Brexiters peddled ‘nationalistic pish’, said Reform UK’s Makerfield candidate

Robert Kenyon castigated Brexit as an economically self-harming project on rugby league forum in 2016

Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield byelection has castigated Brexit as an economically self-harming project promoted by politicians who “peddled the nationalistic pish”, raising more doubts about his commitment to Nigel Farage’s signature achievement.

The comments by Robert Kenyon, unearthed on a defunct rugby league forum and first reported by the Telegraph, follow the emergence of another post in which he said people would be wrong to assume he had voted for Brexit.

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Reform UK civil service plan ‘would sack more planning officers than exist’

Analysis of party’s proposed cuts also suggests it would get rid of two-thirds of psychologists who support prison staff

A Reform UK plan to cut the size of the civil service would involve sacking more planning officers than exist and getting rid of at least two-thirds of the psychologists who support prison officers’ welfare, it has emerged.

The policy paper, led by the Reform MP Danny Kruger and published in December, promises to save more than £5bn a year by cutting civil service roles, with the full-time-equivalent (FTE) headcount falling by 13%.

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Labour says Reform UK ‘in chaos’ as Zia Yusuf publicly tells Jenrick he’s got party’s deportation policy wrong – UK politics live

‘Robert’s answer is not Reform policy’, Yusuf said about an answer that Jenrick gave to journalists days earlier

Keir Starmer has said that SNP leaders need to explain why they did not realise that Peter Murrell was stealing more than £400,000 from the party.

Asked about yesterday’s court proceedings in Edinburgh, where Murrell admitting embezzling money from the party to spend on luxury goods, Starmer said:

I think anybody looking at what’s happening up in Scotland will be baffled that those at the top of the SNP say they didn’t know anything about what was going on, so clearly there are questions that need to be answered.

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Minister defends Mandelson file redactions and says documents to be released in June – UK politics live

Darren Jones says release will be ‘one of the largest government publications ever laid in this house’

On Friday parliament’s intelligence and security committee issued a damning statement about the government’s response to the humble address requiring the release of documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. It said the government was not fully complying with what is in effect an instruction from the Commons. For good measure, the committee also accuses the government of not keeping proper record of its decisions and of doing far too much business by WhatsApp. Here is our story, by Henry Dyer and Paul Lewis.

At 12.30pm Jeremy Wright, deputy chair of the committee and a former Tory attorney general, will ask a Commons urgent question about this. He is asking Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, to reply.

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Newly elected Reform councillor resigns after social media claims

Stuart Prior quits as scrutiny grows of new councillors accused of racist, antisemitic or anti-Muslim remarks

A Reform UK councillor has resigned days after being elected, after he allegedly celebrated on social media the rape of a Sikh woman in the Midlands, declared white people the “master race” and called Muslim people “rats”.

Stuart Prior was elected as a councillor for Essex county council last Thursday, winning 2,404 votes, the highest total of any candidate in the ward.

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Labour MP challenges ministers to trigger leadership contest as Starmer vows to fight on – UK politics live

Catherine West issues ultimatum for the PM as ex-minister Josh Simons joins calls for prime minister to quit

At the start of her programme Laura Kuenssberg addressed Catherine West and Bridget Phillipson who were sitting waiting for the main interviews.

Kuenssberg told West she wanted a cabinet minister to challenge Keir Starmer. She said she was sitting next to one of them. What was her message to her?

Well, there’s nothing stopping Bridget from standing. Why are all the men better than the women? We do need some senior women to step forward and to challenge for what is going to be a really difficult two and a half years between now and the general election, and also to take us into that second term.

I love you dearly, Catherine, but I just disagree on this one.

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Farage trying to avoid scrutiny over £5m gift from crypto billionaire, Labour says

Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, seeks to present issue as irrelevant in interview with Laura Kuenssberg

Labour has accused Nigel Farage of attempting to dodge scrutiny as the Reform leader continued to face questions over the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire shortly before the last general election.

Asked about the gift from Christopher Harborne on Sunday, the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, sought to present it as an irrelevance to voters and said it had complied with all the rules.

