Politics
Judge Declares Mistrial In Lindsay Clancy Case
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4 min read
Linden Kemkaran, leader of one of Reform UK’s most high-profile councils, has said that some voters have “taken their eye off the ball” by being “enticed” by Restore Britain.
In an interview with PoliticsHome on the eve of the Reform conference in Birmingham, which started on Thursday, Kemkaran said that people who want a right-wing government will eventually realise that a vote for Restore Britain makes that outcome less likely.
Reform figures were initially dismissive about the threat posed by Rupert Lowe’s hard-right party. However, in recent months, there have been clear signs of Restore Britain hurting Farage by taking votes that otherwise probably would have gone to Reform.
For example, last Thursday, Green candidate Ingrid Dodd secured a surprise victory in a district by-election in Dover, thanks largely to the right-wing vote splitting three ways between Reform, Restore Britain, and the Conservatives. Reform finished second, just 34 votes behind.
At the Markefield by-election in June, Restore Britain got around 7 per cent of the vote. In the end, the scale of Andy Burnham’s victory rendered the combined right-wing vote academic. However, it was further evidence that Lowe’s party is capable of attracting significant levels of support, and prompted Farage to urge Restore Britain supporters to “think again”.
Kemkaran said the Dover result would end up being “very useful” for Reform, and “a very good case in point about what happens when you vote for a protest party, and you don’t vote for the party that’s actually going to do what you want them to do in that area”.
“It was a stark illustration of what happens if you take your eye off the ball and you stop realising that, actually, Reform is the only centre-right party that is in a position to form a centre-right government at this point in time,” she said.
“Restore can’t do it,” she added.
“Some people allowed themselves to be enticed to an alternative reality that they thought might be possible for whatever the things that Restore is promising.”
However, the council leader stressed: “You can never blame the electorate. You’ve always got to look internally as to what you might do differently next time.”
In an interview with The House magazine in the weeks leading up to Reform conference, party chairman Lee Anderson dismissed the threat of Restore Britain and insisted that “decent” people who had moved away from Reform to support Lowe’s party would come back once they realise that they risk making a Labour government more likely.
“Restore Britain just want to stop us from winning. It’s as simple as that,” Anderson said.
He also accused Restore Britain activists of “bullying” Reform campaigners at the recent Makerfield by-election, a claim which a Restore Britain spokesperson said was “nonsense”.
Reflecting on the 18 months she has been council leader in Kent, Kemkaran said she has realised “how difficult it can be to make things happen”.
She became leader having not previously served as a councillor, tasked with leading perhaps the most high-profile local authority won by Farage’s party. Kent was where Reform first piloted its programme of cutting what it describes as wasteful council spending, inspired by Elon Musk’s short-lived Department of Government Efficiency in the US, and Kemkaran has since set up her own version: Department of Local Government Efficiency. Reform’s bid to cut council spending has had to grapple with the financial pressures facing local government.
“I have made things happen,” the Kent leader told PoliticsHome, “but I’m unusually strong-minded and unusually tenacious in getting a grip of an issue very quickly and not being put off when people throw little obstacles in the way.”
Every Monday, Kemkaran joins a meeting with the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice and other Reform council leaders across the country. “It’s an incredibly useful time for us to be able to receive information, to share information, to alert each other to things we might need to be aware of. It’s a really it’s a good way to start the week,” she said.
On the national picture, Kemkaran insisted that Reform can regain momentum after a difficult few months, telling PoliticsHome that the “Burnham bounce” in the opinion polls is actually a “Burnham bubble” that she predicted will “pop any day now”.
“Once our manifesto is written, it’s going to be a huge selling point for the party. It’s going to convince an awful lot of people who are maybe Reform curious… because they’re going to see that we are the right party to fix the horrendous mess this country’s in.
“The other three magic ingredients are timing, luck, and judgment. If we can get those five to coalesce, that’s what we need to happen,” she said.
Kemkaran’s interview with PoliticsHome took place before an undercover investigation aired by Channel 4 on Thursday alleged that senior Reform officials arranged party donations that breached UK electoral rules.
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Politics
Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.
