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The Conservatives are “sliding into the abyss”, Keir Starmer has said, as he described Nigel Farage and Reform as the main challengers to his Labour government. “I do think that the Conservative party has run out of road,” Starmer said. “Their project is faltering. They’re in the decline. They’re sliding into the abyss. It’s very important, therefore, that we say that and identify that.”
During a hastily arranged visit to a glass factory in St Helens, the prime minister castigated Farage as a fake defender of working people and compared him to Liz Truss as someone whose fiscal plans would crash the economy. Reform’s commitment to “completely unfunded spending” was, Starmer said, “Liz Truss all over again” and “Liz Truss 2.0”. Starmer’s series of attacks on Farage included telling the public they cannot trust the Reform UK leader.
Starmer also took personal aim at Farage for arguing that he spoke for working people, contrasting the public school-educated Reform leader’s upbringing with his own background. “Unlike Nigel Farage, I know what it’s like growing up in a cost of living crisis,” Starmer said. “I know what it’s like when your family can’t pay the bills, when you fear the postman, the bills that may be brought.”
He also condemned Farage for saying Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) “deserved” to go bust after a controversial marketing rebrand. He said: “I would challenge him to go to JLR, stand in front of the workforce and tell them that his policy for JLR is they should go bust. I [would] very much like to see the reaction.”
When Starmer was asked about whether he would back moves to end the two-child limit on some benefits, reportedly being considered, he avoided the question twice before giving a slightly non-committal answer. He said: “I think there are a number of components. There isn’t a single bullet, but I’m absolutely determined that we will drive this down, and that’s why we’ll look at all options, always, of driving down child poverty.”
Asked about Starmer’s comments, Zia Yusuf, the Reform chair, said Starmer’s speech showed it was “panic stations at Labour”. He told Sky News: “Look, Keir Starmer is panicking because his awful government is now trailing Reform by a staggering eight points in the latest YouGov poll.” He also accused Labour of resorting to “their magic money tree” to increase spending beyond manifesto commitments.
A second Liberal Democrat MP has said they have changed their mind over the assisted dying bill and will vote against it at the next Commons stage, in another sign of a wider, if so far slight, ebbing away of support for the measure. In an email to constituents, Brian Mathew, the Melksham and Devizes MP, said that while he had backed the bill at its second reading vote, in April, scrutiny of the plans had left “several concerns I feel have been inadequately answered”.
Jobcentres will no longer force people into “any job” available, the employment minister has said, promising there will be long-term, personalised career support for those losing out due to welfare cuts. Alison McGovern said she was ending the Conservative policy under which jobseekers were obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be focused on helping people to build rewarding careers.
The government is “serious” about the rules which water companies must follow, Emma Hardy has said in response to fines imposed on Thames Water of £122.7m, Speaking at a reservoir, the water minister told Times Radio the penalty was the “largest fine there ever has been on record” in the sector. She said: “This is a government that is serious about enforcement. For years, water companies have been allowed to get away with poor behaviour, and we’ve said under this government that is not going to happen.”
Twenty-two new settlements in the occupied West Bank represent “a deliberate obstacle to Palestinian statehood” by Israel, a Foreign Office minister has warned. Hamish Falconer said the UK “condemns” the decision, which Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz described as “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”.
The UK has said it wants to accelerate negotiations to conclude a trade deal with Donald Trump in the wake of the US court ruling that the sweeping tariffs he imposed on imports from more than 60 countries were illegal. A UK government spokesperson played down the US court ruling on Thursday plainly indicating it would continue to negotiate despite a technical opening to walk away from the deal.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors in England to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months. Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said: “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations … Strikes should always be a last resort, and I don’t think they are in anyone’s interest today.”
The Hamilton byelection campaign is rapidly evolving into a head to head battle between Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, and Nigel Farage – at least in the proxy war being fought on social media. Sarwar has posted increasingly combative videos challenging the Reform leader to a debate while Farage, who is due to make a very rare appearance in Scotland next week, has shot back by again suggesting Sarwar is biased against white people.
Farage is “introducing poison into politics”, the prime minister said, as he suggested a campaign video produced by Reform UK for the Hamilton byelection was divisive. The ad – which the SNP and Labour have demanded be removed by Meta – shows clips of Sarwar calling for more representation of Scots with south Asian heritage, although he did not say he would prioritise any group.
The UK faces “disintegration” and will become “less prosperous and secure” if it takes a pick-and-mix approach to international law, the attorney general has said. In a speech on Thursday, Richard Hermer launched a defence of international law and multilateral frameworks which “have kept us safe since 1945”.
The British arm of a US contractor that profits from testing whether some people in the UK should receive disability benefits has paid £10m in dividends to its investors. Maximus, a Virginia-based business, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax profit for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its financial year to the end of September, accounts lodged at Companies House show. Its revenue rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
The Scottish Conservatives have accused Holyrood’s presiding officer of “blatant bias” after she evicted Douglas Ross, the party’s former Scottish leader, from the chamber for disrupting first minister’s questions (FMQs). Alison Johnstone, who was a Scottish Greens MSP before her election as presiding officer, told Ross to leave the chamber, and banned him from Thursday’s parliamentary proceedings, after he barracked John Swinney during FMQs.
The House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation into a Conservative hereditary peer who admitted he “erroneously” made claims last year for travel expenses he did not incur. He is the fifth peer to face an inquiry after Guardian reporting into the upper house.