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Nigel Farage hails ‘historic shift in politics’ after Reform UK election gains

Party has success in Labour and Tory heartland areas but one pollster says results suggest Reform may have peaked

Nigel Farage hailed sweeping election wins for Reform UK as a “historic shift in British politics” on a day when the populist party made gains at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives.

Reform made advances in heartland areas of both parties, clocking up substantial early results in the English local elections by taking control of Essex county council, Havering – its first London local authority – and Sunderland city council.

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Labour’s better than expected thrashing may allow Starmer to cling on in No 10

Results are undoubtedly bad but expectations had been set even lower, and any potential challengers are quiet for now

As the local elections results rolled in, a trickle of voices were calling for Keir Starmer to quit – a couple of MPs, a trade union leader, and a Labour peer.

The numbers are undoubtedly bad for Labour, with Reform making sweeping gains across pro-Brexit heartlands in the north and Midlands. These could even be the party’s worst losses for 50 years, with more than 1,000 councillors gone and the potential loss of control of the Welsh parliament.

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Elections 2026 live: ‘I’m not going to walk away,’ says Starmer as Farage hails ‘historic shift in British politics’

The Reform UK leader said Labour is being ‘wiped out by Reform in many of their traditional areas’ as results paint a bleak picture for the prime minister

We’re getting statements from some of the political parties now as we wait for results.

For the Conservatives, party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said:

We have run an energetic and positive campaign, showcasing that we have a clear plan to get Britain working again and that we have the team to deliver it... We know that so soon after a historic general election defeat and contesting wards won during the Party’s polling highs, that this will be a difficult set of elections for us. But we will continue to rebuild and to show the public that we have changed, to demonstrate that only this new Conservative party is a credible alternative.

People are deeply disappointed with a Labour government that has been too timid to fix the country, but they are also appalled by the rise of Reform and Nigel Farage’s Trump-style politics. While those on the extremes of the right and the left want to burn everything down, Liberal Democrats want to fix what’s broken. Every Liberal Democrat local champion elected today will fight tirelessly for the communities they serve.

I’ve travelled across England and Wales and I’m hearing the same everywhere I go – confidence that we will win more councillors than ever before. The news from the doorstep is that we will be taking seats from not just Labour but the Tories and Lib Dems too, from all across the country. Voters are responding to the fact that Greens are the only party taking the cost-of-living crisis seriously, with real plans to cut bills, reduce rents and provide genuinely affordable homes, as well as tackling the climate and nature crisis.

Throughout this election, we have heard a clear appetite for change. People want a government that will stand up for Wales and focus relentlessly on the key issues affecting their lives. People have told us they have been inspired by Rhun ap Iorwerth’s leadership and driven by a desire for a positive alternative to Reform UK’s chaos and division.

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Keir Starmer makes late pitch to voters turning to Greens and Reform

As Labour faces record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections, prime minister says rivals are unfit to lead

Labour is braced for record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections in England, which could be decisive for Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister.

In a message to voters on Thursday, Starmer said Reform’s Nigel Farage and the Greens’ Zack Polanski were “not fit to meet this moment of great global instability” and that only Labour was putting the national interest first.

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Polanski says he is not ready to be PM, but might be in two years’ time – UK politics live

Green leader also apologised for misrepresenting his work with the Red Cross, and defended party policy on drugs

Labour has criticised Zack Polanski for saying he was concerned about how the suspect in the Golders Green stabbings was treated when he was arrested by the police.

Referring to what Polanski said about this in his Today interview this morning (see 9.33am), a Labour party spokesperson said:

Our brave police ran towards a suspected terrorist and tackled him while he was still carrying a knife and before they could handcuff him.

The fact that Zack Polanski is still sympathising with this individual is utterly astounding. For the Green party leader to be litigating the case for the defence against the police shows whose side he is truly on.

The latest unemployment figures for February showed a fall, interest rates were expected to come down, the markets were pricing in a couple of cuts during the course of the year.

The truth is, with the effect of the Iran war, we can’t count on any of that at the moment. There is likely to be an effect on prices, which feeds through from energy costs, and there may well be labour market implications.

