New: Anneliese Midgley, the leading the Makerfield by-election campaign for MPs, has sent this message to the PLP this morning Includes a link to sign up for daily canvassing and leaflet deliveries until May 30, including on "Super Sunday" and a "Bank Holiday Monday Bonanza"

🚨Dispatch from the battle for Birmingham - a six-sided battle for Europe's largest council - Plans for Greens to stand aside for Independents aborted after Gorton, but coalition to govern still on the cards - Whitehall warnings of new intervention if city becomes ungovernable

Rayner and Burnham thumped by Reform in their own back yards.

Exc: Labour will establish 15 new councils and cut 800 councillors as part of the biggest reorganisation of local government in half a century Boundaries of Southampton, Portsmouth, Norwich and Ipswich expanded in effort to boost housebuilding in the suburbs

NEW: Ministers have abandoned their attempt to delay elections to thirty councils across the country, after being warned by lawyers that the move would be illegal

The group that helped to get Sir Keir Starmer elected as Labour leader hired lobbyists to investigate the personal, political and religious background of a Sunday Times journalist behind an article about secret donations that funded its work. Labour Together paid £36,000 to Apco, a US public affairs firm, to examine the “backgrounds and motivations” of reporters behind a story before the general election. The aim was to discredit The Sunday Times’s reporting by falsely suggesting its journalists might be part of a Russian conspiracy or had relied on emails hacked by the Kremlin. Apco produced a 58-page report including almost ten pages of deeply personal and false claims about Gabriel Pogrund, the Sunday Times Whitehall editor. He and Harry Yorke, the newspaper’s deputy political editor, were named as “persons of significant interest”.

Exc: 17 councils covering 3.5m people have so far indicated they want their elections to be delayed. - Thirteen of these Labour-controlled - At least 24 councils will not ask for a delay - Dozens undecided ahead of deadline next Thursday - Only 20 of 63 councils have sent letters

Exc with @breeallegretti: More than 80 MPs have urged Sir Keir Starmer not to bow to pressure from the Treasury to scrap plans for a cap on ground rents Fears in government that Michael Gove will lead trouble for Labur in Lords if reforms not included in the delayed draft bill

Is the leak inquiry back on? 12:52pm - Sir Keir Starmer has been assured that no No 10 staff have engaged in briefing against Cabinet ministers after he reiterated to them it is “completely unacceptable”, Downing Street said. 1.38pm - Rachel Reeves: “Well, there I think is going to be a leak inquiry, but at the moment there is no evidence of where that briefing is coming from.”

A lot of anger from Labour MPs on the left. One calls it "petty and vindictive" from a "badly out of touch" government with "dreadful politics". Rebellions on SEND and two-child cap will only be worse as a result, they say