The Lead
@theleaduk
The Lead is a lean, mean mag on politics, culture and everything in between.
The Lead has been in Clacton-on-Sea speaking to local residents and candidates ahead of the by-election triggered by Nigel Farage’s resignation as MP.
Farage wasn't joking when he triggered his 'anti-establishment' by-election in Clacton. With all major parties refusing to run against him, his only current opponent is a bin...
Our reporting also led that evening’s BBC North West Tonight bulletin at 6.30pm and we thank the BBC for mentioning that it was The Lead who uncovered these facts.
Just under a third of people said, in hindsight, Britain was right to vote to leave the EU, according to YouGov polling in February 2026. In comparison, more than half think Britain was wrong to vote to leave. Mostly its Leave voters, particularly younger ones, who’ve changed their minds.
Since we left the EU, local and regional funding has become much more complicated, and has been widely criticised for not matching EU funding. Between 2014 and 2020, the UK received an average of £1.2 billion a year from the EU, or about £1.7 billion in today’s money.
Ahead of the Referendum, Vote Leave said, on the side of a bus, “We send the EU £350 million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead”. Ten years later, UK health spending is a lot higher. But it has little to do with a ‘Brexit dividend’.
And when EU citizens moved back to Europe, some British citizens seem to have gone with them. British citizens abroad have also become less likely to move back or come to the UK.
The rules on freedom of movement didn’t change immediately after the Referendum but fewer EU citizens arrived and more started to leave. Just 76,000 people came from the EU to the UK in 2025, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures. In 2016, it was more than half a million.
The Leave campaign pledged to ‘take back control’ by replacing EU Freedom of Movement with an Australian-style points-based system. Post-Brexit changes to immigration policy broadly reflected that. But Government choices didn’t always line up with their pledges to reduce net migration.
The EU’s Bathing Water Directive played a big part from the 1970s onwards in getting the UK to clean up its act. There were concerns standards could slip without EU oversight. Post-Brexit figures on water quality suggest the cleanliness of UK bathing waters didn’t keep pace with the EU.
Trade is tougher - but not as bad as it could have been. While the Withdrawal Agreement means no tariffs on goods, there are now border checks. For some services, there are now more regulations to navigate.
Working out the economic impact of Brexit is hard. But the data suggests the UK’s economy hasn’t performed as well as others.
The Lead has been shortlisted for two awards at this year's Publisher Newsletter Awards. Our local titles are up for the best local/community newsletter and our national title is in the running for best politics newsletter - and we are in great company.
Britain has spoken. The problem is, no one’s quite sure what it’s said. Some votes are in, many still being counted, and every party is already drawing their own conclusions from broadly the same set of results. So what have we learned? national.thelead.uk/p/six-sort-o...
Is it raining cats and dogs outside, or is it just another heap of misinformation getting spat out by the right-wing press? 👀
The government is loud about criticising X, but exclusive data shared with The Lead shows that they are still funnelling tens of thousands of people to the platform via official government websites.
Victoria Collins MP, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson for the Lib Dems said: “We cannot simply surrender the platform to Musk and his cronies. These figures show the Gov is acting as a funnel for a platform that time and again flouts our most basic safety expectations.”
EXCLUSIVE: FOI data shared with The Lead shows that government websites generated at least 34,000 click-throughs to X (formerly Twitter) in a year - despite mounting concerns over abuse, disinformation and AI-generated sexualised imagery 🧵
Here's the Prime Minister calling for the deputy leader of the Reform-led Lancashire County Council to be sacked after he re-shared a post on Facebook which called for Natalie Fleet MP to be shot. And Nigel Farage's response...
@alexdaviesjones.bsky.social responds to Reform UK's decision not to act on councillor Simon Evans sharing a post calling for a female Labour MP to be shot. lancashire.thelead.uk/p/lancashire...
Important news if you're in Teesside, our Leigh Jones is back in the game after a break. Get yourself signed up for the latest edition of The Teesside Lead which returns on Sunday morning. It may or may not (ok, it will) feature some Teesworks news. @leighsus.bsky.social
Child poverty is at an all-time high in the UK according to official statistics - but it's important to look beyond the figures to who it really impacts. Last week, @kevingopal.bsky.social spoke with Sophie, a student who grew up skipping meals in Newcastle, because she saw her mum doing it.
Some parts of Lancashire are experiencing severe levels of child poverty. Out of 317 local authorities, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Burnley all feature high on the list with 440 per cent or more of children coming from families struggling to make ends meet.
What causes child poverty? A fall in earnings is the event most likely to put household incomes below the poverty line. But nearly a fifth of families tip into poverty after the arrival of a new child. Knock-on impacts like someone giving up work for childcare add to the risk.
What do children miss out on when they live in poverty? Data journalist @clairemiller.bsky.social dug into the stats around material deprivation national.thelead.uk/p/child-pove...
Child poverty isn’t evenly distributed across the country. Children in the hardest hit local authority area are seven times more likely to live in poverty compared to those in the area with the lowest rates. national.thelead.uk/p/child-pove...