UK Politics

Welsh Senedd member Laura Anne Jones has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK, becoming the party’s highest-profile defection in Wales. Nigel Farage announced the news at the Royal Welsh Show, with Ms Jones – who was first elected in 2003 – saying she could longer justify Conservative policies on the doorstep.Standing alongside Mr Farage, she said: “I’ve just suddenly felt that the Conservative Party was unrecognisable to me. It wasn’t the party that I joined over three decades ago.”She said Reform, meanwhile, was “listening to the people of Great Britain”.Ms Jones is the latest in a growing list of high-profile Tories to have defected to Reform, following former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry earlier this month, as well as Dame Andrea Jenkyns and former Wales secretary David Jones. Her defection means the Conservatives are down to 14 politicians in the Welsh Parliament, ahead of crunch elections next year.But who is Ms Jones?From waitressing to the Welsh AssemblyMs Jones was first elected to the then-National Assembly in 2003, becoming the joint-first Welsh Conservative female assembly member (AM).She had the backing of the Conservative Party despite a conviction for drink-driving in 2002, which saw her banned from driving for 12 months and fined £75. Jones said after the hearing: “I’ve never justified drink-driving and the decision is one I deserve. I’ve never done it on purpose.” She had been earning £5 per hour as a waitress before she was elected.Ms Jones served one term, until 2007, before returning in 2020 after the death of Mohammad Asghar. She was re-elected in 2021, for South Wales East.She once used a racist slur in a WhatsApp chatMs Jones hit the headlines last year when it emerged she had used a racist slur about Chinese people in a WhatsApp group chat.The Senedd member used the offensive term in an exchange about the Chinese-owned video app TikTok.She later apologised and issued a statement, saying the word was “unacceptable and I deeply regret using it”.”I sincerely apologise for any offence this has caused,” she added.Nigel Farage and former Conservative Member of the Senedd, Laura Anne Jones, at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show More

Moment Kemi Badenoch is announced as new Tory leader to replace Rishi SunakKemi Badenoch has given a top job to her former rival for the party leadership Sir James Cleverly, as she reshuffles her shadow cabinet ahead of the summer recess. The former foreign secretary becomes shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, opposite Labour’s Angela Rayner.But shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who also ran for the party leadership last year, is expected to miss out on a move to the highly coveted shadow chancellor role occupied by Sir Mel Stride. Mr Jenrick has strayed well beyond his justice brief, building a prominent social media presence with campaigns on issues from tackling fare dodgers on the London Underground to the effect of immigration on housing. Questions have also emerged whether other former ministers including Suella Braverman will be called upon for senior leadership positions. The reshuffle comes just eight months after Ms Badenoch was elected as leader of the opposition, with the Tories underperforming against the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. Shadow health and social care secretary Edward Argar has stepped back to the Conservative front bench. It’s understood his decision to leave the front bench follows a health scare. Trump visit will not impact policing in Scotland, says John SwinneyFirst minister John Swinney has shut down claims that the cost of Donald Trump’s visit later this week will put policing in Scotland “in a detrimental position.”The US president is due to arrive in Scotland later this week and visit both his golf courses in the country, but concerns have been raised about the policing operation required after substantial protests sprang up last time he visited – when he was no longer in office.He is expected to meet both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Swinney during his time in Scotland.Speaking to the PA news agency during a visit to Aberdeen, First Minister John Swinney said talks were still ongoing about how costs would be handled for the visit, but said that Scotland’s police force would not suffer as a result.( More

Kemi Badenoch has kicked off a reshuffle of her shadow cabinet, with Sir James Cleverly set to return to the Conservative Party front bench. The Tory leader is bringing her former leadership rival back to the frontline to build party unity and bolster the party’s credibility. A senior Tory source said Sir James would help “take the fight to this dreadful Labour government”. Kemi Badenoch launching a shadow Cabinet reshuffle More

A Reform UK council leader has said police should be given the power to “shoot people if necessary” as the party launches a crackdown on crime. Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran said police forces should have “the proper backing” to shoot those who pose a risk to officers or members of the public. Speaking to Times Radio, she said: “We must give our police force the proper backing to be able to do their job, to catch the criminals, to shoot people if necessary, if they feel that that person is going to present a real and present danger to either themselves and the police or to members of the public.Linden Kemkaran said police should have the power to shoot people if necessary More

