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Since Reform UK did well in the 2025 local elections, there’s been a steady stream of stories about how weird their new councillors are. Because Reform won even more seats in the 2026 locals, that stream is fast becoming a river, with stories like this regularly bubbling to the surface:

Reform: you wouldn’t steal a car

If your councillor posts a video of them walking around the local area, you’d no doubt assume it’s their own. The fact that this may not be could say worrying things about this man’s integrity.

Of course, Lambert isn’t the only Reform politician who’s failing to perform their job as you’d expect:

Nigel Farage hasn't voted in Parliament for the last 11 weeks and has now missed 77 votes in a row, according to official records. The last time he turned up was to vote against adraft regulations for the Employment Rights Act, and that says it all.

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) May 31, 2026

A fish rots from the head, as they say.

Ironically, Lambert has previously posted AI slop in which he promised to represent Christian values:

Matthew Lambert is Reform UK’s candidate in Douglas, Wigan.

He’s been creating AI slop that he claims represents the Christian Fellowship for Reform with himself a preacher / politician.

Must be a very close family judging from the people standing looking at him in awe. pic.twitter.com/RorbaKlzRN

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) May 7, 2026

We say ‘ironic’, because surely “thou shall not steal”, right? And yet now he stands accused of stealing some random constituent’s walking video.

Lambert is a councillor in Wigan, which is the same area as the ongoing Makerfield by-election. Another candidate, Rob Kenyon, also has a pretty dubious record when it comes to understanding the Christian faith:

Three problems, Rob: it's not a mosque (it's a food bank with a small prayer room), it wasn't a consecrated church (it was an old school building), and it doesn't serve any faith exclusively. The one thing genuinely destroyed at the site was a digger torched by arsonists who'd… https://t.co/g59aDB4EnE

— Waqas (@m0w4q45) May 28, 2026

As YouTuber Jimmy the Giant commented:

They’ll do anything to restore our christian heritage but go to church

Tip of the iceberg

When it comes to Farage’s awful councillors though, there’s far worse to point at than what Lambert has done, as we’ve reported:

• Reform councillor reposts that Labour MP ‘should be shot’.
• Reform councillor dramatically quits over council tax betrayal.
• What a surprise – Reform councillor attends just one meeting and sends two emails in six months.
• Reform councillor fined £40,000 for hiring ‘illegal’ workers.
• Reform councillor would like to see wage cuts to fund his pay rise.

There’s also the endless racism, as we reported in the runup to the recent locals:

• Reform activist worries growth of Jewish population could ruin UK culture.
• Reform candidate suggests ‘melting Nigerians’ to fill potholes.
• Calls for Reform candidate who praised rape of Sikh women to face suspension.
• Reform activist said ‘Hitler was right’.
• Video emerges of Reform’s ‘Nazi salute’ candidate drink driving.

This Lambert story does show something, however, and it’s that these far-right politicians are constantly attracting the wrong sort of attention – whether it’s allegedly stealing some random video or failing to declare a £5m ‘gift’:

The optics say it all: Farage, a public school boy in cords and tweed, fresh from receiving £5m from another public school boy, nodding along as Kenyon argues that Britain’s real problem is teenagers who cannot be hired on the minimum wage. https://t.co/gA42bUhOKE

— Dr Iain Overton (@iainoverton) May 23, 2026

Featured image via Facebook

By Willem Moore

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Between 2016-2020, right-wingers like Nigel Farage were fond of accusing the left of being ‘easily offended’. At some point, however, these same people realised that being offended was great for driving attention and they dove in both feet first.

Abolish the BBC licence fee. pic.twitter.com/y6pWf4VR5C

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) May 31, 2026

The first thing we should note is that the Canary has a long, long history of criticising the BBC. This year alone, we’ve published the following:

• Former BBC Middle East correspondent: broadcaster was central to ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam
• BBC shamefully plays politics with vile racism in the NHS
• Lebanon war correspondent accuses BBC of complicity in ethnic cleansing
• BBC publishes misinformation about small boat crossings
• BBC ran quote from Iranian claiming to be ‘fine’ with nuclear destruction of Iran

The difference between us and Farage is our criticism doesn’t boil down to ‘the BBC dislikes me personally ‘.

