UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNigel Farage’s latest rally was disrupted after political activists lowered a remote-controlled banner showing Vladimir Putin behind him while he spoke. While talking at The Columbine Centre in Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, the Reform UK leader was initially unaware that the Russian president was on the poster, with the words ‘I heart Nigel’ written below. He can be heard asking “Who put that up there?” before joking: “Someone at The Columbine Centre needs to get the sack”. Two staff members attempted to get rid of the banner, while audience members cheered and chanted “Rip it down”. On their social media page, the group Led By Donkeys, who have previously targeted Mr Farage, wrote: “We just dropped in on Farage’s election rally with a beaming picture of Putin. Nigel was not pleased.”Mr Farage has previously come under scrutiny for his comments on Putin, who has been president or prime minister of Russia since 1999.When previously asked about him, Mr Farage told the BBC’s Nick Robinson: “I said I disliked him as a person, but I admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.”He recently became embroiled in a war of words with former prime minister Boris Johnson, after he said that the West provoked Russia’s to invade Ukraine.Writing in the Telegraph last Saturday, he urged readers not to “blame” him for “telling the truth about Putin’s war”.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would ‘never, ever defend’ Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he ramped up his row with former prime minister Boris Johnson (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservatives’ “project fear” tactic deployed to scare voters with the threat of a Labour “supermajority” has spectacularly backfired, new polling has revealed.According to findings from Techne UK for The Independent, twice as many people are “more likely” to vote Labour (26 per cent) than more likely to vote Conservative (13 per cent) as a result of the warning used by Rishi Sunak and senior Conservatives about handing Sir Keir Starmer too much power.The tactic was also used to try to prevent Tory voters defecting to Reform, but almost one in 10 (9 per cent) said the warning had in fact made them “more likely” to vote for Nigel Farage’s party.The survey’s findings appear to confirm warnings by former chancellor George Osborne – whose own project fear tactics were blamed for defeat in the EU Brexit referendum – that Mr Sunak and the Tories were “fighting the wrong campaign”.He had warned they were too focused on Reform and letting Labour “run rampant” in so-called blue wall safe seats.But the polling by Techne has offered the Tories a slither of hope with postal voting.While just under a quarter of those voting have said they will vote by post, the results break much more favourably for the Conservatives and Reform UK.Considering only the vote by post, the Conservatives would get 30 per cent, Labour 33 per cent, Reform UK 26 per cent and the Lib Dems 6 per cent.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives in Redcar, North Yorkshire, while on the campaign trail More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailReform UK has dropped three more candidates and said it has reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, after the broadcaster released footage of an activist campaigning for Nigel Farage using a racial slur to describe Rishi Sunak.Edward Oakenfull, Robert Lomas, and Leslie Lilley, will still appear on the ballot paper as Reform candidates as it is too late for them to be removed, but they are no longer being backed by the party.Mr Oakenfull posted offensive comments about the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans on social media last year. He told the BBC the remarks were “taken out of context”.Mr Lilley reportedly posted on social media that people arriving on small boats were “scum”. Meanwhile, Mr Lomas allegedly said black people should “get off [their] lazy arses” and stop acting “like savages”.The party dropping its candidates comes after an undercover report on activists involved in Nigel Farage’s bid to win a parliamentary seat in Clacton, Essex.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking during a BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special (Peter Byrne/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak’s Labour opponent in his Richmond and Northallerton seat in Yorkshire has accused him of “panicking” as the prime minister campaigned to save his own seat in the last weekend before polling day.Tom Wilson, the 29-year-old NHS worker and musician who spoke to The Independent last weekend, has questioned why the prime minister’s team apparently tried to arrange a hustings in the seat with farmers and then pulled out.Mr Sunak, who was campaigning in the North East yesterday to be close to his seat for the weekend, is potentially facing the prospect of being the first prime minister to lose his constituency in an election in British history.Some recent polls have suggested the result in the rural seat, which covers part of the Yorkshire Dales but recently elected a Labour regional mayor, is “too close to call”.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with his wife Akshata Murty More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPensioners whizz around on mobility scooters, pirate-themed boats sail by, couples clutch each other’s hands. Welcome to Whitby: the seaside town in North Yorkshire that has lent its name to a target voter in the general election race.The so-called “Whitby woman”, a term coined by polling think-tank More in Common, is a Tory voter who remains undecided about who will get her vote on 4 July. With an average age of around 61, she is a homeowner who lives in a suburb or a small town like Whitby, who voted in favour of Brexit and is less likely to have gone to university.And her actions are expected by some to have an impact on whether the Tories suffer a landslide defeat, fall to a narrow defeat, or cling onto power.Bar her age, Sadie Myers, who has an antique shop in Whitby called Den of Antiquity, perfectly fits the profile of the “Whitby woman”.“It’s like opening a box of chocolates that look different but all taste the same,” the 49-year-old says of the political leaders. “You get bored.”Ms Myers is not a fan of Rishi Sunak or Sir Keir Starmer so is thinking of leaning towards Nigel Farage’s Reform.”I take pride in the fact that I always vote,” she says. “I think it’s very important, especially for women. We earned the right to vote and we need to hold onto that, you know. When you are not given people that you can warm to, it makes it very difficult.”Surrounded by figurines of Betty Boop and the Buddha, it is clear Ms Myers, who was born into the antiques and jewellery industry, has an encyclopaediac knowledge of the many miscellaneous items she peddles.Meanwhile, as a 61-year-old lifelong Tory who voted for Brexit, Liz Richards closely aligns with the Whitby woman. Despite voting for the Tories her whole life, she is adamant they will not be getting her vote this time.“The main reason, to be honest, is Covid,” Ms Richards tells The Independent from behind the counter of her gift shop. Whitby night sky More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email“On the doorsteps I’ve noticed a real shift,” Johnny Mercer tells his assembled troops on the grass verge at a post-war council housing estate on the northwestern fringe of Plymouth.Poring over a road map, the 42-year-old former Commando, wearing a polo shirt, combat trousers and rough-terrain shoes, says people are not liking Sir Keir Starmer, but that many are “pi**ed off” and don’t want to vote.“I get that,” he says, before pushing the message to the small group that a local vote for Reform UK means Labour dominance across the city, with a second constituency likely already in their hands and a party-run city council.“We can do this is. Don’t be downhearted – it has been difficult here,” he rounds off before thanking the mostly volunteer “heroes” for their support.It’s more Duke of Edinburgh than a tour in Afghanistan but for Mr Mercer, this is a tough election assignment.Mr Mercer told The Independent he will serve just one more term if he is re-elected due to the scale of abuse aimed at himself and his family.Yet the campaign is one he appears to be relishing, marching down the street with his wife and “greatest asset”, Felicity Cornelius-Mercer, to knock on doors as passing motorists wave and sound their horns.The day kicks off with Mr Mercer directing his team on door knocking duties More