A summary of today's developments
Keir Starmer implements a major reshuffle of his cabinet following Angela Rayner’s resignation earlier today from her government posts and position as deputy Labour leader over failing to pay enough tax on her £800,000 flat in East Sussex.
The PM’s ethics adviser found that while Rayner “acted with integrity”, she had breached the ministerial code. Rayner said she takes “full responsibility” in her resignation letter.
Yvette Cooper is the new foreign secretary and Shabana Mahmood becomes home secretary.
Steve Reed takes over Rayner’s former housing brief while Peter Kyle is named business secretary and Liz Kendall is the new science secretary.
Emma Reynolds will be environment secretary while Douglas Alexander will be Scotland secretary. Rachel Reeves retains her role as chancellor.
Nigel Farage has said there is every chance of a general election in 2027 and declared at Reform’s conference in Birmingham that he will run on a pledge to ‘stop the boats’ within two weeks of entering No 10.
Keir Starmer is battling to get a grip on the crisis that has engulfed his government with his deputy prime minister Angela Rayner forced to step down after breaching the ministerial code over her tax arrangements.
The prime minister brought forward a major cabinet reshuffle in an attempt to restore order and get back on the front foot after a damaging few days with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood all moved to prominent new roles.
However, the fallout from the controversy over Rayner, who as housing secretary underpaid about £40,000 stamp duty on her seaside flat, is likely to further damage Labour’s already battered reputation, as it struggles to take on the challenge from Reform UK.
With Rayner standing down from all three of her roles – which also included deputy leader of the Labour party – Downing Street is now braced for a bruising internal party contest to replace her, which frustrated MPs could use to try to force Starmer into a change of direction.
It comes just days after Downing Street attempted a reset after a difficult summer recess, during which Nigel Farage and migration policy dominated the headlines, and ahead of a tough autumn during which Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to raise taxes to balance the nation’s books.
In his ruling, ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus found that Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service” but concluded she had breached the ministerial code over her tax affairs.
In her resignation letter, Rayner said that she “deeply regrets” her decision not to seek additional specialist tax advice over her purchase of the property in Hove, East Sussex, earlier this year.
Defend Our Juries, which has organised protests to oppose the ban on Palestine Action, proscribed by Yvette Cooper under the Terrorism Act in July, has said that her departure as home secretary should also herald an end to the ban. A spokesperson said:
“Yvette Cooper being removed as home secretary is no surprise given the huge political error she made by proscribing Palestine Action, attracting condemnation and ridicule from across the political spectrum here and around the world and making the UK an international embarrassment.
“Due to her disastrous decision, over 720 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding cardboard signs – an utterly absurd and unjustifiable waste of resources. This never before attack on free speech in our country’s history, which borrows from the playbook of some of the world’s most repressive regimes, will see her go down as one of the UK’s worst home secretaries.
“Over 1,000 people have pledged to defy the ban in Parliament Square again tomorrow, as well as others across the UK. If the police arrest them all, there will be four times more counter terrorism arrests in one day, than there was in the whole of last year. This is how dictatorships behave – not democracies.
“Yvette Cooper’s ban on Palestine Action has spectacularly backfired for her and the government. Now, she’s been removed as home secretary, the proscription of Palestine Action must go with her.”
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James Cleverly, shadow secretary for housing, communities and local government, wrote on X: “So many sideways moves in this reshuffle.
“Starmer can’t claim it’s about promoting new talent, or about removing deadwood.
“So it can only be that he put people into the wrong jobs last year.”
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Following the appointment of Yvette Cooper as the new foreign secretary, the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association said: “As an organisation that has pioneered the delivery of high impact, low cost, sustainable global health development schemes in Africa and Asia with the generous support of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office over the last half decade, CPA asks the new secretary of state to meet with organisations like ours to explore new models of delivering international aid programmes at a time of financial pressure.
“Programmes which invest in enhancing workforce capability, developing the skills and expertise of professionals, and improving access to vital healthcare resources like preventative medicines can have an outsized impact on global health outcomes for a much lower cost than ‘traditional’ aid programmes. CPA is a leader in delivering high-impact, innovative and cost effective work in this space.
“We urge the new foreign secretary to engage with key stakeholders to explore how the UK’s official development assistant schemes can continue to save lives – directly around the world and indirectly in the UK through mitigation of infectious diseases and epidemics that respect no national border – despite the fiscal challenges the government faces.”
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The reshuffle’s decision to move the skills ministerial brief from the Department for Education and hand it to Pat McFadden at the Department for Work and Pensions has caused some head-scratching in the education sector as we await further details about who is doing what.
Previously, Jacqui Smith was the skills minister at the DfE, which under Labour included universities and higher education in England as well as further education and apprenticeships.
But the announcement that McFadden will now take skills raises various possibilities that need clarification. The DfE is likely to want to keep higher education, and offload apprenticeships and lifelong learning. But that raises the prospect of 16-19 education and FE colleges being administered by the DWP. To complicate matters, a skills white paper is on the way although that is likely to be pushed back.
The National Centre for Universities and Business said: “Early clarity on how skills policy will be coordinated across departments and aligned with employers’ needs will be critical. Universities and businesses together are central to equipping people with the skills for the future economy.”
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, said: “I want thank my friend Ian Murray for his service as Secretary of State for Scotland.
“Ian held our party together during the most difficult and dark times.
“I want to congratulate Douglas Alexander on his appointment as the new secretary of state for Scotland.
“I know Douglas will use his experience, knowledge and skills to demonstrate that a UK Labour government is delivering for Scotland.
“I look forward to campaigning with Ian and Douglas to end the managed decline of Scotland under the SNP and chart a new direction for Scotland.”
Alexander said: “A UK Labour government has already shown what change looks like: ending Tory austerity, giving 200,000 of Scotland’s lowest-paid workers a pay rise, championing Scotland’s business with world beating trade deals and delivering the largest budget settlement in the history of devolution.
“But the SNP continue to squander that investment – and we must end two decades of SNP incompetence next year.
“So I look forward to working with Anas Sarwar to earn the trust of the people of Scotland and electing a Scottish Labour government that delivers the new direction Scotland needs.”
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Wrapped in a union flag and clad head to foot in red, white and blue as she took in the full spectacle of Reform UK’s conference, Kim Anderson was enjoying meeting like-minded Nigel Farage supporters in the flesh.
“If you were to ask me if politics is a big part of my life, I would say it is and it isn’t, but I can spend all day commenting on the GB News website. You find that if you say things in a certain way then you can say anything you like,” said Anderson, a retired former ambulance worker and one-time Labour voter who had enthusiastically now thrown her lot in with Reform.
In Hethersett, near Norwich, where she lives, Anderson spoke of having to be cautious about expressing her views, adding: “You can normally judge what people are going to say, but you do have to watch what you say, you can find yourself shut down or they walk away.”
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Following Yvette Cooper’s appointment as the new foreign secretary, Care International UK’s chief executive, Helen McEachern: said: “Her appointment comes at a moment of deep global crises for women and girls as attacks on their rights increase and intensify.
“We look forward to working with the secretary of state to challenge this rollback, and urge her to make choices that protect aid funding for women and girls and ensure the UK is a strong advocate for global gender equality.”
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At 9.30am on Monday morning, as MPs made their way back to Westminster, Keir Starmer gathered the entire staff of No 10 in the Pillared Room of Downing Street to tell them they were about to enter the next, delivery, stage of government.
“We go into phase two in good spirits, confident and with conviction,” he told them, as some of those gathered shuffled awkwardly. His remarks, after all, followed a difficult summer during which Labour vacated the pitch to Reform UK and ahead of what is likely to be an even more turbulent autumn.
With Starmer desperately needing to show he could get a grip on government, the rest of his big reset week could not have gone more badly. The departure of his deputy, Angela Rayner, is the most serious blow yet for the already beleaguered prime minister.
In interviews, Rayner often described Starmer as “the yin to my yang”, explaining how the odd couple of British politics may not have run on a joint ticket for leader and deputy, but they were so complementary they might as well have done.
She was everything that Starmer is not. Politically intuitive. A powerful communicator. An authentic working-class voice. Savage Reform attack dog. Popular with MPs, members and unions. Party fixer. Despite a sometimes bumpy relationship, Rayner’s absence will be keenly felt.”
The far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson has been disparaged for his comments on “rape gangs” but has been proven to be correct, Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf told the party’s annual conference.
Yusuf, who was named as by Nigel Farage on Friday as the party’s new head of policy, was in discussion with the former Tory minister and current editor of the Spectator Michael Gove at a fringe event when he made the comments.
During a question-and-answer session Yusuf appeared to refer to the track record of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, when it came to the issue of grooming gangs in some parts of Britain.
“Tommy Robinson has said things about the rape gangs for years, and was making those arguments for years, and was disparaged, and has been proven to be correct on those matters, and deserves some credit for that,” said Yusuf.
Asked by Gove if Robinson could ever join Reform, Yusuf replied: “No.”
Yusuf was also asked by Gove, who was worse, Robinson or the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Yusuf replied: “Absolutely the worst is Jeremy Corbyn.”
Reform UK has previously faced a schism over its approach to Robinson’s supporters, after two high-profile party figures said in the past it was wrong to disavow those who went to a weekend rally backing the far-right figure.
Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, said last year that the party “want nothing to do with” Robinson and “all of that lot”. Farage also said after the summer riots that he had never had anything to do with “the Tommy Robinsons and those who genuinely do stir up hatred”.
But two high-profile 2024 candidates, Howard Cox and Ben Habib, took a different position, saying those who attended a major rally organised by Robinson were some of Reform’s own people. Both Cox and Habib later quit the party.
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Commenting on the appointment of David Lammy as justice secretary, Katie Kempen, chief executive of Victim Support, said: “We would like to congratulate David Lammy on his appointment as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He takes on this role at a critical moment for victims, who are navigating a broken justice system at a time when vital support services face devastating funding cuts.
“We look forward to working with him to build a justice system that truly delivers for victims, and to seize this opportunity to commit to long-term, sustainable funding for services, so that every victim receives the support and respect they need and deserve.”
Reacting to Shabana Mahmood’s appointment as home secretary, Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said Mahmood still faces significant challenges despite “important progress” made by her predecessor Yvette Cooper.
Solomon said: “It is vital she quickly gets to grips with a long to-do list that includes rapidly ending the use of asylum hotels, speeding up decision making for asylum applications and expanding safe and legal pathways for refugees fleeing conflict to reach the UK safely.”
The departing foreign secretary David Lammy recently confided that the sense of imposter syndrome that dogged him in all his previous jobs had left him as soon as he became foreign secretary.
He finally felt at home in diplomacy, and repeatedly said his intention was to remain foreign secretary for the full term, building the personal contacts critical to influence and providing the stability the foreign office has badly lacked as the Conservatives went through foreign secretaries like hot butter.
Sadly for Lammy, representing a middle rank power in the midst of the collapse of the multilateral order requires more than 426 days in office. It is probably not enough to leave a manifest legacy, or to turn the Foreign Office into the power house he felt his hero Ernest Bevin managed to do. Progressive realism, his watchword as foreign secretary, was a work in progress.
He brought the UK back closer to Europe, without overseeing any structural changes. He reversed Tory policy and banned most UK arms sales to Israel, but seemed reluctant to go much further as Israel used ever more destructive methods and killed more than 60,000 Palestinians. By the end of his time in office some settlers and two extremist members of the Israeli cabinet had had sanctions imposed on them by Lammy. The architecture of the trade relationship with Israel was left untouched, while France was seen to take the lead on the recognition of Palestine.
In Ukraine he hoped his curiously warm relationship with the cerebral and religious US vice-president JD Vance gave the UK some leverage, but the bulk of the leadership on Ukraine came from the defence ministry, No 10, an increasingly influential national security adviser Jonathan Powell, or the UK ambassador to Washington. The appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, a decision Lammy championed, underscored No 10’s determination to find a way to influence the Trump administration without advertising differences. It meant Lammy holding his tongue, and possibly not playing to his rhetorical strengths. .
His critics will point to his meek acceptance of a large cut in the overseas aid budget, so aid spending fell from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income. In Sudan, one of the issues that stirred his conscience and on which the UK was the penholder at the security council, he was unable to end the proxy battles between the UAE and Egypt that make peace so elusive. Sudanese refugees are on the brink of another catastrophe
Nor did his efforts to bring home British detainees held overseas bear much fruit., In the jails of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and India the same familiar faces remain behind bars. A promise to appoint a special envoy for overseas detainees, something that he surely could drive through, was continually delayed.
Nor did he make progress on his plans to make the fight against corruption, one of his promises in opposition. He appointed a special envoy and promised a conference in London, but the overseas territories have seemingly with impunity ignored his calls to come into line.
Doubtless no one will be more frustrated than him at leaving so much work unfinished, or half begun. Diplomacy is inherently a slow burn, and to leave a mark on the pages of history Lammy needed more time. But above all it is the requirement to pretend that Donald Trump is a serious person that leaves those that have to keep up this pretence so damaged.
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Deputy Reform leader Richard Tice has told the Countryside Alliance reception at the annual conference that he would scrap inheritance tax.
He told the room, to applause, that Reform would “scrap the family farm tax” which refers to Labour introducing a new inheritance tax on farmland in last year’s budget.
Warming to the theme he said the party in power would “scrap all inheritance tax.”
Asked by the Guardian if he just meant agricultural property relief and business property relief he said: “I would scrap all inheritance tax no one would pay it again”.
Asked how would he fund it, he said “it’s a day one priority we will fund it.”
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Angela Rayner’s departure on Friday has precipitated a wide-ranging reshuffle that means some of the government’s biggest names will be moving jobs. Here are the most significant changes.
Douglas Alexander’s appointment as the new Scotland secretary suggests strongly that Keir Starmer believes Labour needs a more cerebral and effective political operator in the post, with Scottish Labour struggling to overturn a steep slump in the polls.
A former aide to Gordon Brown, Alexander is Labour’s most experienced Scottish MP, and one of the most experienced at UK level.
A former international development secretary, transport secretary and briefly Scotland secretary under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he is intimately familiar with the corridors of Whitehall and known for his deep understanding of political strategy.
Starmer’s decision to sack Murray shocked many in Scottish Labour – he was the party’s sole Scottish MP for eight years, building an unassailable electoral coalition in his seat of Edinburgh South.
But some sources suggest Murray did not have sufficient weight and presence at the cabinet table, and lacked the heft to extract big policy wins for Scotland in some parts of Whitehall. Despite Murray’s track record and popularity in Scottish Labour, Starmer was ruthless in his reshuffle.
With the polls suggesting Starmer faces a humiliating defeat in next May’s Holyrood elections at the hands of the Scottish National party, with Scottish Labour a distant second behind the SNP and in some polls level with Reform UK, the prime minister decided to act.
“We can’t afford to be romantic about it,” said one party source.
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Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister and now the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, has arrived at Downing Street.
He smiled and nodded after a reporter asked him: “Can you make this work?”
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Three hecklers have been removed from Nigel Farage’s closing speech including one woman carried out in a heavy handed way and left lying on the ground outside the conference centre.
Security also tried to prevent journalists from filming and taking pictures of their handling of the episode.
One of the protesters had shouted at Farage that he was not a man of the people. As the woman was carried out, the Reform leader said: “Go easy, she’s clearly got some anger management issues.”
The Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar wrote on X: “Anybody else not mentioned eg Reeves at Treasury, Healey at defence, Miliband at energy, Wes Streeting at health, Bridget Phillipson at education, Alexander at transport and Lisa Nandy at culture etc remain in post.”
Here is the full list of the new-look cabinet.
David Lammy will be justice secretary and deputy prime minister
Yvette Cooper will be foreign secretary
Shabana Mahmood will be home secretary
Darren Jones will be chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and retains his new role as chief secretary to the prime minister
Steve Reed will be housing secretary
Peter Kyle will be business secretary
Liz Kendall will be science secretary
Emma Reynolds will be environment secretary
Douglas Alexander will be Scotland secretary
Jonathan Reynolds will be chief whip
Alan Campbell will be leader of the House of Commons.
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New science, environment and Scotland secretaries announced
Downing Street has also announced Liz Kendall will be the new science secretary.
Emma Reynolds will be the new environment secretary and Douglas Alexander will be the new Scotland secretary.
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Jonathan Reynolds named as new chief whip
Downing Street has announced Jonathan Reynolds will be the new government chief whip.
Reynolds was previously the business secretary.
Rachel Reeves is staying in her post as chancellor, the BBC is reporting.
Peter Kyle is the new business secretary
Peter Kyle is the new business secretary, replacing Jonathan Reynolds.
Kyle was the science innovation and technology minister.
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Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff talks through the stamp duty row that has brought Angela Rayner down – resigning on Friday as deputy PM, deputy Labour leader and housing minister.
She asks, too, where it leaves Keir Starmer’s Labour government as it loses perhaps its biggest personality on the frontbench.
Shabana Mahmood, the newly appointed home secretary, has arrived at Downing Street.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’m handing over to my colleague Nadeem Badshah, who will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest news lines from Westminster.
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David Lammy’s appointment as justice secretary “comes at a critical moment”, the Prison Reform Trust had said.
Commenting on Lammy’s appointment as Lord Chancellor and secretary of state for justice, Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
He brings a wealth of experience and a clear commitment to reform, not least through his work to address the disproportionate treatment of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in the criminal justice system.
His appointment comes at a critical moment, as the Sentencing Bill begins its journey through parliament.
This bill represents an important opportunity to move away from the failed cycle of overcrowding and crisis management, and towards a more proportionate and effective system that prioritises rehabilitation and safer communities.
We look forward to working with him to ensure this opportunity is realised.
At their conference, local Reform leaders have been boasting of their efforts to dismantle net zero measures in their local areas.
Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Kent County Council was applauded by the audience in the main hall when she said:
We are about to undeclare the climate emergency that was declared in Kent in 2019. By undeclaring the climate emergency we can take out all the net zero commitments.
We are going to save over the next four years 30 odd million quid on building modifications we will no longer take, we are not going to spend seven million quid transferring Kent County Council vehicles from petrol to electric.
On a panel, leader of Lincolnshire county council Sean Matthews said:
You are not going to be surprised to learn that as a Reform politician I have very little interest in emissions. They [vehicle emissions restrictions] are the root of all evil, I think.
The reality is the emission of a certain vehicle is not going to make a difference to the environment.