Now, on to the Desert Island Discs dilemma.

A Reform spokesperson told the Times:

We approached the BBC as we thought it would be a no-brainer with Keir and Kemi going on, but it would appear they have a ban on Reform — the party has led in the opinion polls for well over a year. This is the typical BBC bias we have come to expect.

The BBC responded:

We do not ban any individuals from appearing on Desert Island Discs and that includes Mr Farage.

Perpetual victim. https://t.co/A1VO9VNVoF

— Don McGowan (@donmcgowan) May 31, 2026

Rupert Lowe of Restore Britain is also making similar threats, by the way.

The BBC have run a sneering attack piece insulting both myself and Elon Musk…

A Restore Britain Government will defund the BBC, day one.

Let's see who's laughing then.

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) May 31, 2026

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Lowe spends all day writing long screeds about how much he hates his political enemies. What is it they say about not giving it if you can’t take it?

Farage snubbed

If BBC Radio 4 did snub Farage, it probably wasn’t over immigration, because he, Starmer, and Badenoch have had nearly identical policy platforms at times.

When it comes to Farage, though, there are definitely things which make him more poisonous to a general audience than Badenoch or Starmer. Specifically, we’re talking about Farage’s history of the most extreme racism, as his Jewish ex-classmate, Peter Ettedgui, reported:

I’d never experienced antisemitism growing up, so the first time that this vicious verbal abuse came out of Farage’s mouth was deeply shocking. But I wasn’t his only target. I’d hear him calling other students ‘Paki’ or ‘Wog’, and urging them to ‘go home’.

Farage is also more closely linked to Donald Trump than any other UK politician — a man the UK public has no time for.

Forgot about this. After Bannon was corralling Farage and Johnson to topple Theresa May, his former boss Trump chips in to get Farage to do a deal with Johnson in the 2019 election.

A stitch up. https://t.co/ZhXPvcnhkE

— Peter Jukes (@peterjukes) May 31, 2026

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The accusations of foreign interference don’t end there, as Skwawkbox reported for the Canary:

Former Reform UK in Wales leader Nathan Gill has today been sentenced to ten and a half years in prison after admitting taking bribes to make positive statements about Russia.

Farage is also facing a great deal of scrutiny for the £5 million gift he accepted from a foreign-based crypto billionaire.

Here are the facts as laid down by Derbyshire:
1) Farage says he won’t run
2) crypto billionaire pays him £5mill
3) Farage U-turns and runs
4) Farage hides the donation
5) Farage announces if he wins the election he will slash capital gains tax for crypto firms

Same old same old https://t.co/ViEIFZkf3A

— Alonso Gurmendi (@Alonso_GD) May 6, 2026

If we ran Desert Island Discs, we wouldn’t have any of these politicians on. At the same time, we can see why BBC Radio 4 and its audience might consider Farage to be an entirely different beast to Badenoch or Starmer.

Free press

There’s a real irony in that the BBC clearly doesn’t hate Farage or Reform. If anything, they’ve given him and his party far more attention than they deserve.

Nigel Farage has appeared on BBC's Question Time at least 38 times. His supporters are complaining that he hasn't been invited on Desert Island Discs…

(image: @newsthump) https://t.co/fqthrcfQ9u pic.twitter.com/KUrEEMMKk7

— Nick : Data + Independent Politics (@nick_pope) June 1, 2026

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And while Farage is all over the media, he’s largely absent from the job he was elected to perform.

Nigel Farage hasn't voted in Parliament for the last 11 weeks and has now missed 77 votes in a row, according to official records. The last time he turned up was to vote against adraft regulations for the Employment Rights Act, and that says it all.

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) May 31, 2026

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Moan alone

Farage has sold himself as an antidote to the British establishment. That’s fine, but the price you pay is you don’t get to sip iced tea and discuss Duran Duran with Lauren Laverne.

In other words, Nigel, pick a lane, and stop moaning.

