\n<\/p>\n
The Royal Parks have rejected a claim from Nigel Farage<\/strong> that migrants are killing and eating swans from their grounds.<\/p>\n The Reform UK leader made the assertion in his LBC interview this morning as he deflected a question about whether Donald Trump was wrong last year when he claimed migrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats. Trump\u2019s comment was widely dismissed as a racist slur.<\/p>\n The LBC Nick Ferrari<\/strong> asked Farage about the Trump claim in an interview a year ago and Farage<\/strong> said that, when Trump said something like this, there was normally some basis of truth behind it. He bet Ferrari \u00a310 that within a month or so evidence would emerge to prove Trump right.<\/p>\n Today Ferrari<\/strong> challenged Farage to pay up, on the grounds that one year on Trump has still not been able to prove that he was telling the truth.<\/p>\n But Farage<\/strong> refused, saying he would only give Ferrari his \u00a310 if he could prove that Trump was wrong.<\/p>\n He went on:<\/p>\n If I said to you that swans were being eaten in royal parks and carps were being taken out of ponds and eaten in this country from people with different cultures. Would you agree that is happening?<\/p>\n Asked who was doing this, Farage said \u201cpeople who come from countries where it\u2019s quite acceptable to do so\u201d. Asked if he meant eastern Europeans, he replied: \u201cSo I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n A Royal Parks<\/strong> spokesperson said:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve not had any incidents reported to us of people killing or eating swans in London\u2019s eight Royal Parks.<\/p>\n Our wildlife officers work closely with the Swan Sanctuary to ensure the welfare of the swans across the parks.<\/p>\n Claims that swans have been eaten by migrants have been periodically surfacing in British newspapers for years. But the reports almost never include compelling proof, and in recent years the police have not caught anyone in connection with these allegations.<\/p>\n Share<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n <\/span>Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n A new cross-party group of MPs and peers is demanding more rights for Britain\u2019s growing army of online content creators, amid concerns they face obstacles in securing everything from basic equipment to mortgages, Michael Savage<\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Sadiq Khan,<\/strong> the Labour mayor of London, has hit back at Donald Trump after the US president yesterday accused him of introducing sharia law in the capital.<\/p>\n In an interview with Sky News, Khan said that he felt he \u201cappeared to be living rent-free in Donald Trump\u2019s head\u201d. He suggested that Trump\u2019s antipathy towards him was related to the fact that he is \u201ca Muslim man who leads a liberal, multicultural, progressive, successful city\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked if he thought Trump\u2019s comments were Islamophobic, Khan replied:<\/p>\n When people say things, when people act in a certain way, when people behave in a certain way, you\u2019ve got to believe them.<\/p>\n Asked if that meant he was saying Trump was Islamophobic, Khan replied:<\/p>\n I think President Trump has shown he is racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic, and he\u2019s Islamophobic.<\/p>\n Khan suggested record numbers of Americans were coming to London because they wanted to escape Trump\u2019s America.<\/p>\n And he suggested that Keir Starmer should be more willing to challenge Trump over areas where they did not agree. Asked if he was unhappy about the effort Starmer was making to befriend Trump, Khan said:<\/p>\n One of the things about having a special relationship, it\u2019s akin to having a best friend. I think when you have a best friend, you should expect more from them ..<\/p>\n One of the advantages of having a special relationship with the USA is obviously, when it comes to trade, when it comes to military alliances, when it comes to other areas, we work closely together.<\/p>\n But it should also mean you\u2019ve got the confidence to call them when they\u2019re wrong. I think President Trump is wrong in many, many ways.<\/p>\n <\/span>Sadiq Khan interviewed by Sky News<\/span> Photograph: Sky NewsShare<\/p>\n The Royal Parks have rejected a claim from Nigel Farage<\/strong> that migrants are killing and eating swans from their grounds.<\/p>\n The Reform UK leader made the assertion in his LBC interview this morning as he deflected a question about whether Donald Trump was wrong last year when he claimed migrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats. Trump\u2019s comment was widely dismissed as a racist slur.