Steve Reed in as housing secretary, PA reports
Steve Reed will take over Angela Rayner’s former role as housing secretary, sources have told PA Media.
More on this as we get it.
David Lammy, who is expected to be named deputy prime minister and justice secretary, has arrived at Downing Street.
He smiled at reporters as he walked through the door of No 10, PA reported.
Davey: Labour 'learning the wrong lessons' from Tories in government
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said that Keir Starmer’s reshuffle shows that Labour learnt “the wrong lessons” from the Tory government.
Responding to today’s reshuffle, Davey said:
If Labour believes that having a reshuffle will solve the deep-rooted problems of this government, they are learning the wrong lessons from the calamity Conservatives before them.
Until Keir Starmer is ready to grab the bull by the horns and confront the problems our country really faces, it makes little difference who sits where around the cabinet table.
In a statement posted on X, Ian Murray issued an indirect warning to Keir Starmer that he risked “furthering division and despair” by failing to make a strong enough argument for “progressive change” based on hope and prosperity.
Murray said he was “hugely disappointed” to be leaving government “with so much done and so much more to do,” not least given his long period as Scotland’s sole Labour MP, but said he wished his successor well.
In a clear hint he is worried about the pace of UK government policy implementation and Starmer’s response to the immigration debate and the threat from Reform UK, he said:
I will remain as impatient for change as the public.
Politics in the UK, and elsewhere, now is at a dangerous crossroads. It is the responsibility of all of us in public life to make an argument for progressive change that brings prosperity, hope and our communities together, rather than furthering division and despair.
He said that “after many years as the sole Scottish Labour MP it was a privilege to play a pivotal role in bringing Labour back to power in Westminster [and] over the past year I have worked tirelessly with my wonderful political and civil service team at the Scotland Office to put Scotland at the heart of this UK government.”
Murray said he was “really proud” of the £10bn deal with the Norwegian government to supply five Type 26 frigates, which will be largely built in Scotland, saving Edinburgh university’s “exascale” super computer and helping deliver “the largest budget settlement [for Scotland] since devolution.”
Zia Yusuf, the new Reform policy chief, is giving an extremely hardline speech saying “the UK is being invaded” by illegal immigrants, which is going down extremely well with the hall in Birmingham.
Yusuf said “thousands of fighting age men who despise Britain are arriving on our beaches” and deporting them immediately was a proportionate response.
He said there would “not be a judge in the country who would be able to prevent a single deportation” once Reform’s new legislation was passed.
He said a new “UK deportation command” would track down every person who has entered the country by an illegal means and deport 288,000 a year.
Yvette Cooper to become foreign secretary and David Lammy deputy PM, say No 10 sources
Yvette Cooper is to become the UK’s new foreign secretary, Downing Street sources have said, as Keir Starmer embarks on a sweeping reshuffle after the damaging departure of his deputy, Angela Rayner, from government.
David Lammy was to become justice secretary, they added, but would also be appointed deputy prime minister, meaning the move is a promotion for the veteran Labour figure. Government insiders said that Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, would take over at the Home Office.
As the prime minister began reshaping his cabinet team, only Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was confirmed as staying in place as Downing Street sought to reassure the markets that the economy was in safe hands.
The first confirmed departure from cabinet was Lucy Powell, the Commons leader. “This has not been an easy time for the government. People want to see change and improvement to their difficult lives,” she said. The senior Labour MP was swiftly followed out the door by Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary.
The changes, which had been billed as a “renewal” reshuffle by government insiders but brought forward after Rayner’s departure, come after a shake-up of the No 10 operation earlier in the week. The reshuffle is ongoing.
Read the full story here:
In a bizarre moment during what has been an increasingly dramatic day in politics, the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns performed a self-written number seemingly titled ‘Insomniac’ at the Reform conference.
Walking – well, sauntering - on to the stage in Birmingham, the former Tory minister belted out the following lyrics:
I’m an insomniac, I’m an insomniac,
Staring at the ceiling, waiting for my thoughts to switch off,
Yes, I’m an insomniac, I’m an insomniac,
And all I can hear, is the sound of that God. The sound of that God,
I’m an insomniac. Yeah, I’m an insomniac.
Don’t believe me? Well, here’s the video as proof (just don’t blame me if it sets your dog off):
Cooper takes over as foreign secretary as Lammy becomes deputy PM - No 10 sources
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has been shuffled over to the foreign office and will be replaced by Shabana Mahmood, according to No 10 sources.
Our political editor Pippa Crerar has the latest on X:
Downing Street sources tell me that Yvette Cooper is off to the foreign office, with Shabana Mahmood taking over at the home office.
Previous foreign secretary David Lammy is to become deputy prime minister and justice secretary, a source has confirmed.
A Reform UK cabinet should have an ‘AI tsar,’ according to Zia Yusuf, as he outlined details of how the party would approach government after he was named on Friday by Nigel Farage as Reform’s head of policy.
Farage as prime minster would also be able to go further and faster than Reform’s counterparts in the Trump White House because of the way the British system differed from the US, he told a fringe event at the party’s annual conference.
He said that while Elon Musk had been frustrated in his efforts with the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), a Farage Downing Street backed by “a working majority” would be able to achieved radical change. Yusuf added that Reform UK would be drawing on ideas from the “whole ecosystem of thinktanks”, as well as its own as it embarked on planning for how it would govern.
The “bureaucracy” of the British state would seek to block Reform from implementing radical change, he told a fringe event at the party’s annual conference, but he insisted that even a small team could quickly begin making an impact:
We take nothing or granted.
All of these institutions are going to come after us and try to stop us. That is why we have to be prepared. We will have thousands of pages of legislation ready to go.
Donald Trump is not “hugely popular” in the UK but Nigel Farage is still benefiting from having a close relationship with the US president, Reform’s chair Zia Yusuf has told members at the party’s conference.
Yusuf also likened recent Labour attacks on Farage for being “unpatriotic” to the “Russia-gate controversy” in the US around claims that Trump was effectively an agent of the Kremlin.
“I think those sorts of attacks are going to ramp up,” Yusuf said at a fringe event at the Reform UK conference:
They have kind of realised they can’t beat us on the arguments. They have just given up on their ability to stop the boats.
Speaking earlier this week in parliament after Farage appeared before a congressional committee, Keir Starmer said that it was “a disgrace” that Farage had gone to US to lobby for sanctions on the UK that would harm working people.
Farage had urged US politicians and businesses to tell the British government “you’ve simply got this wrong” on freedom of speech rules, as he compared the UK to North Korea.
At the same fringe meeting, Yusuf was joined by the influential Conservative thinker James Orr who said that Reform should not be a “Maga tribute act” and sketched out how a Reform government would be able to achieve changes “on day one.”
Contrasting the UK with the US and how a radical populist government could implement policies after winning power, Yusuf said:
We do have a different system, which offers a lot of opportunity and it is potentially going to be easier and quicker for Nigel to do that, provided we have a majority.
Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Scotland spokesperson at Westminster, said Ian Murray’s sacking was proof Labour was in turmoil, facing its plummeting polling and failures to honour its election promises:
Scottish families are paying the price for Labour party failure – as Keir Starmer’s party is torn apart by chaos, division and bitter infighting while the cost of living soars on his watch.
Ian Murray’s sacking is the latest sign of Labour party acrimony. It is no wonder they have slumped 20 points behind the SNP in Scotland, when they are fighting like rats in a sack while failing to lift a finger to help families.
Allies 'flabbergasted' by Ian Murray sacking
Labour party figures close to Ian Murray, sacked on Friday as Scotland secretary, were “genuinely shocked” and “flabbergasted” that he had lost his job, and unclear why Murray was removed.
“Seriously, I don’t know what the hell is going on,” said one ally. There is no suggestion Murray had misstepped within the party or government, or had botched any policies, the source said.
His allies believe Murray has been a very successful opponent to the Scottish National party government in Edinburgh, helping force John Swinney, the first minister, into a significant U-turn on defence earlier this week.
Murray and his ally Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, had vigorously attacked the SNP’s ambivalent defence policy, forcing Swinney to announce on Wednesday his government would now allow funding of defence firms supporting Ukraine.
Murray has also been Labour’s electorally most successful MP in Scotland, the only one to save his seat in the 2015 general election rout where the SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats.
Known for his assiduous constituency work, Murray built up a centrist electoral coalition in Edinburgh South which landed him the country’s largest majority at the last election. He had served as shadow Scottish secretary twice since winning the seat in 2015.
His allies believe that campaigning experience made him extremely well-equipped to out-manoeuvre the SNP on other areas, including promoting his “Brand Scotland” strategy to promote products like whisky and salmon overseas, and challenging the SNP over its opposition to new nuclear power stations.
Speculation about who Starmer will appoint in his place immediately turned to Douglas Alexander, who is now a junior trade minister. One of the current government’s most experienced operators is also a former Labour secretary of state for Scotland and international development secretary under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
It is possible Labour headquarters is worried that Scottish Labour is dangerously far behind in the polls before next May’s Scottish parliament elections – one this week suggested Reform UK is level-pegging, so need to reinvigorate the party’s campaigning.
The Labour party said Nigel Farage was offering “anger without answers” with his speech to Reform UK’s conference in Birmingham.