Featured image via Ian Forsyth/ Getty Images

By Willem Moore

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We’re hurtling towards more wars and greater global instability, with the governments of Europe responding with massive rearmament programmes and increasing moves towards conscription. So we urgently need a mass movement for peace to break with the worldview of the likes of Donald Trump and Tony Blair.

The International Conference Against War on 20 June in central London will be a unique and historic step to building it.

Over 1,700 people from the UK and across Europe have bought tickets so far and, with international speakers, this will be a truly world-wide solidarity conference. Speakers are coming from France, Palestine, Belgium, the UK, the US, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and Sweden.

They include (all in person):

• Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.
• Medea Benjamin, American political activist Code Pink.
• Mothin Ali, Green Party deputy leader.
• Lorena Delgado Varas, Swedish MP.
• UK MPs Richard Burgon, Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, Jon Trickett.
• Jérôme Lagavre, French Assembly member.
• Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary.
• José Nivoi, Genoa docker.
• Tariq Ali, author and activist.
• Felix Kreklow Rojas, German anti-conscription student campaigner.
• Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP.
• And many more.

John Rees, Stop the War national officer and one of the organisers of the conference, said:

The wolf is at the door. Donald Trump is setting fires he has no intention and no capacity to extinguish.

European political leaders have begun a continent-wide rearmament programme on a scale not seen since World War Two. They’re making arms companies rich and the rest of us poor.

Every day another politician or army chief tells us we have to accept austerity and prepare for war. Conscription has returned in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Keir Starmer is threatening the same here.

The International Anti-War conference in London on 20 June is the response from trade unionists and anti-war activists. It could not come at a more vital time. Together we will demand welfare, not warfare, wages not weapons.

Featured image via Getty Images

By The Canary

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Football’s rulemakers have sharpened the playbook. Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has approved a compact, hard-hitting package of changes designed to speed play, curb gamesmanship and give VAR clearer teeth.

Fans can expect quicker restarts, stricter conduct rules and new limits on tactical time-outs.

What has IFAB introduced?

• Broader VAR remit to correct clear errors around second yellows, mistaken identity and wrongly awarded corners.

• A 10-second substitution rule forcing outgoing players to leave fast or delay the incoming player

• Tactical time-out clampdown to stop teams using injuries as an excuse for bench huddles

• Five-second countdowns for throw-ins and goal-kicks with possession penalties for delays

• New conduct sanctions including red cards for players who cover their mouths during confrontations and for teams that walk off the pitch

VAR will now step in for a tighter set of clear mistakes, wrongly awarded second yellow cards, mistaken identity and obvious corner errors.

Officials can also review fouls that happen before a set-piece restart, such as an attacker blocking a defender before a corner is taken. The aim is simply to correct the big, obvious errors without turning every moment into a review.  

Referees will still be limited, but VAR checks on corners must correct only obvious errors and not delay restarts. VAR will not invent bookings, it will only intervene where a second yellow was wrongly awarded on the pitch. The balance is tighter oversight with a clear line on what counts as reviewable.

Tactical time wasting banned

FIFA and IFAB have moved to stamp out the growing tactic of using injuries as a pretext for bench coaching. Referees will be proactive in preventing mass departures to the bench while a player receives treatment.

Teams will not be allowed to turn an injury stoppage into a tactical time-out. There are no new on-field sanctions yet, but officials have been warned to act and coaches have been put on notice.  

The message is blunt: an injury is for the player to be treated not a pause button for tactics. Expect referees to manage the touchline more assertively and to penalise teams that try to exploit stoppages for coaching advantages.  

IFAB has introduced visible five-second countdowns for throw-ins and goal-kicks. If a team fails to restart play before the countdown ends, possession is handed to the opponent or a corner is awarded. The goal is to remove the grey area around deliberate delays and force a faster tempo.

Substitutions are now a sprint. Players must leave the field within 10 seconds after the board is shown and exit via the nearest boundary point. If they linger, the replacement can only enter at the next stoppage after one minute of play. That rule turns substitutions into a tactical risk: delay and you lose the immediate change.

