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Welcome to your Weekend Wire from Best for Britain.
This week saw the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, alongside a swathe of Democratic victories across the US; Chancellor Rachel Reeves rolling the pitch for potential tax rises in the upcoming Budget; and world leaders gathering in Brazil for the Cop30 climate conference - oh, and of course, the finale of Celebrity Traitors.
Read on for more on all that.
Final stop: City Hall
It wasn’t just NYC, but let’s start with the city that never sleeps.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Democratic candidate and state assembly member Zohran Kwame Mamdani, 34, was elected mayor of New York City with more than 50% of the vote. The charismatic politician, who ran a campaign centered around affordability, is the city’s first Muslim mayor, first of south Asian descent, and the youngest in over a century.
During the campaign he demonstrated a savvy, affable and authentic social media presence [ [link removed] ], including campaign videos in Arabic and Spanish, shot in bodegas and nightclubs across the concrete jungle. Mamdani inspired a diverse coalition of New Yorkers, including young and first-time voters, to turn out, donate and door knock, and used his victory speech to promise to stand up to President Trump, who has vowed to cut funding to the city dreams are made of.
“Four words: Turn the volume up.”
Blue wave on the horizon?
Elsewhere, former Navy helicopter pilot and New Jersey congresswoman Mikie Sherrill [ [link removed] ] won the race to become state governor, while former congresswoman and ex-CIA officer Abigail Spanberger [ [link removed] ] emerged victorious in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. On the west coast, Democrat governor Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 [ [link removed] ] passed - a redistricting countermeasure to attempts by conservative-led states to gerrymander new districts to secure a majority in the House of Representatives.
As Trump’s polling numbers continue to decline - with the Economist [ [link removed] ] reporting on Friday that “no recent president has fallen so low so quickly” - could the Democrats be headed for a resurgence [ [link removed] ] ahead of the 2026 midterms?
Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Ken Martin certainly thinks so, declaring Wednesday: “The Democrats are back and we’re winning… we’ve got the momentum going into the midterm elections.”
In Trump we don’t trust
If you thought the American polls looked bleak, then you won’t believe this [ [link removed] ]. We asked YouGov to quiz Brits on how much they trusted our international partners, including the US and EU.
And they found that Trump’s return to the White House has seen British people’s trust in the US collapse since last November - with a majority (56%) now saying they distrust America, versus just one in five (21%) who trusted the country.
You can read more about our findings reported in the Mirror, and the full report [ [link removed] ] on Best for Britain’s website.
Taxing times
Rachel Reeves took the unusual step this week of making a pre-planned speech [ [link removed] ] from Downing Street in which she sought to prepare the ground for what’s widely expected to be a difficult Budget.
With the countdown to November 26 underway, she took to the airwaves just after 8am on Tuesday, and did not rule out a U-turn on Labour’s general election manifesto pledge not to hike income tax, VAT or National Insurance - even when directly asked by reporters if she would do so.
Labour’s new deputy leader Lucy Powell wasted little time in weighing in [ [link removed] ], telling the BBC on Thursday that the party should stick to its manifesto pledge “no question about that”.
She stressed to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live: “If we’re to take the country with us then they’ve got to trust us.”
It comes as economists warn Reeves may need tax rises totalling as much as £30bn to meet her financial rules by a comfortable margin. Could Labour be heading for another tricky few weeks?
Treasury checkmate
Reflecting on the developments in the Best for Britain Wire, former Observer political editor Toby Helm has broken down the risks facing Reeves - and Starmer - as the Budget looms.
He asks: “Can Rachel Reeves survive if she breaks Labour’s central manifesto pledge and raises income tax? What would such a breach of faith do to Labour’s already battered reputation with the electorate, and to trust in politicians?”
Can Reeves’ gambit pay off? Read the full piece [ [link removed] ] to find out.
Rough justice
Deputy prime minister David Lammy faced an almighty row this week after standing in for boss Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs on Wednesday lunchtime. During the Q&A, the justice secretary repeatedly refused to confirm whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Hadush Kebatu, the now-deported migrant at the heart of protests in Epping, Essex.
It emerged just after the parliamentary session finished that an Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had also been accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth’s custody on October 29.
Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously been convicted for indecent exposure. He is understood not to be an asylum seeker, but in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa. While another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35 – who was also accidentally freed from the same prison on Monday, handed himself back in.
At time of writing, Kaddour-Cherif had just been re-arrested in Finsbury Park. But Lammy continued to face criticism on Friday, with one cabinet minister anonymously telling The Times it was “cowardly” not to have answered questions, while a senior government source dubbed it “rank incompetence” - according to the PA Media news agency.