A Labour party spokesperson, said:
Nigel Farage could have used his conference speech to offer more than just anger without answers and to say more than just ‘don’t know’ to the problems facing the country. He didn’t. It was the same old parade of complaints we’ve heard before.
His answer to the charge that Reform is a one-man band was to unveil one of the faces of failure from the last Tory government, Nadine Dorries.
Farage has proven again today that he is incapable of acting in the best interests of Britain.
Ryanair has urged passengers who have experienced air traffic control (ATC) delays to email the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, to complain.
According to the PA news agency, the Dublin-based airline has included the cabinet minister’s parliament email address on a website named Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight. Her email address was already publicly available.
The carrier said 5,782 Ryanair flights were affected by delays caused by the UK’s ATC provider Nats between the start of the year and 1 September. Ryanair called on Alexander to “fix” Nats, which it described as “mismanaged and short-staffed”.
The government has the largest shareholding in the public-private company at 49%. It also holds a golden share, giving it additional control.
Ryanair’s director of communications Jade Kirwan said:
It is unacceptable that Nats’ ATC mismanagement and staff shortages continue to cause disruption to UK flights and passengers.
Already this year, more than one million Ryanair passengers – many of whom were travelling on holidays with young families – have suffered unnecessary and avoidable ATC delays, and all because minister Alexander has not taken action to properly staff UK ATC services.
Ryanair calls on all passengers to visit the Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight webpage and demand that their national transport minister – like minister Alexander – take urgent action to fix their national ATC services and stop these needless ATC delays.
According to the PA news agency, the website features a mocked-up video of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen slapping an airline passenger in the face. Ryanair has accused von der Leyen of failing to take sufficient action to improve ATC services.
Nats declined to comment, reports the PA news agency. Nats recently cited figures from European air traffic management body Eurocontrol showing the company handled 23.7% of Europe’s traffic in July, and was accountable for 1.8% of delays to flights.
The Department for Transport has been approached by the PA news agency for comment.
Lucy Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, has said it has been “an honour to serve in the first Labour government in 15 years” as the Manchester Central MP confirmed she had been sacked in a post on X.
In a statement she said:
I spoke to the prime minister earlier today and he informed me of his intention to appoint a new leader of the House of Commons.
It has been an honour to serve in the first Labour government in 15 years, particularly as leader of the house. It’s been a role I’ve really enjoyed – overseeing the first Labour king’s speech in a generation with such an ambitious and transformative legislative programme, taking on vested interests in the service of ordinary people.
I’ve also had a big agenda of modernising the commons – I’ve tightened the rules on MPs’ second jobs – with more to come, standing up for the different voices in the house, family-friendly measures and have been embarking on improved accessibility and inclusion. These are the changes a Labour government can and should be making.
This has not been an easy time for the government. People want to see change and improvements to their difficult lives. Nor in politics more generally, not least with the rise of abuse, misrepresentation, social media echo chambers and the call for easy answers. As women in public life, we experience this all the more. The future of our democracy looks uncertain and parliament and representational politics has an important role to play.
Living and raising my children in my home city of Manchester has always given me a different perspective of politics. My first job has always been to represent the residents of Manchester Central, and I look forward to using my voice and my role on in parliament to ensure they see the change they long for.
When Nadhim Zahawi’s fate was hanging in the balance after a scandal over unpaid taxes, Angela Rayner was one of the first to pile on the political pressure.
“Nadhim Zahawi’s story about his tax affairs doesn’t add up,” she said at the time. “After months of denials, the truth emerges. His position is untenable. Rishi Sunak must dismiss him from his cabinet.”
Her comments were similar in 2018, when Jeremy Hunt received a discount when buying seven flats from a Conservative donor. “Jeremy Hunt avoids £100,000 stamp duty by exploiting Tory tax loophole & buying flats in bulk,” she posted on X.
Rayner’s effectiveness as a campaigner, communicator and scourge of the Tories made her an invaluable asset to Keir Starmer, but it also left her particularly vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy as her own tax scandal unfolded this week.
So when Laurie Magnus found on Friday she had breached the ministerial code, the deputy prime minister felt she had little option but to follow the advice she often gave to Conservatives, and resign.
“I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
Starmer and his deputy have always been an odd political couple.
Both had difficult upbringings: Starmer was the child of an ill mother and an emotionally detached father, while Rayner was the daughter of a mother with chronic depression and had her first child aged 16.
But whereas Starmer responded to hardship by developing a tough exterior and immersing himself in his work, Rayner became a gregarious and energetic trade union representative, whose emotional openness is a key part of her political success.
You can read more of Kiran Stacey’s profile of Angela Rayner here:
Lucy Powell sacked from cabinet and Ian Murray believed to be leaving government
The leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, has been sacked from the cabinet as Keir Starmer begins a reshuffle of his top team.
Scotland secretary Ian Murray is also believed to be leaving the government.
Updated
Angela Rayner’s departure is an old-fashioned scalp for the rightwing press, writes the Guardian’s media editor, Michael Savage:
Angela Rayner’s departure from cabinet marks an abrupt end for a politician who had fought doggedly to reach Labour’s top table. It also represents an old-fashioned scalp for the press, elements of which have been poring over her finances and living arrangements for more than a year.
The frustration among Rayner’s friends is that she had already survived waves of stories aimed at derailing her political career. However, they say her admission that she did not pay the correct stamp duty on the purchase of a Hove flat, which some see as a maddening own goal, gave her opponents a clear opening.
The Telegraph was already claiming victory on Wednesday, reliving how it had exposed crucial details of the Labour deputy leader’s tax arrangements on the flat purchase at the end of last week.
It followed Rayner’s lengthy admission that an error had been made, which she said had come after incorrect advice. However, her statement also revealed complicated personal circumstances that included a court order, a divorce, shifting living arrangements and a trust set up to support her disabled son.
The error was exposed after a previous attempt to draw attention to Rayner’s housing arrangements failed to dislodge her. The Mail on Sunday pursued Rayner last year with allegations she had avoided tax on the sale of a former home. After demands from Conservative MPs, the case was examined by Greater Manchester police, which cleared her of criminal wrongdoing. Soon after, HM Revenue and Customs said she owed no tax.
It was the Mail on Sunday that also first reported Rayner’s acquisition of the Hove flat, stating she had added it to her “burgeoning property empire”. The Telegraph’s crucial development came days later. Rayner says the Hove property is the only one she owns.
By then, the Sun had nicknamed her “three pads Rayner”, echoing the press’s treatment of John Prescott, who – like Rayner – was a Labour deputy prime minister handed high office for his ability to keep a significant slice of the union movement onboard. Prescott was labelled “two Jags” by the press after he used two Jaguar cars – one that he owned, the other a ministerial car.
Coverage of the Rayner row has since spread well beyond the rightwing press. The extent of her admission was enough to lose her the support of some media figures who had been sympathetic. James O’Brien, an LBC radio host who describes himself as a liberal, had said she could no longer survive as housing secretary.
Meanwhile, Darren Jones, who was made the prime minister’s chief secretary on Monday, said in a statement on X that Angela Rayner “is the embodiment of social mobility”.
After she resigned from government, Jones said: “Angela Rayner achieved a huge amount for the country this past year - record investment in council housing and better pay and rights at work.
“For our Labour movement Angela is the embodiment of social mobility and an inspiration to those of us from working-class backgrounds.”
Farage is now talking about schools and saying he wants children to be taught trades and services.
He added: “We refuse to have our children’s minds poisoned with a twisted interpretation of history.”
Jumping around topics, he pledged to make officers “police the streets, not the tweets” and stop the military being pursued over historic actions.
He announced that Zia Yusuf will be the new head of policy and that Reform will have its own department for preparing for government.
Farage returned to the stage after Dorries warned the audience not to trust the Conservatives again.
He urged the audience to “make Britain great again” and praised the spread of the St George Cross and Union Flag across lamp posts
The Reform leader said this was “sticking two fingers up with every flag they place at the establishment” and was a way of saying “we have had enough”.
He also claimed the government was “doing everything they can to crush free speech online”, adding: “We are without a doubt int he most dangerous place the country has been in my lifetime.”
Farage also claimed a Reform government would “stop the boats” within two weeks of taking office.
As the Reform UK leader revelled in Angela Rayner’s resignation over paying the incorrect amount of stamp duty on her property, it is worth remembering that Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances.
The Reform leader decried Rayner as “[screaming] to entitlement” in his speech in Birmingham just half an hour ago.
But The Guardian exclusively revealed this morning that Farage diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
The Clacton MP, who is also paid a £94,000-a-year MP’s salary, has in the past criticised people who try to avoid tax as the “common enemy” and has previously come under fire for setting up a trust fund in an offshore tax haven.
He has also claimed that some tax avoidance schemes were acceptable. “Most forms of legal tax avoidance are OK, but clearly some are not,” he said in 2014, adding that nobody voluntarily paid anything to HMRC while defending reducing a tax bill within the law.
Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency, but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given that he already owns other properties.
The use of personal service companies is not illegal, but it has been criticised across the political spectrum as a way to reduce tax bills. Farage has declined to publish his tax returns for 2023/24.
Read the full story here:
Farage said the party did have a weakness that it does not have experienced people who had been in government before.
“That is why after a lengthy debate and consultation, I’m pleased to welcome … Nadine Dorries.”