Medical rules and hydration breaks

Outfield players treated on the pitch must now remain off the field for at least one minute after play restarts, with exceptions for goalkeepers, head injuries, penalties and collisions that demand immediate return. The change should prevent teams from using treatment as a deliberate delay tactic.

For the World Cup specifically, there will be a three-minute hydration break in each half, with referees given discretion on timing to fit the flow of the match. The breaks are short, controlled and designed to protect player welfare without opening the door to tactical manipulation.

This package is surgical: speed up play, punish theatricality and make VAR fix the big mistakes. The rules hand referees clearer tools and give coaches fewer loopholes to exploit.

At the 2026 World Cup, matches should feel brisker, substitutions sharper and time wasting harder to hide. Expect a tournament where the clock matters again and the referee’s whistle carries more bite.

Featured image via Luke Hales/Getty Images

By Faz Ali

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Forty years after its sole World Cup appearance, Iraq returns to the world stage carrying the dreams of an entire generation that never experienced Mexico 1986.

Between memories of the past and aspirations for the future, the Lions of Mesopotamia enter the 2026 World Cup with ambitions that go beyond simply making an appearance. The squad hopes to prove their return was no fluke and that Iraqi soccer is capable of regaining its place among the elite.

Qualifying for the World Cup was a historic milestone that brought the team back to the forefront of international football after many years of challenges. The question that arises today is: will Iraq be content with simply fulfilling the dream of a comeback or does it possess enough quality to pull off an upset in the tournament?

Iraq’s new generation carries a heavy legacy

Iraq enters the 2026 World Cup with a squad that blends experience and ambition, led by a number of players who have gained significant professional experience both within and outside Asia.

Ayman Hussein, the striker who has become the team’s offensive icon, leads the way alongside Zidan Iqbal, who brings technical flair to the midfield and enhances the team’s ability to retain possession and build attacks.

The national team also boasts promising young players such as Youssef Amin, Ali Jassim, and Mirhas Doski—names that represent the generation on which Iraqis are counting to lead a new era of development. This group is characterised by speed, energy and a desire to prove themselves on the world’s biggest football stage.

Nevertheless, limited World Cup experience remains one of the biggest challenges facing Iraq. Its players will face levels of pressure and competition they have never experienced before, against teams accustomed to competing for the title in every World Cup, such as France.

New World Cup format could give an advantage

The new World Cup format gives emerging teams greater opportunities to compete for spots in the knockout stages, which could work in Iraq’s favor. The gaps between teams are no longer what they were in past decades, and the ability to organise and maintain tactical discipline has become a decisive factor in achieving results.

Realistically speaking, advancing past the group stage would be an unprecedented historic achievement for  Iraq, which has never won a single match in its only previous appearance in 1986. Reaching round 16 or beyond, however, will require an exceptional performance and the ability to capitalise on small details against more experienced teams.

But what gives Iraq hope is its competitive spirit, which it has consistently demonstrated in continental tournaments.

More than just participation

Iraqis do not view the 2026 World Cup merely as a soccer tournament but as a national event with implications that extend far beyond the pitch. The national team, which has become a symbol of unity and hope at many historic junctures, enters the tournament representing the aspirations of millions of fans who have waited decades for this moment.

Iraq may not be among the favorites to win the title, but its presence in the World Cup alone confirms the return of Iraqi soccer to the international stage. Between the dream of advancing to the second round and the ambition to pull off another upset, Iraq has a chance to write a new chapter in their soccer history.

Iraq kicks off its World Cup campaign against Norway on 16 June, before facing France on 22 June. Players will wrap up the group stage against Senegal – the 2018 World Cup champions and one of Africa’s strongest teams. The inclusion of Norway, led by star Erling Haaland, also makes this one of the tournament’s toughest groups.

Featured image via Azael Rodriguez/ Getty Images

By Alaa Shamali

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250 delegates representing Your Party branches and former branches across England, Scotland and Wales met in an online conference on 31 May and launched the Socialist Federation.

Delegates included representatives of groups in London, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Coventry, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Essex, North Devon, Dundee, Newcastle and Cumbria.

Attendees said they’d comprehensively lost patience with Jeremy Corbyn and his close-knit entourage, who failed to build on the promise of the mass signups to a new party initiative in summer 2025.

