2024 year in review: Summer of violence and Tory turmoil
Britain woke on July 5 to a new Labour government, having given the party a landslide election victory to end the Conservatives’ 14 years in office. Sir Keir Starmer had a thumping Commons majority of 174 after winning 411 seats. For the Conservatives, with 121, it was their worst result since 1906.
Other parties had much to celebrate. The Lib Dems had their most successful election with 72 seats and the Greens went from one to four MPs.
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Hide AdThe newest party, Reform UK, served notice it was a threat to both Labour and the Conservatives, running them close in many constituencies and winning five seats.


Crowds cheered Sir Keir into Downing Street for his first speech as Prime Minister: “You have given us a clear mandate and we will use it to deliver change. To restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives.”
He pledged a “mission of national renewal” and concluded: “Our work is urgent. And we begin it today.”
Earlier, Rishi Sunak made his resignation speech: “To the country, I would like to say, first and foremost, I am sorry.
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Hide Ad“I have given this job my all. But you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change and yours is the only judgement that matters.


“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss.”
He also resigned as Conservative leader, but stayed on until his successor was chosen.
Across the Atlantic, the US presidential campaign took a chilling turn when Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13. Shots fired by Michael Crooks, 20, from a rooftop overlooking the podium where Mr Trump was speaking narrowly missed and fragments hit the former president’s ear.
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Hide AdWith blood pouring down his face, he punched the air and shouted “Fight” before bodyguards bundled him away. Crooks was shot dead.