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing further pressure over the UK’s public finances after official figures showed higher-than-expected government borrowing last month due to soaring debt interest payments.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said June borrowing rose to £20.7 billion last month – £6.6bn higher than a year earlier and the second highest June borrowing since records began, only behind that seen in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.The ONS said interest payable on debt jumped to £16.4bn due to a large rise in Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation impacting index-linked government bonds.June borrowing was higher than the £17.6bn expected by most economists and the £17.1bn forecast by Britain’s independent economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).The figures have stoked fears that the government will be forced to hike taxes in the autumn budget, with experts warning over “sin taxes” among measures to help the chancellor balance the books.Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey told MPs on Tuesday he was “not unconcerned” by increased government borrowing.But Mr Bailey stressed in the Treasury Select Committee session that it was part of a global trend.“The cost of borrowing has increased… but the important thing to say is that it is a global phenomenon,” he said.Borrowing for the first three months of the financial year to date stood at £57.8bn, £7.5bn more than the same three-month period in 2024, according to the ONS.The ONS said so-called compulsory social contributions, largely made up of national insurance contributions (NICs), jumped by £3.1bn to £17.5bn last month – the highest ever recorded for June.In the first three months of the financial year to date, these compulsory social contributions rose to £48bn, up £7.5bn year on year and marking another record.It followed the move by Rachel Reeves in April to increase NICs for employers, which has seen wage costs soar for firms across the UK as they also faced a rise in the minimum wage in the same month.Public sector net debt, excluding public sector banks, stood at £2.87trn at the end of June and was estimated at 96.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which was 0.5 percentage points higher than a year earlier and remains at levels last seen in the early 1960s.Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “We are committed to tough fiscal rules, so we do not borrow for day-to-day spending and get debt down as a share of our economy.”Economist Rob Wood, at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the chancellor has a “major problem” to overcome, “created by U-turns on previously planned spending cuts and possible downgrades to OBR growth forecasts this autumn”.He said: “We estimate that the chancellor’s £9.9bn of headroom has turned into a £13bn hole, meaning that Ms Reeves would need to raise taxes or cut spending by a little over £20bn in the autumn budget to restore her slim margin of headroom.“We expect ‘sin tax’ and duty hikes, freezing income tax thresholds for an extra year in 2029 and a pensions tax raid – reinstating the lifetime limit on pension pots and cutting relief – to fill most of the hole.”Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Rachel Reeves is spending money she doesn’t have.“Debt interest already costs taxpayers £100bn a year – almost double the defence budget – and it’s forecast to rise to £130bn on Labour’s watch.”Nabil Taleb, economist at PwC UK, said: “The OBR recently reported that the UK now has the third highest borrowing costs among advanced economies and with global uncertainty persisting, particularly around the impact of US policy, the cost of servicing UK debt could climb even higher.” More

The government has announced the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk will cost around £38 billion, with it being the biggest equity shareholder in the project.Energy secretary Ed Miliband has signed off on the final investment decision for the development, with the UK government investing a 44.9 per cent stake. New Sizewell C investors include La Caisse with 20 per cent, Centrica with 15 per cent, and Amber Infrastructure with an initial 7.6 per cent.It comes alongside French energy giant EDF announcing earlier this month it was taking a 12.5 per cent stake – lower than its previously stated 16.2 per cent ownership.A general view of main generator 1, at the Sizewell nuclear power plant in Suffolk (James Manning/PA) More

Businesses will have to notify the government if they plan on paying a ransom to cyber criminals under new proposals, which also aim to clamp down on ransom demands to the NHS, local councils and schools.The Home Office’s proposals come after Marks & Spencer has refused to say if it paid a ransom to hackers in a major attack earlier this year.New measures would ban public sector bodies and operators of critical national infrastructure from paying ransom demands to hackers.The Home Office said this would help “smash the cyber criminal business model” and make UK public services and businesses a less attractive target for ransomware groups.Nearly three-quarters of respondents involved in a public consultation, opened in January, showed support for the proposal, it said.Furthermore, under the proposals, businesses not covered by the ban would be required to notify the government if they intended to pay a ransom.The Government hopes this would allow it to give affected businesses advice and support, including alerting them if such a payment would risk breaking the law by sending money to sanctioned cyber criminal groups, many of whom are based in Russia.Ransomware refers to software used by cyber criminals to access the computer systems of its victims, which can then be encrypted or data stolen until a ransom is paid.M&S was targeted by hackers in April, forcing it to shut down its website for six weeks and costing the business an estimated £300 million.Co-op also had to shut off parts of its IT systems after a cyber attack that resulted in all 6.5 million of its members’ personal data being stolen – including names, addresses and contact information.M&S’s chair Archie Norman said earlier this month that the hack was believed to be instigated by hacking group Scattered Spider and an Asia-based ransomware operation named DragonForce.He refused to say whether or not the retailer had paid a ransomware demand following the attack, but said the “damage had been done” once its systems were compromised.Security minister Dan Jarvis said: “Ransomware is a predatory crime that puts the public at risk, wrecks livelihoods and threatens the services we depend on.“That’s why we’re determined to smash the cyber criminal business model and protect the services we all rely on as we deliver our plan for change.”The chief executive of the British Library, Rebecca Lawrence, said it had been the “victim of a devastating ransomware attack in October 2023”.“The attack destroyed our technology infrastructure and continues to impact our users, however, as a public body, we did not engage with the attackers or pay the ransom,” she said.“Instead, we are committed to sharing our experiences to help protect other institutions affected by cyber crime and build collective resilience for the future.”Co-op’s chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said she welcomed the Government’s proposals, adding: “We know first-hand the damage and disruption cyber attacks cause to businesses and communities.”The package of measures could also result in the introduction of a mandatory reporting regime, which would give law enforcement greater intelligence to track down perpetrators, according to the Home Office. More

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was reportedly keen to hold onto a guitar gifted by U2 frontman Bono, newly released official files reveal. The documents, from the National Archives in Kew, west London, show Mr Blair was eager to use the rules on ministerial gifts to acquire the instrument from the Live Aid campaigner once he left office. He did, however, question whether he would have to pay “the full purchase price”. Under the rules, Mr Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, was allowed to accept gifts worth over £140, but had to pay for them himself, less the £140 difference.No 10 officials suggested that the prime minister might want to take the same approach when it came to a white Fender Stratocaster, worth £2,500, from the Canadian singer Bryan Adams.But while delighted with those offerings, Mr Blair’s enthusiasm waned for a similar gift from the president of Mexico. Tony Blair with Bob Geldof and Bono in No. 10 Downing Street More