As Farage left the stage after just 15 minutes, Dorries made a dramatic entrance.
She said the government was showing it cannot manage the economy and that Labour was “fracturing and dividing into two”.
“We are in deep trouble and you can’t look at either of the two main political parties up till now to save the country.”
Updated
Farage said Rayner going, not just as housing secretary but elected deputy leader, means there will be an internal battle in Labour.
“Already they are facing the threat of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana … the left of Labour will rear its voice and we are about witness a split in Labour too,” he said.
He rhetorically questioned whether Reform was a one-man band, and the crowd said: “No.”
Farage said it had been a joy to see so many other senior Reform figures across broadcast platforms and getting elected over the last year.
Updated
Nigel Farage has come on stage at the Reform conference to a rock song surrounded by fireworks.
The Reform leader said he had brought forward his speech by three hours to address the fact the government is in crisis and immediately laid the “cabinet of wholly unqualified people to run our country”.
Speaking without an autocue or script, he said Angela Rayner’s actions “scream of entitlement” and accused the government of being “as bad if not worse than the one that went before”.
He also joked about the CV blunders of Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds, before saying the country was lucky until half an hour ago to have a housing secretary who was a property developer and speculator.
The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has brought forward his speech at the party conference in Birmingham.
We will bring you the top news lines, should any indeed emerge, from it but here is the live stream if you care to follow along live:
Starmer tells Rayner he is 'very sad' her time as deputy PM 'has ended this way'
Keir Starmer told Angela Rayner he was “very sad” that her time in government had come to an end and that he had “nothing but admiration” for her.
Here is Starmer’s letter responding to Rayner’s resignation in full:
Dear Angela,
Thank you for informing me of your decision to resign from the government. I am very sad that your time as deputy prime minister, secretary of state and deputy leader of the Labour party has ended in this way.
As you know we acted in accordance with the strengthened system relating to ministerial conduct that we put in place on coming into government.
You were right to refer yourself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards and right to act on his conclusion.
Although I believe you have reached the right decision, it is a decision which I know is very painful for you. You have given your all to making the Labour government a success and you have been a central part of our plan to make Britain fairer for working families.
Your work at MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) to help build the homes that Britain needs has been hugely important and your work to create more fairness in the workplace through the employment rights bill represents a very significant achievement that will change the lives of millions of people.
On a personal note, I am very sad to be losing you from the government. You have been a trusted colleague and a true friend for many years. I have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics.
I know that many people of all political persuasions admire that someone as talented as you is the living embodiment of social mobility.
Even though you won’t be part of the government, you will remain a major figure in our party. I know you will continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately about.
My very best wishes and with real sadness,
Keir.
Nigel Farage has brought forward his leader’s speech at the Reform UK conference after the news of Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister.
The Reform leader will now speak at 1pm, three hours earlier than previously expected.
We will have an update on his speech shortly from Rowena Mason who is at the conference in Birmingham.
Updated
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said Angela Rayner’s position was “untenable for days” after the Deputy prime minister admitted she underpaid stamp duty on a flat she bought in Hove earlier this year.
In a video posted on X after Rayner’s resignation, Badenoch said:
Angela Rayner is finally gone. It says everything about Keir Starmer’s weak leadership that he had to wait for a report before acting.
The truth is simple, she dodged tax. She lied about it. Her position was untenable for days.
Keir Starmer once promised honesty and integrity in politics, but when faced with this test, he hesitated: no principles, no backbone.
We Conservatives forced this investigation and were vindicated. But this isn’t the end. Questions remain. What did Keir Starmer know and when did he mislead the public?
Ethics watchdog letter to Keir Starmer: in full
Here is the letter from ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus to prime minister Keir Starmer in full:
Dear prime minister,
Following a self-referral by the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government on 3 September 2025, I have undertaken an examination of the circumstances and facts connected to recent allegations about Ms Rayner’s property ownership and tax affairs.
I should acknowledge that Ms Rayner has provided her full and open cooperation in assisting me with my inquiries. Her decision to provide greater public transparency by applying to remove the confidentiality undertaking in a court order protecting her family’s domestic financial circumstances was, in particular, clearly very difficult to reconcile with her understandable wish to shield members of her family from the glare of media attention.
It is a sad reflection of the almost intolerable pressures that can face prominent politicians in protecting the privacy of their families, not least, as Ms Rayner highlighted in her statement on 3 September, “the reality that family life is rarely straightforward, particularly when dealing with disability, divorce and the complexities of ensuring your children’s long term security”.
Ms Rayner has explained publicly that, following recent allegations and speculation, and in order to assure herself of compliance with her obligations, she sought legal advice from leading tax counsel. This covered her personal position in relation to council tax, stamp duty land tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. I have had access to this written opinion and, as a result of its conclusions, have focused my inquiries – and this advice – on the issues relating to Ms Rayner’s acknowledged failure to pay the correct amount of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on the purchase of a property in Hove, Sussex, in May 2025.
It is the realisation of this error that prompted Ms Rayner, shortly after having received the final tax law advice, to refer the matter to me on Wednesday 3 September. Ms Rayner has set out in detail, publicly, the details of her family’s domestic arrangements and her decision to sell her 25% interest in the freehold of the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne and to purchase a property in Hove. I do not need to repeat these details here, other than to note that they inevitably entailed a considerable degree of complexity.
Having sold her 25% share in the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Ms Rayner ceased to own any part of that property. However, under the relevant legislation, a person who does not own a property can nonetheless be deemed to hold an interest in it if certain circumstances apply; these include where that property is held by a trust, and the beneficiary of the trust is a child of that person under the age of 18. I understand there are additional complexities, for example concerning the particular type of trust in question and the reason for which the trust was established.
Taken together, it appears that – particularly in the context of the specialist type of trust in question – the interpretation of these rules is complex. With Ms Rayner’s full cooperation and assistance, I have reviewed relevant documentation from the property transaction. This has included the advice she received at the time from the legal firms involved and the associated documentation that was prepared for her to effect the purchase. This advice gave rise to Ms Rayner’s understanding – which I consider to have been held in good faith – that the lower rate of SDLT was applicable when purchasing the property in Hove.
It is not necessary for me to detail the specific contents of this advice or the associated documentation but, having reviewed it, I would draw four conclusions:
a) Ms Rayner was open about the existence of the trust and considered that, between them, the firms advising her had appropriate knowledge and awareness of the details and circumstances of the trust;
b) On the basis of the advice she received, Ms Rayner believed that the lower rate of SDLT would be applicable; indeed she was twice informed in writing that this was the case; but
c) In those two instances, that advice was qualified by the acknowledgment that it did not constitute expert tax advice and was accompanied by a suggestion, or in one case a recommendation, that specific tax advice be obtained; and
d) If such expert tax advice had been received, as it later was, it would likely have advised her that a higher rate of SDLT was payable.
The ministerial code sets out the high standards that, as prime minister, you expect all ministers to follow. It enshrines the commitment to uphold the seven principles of public life, and details “the overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law and to protect the integrity of public life”. The code begins at 1.2 by stating that “ministers are expected to embody the principles of public service and to set a positive example as they govern in the national interest. Ministers should recognise that, as office-holders, they are held to the highest possible standards of proper conduct, and ensure that they are living up to those standards in their words and actions”.
Ms Rayner deeply regrets the mistake she has made in relation to the underpayment of SDLT for the purchase of her property in Hove. On realisation of this error, she has sought quickly to correct the mistake and to refer herself to HMRC in order to ensure that she pays the correct amount. I have no doubt that she has been motivated in the management of her property and financial arrangements by a desire to act in the best interests of her children, and with the intention to pay all appropriate taxes and fulfil all her legal obligations.
It is highly unfortunate, however, that Ms Rayner failed to pay the correct rate of SDLT on this purchase, particularly given her status and responsibilities as the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government and as deputy prime minister. She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought. I am conscious of the acute challenges ministers face – perhaps uniquely – in managing the demands of their personal lives and their public responsibilities.
However, the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately on themselves alone. Given the conjunction of the acknowledged complexity of her family circumstances, her position in government (most importantly as Ddeputy prime minister) and the consequences of getting such a calculation wrong, it is deeply regrettable that the specific tax advice was not sought.
I believe Ms Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service. I consider, however, that her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the “highest possible standards of proper conduct” as envisaged by the code. Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the code to have been breached.
Yours sincerely
Sir Laurie Magnus CBE. Independent adviser on ministerial standards.
Updated
Angela Rayner's resignation letter in full
Here is the resignation letter from Angela Rayner to prime minister Keir Starmer in full, via the PA news agency:
Dear Keir,
Thank you for the personal and public support you have shown me in recent days. As you know, on Wednesday I referred myself to your independent adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, to conduct a thorough investigation into my personal financial circumstances after I became aware that it is likely I inadvertently paid the incorrect rate for stamp duty land tax (SDLT).
I have always taken my responsibilities as deputy prime minister, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, as well as a member of parliament with the utmost seriousness. I have long believed that people who serve the British public in government must always observe the highest standards, and while the independent adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase.
I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice given both my position as housing secretary and my complex family arrangements. I take full responsibility for this error. I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.