President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.
In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.
Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.
Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.
“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.
Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.
“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.
He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”
Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.
“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”
The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.
In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.
“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.
He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”
The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.
“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.
Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.
“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.
He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”
While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.
“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”
Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.
Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.
“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.
He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”
Politics
Politics Home | Nigel Farage Threatens To Flood House Of Lords With Reform Peers To Deliver Policies
Nigel Farage at the Reform party’s annual conference in Birmingham, September 2026 (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
2 min read
Nigel Farage has threatened to flood the House of Lords with “hundreds” of Reform UK peers and sack civil servants if necessary to deliver his party’s manifesto.
The Reform leader used his keynote speech at Reform UK’s conference in Birmingham to address sceptics who doubt his party’s ability to deliver on its manifesto after a hypothetical general election win.
He declared that he would be prepared to appoint enough peers to the Lords that Reform would have a majority in the Upper Chamber, or hold a referendum on its composition, if the peers tried to block his party’s legislation.
“We will declare a national emergency. All recess of parliament will be cancelled. Parliament will sit, if necessary, for 24 hours a day, for six days a week, until we pass the necessary legislation,” Farage said.
Reform policies – including stopping the arrival of small boats to the UK, reducing university attendance and cutting taxes on workers and pensioners – would be “explicit”, he added.
“I expect the House of Lords to honour that, as they’ve done with the Salisbury Convention for over a century. But if they don’t, well, we’ll present them with an idea. It’s not a new one – it’s been used before.
“We’ll appoint hundreds of new peers so that we have a majority in the House of Lords. And if that proves difficult, we’ll hold a referendum on the current composition of the House of Lords and they would be swept away by the British public, appalled by them.”
He promised to “remove the ability of judges to lean on outdated conventions” to block policies and warned the Civil Service: “If they try to obstruct us, they’ll be removed from their posts and replaced with people from outside, from the world of business.”
Farage’s speech on Friday also addressed the allegations broadcast by Channel 4 that his party breached political donation rules, which led to two of Farage’s closest allies stepping down this morning pending an internal investigation.
“Reform has broken no law. We take compliance extremely seriously. And ask yourself, why is all of this happening? Anyone got a clue why it’s happening? Because they’re scared of us. That’s why it’s happening,” Farage told Reform conference.
The speech was delayed over security concerns, with Farage telling the BBC the police would not allow him onto the conference stage due to a threat, and the address was interrupted by several protesters who were removed from the hall.
Just over a week since her death at the age of 80, Dolly Parton has landed the highest UK chart placement of her decades-spanning career.
On Friday evening, the Official Charts Company revealed that three of the late country music icon’s classic songs had made it into the Top 10 as fans continue to honour her legacy by revisiting her music.
As of this week, 9 To 5 is now Dolly’s highest-placing song ever in the UK, after reaching at number five.
The track was originally released in 1980 and appeared on the soundtrack of the film of the same name – but, surprisingly, missed the top 40 completely on this side of the Atlantic when it first came out.
Dolly’s previous highest-charting songs had been Jolene and Islands In The Stream, both of which landed at number seven.
Those two tracks continue to make a dent in the charts, with Jolene rising to number six and Islands In The Stream, a collaboration with the late Kenny Rogers, sitting at number nine.
Meanwhile, her greatest hits collections Diamonds & Rhinestones has risen one place to number five on the Official Album Chart, its highest entry yet.
Dolly’s back catalogue has seen a sharp increase in sales and streams since her death at the end of August, with several of her albums and songs returning to charts around the world.
The UK charts were full of momentous achievements this week, with Ella Langley earning her first-ever chart-topping single with Choosin’ Texas.
Her country song debuted at number 78 on the UK charts back in January, before cracking the Top 40 a month later, and finally rising to the Top 10 in July.
Ella replaces Sam Fender and Olivia Dean at number one, ending a run of 10 weeks in the top spot for their duet Rein Me In, which had previously set a new record with 23 non-consecutive weeks in peak position.
Rein Me In is still in the top 10, but has fallen to number seven, its lowest placement since February.
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When Keir Starmer dramatically resigned as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras this week, all eyes quickly swivelled to Zack Polanski.