<\/p>\n The LBC Nick Ferrari<\/strong> asked Farage about the Trump claim in an interview a year ago and Farage<\/strong> said that, when Trump said something like this, there was normally some basis of truth behind it. He bet Ferrari \u00a310 that within a month or so evidence would emerge to prove Trump right.<\/p>\n Today Ferrari<\/strong> challenged Farage to pay up, on the grounds that one year on Trump has still not been able to prove that he was telling the truth.<\/p>\n But Farage<\/strong> refused, saying he would only give Ferrari his \u00a310 if he could prove that Trump was wrong.<\/p>\n He went on:<\/p>\n If I said to you that swans were being eaten in royal parks and carps were being taken out of ponds and eaten in this country from people with different cultures. Would you agree that is happening?<\/p>\n Asked who was doing this, Farage said \u201cpeople who come from countries where it\u2019s quite acceptable to do so\u201d. Asked if he meant eastern Europeans, he replied: \u201cSo I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n A Royal Parks<\/strong> spokesperson said:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve not had any incidents reported to us of people killing or eating swans in London\u2019s eight Royal Parks.<\/p>\n Our wildlife officers work closely with the Swan Sanctuary to ensure the welfare of the swans across the parks.<\/p>\n Claims that swans have been eaten by migrants have been periodically surfacing in British newspapers for years. But the reports almost never include compelling proof, and in recent years the police have not caught anyone in connection with these allegations.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n The Cabinet Office<\/strong> says it has saved \u00a3480m by using AI data tools in what it describes as \u201cthe government\u2019s biggest ever fraud crackdown\u201d. In a news release it says:<\/p>\n Over a third of the money saved (\u00a3186m) comes from identifying and recovering fraud committed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Government efforts to date have blocked hundreds of thousands of companies with outstanding or potentially fraudulent Bounce Back Loans from dissolving before they would have to pay anything back. We have also clawed back millions of pounds from companies that took out Covid loans they were not entitled to, or took out multiple loans when only entitled to one \u2026<\/p>\n Alongside Covid fraud, the record savings reached in the year to April 2025 include clamping down on people unlawfully claiming single persons council tax discount and removing people from social housing waitlists who wanted to illegally sublet their discounted homes at the taxpayers\u2019 expense.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n A council-owned hotel has cancelled a launch event for a new political party backed by right-wing activist Tommy Robinson and the billionaire Elon Musk, PA Media reports. PA says:<\/p>\n Advance UK, led by former Reform deputy Ben Habib, was due to hold a conference in Newcastle on Saturday.<\/p>\n The new party announced the event last month without revealing the venue but it was understood to have been planned to be held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in the city centre.<\/p>\n In a social media post last month, the party said it had chosen Newcastle, \u201cthe symbolic heart of Brexit\u201d and vowed that it \u201cwill fight unapologetically for sovereignty, free speech, and restoring pride in our nation\u201d.<\/p>\n Following an online protest, the hotel management has cancelled the booking \u201con health and safety grounds\u201d, Newcastle city council said.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.53 EDT<\/p>\n The Liberal Democrats have condemned Nigel Farage for his comments about Donald Trump, paracetamol and autism. (See 10.23am.) Helen Morgan<\/strong>, the Lib Dem health spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n Nigel Farage wants to impose Trump\u2019s dangerous anti-science agenda here in the UK. Peddling this kind of nonsense is irresponsible and wrong.<\/p>\n It seems Farage would rather see pregnant women suffer in pain than stand up to his idol Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, devoted much of his party conference speech yesterday to attacking Farage. Asked about the speech, Farage<\/strong> told LBC this morning that he thought Davey was suffering from \u201cFarage derangement syndrome\u201d. He went on:<\/p>\n [Davey] didn\u2019t tell the country what he was for. Just what he\u2019s against, which is me and Trump. And he doesn\u2019t want us to live in a Trump-style country.<\/p>\n I understand that. He doesn\u2019t want borders. He doesn\u2019t want economic growth. He doesn\u2019t want men taken out of women\u2019s sport. Honestly, I really don\u2019t think we should take anything he said seriously.