Imran Hussain, the group’s director of external affairs, said: “This proposal is simply not a serious or workable plan. Reopening and reassessing hundreds of thousands of asylum decisions would overwhelm the system which is already struggling, tie up the courts for years, and cost taxpayers tens of billions. Source link
Nigel Farage has wrongly claimed that a senior Reform UK official sacked for offensive comments about the Grenfell tragedy was only in his post for two weeks. Simon Dudley was dumped by Farage as the party’s housing spokesman following a furious backlash to his remarks. A major overhaul of building regulations took place after 72 people were killed in Grenfell Tower in west London in 2017. But in an interview with trade publication Inside Housing, Dudley said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way”. He said the Grenfell fire was a “tragedy” but added: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?” Farage announced his sacking during a press conference on Thursday. He said: “He’s no longer a spokesman for the party. That has been dealt with.” In a bad-tempered interview afterwards with Sky News, Farage said: “He was appointed two weeks ago, he’s made these comments, he’s no longer there.” But Reform actually announced Dudley had been handed the role on March 10. In a press …
Richard Tice has been accused of being “in it for himself” after reports claim he avoided nearly £600,000 in corporation tax. The deputy leader of Reform UK allegedly channelled dividends from his property company into other structures, like an offshore trust and a set of dormant businesses, between 2018 and 2021. Allegedly, his firm Quidnet Reit Ltd – with net assets worth £33 million – paid nothing in corporation tax on its multimillion-pounds profits during that period. Tice listed his company on the Guernsey stock exchange and applied for it become a real estate investment trust (Reit), a corporate structure with rules administered by HMRC. There are approximately 170 firms with Reit status. They do not pay corporation tax, and instead issue dividends to shareholders, who are then taxed individually. A legal quirk meant Quidnet did not pay tax for a three-year grace period, even though it did not qualify to be a Reit company. According to The Sunday Times, Tice was still personally liable to pay tax on the dividends, but his company’s ownership …
Reform UK have been accused of “declaring war on British workers” over plans to scrap new employment rights if they win the next general election. Deputy leader Richard Tice will unveil the policy in a major speech on Tuesday setting out the party’s right-wing approach to growing the economy and tackling the cost of living. Tice, who is Reform’s business, trade and energy spokesman, will promise to bring in a Great Repeal Bill to scrap new employment rights rules introduced by Labour. It would also get rid of the government’s pledge to achieve Net Zero by 2050 and improved rights for renters. Tice will say those policies are “all well intentioned but kill jobs, hinder growth, investment and prosperity”. “This will all help lower inflation and bring down bills for consumers,” he will say. Tice will make his speech just two days before voters go to the polls in the crunch Gorton and Denton by-election, where Reform are in a three-way fight with Labour and the Greens. Labour chair Anna Turley said: “Reform have formally …
It’s an effort to reassure investors and businesses that Reform can be trusted with the British economy. It was only last month that his party leader, Nigel Farage, told the World Economic Forum in Davos he doesn’t like banks, would scrap interest payments lenders receive through the BoE’s quantitative easing program, and refused to rule out appointing his own governor to the central bank. Earlier this year Farage stated that he was giving “serious thought” to scrapping the OBR, which provides independent analysis of government spending plans. In November, Farage and his deputy Richard Tice U-turned on a plan to dish out £90 billion in tax cuts, which was initially pledged in the party’s 2024 election manifesto. Jenrick will vow Wednesday that Reform UK will be focused on “restoring stability” and “eliminating wasteful spending.” Although Jenrick will claim that the BoE would keep its independence under a Farage government, he will add that the Bank would be stripped of “ancillary responsibilities,” such as considering the impact of climate change, and will follow his leader in …
Likewise, Jenrick said taxes are “clearly too high” and promised to “build an economy that serves alarm clock Britain” — people who get up early for work — but was thin on the detail of any specific tax cuts. Fundamental questions about the shape of policy or the economy under Reform have yet to be answered. Four groups are due to finish work in May on regulation, growth capital, pensions and savings, and tax. Farage and Tice have toyed with the idea of scrapping the “triple lock” (which guarantees large increases in the state pension) but have not reached a conclusion. Braverman said 50 percent of young people should enter manual trades, while Tice has suggested a complete overhaul of pensions for public sector workers; these policies are yet to be fleshed out. At the same time, Farage’s appointees have their hands full — especially Tice, whose theoretical super-department would cover business, trade, energy and housing policy. He is also still in charge of Reform’s cost-cutting efforts in local councils. Some basic questions about personnel …
A Labour council that cancelled its local election to cut costs spent tens of thousands of pounds on an “asylum seeker mental health and trauma project”. Blackburn with Darwen borough council is one of 29 local authorities granted government permission to halt its local election this year. The cancellations have resulted in Sir Keir Starmer being accused of “running scared” of the electorate at a time when polls show a collapse in support for Labour. Defending Blackburn’s decision to ask the Government for a postponement, Phil Riley, the council’s Labour leader, previously said the council would “rather the money went on delivering services people want than on an election which would have to be repeated just a year later and on different ward boundaries”. “It costs around £200,000 to hold an election,” he added. However, the same local authority spent £30,000 on commissioning a project that focused on the mental health of asylum seekers, The Telegraph can reveal. A contract awarded in January 2024, when Mr Riley and his party were in control, granted the …
“If you didn’t have the OBR, what are you replacing [it with]? Well, maybe you could have a revolving panel of the top eight economic forecasters who have, twice a year, a mandate to produce their own estimate of the key six [to] eight metrics,” he added. His comments follow previous suggestions from Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage to abolish the body, but it has not yet been clear what the party would propose to take its place. As Reform continues to top U.K. opinion polls, the development of the party’s economic agenda has been closely watched by the financial sector and beyond. The OBR has come under attack for its forecasting record from both sides of the political aisle. It faced significant scrutiny in November after its economic and fiscal outlook, which contained detailed information on the contents of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget, was accidentally made accessible hours before she began her official announcement. OBR Chair Richard Hughes stepped down as a result of the leak. The OBR has also been criticized for its outsized …
The 1992 UNFCCC serves as the international structure for efforts by 198 countries to slow the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. It also underpins the system of annual COP climate conferences. The U.S. will be the only country ever to leave the convention. Reform UK has led in U.K. polls for nearly a year, but the country’s next election is not expected until 2029. A theoretical U.K. exit from the UNFCCC would represent an extraordinary volteface for a country which has long boasted about global leadership on climate. Under former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the U.K. hosted COP26 in 2021. It has been one of the most active participants in recent summits under Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It was also the first major economy in the world to legislate for a net zero goal by 2050, in line with the findings of IPCC reports. Tice has repeatedly referred to the target as “net stupid zero.” Source link
Georgie David, standing in West Ham and Beckton, said she was suspending her general election campaign in the east London seat Source link
