Tag: United Kingdom

It categorically rules out an electoral pact with the Conservatives, but opts to stand aside in the forthcoming Kingswood by-election. It claims to want to “destroy” the Conservatives, but its honorary president muses about one day leading the party. 

It threatens to unseat Conservative MPs, while simultaneously urging “red wallers” to defect. It boasts that the party sits at 10 per cent in some polls — that is despite consistent underperformance at by-elections.

It claims the Conservative Party and its opponents are “two sides of the same socialist coin”, but warns of “the catastrophic cocktail of Starmergeddon” if Labour is let into No 10 (something its existence will necessarily help enable). It tries desperately to redefine its appeal following Britain’s departure from the EU, but quietly rebrands so the old “Brexit Party” title appears on ballot papers. It hints incautiously at a fully-fledged Nigel Farage return — but the party’s honorary president won’t even show up to their election launch.

Welcome to the ever-mysterious, not-always-consistent world of Reform UK: The Brexit Party. 

In recent weeks, watchers of the Westminster zeitgeist will have clocked how this latest right-of-Conservative outfit, headed by erstwhile entrepreneur Richard Tice, has attracted considerable media attention. 

Indeed, with the party now recording double-digit scores in the polls, columnists can’t help but conclude Reform UK is integral to Rishi Sunak’s political tumult — perhaps even more damaging to the Conservatives’ electoral prospects than the Brexit Party and UKIP in their respective heydays. The prime minister is under siege from all directions, this reading holds: left, centre and now right. 

And, lo, sensing the fourth estate’s appetite for Reform UK content, Tice helmed a New Year press conference last week to lay out his essential pitch. Armed with a projector and a laser pointer, he guided assembled journalists through Reform’s election agenda, PowerPoint slide by PowerPoint slide. 

Of course, for a party that stands little to no chance of gaining a single MP at the next election — let alone of forming a government — policy pronouncements aren’t treated with the same seriousness by voters or analysts. This is a fact that gives Tice a lot of freedom. He can essentially refigure his pitch to whatever chimes best with the Conservative-voting conscience — no repercussions, no hostage to fortune concerns. And the fringe party is lavished with uncritical attention from the Conservative-leaning media — especially on GB News where Tice is a host. The result is a tapestry of culture war tropes, Trussite-esque fiscal policy and heavily romanticised nationalist ideals.

Viewed in full, the overriding narrative of Reform UK: The Brexit Party is one of Conservative and Sunakian “betrayal”. The central subtext of Tice’s declarations last week was that, in the prime minister’s bid to rehabilitate the Conservative Party brand, he has engaged in ritual ideological apostasy — leaving its core voters, for whom Reform UK now presumes to speak, behind. 

The price Sunak must pay for his betrayal, Tice tolls, is the destruction of the Conservative Party entire.

In this way, Tice wants to leave no doubt as to his party’s intent as he repeats at every opportunity his pledge to contest every seat in Great Britain at the next election. And with more than 600 candidates in place and the prospect of a non-aggression pact strenuously denied, Reform UK has the Conservatives quivering. That seems the logical conclusion, at least, from deputy chair Lee Anderson’s claim that Reform UK presents a bigger risk to the country than the Labour Party. 

But after Tice turned to his final PowerPoint slide, the assembled journalists’ key takeaway from the presentation was that which had only been merely alluded to: the future of Nigel Farage. 

Tice bares the brunt of the totemic “Nigel Farage question” that now grips British politics — as politicos ponder will he, won’t he return to frontline politics. The former UKIP leader was, of course, the lead pioneer of right-of-Conservative politics in modern Britain — Tice cannot help but be characterised as a mere pretender to Farage’s throne: a far less effective tribute act.

Tellingly, Tice has a practised line when it comes to journalist’s questions about the former Brexit Party leader. Tice says he is “very confident” that Farage will one day take on a bigger role, but claims that the former UKIP leader is “still assessing”. He describes the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader as a political “poker player” and “the master of political timing”.