Shadow local government secretary Kevin Hollinrake added that he “can understand” why Keir Starmer is “trying to basically aim his fire all around him”. Hollinrake told Sky News on Thursday: “The other danger the prime minister’s got is from his own backbenchers – there’s hundreds of his own backbenchers who’re very dissatisfied in that he’s doing right now. So I can understand, he’s trying to basically aim his fire all around him.”
A former British ambassador to Egypt has called for the Foreign Office to caution against travel to the country amid fears British nationals face an increased risk of arrest. John Casson, who was British ambassador to Egypt between 2014 and 2018, described the country as a “police state” which is “violent and vindictive”, when he spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.
Former military leaders are urging the UK government to widen its definition of national security to include climate, food and energy measures in advance of a planned multibillion-pound boost in defence spending. There are also calls to counter the possible “weaponisation of geoengineering” – hostile actors using geoengineering techniques to manipulate weather patterns to cause extreme conditions.
A French court has ordered electoral officials to restore a British woman’s pre-Brexit right to vote in local elections, triggering calls for a renewed push for a bilateral treaty on electoral enfranchisement in each other’s countries.
A drought has been declared in north-west England as reservoir levels dwindle. Hosepipe bans could follow, the Environment Agency said, though this is a matter for water companies, which have been directed to follow their drought plans.
The government has ordered the building of two reservoirs, the first to be built in England for more than 30 years. The environment minister, Steve Reed, has awarded the status of “nationally significant” to two new reservoir projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire and ordered that they go ahead. These will be the first to be built since 1992.
Updated
The Scottish Conservatives have accused Holyrood’s presiding officer of “blatant bias” after she evicted Douglas Ross, the party’s former Scottish leader, from the chamber for disrupting first minister’s questions (FMQs).
Alison Johnstone, who was a Scottish Greens MSP before her election as presiding officer, told Ross to leave the chamber, and banned him from Thursday’s parliamentary proceedings, after he barracked John Swinney during FMQs (see 1.01pm BST).
After a party spokesperson accused her of “blatant bias” and favouritism to other parties, Ross told BBC Scotland he “struggle(d) to accept she is being neutral” and claimed Scottish National party and Green MSPs were treated differently.
It was “unprecedented”, Ross said, for someone to be sent out without a prior warning, and said he want to meet Johnstone to discuss the incident. He added:
I have serious questions about the conduct of the presiding officer.
Johnstone has repeatedly warned Ross in particular about his interjections during previous FMQs that he was breaching parliamentary rules. Her order to him to leave seemed carefully prepared. She also named two other Scottish Tory MSPs for sedentary barracking during an at times rowdy session.
Updated
The Earl of Shrewsbury is being examined for a potential breach of rules after revelations he received reimbursement for mileage for four journeys between his home in Derbyshire and Stafford station, which he cannot have made as he was either in London or Liverpool.
Leaked emails and documents obtained under freedom of information legislation also revealed Shrewsbury had used his taxpayer-funded first-class ticket for part of a journey to Liverpool from London to attend a board meeting of a commercial company he advised.
The peer, whose full name is Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, wrote “in jest” in an email to his fellow directors that the “government pays” for his travel to the meeting.
Shrewsbury said earlier this month that he had offered to reimburse the taxpayer for the expenses he had “erroneously” claimed and any sums that could be due from part of the first-class ticket he had used to attend the board meeting.
Shrewsbury said earlier this month that he had offered to reimburse the taxpayer for the expenses he had “erroneously” claimed and any sums that could be due from part of the first-class ticket he had used to attend the board meeting.
Former military leaders are urging the UK government to widen its definition of national security to include climate, food and energy measures in advance of a planned multibillion-pound boost in defence spending.
Earlier this year Keir Starmer announced the biggest increase in defence spending in the UK since the end of the cold war, with the budget rising to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – and an ambition to reach 3%.
Now, in advance of a key defence review, former senior figures in the UK military are urging the government to broaden its definition of what constitutes “national security” to include food, energy and water security as well as measures to protect communities from flooding, extreme heat and sea level rises.
There are also calls to counter the possible “weaponisation of geoengineering” – hostile actors using geoengineering techniques to manipulate weather patterns to cause extreme conditions.
Retired R Adm Neil Morisetti said that while there was “most definitely a pressing requirement” to invest in military capability to deter the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the UK’s approach to national security had to be more sophisticated to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
“National security needs to be seen more broadly,” said Morisetti, who is now a professor of climate and resource security at University College London. “We need to think about a lot of factors beyond just military capability – including food security, energy security, land security, health security, all of which are impacted by the consequences of a changing climate. I recognise that none of this is without cost, but governments need to level with society about the risks that we face today.”
A drought has been declared in north-west England as reservoir levels dwindle.
Hosepipe bans could follow, the Environment Agency said, though this is a matter for water companies, which have been directed to follow their drought plans.
Much of the rest of the country is in prolonged dry status, which is the step before drought, and without significant rainfall more areas could follow the north-west.
England had the driest period on record between February and April, and despite recent rainfall, rivers are at exceptionally low flows across the country and reservoir levels are declining.