Copping off
In another indication of how climate change is being dragged back down the political agenda, Starmer attended climate summit Cop30 in Belém where he warned [ [link removed] ] “the consensus is gone” on fighting to save the environment - after reportedly deliberating whether he would attend at all.
Sky News’ Politics At Sam And Anne’s podcast [ [link removed] ] framed the trip as a question, asking: “Why is Sir Keir Starmer bothering with COP?” While Politico [ [link removed] ] dubbed the PM a “shy green” and a “climate leader (when the Treasury lets him)”. This analysis is a worrying reflection of how eco-issues have become divisive, with the right increasingly framing net zero as too difficult and expensive to deliver while denying or ignoring the consequences of inaction, which will be even more difficult and expensive.
It comes as UN secretary general António Guterres opened the conference [ [link removed] ] branding the failure to limit global heating to 1.5C a “moral failure and deadly negligence”, which could have “dramatic consequences” and “catastrophic tipping points”.
As gloomy as this might sound, there’s no better reminder of the urgency. While the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is right now.
You Musk Be Kidding
Officially the world’s richest individual, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, has been granted a $1 trillion compensation package by the EV company’s shareholders on Thursday [ [link removed] ] - if he meets certain targets over a decade, including increasing the firm’s market capitalization eight-fold.
Part of this includes Musk’s plan for Tesla’s Optimus robots, which he claims could be “the biggest product of all time”, and used in everything from healthcare to prisons.
It would be the largest corporate payout in history if he gets it, making him the world’s first official trillionaire, and higher than the GDP of entire countries such as Ireland, Sweden and Argentina.
But protest group Tesla Takedown said in a statement: “Elon Musk just got $1tn for failure. Sales are down, safety risks are up, and his politics are driving customers away. This isn’t leadership – it’s the world’s most expensive participation trophy.”
‘A line must be drawn’
Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum was groped by a man on the street as she spoke to the public this week, sparking outrage over sexual harassment and assault in a country beset by gendered violence [ [link removed] ] - and concerns over security risks amid recent political killings.
Sheinbaum confirmed [ [link removed] ] she would press charges, stating: “This is something I experienced as a woman, but it is something that all women in our country experience.
“If I do not file a complaint, where does that leave all Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what happens to all the other women in the country?”
As Sofia Landa, a house cleaner in Mexico, told the Guardian [ [link removed] ]: “Many women suffer this. Sheinbaum has the power to deliver justice.”
We were spoilt for choice when it came to Brexit news this week. Firstly, EU ambassador to the UK, Pedro Serrano, hinted that a new trade deal on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) could be agreed as soon as 2026, ITV News reported [ [link removed] ]. It could significantly cut red tape for British exports, by scrapping most routine border checks on goods such as dairy, eggs and meat.
In less welcome news, per the BBC [ [link removed] ], an independent report has warned that the government’s guidance for businesses on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade deal is “not fit for purpose”, is “poorly presented, unwieldy and needs to be significantly improved”. One out of two ain’t bad?
Cheerful News of the Week
**Please note: spoilers ahead**
Whether you’re a reality TV aficionado like your author, or a fan of more high brow entertainment, it probably hasn’t escaped your notice that Celebrity Traitors mania has been sweeping the nation. After the grand finale this Thursday saw the one remaining Traitor clinch a victory, the entire prize pot - of £87,500 - went to children’s cancer charity Neuroblastoma UK.
The disease is an aggressive childhood cancer diagnosed in around 100 children in the UK each year - and tragically, the survival rate is only around 50%. Thanks to the Traitors, the search for more effective treatments, and ultimately a cure, has just received a vital boost.
Head of fundraising and communications, Emily Hood, said [ [link removed] ]: “As a small charity £87,500 can make a huge difference to our work. We couldn’t be more grateful for [the winner’s] continued support of our charity.”
Well, it seems (the war on) Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year*. In a somewhat ironic update, it seems Kent County Council has had to tell the village of Harrietsham that it cannot put up Christmas lights - unless it removes the flags hanging from the lampposts, due to safety risks, the Guardian reported [ [link removed] ]. LBC presenter James O’Brien couldn’t help but laugh [ [link removed] ]…
*Joke.
Next week sees the UK mark Remembrance Day, and the world celebrates World Kindness Day, while the House of Lords will be considering “reducing administrative burdens for overseas musicians touring in the UK”. Sounds right up our street.
Have a good one.
Jessica Frank-Keyes
Senior Press Officer
Best for Britain

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