. "Beamish is the North East's leading visitor attraction but it also is the beating heart of our region's identity and values." The Art Fund Prize was launched in 2008, becoming Museum of the Year in 2013. All of the five finalists this year, which included Chapter in Cardiff and Compton Verney in Warwickshire, were based outside of London. Among the congratulations were people reminiscing, with some taking to social media to talk about repeat visits over the many cases it brought back memories of their grandparents' former colliery homes, with leaded ranges and tin remembered shopping at some of the buildings in their original sites - such as the Co-op in Annfield Plain - before they were dismantled and reconstructed at agreed that it was a well-deserved win. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram


Telegraph
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Now ban the IRGC, Labour MPs tell Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer must now ban Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after proscribing Palestine Action, Labour MPs have demanded. The Government announced it will list Palestine Action as a terrorist group after its activists breached security at an air base on Friday and damaged two RAF planes. Labour backbenchers are now calling on the Prime Minister to take the same approach towards the IRGC as Iran's war with Israel entered its second week. Initially founded as an ideological custodian of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, the IRGC has since become a major military, economic and political force. Labour called for the IRGC to be proscribed while it was in opposition, but has failed to commit to the move almost a year on from winning the election. Luke Akehurst, the Labour MP for North Durham, said: 'I thoroughly welcome the move to proscribe Palestine Action after their violent attacks on defence companies and, most alarmingly, on RAF Brize Norton. 'It's now urgent, given the conflict in Iran, that the Government moves to proscribe the IRGC, which is a terrorist organisation that represents a significant threat, including here in the UK.' Charlotte Nichols, the Labour MP for Warrington North, added: 'As much as I have no time for Palestine Action, it's quite clear who the bigger threat to our national security is. 'They should have done it a long time ago, but the second-best time is now.' The IRGC is openly supportive of the Iranian proxy groups Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which have been proscribed by the UK Government. Like Hamas and Hezbollah, it has a hardline Islamist ideology. The IRGC has also publicly stated its ambition to seize all Palestinian territories and Jerusalem from Israel. On Saturday, Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, also threw his weight behind calls to proscribe the organisation. Mr Farage told The Telegraph: 'The Iranian regime has clearly been funding propaganda hubs and promoting terror throughout the UK. 'It's high time action was taken by the Government to safeguard our institutions and communities from Iranian influence. The Government must finally proscribe the IRGC.' Palestine Action is a direct action group that has conducted a campaign of vandalism and trespass against companies and property it claims are linked to 'Zionism' since the Oct 7 massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas. The group was founded in 2020 and has targeted an Israeli-owned arms company as well as a number of universities. It claimed responsibility on Friday after two vandals broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, spraying red paint into the engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft. The attack is being investigated by counter-terror police. Proscription will mean that assets and money can be seized from Palestine Action, something that supporters of a ban on the IRGC argue would help efforts to fight Islamist ideology and terror plots on British soil. The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed a second commander of the IRGC's overseas arm during a precision strike on his vehicle in western Tehran.


ITV News
20-06-2025
- Health
- ITV News
Assisted Dying Bill passed: How did MPs from the North East and North Yorkshire vote?
MPs have voted in favour of the assisted dying bill which will legalise the right for terminally ill people in England and Wales to end their own life with medical assistance. On Friday MPs voted 314 to 291 in favour of the bill, backing the right for adults with less than six months to live to choose to end their own lives. 16 MPs in the North East and North Yorkshire region voted for the bill, 19 were against, while there was one did not vote. We have a breakdown of what our MPs voted for what in this historic vote. Which MPs voted in favour of the bill? Luke Akehurst - North Durham MP Lewis Atkinson - Sunderland Central MP Jonathan Brash - Hartlepool MP Sir Alan Campbell - Tynemouth MP Luke Charters - York Outer MP Mark Ferguson - Gateshead Central and Whickham MP Emma Foody - Cramlington and Killingworth MP Tom Gordon - Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Kevin Hollinrake - Thirsk and Malton MP Alison Hume - Scarborough and Whitby MP Keir Mather - Selby MP Rishi Sunak - Richmond and Northallerton MP Anna Turley - Redcar and Cleveland MP Joe Morris - Hexham MP Luke Myer - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Kate Osborne - Jarrow and Gateshead East MP Which MPs voted against the bill? Mary Kelly Foy - City of Durham MP Mary Glindon - Newcastle Upon Tyne East and Wallsend MP Ian Lavery - Blyth and Ashington MP Emma Lewell - South Shields MP Rachael Maskell - York Central MP Andy McDonald - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East MP Chris McDonald - Stockton North MP Lola McEvoy - Darlington MP Catherine McKinnell - Newcastle Upon Tyne North MP Grahame Morris - Easington MP Dame Chi Onwurah - Newcastle Upon Tyne Central and West MP Bridget Phillipson - Houghton and Sunderland South MP Sam Rushworth - Bishop Auckland MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke - Wetherby and Easingwold MP David Smith - North Northumberland MP Julian Smith - Skipton and Ripon MP Alan Strickland - Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor MP Liz Twist - Blaydon and Consett MP Matt Vickers - Stockton West MP Others: Sharon Hodgson - Washington and Gateshead South MP (no vote recorded, as she was not present). MPs began voting on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, brought forward by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, just after 2pm as opposition and pro-change campaigners gathered outside Parliament. It came after a highly emotional debate in the Commons with MPs from across the political divide making impassioned arguments for and against. Friday's vote does not mean the bill immediately becomes law as it will now transfer to the House of Lords for further scrutiny. The Upper House can make amendments to the bill and pass it back to MPs but it is expected this process will happen fairly quickly as the final date they can currently consider a Private Members' bill in this parliamentary session is 11 July. There are several more stages of scrutiny in both chambers for the bill to go through before it heads to the King to receive royal assent and become law.


