The Green party leader said Ofsted is a ‘failed institution’ and that teaching should move ‘toward a genuinely collaborative model’
Starmer complained about other parties whipping up division, and he specifically criticised Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, for “complaining about Muslims praying in public”.
Labour, by contrast, values bringing people together, he said.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage has called Tate an ‘important voice’ for young men and held back from criticising his misogynistic views
Reform insiders are becoming increasingly irritated by the party’s association with Andrew Tate and other extreme online celebrities whose views are too toxic for the mainstream voters Nigel Farage needs to win over.
Insiders have revealed that as Reform prepare for power they are trying to end their association with more controversial figures on the right such as Tate, whose extreme and misogynistic content could taint the party’s credibility.
Continue reading...Party announces Corey Edwards’ decision to quit Senedd election campaign on grounds of mental health
A Reform UK candidate for the Welsh Senedd elections in May has announced he is standing down because of his mental health, after a photograph emerged of him apparently making a Nazi salute as an imitation of Adolf Hitler.
The announcement by Reform comes a day after Nigel Farage defended Corey Edwards, its lead candidate for the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, saying he may have instead been impersonating the John Cleese character Basil Fawlty.
Continue reading...The comments were part of a broader address in which he condemned Nato allies
Yesterday the Conservative party said that it wanted to ban political parties from distributing campaign literature in a foreign language. Announcing a plan to propose an amendement to the representation of the people bill to make this law, the shadow communities minister Paul Holmes said:
Campaigning in a foreign language as the Greens did in Gorton and Denton only fosters greater division. A coherent national culture relies on shared values, and an inclusive electoral process relies on a common tongue.
I think it’s for political parties to choose how they campaign and communicate with British voters. If they’re using British money that is funding their campaigns and they’re speaking to people who have the right to vote, then why would you not show those voters the respect of communication?
What fuels division is Nick Timothy standing up and singling out Muslim forms of worship for a ban when he’s not applying that to forms of worship that other religions are talking about.
It just doesn’t compute, does it? I worked in Number 10. Briefly, I had a Number 10 phone. There was a paranoia about devices like that falling into other people’s hands.
And so whether it was the Met Police, whether it was Morgan McSweeney, and what sounds like pretty evasive set of reporting, even when you look at that transcript, or whether it was the Number 10 security team following up something that at the time they could not have been sure had not been taken by a state actor, a phone with all sorts of government secrets potentially in it, that’s precisely why people in government have two separate phones.
I don’t believe McSwindle had his iPhone stolen
Honest believe, Matt. It’s smacks of the liar Johnson defence of ‘lost all my WhatsApp messages’. We mustn’t take the public for fools. And I am afraid this smacks of too convenient by far. I won’t do it. I will say what I actually think. And I don’t believe it. End of!
I believe the report was made. McSwindle didn’t mention that he was the chief of staff to the PM. A significant omission of he’d wanted the police to prioritise the offence.
Continue reading...Change is on offer across the political spectrum, but no one knows whether apathy or tactical voting will prevail
Hope, change, progressive change, change with fairness at its heart – from a harbour north of Edinburgh to a hipster arts venue in Glasgow’s Barras Market, Scotland’s political parties spent the first official day of the Holyrood election campaign reaching for the phrase that best encapsulates what people will get if they vote for them on 7 May.
Only one of the main parties did not hold an event to set out their stall on Thursday: possibly Reform UK was too busy firefighting after another of their Scottish parliament candidates quit, bringing to four the number who have stepped down or been suspended since they stood with party leader Nigel Farage under a storm of turquoise confetti last week.
Continue reading...Legislation subject to MPs’ approval but will be backdated due to urgency of threat to UK democracy, says minister
Keir Starmer is set to embark on a fundamental overhaul of the political finance system, starting with an emergency ban on cryptocurrency donations and £100,000 cap on donations from Britons living abroad in a blow to Reform UK.
In a hugely significant move, the government said it would bring in the annual cap as well as a moratorium on crypto donations from Wednesday as part of its new elections legislation.
Requiring third-party campaigners to declare donations all year round, not just election periods, and allowing funding only from permissible donors.
More stringent checks on the source of funds from political donors, bringing it more into line with know-your-customer checks in the financial services industry.
Preventing donations from shell companies by ensuring funding is from post-tax profits rather than revenue.
Requiring foreign consultant lobbyists to join the official register, from which they are currently exempt because they do not charge VAT.
Banning foreign-funded political adverts outright.
Continue reading...Reform’s ability to fundraise is hobbled in a move that draws attention to donations from an overseas billionaire
Reform UK are no doubt the biggest losers from the government’s emergency measures to overhaul political donations.
Labour MPs are absolutely delighted that No 10 is at last bringing in changes that will hobble Reform’s ability to raise money from its Thailand-based mega-donor, Christopher Harborne, at the same time as making the electoral system fairer in the eyes of the public.
Continue reading...Suella Braverman presses the FA to scrap diversity and inclusion policies, which she claims are ‘racist’
Reform UK has been accused of seeking to insert “toxic politics” into football after the party pressed the Football Association in England to scrap diversity and inclusion policies.
Suella Braverman wrote to the FA on Tuesday to ask for a meeting to discuss the governing body’s diversity policies, which Reform’s equalities spokesperson described as “utter woke nonsense”.
Continue reading...Chancellor says she has the data available to run targeted scheme, unlike the Tory programme used when the Ukraine war started
The live feed from the Lib Dem local elections campaign launch did not last long, and it did not include footage of Ed Davey taking questions from reporters. But this is what the Lib Dems are saying about their five key campaign issues.