<\/p>\n Here is Peter Walker<\/strong>\u2019s story about the Davey speech yesterday.<\/p>\n And here is Rafael Behr<\/strong>\u2019s column about the party.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Nigel Farage<\/strong>, the Reform UK leader, has declined to back UK medical leaders who say that Donald Trump was wrong to link paracetamol to autism.<\/p>\n In an interview on LBC, Farage claimed that he had \u201cno idea\u201d whether or not the president was right when said that taking paracetamol during a pregnancy could lead to a child having autism.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s claim has been widely dismissed as unfounded, or even dangerous, by public health organisations and experts around the world.<\/p>\n Yesterday the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency <\/strong>in the UK said:<\/p>\n There is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.Paracetamol remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed.<\/p>\n But, when Farage<\/strong> was asked by LBC\u2019s Nick Ferrari if he thought Trump\u2019s comments were right, he replied:<\/p>\n I have no idea \u2026 you know, we were told thalidomide was a very safe drug and it wasn\u2019t. Who knows? Nick, I don\u2019t know, you don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n He [Trump] has a particular thing about autism, I think because there\u2019s been some in his family, he feels it very personally. I have no idea.<\/p>\n Asked if he would side with medical experts on this issue, Farage replied:<\/p>\n When it comes to science, I don\u2019t side with anybody. I don\u2019t side with anybody because science is never settled, and we should remember that.<\/p>\n Farage\u2019s reference to thalidomide will be seen as scaremongering. Thalidomide was sold as a sedative in the late 1950s, but it was quickly linked to birth defects and withdrawn from general sale after about four years. Paracetamol has been in use for around 70 years, and repeated studies have said that that it is safe for pregnant women.<\/p>\n Farage has adopted a similar position in the past on global warming \u2013 refusing to accept the overwhelming expert consensus that climate change is real, on the grounds that the science is disputed.<\/p>\n He is also normally reluctant to criticise Trump, whom he counts as a friend and who\u2019s anti-immigration nationalist populism is aligned to Reform UK\u2019s.<\/p>\n But, in the LBC interview, Farage did not endorse what Trump claimed about sharia law being established in London.<\/p>\n Farage said the president should be taken seriously, but not literally. He went on:<\/p>\n Is [Trump] right to say that sharia is an issue in London? Yes. Is it an overwhelming issue at this stage? No.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.42 EDT<\/p>\n In his interviews this morning Pat McFadden<\/strong>, the work and pensions secretary, also dismissed Donald Trump\u2019s false claim yesterday that Sadiq Khan is introducing sharia law in London, where he is the Labour mayor.<\/p>\n Some Labour MPs have reacted very angrily to the claim, which Trump made in the course of a provacative and rambling speech to the United Nations, accusing the president of Islamophobia.<\/p>\n But McFadden dismissed it more diplomatically, almost laughing it off.<\/p>\n Asked on BBC Breakfast what he thought of Trump\u2019s sharia law claim, McFadden replied:<\/p>\n Well, I\u2019m here at Selhurst Park in south London where we don\u2019t have sharia law, we have British law.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a great capital city that we have. I think it\u2019s a great asset to the UK. And I\u2019m afraid I differ from the president on that.<\/p>\n McFadden also said Trump had had \u201ca good state visit\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked again about the sharia law claim, McFadden said:<\/p>\n I just think it\u2019s a misreading of our great capital city.<\/p>\n In a separate interview with Times Radio, McFadden said Trump and Khan had \u201chad a beef for some years\u201d.<\/p>\n Last night Emily Thornberry,<\/strong> the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, joined those Labour MPs condemning Trump more robustly over this. She posted this on social media.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve known @SadiqKhan for over 30 yrs. He\u2019s a feminist, a socialist & an LGBTQ+ ally. I\u2019m so proud he\u2019s our London mayor. For the record, he\u2019s as interested in introducing Sharia Law to London as I am – ie 0%. Those who suggest otherwise are deluded, or have a v sinister agenda.