Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has effectively ruled out joining Reform UK, raising fears about Nigel Farage’s approach to the economy and Britain’s national security. The former prime minister said Mr Farage’s party is “extremely dangerous” and that “we need a Conservative government that is strong on defence and doesn’t believe that the problem in Ukraine was that Nato provoked Putin”. Mr Johnson also attacked Reform’s plans to scrap the two-child cap on benefits, warning “we have got to spend less on public services”. Speaking to The Sun’s Harry Cole Saves the West, Mr Johnson said: “That party [Reform] was on zero when I was prime minister… and that was because we got Brexit done.Boris Johnson: ‘Who is to say whether that party will even exist before the next election?’ More

Low-income families will find it “near impossible” to afford food, heating and bills as UK faces a decade of falling incomes, a charity has said in a stark new warning.New analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation claims that by the end of this parliament, disposable incomes in Britain will be on average £550 lower per year than in September 2024 – a fall of 1.3 per cent – and £570 lower than today. This would represent the worst fall in living standards seen by any parliament since detailed records began in 1961, with the foundation warning that such a decline will prompt voters to punish Labour at the next election. Low-income families will find it “near impossible” to afford food, heating and bills, a new report has warned More

Sir Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap after his child poverty taskforce is set to recommend the move.The prime minister established a group of ministers and officials to look at how to bring down child poverty, with its recommendations due before Rachel Reeves’s Budget on 26 November. The much-delayed recommendations, however, are set to include the prime minister being told that scrapping the benefit cap is the most effective way to lift children out of poverty and that he must pursue the move. According to The Times, the taskforce has drawn up the main planks of a child poverty strategy, with lifting the two-child limit the top recommendation. And Dame Meg Hillier, chair of parliament’s Treasury committee, said it would be “unconscionable” if Labour failed to alleviate child poverty, pointing to scrapping the two-child cap as the most effective measure. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the senior Labour MP said: “I’ve been looking at it in detail, and I’m convinced that the quickest and easiest way to lift 350,000 children out of poverty and 700,000 children out of deep poverty, would be to really pick up the cap.” The prime minister established a taskforce to look at how to bring down child poverty More

The Tories have put in a formal complaint to the parliamentary standards commissioner over allegations of irregular donations to Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign in 2020.Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake has asked for an investigation after claiming he had uncovered new evidence regarding the role of Sir Keir’s now chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, in running the leadership campaign.He alleged that Mr McSweeney’s then thinktank Labour Together had in effect made undeclared donations to the Starmer campaign.The Conservatives have called for an investigation into donations made to Labour Together, a campaign group previously led by chief of staff Morgan McSweeney More

A family of three have become the first asylum seekers to arrive in UK as part of the government’s high-stakes new ‘one in, one out’ deal with France.It comes after four migrants were deported to Paris under Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship agreement, which ministers claim will dissuade migrants from making the deadly Channel crossings by showing they could be immediately sent back. In return a family, which includes a small child, have become the first to arrive in UK through the new legal route. But the prime minister is under pressure to demonstrate the scheme is working after more than 1,000 migrants arrived by small boat last Friday, after returns to France began.Migrants on a small boat in the Channel More

Andy Burnham, a minister in the Blair and Brown governments who has been reborn as the mayor of Greater Manchester, was almost prime minister, you know. He may already be the “King of the North”, but he could now be trying, for the third time, for an even more exalted position – leader of the Labour Party, and with it, the premiership. It was a laughable proposition for almost the whole of Keir Starmer’s period of previously unassailable dominance, but suddenly, in a panicky mood, the Labour Party seems to have caught what might be termed “the Tory disease” – the delusion that a change of leader can solve all its problems, coupled with an addiction to plotting. Burnham, away from Westminster for most of the past decade, could be the nearest thing they have to a fresh start. Not for the first time, though. It is forgotten now, but way back in 2015, after Ed Miliband had led Labour to a poor election result and quit the leadership, Burnham was the favourite to succeed him. Had some Labour MPs – who should have known better – not “lent” their nominations to put Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot, Burnham might well have won, beating Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall. As it was, Burnham lost miserably to Corbyn – 19 per cent to 59 per cent. It was not much better than when he fought, and lost, the leadership election after the 2010 defeat when Gordon Brown stood down. He got 9 per cent and finished behind Ed Miliband, David Miliband, and Ed Balls, and only just ahead of Diane Abbott.(Left to Right) Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn – the Labour leadership candidates in 2015 More

Nigel Farage has been condemned for peddling false information and “wild conspiracy theories” after he falsely accused Romanians in Britain of eating swans in parks in his latest attack on migrants living in the UK. The Reform UK leader claimed “swans are being eaten in royal parks” and said carp were being taken out of ponds “by people who come from different cultures”. Asked who he believes are eating Britain’s swans, which are a protected species in the UK, Mr Farage said: “People who come from countries where that’s quite acceptable.” Farage’s comments about Romanians eating swans are an echo of the US president’s warning that Haitian migrants were eating Americans’ pets More