UK Politics

A shock new poll has revealed that even a majority of Reform UK supporters now want to unpick parts of Brexit and move the UK closer to the EU.The major YouGov survey of 2,224 voters has underlined a significant shift in attitudes to the Brexit debate and suggests that Nigel Farage’s continued hostility towards the EU is not even landing with his own party’s supporters.According to the findings, 55 per cent of Reform UK (previously the Brexit Party) voters want a permanent youth mobility scheme for young people in the UK and Europe to be put in place with just 34 per cent opposing.Even Reform supporters are now leaning towards closer ties with the EU More

Stolen mobile phones could soon be permanently disabled in a bid to combat the soaring levels of theft across the UK – but a security expert fears it may not be enough to stop the problem of fraud.Labour MP Dawn Butler is seeking an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which would require mobile phone companies to block stolen phones within 48 hours of a police report and pay financial penalties if they fail to do so. In theory, this would discourage people from swiping them as they would lose resale value.Ms Butler, who has recently announced she will stand for London mayor if Sadiq Khan stands down, said: “Tech giants have a clear responsibility here: the tools already exist to disable stolen devices, and it’s time to use them.”Dawn Butler, who is tabling the amendment, is the Labour MP for Brent East More

While shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has become the British political poster boy for weight-loss jabs, one of his former colleagues has been less impressed.Tory peer Ed Vaizey has been left frustrated in his bid to trim his weight by taking Mounjaro.The ex-culture minister told The Independent that despite hundreds of thousands of people shedding pounds from taking weight-loss jabs, in his experience it was “certainly not a miracle drug” – but admitted he could have taken other measures to help him lose weight.“My suspicion is that I am a typical man in the sense that I think ‘I buy this drug, I inject it, it should do all the work.’ But I suspect that if I stop drinking and had a reasonably sensible diet, it would probably have helped me lose weight quicker than if I was just doing it as a diet,” he said. Ed Vaizey is a little frustrated with weight-loss treatments More

A senior cabinet minister has accused Nigel Farage and Reform UK of “whipping up anger” as tensions mount around migrant hotels.Education secretary Bridget Phillipson claimed that Reform leader Mr Farage has “no interest” in finding solutions to the migrant crisis and small boats and is using it to build political support.Her comments came less than 24 hours after Reform was forced to suspend a councillor in Epping, James Regan, over racist comments on social media while he was taking part in protests outside the Bell Hotel in the Essex town.The 61-year-old councillor described the hotel as “a third world paedophile babysitting centre”, among other remarks.Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (Lucy North/PA) More

Elon Musk appeared to compare the U.K. police to Nazi war criminals in a post on X as he ratcheted up his anti-immigration crusade across the pond. Since being ousted from the U.S. government following a very public fallout with President Donald Trump, Musk has turned his attention back to stoking the flames in the U.K., which is currently engulfed in an immigration row. Anti-immigration protesters and anti-racism demonstrators have clashed in heated rallies across the country in recent weeks, after the U.K. government won a court challenge allowing asylum seekers to continue to be housed at a hotel in Epping, Essex, in Southeast England. Musk shared a post on his social media platform from a user that referenced the post-WWII Nuremberg trials, where the defense of “just following orders” was used by Nazi officials who committed crimes against humanity in the Holocaust. After the trials, one of the seven Nuremberg Principles makes clear that a person who “acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.” Elon Musk has been fanning the flames of protests in the U.K. More

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that Labour must take decisive action on the migrant crisis or risk losing voters to Reform UK, after the government won a significant court challenge over asylum hotels. Lord Falconer, who served under former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, backed the government’s decision to fight an injunction that would have seen asylum seekers moved out of the protest-hit Bell Hotel in Epping. He said people were demanding action to close asylum hotels. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve obviously got to move forward in relation to closing the hotels and also stopping the crossings.“The government always has the burden of doing what’s possible and the government is doing the right thing in relation to it, but there’s a lot more to do, and if we don’t, as a government, do it, then you’ll see those opinion polls raised yet further for Reform, because they don’t have the burden of having to be practical.”His intervention comes after Court of Appeal judges revoked a ban on housing asylum seekers at the hotel, which has been plagued by unrest. They said the move would have “obvious consequences” for the government’s duty to house asylum seekers and could “incentivise” other councils to seek similar legal action if allowed. Labour grandee Lord Falconer has said Labour must take decision action or risk losing voters to Reform UK More

Rachel Reeves has been warned she faces having to break Labour’s manifesto pledge not to increase taxes on working people after leading economists said “fiddling around” with smaller taxes – like a mansion tax and a gambling levy – would not be enough to fill the black hole in the Budget.The warning has been led by Lord Jim O’Neill, the economist, former Treasury minister and ex-Goldman Sachs chairman who was brought in by Ms Reeves as a top advisor.He told The Independent: “I don’t think fiddling around with smaller taxes any longer is likely to yield much fruit.”Instead, the chancellor has been told by leading think tanks that, if she wants to maintain her spending plans and fiscal rules on borrowing, she will likely have to raise income tax, VAT or employee national insurance – breaking one of Labour’s key manifesto pledges. Rachel Reeves is faced with a potential £41.2bn black hole in government finances (Oliver McVeigh/PA) More

A Reform UK-led council is taking down the display of St George’s Cross and the Union Flag across Durham over concerns for public safety. Durham County Council said it had noticed an increased number of flags across the county that it believed were compromising public safety for both drivers and pedestrians. It said other displays, such as painted markings on the roads, roundabouts and zebra crossings, had also been noticed. It has warned residents not to hang flags in areas that may obstruct visibility for drivers or pedestrians, or in locations where they are poorly secured. In a statement on Friday, the council said: “While we understand and respect the community’s desire to express national pride, celebration, or remembrance, it is important to ensure such expressions do not compromise public safety.“Yesterday we were left with no choice but to remove bunting across a road at New Brancepeth, following a risk assessment. The rope involved was so strong that, had a high-sided vehicle driven into it, the poles it was attached to could have been pulled down.” The council said that initially it would only be removing displays that were a hazard to the public More