I must also consider the significant toll that the ongoing pressure of the media is taking on my family. While I rightly expect proper scrutiny on me and my life, my family did not choose to have their private lives interrogated and exposed so publicly. I have been clear throughout this process that my priority has, and always will be, protecting my children and the strain I am putting them under through staying in post has become unbearable.
Given the findings, and the impact on my family, I have therefore decided to resign as deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, as well as deputy leader of the Labour party.
For a teenage mum from a council estate in Stockport to serve as the highest level of government has been the honour of my life. The challenges of government are nothing compared to the challenge of putting food on the table and getting a roof over our head when I brought up kids working as a home help. Too many people face the same across our country.
I’ve always known that politics changes lives because it changed mine. The last Labour government gave me the tools I needed to build a better life for me and my young son, and that’s why I’ve been working relentlessly from day one in government to do the same for the next generation. Every day I had in office, I worked to serve working-class communities like the one that I grew up in, which are too often overlooked by those in power.
I am proud that in every decision I made, I did it for them. I would never have become deputy prime minister if not for the decisions taken by the last Labour government, giving me a council house to support me, Sure Start to help raise my kids, and the security of a minimum wage – and I can only hope that the changes I made in government will have the same impact for young girls growing up on council estates like I did.
Through my employment rights bill people across the country will receive the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation. This landmark legislation will be gamechanging for millions of people stuck in insecure and low-paid work, giving them the dignity and security they don’t just need but also deserve. I am and will remain deeply proud of that legacy. I am so proud to have worked alongside the trade union movement, who have given me everything, to deliver that.
Our renters’ rights bill will finally ban the oppressive rule of no-fault evictions and will reset the balance between renters and landlords through groundbreaking protection for renters. Everyone deserves to live in a safe and decent home, and I know this legislation will deliver that for millions of people across the country.
The planning and infrastructure bill will also be instrumental in getting the homes so many people across this country need built, and I am so proud that at the spending review we announced the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in a generation with the overwhelming amount of this going to genuinely social rent homes.
And last week, I introduced the English devolution bill to parliament. The largest single package of devolution from any Westminster government to local people across England. This landmark legislation will permanently change the balance of power, giving true control to those with skin in game.
We delivered an elections strategy which will mean 16 and 17-year-olds getting the vote for the first time, as well as ambitious plans to ensure the most marginalised communities are registered to vote. We took steps to stabilise the broken foundations of local government and deliver the first genuinely fair funding review and the first multi-year settlement for a decade.
My department, through my excellent team of ministers, has also provided the largest ever investment in homelessness prevention services to local authorities, to get Britain back on track to ending homelessness for good.
We’ve worked relentlessly to bring an end to the building safety crisis and developed new measures to get people’s homes fixed quicker and hold rogue freeholders to account. We’ve also worked to boost community cohesion, tackle hate crime and reset the relationship with faith communities.
I have been lucky to work alongside the most talented group of ministers who worked with dedication to deliver for working people. I thank Matthew Pennycook, Jim McMahon, Alex Norris, Wajid Khan and Sharon Taylor. I too am grateful to my brilliant parliamentary team, Harpreet Uppal, Mark Ferguson, and Gen Kitchen.
For me, being in office is the chance to change the lives of the people I grew up alongside. I will do whatever I can to continue doing so.
Thank you for your leadership and for your friendship. I will continue to serve you, our country and the party and movement I love in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Yours sincerely,
Angela Rayner
Rowena Mason is reporting live from the Reform UK conference in Birmingham.
In the moment of Angela Rayner’s resignation, Nigel Farage was arriving at his party conference in Birmingham with a broad smile, flanked by his partner Laure Ferrari and his treasurer, Nick Candy, who has just donated £500,000 to Reform. His security entourage allowed him to stop for several selfies before he headed to a packed conference arena for chair David Bull’s opening speech.
His arrival on stage had a rock concert atmosphere, and he told the crowd to huge applause:
The British people are behind us and they know we will make Britain great again … the government is falling apart as we speak.
Last week the prime minister announced phase two of his government: How’s that going Keir? Rayner has resigned. We are taking them down one by one.
Updated
'I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice': Angela Rayner
Angela Rayner has told the prime minister in a letter that “I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice” and took “full responsibility for this error” as she resigned as deputy prime minister, housing Ssecretary and deputy leader of the Labour party.
According to the PA news agency, Starmer told Angela Rayner “you will remain a major figure in our party” and will “continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately
about” as she resigned.
Sir Laurie Magnus found that Rayner “did not heed the caution” in legal advice she received when buying her Hove flat. The independent ethics adviser said in his letter:
She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought.
I am conscious of the acute challenges ministers face – perhaps uniquely – in managing the demands of their personal lives and their public responsibilities. However, the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves.
Rayner breached ministerial code over tax affairs, independent ethics adviser's report finds
Ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus said Angela Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service” but concluded she breached the ministerial code over her tax affairs, reports the PA news agency.
Downing Street said Keir Starmer had taken “a number of steps” to strengthen the ministerial code and ensure investigations into misconduct can take place.
A No 10 spokesperson said:
The PM has insisted that if there are issues ministers must refer themselves to the independent adviser.
The spokesperson said these changes were designed to “strengthen the process around the independent adviser’s role”.
Updated
Equalities watchdog submits formal guidance after UK supreme court transgender ruling
The equalities watchdog has submitted its formal guidance about how institutions should respond to the landmark supreme court ruling on transgender people’s rights, with its chair admitting it would be “difficult” for many to shape workable policies.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has handed its formal guidance to Bridget Phillipson, the minister for women and equalities as well as the education secretary, who must now decide whether to accept it.
One EHRC source said that while the decision-making on the guidance was restricted to a small group of people around the group’s outgoing chair, Kishwer Falkner, the expectation was that it would closely reflect interim advice released by the watchdog in April.
This alarmed transgender groups, who said its guidance that the supreme court’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based just on biological sex meant transgender people should not be allowed to use toilets of the gender they live as, and that in some cases they could not use toilets of their birth sex, would effectively exclude transgender people from much of the public realm.
It also said that organisations such as sports clubs or hospitals could ask to see someone’s birth certificate if there is “genuine concern” about what biological sex they are.
The guidance follows a consultation in which more than 50,000 responses were gathered over a period lasting six weeks – extended from an initial two weeks after MPs expressed worries about what they said was a rushed timetable.
Deciding on whether and how to accept the guidance will be a hugely complex and sensitive issue for Phillipson’s office, with no timetable set for when it will happen. The document was described by one official as “hugely complicated”.
Angela Rayner stands down over stamp duty row
Angela Rayner has stood down as housing secretary and deputy prime minister after an investigation by the government’s ethics adviser into her underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat.
Rayner’s departure is deeply damaging for the prime minister, who initially stood by her, and his authority has now been badly bruised as a result.
It also leaves the Labour government without one of its most authentic – and powerful – working-class voices at a time when it is struggling to reconnect with its traditional voter base and trailing Reform UK in the polls.
Rayner had referred herself to the ethics adviser after confirming she would have to pay more stamp duty – which experts have predicted could run to as much as £40,000 – because she had incorrectly paid the lower rate on the flat in Hove.
At the time, Rayner said she “deeply regretted” that the error had been made, after classifying the flat as her only property despite spending much of her time with her children at the family house in Ashton, Greater Manchester.
Months before the Hove purchase, she had put her stake in the Ashton house into a trust that was set up in 2020 to manage a payment to one of her sons, who after a “deeply personal and distressing incident” as a premature baby had been left with lifelong disabilities.
After the revelations, Rayner faces charges of hypocrisy as the government is expected to increase taxes on property owners in the autumn budget.
More details soon …
Updated
Prime minister Keir Starmer has received the report by his independent ethics adviser into deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s tax affairs and is considering its findings, the PA news agency understands.
Fags, booze, hunting and cryptocurrency: if the brochures for the Reform UK conference in Birmingham are anything to go by, executives turning up to see Nigel Farage’s party will find an eclectic mix.
Starting on Friday, the party leading the opinion polls will hold its “next step” conference at the National Exhibition Centre, with a plan to show UK plc that it is the next party of government.
Attendees are expected to include JCB, TikTok and Airbnb, at an event where sponsorship packages priced up to £250,000 have been offered – all including booze, VIP access and branding opportunities. The party said it expected to welcome “hundreds” of businesses.
For any “visionary brands” taking the top “accelerator package”, a champagne breakfast with Farage awaits; as well as platinum bar access, unlimited complimentary drinks, and a custom cocktail named after their company at the Reform UK afterparty.
Supping with Farage is, though, not for everyone in corporate Britain.
The Guardian spoke to more than a dozen business executives about their companies’ attendance. All said they were apolitical and also went to other party conferences. Most said that junior staff were heading to Birmingham rather than top bosses, while several expressed reservations.
“Everyone feels awkward, no one wants to be called out as being there,” said one corporate affairs boss. “They’re a toxic brand, as well as a popular one – a very divisive brand. Some people don’t want their businesses to be seen as speaking to, or legitimising, them.
“Everyone can see Farage using businesses that turn up as a sort of, ‘Well, we’ve got all the businesses onside.’ That is the concern going on.”
At the weekend the Sunday Telegraph reported that Heathrow airport had been “unveiled” as a sponsor, in an article suggesting that big business was “flocking” to Farage’s party. The airport issued a statement suggesting that it was not implicitly backing Reform.