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Reform-led Lancashire county council to quit refugee resettlement scheme

Councillor announces plan to withdraw from government-funded programme in run-up to May elections

The Reform-led Lancashire county council will withdraw from the government’s refugee resettlement scheme, one of its cabinet members has said.

Councillor Joshua Roberts announced plans for Lancashire to leave the scheme, which would make it the first local authority to do so.

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Farage’s partner refuses to confirm how she paid for house in his constituency

French publication Le Monde says Laure Ferrari ‘dodged’ question when quizzed over property purchase in Clacton

Nigel Farage’s partner, Laure Ferrari, has refused to confirm how she paid for a house in the Reform leader and MP’s constituency of Clacton, adding “there’s more than one way to pay for a house”.

In an interview with French publication Le Monde, Ferrari was questioned over revelations in the Guardian that she had purchased a house in her name in Clacton after Farage had claimed to be the buyer.

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Vote Lib Dem or ‘regret it’ living under a Reform council, Davey tells voters

Party leader says vote for Labour or Greens in closely run seats will result in Reform victory at local elections

Voters in the home counties will “regret it for a long time” if they do not back the Liberal Democrats and wake up to a Reform-led council, Ed Davey has said.

The Lib Dems leader has identified five councils – East Surrey, West Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex and Huntingdonshire – where his party could win overall control, as well as swathes of the former “blue wall” where Davey said it was a “straight fight” between his party and Reform at the English local elections.

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Reform UK plan to set up migrant detention centres in Green-voting areas condemned by other parties – as it happened

Nigel Farage’s party proposed to place detention centres in places that vote for Green council leaders or MPs

Keir Starmer has said that Europe has to face up to the fact that its alliance with the US is under strain.

He made the remark in public comments during the plenary session at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan in Armenia.

And both of those are impacting all of us in a very material way.

In the United Kingdom, if you look at the economic forecast now and compare it to the economic forecast just three or four months ago, they are in materially different places, and this is going to play out with our electorates in all of our countries.

Reform are now openly threatening voters and not only that they’re threatening them with a power they don’t actually have. This is absolutely pathetic. People across Scotland are proud of the fact that this is a welcoming country that shows solidarity to people who need it.

Reform are essentially saying ‘If you don’t vote the way we want you to, we will punish you’. I think the people of Scotland and voters across the UK are not going to take kindly to that kind of Donald Trumpesque threat.

Reform know that absolutely bombed last week. The only thing they’ve got to move on to are open threats, not against the Greens but against voters across the country. It’s really quite sinister. This is exactly the kind of politics you see in Donald Trump’s America. People across Scotland are going to reject that on Thursday.

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Dig deep! Reform frontbench promotes JCBs after £200,000 donation from firm

Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick, among others, have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro

Reform UK’s leading figures have repeatedly promoted a new pothole-fixing machine by the construction company JCB, while the party received £200,000 from the British digger maker, the Guardian can reveal.

Several Reform politicians including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro machine.

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Watchdog weighs investigation into Farage’s undisclosed £5m gift

Electoral Commission reviewing whether Reform UK leader should have declared billionaire’s gift before entering parliament

The UK elections watchdog is considering whether to investigate an undisclosed £5m gift received by Nigel Farage before he announced his candidacy at the last general election.

The Guardian revealed this week that the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne gave the Reform UK leader the money.

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Exclusive: Nigel Farage was given undisclosed £5m by crypto billionaire in 2024

Reform leader changed his mind about standing as MP after gift from Thai-based crypto tycoon Christopher Harborne

Nigel Farage was given £5m by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne shortly before announcing he would stand in the 2024 British general election, the Guardian can reveal.

Farage had stated he did not intend to stand as a prospective MP but U-turned in June 2024, within weeks of receiving the personal gift from the Thailand-based businessman.

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Royal Mail investigating claims that postal worker ‘binned Reform UK election leaflets’

Message on private Facebook group for staff said: ‘I dumped them all in a bin. They can sack me!’

Royal Mail is investigating allegations that a postal worker claimed to have “dumped” Reform UK campaign leaflets in a bin ahead of Thursday’s local elections.

A post on a Facebook group for Royal Mail staff said: “My DO had reform party’s D2D today. I dumped them all in a bin. They can sack me! Idgaf!”

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