Author: Miles Donavan

‘I would definitely remember if we had admitted a Nigerian student with any financial aid’ Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s honesty and integrity is being called into question, after doubts surfaced over her claim to have been offered a place at a prestigious US medical school at 16, with admissions staff unable to recall the proposal and the university not providing the course. During a 2017 interview with the Huffington Post, Badenoch was asked what she wanted to be aged 16 to which she replied: “A doctor, like my parents.” “Going to a very bad school here stopped me. I had…

Reform has lost another councillor A Reform UK councillor who has attended protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping has been suspended after sharing social media posts claiming asylum seekers were “paedophiles” and that Islam is “evil”. The i Paper has reported that James Regan, who was elected to Ongar Town Council in May, called the Bell Hotel a “paedophile babysitting centre”. In other posts on X, the Reform councillor described Islam as “an evil criminal cartel of evil pedo’s [sic]”, and stated that “Islam will suck our benefit system dry”. Responding to the investigation, a Reform spokesperson said “Councillor…

A car crash of an interview.. The problem with populists like Reform is that once you start interrogating their slogans and start asking about the actual detail of delivery, it all falls apart, just as it did for Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice over the weekend. Appearing on Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips’ show, Tice wasn’t best pleased that flaws were being exposed in Reform’s immigration policy, at one point snapping at Phillips. Last week, Nigel Farage set out Reform’s plans to stop small boat crossings, vowing to deport 600,000 migrants over five years if it won power at the…

‘It is now more important than ever to address a surprisingly difficult question: who will be entitled to these employment rights’ Luke Raikes is the Deputy General Secretary of the Fabian Society The employment rights bill is central to this government’s purpose. It has been described as the ‘biggest improvement in workers’ rights in a generation’. That means it is now more important than ever to address a surprisingly difficult question: who will be entitled to these employment rights – that is, what makes someone an employee? A person’s employment status is what guarantees them employment rights in the first…

Experts spoke to Left Foot Forward about the feasibility of Nigel Farage’s deportation plan While Reform UK likes to try and paint deporting asylum seekers and refugees as straightforward, in reality, it is anything but. The Migration Observatory and a barrister give their insights into why. 1. Agreements between states are crucial Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf claimed they would deport 500,000-600,000 over the course of five years, by sending migrants back to their countries.  Barrister and co-chair of the Society of Labour Lawyers Adrian Berry KC explained that countries have to agree to take refugees back, and “If they…

That’s quite a take… Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin who represents Runcorn and Helsby has gone on a bizarre rant, blaming a Labour-controlled council as the reason why a lake in her constituency has dried up, leading to her being ridiculed. In a video from her constituency, she complained about how Heath Park lake is lacking in water. She said that Heath Park Lake was meant to be a jewel in Runcorn’s crown, but that it had dried up and that the ‘wildlife system had been decimated’. And who did she blame for this? Pochin claims that the ‘Labour council…

“It’s a mature basin. There’s barely any gas left” Kemi Badenoch is set to make a speech in Scotland tomorrow, in which she will say that a Tory government would “get all our oil and gas out of the North Sea”. The Labour government has banned all new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, but the Tories, who are trying to outflank Reform, want to do the opposite. However, climate change lawyer and founder of Uplift, Tessa Khan, explained that the Tories’ bold claim that we can get all of our oil and gas from the North Sea…

The party’s vetting and candidate selection failures keep coming thick and fast Reform UK selected a woman who died last year to run as their candidate for the Croydon Mayor election in 2026.  Sharon Carby sadly died in September 2024. Despite her no longer being alive, Reform HQ reportedly parachuted Carby in as the election candidate to challenge the Tory incumbent Jason Perry. Independent news website Inside Croydon, who broke the story, reported that at a selection meeting some Reform members pointed out that her death could be a problem and were “abused and ordered to be quiet”.  According to…

‘Well. You look really stupid now’ Right-wing commentator and journalist Isabel Oakeshott has been community noted and fact-checked on X, after making a misleading claim about how Heathrow Airport is set to sponsor Reform’s upcoming party conference, in what she tried to claim was a major coup for Farage’s party. Oakeshott took to X over the weekend to claim: “BREAKING: Heathrow Airport to sponsor @reformparty_uk party conference. A very significant indication of the direction of travel for big business.” However, she was fact-checked, with it being pointed out that London Heathrow are hosting a lounge at the Reform party conference,…

“The absence of disabled voices in the design of welfare systems results in processes that are degrading, overly bureaucratic, and often unfit for purpose—sometimes even life-threatening.” Disability rights campaigners are calling on the government to ensure that disabled people are involved in shaping welfare reform. Recent proposals for welfare reform aim to reduce the overall benefits bill by tightening eligibility criteria and adjusting payment rates, particularly for new claimants. However, following a significant backbench rebellion, the proposed cuts to universal credit for disabled claimants from next April, along with plans to restrict personal independence payment (PIP) eligibility, have been temporarily…