Labour condemns Nigel Farage after he ducks calls for probe into potential Reform UK links to Russia
Good morning. Yesterday Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, finally addressed the report published by the Guardian a week ago that quoted multiple people recalling him making racist or antisemitic comments when he was a pupil at Dulwich College in south London in the late 1970s and 1980s. Before publication, a Reform UK spokesperson told the Guardian the claims were “entirely without foundation”. But Farage adopted a slightly different line when he was questioned by Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales’s political editor, who was conducting a pooled interview (ie, one for use by all media outlets). Farage was still quite dismissive but, when pressed as to whether he ever racially abused other pupils at school, he replied: “Not with intent.”
There is a clip of the interview here, but this morning the Today programme played a fuller version (available here, from 7.16am) which is worth hearing. The questioning by Lewis was excellent.
Here is our story, by Daniel Boffey, Henry Dyer and Mark Blacklock.
And here is a timeline showing how Farage’s response to these allegations has changed over time.
But racism was not the only difficult topic Farage had to face questions about yesterday. On Friday Nathan Gill, the former Reform UK leader in Wales, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for taking bribes, when he was an MEP, to make speeches favourable to Russia, and Farage was also asked what he was doing to establish if other Brexit party MEPs had been offered bribes in the same way. (Gill was a Brexit party MEP when he took the bribes, but the Brexit party later turned into Reform UK.) Farage insists Gill was a one-off “bad apple”. Asked why he was not carrying out an investigation to see if anyone else in the party was not targeted in the same way, Farage replied:
I haven’t got a police force, I haven’t got access… I can’t access your phone message, I can’t access your emails … Unless I can do that, I can’t investigate. You’ve got to have somebody with investigatory powers.
Asked if he had asked people in his party about this, he replied:
Well, I’ve asked everybody: have you ever taken money you shouldn’t have taken from anybody … and no one said yes.
Asked if that was good enough, Farage deflected the question, and asked what Labour and the Tories were doing about people in their parties.
Labour says this is not good enough. In a statement issued in response to the Farage interview, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said:
Nigel Farage assured the public his former right-hand man was decent and honest before he was found to have taken pro-Russian bribes. Now he says he’s as sure as he can be that there’s no pro-Kremlin links in Reform UK.
He was wrong before, and the public can have no confidence in his judgement now.
Farage must urgently take responsibility for ensuring his Party isn’t becoming a vehicle for Putin’s Russia and stop refusing to investigate pro-Russia links in Reform UK.
The Daily Mirror is also running this story, with a striking tabloid headline.
Mirror headline Photograph: Daily Mirror
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Jacqui Smith, the universities minister, gives evidence to the Commons education committee about university funding.
11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Keir Starmer is due to make a statement to MPs on the G20 summit.
Afternoon: Starmer takes part in a video call with leaders from the “Coalition of the Willing” countries – nations willing to contribute to the defence of Ukraine in the event of peace settlement. They will discuss the latest peace proposals from the US.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Updated at 04.45 EST
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Streeting expected to confirm sugar tax being extended to cover milkshakes and other milk drinks
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is expected to tell the Commons later today that pre-packaged milkshakes and lattes will be covered by the sugar tax.
Currently milk-based drinks are exempt from the sugar tax, but this is due to end in the budget. Streeting is taking questions in the Commons later and, according to a report in the Times, he is expected to confirm the sugar tax extension.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, originally told MPs she was considering this option in her budget last year.
Explaining the origins of the sugar tax, PA Media says:
The sugar tax, also known as the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL), is a tax on pre-packaged drinks such as those sold in cans and cartons in supermarkets.
It applies to manufacturers and was introduced by the Conservative government in 2018 to help drive down obesity, including among children.
The government has also been looking at reducing the maximum amount of sugar allowed in drinks from five grams to four grams per 100ml, after which point they will be hit by the levy.
According to the Treasury, children’s sugar intake in the UK is more than double the recommended maximum of no more than 5% energy from free sugar.
The existing levy has led to a 46% average reduction in sugar between 2015 and 2020 for those soft drinks that were to be brought under the rules.
