Markus Andrews

Former health minister Maria Caulfield has become the latest Conservative politician to defect to Reform in another blow for Kemi Badenoch.Ms Caulfield, who was a Conservative MP for nearly a decade, said “the future is Reform” as she announced her decision to switch to Nigel Farage’s party.It comes less than a day after the shock defection of sitting Conservative MP and shadow minister Danny Kruger to Nigel Farage’s party.She becomes the thirteenth former Tory MP to join Reform and her defection comes just 24 hours after sitting Conservative MP and shadow minister revealed he had switched allegiance. Ms Caulfield told GB News: “If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.Maria Caulfield was a health minister in the previous Conservative government (Lucy North/PA) More

Peter Mandelson has learned that favours for, and loyalty to, a sex offender can end a sticky career. Keir Starmer, this week, is bringing the King himself into a bid to charm another American who’s been found liable for sexual assault, convicted of felonies, and is a serial bankrupt.Mandelson oiled up to Jeffrey Epstein because Britain’s former ambassador to Washington has always seemingly been mesmerised by power and money.Starmer has organised Donald Trump’s state visit, pomp, parades and banquets as a strategic necessity – to wean the US president off the Russian teat. To protect Britain’s economy from the US president. And to protect the UK and Europe from a surge in Trumpian ideologues at home.Trump, for now, has slapped the UK with 10 per cent tariffs on top of existing import duties. The EU, a bigger US market, has been hit with tariffs of 20 to 50 per cent. So keeping the US president sweet is financially wise.On Tuesday, Trump will be afforded the singular honour of a second state visit to the United Kingdom. The invitation from the King was hand-delivered to the Oval Office by the British prime minister.Keir Starmer hands Donald Trump a letter from King Charles III during a meeting in the Oval Office in February More

The UK will deploy RAF jets to Poland. The move comes in response to Russian drones violating the country’s airspace.Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would provide “further air defence over Poland” following last week’s incident in which multiple Russian drones were shot down by Nato forces.Speaking to Channel 4 news, he said: “That is the right thing to do. The wrong thing to do would be to ignore this increased aggression from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, from Russia.”Because this wasn’t a one-off. You saw only a few weeks ago the bombing of the British Council in Kyiv, the attacking of the EU embassy, and the direct hits on the Council of Ministers in Kyiv itself.”He added: “It’s absolutely clear that the Russians are ramping up the aggression. It’s very important that, with our Nato allies, we respond appropriately to that and that’s what we’re doing today.”Multiple Russian drones were shot down by Nato forces last week More

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he never would have appointed Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US if he had known the full extent of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein in his first public comments since the Labour peer’s sacking on Friday.As he sought to get back on the front foot after his ‘phase two’ plan for government seemed to fall apart before it began with two weeks of chaos, the prime minister gave an interview to broadcasters in an attempt to move on from the crisis.But even as he tried to bolster his own weakened position, Sir Keir was rocked by yet another resignation of a key aide with Paul Ovenden quitting as head of strategy in a fresh scandal.Sir Keir was already facing an angry parliamentary Labour Party after two MPs openly suggested that he could be ousted while a senior minister told The Independent that he is “screwed”.It came as two of the UK’s leading pollsters warned that Labour is facing even worse problems in public opinion with one suggesting the party “is yet to hit rock bottom”.Starmer is fighting for his political life as PM More

Nigel Farage has been accused of “vile homophobia” for claiming straight couples are more stable than gay relationships during a press conference welcoming former Conservative MP Danny Kruger to Reform UK. The Reform leader said “the most stable relationships tend to be between men and women” after he was asked about past comments made by the right-winger, who became the first sitting Tory MP to join Mr Farage’s party. Mr Kruger, who was shadow work and pensions minister for Kemi Badenoch’s party, previously told a National Conservatism conference that marriage between men and women was “the only basis for a safe and successful society”.Nigel Farage claimed straight couples are more stable than gay relationships More