“Heathrow has had a significant presence at major party conferences for decades and has hosted airport-style lounges at Labour, Conservative and SNP conferences for over 10 years,” a spokesperson said.
The leader of Brighton and Hove city council has called vandalism outside Angela Rayner’s flat “vile, sexist criminal damage”.
On Thursday morning, the words “bitch” and “tax evader” had been daubed on the wall outside the deputy prime minister’s seaside flat in Hove.
The council has since painted over the damage, although when workers first went to do so on Thursday afternoon they were berated by local residents, reports the PA news agency.
Labour’s Brighton and Hove city council leader Bella Sankey said:
I’m disgusted by the vile, sexist, criminal damage targeting our deputy prime minister in the city.
I am glad the police are investigating this criminal act. There is no place for intimidation and toxic misogyny in Brighton and Hove.
Updated
Nigel Farage uses private company to pay less tax on GB News earnings
Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters.
The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
The Clacton MP, who is also paid a £94,000-a-year MP’s salary, has in the past criticised people who try to avoid tax as the “common enemy” and has previously come under fire for setting up a trust fund in an offshore tax haven.
He has also claimed that some tax avoidance schemes were acceptable. “Most forms of legal tax avoidance are OK, but clearly some are not,” he said in 2014, adding that nobody voluntarily paid anything to HMRC while defending reducing a tax bill within the law.
Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency, but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given that he already owns other properties.
The use of personal service companies is not illegal, but it has been criticised across the political spectrum as a way to reduce tax bills. Farage has declined to publish his tax returns for 2023/24.
Several broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have cracked down on the practice in recent years. HMRC has repeatedly tightened the rules around off-payroll working (IR35) to stop this kind of tax avoidance.
The parliamentary register of interests shows that Farage has made nearly £400,000 from GB News since August 2024, for about 190 hours’ work. This suggests he is being paid more than £2,000 an hour by the news channel.
All payments for his GB News work are paid directly to his company, Thorn in the Side Ltd, of which he is the director and only shareholder. He has other paid roles including as a brand ambassador for gold bullion firms, speaking on the international circuit, and a Daily Telegraph column.
The latest accounts show that as of 31 May 2024, the company had £1.7m in cash, up over £1m in a year. It also owns two investment properties.
And in case you missed this piece, here is Robyn Vinter’s news story on how research has revealed that more than a quarter of constituencies that have fracking licences in place are in Reform UK seats or target seats:
Investors are unlikely to back Reform’s fracking plans, mooted by Richard Tice, a consortium has said ahead of the party’s conference.
Tice has claimed – on shaky evidential ground – that there is a vast “treasure” of shale gas under the UK. Geologists have said this is potentially untrue and that any shale gas there is would be very difficult and disruptive to extract.
Fracking projects are unlikely to get private investment because of their risky nature the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) has said.
James Alexander, UKSIF CEO, said:
Investors are likely to view UK-based fracking as an unattractive prospect after more than a decade of failed attempts to get the industry off the ground.
Projects would carry a slew of geological, regulatory and reputational risks. Even the founder of fracking firm Cuadrilla Resources, which operates in the UK, said sensible financiers would not back new large-scale ventures in this country.
Private capital is increasingly flowing into our clean energy developments as they offer long-term returns in one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors.
An investigation has been launched after a mobile phone found hidden in the House of Commons was reportedly believed to have been planted there to play sex noises during prime minister’s questions.
The device was found during a routine sweep of the chamber on Wednesday.
The Metropolitan police said they believed it was placed there on purpose to disrupt proceedings in the house.
The phone had been hidden near the frontbench to broadcast adult content in the middle of Keir Starmer’s weekly noon showdown with Kemi Badenoch, the Times reported.
The Met said:
On Wednesday 3 September, a mobile phone was found during a routine search of the House of Commons chamber by Met officers. Inquiries have led officers to believe that the phone was purposely placed in a location with the aim of causing disruption to business in the house.
An investigation has been launched and inquiries are ongoing. We have updated the speaker and clerk of the house.
A parliament spokesperson said:
Parliament is a public building and we facilitate the visits of thousands of people to the estate each week.
The safety and security of everyone who works or visits here remains our top priority, and we have robust and proactive security measures in place. This includes ensuring that visitors and their belongings are security screened, along with monitoring and routine searches of areas that are open to the public.
While we cannot comment on the detail of our processes, we can confirm that a mobile phone was removed from the Commons chamber on 3 September, demonstrating the effectiveness of the security measures we have in operation.
Kemi Badenoch has called on Keir Starmer’s independent ethics adviser to examine what Angela Rayner’s department has said to the Treasury about the prospect of property tax rises in the budget.
The Tory leader said correspondence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) should be included within the scope of the probe to avoid “accusations of a whitewash”.
According to the PA news agnency, Badenoch said the public needed to know “whether the deputy prime minister chose to sell her property ahead of the forthcoming budget because she knew taxes were about to go up”.
Badenoch said:
We already know that Angela Rayner was lobbying to increase stamp duty in the upcoming budget. What we don’t know is what other discussions she was having with the Treasury about hiking taxes on the family home.
To avoid any accusations of a whitewash, the ethics adviser must examine all the material that Rayner’s housing department sent the Treasury about any proposed property taxes.
Only the Conservatives under my leadership are committed to ensuring we live within our means – that means cutting spending on welfare so we can reduce the burden of taxation.
Rayner says she sold her 25% stake in her Greater Manchester family home to a trust, set up for her disabled son to look after his interests, in January 2025. She then bought a flat in Hove on which she later admitted she had underpaid stamp duty in error based on tax advice she says she received at the time.
Call for urgent Windrush payouts as survivors say Home Office ‘waiting for us to die’
The Windrush commissioner has demanded “urgent reform” of the compensation scheme after being told by survivors that “the Home Office is waiting for us to die off”.
In a letter seen by the Guardian addressed to migration and equalities minister, Seema Malhotra, and shared with home secretary Yvette Cooper, Rev Clive Foster says it is “deeply concerning” that 66 people have died while waiting for compensation for the Windrush scandal.
The scheme, launched in 2019, has been criticised for delays and knockbacks, with the Labour government repeatedly committing to ensure survivors are paid quickly.
Foster, who became Windrush commissioner in June, told Malhotra he had “positive feedback” about her personal commitment and that there had been recent improvements, but survivors “continue to tell me about long waits, unclear outcomes, and the emotional toll of navigating a process that feels opaque and unjust”.
Making a series of recommendations to government on delivery, Foster added:
Given the age and health of many people affected by the scandal, reform is a matter of urgency. Justice must be delivered in their lifetimes.
A phrase I’ve heard repeatedly from community members is that ‘the Home Office is waiting for us to die off’. While I don’t share this view, I believe it’s important that you hear it directly as it reflects the challenge you face in building trust.
Calling for better support for survivors, Foster recommends that the application process is reformed to make it “trauma-informed” and accessible and says compensation should be made for pension and future earnings losses.
He suggests the risk that people die before being compensated could be reduced by making partial payments to people awaiting a review, with cases prioritised by age and health.
He also calls for performance indicators for the scheme, including average processing times and satisfaction levels, to be published.
The government set up a £1.5m “advocacy” fund in April to support survivors, but campaigners are calling for legal aid.
A government source said “immediate work” was being commissioned on points raised by Foster, while a Home Office spokesperson said Foster’s appointment was intended to “drive lasting change across government”, with the department “determined” to right the wrongs of the scandal.
They added:
We thank Rev Foster for his initial recommendations, many of which we are already implementing, and ministers will meet with him shortly to discuss further improvements to our schemes.
Updated
Starmer must not meet Israeli president during UK visit, say Labour MPs
Labour MPs have called on the government to avoid meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog, saying any talks would send an ambiguous message about the UK’s position on the Gaza war.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, posted on X that she hoped it was inaccurate that ministers would meet the Israeli leader:
The UK has recognised the ‘real risk’ of genocide perpetuated by Israel, so unless this meeting is about peace, what message are we sending?
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, said Herzog should not be permitted entry to the UK. He said:
I am appalled at the decision to allow this representative of a government that is systematically killing Palestinian children on a daily basis to visit our country.
The prime minister is proving to be absolutely tone deaf to the desperate plight of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming feelings of revulsion of the British people at the brutality of the government Herzog represents.
The Labour MP Clive Lewis suggested Keir Starmer should exercise extreme caution. He said:
Dialogue is one thing, but there are times when the act of meeting itself becomes a political statement.
Clearly Herzog is not Netanyahu, their politics on many issues are at variance. But that said, the president’s own words have helped legitimise the collective punishment of Palestinians, language that international jurists have warned could fall foul of the genocide convention.
However, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, who has been a strong critic of Israel, said “efforts should be made to engage” with Herzog, who had often been at odds with Israel’s hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over domestic issues.
She told the Guardian:
The question must be asked: how do you see Israel in 10 years? What is the future for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If you have no reasonable alternative plan, Mr President, then there must be a Palestinian state.
But the only solution to this is through politics, through discussion. Herzog is easier to talk to than many in the extreme rightwing government in Israel. But we mustn’t pull our punches.
Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, said Starmer should “seize this chance to state unequivocally to President Herzog that there must be an end to the suffering in Gaza through an immediate ceasefire”.
