UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBoris Johnson has recorded campaign videos for a number of his Tory MP supporters as he continues to snub Rishi Sunak. The former PM said he was “passionate” that voters should re-elect ally Sir Simon Clarke, who tried to oust Mr Sunak as leader earlier this year warning that the party faced an electoral “massacre” if he remained in charge. Mr Johnson also urged voters in Peterborough to re-elect Paul Bristow and backed Nick Fletcher in Doncaster East. The videos appeared on X, formerly Twitter, just hours after a new poll showed Nigel Farage’s Reform party had overtaken the Conservatives for the first time.Former prime minister Boris Johnson (Jonathan Brady/PA) More

Nigel Farage teases leader of the opposition credentials as he makes Tory party declarationSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNigel Farage has declared himself as the “new opposition” following a groundbreaking YouGov poll that put Reform ahead of the Conservatives for the first time in history. Speaking during a press conference in London, the party leader called Sir Keir Starmer to go on a head-to-head televised debate to challenge his policies on migration. With only three weeks before election day, the prime minister insisted the Conservatives will not come third at the general election and said they are “still fighting hard fore every vote”.Speaking from Italy where is attending the G7 leaders summit, Mr Sunak warned people against voting for Nigel Farage’s party as they will make Labour win and hand Sir Keir Starmer a “blank cheque”. It comes as Mr Farage claimed that postal ballot is open to fraud and intimidation adding “it happens in this country all the time” while he was quizzed by callers on BBC’s 5 Live. But the Electoral Commission has said that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the UK.Show latest update 1718369289Reform UK press conference has now endedHere are the top lines from what Nigel Farage said: Mr Farage has declared Reform UK the new “opposition” after their leading YouGov poll result over the Tories.He has challenged Sir Keir Starmer to go face to face on a televised debate. The Reform leader refused to say how many seats he would like to win but claimed they are going to get “very substantial number of votes” at the general election. He said the Conservative party “will not be in power for a decade, maybe more” and they are “finished”. Mr Farage claimed Reform is a “long-term” project that is  “building of a big movement” ready for the next general election in 2029. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media during a press conference at The Wellington, central London, while on the General Election campaign trail More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour is mulling the biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades as Keir Starmer seeks to deliver on his key manifesto commitments. The move could see the Labour leader heading up new groups designed to cut through civil service silos and delays.Under the plans Labour could force departments to work together under ‘boards’ designed to pursue its “missions” for government, the Financial Times reports.These missions include creating economic growth, rebuilding the NHS, investment in green energy and tackling crime.Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer launches his party’s manifesto at Co-op HQ in Manchester More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak blew £50 of taxpayers’ cash on a custom stamp to film a gimmicky pre-election video boasting about his crackdown on student visas, The Independent can reveal.The prime minister sent a Downing Street staffer on the hunt in London for an ink-stamp in the shape of the word “stopped”, before slapping it on examples of visa applicants he was barring from Britain.Rishi Sunak said he wants to bring net migration to ‘sustainable levels’ (Justin Tallis/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Tories have launched an astonishing attack on Labour today suggesting that a Keir Starmer led government would be the first in history to levy capital gains taxes on people when they sell their primary homes.Such a move could cause a crash in the housing market and was based on Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner failing to respond to Tory cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt’s claim on capital gains tax on primary residents last night.The allegations came in the Tory response to Labour’s manifesto launch yesterday. it was part of a wider document produced by the Tories alleging Labour was planning 18 new taxes secretatly to make up what the Conservatives claim is £38.5 billion black hole in their manifesto pledges.While Sir Keir and his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves have ruled out raising taxes on the big three – VAT, income tax and national insurance – they have left the door open on other taxes but insisted “there are no plans” to increase them. Laura Trott headed the tax briefing More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Green Party has removed an image of