Category Archives: Nigel Farage

Priti Patel criticises Nigel Farage for comparing far-right riots to BLM protests

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Tory leadership candidate says Reform leader’s comments are deeply misleading as she urges parliament recall

The Conservative leadership candidate Priti Patel has criticised Nigel Farage’s response to the far-right riots, saying it was wrong to compare the violence to Black Lives Matter protests.

The former home secretary has also written to the prime minister and home secretary, urging them to recall parliament, drawing parallels with the 2011 riots when MPs returned for a government statement on civil disorder and to condemn the violence.

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Keir Starmer decisive on mob violence but faces dilemma over Reform

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Some within Labour worry that PM is failing to challenge Nigel Farage’s anti-migrant insinuations head-on

Keir Starmer sounded uncharacteristically angry as he appeared in front of a podium in Downing Street on Sunday to condemn the violent mobs causing damage and spreading fear.

Just a few weeks into government, the prime minister has been confronted with an appalling triple murder of three young girls, followed by days of rioting whipped up by online disinformation that a migrant was responsible.

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‘No place in our societies’: UK political figures condemn Trump shooting

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Starmer phones ex-president, as Johnson, Farage and others express shock at Pennsylvania assassination attempt

British politicians including Keir Starmer, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson have condemned the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, as several expressed fears about rising political violence and hate speech.

A phone call with Trump on Sunday afternoon, the UK prime minister condemned the attack at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, expressed condolences for the victims and their families, and wished the former president and others who were injured a swift recovery.

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Commons speaker says threats and abuse against MPs worst he has seen

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Lindsay Hoyle tells BBC that level of intimidation is his main worry and ‘is much greater than anybody can imagine’

The speaker of the Commons has said threats and intimidation against MPs are at a level where he has “never seen anything as bad”.

Lindsay Hoyle, who was re-elected to his Chorley seat unopposed because of his role as speaker, said the levels of abuse were acute.

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Starmer praises Abbott and hails diverse Commons in first speech to parliament as PM – as it happened

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Parliament the most diverse by race and gender the country has ever seen, says Starmer, with the largest cohort of LGBT+ MPs in the world

Downing Street has released a full version of what Keir Starmer said in his opening remarks to the metro mayors at their meeting this morning. It is not on the No 10 website, so I will post it here.

Having this meeting four days after I was invited by the King to form a government is a real statement of intent on my part, on our part.

Because as we have said over and over again, economy and growth is the number one mission of this Labour government in 2024.

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‘Now we begin’: what the papers say after Keir Starmer takes reins as UK prime minister

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Forward-looking British front pages reflect the incoming government’s work ahead and the post-election-win jubilance of the Labour leader and his wife

After Labour’s seismic defeat of the Tories, the UK papers’ front pages have focused on the work ahead for Keir Starmer amid his post-election glow after the new prime minister vowed to put “country first, party second” and rebuild Britain “brick by brick”.

The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.

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‘This is going to be a disaster’: inside the Tories’ chaotic election campaign

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From the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine

When rumours were ablaze that Rishi Sunak was about to call a snap election, one Conservative cabinet minister was asked by a colleague what was happening. “No idea,” he replied. “He’s either going to call a snap election today, name a date for the autumn or tell everyone that AI is really, really important.”

The cabinet – and most officials in Tory headquarters, which was disastrously underprepared – had been kept in the dark until almost the last moment. When Sunak did announce the election in Downing Street in the pouring rain, the move went down like a lead balloon with his colleagues.

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Millions head to polls to cast their votes in general election – live

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Polling stations opened at 7am, with voting taking place until 10pm on Thursday night

It is the King’s duty as head of state to appoint a prime minister, and he is travelling from Scotland to Windsor Castle, ready to be on stand-by after being in Edinburgh for Holyrood Week.

The role is one of the few remaining personal prerogatives of the sovereign, because Charles does not act on advice nor need to consult anyone before doing so.

But the overriding requirement is to appoint someone who can command the confidence of the House of Commons – usually the leader of the party with an overall majority of seats in the Commons – to form a government.

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Keir Starmer hails ‘new age of hope’ as Rishi Sunak fears losing seat

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Final polls predict unprecedented Labour victory, with Starmer declaring Britain a ‘great nation, with boundless potential’

Keir Starmer has hailed a “new age of hope and opportunity” as millions of people prepare to vote in a general election that could deliver the biggest shake-up of British politics in a generation.

The Labour leader said he was “ready for government” and that his intended cabinet would “hit the ground running” if it wins Thursday’s election.

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Labour expects surge of ‘shy Reform’ voters in some northern and Midlands seats

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Activists forecast margins of less than 2,000 votes separating them from Farage’s party – or even a shock defeat

• How boundary changes may affect key constituencies

Labour candidates and activists are privately braced for a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK in north-west England and the Midlands, with some forecasting a margin of less than 2,000 votes between the two parties in some seats in Thursday’s general election.

In certain Conservative-held seats, campaigners told the Guardian that the Tories were likely to be pushed into third place by Reform, with one citing the phenomenon of “shy Reformers” affecting the results.

