Author: Miles Donavan

MPs have put forward dozens of amendments to the bill The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill will return to Parliament at 7pm tonight for committee stage and third reading. On 1 July, the bill passed its second reading with 335 votes to 260, with 49 Labour MPs voting against the government. MPs and the government have since tabled a raft of amendments to the bill, spanning 33 pages, which will be debated at committee stage. If the bill passes at third reading, it will move to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.  Among the most contentious proposals…

It comes as a number of recent opinion polls show Reform’s lead in the polls falling, as the party begins to face growing media scrutiny over its policies and after it continues to be hit with scandals. Reform UK have peaked and their support in the polls has topped out, a pollster has claimed. Analysing the result of recent council by-elections, which saw Reform lose seats it was defending, Tory peer Robert Hayward told The Independent that along with a slight fall in the party’s polling figures, Nigel Farage’s march to Downing Street could already have stopped in its tracks.…

Three-quarters of the public support introducing a 2% tax on wealth above £10 million The public overwhelmingly supports a wealth tax on the super-rich, including a majority of Tory and Reform voters, a new YouGov poll has revealed. According to the survey of over 4,000 adults, 75% of Brits want to see a wealth tax introduced.  Tax Justice UK estimates that a 2% tax on individuals with wealth above £10 million – around 20,000 people – could raise £24 billion a year. Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock backed growing calls for the government to…

‘This creates a two-tier welfare state: those lucky enough to qualify before the changes will receive support to live, though not necessarily with dignity’ Andrew Joseph McDonald is the Labour Party MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East Last week in Parliament, nearly 50 Labour MPs took a principled stand and voted against the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. They did so because they could not support measures that will take billions from disabled people—many already struggling to make ends meet—and deepen the poverty that continues to scar our country. And I know many other colleagues shared our view. This Bill will, even…

One wonders what his constituents make of his latest lucrative job. Former Tory leader Rishi Sunak has been warned of a potential conflict of interest risk from his appointment as an advisor to Goldman Sachs, after it was revealed that he is set to re-join the bank in his first major role since he resigned as Conservative party leader last year. Sunak, who has insisted that he will continue to serve as an MP and represent his constituents after the humiliating Tory defeat at the last general election, marks a return to the Wall Street investment bank with whom he…

He says he will now sit as an independent MP James McMurdock has now announced that he will sit as an independent MP amid allegations about his business activities during the pandemic. The Reform MP removed the whip from himself over the weekend ahead of the Sunday Times publishing an investigation into his use of government-backed Covid Bounce Back loans. The Times raised questions about whether the two businesses he borrowed money met the necessary turnover requirements. On Saturday, McMurdock said he had asked for the whip to be suspended temporarily. He also told The Times  “all my business dealings had…

“They’re just blindly rifling through a bag of dumb cruelty now. Desperate stuff.” The Tories have been slammed for their latest far-right policy proposal, to exclude any household with a foreign national from any benefit, in what has been called a ‘racist approach to policymaking’. In an attempt to outdo Reform and whip up a moral panic over foreigners and the welfare bill, Tory MP Matt Vickers appeared on Sky News to set out his party’s latest proposal. Vickers was asked to explain in detail his party’s policy plans for no benefits to foreigners, to which Vickers replied: “This is…

Farage insists he is not to blame for vetting failures, claiming he inherited the issue from Richard Tice Nigel Farage has admitted that Reform did ‘no due diligence’ on suspended MP James McMurdock before the 2024 general election.  The Reform UK leader, who took over from Richard Tice in June 2024, claimed he “inherited a situation” where hundreds of general election candidates had not been vetted. McMurdock, the MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock gave up the whip on Saturday amid a Times investigation into government covid support scheme loans he took out during the pandemic.  Shortly after the…

“Inviting failed candidates to try again under lax rules suggests that they are either struggling to recruit candidates, or something more sinister.” Reform UK has told its members in Kent it will relax vetting rules, and is ‘strongly’ encouraging prospective candidates who previously failed vetting to reapply. A post on Reform UK East Thanet Constituency Facebook page states that “It is important that all branches have prospective candidates lined up ready to go” for elections and by-elections. It also said: “With plans to contest every seat at every level we need credible candidates to step forward.” The message explains that…

Maybe Tice has forgotten that Farage’s xenophobic campaigns against the EU haven’t gone down well with EU leaders. Reform UK are having a meltdown because they’re not being taken seriously enough after French President Emmanuel Macron decided to snub Nigel Farage during this week’s state visit to the UK. Macron will be meeting Prime Minister Starmer, as well as leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats but has not arranged to meet Farage. In a furious statement last night, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: “This is an outrageous and deliberate snub. “Reform is…