United Utilities has particularly low reservoir levels: its Carlisle reservoir is at 46.4%,compared with the 92.5% it was at this time last year. The Haweswater and Thirlmere reservoirs are at 47.5%, compared with 94.8% last year. These are the reservoirs which serve areas including Cumbria and Manchester, in the drought area.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
The north-west of England has entered drought status due to low water levels in reservoirs and rivers. No other areas in England are in drought and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Earlier, at a media Q&A after Keir Starmer’s speech, our senior political correspondent, Peter Walker, asked the prime minister:
You’ve dodged the question on the two-child benefit cap twice now, so can I ask you as a first question: would you personally like to get rid of the two-child benefit cap? And on the wider issue of the opposition you’re now facing, do you think one of the problems is that Nigel Farage can approximate talking like a human being, where you just resort to talking points and dodging questions?
Starmer replied:
On the question of the two-child benefit cap, apologies. I think I did first half of the question, not the second. Let me deal with that directly. I’m determined we’re going to drive down child poverty.
One of the proudest things that the last Labour government did was to drive down child poverty and that’s why we’ve got a taskforce working on this.
I think there are a number of components. There isn’t a single bullet, but I’m absolutely determined that we will drive this down and that’s why we’ll look at all options always of driving down child poverty. I’m determined … I’m so proud the last Labour government did it and I’m so pleased that we are taking up that challenge to do it with this Labour government, and that is what we will do.
In relation to working people, what matters most in my view is who politicians have in their mind’s eye when they make decisions. I know precisely who I had in my mind’s eye when I took the decisions that I had to on the international stage with the US trade deal. I had in my mind’s eye the JLR workers that I had taken the time to go and see on a number of occassions and understand for myself the jobs they do, the skills they have and what that means for them, their families and their communities.
And that’s the way I do politics, which is: roll up your sleeves, understand the issues, understand the challenges, run towards that challenge and make sure we fix it for working people. And that is exactly what we did with JLR, that’s exactly the approach I would take. What did Nigel Farage say about JLR? Maybe with a great flourish, apparently contacting with working people, he said they should go bust.
I challenge him [Farage] to go to JLR, stand in front of the workforce and tell them that his policy for JLR is they should go bust. And I’d very much like to see the reaction. Thank you.
Updated
A French court has ordered electoral officials to restore a British woman’s pre-Brexit right to vote in local elections, triggering calls for a renewed push for a bilateral treaty on electoral enfranchisement in each other’s countries.
Alice Bouilliez, a former British civil servant, who has lived in France for 38 years, said she was “extremely surprised” but delighted that the Auch court in south-western France had ordered that the authorities put her name back on the electoral register for local elections
“I am extremely happy about the result. When I went to get the ruling from the court I was extremely surprised because I was expecting a knock on the knuckles,” she said.
Bouilliez first mounted legal action against the disenfranchisement in 2020 with a case going all the way to the European court of justice, which ruled against her in 2022.
The court followed the advice of advocate general Anthony Collins who said the EU treaty had made “nationality of a member state” an “essential condition of a person to be able to acquire and retain the status of citizens of the Union and to benefit fully from the rights attaching to that status”.
Julien Fouchet, a French lawyer representing Bouilliez, said the court did not determine conclusively what happened to those acquired rights British citizens such as Bouilliez had received when she became a permanent resident of France under the free movement rules that were available to Britons before Brexit.
The ruling by the Auch tribunal judiciary could now be used to restore rights across France for British citizens living in France before Brexit who did not opt to apply for French citizenship and wanted to win back their right to vote, he said.
Updated
Twenty-two new settlements in the occupied West Bank represent “a deliberate obstacle to Palestinian statehood” by Israel, a Foreign Office minister has warned.
The PA news agency reports that Hamish Falconer said the UK “condemns” the decision, which Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz described as “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”.
Labour last year in its general election manifesto committed to “recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution”.
In government, ministers have repeatedly committed to recognising a Palestinian state, but Falconer has previously said the government “will make a judgment about when the best moment is to try and make the fullest possible contribution” to a peace process.
Falconer wrote on X:
The Israeli government’s approval of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank is a deliberate obstacle to Palestinian statehood.
The UK condemns these actions.
Settlements are illegal under international law, further imperil the two-state solution, and do not protect Israel.
Updated
The UK faces “disintegration” and will become “less prosperous and secure” if it takes a pick-and-mix approach to international law, the attorney general has said.
In a speech on Thursday, Richard Hermer launched a defence of international law and multilateral frameworks which “have kept us safe since 1945”.
He rebuked the leader of the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, and her shadow attorney general, David Wolfson, who have accused ministers of rigidly following international law, and said “their arguments if ever adopted would provide succour to [Vladimir] Putin”.
“Their temptingly simple narratives not only misunderstand our history and the nature of international law, it is also reckless and dangerous, and will make us less prosperous and secure in a troubled world,” he said.
Hermer, who is a human rights lawyer and former colleague of Keir Starmer, was appointed the government’s chief law officer when Labour entered office last summer.
Earlier this year he was attacked in sections of the press over his past clients, and also faced claims from internal critics that he was slowing down the work of government.
He has also faced criticism over the government’s decision to agree to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after an advisory ruling by the international court of justice.
Keir Starmer is “panicking”, the chair of Reform UK has said, after the prime minister hit out at what he called the party’s “fantasy” economic policies.
Speaking to Sky News, Zia Yusuf said:
It’s obviously panic stations at Labour. Look, Keir Starmer is panicking because his awful government is now trailing Reform by a staggering eight points in the latest YouGov poll.