It is significant that Tice, who faces the tricky task of carving out an appeal of his own, cannot help but stoke speculation that Farage may one day replace him. With the obvious benefit of gaining coverage in friendly new outlets, it must be the first example in British political history of a party leader openly wondering that he may soon be cast aside in favour of a more effective precursor. 

But, Tice’s insistence notwithstanding, one cannot help but conclude that Farage’s refusal to directly engage with Reform UK is informed by his own reading of the party’s political prospects. 

As UKIP leader, Farage was able to cast a disproportionate shadow over British politics by presenting to the public a clear policy ask: a career-defining desire to leave the European Union. In turn, he has learnt to pick and choose his fights carefully — such as his (victorious) squabble with Coutts over his scandalous “debanking”. 

Indeed, Farage’s shtick from 2010-2016, and to an extent through 2016-2019, was not capitalising on a tarnished Tory brand with a view to replacing it, but seeking to mould the party to his own ends. To this day, Farage boasts about how much he has shaped the Party since 2010 and frequently jokes he may one day seize overall control.

It is easy to see how Farage’s claim that things he fought for are now “quite mainstream” in the Conservative Party and Tice’s assertion that the Tories and Labour are “two sides of the same socialist coin” do not square.

Nigel Farage: Things I fought for are now ‘quite mainstream’ in the Conservative Party

Moreover, Farage, having failed on seven occasions to become an MP, knows better than anyone that the odds are heavily stacked against minor parties in the British political system. Routing the Conservative Party entire, therefore, is a project that Farage, contentedly attending to his GB News plough, may see little mileage in. A fudged comeback, the former UKIP leader also likely calculates, would reframe his other political achievements and append future biographies with an unfortunate final chapter. The former UKIP leader would no longer remain the rebuttal to the aphorism all political lives end in failure. 

So, with Farage’s personal motivations and Reform UK’s political ambitions now diverging, Tice searches desperately for a defining vision.

And Reform UK’s political dilemmas appear to be having some confusing manifestations. For example, the decision not to stand in Kingswood is a clear mystery. At the peak of his powers, Farage would never shirk such a contest — a clear opportunity to deal damage to the Conservatives in a heartland constituency. In 2015, Farage’s UKIP won 7,133 votes in the constituency, a strong third-place finish, so why does Tice shirk this fight? The ostensible pretext, that it is outgoing MP Chris Skidmore’s “grotesque abuse” of public funds, in truth does not come near to a reasonable explanation. 

Ultimately, the most that can be said about Reform UK is that they are filling a hole in the UK’s electoral landscape: a Faragist force, sans Farage, destined to shave a few percentage points off Conservative candidates in some key swing seats. Its uppity claims about the “destruction” of Sunak’s party, as Tice wrestles with enduring problems of purpose and personnel, simply belie very real challenges for Reform UK as a political force. 

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Twitter here.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

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Rishi Sunak faces a House of Commons showdown over the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill when it receives line-by-line scrutiny in its committee stage next week. 

In the commons yesterday, House leader Penny Mordaunt confirmed the Rwanda Bill will be scrutinised by a committee of the whole House on 16 and 17 January.

The prime minister is under pressure from both sides of his party over the legislation, with around 30 MPs prepared to back amendments aimed at toughening it up. 

However, moderate Conservative MPs, hailing from the One Nation Group, have threatened to oppose the bill if it risks breaching international law.

The Telegraph reports that at least nine former cabinet ministers including former home secretary Suella Braverman and immigration minister Robert Jenrick are backing four amendments to the bill.

The amendments, supported by the so-called “five families” of Conservative backbench groupings, aim to limit virtually all legal challenges by asylum seekers and block attempts by the European Court of Human Rights to halt the flights.