ShareJames Cleverly declines to full endorse Tory chair’s Nazi jibe about Reform UK
It is not just Labour attacking Reform UK. On Sunday Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chair, posted a message on social media comparing a Reform UK badge to a Nazi swastika. In response to complaints, he took that post down, but replaced it with another (still up this morning) including a link to a Wikipedia page about a Nazi badge, implying the comparison has some merit. That did not quell the criticism, and yesterday Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, defended Hollinrake by saying he was just being funny.
But this morning James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, declined to fully defend Hollinrake. He said the Tory chair was “trying to make a point” but it was “not necessarily the way I would have made it”.
Cleverly told GB News:
The point that I think he is making is that – I mean, the situation with Nathan Gill, the former Reform leader in Wales who’s now been imprisoned for corruption charges having been bribed by Russia to promote pro-Moscow propaganda – is something that is worth highlighting.
Kevin sought to do that in his own way. That’s a decision that he made, but I think it is right, not that we criticise people who vote Reform – these are people who we need to win over, and indeed often win back to voting Conservative – but I think it is absolutely legitimate to ask some very, very serious questions about the motivation of some of the elected people within Reform.
ShareLabour condemns Nigel Farage after he ducks calls for probe into potential Reform UK links to Russia
Good morning. Yesterday Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, finally addressed the report published by the Guardian a week ago that quoted multiple people recalling him making racist or antisemitic comments when he was a pupil at Dulwich College in south London in the late 1970s and 1980s. Before publication, a Reform UK spokesperson told the Guardian the claims were “entirely without foundation”. But Farage adopted a slightly different line when he was questioned by Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales’s political editor, who was conducting a pooled interview (ie, one for use by all media outlets). Farage was still quite dismissive but, when pressed as to whether he ever racially abused other pupils at school, he replied: “Not with intent.”
There is a clip of the interview here, but this morning the Today programme played a fuller version (available here, from 7.16am) which is worth hearing. The questioning by Lewis was excellent.
Here is our story, by Daniel Boffey, Henry Dyer and Mark Blacklock.
And here is a timeline showing how Farage’s response to these allegations has changed over time.
But racism was not the only difficult topic Farage had to face questions about yesterday. On Friday Nathan Gill, the former Reform UK leader in Wales, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for taking bribes, when he was an MEP, to make speeches favourable to Russia, and Farage was also asked what he was doing to establish if other Brexit party MEPs had been offered bribes in the same way. (Gill was a Brexit party MEP when he took the bribes, but the Brexit party later turned into Reform UK.) Farage insists Gill was a one-off “bad apple”. Asked why he was not carrying out an investigation to see if anyone else in the party was not targeted in the same way, Farage replied:
I haven’t got a police force, I haven’t got access… I can’t access your phone message, I can’t access your emails … Unless I can do that, I can’t investigate. You’ve got to have somebody with investigatory powers.
Asked if he had asked people in his party about this, he replied:
Well, I’ve asked everybody: have you ever taken money you shouldn’t have taken from anybody … and no one said yes.
Asked if that was good enough, Farage deflected the question, and asked what Labour and the Tories were doing about people in their parties.
Labour says this is not good enough. In a statement issued in response to the Farage interview, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said:
Nigel Farage assured the public his former right-hand man was decent and honest before he was found to have taken pro-Russian bribes. Now he says he’s as sure as he can be that there’s no pro-Kremlin links in Reform UK.
He was wrong before, and the public can have no confidence in his judgement now.
Farage must urgently take responsibility for ensuring his Party isn’t becoming a vehicle for Putin’s Russia and stop refusing to investigate pro-Russia links in Reform UK.
The Daily Mirror is also running this story, with a striking tabloid headline.
Mirror headline Photograph: Daily Mirror
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Jacqui Smith, the universities minister, gives evidence to the Commons education committee about university funding.
11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Keir Starmer is due to make a statement to MPs on the G20 summit.
Afternoon: Starmer takes part in a video call with leaders from the “Coalition of the Willing” countries – nations willing to contribute to the defence of Ukraine in the event of peace settlement. They will discuss the latest peace proposals from the US.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Updated at 04.45 EST