Labour says it’s ‘deplorable’ for Tice to dismiss Farage schoolboy racism claims as lies
Labour has described Richard Tice’s claim that the people saying Nigel Farage was racist or antisemtic towards them when he was a teenager at school are lying (see 9.22am) as “deplorable”.
Anna Turley, the Labour chair, issued this statement after the Tice interview on the Today programme.
It took serious courage for the victims of Nigel Farage’s alleged racism to come forward and tell their story.
It’s utterly deplorable that Richard Tice has dismissed this and suggested they are lying, despite Farage himself refusing to offer a categorical denial and saying he couldn’t remember everything that happened at school.
Instead of repeatedly changing their story, Nigel Farage and Richard Tice should urgently apologise to those bravely raising these serious concerns. Reform want to drag our politics to a dark place and it shows they are not fit for high office.
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Updated at 04.58 EST
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Record £9m gift to Reform UK prompts renewed calls for government to impose cap on political donations
Following the news today that Reform UK has received £9m in a single donation (see 10.29am), the Electoral Reform Society has renewed its call for a cap to be placed on donations to political parties. It says:
Today, Reform UK were given £9,000,000, their largest single donation ever, and the largest donation ever from a living donor. In recent years, donations of over a million have become common across the political spectrum – it’s time for a cap on donations
In a blog on its website, Doug Cowan, its head of digital, said:
In the UK today, there is still no legal limit on how much a single donor can give to a political party each year. That simple fact shapes our politics in profound ways. When unlimited money flows into campaigns from a small group of exceptionally wealthy individuals, it becomes harder for the rest of us to get our voices heard.
Introducing a clear cap on political donations is one of the most effective steps we could take to rebuild trust. With the upcoming elections bill, the government has an opportunity to put a donations cap into law.
Asked about the donation in the Commons, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the local government minister, said the elections bill will tighten the rules on donations to political parties. (See 11.25am.)
The elections bill has not been published yet. But the government has released a policy paper outlining what will be in the bill, and it did not propose a cap. Some campaigners, like Spotlight on Corruption (here) said much tougher rules were needed.
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Updated at 07.44 EST
Foreign Office says Russian military intelligence agency being sanctioned in its entirety after Dawn Sturgess report
The Foreign Office has announced that the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, has been sanctioned in its entirety in the light of the report from the inquiry into the death of Dawn Strugess. (See 12.12pm.)
The FCDO is also sanctioning and exposing 11 individuals involved in the attack. It says:
The GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, is now sanctioned in its entirety by the UK. GRU agents carry out Putin’s bidding, seeking to destabilise Ukraine and attempting to sow chaos and disorder across Europe. The action comes as the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry publishes its final report into the tragic circumstances surrounding Dawn Sturgess’s death in Salisbury in 2018.
Today’s sanctions also zero in on eight cyber military intelligence officers for working for the GRU, the organisation which was responsible for cyber operations targeting Yulia Skripal with X-agent malware and, five years later, the attempted murder of Yulia and her father on UK soil.
The Russian ambassador is also being summoned to the Foreign Office “to answer for Russia’s ongoing campaign of hostile activity against the UK”.
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Putin is ‘morally responsible’ for Dawn Sturgess’s novichok death, inquiry finds
Vladimir Putin is “morally responsible” for the death of a British woman killed after she sprayed herself with a nerve agent smuggled into the UK by Russian agents to assassinate a former spy, an inquiry has concluded. Steven Morris and Caroline Bannock have the story.
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The number of people in hospital with flu in England is at a record level for this time of year, in fresh evidence of the scale of this year’s surge in infections, PA Media reports. PA says:
An average of 1,717 flu patients were in beds in England each day last week, including 69 in critical care, according to the first of this year’s NHS winter situation reports.
This is 56% higher that the equivalent numbers for the same week in 2024, when the total was 1,098 with 39 in critical care.
It is also well above levels seen at this point in both 2023 and 2022.
Numbers peaked last winter at 5,408 patients in early January.