Writing in the Telegraph, co-chairs of the New Conservatives Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates argued the proposed amendments were “proportionate, consistent with our international obligations, and have respectable legal arguments behind them”.

“As with the rest of the bill, and the Rwanda plan in general, they are tough – because they need to be.”

Writing on their criticism of the bill as it stands, Kruger and Cates argue that Clause 4 “allows a migrant’s lawyer to claim that for them in particular – perhaps for reasons of their mental health, the claims that stopped the flights in 2022 – Rwanda would not be safe”.

They add: “We need to close this loophole by specifying that the only reason to stop a removal is because a documented health condition confirms the individual is not fit to fly”.

“The second loophole is that, under Sections 4 and 10 of the Human Rights Act, the Bill allows a court to issue a “declaration of incompatibility” with the ECHR”.

The prime minister has previously said he will welcome “bright ideas” on how to improve the bill.

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, said to be spearheading the amendments, has said: “The Bill as drafted simply will not work because it doesn’t end the merry-go-round of legal challenges that frustrate removals. I’ve seen the legal advice and operational plans where this was painfully apparent.

“That’s why myself and colleagues have tabled a set of amendments that block small boat arrivals making individual claims and prevent Rule 39 pyjama injunctions from Strasbourg grounding planes.

“If the Government truly wants to stop the boats, it should adopt these amendments and use Parliament’s power to deliver on the repeated promises we have made to the public.

“If we don’t fix this Bill the country will be consigned to more illegal crossings, more farcical migrant hotels and billions more of wasted taxpayers’ money in the years to come.”

Rishi Sunak’s room for manoeuvre is constrained by warnings from the One Nation group of 106 MPs.

Mordaunt confirms Rwanda bill will face vote next week as committee stage date set

Damian Green, chairman of the One Nation group, told the New Statesman in a recent interview: “The Prime Minister’s got within an inch of what I would regard as acceptable. Almost all our members voted for second reading with the clear message of ‘thus far and no further’ and ‘don’t take that extra inch’, which some colleagues of the Right of the party want us to do.”

The One Nation group also held a drinks event with journalists on Tuesday night, where member Matt Warman joked at the “five families’” expense. 

He said that Sir John Hayes’ Common Sense Group is “like a democratic republic pretending it actually is a democratic republic” and that Kruger and Cates’ New Conservatives are “new” because other Conservatives have in fact “won more than one election.”

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An announcement of the government’s plan to help the victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal is “imminent”, it has been confirmed this morning.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, told Sky News that the government believes it now has the “solution”. However, he added that he could not be specific on when it will be unveiled.

It comes amid speculation that Rishi Sunak could make an announcement at the start of Prime Minister’s Questions today.

Hollinrake said: “An announcement is imminent. We believe we have a solution. But I said at the despatch box this week it would be this week, we felt, and I think it will be this week. But I can’t promise you any particular timescale.”

Justice secretary Alex Chalk told the House of Commons yesterday that ministers are giving “active consideration” to legislation to overturn all Horizon scandal convictions.

The comments came after former cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi, who appeared playing himself in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, called on the government to bring forward a “simple bill to quash all 800” Post Office scandal convictions immediately.

Minister hints at new law to ‘quash’ all 800 Post Office scandal convictions

Chalk later added, in response to a question from former justice secretary Robert Buckland: “[The scandal] is truly exceptional. It is truly unprecedented and it will need an appropriate result”.

Speaking this morning, Post Office minister Hollinrake said the government is “very, very tempted” by the prospect of “overturn[ing] all the convictions on bloc, and then people can decide to have a full assessment of their loss, or they can take a fixed sum aware of £600,000”.

However, he clarified that a decision has not yet been finalised. “We’re still in the detail discussions, but we’re very, very close”, he said, while adding: “It will be this week”.

Meanwhile, a new poll has showed that an overwhelming majority of people believe the government should pass a new law to quash the convictions of subpostmasters caught up in the Post Office scandal.