A week later, Mr Trump had a new opponent when US vice-president Kamala Harris became the Democrat candidate after the frail Joe Biden stood down.
Britain’s new government delivered a shock. On July 29, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons the Tories had left a £21.9bn “black hole” in the public finances, and among cuts needed to plug it was the axeing of winter fuel payments to pensioners not on benefits, which meant 10m losing out, just as energy prices were rising.
There was sharp criticism from charities and campaigners for the elderly, who warned pensioners would face a choice between heating and eating.
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Hide AdThat same day, one of the country’s most high-profile broadcasters, BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children. He pleaded guilty on September 16, and was given a six-month suspended jail sentence. The career of a man who had been the face of the BBC on great state occasions was over.
The summer brought shocking violence to Britain.
On July 18, rioting broke out in the Harehills area of Leeds after police visited a house on a child protection matter. A police car was overturned and a bus set on fire before order was restored.
Much worse was to come, in Yorkshire and beyond.
On the afternoon of July 29, at a dance class in Southport, Merseyside, three girls were stabbed to death. Bebe King was six, Elsie Dot Stancombe seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar nine. Eight more children and two adults were also stabbed.
Armed police arrested Axel Rudakubana, 17, who was charged with three murders and 10 attempted murders.
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Hide AdWithin hours social media was stoking hatred. Lies about about the alleged killer’s race and supposed status as an asylum seeker began spreading.
As the people of Southport gathered for a vigil to remember the victims, far-right protesters besieged a mosque in the town and rioted, injuring more than 50 police officers.
As online misinformation spread, so did rioting. The next day, it was outside Downing Street, where more than 100 arrests were made, then Hartlepool, Manchester, Aldershot, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. Then, on August 3, Hull.
The following day, as the Prime Minister condemned “far-right thuggery”, the worst mob violence of all happened in Yorkshire.
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Hide AdThe Holiday Inn Express, at Wath upon Dearne, near Rotherham, housing asylum seekers, was attacked by rioters who attempted to set it on fire and got inside as terrified residents barricaded themselves in their rooms. More than 60 police officers were injured, one being knocked unconscious.
A week after riots began, more than 400 arrests had been made. Rioters were fast-tracked into court and went straight to jail.
The first were sentenced on August 7, and the violence stopped as a steady stream of court cases followed, with most imprisoned for between 20 months and three years, although two of the Wath rioters were jailed for nine years.
As calm returned, Labour found it was subject to a much greater degree of scrutiny than when in opposition.
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Hide AdAfter years of criticising Tory sleaze, the Prime Minister faced uncomfortable questions about freebies from a wealthy donor who had paid for Sir Keir’s suits and even spectacles. He also accepted tickets worth £2,800 to see Taylor Swift.
On September 28, Labour MP Rosie Duffield quit the party with an attack on the gifts, writing to Sir Keir: “The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale. I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”
There was another resignation – Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray departed following revelations she earned £3,000 more than the Prime Minister.
The government’s rocky autumn continued with the Chancellor’s first budget on October 30, in which she imposed £40bn of tax rises, including increased national insurance contributions for employers, which businesses warned would stop them hiring new staff.
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Hide AdMost controversially for Yorkshire, she also changed inheritance tax rules for family farms, which the agricultural lobby said would drive many out of business. A massive demonstration against the “farm tax” in London on November 19 made clear that anger was not going to subside.
Ten days later, the government lost its first minister, when the Transport Secretary, Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh, resigned when a past criminal conviction for fraud came to light.
By then, Sir Keir had a new adversary at the dispatch box – Kemi Badenoch, inset, who became Conservative leader after beating Robert Jenrick in a ballot of party members.
There was a sad farewell for Labour. On November 20, John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister and long-serving Hull MP, died aged 86. The warmth of the tributes paid by colleagues and opponents alike were testament to the stature of this towering Yorkshire politician.
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Hide AdSeptember brought good news for the Royal Family, when the Princess of Wales released a video with her family to mark the end of her chemotherapy for cancer. It showed her with William and their children as she said the year had been “incredibly tough” and “life as you know it can change in an instant”.
Kate returned to public life, but during November the Queen cancelled a number of engagements, later revealing she had been suffering from pneumonia.
But then the family found itself dragged into a bizarre tale of espionage, thanks to the problematic Duke of York, already excluded from official duties because of his friendship with the convicted American paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.
It emerged that one of the duke’s closest associates, Chinese businessman Yang Tengbo, had been banned from entering Britain by the government because he was a security risk.
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Hide AdEmbarrassing details emerged of how one of Prince Andrew’s advisers had told Yang he sat “at the top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on”.
And a letter found on Yang’s phone talked of him managing the Duke’s expectations.
Yang denied being a spy for China. Andrew put out a statement saying he had cut all contact with him.
The duke would not be joining the rest of his family for the traditional Christmas at Sandringham to avoid becoming a “distraction”. How this strange episode eventually plays out, and its consequences for Andrew, remains to be seen.
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Hide AdAn unexpected – and unprecedented – resignation happened on November 12, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, stepped down amid criticism of his failure to act against a prolific child abuser sheltered by the Church of England.
Internationally, the autumn brought triumph for Donald Trump, written off by so many as unelectable, who scored a decisive victory in the presidential election on November 6.
And in the Middle East, the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria collapsed with stunning rapidity in December when a rebel uprising toppled it within two weeks. Assad, a tyrant with the blood of thousands on his hands, fled into exile in Russia.
As the year neared its end, a historic vote dominated public debate in Britain.
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Hide AdSpen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater was drawn first in the ballot for private members' bills and announced on October 3 that she would introduce a bill on assisted dying.
She wanted to prevent people enduring “harrowing deaths” and her intention was “shortening death rather than ending life,” while guaranteeing “the strictest safeguards anywhere in the world”.
Those with less than six months to live would be permitted to seek assistance in ending their lives, with the consent of two doctors and a High Court judge.
MPs were given a free vote on the bill, which divided opinion. The Prime Minister backed it, but his Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, opposed it.
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Hide AdThe Commons debated the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on November 29 in a sober occasion that showed Parliamentary democracy at its best.
MPs voted by 330 to 275 in favour, the result greeted with the respectful silence such a profound decision deserved.
Months, perhaps years, of debate and amendments lie ahead before the bill has any chance of becoming law, but Commons support for the principle of the state helping people to die was truly a historic moment.
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