He was elected as Green Party leader just a year ago but he has quickly made a name for himself.
Polanski quadrupled the party’s membership numbers within just six months in the post, led the Greens to victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election and oversaw their best-ever performance in the local elections in May.
A YouGov poll even put them at second place, on 21%, behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for a brief stint in March.
But what goes up must come down, as the Greens soon found out.
Polanski attracted intense scrutiny after it emerged he had failed to vote in the local elections and that he had not paid council tax while living on a narrowboat for three years – though he has since been cleared by an ethics inquiry over the latter.
The London Assembly member was then slammed for questioning the police response to the Golders Green attack online and for sharing an Instagram post of a t-shirt featuring a picture of a guillotine and the words: “We’re only making plans for Nigel.”
Some progressives began drifting back to Labour after Keir Starmer was replaced by Andy Burnham in July, too.
The Greens are now down in fourth place on 13% according to YouGov’s latest poll, while Polanski himself has the lowest favourability ratings of all party leaders on 19%.
So it’s worth asking: why is he putting himself forward for a by-election now?
Polanski is still the most high-profile person within the left-wing party and it would a historic victory if the Greens took the seat, making it their first ever London constituency win.
The Green leader has long said he would consider running for parliament if a London seat became available, too.
He wasted no time signalling his desire to be selected by local Green members to be the party candidate for Starmer’s former constituency in the capital this week.
While the decision is not yet set in stone, Polanski is widely expected to be the party’s choice for the crunch vote in a head-to-head with Labour.
As Sky News elections analyst Robert Ford wrote on X, the stakes are high for both parties.
He said: “Greens have chance to turn the tide on recent decline and show Polanski is a winner. Labour have a chance to show that the Burnham bounce is real, consolidate the left in a London heartland seat, and deal a potential knockout blow to Green insurgency.”
He added that Polanski’s decision to join the contest meant it is “no longer just Green vs Lab”.
Ford claimed voters are now being asked: “Would you like the national leader of the Green party or a generic Lab backbencher as your local representative?”
It’s rather precarious, though, especially as the seat is traditionally Labour.
The Greens themselves are trying to put their best foot forward, with one party official telling HuffPost UK they feel “confident” about Polanski’s chances.
Another senior insider shrugged off the idea that it was risky to put the Green leader forward, insisting he would be a “brilliant candidate”.
A third pointed out that the Greens won “lots of traditionally Labour seats” in London back in May during the local elections.
If he is chosen for the seat, he may have also have a slight advantage when it comes to winning over the left-wing votes.
Former independent candidate Andrew Feinstein announced he would not be standing in the by-election, and would instead back the Green leader.
Feinstein secured 19% of the vote in the constituency back in 2024, coming in second place behind Starmer.
If his 7,312 votes and the Greens’ 4,030 votes from the general election had been combined at the time, it would have significantly reduced Labour’s majority – though the party would still win by some margin on 18,884 votes.
Still, as Luke Tryl, the UK director for More in Common, told HuffPost UK if Feinstein’s voters “switch en masse to the Green Party, Polanski will need a much smaller swing to win”.
He said: “The seat’s demographics could help the Greens too: young, diverse, Remain-voting, with lower concern about migration than recent by-elections, it’s strong territory for Polanski, whose approval among 18-24s is almost nine times what it is among the over-75s.
“We know that high-profile candidates – whether it be Burnham in Makerfield or Farage in Clacton – can motivate voters and boost turnout in by-elections.”
Labour is yet to choose its own candidate for the crunch vote.
HuffPost UK was told by one source that it is “a slam dunk” that Camden Council leader and Starmer ally, Sagal Abdi-Wali, will be Labour’s candidate.
The local insider said: “It will be a straight Lab-Green fight, so Polanski has a chance. Sagal will be a strong candidate with cast-iron local credentials and a personal story that will resonate with huge chunks of the electorate.
“Her being Muslim and Somali will limit Polanski’s ability to attract people angry about Gaza.”
However, other party sources insist the candidacy is still up for grabs.