And the assembled members and ex members of Your Party agreed to create an initial federal organisation with the aim of rallying forces to establish a new socialist and working class party, independent of Labour and the Greens.

Socialist Federation spokesperson Joseph O’Connor Meldau (aka Raz O’Connor) said:

The Socialist Federation brings together people from all over the country who have been building socialist groups in their local areas.

Some did so as part of the wave of enthusiasm that met the announcement of Your Party last year, when 800,000 people expressed an interest in a new political force that was explicitly socialist.

The enthusiasm around Your Party was ruined by the actions of Jeremy Corbyn and his allies, but we have learned we don’t need celebrity politicians to organise things for us.

It is the grassroots activists building power in working class communities and workplaces that have always been the heart of the socialist movement, not bureaucratic leaders.

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The Socialist Federation plans a further national conference on 28 June to finalise its structure and policy proposals, prior to an in-person Congress in the Midlands in the autumn.

Featured image via Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

By The Canary

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Chevron CEO, Mike Wirth, who is the money behind Donald Trump, said his company would not pay a toll to enter the Strait of Hormuz, claiming it is “international waters”.

Trump recently threatened to blow up Oman if it, along with Iran, were to charge a toll on the ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Alongside Wirth, Trump also alleged the strait is international waters.

The question is: do these Americans really have a choice?

Chevron has six vessels under charter in the strait

Iran has said:

The process of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz by Iran is NOT a temporary process and Iran will not back down from it.

Fox News called Oman “a country that has spent decades quietly serving as America’s backchannel to Iran”.

The news agency, which rarely criticises Trump, also quoted an expert saying that though the president had an unconventional style, his comment was still shocking. It shows Iran has cornered the US.

Trump and his cronies are still looking at how to spin a victory narrative, however impossible such a narrative may seem.

US magazine Foreign Affairs noted:

Hegseth’s bluster could not hide the fact that the core objectives of Operation Epic Fury—notably, effecting regime change and eradicating Iran’s nuclear program—had not been achieved. And with Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the overall situation was worse than it had been before the start of the operation.

Ships attacked, CEO claims

Wirth himself, in the interview where he says he won’t pay a toll, admitted that Iranian authorities “have been successful” in collecting fees.

He also boasted about US sanctions, noting that the Treasury had recently “sanctioned the new authority that has been put in place to oversee transit through the strait”. When asked if he knows how people are paying the toll, he replied:

I’ve heard reports of people using cryptocurrency in various countries.

Meanwhile, he confirmed that Chevron has “six ships inside the strait right now with our cargoes”, all chartered and all stuck. The decision to risk transiting, he said, ultimately belongs to the ship owners, not Chevron.

He added:

There still has been kinetic activity this week, some of which has been reported in the media, some of which has not. We see risks very real still in that environment.

There have been vessels that have been in transit that have suffered attacks. They’re maybe not every day, but there have been multiple incidents that have occurred.

Trump backers’ disdain for Iran

Wirth is not the only Trump backer squirming at the capitulation to Iran.

After calling Iran “evil”, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said that NATO allies should have gotten together 25 years ago and gathered 500,000 troops together to attack Iran.

Of course, the billionaire or his friends would not have been in troops.

He chastised those criticising the war on Iran, saying that a threat doesn’t need to be imminent for it to be a threat.

Dimon also warned that Iran getting a nuclear weapon “may be the biggest threat facing mankind” because allied nations like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Japan would then seek their own. His argument is that military and economic dominance are both needed for the US dollar to remain the world’s reserve currency.

Wirth and Dimon both accrue massive rents from the dollar being the reserve currency.

Wirth through owning oil and selling it in dollars. Dimon, through financing the American empire and, with his new security and resiliency initiative, which is massively investing in rearming the United States.

But Iran is not capitulating. It holds the chokepoint, it has US ships stuck, and it has proven that sanctions, bluster and fantasies of a half-million troops cannot break its resolve. You can see exactly why Wirth and Dimon are squirming.

Featured image via Anna Moneymaker/ Getty Images

By Nandita Lal

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