Starmer decries Reform’s ‘racist’ plans as ministers escalate attacks on Farage

PM says immigration proposals could tear country apart as Labour delegates gather for first day of party conference

Keir Starmer has decried Reform UK’s “racist” plans to revoke the rights of thousands of people to live in Britain, as a number of cabinet ministers escalated attacks on Nigel Farage on the first day of the Labour party conference.

The prime minister said Farage’s plans to revoke indefinite leave to remain for families who may have spent years working in Britain could “tear this country apart”, though he said he understood that many people tempted to vote for Reform were frustrated at the slow pace of change.

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Starmer decries Reform’s ‘racist’ plans as ministers escalate attacks on Farage

PM says immigration proposals could tear country apart as Labour delegates gather for first day of party conference

Keir Starmer has decried Reform UK’s “racist” plans to revoke the rights of thousands of people to live in Britain, as a number of cabinet ministers escalated attacks on Nigel Farage on the first day of the Labour party conference.

The prime minister said Farage’s plans to revoke indefinite leave to remain for families who may have spent years working in Britain could “tear this country apart”, though he said he understood that many people tempted to vote for Reform were frustrated at the slow pace of change.

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Farage endangering women by failing to condemn paracetamol claims, says Bridget Phillipson

Labour deputy leader candidate criticises ‘scaremongering’ on autism and says party must be firmer in tackling Reform

Nigel Farage is “endangering women’s health” by failing to condemn Donald Trump’s claims that using paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism, Bridget Phillipson has said.

The education secretary and minister for women said she had used the painkiller throughout her second pregnancy, and she warned that Reform’s connections with medical conspiracy theories including anti-vaccine rhetoric made the party a danger to public health.

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Nigel Farage swans around peddling hate on Nick Ferrari’s phone-in | John Crace

From immigrants eating the king’s waterfowl to sharia law in London, it’s all there in our Nige’s relativist world

“Attention all swans! Attention all swans! You are not safe! Immigrants from inferior cultures have been seen loitering with intent to kill in royal parks. They want to eat you alive. Be very vigilant. All offenders who are caught will be punishable under sharia law.”

Never say that a half-hour phone in with Nigel Farage on Nick Ferrari’s LBC morning show is anything but educational. Listen and learn. It’s an object lesson in how to perfect the 30-minute hate. Soon to become compulsory if Reform win the next election.

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Andy Burnham says Britain needs ‘wholesale change’ as Labour MPs prepare for conference – UK politics live

Manchester mayor urges Keir Starmer to reveal plans to deliver reform but denies he is plotting to replace PM

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has described Nigel Farage over his comment implying Donald Trump might be right about paracetamol posing a risk to pregnant women. (See 10.23am.)

Dangerous and irresponsible.

This man is a snake oil salesman and it’s time people stopped buying.

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Ed Davey calls for UK to import US cancer researchers hit by Trump cuts

Lib Dem leader to use conference speech to urge extra funding for mRNA research and accuse Nigel Farage of cheering US funding reductions

The UK should import US scientists whose cancer research projects have been cut by Donald Trump, Ed Davey will argue at a Liberal Democrat conference that has focused heavily on how the party can respond to hard-right populism.

In his closing speech, Davey will also criticise Nigel Farage, saying the Reform UK conference applauded the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding for mRNA vaccines, which are being trialled as a way to offer personalised immunotherapy treatment for some cancers.

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Reform branded ‘threat to democracy’ over Farage plan to remove thousands of migrants with leave to be in UK – politics live

Nigel Farage says Reform UK would scrap the main route that migrants take to gain British citizenship

Farage and Yusuf are now taking questions.

Q: [From the BBC’s Iain Watson] Will you withdraw the £230bn figure, because it has been withdrawn by the thinktank that produced it?

What we are attempting to do today is to make people realise that large-scale migration into Britain, where 50% at least of those that come, will never work and live off the British state, is actually making this country substantially poorer.

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Farage vows to scrap indefinite leave to remain, placing thousands at risk of deportation

Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services

Nigel Farage has said Reform UK would scrap the main route that migrants take to gain British citizenship, leaving tens of thousands of legally settled people facing deportation unless they met strict rules.

Farage said the plans would tackle the “Boriswave” – the increase in the number of legal migrants who came to work in the UK under post-Brexit migration rules established under Boris Johnson. Much of that increase was because of schemes from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan to settle refugees.

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How huge London far-right march lifted the lid on a toxic transatlantic soup

Tommy Robinson’s ‘free speech’ protest attracted more than 100,000 people – and it was easy to find links to key political figures and events in the US

A young man in a suit made of union jacks held up a framed photograph of their hero above his head. The crowd loudly chanted the name.

The focus of this acclamation was not Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, the organiser of the so-called “free speech” march in central London last Saturday.

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No 10 says Starmer found Mandelson’s emails to Epstein ‘reprehensible’ – UK politics live

Despite being repeatedly asked, No 10 declines to say the PM was ‘misled’ by Mandelson

Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, is responding to the UQ about Peter Mandelson.