Tryl told HuffPost UK this by-election “will be a fascinating test of what the electoral landscape looks like on the left of British politics”.
He noted Burnham started to unite the left since replacing Starmer, he has “halved the share of 2024 Labour voters defecting to the Greens since the spring”.
A separate YouGov tracker shows 50% of respondents think Burnham is a better PM than Polanski would be, compared to 8% who believe it is vice versa.
Tryl added: “Polanski’s own popularity has tumbled, leaving him the least popular party leader in the country.
“On the raw numbers, that makes Labour look like a safe seat: Holborn and St Pancras isn’t even a top-100 target for the Greens, who’d need a 19-point swing to take it outright.”
But the pollster also observed that “support for Labour has eroded in the seat in recent years”.
“For Labour, this is one of the first real tests of whether Burnham has really managed to unite the left behind Labour again,” Tryl said. “For the Greens, it’s a test of whether Polanski can regain his mojo after a difficult few months.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Zia Yusuf has been accused of plotting to replace Nigel Farage amid heightened scrutiny over Reform UK donations.
The party has been reported to the Metropolitan Police after an undercover sting operation accused Reform of accepting foreign funding, which goes against British electoral law.
Investigative journalists from Verbatim accused the party of allegedly taking funding from a US company to commission three supposedly independent polls at £32,500 earlier this year.
Reform’s head of policy James Orr and Farage’s close aide Dan Jukes organised the donation and were unaware the donors were actually undercover reporters.
Jukes has been accused of suggesting a way to work around British electoral law, too, so an American donor could give £500,000 to Reform UK.
Jukes and Orr have stepped down after the report was broadcast by Channel 4 News.
Reform insists it is not guilty of any wrongdoing and called the incident a “hoax”.
Farage has downplayed the concerns about breaching electoral rules, claiming it was “loose pub talk” and “jack-the-lad-dery”.
Amid this serious chaos, Yusuf chose to publish a glossy social media, telling a detailed story about his childhood and life before politics.
“I’ve dedicated my life to serving,” the unelected politician said in the clip.
“I’ve spent my career getting things done, doing hard things in the real world. That’s exactly what I’ll bring to the office of home secretary.
“If you want another career politician doing TikToks about crisps, there’s plenty to choose from. If you want someone who will do whatever it takes to deliver on our promises, vote Reform.”
The clip was published shortly before Yusuf’s major speech in front of the party conference where he told Reform delegates the “fate of this country is down to us”.
It quickly sparked speculation that the Reform politician’s timing may have been strategic.
Former Farage ally Tim Montgomerie, who was recently suspended for publicly criticising the party, said: “The sooner Nigel Farage realises this man is running to replace him as leader, the better.”
Reform UK has been approached for comment.
Plenty of other commentators on social media seemed to think Yusuf might also have his eye on the crown.
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Nigel Farage has played down the accusations that Reform UK has accepted foreign donations and insisted the row stems from “loose pub talk”.
An undercover sting operation conducted by investigative group Verbatim and published in a Channel 4 News documentary has accused two top party aides of accepting US funds for the party.
Verbatim’s undercover reporters claim Reform’s head of policy James Orr and Farage’s close aide Dan Jukes took funding from a US company to commission three supposedly independent polls at £32,500 earlier this year.
British electoral law says political donations can only be made by someone eligible to vote in the UK or a UK-registered company.
The report also says Jukes suggested a way to get around those electoral rules to secure a £500,000 donation from the US to the party.
Reform initially denied any wrongdoing and called the operation a “hoax”. Orr and Jukes then stood down from their party posts on Friday morning.
During a press conference at Reform’s annual get-together in Birmingham, Farage read out a statement defending his party over the accusations.
The party leader denied wrongdoing around the poll and how it was paid for, instead pointing out names of potential other donors were bleeped out in the footage.
Farage said: “What is more problematic is loose pub talk, including a couple of boasts that simply were not true.
“So in the video, when he [Jukes] says we’ve done it with X, we’ve done it with Y – well, the reason Channel 4 haven’t broadcast the names of X and Y is because it isn’t true.