The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Starmer's U-turn: change direction – or keep losing support
Sir Keir Starmer's U-turn on winter fuel payments did not just represent a policy reversal. It was the moment when the prime minister, elected on promises of national renewal, was forced to confront the political reality that his strategy had refused to acknowledge. It may also prove to be the moment he lost control. The original policy, hatched in the Treasury and defended for months, had cut winter fuel payments, worth up to £300 annually, to millions of pensioners. It was unpopular, and unnecessary. Local election losses and a looming backbench revolt over disability benefit cuts made it politically toxic. The result? On Wednesday, Sir Keir reversed course at the dispatch box – with his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, notably absent. Too little, too late: voters saw delay; activists cried betrayal. This wasn't just a policy slip. It was a strategic, ideological and sociological misfire. The Labour leadership had convinced itself that its electoral base was composed not of university-educated social liberals and younger renters – key to its election-winning coalition – but of Reform-curious, socially conservative voters yearning for fiscal discipline and border control. That misreading, fuelled by factional folklore and backed up by the Labour MP Luke Akehurst, a key figure among the party's centre and right, was always a mirage. Most Reform UK voters are not Labour's to win back. They are largely embedded within a 'right-Conservative' bloc, as noted by Manchester University's James David Griffiths. Chasing them means alienating Labour's base. That appears to be happening. Sir Keir recorded the lowest net favourability of his spell as Labour leader in May. And now, with U-turns piling up, the story has acquired another dimension: a cabinet revolt. A leak blew open the ideological rift between Ms Reeves and the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner. The latter's memo to Ms Reeves, proposing tax rises on the better-off instead of cuts to meet self-imposed fiscal rules, revealed the schism. This is not just about tax policy. It is a flashpoint in the struggle over Labour's identity. Ms Rayner represents a politics grounded in contemporary Britain: professional, socially liberal, economically redistributive. Ms Reeves represents a cautious centrist revivalism that imagines Britain as it was in 1997. But this isn't Blair's Britain any more. The electorate is more middle class, more educated and more diverse. The realignment is done. Labour's survival depends on recognising it. Labour's centrist power brokers are fighting the last war – not against the Tories, but against Jeremy Corbyn. The party risks joining Europe's centre-left casualties – triangulating through turbulence with a broken political compass. If Labour continues to ignore electoral bloc dynamics and strategic coalition-building, it will cede ground to both the left and the populist right. Meagre public sector pay awards suggest Labour won't budge – yet. But its economic strategy is running out of road. A pivot is possible: towards tax fairness, green investment, a new language on immigration, electoral reform, ending austerity and rebuilding trust with the young urban voters who put Labour in power. But it should be decisive. Sir Keir must lead a government of transformation, not Tory-lite continuity. If he won't shift course, 'stepping up' may soon look just like standing in the way. The winter fuel fiasco wasn't only a tactical error – it exposed Labour's flawed view of the electorate. And voters, inconveniently, noticed.


ITV News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
Around The House: Watch May 2025 programme
Thursday 15 May 2025 at 3:08pm Tom Sheldrick and guests (l-r: Luke Akehurst MP (Lab), Baroness McIntosh (Con) and Lord Beith (Lib Dem) Credit: The latest edition of Around The House is now available to watch on ITVX. The Reform UK councillor, who will be the new leader of Durham County Council, says they will ll look into restricting the number of asylum seekers being housed in the county. The latest edition of Around The House is available to watch now on ITVX: Reform chose their new Durham leader last night, after winning control of the authority in the local elections. Andrew Husband also played down Nigel Farage's suggestion that staff working in diversity and climate should "seek alternative careers". The next edition of Around The House is on Thursday 19th June. Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Every week Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda...