Politics
Reform UK faces major election test TOMORROW in high-stakes battle that could determine the party’s future
Reform UK’s chances of winning the General Election in 2029 could be hinted at tomorrow as voters head to the polls in a by-election that presents a golden opportunity for Nigel Farage’s party.
In addition to county council elections next May and Parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales the following year, by-elections will be an important bellwether.
By providing insights into public opinion and party performance at the grassroots level, they will serve as a barometer for national sentiment towards Reform ahead of the General Election.
With that in mind, a by-election being held tomorrow for Essex County Council is one to watch.
A seat in the village of Stock, which sits just outside Chelmsford, is up for grabs following the tragic passing of a long-serving Conservative Councillor, Ian Grundy.
Local Reform candidate Thomas Michael Allison will go head-to-head with Labour, Conservatives, the Greens, Lib Dems and an independent.
Reform’s leader, Farage, was recently spotted out and about campaigning with Allison ahead of tomorrow’s vote.
The young candidate stands a good chance of winning as Nigel Farage’s party has made encouraging gains in Essex since the party was formed.
Of its five seats in Parliament, two come from that county – Clacton, and South Basildon and East Thurrock.
Reform also came second in Castle Point, Basildon and Billericay, Rayleigh and Wickford, Thurrock, Brentwood and Ongar, and Maldon.
This foothold augurs well for the May elections next year.
Particular focus will be on Thurrock – a unitary authority in Essex that represents a huge opportunity for the party.
All 49 seats are up for grabs in the county council elections.
MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock James McMurdock is laser-focused on getting voters to turn out.
“I cannot stress enough what an opportunity this is for the people to be and get the change they need,” he posted on X.
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MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock James McMurdock is laser-focused on getting voters to turn out next May
GBN
Reform has also had a boost in national polls.
A poll by Find Out Now conducted in early December 2024 showed the party moving into second place, achieving 24 per cent of voter support—just two points behind the Conservatives at 26 per cent.
This marks the first time Reform has surpassed Labour in national polling, with Labour at 23 per cent.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been accused of misleading MPs over his “bonkers” agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The draft agreement has faced a number of setbacks since it was announced in October, with Donald Trump poised to veto the deal as Mauritius demands even more concessions from the UK.
However, the latest row appears to have created a divide on Labour’s own benches.
Speaking at a Chagossian meeting at Portcullis House, Crawley MP Peter Lamb claimed there is “certainly evidence” that statements made in the Commons by the Foreign Secretary “do not appear to be true”.
David Lammy
PA
The campaign group Chagossian Voices claimed Lammy has not met with them thoroughout negotiations concerning the archipelago.
Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty reportedly met with the group twice after the accord was agreed but refused to discuss the negoations.
Doughty met with members of the Chagossian community on September 30 and October 3.
However, Foreign Office sources have insisted that officials remain in regular contact with Chagossians.
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Chagossian demonstrators gather in London
GB NEWS
Jean-Francois Nellan, who was present at both meetings, said the second discussion was just 10 minutes long.
Chagossians who attended the recent meeting also disagree with the Government about how Lammy considers indigenous interests.
Carl Buckley, a lawyer working with Chagossian Voices, told the meeting: “We have a Secretary of State who is on the record saying, all of these [people] have been consulted when they have not.
“There is a refusal to correct the record, there is a refusal to respond to correspondence that they have sent. There is an utter refusal to engage with these people. So their humanity, their individuality, is being ignored.
Downing Street has defended the deal around the Chagos ArchipelagoREUTERS“They were forcibly removed from their homes, but they are again being ignored now over 50 years later when we are discussing their homeland.”
Lamb added: “I’ve forwarded their [Chagossian Voices] correspondence again and asked for a response. Freedom of Information requests are going largely unanswered, the argument being national security, which I find very difficult with the questions that I was asking.”
He added: “There is certainly evidence that statements made in the house by the foreign secretary do not appear to be true.”
Clarifying the situation, a Chagossian Voices spokesman told The Independent: “There has been no engagement. We never met with Lammy. And we only spoke to Stephen Doughty after the negotiations were over.”
Foreign Secretary David LammyReutersShadow Armed Forces Mark Francois also said: “The Foreign Secretary’s benighted Chagos deal just staggers from one disaster to another. Not only are president Trump’s team clearly very unhappy with it, but now even Labour backbenchers are speaking out against it too.
“If David Lammy had any sense he would stop digging and abandon the whole bonkers plan, sooner rather than later.”
A Government spokesman said: “The negotiations were between the UK and Mauritius with our priority being to secure the full operation of the base on Diego Garcia.
“We recognise the importance of the islands to Chagossians and have worked to ensure this agreement reflects their interests. The UK government, under both the previous and current administration, has been engaged with Chagossians at both official and ministerial level during negotiations which first started in November 2022.
“As part of the agreement, we will finance a new trust fund for Mauritius to use in support of the Chagossian community. We will work with Mauritius to start a new programme of visits for Chagossians to the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia. And Mauritius will be free to develop a programme of resettlement on the islands, other than Diego Garcia.”
Politics
Trump Team Is “Very, Very Sceptical” Of UK Government, Says Labour Peer Invited To Inauguration
President Trump speaks at a ball after his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington (Credit: AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
3 min read
Lord Glasman, the only UK Labour Party figure to be invited to President Trump’s inauguration, has told PoliticsHome that the team around Trump is “very, very sceptical about the Labour government”.
“They want an alliance with the UK, à la Churchill or Thatcher,” Glasman said. “They are pro-worker, so they hate globalisation. A big part of MAGA square is working-class, and people like Steve Bannon and [JD] Vance are very engaged with that.
“They are looking for the government to be their partner, but they don’t see any indication that they are.”
Labour peer Maurice Glasman is a founder of the Blue Labour movement, which combines a left-wing stance on the economy with conservative views on cultural issues.
In an exclusive interview with PoliticsHome, he said he received his invitation to the inauguration from the Republican National Committee. “It was an invitation from the Republican Party, really, in the name of transatlantic dialogue,” he said.
Asked why he had been singled out for an invitation, Glasman explained that JD Vance, now US Vice-President, had sent the peer his book Hillbilly Elegy eight years ago and said he admired Blue Labour.
“I had no idea who he was. So we had two or three email exchanges that were very polite and measured, discussing globalisation and the status of workers who would be best-placed to represent that,” Glasman said.
When he arrived in the US, Glasman said the Trump team were “extraordinarily friendly” to him. “They even presented me with a handmade pair of cowboy boots,” he added.
In attending the inauguration and Nigel Farage’s party overlooking the White House, Glasman confirmed that he met Vance, the Vice-President; Bannon, the former Trump strategist; and Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. “They really opened the doors,” he said.
Glasman spent a significant amount of time with Farage in the US. “He is a Republican politician superstar over here. The queues were lined up, shaking his hand, offering him money, saying, ‘Any support you need, Nigel, we’re with you.’”
The peer said: “Nigel, I’ve got to say, was extremely generous in introducing me to people. I just had a chat with him and said, ‘We’re patriots, right? So, let’s just represent our country as best we can.’ He did that. He wasn’t partisan at all.“
Asked how No 10 has felt about his attendance, Glasman replied: “It’s too early to judge. I’m obviously trying to communicate with them as best I can.
“I’m not expecting them to do cartwheels when the Prime Minister wasn’t invited, the Foreign Secretary wasn’t. It’s a difficult moment for them, and I’m just doing my best to represent Labour and the government in the way that I can.”
While there have been many comments on social media about the significance of Keir Starmer not being invited to the inauguration, no UK prime minister appears to have visited the United States at the time of any presidential inauguration since records of visits began.
It was notable, however, that Glasman as a Labour figure was invited. And in a break with tradition, Trump did invite selected world leaders to join him on his inauguration day.
The peer told PoliticsHome he had spent his visit “defending the Labour Party” by telling those around Trump: “You’ve mistaken us – we’re not a liberal party, we’re the Labour Party.”
Glasman also said he is planning to start a show on GB News – “Blue Labour versus Reform” – which will see him debate with Farage on a weekly basis.
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Politics
NFU President launches fresh attack on Labour over ‘abhorrent’ inheritance tax raid on farmers: ‘Completely inhumane!’
President of the National Farmers’ Union Tom Bradshaw has launched a fresh attack on the Labour Government, claiming their inheritance tax raid on farmers is “unfair” and “abhorrent”.
Today, Bradshaw and NFU Cymru President Aled Jones handed in their petition on behalf of the union to 10 Downing Street, calling for a change in the proposed legislation.
Over 270,000 people have signed the petition in support of farmers, with Bradshaw warning on the petition’s official page that the tax will “deal a hammer blow to farming families” across Britain.
Speaking to GB News, Bradshaw told reporter Katherine Forster that the Government “are the only ones” who believe the raid is a “fair deal”.
Bradshaw launched a fresh attack on Labour, claiming the inheritance tax changes are ‘completely inhumane’
GB News / PA
Bradshaw told the People’s Channel: “Over 270,000 people have supported our petition. We’d like to thank every one of them for their support.
“It means so much to the farming industry, but food production is something that everyone in this country relies on.”
Detailing the impact on the farming industry, Bradshaw declared that confidence in the agricultural industry has been “completely broken”.
He explained: “Nobody wants to invest for the future and without that investment, there is no food security.
Bradshaw and NFU Cymru president Aled Jones handed in their petition to 10 Downing Street today
Pa
“We’ve seen the supermarkets all come out saying they’ve got serious concerns for the resilience of our food supply systems.”
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Expressing particular concern for elderly farmers, Bradshaw warned Labour that giving them “no time to plan” in how they will pass their farms on before the changes come into place is “completely inhumane”.
Bradshaw fumed: “These people that are in our community, that have given a lifetime to producing this country’s food, have no ability to plan. We’ve got 94-year-olds that still own the farm because until October 30, the very best tax advice was to keep the farm until death.
“They have no ability to plan their way through this. The abhorrent changes proposed are completely inhumane.”
He stated: “Putting those people in that position is completely unfair, and we have to get the Government to urgently look at changing the proposals so that we can take them out of the eye of this storm.”
Bradshaw told GB News that confidence in the agricultural industry is ‘completely broken’
GB News
Revealing the union’s next steps in their campaign against Labour’s changes, Bradshaw told GB News that more than “100 events” are planned for tomorrow, for farmers to “thank the public for their support” and get their message across to Government.
Delivering his verdict on the tax raid, NFU Cymru president Aled Jones claimed that there is a “sense of betrayal” felt by farmers, following the Labour Goverment’s announcement in October’s Budget.
Jones said: “We were told a while ago that family farms were integral to this country, and farming and delivering food security was an essential part of national security. And farmers really took those messages and they were proud to deliver for this country.
“But there’s a sense of betrayal. It’s this utter sense of betrayal at the moment to think that those historic contributions that farmers made to this country is now being taken away from them. The breakup of family farms will be devastating for this country.”
Politics
John Healey confirms law change to force offenders to face sentencing after ‘cowardly’ decision
Defence Secretary John Healey has confirmed the Labour Government will move to introduce legislation this year forcing criminals to attend their sentencing hearings.
Healey, who appeared on GB News this morning, made the announcement following the absence of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana during his sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
Speaking to the People’s Channel, Healey said it was “cowardly” and “contemptible” of Rudakubana to not attend.
Healey added: “He should have been in court to look them in the eye and face the justice that he has deserved.”
John Healey confirmed that the law ‘will change’ to ensure offenders are in court to hear their sentencing handed to them
PA / GB News
The new legislation is expected to allow courts to require attendance in extreme cases and may include measures such as extending sentences for non-compliance.
Detailing the legislation, Healey told GB News that offenders will be “forced if necessary” to attend their sentencings, and “other measures” will be considered including “extending their sentences”.
However, when pressed on whether the law will be changed to reduce the age in which offenders under the age of 18 can be handed a whole life order, Healey asserted that the current legislation is “in line with international law”.
Healey explained: “On the technicality of the whole life sentences, I think it’s important to know that the last government did reduce it to 18, in line with international law, after the Manchester Arena bombings, and that still stands.
“It is consistent with the international law that still stands, but there are a range of other aspects of law, of agencies who have failed in this case to step in. They knew about this man’s extreme violence, but they failed to take any steps that might have prevented it.”
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to a minimum term of 52 years in prison on ThursdayPA
Delivering his verdict on the Southport attack, Healey admitted that he “struggled to get his breath” as he read the impact statements of the surviving victims and their families.
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The Defence Secretary told the People’s Channel: “This is a day of horror, and for all of us reading the reports from the court yesterday and the sentencing, quite honestly, I struggled to get my breath as I read about the savagery and the horror and attack.
“It was quite clear Rudakubana would have killed all 26 of those young girls in that dance class if he could.”
Offering his “respect” to the judge Justice Goose for the sentence given, Healey added: “He’s made clear that this man is unlikely ever to be let out, and that’s something that I would like to see – I’m happy to see him in jail for the rest of his life.”
Citing the national inquiry into the Southport attack and the apparent failings of several agencies in preventing Rudakubana from committing his crime, Healey hoped that “changes will be made” to those agencies in light of the inquiry’s findings.
Healey told GB News that they will ‘use force if necessary’ to ensure offenders are in court for sentencing
GB News
Healey concluded: “There may be changes in the programs that are designed to deal with this sort of extremism, and that’s what the inquiry now will do.
“Keir Starmer has said that inquiry is open and any changes that it looks to make will be considered, because it’s a way not just of honouring the memory of the victims to ensure they get justice, but in their memory, we make and deliver the changes required.”
Rudakubana was repeatedly removed from court during his sentencing hearing for disruptive behaviour.
The 18-year-old then refused to be present for the victim impact statements and the sentencing itself, in which he was given a minimum of 52 years in prison.
Reform UK’s Greater Lincolnshire mayoral candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has called for the return of capital punishment following the sentencing of Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana.
Speaking to GB News, Jenkyns suggested a public vote on reinstating the death penalty, arguing that British taxpayers should not “give a penny to evil people”.
Rudakubana, 18, received a minimum term of 52-years for murdering three young girls at a dance class and attempting to kill 10 other people in July last year.
The teenager pleaded guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns has backed calls for capital punishment following the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana
PA / GB News
However, due to being 17-years-old at the time of the offence, Rudakubana avoided being handed a whole life order.
Delivering her verdict on capital punishment, Jenkyns told the People’s Channel: “I do think the death penalty should be brought back, definitely. For severe cases of murders of children, multiple murders where they’ve admitted guilt, I think it’s the only way.
“Why should the British taxpayer give a penny to these evil and people? To me, I don’t want them on this earth, that’s my view.”
The Reform UK candidate claimed that Britain has been a “soft touch” for too long, and called for a change to the justice system.
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to a minimum term of 52 years in prison on ThursdayPA
Jenkyns stated: “We do need to get tougher in Britain, we’ve been soft touch Britain for too long, and that’s got to change.
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“I don’t care about the human rights of murderers, I care about the human rights of those children who have been murdered, and the rights of their parents that will never, ever see them again.”
Offering a counter-argument as to why the UK should not see a return of capital punishment, former Conservative MP Steve Baker claimed that although Rudakubana “does not deserve to live”, some criminals may result in being “unjustly killed by the state”, if they are wrongly convicted.
Baker explained: “Some cases are so serious they absolutely test our capacity for mercy, and this is one such case. And I’m very clear in my own mind that this man does not deserve to live. For what he’s done, it would be an open and shut case if we had the death penalty in the UK.
“But the reason that we don’t is because of our values, because it is a final sentence, because people are unjustly convicted and there’s no recourse if they have been killed by the state.”
Jenkyns told GB News that there should be a ‘public vote’ on whether it should be reinstated
GB News
Noting Rudakubana’s prison sentence, Baker told GB News that the Southport killer will most likely “beg for death” as the decades “roll by slowly” in prison.