And we talk about economic credibility, this government, in their manifesto last June, they promised £10bn of increased spending.
In their actual budget, their first budget three months later, they increased spending by up to £60bn and on their magic money tree found another £30bn to give away sovereign territory in the form of the Chagos Islands.
Keir Starmer has launched a series of attacks on Nigel Farage, telling the public they cannot trust the Reform UK leader.
Speaking at an event at a business in north-west England, the prime minister said Farage would not have protected jobs in industries hit with tariffs from the US and compared him to the former prime minister Liz Truss.
Douglas Ross, the former Scottish Conservative leader, has been ejected from the Scottish parliament by Holyrood’s presiding officer after ignoring her warnings about his interjections during questions.
Alison Johnstone, the presiding officer, ordered Ross to leave and banned him from the rest of today’s parliamentary sitting after he shouted at John Swinney from his seat soon after first minister’s questions began.
She interrupted Swinney to say:
Let’s hear one another! Mr Ross, Mr Ross, you have persistently refused to abide by our standing orders and I would ask you to leave this chamber and you are excluded for the rest of the day.
Ross, who quit as party leader after ill-judged attempts to oust a popular colleague before last year’s general election, then sat still with his right elbow resting on his desk, propping up his chin, and appeared to ignore her instruction.
As Swinney resumed answering a question from Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, Johnstone interrupted and again told Ross to leave. The chamber fell silent and Tory MSPs looked away, or down at their desks.
Unlike in the House of Commons, which is habitually more theatrical, these ejections are very rare but Johnstone has warned Ross before. Her precise wording and assertive action suggests she had prepared in advance to eject him.
Nigel Farage is “introducing poison into politics”, the prime minister said, as he suggested a campaign video produced by Reform UK for the Hamilton byelection was divisive.
The advert claimed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar would “prioritise” the Pakistani community.
The ad – which the SNP and Labour have demanded be removed by Meta – shows clips of Sarwar calling for more representation of Scots with south Asian heritage, although he did not say he would prioritise any group, reports the PA news agency.
Speaking at a campaign event in north-west England, Keir Starmer said:
What we’ve seen with Reform in Scotland in relation to this particular video is manipulation. And it is, as ever with Reform and Nigel Farage, trying to divide people with a toxic divide, and to poison our politics. And I think our politics is above that, and that’s why I think it’s absolutely right that Anas Sarwar has called this out for what it is.
It is toxic divide, it is introducing poison into our politics, and that is exactly what turns people off politics. And that is why restoring trust in politics is so important to my project and the project of Scottish Labour.
Conservative party has 'run out of road' replies Starmer when asked why he is focusing on Farage
The Conservative party has “run out of road”, the prime minister said, as he told reporters the choice for voters was between Labour and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Asked why he was focusing so much on Farage’s party, Keir Starmer said:
I do think that the Conservative party has run out of road.
Their project is faltering, they are in decline. They’re sliding into the abyss. And it’s very important, therefore, that we say that and identify that, but equally politics is about choices.
And the choice at the moment is between the choice of a Labour government that thinks stable finances are at the heart of building better lives for working people, or Nigel Farage and Reform, who only this week said they would spend billions upon billions upon billions, tens of billions of pounds, in an unfunded way, which is an exact repeat of what Liz Truss did.
And it wasn’t Nigel Farage that lost, he’s all right, it’s working people across the country who lost out, and I am not prepared to allow that ever to happen in this country again.
Keir Starmer said he is looking at “all options” to drive down child poverty when asked if he would like to get rid of the two-child benefit cap.
“I’m determined we’re going to drive down child poverty,” the prime minister said during a visit to a business in the north-west. Starmer added:
One of the proudest things that the last Labour government did was to drive down child poverty, and that’s why we’ve got a taskforce working on this.
I think there are a number of components. There isn’t a single bullet, but I’m absolutely determined that we will drive this down, and that’s why we’ll look at all options, always, of driving down child poverty.
Starmer says he does not need 'lessons' from Farage on issues that matter most to working people
Keir Starmer said he does not need “lessons” from Nigel Farage on what life is like for working people.
The prime minister said he wanted to “protect” working people from what the Reform UK leader would do.
Chris Hope of GB News asked:
Are you panicking because Reform are so ahead in the polls it seems?
… You went to a state school, your dad worked in a factory, your mum worked in the NHS, so why is a public school educated former city trader got more in common with the ‘red wall’ than you have?
Starmer replied:
I know what it means to work 10 hours a day in a factory five days a week, and I know that because that is what my dad did every single working day of his life, and that’s what I grew up with.
So I don’t need lessons from Nigel Farage about the issues that matter most to working people in this country.
Keir Starmer said he knows “what it’s like growing up in a cost-of-living crisis”, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage would “be exactly the same” as former prime minister Liz Truss.
He said:
Apparently [Farage] is in Las Vegas today at a casino, and it’s not a surprise, because he said that the Liz Truss budget in his view was the best since 1986.
That shows his judgment. It shows what he’d do and the result would be exactly the same. I’m not prepared to let that happen.
He added:
Unlike Nigel Farage, I know what it’s like growing up in a cost-of-living crisis. I know what it’s like when your family can’t pay the bills, when you fear the postman, the bills that may be brought, and I know how much work we have to do.