Douglas Alexander’s comments (see 9.53am BST) come as foreign secretary David Lammy said the UK is “working intensely” towards the foundations of a two-state solution ahead of holding talks with officials from Gulf states over the Israel-Gaza conflict on Friday.
The senior Cabinet minister is meeting figures from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to “build consensus around a framework for lasting peace in the region”, the Foreign Office said.
He will “highlight that the Israeli government’s refusal to allow sufficient aid in to Gaza is indefensible” as well as accepting that Hamas can “play no role in the governance of Gaza”, the department said.
According to the PA news agency, Lammy said:
The situation in Gaza is utterly bleak. Each day the humanitarian crisis worsens with famine threatening to spiral across the territory while the hostages remain cruelly held captive.
The UK is working in lockstep with our Gulf partners to establish a framework for peace.
Ending the war in Gaza means not just reaching a ceasefire but turning it into a durable peace.
Today's schedule
Here is the agenda for the day:
Friday: Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) strike action on the tube expected to begin. London Underground workers are to stage a series of strikes in a dispute over pay and conditions. The RMT said its members on the tube will take industrial action at different times from 5 September, for seven days.
Friday: Verdict on whether Angela Rayner broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs expected but no timings have been confirmed as to when it will be published yet.
Morning: Public accounts committee publishes its report on the Ministry of Defence’s oversight of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs).
7am: ONS retail sales for July published. Postponed from original date of 22 August.
9.10am: Transport secretary Fiona Hyslop will travel by train from Haymarket to North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland where she will provide an update on rail electrification.
10am: Jeremy Corbyn co-chairs the Gaza tribunal to examine ‘British complicity in Israeli war crimes’. The second day of the event begins at 10am with a panel on “What has Britain’s role been in Gaza?” featuring Mark Smith, a Foreign Office official who resigned in protest over continued arms sales to Israel. The final part at 1.15pm looks at “Has Britain fulfilled its legal obligations?”.
Midday: Reform UK conference begins at the National Exhibition Centre, Marston Green, in the West Midlands. Speakers include welcoming remarks by chair David Bull at 12pm, mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns at 12.30pm, MP Lee Anderson at 2pm, MS Laura Anne Jones at 2.20pm, MSP Graham Simpson at 2.30pm, head of department of government efficiency Zia Yusuf at 3pm and a special guest speaker at 4pm.
12:15pm: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will be campaigning in Glasgow Pollok and Cathcart with local MP Gordon McKee.
4.10pm: Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage will address the conference in Marston Green.
Parliamentary schedule:
House of Lords: 10am – Absent voting (elections in Scotland and Wales) bill – second reading.
Animal welfare (import of dogs, cats and ferrets) bill – second reading.
Dogs (protection of livestock) (amendment) bill – second reading.
Space industry (indemnities) bill – second reading.
The House of Commons will not be sitting.
Updated
Minister defends prospect of government meeting Israeli president in UK
A minister has defended the prospect of UK government figures meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog on his visit to Britain next week amid criticism from within Labour ranks.
The PA news agency reports that Douglas Alexander said the UK must engage with Israeli as well as Palestinian authorities as part of its diplomatic push to end the Gaza war.
Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, trade minister Alexander said diplomacy would involve “meeting people with whom you disagree”. He told Sky News:
I’m genuinely not sure in terms of what the schedule is. But I’d make a pretty basic point, first of all, diplomacy involves meeting people with whom you disagree and the British government has very strong views in terms of the present conduct of the government of Israel.
It is right that we are engaging with politicians from across the region, because the suffering is incalculable and it needs to stop.
Alexander said that “in order to get to a path to that two-stage solution, of course you’re going to have to be talking not just to the Palestinians but also to the Israelis”.
The visit comes after prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the “terrible situation” in Gaza this week, and before the UK intends to recognise a Palestinian state later this month.
According to the PA news agency, Downing Street declined to comment when asked about the Israeli president’s trip, saying it would set out any visits “in the normal way”.
Updated
Adapting gender ruling into practical steps 'difficult' for firms, says watchdog chair
The chair of the watchdog which has provided guidance to the government on transgender people’s use of certain spaces has said it will be “difficult” for service providers to adapt to a ruling “which is quite black and white into practical steps”.
Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that businesses such as gyms and shopping centres should have been following new rules after a supreme court ruling in April which said the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.
Lady Falkner added:
I think it’s going to be difficult for duty bearers, service providers, to adapt a ruling which is quite black and white into practical steps according to their own circumstances and their own organisation. Which is why we’ve always emphasised they should take their own advice as well as adhering to our code.
The EHRC said it presented its final guidance, a new code of practice, to women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson on Friday after it was delayed from July.
The guidance will now be considered by ministers and, once approved, the UK government must lay the draft code before parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.
Falkner said:
Everybody I speak to, every institution I speak to, says: ‘Can you tell us what we’re supposed to do? That’s wrong … they should have been doing it anyway.
The EHRC said it received more than 50,000 responses to its code of practice consultation.
According to a draft code which was published before the consultation, a birth certificate could be requested by a sports club or hospital if there is “genuine concern” about what biological sex a person is. Elsewhere, the draft code said trans people can be excluded from competitive sport “when necessary for reasons of safety or fair competition”, and gave an example of how some services might be able to adapt to “offer toilets in individual lockable rooms to be used by both sexes”.
Updated
Away from the Rayner story for a moment. Former Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf has said the party is actively “preparing for government”.
According to the PA news agency, he told BBC Breakfast:
Nigel [Farage] is preparing for government. We are taking seriously the important work of getting ready for government.
We’re not going to be like Labour, if the British people see fit to elect a Reform government, we will come into power with a plan.
Trade minister says Angela Rayner in politics 'for the right reasons'
Trade minister Douglas Alexander has indicated that he trusted Angela Rayner and said she was in politics “for the right reasons”.
Asked whether he trusted the deputy prime minister, Alexander told Times Radio:
Listen, I really want to live in a country in which someone with Angela Rayner’s circumstances and background can rise to one of the highest offices in the country.
I have to say I should declare an interest – I really like Angela Rayner. We’re a rather improbable group of friends. We come from very different circumstances … if you look at the challenges that Angela Rayner has overcome, not only do I like and respect her but, yes, I think she’s in politics for the right reasons.
Alexander also reiterated that a “rigorous testing process” would be followed in the investigation into Rayner’s tax affairs as he declined to answer questions about her future.
Alexander told Times Radio:
I think most of your listeners, as they think about it, they think about their own workplace or their own circumstances, they would want due process to be followed. That will be a rigorous testing process.
He added:
The expectation is [Sir Laurie Magnus] works in a very comprehensive but also a pretty expeditious way … it will be for the prime minister, as always, to make judgments in relation to his ministers.
He said he did not know “who said what to whom” but the “right person” to ask those questions and have them answered was Sir Laurie Magnus.
Updated
A minister conceded there was “frustration” as the investigation into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs continues and said it would be a “good thing” for the government if the probe concluded quickly.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander told BBC Breakfast:
The real test is not do these issues arise, but how does the government deal with them? We have this strengthened, independent office of ministerial standards. He’s conducting the inquiry. Once that’s concluded, it will go to the prime minister’s desk.
I would just ask your viewers to think, what would they want, in their circumstances, in their workplace, of course, there need to be procedures. There’s frustration while that process is under way, but I think everyone is entitled to due process, and that’s the process that’s under way, but, listen, I get it.
I’m not pretending these are headlines that any of us would choose, least of all Angela Rayner, and that’s why, if the reports are true that this is going to be dealt with relatively quickly, of course, I think that’s basically a good thing, not just for Angela, but for the government as well.
Alexander said Keir Starmer was being “very careful” in an interview in which he refused to say whether he would sack Rayner if she is found to have broken the ministerial code.
Asked about the prime minister’s answers to the BBC on Thursday, Alexander told BBC Breakfast:
I thought if you look at how that interview has been reported in the papers this morning, you get radically different accounts as to what the prime minister was actually saying.
My sense is the prime minister was just being very careful.
He is, of course, a trained lawyer, as well as the prime minister, in not wanting to pre-judge a process that is now under way, but he was equally clear that he is ready to act on the basis of the information that he receives from Sir Laurie Magnus.
Rayner's political future uncertain as ministerial rules breach verdict expected on Friday
Angela Rayner’s political future appeared increasingly uncertain ahead of the expected Friday verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs. It comes as lawyers she said she used for her flat purchase denied having given her tax advice.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if his independent ethics watchdog rules against her. The prime minister said he would “of course” act on the findings of Sir Laurie Magnus’s probe after Rayner’s acknowledgment that she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
The advice she received is likely to form a key plank of Magnus’s investigation, after Rayner said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.
The independent ethics adviser will assess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”, “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.
Starmer told the BBC he would “act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me”. The Labour leader said it was for the independent adviser to establish the facts around the controversy, “then of course it does fall to me – I completely accept that – to make the decision based on what I see in that report”.
Also today, the Reform UK party conference begins in Marston Green, West Midlands. Nigel Farage is scheduled to address the conference at 4.10pm. Elsewhere, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch will visit north-west Essex later this morning.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander is on the morning round for government and deputy Conservative party chair Matt Vickers is on for the Tories. Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, is also on the morning media round today.
In other developments:
The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly.
Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”. The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.
The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned. The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.
Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