Baker added: “I think we should just reflect on what it will mean for him to spend his life in jail, a minimum of 52 years before he can apply for parole. Obviously, I would prefer a whole life term along with his life sentence.
“But those decades are going to roll by slowly for that man, and I bet at times he will wish for death, and it will not come. And it’s going to be a very cruel life for him, and rightly so.”
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Goose noted there was no evidence of any ideological motivation behind the attack.
Politics
NFU President Tom Bradshaw hits out at Labour’s ‘unfair’ inheritance tax raid on farmers has he hands petition to Downing Street
National Farmers’ Union President Tom Bradshaw has hit out at Labour’s “unfair” inheritance tax raid on farmers as he and the Welsh union leader hand their petitions into Downing Street.
Bradshaw told GB News: “Over 270,000 people have supported our petition. We’d like to thank every one of them for their support. It means so much to the farming industry, but food production is something that everyone in this country relies on.
“And unfortunately, the confidence of the industry has been absolutely broken.”
WATCH ABOVE.
Reform UK’s Greater Lincolnshire mayoral candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has called for the return of capital punishment following the sentencing of Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana.
Speaking to GB News, Jenkyns suggested a public vote on reinstating the death penalty, arguing that British taxpayers should not “give a penny to evil people”.
Politics
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson demands return of capital punishment after remorseless Southport killer handed ‘unduly lenient’ 52-year sentence
Reform UK MPs have ramped up calls for a debate around the death penalty after Southport’s remorseless killer Axel Rudakubana was handed an “unduly lenient” 52-year-sentence.
Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, Boston & Skegness MP Richard Tice and Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe all demanded a conversation about the reintroduction of capital punishment.
Sharing an image of a hangman’s noose, Anderson said: “This is what is required.”
Tice added: “I don’t think we should be afraid of having a national debate on important big issues like this. I think that many people in the country would like at least a debate.”
Lee Anderson and Richard Tice
PA
Lowe also claimed that it was now “time for a national debate” on the use of capital punishment “in exceptional circumstances”.
The death penalty was only officially abolished in Britain in 1998.
However, Peter Anthony and Gwynne Owen Evans were the last people executed in the UK back in 1964.
Following Rudakubana’s sentencing yesterday, a petition was launched on the Houses of Parliament website demanding the abolition of whole life orders and reintroduction of the death penalty.
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Axel RudakubanaPAThe most recent opinion poll on reintroducing the death penalty, conducted by YouGov in 2022, suggests Britain is split on the return of capital punishment.
YouGov found that 40 per cent supported its return, with 60 per cent opposing.
However, in cases of multiple murder, terrorism and the murder of a child, the proportion of Britons supporting the death penalty soars past 50 per cent.
Judge Mr Justice Goose was unable to hand Rudakubana a whole life order because he was just nine days away from turning 18 at the time of the horrific attack last July.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls in the Southport knife attack in July 2024PASouthport’s Labour MP Patrick Hurley said the 52-year sentence was “not severe enough” and asked Attorney General to review the sentence as “unduly lenient”.
Attorney General Lord Hermer and Solicitor General Lucy Rigby have 28 days to decide whether to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
In a statement release following yesterday’s sentencing, Sir Keir Starmer described the Southport attack, which left three children dead and another eight wounded, as “one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history.”
Directly addressing Rudakubana’s sentence, the Prime Minister added: “What happened in Southport was an atrocity and as the judge has stated, this vile offender will likely never be released.”
Politics
John Healey admits he ‘struggled to get his breath’ when reading ‘horror’ of Southport attack
Defence Secretary John Healey has confirmed the Labour Government will move to introduce legislation this year forcing criminals to attend their sentencing hearings.
Healey, who appeared on GB News this morning, made the announcement following the absence of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana during his sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
Labour MP Mike Tapp has backed calls for a national review into terrorism laws following the sentencing of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana.
Speaking to GB News, the Dover MP said: “These people, without clear ideologies, who are obsessed with murder, we’ve got to get on top of it.”
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