But there is not and never will be a magic wand that can wave away the need to manage the public finances properly. That is the foundation upon which everything rests, always.
Now we were elected to change the country, but we were also elected to never put working people through a crisis like Liz Truss ever again.
Speaking about Farage, Starmer said:
This is the man who said Jaguar Land Rover deserve – his word – to go bust. And he said that because he didn’t like an advert that they made.
This is a company at the absolute forefront of British engineering and he says they deserve to go bust. But unlike Nigel Farage, I’ve been to see the workers at JLR several times over, particularly recently, and I know what those jobs mean for the workforce themselves, for their families and their communities.
And I saw first-hand the anxiety on their faces. I met them just as I met you this morning. I saw the anxieties on their faces when they thought their jobs were at risk. So, when they needed support earlier this year, when we had to fight for their jobs and make a deal with the United States, I protected those jobs because I had them in my mind’s eye.
Starmer then questioned whether Farage “would have done the same” in protecting jobs at JLR. He said:
Would Nigel Farage have done the same? Absolutely not. And that is the question you have to ask about Nigel Farage: can you trust him?”
Updated
Starmer began his address by speaking about the government’s recent trade deals with India, the US and the EU.
Speaking to workers and reporters at Glass Futures in St Helens, Merseyside, Starmer said:
Only this morning, actually, you explained to me that the India deal in particular will be really important for glass and what you’re doing directly, and of course, for businesses like whiskey that need glass all of the time.
And that comes from my absolute determination to create jobs, good jobs, and to drive down the cost of living and put more money in your pocket, which is I think the thing most people are most concerned about.
But soon, he turned his attention to Nigel Farage by adding:
That’s what drives me, but you can’t say the same about Nigel Farage.
Keir Starmer says Nigel Farage is ‘Liz Truss all over again’
Keir Starmer has launched a series of attacks on Nigel Farage, telling the public they cannot trust the Reform UK leader.
Speaking at an event at a business in north-west England, the prime minister said Farage would not have protected jobs in industries subject to tariffs from the US, and compared him to former prime minister Liz Truss.
Starmer said:
We protected those jobs. Would Nigel Farage have done the same? Absolutely not.
And that’s the question to have to ask about Nigel Farage. Can you trust him? Can you trust him with your future? Can you trust him with your jobs? Can you trust him with your mortgages, your pensions, your bills? And he gave the answer on Tuesday. A resounding no.
He set out economic plans which contains billions upon billions of completely unfunded spending. Precisely the sort of irresponsible splurge that sent your mortgage costs, your bills and the cost of living through the roof. It’s Liz Truss all over again.
Updated
Keir Starmer has begun his address at a manufacturing business in the north-west of England. We have a live video stream at the top of the page now – you may have to refresh the page to access it.
The Hamilton byelection campaign is rapidly evolving into a head to head battle between Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, and Nigel Farage – at least in the proxy war being fought on social media.
Sarwar has posted increasingly combative videos challenging the Reform leader to a debate while Farage, who is due to make a very rare appearance in Scotland next week, has shot back by again suggesting Sarwar is biased against white people.
Reform UK was accused earlier this week of “inflaming tensions” by Sarwar and John Swinney, the Scottish National party (SNP) leader and first minister, after wrongly accusing Sarwar of prioritising the interests of Pakistani Scots based on an old speech.
Sarwar has since gone on to Instagram, Facebook and X with “a message to Nigel Farage” in a selfie-style clip filmed in Hamilton, accusing Farage of being an elitist outsider.
A message for Nigel Farage... pic.twitter.com/8r14uYFtlt
— Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) May 28, 2025
One said:
This is what Hamilton looks like. I know for you, you probably think Hamilton is just a show in the West End of London. So I suggest you ask your chauffeur to put Hamilton into Google maps. You get up here. I can challenge you on your views. You can challenge me on mine and we can see what the people of Scotland think of you.
In an Instagram clip from his latest BBC Scotland radio interview, Sarwar says:
He has no idea where Hamilton is.
Farage amplified his attacks on Sarwar’s politics by resurfacing an old speech of Sarwar’s in Holyrood where he criticised the failure of major Scottish institutions to promote people of colour into leadership roles.
Reform UK’s post on X intercut the clip with Farage speaking at a Reform rally saying “we don’t care about skin colour … we don’t care who you are … we care whether you share the values of this country”.
Labour’s approach suggests they want to use Reform’s large presence in this campaign to their advantage, pushing the SNP (which is the clear favourite to win) into the background, and to amplify Sarwar’s Scottishness and capture voter antipathy towards Reform.
But Scottish Labour may also now be focusing on ensuring they beat Reform into third place, to avoid the humiliation of being overtaken by them; Labour’s candidate, Davy Russell, is widely seen as a poor performer who is struggling with the campaign.
Jobcentres will no longer force people into ‘any job’ available, minister says
Jobcentres will no longer force people into “any job” available, the employment minister has said, promising there will be long-term, personalised career support for those losing out due to welfare cuts.
Alison McGovern said she was ending the Conservative policy under which jobseekers were obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be focused on helping people to build rewarding careers.
McGovern, who is tasked with a major overhaul to employment support as a result of significant cuts to disability benefits, said the department would use AI to free up the workloads of job coaches, giving them more time to provide “human” support to those with complex needs and long-term unemployment.
