Author: Miles Donavan

Yusuf was grilled over Nathan Gill Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf became rattled during an LBC interview, where presenter Shelagh Fogarty and SNP MP Stephen Flynn grilled him over Nathan Gill. Flynn said that he had yet to hear a proper explanation from Yusuf about Gill, who was sentenced last week to 10 and a half years in prison for accepting £40,000 in bribes to make pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament and the media. The Reform figure repeated his line that he’d never met Gill and said “the first time I read his name was in the newspaper”. …

The Tory MP thinks lifting children out of poverty is the ‘wrong’ choice… The shadow chancellor Mel Stride has said in an interview that he disagreed with Labour lifting the two-child limit on Universal Credit at the Budget yesterday. Introduced in 2017 by the Tories, the policy affects 1.6 million children and has pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty through no fault of their own. The limit prevents households from claiming the child benefit element of Universal Credit for a third child or any subsequent children. The chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to scrap the limit in April 2026…

“Tory contracts handed out by Tory ministers to Tory peers and Tory friends and well that money belongs in our schools and in our hospitals and we are getting that money back.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves today thanked the Covid counter-fraud commissioner during her budget speech for chasing down nearly £400m of dodgy Tory Covid contracts, recouping the money to reinvest in public services. During her budget speech, the Chancellor said she would like to thank Tom Hayhoe, the  Covid corruption commissioner, for his work in helping to chase down ‘nearly £400m from dodgy pandemic spending and contracts’. She added: “Tory…

There were some radical choices in Rachel Reeves’ Budget, but some will leave low and middle-income workers paying the price for reducing the national debt The chancellor Rachel Reeves has now delivered her second, much trailed, Autumn Budget. It started off with the Office for Budget Responsibility leaking the Budget document before Reeves delivered her statement. The government was also admonished by the deputy speaker Nusrat Ghani for giving pre-Budget briefings to the press, which she said had been increasing over several years but have reached “an unprecedented high”. In today’s Budget, Reeves set out her “Labour choices”, which she…

The removal of the cap will benefit 560,000 families by an average of £5,310 per year and reduce child poverty by 450,000, according to the OBR. The Labour government has confirmed that it will be lifting the two-child benefit cap which pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty. During the budget speech, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons: “I can announce today fully costed and fully funded the removal of the two-child limit in full from April.” The removal of the cap will benefit 560,000 families by an average of £5,310 per year and reduce child poverty by 450,000,…

Experts argue that the policies are “gimmicks” designed to make the government look tough, but they are not evidence-based More than 500 experts working in asylum law have said the government’s new asylum plans are not evidence-based and risk violating the UK’s human rights obligations.  The statement, by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), warns the plans would breach international human rights laws, including the Refugee Convention and the Human Rights Act.  Labour’s proposals are based on Denmark’s strict immigration and asylum policy reforms. The researchers and practitioners warn that Denmark’s immigration model has “come at the cost of espousing…

“He is being fundamentally dishonest in everything that he says there.” One of Nigel Farage’s former classmates, Peter Ettedgui, said the Reform leader’s claim he did not racially abuse fellow pupils at school is “fundamentally dishonest”.  Ettedgui, a Bafta-winning director, was the first to tell the Guardian on the record that Farage had racially abused fellow pupils at Dulwich College in the 1970s and 80s. More than a dozen former classmates told The Guardian Farage made antisemitic comments as a teenager, including “Hitler was right” and “gas them”. He also allegedly called other students from ethnic minority backgrounds the P-word…

Experts argue that the policies are “gimmicks” designed to make the government look tough, but they are not evidence-based More than 500 experts working in asylum law have said the government’s new asylum plans are not evidence-based and risk violating the UK’s human rights obligations.  The statement, by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), warns the plans would breach international human rights laws, including the Refugee Convention and the Human Rights Act.  Labour’s proposals are based on Denmark’s strict immigration and asylum policy reforms. The researchers and practitioners warn that Denmark’s immigration model has “come at the cost of espousing…

Lee Nallalingham describes himself as a best-selling author but hasn’t backed up the claim Reform branch chair in Newham and Tower Hamlets, Lee Nallalingham, is being questioned over his claims that he is a best-selling author. Nallalingham has described himself as “a 5x International best-selling author”, even though his self-published books on Amazon have only received just over a dozen reviews. In a post on X, he said he wrote and published some business books while he lived in Singapore, and that they were included in “some bestseller lists in Singapore and other emerging markets”.  He has not confirmed what…

The scandal hit party is dropping in the polls… It seems as though all of the scandals that Reform UK have been embroiled in, whether that’s the party’s former leader in Wales being jailed for taking Russian bribes, or councillors suspended for posting racist messages, have had an effect on their poll ratings. Nigel Farage’s party have fallen to their lowest polling level in more than six months, as it continues to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons, according to the latest poll by YouGov. The polling company found that from November 23-24, Nigel Farage’s party are polling…