<\/p>\n <\/span>Pat McFadden on BBC Breakfast this morning<\/span> Photograph: BBCShare<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.46 EDT<\/p>\n Good morning. Pat McFadden<\/strong> has been on media round duties this morning. He is now work and pensions secreratary, and his interviews (conducted from Selhurst Park) were ostensibly about an announcement about premier league football clubs getting involved in a \u00a325m expansion of the youth hubs programme.<\/p>\n In his old job, as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, McFadden was in effect the \u201cminister for the Today programme\u201d, the No 10 figure sent out to hose down the media in the face of assorted scandals and problems and there was quite a bit of that going on this morning. He was asked about Donald Trump\u2019s latest outburst. And he was asked about the Conservative allegations that Morgan McSweeney, the PM\u2019s chief of staff, mislead the elections watchdog over donations to a Labour thinktank when the party was in opposition.<\/p>\n The Tories have been banging away at this for some days, and last night they escalated this, publishing a leaked email from a Labour lawyer to McSweeney implying that McSweeney was advised not to tell the Electoral Commission the full reasons why donations were not declared. The Daily Mail has splashed the story. Here is our version, by Pippa Crerar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The story has not achieved mega lift-off \u2013 BBC Breakfast did not even ask McFadden about it \u2013 but on Times Radio he was asked if he had confidence in McSweeney, and McFadden replied:<\/p>\n Yes, I do. I worked with him very closely on the election campaign. He\u2019s a person of enormous talent.<\/p>\n And on the Today programme McFadden was asked if he was 100% sure that McSweeney had done nothing wrong. McFadden replied:<\/p>\n The Electoral Commission made a statement on this last night, and they said that they\u2019d looked into all these things some years ago and they really didn\u2019t have anything to add to it.<\/p>\n Look, I\u2019m not surprised that the Conservatives are trying to, attack someone who was very effective, who was an integral part of Labour\u2019s general election campaign last year in delivering the Labour victory. And they don\u2019t happen very often; they don\u2019t fall from the sky. They require talented people to work on them. He did that, and he did it in a very effective way.<\/p>\n Asked again if he was convinced that McSweeney did nothing criminally wrong, McFadden said:<\/p>\n Look, I think the Electoral Commission have looked into that. They\u2019ve said there is nothing to add here. They are the people actually charged with policing the rules around declarations to nations and all the rest of that. And they looked into this as far back, I think, as 2021.<\/p>\n I will post more from McFadden\u2019s interviews shortly.<\/p>\n The Commons is in recess, and Labour and the Conservatives are both preparing for their party conferences. Labour\u2019s starts this weekend, and the Tories\u2019 the week after. The political diary looks quite empty, but the news never stops, so something will come up.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.44 EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Royal Parks says there’s no evidence to back Farage’s claim their swans being eaten by migrants The Royal Parks have rejected a claim from Nigel Farage that migrants are killing and eating swans from their grounds. The Reform UK leader made the assertion in his LBC interview this morning as he deflected a question about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3287,2753,8291,4309,132,1918,3131,3600,124,125,14302],"class_list":{"0":"post-23442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-claim","9":"tag-eating","10":"tag-evidence","11":"tag-farages","12":"tag-live","13":"tag-migrants","14":"tag-nigel","15":"tag-parks","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-royal","18":"tag-swans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}UK\u2019s YouTube and TikTok content creators deserve more rights, say MPs<\/h2>\n
‘Racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic’ – Sadiq Khan hits back at Trump<\/h2>\n
Royal Parks says there’s no evidence to back Farage’s claim their swans being eaten by migrants<\/h2>\n
Cabinet Office says government has saved \u00a3480m using AI data tools to crack down on fraud<\/h2>\n
Lib Dems accuse Farage of following ‘Trump’s dangerous anti-science agenda’<\/h2>\n
Farage declines to back UK public health leaders who say Trump wrong to claim link between paracetamol and autism<\/h2>\n
McFadden tactfully says Trump wrong about sharia law in London, calling comment ‘misreading of our great capital’<\/h2>\n
Pat McFadden dismisses Tory claims that Morgan McSweeney misled elections watchdog<\/h2>\n