The government is facing open revolt among Labour MPs over the proposed cuts – which some in No 10 fear could mean losing the vote in parliament.
McGovern said she wanted to acknowledge there were many disabled people who would feel “frightened” by the cuts to personal independence payments and incapacity benefits, with many losing support entirely.
“I don’t blame anybody for being scared or worried about it because given what’s happened with changes to disability benefits before, I understand that,” she said.
But she added she was deeply concerned about the numbers of young people out of work – with many needing specialist help to even engage with job support because of extreme social anxiety.
McGovern said that people whose benefits were cut under Labour would receive radically different support. Work support will be offered by GPs and physiotherapists, in addition to the extended support in jobcentres.
US firm that tests eligibility for UK disability benefits pays £10m in dividends
The British arm of a US contractor that profits from testing whether some people in the UK should receive disability benefits has paid £10m in dividends to its investors.
Maximus, a Virginia-based business, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax profit for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its financial year to the end of September, accounts lodged at Companies House show. Its revenue rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
The company is the biggest provider of functional assessment services, or FAS, for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). These tests determine a person’s level of function and ability to perform everyday tasks.
The UK arm of the business paid out £10m in dividends to investors, equivalent to £10,000 per ordinary share, according to accounts filed at Companies House. The company also paid out £10m in dividends to its investors in the 2023 financial year.
Maximus secured a five-year contract from the government in 2023 to provide functional assessment services, at an estimated value of £800m over the period, with the option to extend for a further two years.
In a green paper published in March, the Department for Work and Pensions said experiences of assessments for the personal independence payment (Pip) were “not always positive”.
The national disability charity Sense said “nobody should be rewarded for treating disabled people with disrespect”.
Tom Marsland, of the charity, said:
Sense’s research found that half of disabled people with complex needs who’ve been through a benefits assessment found it humiliating, and almost half didn’t get the right communication support to properly demonstrate why they need support.
These statistics are shocking and show a deep-rooted problem with the current assessment process.
The government has ordered the building of two reservoirs, the first to be built in England for more than 30 years.
The lack of reservoir capacity, combined with a rising population and drier summers caused by climate breakdown, has put the country at risk of water shortages. The government warned in recent weeks of an impending drought if there was not significant rainfall soon, and reservoirs have been reaching worryingly low levels.
The environment minister, Steve Reed, has awarded the status of “nationally significant” to two new reservoir projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire and ordered that they go ahead. These will be the first to be built since 1992.
The government said this would shore up water resources for more than 750,000 homes in England’s most water-stressed areas.
Without more capacity, the UK will be at risk of running out of water in the medium term. The Environment Agency has predicted a shortfall of almost 5bn litres a day by 2050.
The water minister, Emma Hardy, said:
Today we are backing the builders not the blockers, intervening in the national interest and slashing red tape to make the planning process faster to unblock nine new reservoirs. This government will secure our water supply for future generations and unlock the building of thousands of homes as part of the plan for change.
The building of thousands of homes in the areas to be served by the reservoirs is being held up as there is not the water supply to sustain them.
Anglian Water is proposing to build Lincolnshire reservoir to the south of Sleaford, which should be working by 2040. It has partnered with Cambridge Water to propose the Fens reservoir, located between the towns of Chatteris and March, to be completed in 2036.
Government is 'serious' about rules water companies must follow, says water minister
The government is “serious” about the rules which water companies must follow, Emma Hardy has said in response to fines imposed on Thames Water of £122.7m, reports the PA news agency.
Speaking at a reservoir, the water minister told Times Radio the penalty was the “largest fine there ever has been on record” in the sector and added:
This is a government that is serious about enforcement.
For years, water companies have been allowed to get away with poor behaviour, and we’ve said under this government that is not going to happen because not only is this the largest fine that there ever has been, we’ve also introduced the Water (Special Measures) Act, so up to two years’ imprisonment for water bosses.
We’ve banned unfair bonuses and just last week I was out chatting about the 81 criminal investigations that are going into water companies. So we are serious when we say that we are taking enforcement seriously.
Asked why the government had not considered special administration for Thames Water, Hardy said this mechanism was for companies which go “bankrupt”. She described the firm as “stable”, adding: “We’ll monitor it closely.”
Second Lib Dem MP withdraws support for England and Wales assisted dying bill
A second Liberal Democrat MP has said they have changed their mind over the assisted dying bill and will vote against it at the next Commons stage, in another sign of a wider, if so far slight, ebbing away of support for the measure.
In an email to constituents, Brian Mathew, the Melksham and Devizes MP, said that while he had backed the bill at its second reading vote, in April, scrutiny of the plans had left “several concerns I feel have been inadequately answered”.
His announcement follows comments last week by Steve Darling, the Torbay MP who is also the Lib Democrat work and pensions spokesperson. Darling said that while he had backed the bill in April he was now “marginally against” it, but had not yet decided whether he would vote against it or abstain.
About eight other MPs who either supported the private member’s bill, led by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, at its second reading or did not vote have said they will now oppose it.
However, at least two who abstained in April are now supporters, while the Runcorn and Helsby byelection earlier in May resulted in a Labour MP who opposed the plan replaced by a Reform UK one who backs it.
Given the second reading of the bill was passed with a majority of 55, the numbers thus far indicate it should also get through the third reading, scheduled for 20 June.