-Cut the cost of living: A plan to halve energy bills within a decade, saving households an average of £870 a year
-Fix the NHS and care: Guarantee the right to see a GP within seven days (or 24 hours for urgent cases) and ending 12-hour A&E waits.
-Rescue high streets: Give an emergency cut to VAT for hospitality businesses, to bring prices down and boost struggling high streets.
-Clean up rivers: Ban water companies from dumping raw sewage into local rivers and coastal areas.
-Restore community policing: Ensure visible, effective local policing to reduce crime.
Handful of billionaires gave huge sums in particular to media organisations that boosted rightwing politicians, says Liam Byrne MP
More than £170m was given to MPs, political parties, media organisations and thinktanks aligned with the UK’s populist right over the past five years, new research from the Labour MP Liam Byrne has found.
Byrne, a former cabinet minister who chairs parliament’s business committee, said he had identified a “media-political complex” funded largely by a handful of billionaires.
Continue reading...Some Holyrood candidates have been accused of spreading false rumours about asylum hotels, describing Humza Yousaf as ‘not British’, and backing Tommy Robinson
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, has doubled down on his defence of the party’s vetting by dismissing remarks by candidates backing Tommy Robinson or describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron” (see 10.12am) as “fruity language”.
It has taken a matter of hours for Reform Scotland’s big launch to fall apart and their true colours to show.
If Nigel Farage refuses to act and remove this candidate, Malcolm Offord must step up and show some leadership himself. This incident has confirmed once and for all how poisonous and chaotic Reform is and I have no doubt that Scots will send them packing.
Again, as I say, this was done in a former life before she became a member of Reform. We’ve all said things in the past that may be intemperate… I am saying that we have to grow up on this and not take offence at every moment in time.
I’ve been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80% of whom are not politicians. They’re real people with real lives who said real things in a past life. Okay, this was said before she was a candidate. She wasn’t even a member of the party at that time.
And what we got in the situation is that in all our lives in the past, we’ve made comments that might sometimes be intemperate. But the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered. I just think we have to be more, more realistic about the fact that real people say real things, and now she’s a candidate, she will be held to a higher standard.
Liberal Democrats urge the government to ensure the NCA or new National Police Service takes over investigations into serious waste crime. We also need an independent review of the entire waste crime system to crack down on organised gangs once and for all. New powers for the Environmental Agency simply won’t cut it.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage echoed Nick Timothy’s comments after he said public prayer for Ramadan was an ‘act of domination’
Cleverly is trying to show a video, but it is not working. So he just invites Kemi Badenoch to start her speech.
The Conservatives are launching their local elections campaign. There is a live feed here.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer previously reassured that the war in Iran would not distract the UK from supporting Ukraine
Nigel Farage is speaking now at the Reform UK event.
The website promoting the lottery is up. It is called nigelcutmybills.com.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Robin Birley closes in on Sunshine State venue as wealthy Britons flock to area around Donald Trump
A London private members’ club owner is closing in on a deal for a venue in Palm Beach, in the hopes of creating a rival to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and to take advantage of an influx of wealthy British people to the Florida region.
Robin Birley is understood to be close to securing a property for his latest club, part financed by the billionaire Reuben brothers, who in 2024 were named the third-richest family in the UK by the Sunday Times Rich List.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Senior party figures conclude outsiders or existing senior staff deemed more suitable should take over from current permanent secretaries
A Reform UK government would expect to dismiss the top civil servant in every government department and replace them with people seen as more likely to implement the party’s priorities, the Guardian has learned.
Senior Reform figures have concluded that the current crop of permanent secretaries, the lead civil servant in each department, are not up to the necessary standard. Some would be replaced by outsiders, and others by existing officials viewed as more suitable.
Continue reading...Refusal to kowtow to US president has won public backing – and left Badenoch and Farage playing catch-up
It is not often that Keir Starmer’s allies believe he has Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch on the run – but on Iran, they think he is on the right side of history and public opinion.
“It could be the making of him,” said Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, who was first out of the blocks to say she thought Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran were illegal. “You’ve not had a British prime minister say no to an American president since Vietnam. This is a big deal.”
Continue reading...Kemi may be all in favour, but at least economic realpolitik is forcing her to take a slightly different tack
There have been any number of opportunities for people to decide they wanted no part of America’s war with Iran. The first was after the US had launched its first wave of strikes. To be fair, this was the moment Keir Starmer and most of the UK reckoned enough was enough and that our involvement would be limited to defensive strikes only.
You couldn’t really fault the logic. Did the UK really want to be part of a war that was illegal in most versions of international law and for which the Americans had no clear vision of how it might end? Other than Donald Trump gets bored and lets everyone else clear up his mess. Like a baby. Nor was the UK’s track record of wars in the 21st century any source of pride. Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya had all been in chaos. Iran was shaping up the same way. So Starmer decided to sit this one out. Applying the doctor’s principle of “first, do no harm”.
Continue reading...Joani Reid asks for privacy after it was revealed her husband David Taylor was one of the three men arrested
Starmer begins PMQs by telling the Commons that his thoughts are with Sarah Everard “on this very painful anniversary” of her death.
He says the government is working hard to prevent boys and men from becoming abusers.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate
More than half of Reform UK members believe non-white British citizens born abroad should be deported or encouraged to leave, according to the first publicly available poll of those in Nigel Farage’s party.
The findings come as the Reform leader attempts to court centre-ground voters while facing pressure from his right flank, including a hardline new party launched by Rupert Lowe, who left Reform after falling out with Farage.
Continue reading...Hannah Spencer elected as party’s first MP in northern England, as Labour sees a 25.3% drop in vote compared to 2024
The Green party has pulled off a landmark victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in a significant blow to Keir Starmer.
Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green party councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England after overturning Labour’s 13,000-vote majority.
Continue reading...