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Lord Mann, the former Labour MP who is now the government’s adviser on antisemitism, says Richard Tice should resign if he cannot prove his allegation that the people accusing Nigel Farage of being racists and antisemitics as a schoolboy are lying. (See 9.22am.)
If Tice can’t prove his ‘liar’ assertion then he has to resign. @BBCr4today
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Rachel Reeves will not be investigated over pre-budget briefing, FCA says
The Financial Conduct Authority has decided not to immediately investigate Rachel Reeves and the Treasury over pre-budget briefings – but it has left the door open to further examine what the Conservatives claim amounted to market manipulation. Kiran Stacey and Kalyeena Makortoff have the story.
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Compass, the leftwing group committed to pluralism and PR, has welcomed the decision to delay the four inaugural mayoral elections. Lena Swedlow, its deputy director, said:
Delaying these elections isn’t damaging to democracy – holding them under first-past-the-post when you’re literally legislating it out of existence would be
Compass has been calling for this nationally and locally our members have been organising to delay their mayoral elections – because they know FPTP turns elections into a lottery. With political trust at an all-time low and turnout falling, this is a welcome move from a government finally doing something to give new mayors an actual mandate to govern their local areas.
Electing four first-time mayors under FPTP when every other new one will take place under SV would have been nonsensical.
The government is legislating to ensure regional mayors are elected using the supplementary vote not first-past-the-post. SV is seen as fairer because it means second preferences can be taken into account. The changes are in the devolution bill, which is still going though parliament.
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Households face higher energy bills as £28bn grid upgrade gets go-ahead
Energy companies have been given the green light to spend £28bn on Great Britain’s gas and electricity grids, raising fears of higher household bills, Jillian Ambrose reports.
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Here is more reaction to the decision that four inaugural regional mayoral elections are being delayed for two years.
This is from Kemi Badenoch.
This is the second time Labour have cancelled elections.
Democracy isn’t optional. We will oppose this every step of the way.
And this is from Zöe Franklin, the Lib Dem local government spokesperson.
This is a disgrace. Democracy delayed is democracy denied. We are fighting to end this blatant stitch up between Labour and the Conservatives over local elections. The Liberal Democrats will keep working to give millions of people their vote back in May.
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Latest £9m donation to Reform UK shows elections not fair if they can be ‘bought by handful of individuals’, MPs told
Lisa Smart (Lib Dem) told MPs that the figures out from the Electoral Commission today revealed some parties are getting “eye-wateringly large donations”. She went on:
Our elections are not being fought on an even footing if they can be bought by a small handful of individuals.
She urged the minister to ensure that financial donation rules are tightened in the elections bill.
Fahnbulleh said Smart was making a “powerful point” and she confirmed the elections bill would tighten the rules.
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Updated at 06.32 EST
Minister says mayoral elections could technically happen in 2026, but government is delaying so ‘foundations are strong’
Back in the Commons, Alec Shelbrooke (Con) asks why ministers originally thought these four mayoral elections could take place in 2026, and why they are now being delayed for two years.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the local government minister, said that the elections could go ahead inn 2026. But she said the government had concluded that it would be better to delay for two years to ensure that there are strong unitary authorities in place when the mayors start work. She said:+
We think it is worth taking the time, having the breathing space, to ensure that the foundations are strong.
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Updated at 06.26 EST
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is holding a press conference later, at 3pm, to talk about the four delayed mayoral elections. It will start at 3pm.
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Here is the written ministerial statement for Steve Reed, the housing, communities and local government secretary, confirming that the four mayoral elections for Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Greater Essex are being postponed.
In its, Reed is announcing £200m for six new strategic authorities – the four where inaugural mayoral elections are being postponed, because councils are being reorganised in those areas, and two others (Cheshire and Warrington, and Cumbria).
In Cheshire and Warrington, and Cumbria, local leaders have already asked for the inaugural mayoral elections to be delayed until May 2027, so that they will align with the local elections there.
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