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General election live: Party leaders battle for votes on eve of election as Tory minister predicts Labour landslide

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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer out campaigning after Mel Stride says Labour likely to win a large majority

It has just gone 7am: let’s look at today’s stop stories. With 24 hours to go until polls open, the Guardian leads with Keir Starmer accusing the Conservatives of desperate tactics amid claims that Tory criticism of his defence of family time was insensitive and had antisemitic undertones.

The Times has Boris Johnson saying a Labour landslide would be “pregnant with horrors”:

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Oliver Dowden reportedly reveals preferred choice for next Tory leader – UK general election live

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Deputy PM says Victoria Atkins is ‘star’ and is one of only people he could see leading Tory party

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak is expected to tell voters today that “If just 130,000 people switch their vote and lend us their support, we can deny Starmer that supermajority,” PA reports.

Keir Starmer has said a big majority would be “better for the country”, as the Tories continue to urge voters to proceed with caution and not hand Labour a “blank cheque”.

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Rishi Sunak hints he might not quit as Tory leader immediately if he loses election – as it happened

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PM says he ‘loves this party dearly’ and would always put himself at the service of it’

Rishi Sunak is speaking at a campaign event in Staffordshire. As the advance briefing predicted, he has just told his audience.

I tell you this: once you have handed Keir Starmer and Labour a blank cheque, you won’t be able to get it back.

We’ve had a strategy in place and we’ll try to keep to it, which is to carve out really protected time for the kids, so on a Friday – I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after six o’clock, pretty well come what may.

There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.

[In politics] some people think, if you fill your diary 24/7 and don’t do anything else, that makes you a much better decision maker. I don’t agree with that, I think you’ve got to make space, so we do it …

Actually, it helps me, it takes me away from the pressure, it relaxes me, and I think, actually, not only is it what I want to do as a dad, it is better.

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Farage denies ‘fanning flames of prejudice’ amid Reform scandal

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Reform UK leader echoes Donald Trump in response to claim hostile state actors are backing his party

Nigel Farage has angrily denied he is “fanning the flames of prejudice” to further his political ambitions, as he doubled down on claims Reform UK had been “set up” by an exposé of racism and prejudice among activists.

He was also confronted about a report in the Sunday Times – which the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, said he was “gravely” concerned about – that there is a threat to the general election from hostile actors such as Russia seeking to influence the democratic process.

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Nigel Farage to boycott BBC over ‘biased’ Question Time audience

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Reform also complains to Electoral Commission and Essex police about Channel 4 undercover investigation of party

Nigel Farage has announced he is boycotting the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of bias over his reception on Friday night’s Question Time.

The Reform leader took part in a leaders’ special episode, a half-hour Q&A session with a live audience, in which he was heavily criticised. One audience member called him a racist and another asked why his party attracted extremists.

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Rishi Sunak speaks of ‘hurt and anger’ at daughters having to hear Reform activist’s racist slur about him – UK general election live

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PM responds to comments by Reform activists, who were filmed by Channel 4 reporter while canvassing in Clacton

Here’s the latest in the Guardian’s series on The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24:

Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.

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Nigel Farage ‘has questions to answer’ over Reform racism, says Rishi Sunak

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Essex police say they are ‘urgently assessing’ racist and homophobic remarks made by party’s volunteers

Rishi Sunak has said he was hurt and angry to hear a Reform UK canvasser calling him a racial slur, saying Nigel Farage “has some questions to answer”.

The prime minister responded after a Channel 4 undercover investigation found a Reform campaigner had called him a “fucking [P-word]”. Sunak repeated the slur and said he had done so because it was important to call it out for what it was.

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Sunak cites ‘confidential’ inquiry as he refuses to answer questions over aide and election date bet – live

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PM again declines to say whether he told Craig Williams in advance about his decision to hold the election in July

Rishi Sunak is returning to the campaign trail on Thursday, PA reports, after a two-day hiatus for the Emperor and Empress of Japan’s state visit and preparations for the final head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer.

With one week to go until polling day, the deepening gambling scandal is still likely to feature heavily when he faces the media during a tour of the East Midlands and Yorkshire.

He is expected to visit a factory in Derbyshire and hold an evening campaign event in Leeds.

Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of using transgender issues “as a political football to divide people” during their head-to-head debate on Wednesday.

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Labour ‘not putting up a fight’ against Farage in Clacton

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Labour officials said to be upset that Jovan Owusu-Nepaul was gaining traction for viral social media posts

Labour has been accused of “not putting up a fight” against Nigel Farage in Clacton after the party’s candidate was instructed to leave the constituency after “distracting” from Keir Starmer’s campaign.

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, 27, who works for Labour’s equalities team, was installed by the party last month to contest the seat, weeks before Farage changed his mind and decided to stand in the Essex constituency.

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Nigel Farage outperforms all other UK parties and candidates on TikTok

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Exclusive: Videos on Reform leader’s account show more engagement and average views than any other candidate

Nigel Farage is outperforming all other parties and candidates on TikTok throughout the general election campaign, analysis shows, eclipsing politicians considered most popular among young people.

Since the election was called, videos posted to the Reform leader’s personal account had more engagement and views on average than any other candidate – as well as the main channels of other parties.

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