When “something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is too good to be true”, water minister Emma Hardy has said, reports the PA news agency.
Asked about the “threat” which Reform UK poses to Labour, Hardy told GB News:
I think it’s really important that any political party is held to account for the promises that they’ve made and we know – gosh, don’t we just know – what happened when [former prime minister] Liz Truss made her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts: the economy tanked, mortgages went up, rents went up, bills went up.
The minister said she heard “even more Truss than Liz Truss coming out from” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, adding:
When something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is too good to be true. If [Farage] wants to be taken seriously as a political party, then he needs to come up with some serious policies and he needs to be held to account.
Now, had I come on your programme and said, ‘do you know what? I’m just announcing £80bn of tax promises’, the first thing you’d have said to me is ‘I don’t believe you’.
And the second thing you’d have done is laughed me out of the studio because we need to be credible in the policies that we announce, and that’s what we should be seeing from every single political party.
Responding to the US court ruling that blocks many of Donald Trump’s tariffs, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:
The government must urgently summon the US ambassador to clarify what this court ruling means for Starmer’s recent deal with Donald Trump.
The levels of chaos from Trump’s economic policy is putting Liz Truss to shame.
The UK has said it wants to accelerate negotiations to conclude a trade deal with Donald Trump in the wake of the US court ruling that the sweeping tariffs he imposed on imports from more than 60 countries were illegal.
Despite Keir Starmer sealing the first deal with Trump since his so-called “liberation day” at the start of April no legal text exists to bring the concessions he won into force. The UK is also still threatened with a 10% reciprocal tariff on all exports outside the deal which was seen as a life saver for the car and steel industries.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to meet US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick at a meeting of the OECD in Paris next Tuesday.
A UK government spokesperson played down the US court ruling on Thursday plainly indicating it would continue to negotiate despite a technical opening to walk away from the deal. The spokespeson said:
These are matters for the United States to determine domestically and we note this is only the first stage of legal proceedings.
We were the first country to secure a deal with the US in a move to protect jobs across key sectors, from autos to steel, and we are working to ensure that businesses can benefit from the deal as quickly as possible.
Trade experts said the US court’s verdict just added more uncertainty to the global markets already heavily disrupted by the volatility of US trade policy.
“This court ruling doesn’t affect the tariffs that the UK negotiated down on cars and steel, but clearly adds another layer of complexity and uncertainty to what Trump is doing. When businesses don’t know what tariffs their product would face in the US that can’t be good for the economy,” said David Henig, director of thinktank European Centre for International Political Economy.
John Casson said the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah is not isolated as any British national travelling to Egypt faces arrest and illegal detention.
He told the BBC:
After four years as ambassador in Egypt, if a friend or family came to me today and said, ‘Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?’, I would be saying you’re taking a real risk.
If you get into any kind of difficulties, you post the wrong thing on social media even, there’s no guarantee [of] your right to be protected.
There’s no guarantee of due process, and we can’t even be sure that the British embassy will be able to visit you or support you in the normal way.
He added:
Of course, our civil servants are always cautious about offending a country like Egypt, and that’s why we’re really saying this: this needs political will. It takes political will and a readiness to take real action and say that Egypt can’t have it both ways.
Egypt pretends to be a friend. It depends on British visitors to keep its economy afloat, and we need to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy.
We can’t have business as usual.
Last week, 100 MPs and peers urged prime minister Keir Starmer to “deploy every tool” available to help free Abd El-Fattah.
Government should advise against travel to Egypt, former British ambassador says
A former British ambassador to Egypt has called for the Foreign Office to caution against travel to the country amid fears British nationals face an increased risk of arrest, reports the PA news agency.
John Casson, who was British ambassador to Egypt between 2014 and 2018, described the country as a “police state” which is “violent and vindictive”, when he spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.
His comments follow a ruling by a UN panel that Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news, is being illegally detained by the Egyptian government.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) said Abd El-Fattah was imprisoned because of his political views.
“This is a police state in Egypt: it’s violent, it’s vindictive,” Casson told the Today programme.
According to the PA news agency, Casson said:
It’s abusing a British citizen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah – tortured him.
It’s kept him in prison on bogus charges. It’s causing a lot of distress to his family. But it’s also abusing the rights of the British government to do its normal business, and it’s blocking our embassy for the most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble.
And that’s why, with other parliamentarians today … I’m calling now for our government to use all the tools it has to protect not just Alaa Abd el-Fattah, but all British citizens in Egypt. And that means, especially now, our official travel advice needs to caution against travel to Egypt.
Casson joined political figures including Helena Kennedy and Peter Hain, the former Middle East minister, to urge the government to review its travel advice for Egypt in a letter published in The Times on Wednesday.
Health secretary urges no strikes as ballot of junior doctors begins
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors in England to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months.
Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said:
We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations … Strikes should always be a last resort, and I don’t think they are in anyone’s interest today.
I’m appealing to resident doctors to vote no in the ballot, and instead continue the progress we’ve made, working together to rebuild our NHS.
Resident doctors say their pay has declined by 23% in real terms since 2008. If they choose to go on strike, walkouts could begin in July and potentially last until January 2026.
The government accepted salary recommendations from pay review bodies earlier this month, resulting in an average 5.4% rise for resident doctors.
