UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA leading think tank has accused Nigel Farage’s Reform of poisoning the debate around painful economic choices, as it warned it would be a “considerable surprise” if there are no further tax rises in the next five years.Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, slammed the Tory and Labour manifestos, saying they leave voters “guessing”.But he also hit out at Reform and the Greens for “unattainable” tax claims he said had made offerings from other parties look “feeble”. Their pledges were helping to “poison the entire political debate”, he said.The attack comes as Mr Farage faces a growing backlash on another front, over his claim the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Mr Johnson also accused Labour and the Conservatives of making “essentially unfunded commitments” to improve the NHS as he said a conspiracy of silence between the main parties over difficult decisions after the election was leaving voters in the dark. Paul Johnson, director of the IFS appearing on the BBC One current affairs programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. More

A cabinet minister has said he would place bets on “individual seats” as he has done in the past if he were “allowed to bet on the election”.It comes as the Conservative Party is embroiled in controversy involving allegations of insider betting on the date of the general election before it was announced by Rishi Sunak.Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris on Monday 24 June revealed how he would bet on the election if it was permitted.“If I was allowed to bet on the election, I would do what I have done in the past which is have bets on individual seats,” he told Times Radio.Mr Heaton-Harris, who is not seeking re-election on 4 July, also said he was “not really” a betting man. More

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg is one of the Conservatives most prominent politicians to be facing the very real threat of losing their seat at the general election in July 2024. Alex Ross spent the morning with the Tory member for North east Somerset and Hanham on the campaign trail. As Rees-Mogg went from door to door in an affluent area, it wasn’t so much his Labour competitor Dan Norris exciting voters but Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Can the Conservatives have any hope with Farage in the picture? Get all your latest election news with The Indepedent. More

Nigel Farage has claimed former US President Donald Trump “learned a lot” from studying his speeches in the European Parliament before he ran for office.Speaking to ITV News in the latest of The Leader Interviews, which will air at 7pm on Monday 24 June, the Reform UK leader denied he thought he was was Britain’s version of Mr Trump.“He’s learned quite a lot from me, I think it goes both ways,” Mr Farage said“I mean, he was watching my speeches in the European Parliament for many years… Before he decided to run.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak is under mounting pressure to intervene in the Tory general election betting scandal, with senior figures calling on him to act.The prime minister has been urged to suspend all those under investigation from the party immediately and hold a Cabinet Office inquiry into the scandal.Party chair Richard Holden, who is responsible for overseeing the Conservative general election campaign, has remained tight-lipped on the crisis.Click here for our live coverage of the general election campaignA former Tory minister and the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats are among those who joined the growing call for the people involved to be suspended.Rishi Sunak has been urged to suspend all those involved in the scandal 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 insightWhen Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen was at school, his history teacher would be going through an episode in Europe’s chronicles and note: “That’s something Mr Habsburg surely knows about.”He would be referring to the many events linked to the 850-year history of the Habsburg empire which touched almost every corner of Europe right up until the end of the First World War.Mr Habsburg – now Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See in Rome – admitted that at the time he did not know as much as someone from such an eminent family perhaps should.Speaking to The Independent, he joked: “You realise you don’t know, of course, because you’re not born with knowledge about the Habsburgs. Yes, so you begin to read, and that’s how I got to understand that – apart from England and France – in all the rest of Europe – German speaking, central Europe, Balkans, Italy, the Habsburgs were a big deal.”Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen speaks to The Independent More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWealthy donors aiming to woo Sir Keir Starmer’s party ahead of its likely win in next month’s election have helped Labour overtake the Tory party in receiving political donations, latest figures show.Labour has landed £15.5m in funding so far this year from individuals, companies, unions and others, exceeding the £9.9m handed to the Conservatives.While the Tories have historically found more favour with companies and individuals, Labour typically receives substantially higher donations from trade unions. They contributed 26 per cent of the Labour Party’s fundraising since the last election in 2019, at £25.3m. Overall, Tory donations are still well ahead at £111.9m, topping Labour’s figure of £98.7m.However, The Independent has found that individual donors have been dwindling in their support of the Tories, and flocking to Labour – with some even switching sides.While major donors such as controversial businessman Frank Hester have stayed loyal to the Tories (to the tune of £15m), others like Crystal Palace investor Jeremy Hosking have turned to back competing parties, including Reclaim and Reform. Meanwhile, the two Lord Sainsburys – cousins and heirs to the fortune – have planted their cash in opposite camps. Figures out earlier this week showed Labour received £4.4m between 6-12 June while the Conservatives received just £292,500.Read on to find information on the big-name donors staking their cash on the major parties. Frank HesterFrank Hester donated £10m to the Tories last year, according to Electoral Commission records.He individually donated £5m to Mr Sunak’s party in May and gave another £5m via his IT company in November.Mr Hester came under fire earlier this year accused of saying in 2019 that Diane Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving black MP made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.Frank Hester donated £10m to the Tories in 2023 and £5m earlier this year More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe man who could become the face of the greatest shock in British political history has claimed that whether he wins or not, there is a “bubbling undercurrent” of change in the electorate which means once safe Tory strongholds will fall.Tom Wilson is the 29-year-old Labour candidate running against Rishi Sunak in Richmond and Northallerton who, according to polls last week, could be the first electoral “king killer” – in that he may be the first person to defeat a sitting prime minister in a general election.He became a person of interest for the entire political establishment when an MRP poll last week suggested Mr Sunak’s constituency was “too close to call”.For everyone looking for the so-called “Portillo moment” of this election – named after the shock defeat of Michael Portillo in the 1997 Tory collapse – this looked unbeatable.Sunak could be facing a Portillo moment, according to some polls More