Author: Miles Donavan

Reform’s leaflets promised cuts to council tax, but the leader of Lancashire County Council says no such pledge was made Another Reform council has said it cannot rule out raising council tax by 5%, despite circulating leaflets promising to cut council tax before the local elections. Stephen Atkinson, the Reform leader of Lancashire County Council, refused to rule out hiking council tax citing the huge strain on social care budgets.  Stephen Atkinson is the leader of Reform-run Lancashire County Council. Credit: LCC Before the local elections in May this year, Reform distributed leaflets in several local authority areas promising to…

It comes amid greater scrutiny of links between Reform and Russia after the party’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russia speeches A petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics has reached more than 100,000 signatures, spelling yet more trouble for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. The petition, which at the time of writing has secured 109,497 signatures, states: “We are concerned about reported efforts from Russia to influence democracy in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. We…

Reform’s leaflets promised cuts to council tax, but the leader of Lancashire County Council says no such pledge was made Another Reform council has said it cannot rule out raising council tax by 5%, despite circulating leaflets promising to cut council tax before the local elections.  Stephen Atkinson, the Reform leader of Lancashire County Council, refused to rule out hiking council tax citing the huge strain on social care budgets.  Stephen Atkinson is the leader of Reform-run Lancashire County Council. Credit: LCC Before the local elections in May this year, Reform distributed leaflets in several local authority areas promising to…

Living standards are unbelievably important to all governments, but especially this one. This week’s budget showed there’s no sugarcoating the economic and fiscal circumstances that we find ourselves in. The country is trapped in a fiscal straitjacket, bound both by the poor decision making of previous governments, and events outside of our control. We shouldn’t make excuses for those who have the privilege of running the country, but nor should we deny the root causes of the current situation either. There are many good reasons why the budget included many tax rises. Thankfully, these were concentrated amongst the wealthiest, and…

The attorney general said Farage’s “constantly changing” denials are unconvincing The UK’s top lawyer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to his former classmates at Dulwich College over claims he racially abused them. Hermer, who is Jewish himself, said that Farage’s alleged comments had “clearly deeply hurt” people. More than a dozen former classmates told The Guardian that the Reform leader made antisemitic comments as a teenager in the 1970s and 80s, including allegedly telling Jewish students “Hitler was right” and saying “gas them”.  Other pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds accused Farage of calling them the P-word and…

The result was a COP where the foes of ambition were emboldened, its proponents frustrated, and in which countries which could have shown leadership, such as China and India, refused to step up. Mike Buckley is the director of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations and a former Labour Party adviser A lost opportunity COP30 was meant to be a game changer. Hosts Brazil framed the event as the “COP of Truth”, a pivotal moment in which years of negotiation would come to fruition in ambitious, meaningful roadmaps to cut fossil fuel use and deliver on climate finance, deforestation, and…

“Jonathan Gullis has joined us. We must be doing something right, said nobody ever” LBC presenter James O’Brien has mocked former Tory MP Jonathan Gullis’ defection to Reform, saying if he were running the party he would have told colleagues not to announce Gullis had joined.  O’Brien also claimed that the departures of Gullis and Nadine Dorries show Kemi Badenoch “can’t be doing as bad a job as she appears to be doing”.  On his LBC show today, O’Brien responded to the news that Gullis, the former Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent has joined Reform. A Reform source has confirmed that…

He also highlighted the achievements of the Labour government, including cutting NHS waiting times, immigration and child poverty by a record amount. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that he is proud of scrapping the two-child benefit cap and lifting 500,000 children out of poverty, as he defended his government’s budget in a major speech today. Amid criticism from some against the budget, the Prime Minister set about defending the bold and radical measures his government is taking to improve outcomes for working people. Starmer told the press conference: “Yes, I am proud, I’m proud we scrapped the two-child limit,…

‘He’s too busy showing off and making money.’ Nigel Farage is cashing in on £140,000 from personalised Cameo videos, sparking anger among constituents who say they’ve barely seen him in Clacton. The Reform leader has made £141,778 from recording as many as 2,000 Cameo videos since last December. Farage’s personalised clips average 39 seconds in length, with prices starting at £71.17 for individual messages and rising to £3,752.84 for business videos. Farage has earned over £1.3 million since he became an MP in July 2024. He still doesn’t run constituency surgeries, citing fears Clacton residents will “flow through doors with…

This comes amid wider criticism of Reform UK’s approach to journalists Reform UK’s director of communications, Ed Sumner, was caught using an offensive slur to describe Welsh investigative journalist Will Hayward.  Nation Cymru reported that in a leaked internal party WhatsApp chat, Sumner referred to Hayward as the c-word. Sumner sent the messages in January this year, after Hayward reacted to Reform UK announcing that they will not appoint a leader of Reform in Wales before the Senedd elections in May 2026. Reform said they will instead vote for a leader after the elections.  “What they’ve essentially said to people…