a coughing man from its online manifesto after a backlash over its depiction of people with HIV.The image appeared in an easy read version of the environmentalist party’s manifesto in the section describing its pledge to end HIV transmission by 2030.However, the left-wing party were accused of being “misleading” for using the image by social media users.One person said: “Not @TheGreenParty using this diagram in their easy read manifesto on their HIV commitment. Maybe a slight implication that people living with HIV are sick (and… dare I say, airborne contagious). Which would be incorrect.”Luke Robert Black, the chairman of LGBT+ Conservatives, posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Any implication that HIV+ people are “contagious” (esp. airborne) is wrong and misleading. So long as you are on effective treatment, you cannot pass HIV on.”Easy read documents are produced to help make text easier to understand and can be helpful for people with learning difficulties.In its manifesto launched on Wednesday, the Green Party pledged “no more HIV transmissions by 2030”.It said this will involve giving people access to the “HIV prevention pill online, in pharmacies and from GP services, and renewing successful opt-out HIV testing programmes in A&Es in all areas with a high prevalence of HIV”.On the easy-read version the image of the unwell man has now been replaced by a hand holding a pill.A spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales said: “Soon after publication we were alerted to how an image we used in our easy-read manifesto could be misinterpreted.“For clarity we temporarily took the manifesto down to replace this image with a more suitable image that better communicates our policy to work towards no more HIV transmissions by 2030.”According to HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust, the most recent UK-wide figures indicated around 106,890 people were living with HIV in the UK in 2019. In 2021, a further 2,692 people were diagnosed with HIV in England, 218 in Scotland, and 60 in Wales. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNigel Farage has said Adolf Hitler was “hypnotic in a very dangerous way” as a public speaker and spoke again of his admiration for Vladimir Putin as a “political operator”.The Reform UK leader was asked about the Nazi Germany dictator, his views on the Russian president and offered his opinion about the ongoing war in Ukraine.In 2014, Mr Farage said Mr Putin was the world leader he most admires and praised his his “brilliant” handling of the civil war in Syria.The Reform leader, challenged about his previous remarks admiring the Russian president as a “operator”, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Yeah, but not as a human being.”Asked why, Mr Farage replied: “How many years has he been in power? He’s gone from prime minister, to president, he’s a clever political operator. He kills journalists, I don’t like him as a human being in any way at all.“You can recognise the fact that some people are good at what they do even if they have evil intent.”Asked if Hitler was good at what he did, Mr Farage replied: “What, as a public speaker? What do you think? Clearly, hypnotic in a very dangerous way.”His comments about Hitler come after a Reform contender said that Britain should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis in the Second World War.Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also said praised Mr Putin, as reported by the BBC.The Reform leader tried to dismiss the concerns on Monday, saying that “every party will suffer” controversy triggered by its candidates in a snap election.At the BBC phone-in Mr Farage was also asked about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In 2022, he said the Russian invasion occurred because of Western provocation of Mr Putin.He said the attack was a consequence of Nato and the EU trying to “poke the Russian bear with a stick”.On Friday he suggested Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky should enter negotiations with Russia, although he acknowledged Kyiv’s Western allies will continue support to support them.Mr Farage said: “This war has been going on for years, it is likely to go on for many, many more years.“We’re looking at something like a million casualties between the two sides.”Mr Farage added: “I’m not saying we shouldn’t support Ukraine at all, not for one minute, but at the end of the day most wars end in negotiation and I fear, if we don’t find some way of at least sitting down and talking, that we’re going to finish up with a war that goes on for year after year after year.”He said he believed the “big difficulty would be Crimea”, adding: “Is it a bad idea to get people to sit around a table and talk?”Mr Farage was asked what he would say if he was in a position of influence and had a meeting with Mr Zelensky.He said: “I’d say to Zelensky, look, the West have been supporting you, they will go on supporting you but the percentage of your young manhood that you’re losing is so bad, isn’t it time we at least tried to have a negotiation – he couldn’t say no.”Additional reporting by PA More