He starts by making the point that it is the anniversary of the “despicable” 9/11 terrorism attacks.

Keir Starmer must sack Peter Mandelson without further delay - and come clean about what he knew when, and whether he sanctioned blocking the publication of damaging material.

UK government documents shouldn’t be hidden from the public just because they are damaging to the Labour party - and by backing Peter Mandelson to the hilt, the prime minister’s own reputation is now on the line.

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Nigel Farage urged to clarify whether he saved tax on Essex constituency home

Labour and Lib Dems say Reform leader has questions to answer on who paid for £885,000 property owned by his partner

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Nigel Farage to clarify whether he saved tax on a house in his constituency, after a BBC investigation questioned whether his partner did, as Farage has said, buy the home with her own money.

The Guardian first reported in May that the house in Clacton, which Farage initially said he had bought himself, is in fact wholly owned by Laure Ferrari, his long-term partner.

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Nigel Farage admits he was wrong to say he had bought house in Clacton

Reform UK leader says he should not have claimed he was buyer of property that was really bought by his partner

Nigel Farage has admitted he misspoke when he claimed to have bought a house in his constituency of Clacton, saying the property is in fact solely owned by his long-term partner.

The Guardian revealed in May that the detached property in an upmarket part of Clacton-on-Sea was actually solely bought by Laure Ferrari, and when approached by the newspaper the Reform UK leader insisted his name did not appear because of “security reasons”.

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Nigel Farage admits he was wrong to say he had bought house in Clacton

Reform UK leader says he should not have claimed he was buyer of property that was really bought by his partner

Nigel Farage has admitted he misspoke when he claimed to have bought a house in his constituency of Clacton, saying the property is in fact solely owned by his long-term partner.

The Guardian revealed in May that the detached property in an upmarket part of Clacton-on-Sea was actually solely bought by Laure Ferrari, and when approached by the newspaper the Reform UK leader insisted his name did not appear because of “security reasons”.

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Nigel Farage says ‘there’s every chance of general election in 2027’

Reform UK leader criticises Angela Rayner’s ‘entitlement’ and vows to ‘stop the boats’ within two weeks if elected

Nigel Farage has said there is every chance of a general election in 2027, declaring he will run on a pledge to “stop the boats” within two weeks of entering No 10.

Speaking at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham, he said the chaos in government and Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister meant the party needed to be “ready” to fight a contest two years early.

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Nadine Dorries defects to Reform, saying Conservative party ‘is dead’

Former cabinet minister’s move on eve of Reform conference is further boost for party that took almost £1m in donations from ex-Tory donors

Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”.

The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.

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Only two more Republicans needed to force vote on Epstein files release, bill co-sponsor says – live

Donald Trump calls clamor over Jeffrey Epstein files a ‘Democrat hoax that never ends’ as bipartisan group of lawmakers try to force vote on legislation

As part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations, the defense department will soon have hundreds of military judges work on immigration cases, the Associated Press reports:

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the federal justice department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press.

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Farage a ‘Putin-loving, free speech impostor’ says Democrat before Reform head’s US speech – UK politics live

Jamie Raskin says Farage is ‘a Trump sycophant’ before UK politician addresses the House judiciary committee in Washington

Kemi Badenoch is probably hastily redrafting her PMQs script in the light of Angela Rayner’s statement about underpaying her stamp duty. She has got less than half an hour to craft the right questions. And she will probably want to ask about the economy, and hate speech laws, too.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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Labour won the legal battle over asylum hotels, but the right is running the story

Ruling has bought government time to plan closures but Farage and Tories have more fuel for their grievances

Protesters were already gathering outside the Bell hotel by Friday evening with union flags and St George’s flags waving. This court ruling was never going to end as a quiet legal moment.

For the Home Office, the court of appeal’s decision was a practical win. If the ruling had gone the other way, the government would have been forced to rehouse 138 asylum seekers in a matter of days, opening the floodgates to similar legal challenges from other councils. Since there is scant alternative accommodation available, this ruling buys the government time.

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Reform councillor works on asylum claims for Home Office, investigation reveals

Paul Bean may have breached civil service impartiality rules over alleged social media posts

Campaigners have complained to the Home Office after it was revealed a councillor for Reform UK also works for the government department processing asylum and immigration claims.

Paul Bean, who serves as a councillor for Crook ward at Durham county council, declared his day job as a civil servant at the Home Office in his register of interests.

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Checked out: Jenrick’s migrant hotel record haunts his rightwing bid for attention

Far-right agitator or leadership hopeful? MPs call hypocrisy as former minister rails against system he expanded

Robert Jenrick had been migration minister for just a few days in 2022 when he gave a broadcast interview that could easily have been given by a minister in the current government.

“Suella Braverman [the former home secretary] and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels,” he told Sky News. “What I have done in my short tenure is ramp that up and procure even more. Because November, historically, has been one of the highest months of the year for migrants illegally crossing the Channel.”

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