“Donations from the names that were mentioned had not occurred, don’t exist on the old comms site, don’t exist in our accounts.
“And while I’m aware that our people were pushed and pushed and pushed into saying these things, the comments were injudicious at best.
“Neither of these men was authorised to act in that way. Accordingly, they’ve stepped down pending an investigation.”
Reform UK says it is conducting an internal investigation into what happened but denies any wrongdoing.
The Electoral Commission said it is “in touch” with the Metropolitan Police after Channel 4 broadcast, though the police have not opened an investigation at the time of reporting.
Farage also accused the reporters of “entrapment”.
After a question from the BBC, he told the press conference: “Am I annoyed that these people even got to meet me? Yes I am, it should not have happened.
“The two individuals involved are not even part of our fundraising team, so they should have gone through the appropriate channels.
“Checks would have been made and they would never, ever have got to sit down at a table with me.”
Farage continued: “We have not taken an illegal penny in funding, that is important. The loose pub talk, frankly, there was a bit of boasting, a bit of jack-the-lad-dery going on there.
“If it was more serious than that, then I refer you back to the BBC’s question earlier, the names would have been put on to the programme and there would be a hell of a row. They don’t exist. Those donations don’t exist.”
Asked about the way Jukes, his close friend, is involved, Farage said: “I don’t like it at all. I’ve worked with Dan very closely for many years, many, many years, and I described it as loose pub talk, and that’s what it was, because what he said simply wasn’t true.
“He got put into a position and he should never have said what he did. I believe the investigation will find he should never have said one or two of the things that he said.”
The Clacton MP’s comments come after Farage admitted this morning to LBC that he is “not happy” about the row, but insisted: “The party has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that whatsoever.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
The post A whole year of mad Zack appeared first on spiked.
Jordan Bardella and Nigel Farage signed a “memorandum of understanding” at Reform’s conference today (Alamy)
3 min read
Nigel Farage has unveiled a pact agreed with French far-right politician Jordan Bardella at his party’s conference, declaring it would “stop the boats forever”.
The Reform UK leader joined the president of France’s National Rally party on stage in Birmingham to sign a “memorandum of understanding”, which the pair said would be enacted if they both got into power.
Farage said the most significant part was an agreement that “the United Kingdom will intercept boats which launched from French shores and entered British territorial waters and will return the persons on board to France”, something not currently agreed by the two countries.
He added that it was the beginning of a “genuine new entente cordiale”, and that if National Rally – led by Marine Le Pen – wins the French presidency next year the country will “do their utmost to stop all departures” across the Channel.
It came after Bardella, the front-runner to become the next French prime minister, said in his speech to the Reform UK conference on Friday that a National Rally government “will do everything in its power to ensure that France is no longer the gateway for illegal migration into the United Kingdom”.
Bardella added: “The destination of illegal migrants entering France shall not be the United Kingdom – they should be returned to their countries of origin.
“The English Channel must no longer be a migration route to Dover or Folkestone, where thousands of people risk their lives in the hands of criminal smuggling gangs with the complicity of the leftists.
“Together, we must put an end to these daily routes. We must break the smuggler business model and together we must take back control of our borders.”
After the pair signed the memorandum on the main stage, they gave a joint press conference to journalists, which was dominated by questions around a report alleging that two Reform officials arranged party donations that breached UK electoral rules.
Farage sought to downplay the comments made by Reform officials in the documentary broadcast by Channel 4 and investigative reporting outfit Verbatim, calling them “loose pub talk”.
But two senior party figures – longstanding Farage aide Dan Jukes and Reform’s head of policy, Cambridge professor James Orr – have now stood down pending an internal investigation. The matter has also been referred to the police and the Electoral Commission.
Reform’s leader said “the party has done nothing wrong, taken no illegal money”, and instead claimed the story was “an exercise in entrapment”.
He added: “What is more problematic is loose pub talk, including a couple of boasts that simply were not true.”
Asked for his view on the investigation into donations, Bardella told reporters it “looks like a smokescreen”.
The French politician argued in his speech on the main stage of conference that public opinion was more important than the judgement of others, saying: “There is only one supreme judge – the people.”
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