The survey, conducted by YouGov yesterday, found 66 per cent of respondents believe a new law should be passed to clear all of the convicted subpostmasters at once.

Only a quarter, or 26 per cent, said each case should be looked at individually by the courts so they can be cleared.

Seven per cent were unsure and one per cent picked neither option.

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Labour’s education spokesperson has attacked the government’s record on education during the Covid era, vowing that if the UK faced another pandemic under a Labour government, schools would be “last to close and the first to open”.

In a major speech this morning to the Centre for Social Justice, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson declared that “when the government first reopened schools for most of our children, the pubs had already been open for weeks”.

She added: “That was entirely the wrong way around. And I tell you today, that if I’m secretary of state for education, if and when such a national crisis comes again, school should be the last to close and the first to open.”

She told attendees that it “says a lot” that former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson has not been called to give oral evidence to the Covid inquiry.

Phillipson suggested that was because “he wasn’t at the table” during crucial decision-making meetings. 

The Labour frontbencher also sought to style her party as the “party of family”, vowing to improve “partnership” between schools, families, and the government. 

She added: “Partnership works when information is known, and information is shared.”

Defending Labour’s proposals on scrapping tax breaks for independent schools, she said the Conservative Party’s defence of the status quo sees its “mask slip” and exposes their “real beliefs”.

Phillipson was introduced for her speech by the former education recovery tsar, who backed the party’s plans for school absences.

Sir Kevan Collins, the government’s former education recovery commissioner, said “too many of our children are still living with the disruption” of the pandemic.

He added: “Covid revealed the best and worst of our system: teachers performed heroically as they turned on a sixpence to deliver online learning, parents leant in to support their children’s learning as never before and our children displayed resilience and determination to continue their studies.

“However, too many of our children are still living with the impact of the disruption. The failure to re-engage and return to established norms is seen in the collapse in school attendance. For too many children the habit and convention of going to school every day has been broken.

“Tackling the crisis of persistent absence must therefore be a priority and the national response must measure up to the scale of the local challenge. It demands a shared endeavour.

“Education standards should always take top priority. I’m excited by Bridget’s ambition for our education system and her determination to raise standards and improve outcomes for all our children.”

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Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said the Post Office lied to him on an “industrial scale” as he attempts to defend his role in the Horizon IT scandal. 

Sir Ed has come under increasing criticism for his lack of action when he was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012. 

Victims of the Post Office scandal faced convictions because of faulty accounting software. The renewed interest in the scandal comes after an ITV drama, entitled “Mr Bates vs. The Post Office”, which depicted the major miscarriage of justice. 

Sir Ed Davey told broadcasters yesterday: “I wish I had known then what we all know now, the Post Office was lying on an industrial scale to me and other ministers.”

He added: “My heart goes out to all those people, we need to make sure their convictions are overturned and we need to make sure they are fairly compensated, and quickly,” he said.

In May 2010, Davey refused to meet Alan Bates, the post office operator and campaigner whose story has now depicted in the ITV drama. At the time, the now-Liberal Democrat leader said he did not believe it “would serve any purpose”.

Davey later meet Bates in October 2010. 

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Sir Ed went further to accuse senior Post Office officials of misleading him and other minister with a “conspiracy of lies”.

Conservative figures have been openly attacking Davey over his role in the scandal, with party vice chair Lee Anderson accusing the Liberal Democrat leader of siding with the Post Office.

“This man, this Ed Davey, has not really looked at both sides of the story. He took the side of the Post Office employers and sadly many went to prison due to him not listening”, Anderson told GB News.

He demanded the Liberal Democrat leader “make a public apology in Parliament to these people that sadly took their lives, the families of these victims, and the people who went to prison”.

Conservative MP Sally-Ann Hart has insisted that if Davey is found to have “overlooked something that was glaringly obvious, then he should do what he tells everybody else to do when they make the slightest mistakes… he should consider whether he should himself resign”.

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