The Patients Association said it was “deeply concerned” about the prospect of strike action over the busy winter period in the NHS. Previous strike action from doctors in training led to 1.3m appointments, procedures and operations being postponed, it said, with the true figure “likely to be much higher”.
Shadow local government secretary Kevin Hollinrake added that he “can understand” why Keir Starmer is “trying to basically aim his fire all around him”.
Hollinrake told Sky News:
The other danger the prime minister’s got is from his own backbenchers – there’s hundreds of his own backbenchers who’re very dissatisfied in that he’s doing right now.
So I can understand, he’s trying to basically aim his fire all around him. It’ll end up in a circular firing squad, I think, and it looks very bad for the prime minister right now.
Asked about his own party’s standing, Hollinrake described Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch as an “inspirational figure – strong and courageous and a proper Conservative”, and added:
She didn’t want to rush policies out that were undeliverable. She wanted to take her time, develop policies that people could trust, that we would deliver and that were deliverable, and that takes time.
He said his party’s proposed deportation bill was an “indication of the kind of policies that will come forward”, and added it would put a “cap on numbers, but crucially will disapply the European convention on human rights – human rights law - to immigration cases, so we can deport those people that our courts prevent us from deporting right now on spurious grounds”.
Voters have 'lost interest in Labour', says the Tory shadow local government secretary
Voters have “lost interest in Labour”, the Conservative shadow local government secretary has said, reports the PA news agency.
Asked about prime minister Keir Starmer’s speech due later on Thursday, in which he is expected to criticise “fantasy” economics proposed by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Kevin Hollinrake told Sky News:
The prime minister’s got problems wherever he looks.
He continued:
And he’ll see increasing problems from our party as we bring forward our policies which will be much more coherent and much more workable in terms of taking our economy forward.
The public’s lost interest in Labour. I mean, I don’t think they were ever popular at the despatch box – we were just unpopular and we’ve got a big job to do on that particular score, but I believe we can do it.
But also Reform, the ‘red wall’ as we call it, the working-class voters, have completely lost faith in Keir Starmer and [Chancellor] Rachel Reeves and others, not least because of the disgraceful stripping away of the winter fuel allowance which, as soon as it was announced in parliament last year, you know, I was one of many who said: ‘That’s a U-turn coming.’
And that’s what’s happened, and once you’ve brought forward a policy like that, no U-turn will make any difference. It will make a short-term difference in terms of people getting the winter fuel allowance again, as they should, and they need to get it for this year – that’s critical for this winter.
But in terms of the broken promise around that, in terms of what it says about the Labour party, the Labour party will never recover from it.
Government minister Emma Hardy has urged doctors to “vote no” in an upcoming strike ballot.
The water minister told Sky News:
We hugely value everybody who works in the NHS and we hugely value our doctors: that’s why they’ve had a 28% increase in their salary compared to three years ago, and why we’re offering above-inflation pay [rises].
The MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice continued:
But what patients are telling me, patients where I’m from in Hull and up and down the country, is they’re really pleased with the government for reducing waiting lists by 200,000 but they want to see that progress continue with the NHS, and they really don’t want to see strikes.
So my message to the doctors is: we value you, that’s why we’ve offered the above-inflation pay rise.
Please vote no in the ballot, continue talking to government because we need to continue to deliver the improvements in our NHS that patients desperately need.
Starmer to attack Farage's spending plans as 'mad experiment'
Keir Starmer will launch an attack on Nigel Farage by accusing the Reform UK leader of promoting “fantasy” tax-and-spending plans that would unleash a Liz Truss-style economic crisis.
In a fightback against attempts by Farage to win over blue-collar voters with bold promises on taxes and benefits, the prime minister is to say Reform risks spooking the financial markets and driving up mortgage costs for millions of households.
In a speech at a manufacturing business in the north-west of England on Thursday, Starmer will say:
Farage is making the exact same bet Liz Truss did: that you can spend tens of billions on tax cuts without a proper way of paying for it. And, just like Truss, he is using your family finances, your mortgage, your bills as a gambling chip on his mad experiment. The result will be the same.
The Reform leader laid out several promises during a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits.
Starmer’s address is scheduled to take place at 11.30 am and will be followed by a Q&A with reporters.
Elsewhere, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is expected to be campaigning in Scotland today and water minister Emma Hardy is on the morning media round, as is shadow local government minister Kevin Hollinrake. More updates from this in just a moment, but first here are some other key developments:
The British arm of a US contractor that profits from testing whether some people in the UK should receive disability benefits has paid out £10m in dividends to its investors. Maximus, a Virginia-based business, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax profit for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its financial year to the end of September, accounts lodged at Companies House show. Its revenue rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months. Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said: “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations.”
The House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation into a Conservative hereditary peer who admitted he “erroneously” made claims last year for travel expenses he did not incur. He is the fifth peer to face an inquiry after Guardian reporting into the upper house.
Jobcentres will no longer force people into “any job” available, the employment minister has said, promising there will be long-term, personalised career support for those losing out due to welfare cuts. Alison McGovern said she was ending the Conservative policy under which jobseekers were obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be focused on helping people to build rewarding careers.
Scotland’s first minister has warned that the Hamilton byelection is now a “straight contest” between the SNP and Reform UK as he urged voters to back his party. John Swinney claimed the Labour campaign is in collapse and urged their supporters to act and “unite behind our shared principles” to defeat Farage’s party.
