UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe leader of Reform UK has warned his candidates not to use social media after drinking alcohol, to avoid posting “inappropriate” comments.The party has ditched seven candidates for the upcoming election following complaints about their social media posts.Mr Tice said every party has their share of “morons” but added that he is committed to kicking them out quickly.At a press conference in London, he said: “We’re very clear to all our candidates, for heaven’s sake if you’re going to have a glass on a Friday night then don’t use social media.“It’s not sensible, if someone lets us down hereafter, then frankly if it is inappropriate, if it is unacceptable, then we’re going to part company.“So you can have your freedom of speech, your freedom of expression, that doesn’t mean you have the right to represent Reform UK as a parliamentary candidate, because that’s our choice.”Campaign group Hope Not Hate found tweets by candidates Jonathan Kay and Mick Greenhough in which they made derogatory comments about Muslims and Black people.Mr Kay, who was standing for election in South Ribble, tweeted in 2019 that Muslims “never coexist with others” and should be deported, and claimed Africans had IQs “among the lowest in the world”.Mr Greenhough, who was the Reform candidate in Orpington, tweeted in 2023 that “the only solution” was to “remove the Muslims from our territory” and in 2019 said Ashkenazi Jews were a “problem” and had “caused the world massive misery”.Hope Not Hate, which campaigns against the far right, said the pair were “wildly unsuitable for public office”.Both men were removed as Reform candidates, following the publication of Hope Not Hate’s findings last week.Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is Reform UK’s honorary president (Victoria Jones/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailOfcom is investigating whether shadow foreign secretary David Lammy’s show on LBC breached broadasting rules, the watchdog has said.The regulator said it was probing whether the Labour’s frontbencher’s programme on 29 March “broke our rules on politicians acting as news presenters”, it said on Monday.During that broadcast, Mr Lammy read out a breaking news bulletin, informing listeners of his LBC show that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had resigned as DUP leader after being charged with allegations of a historical nature.Ofcom is understood to be investigating the programme in relation to two sections of the Broadcasting Code, which state that news in whatever form must be presented with due impartiality, and that politicians cannot act as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes without exceptional editorial justification.As such, the regulator concluded last month that five programmes on GB News – featuring politicians acting as news presenters – broke broadcasting due impartiality rules.Days later, GB News broadcaster Darren Grimes was among those sharing a clip of Mr Lammy’s progrmame on 29 March as he broke the news of Sir Jeffrey’s resignation. Mr Grimes wrote: “Dear Ofcom, I assume you’ll be sanctioning them for this, as you did GB News.”Ofcom is understood to have received 53 complaints about Mr Lammy’s broadcast.While the arrival of GB News and its penchant for employing former and sitting Conservative MPs has intensified debate over the role of politicians in broadcasting, Ofcom chief Baron Michael Grade told the BBC last year that “we don’t want to be in the business of telling broadcasters, licensees, who they can employ, who they can’t employ”.Jacob Rees-Mogg hits out at ‘old-fashioned’ Ofcom after GB News rulingHe added: “Our job is to ensure … within the rules of due impartiality that there is plenty of choice and freedom of expression on the airwaves.”In addition to its probe into Mr Lammy, Ofcom announced on Monday that it had “warned TalkTV after potentially highly offensive comments were made by presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer”.In an interview about the Israel-Gaza war, Ms Hartley-Brewer had claimed that Dr Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, was perhaps “not used to women talking”.Ofcom said: “Strong guidance has been issued, but following a careful assessment we have decided not to formally investigate.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailVladimir Putin will seek to exploit Rishi Sunak’s retreat from the European Convention on Human Rights, Gordon Brown has said in a stark warning to the prime minister.The former Labour PM accused Mr Sunak’s government of “systematically undermining” international law, warning that the Russian president – who is subject to an international arrest warrant over war crime allegations – would capitalise on any steps to “ridicule the legitimacy” of human rights law.Mr Sunak has threatened to pull the UK out of the convention if it stymies his flagship policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. His looming new legislation will disapply sections of both the ECHR and the Human Rights Act – after British judges ruled the East African country was not safe for refugees.The UK has previously urged Russia to abide by a European court order relating to Moscow’s jailing of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour will digitise the NHS red book parents use for their children’s medical records as part of a series of reforms to the NHS app.Parents and the NHS would be able to see if children are behind on jabs or check-ups through a new digital record, with automatic notifications to prompt them to book appointments under the party’s plans.The red book has been handed out to new parents for the past 30 years.The problems with the NHS are clear. It’s a 20th century service that hasn’t changed with the times and isn’t fit for the modern eraWes StreetingPrevious health secretaries have hoped to digitise it during their tenure, including Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock, but so far the plans have not borne out.Labour hopes its plans will help to boost MMR vaccination rates, which have fallen in recent years.Measles outbreaks have at the same time become more common.Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “A child born today will live to see the 22nd century and things we can’t begin to imagine. Labour wants them to be part of the healthiest generation that ever lived. That’s why we will digitise the red book, so children’s health records are on the NHS App.“This major step will transform children’s healthcare and will mean more children protected against measles. Now measles is back. It’s hard to think of a clearer sign of Britain’s decline under the Tories.“With the red book on the app, the NHS will be able to notify every parent of an unprotected child, give them accurate information about the MMR vaccine, and invite their child to get vaccinated. That’s how a modern health service would tackle this public health crisis.”Writing in the Sun newspaper, Mr Streeting insisted the NHS was “a service, not a shrine”.He added: “It is judged by how well it serves the public, not how heavy a price we’re paying for failure.“The problems with the NHS are clear. It’s a 20th century service that hasn’t changed with the times and isn’t fit for the modern era.”Labour will also commit to give patients greater control over their own healthcare through the NHS app.This would include access to their medical records on their phone, notifications about screenings and vaccines they are eligible for, and being told what care they can expect when diagnosed with long-term conditions like asthma or diabetes.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed his party would “give power to the patient”, and that GPs could ensure “time isn’t wasted on box-ticking”.“In 2024, patients still wait on the phone at 8am, or even queue up in person, just to see a doctor. It’s no wonder so many people don’t bother or don’t have time, illness is caught too late, pressures on the NHS pile up, and lives are lost,” he said.Sir Keir added: “The app shouldn’t just be for healthcare, but healthier living too. When you reach the right age, you’ll receive notifications for jabs, tests and screening, to catch diseases like breast and bowel cancer early.” More

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insightThe boss of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has hit out at Conservative ministers for rushing Brexit and said the government “got wrong” some aspects of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.Tom Bradshaw, who has replaced Minette Batters at the top of the NFU, which represents more than 46,000 farmers and growers across England and Wales, said ministers “should have taken some of our warnings [about Brexit] at face value”.The arable farmer from Essex, who took over from Ms Batters in February, said members are traditionally “big supporters” of the Tories.But he said “many are feeling let down” by post-Brexit trade deals and said the government “did not consult and did not listen” to farmers when leaving the EU.A group of farmers in tractors descended on London to protest in March More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe boss of a major charity on the frontline of Britain’s drug deaths crisis has challenged authorities by announcing that he plans to open potentially life-saving overdose prevention facilities in a matter of months – with or without their help.As drugs charities brace for a feared influx of lethally strong synthetic opioids to hit the UK, experts are urging Rishi Sunak’s government to end its longstanding opposition to facilities where people can consume illicit drugs in the presence of trained staff armed with the overdose reversal drug naloxone.While Scotland is now pushing ahead to create the UK’s first official facility in Glasgow, after a game-changing intervention by the country’s top legal authority put an end to a long-running Holyrood-Westminster dispute, hopes for similar services in England and Wales are yet to materialise.Exasperated by years of fruitless discussions while drug deaths mount, and bolstered by developments in Scotland, Martin Blakeborough, chief executive of the charity Kaleidoscope has now told The Independent that he plans to pilot several “micro” drug consumption spaces in south Wales as early as this summer – potentially even sooner than in Glasgow.“It’s an active debate we’re now having in Wales which I’ve basically forced onto the agenda, partly by saying, ‘We’re going to start this service with or without you,’” said Mr Blakeborough. “We’ve been discussing this in Wales for 10 years, and we’ve done nothing,” he added. “The Scottish one gave me the confidence to say, ‘I’m going to blow your cover now, I’m going to cause a fuss about this,’ and at long last it’s gone up the political agenda.”There are over 200 such overdose prevention services across 17 countries, including the US, Canada, France, Australia and Iceland. Some facilities have reversed thousands of overdoses, without a single death, while being proven to cause no increase in the number of people using drugs, generally reducing or having no impact on local crime levels, and often dramatically reducing drug-related litter and incidents of street injecting.Despite this, the facilities have long been rejected – and even mocked – by the current Westminster government. Meanwhile, drug deaths have risen for 11 consecutive years in England and Wales to break grim new records, having nearly doubled since 2012.But after activist Peter Krykant risked arrest in 2020 to offer such services out of a repurposed ambulance, Scotland’s lord advocate intervened last year to say such prosecutions “would not be in the public interest”. As a result, the UK government has now relented that it will not block such services in Scotland, potentially paving the way for others to follow suit in parts of England and Wales, dependent on the support of police and local leaders.Peter Krykant’s unsanctioned facility reversed nine overdoses among nearly 900 supervised injections over the space of nine months, a study found More