But, when mainstream parties move on to the territory of the more extreme parties, those parties often respond with a further lurch to the right, and we will see an example of that today. Nigel Farage<\/a>, the Reform UK leader, is holding a press conference where he is going to announce proposals that cover immigration and the budget (the other huge story preoccupying Westminster politics at the moment). As Peter Walker reports, Farage will propose spending cuts which he clams would save \u00a325bn a year.<\/p>\n At the heart of the plan are three proposals, all of which involve penalising foreigners. They are:<\/p>\n Removing the right of EU nationals living in the UK to claim benefits, which Reform UK<\/a> says would save \u00a36bn.<\/p>\n Increasing the cost of the NHS surcharge, the fee paid by non-UK residents when they get a visa to stay in the UK. This would rise form \u00a31,035 to \u00a32,718 a year, which Reform UK says would save \u00a35bn.<\/p>\n Yesterday the Home Office triggered outrage by suggesting that the government might remove jewellery from asylum seekers to help compensate for what they cost the taxpayer. According to Politico<\/a>, one Reform official described this as \u201cvindictive\u201d. But the \u2018jewellery\u2019 plan<\/a> (which does not even mention jewellery at all \u2013 that story only emerged from a hypothetical comment in an interview<\/a>) would probably only raise paltry sums. Farage is proposing a huge fiscal rethink that would appropriate billions earmarked for people who aren\u2019t British.<\/p>\n With nationalism an increasingly powerful force in politics, Farage is clearly calculating that this will go down well with voters.<\/p>\n In advance of the Reform press conference, Labour has issued a press notice criticising the proposals. But it does not refer to aid spending, or the NHS surcharge. Instead it points out that removing benefits from EU nationals would be a breach of the post-Brexit trade deal, which potentially could mean a trade war with Europe. A Labour party spokesperson said:<\/p>\n Nigel Farage\u2019s fantasy numbers don\u2019t add up, and he\u2019d leave British taxpayers footing a hefty bill.<\/p>\n Farage is happy to slap British shoppers with higher prices at the checkouts by risking a trade war with Europe. He\u2019d betray working people and hammer British businesses who want to trade with the EU.<\/p>\n Farage seems to think that the threat of trade retaliation from the EU is just a bluff, but he will explain more at his press conference. It is all a bit reminiscent of Brexit, when leavers were accused of having a rosy view of quite how strong their leverage would be in talks with Brussels.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.<\/p>\n 10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Zia Yusuf, the party\u2019s head of policy, hold a press conference.<\/p>\n 10am: Kemi Badenoch<\/a> and Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, hold a press conference.<\/p>\n 11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n After 12.30pm: MPs debate the Northern Ireland Troubles bill at second reading.<\/p>\n Afternoon: Keir Starmer flies to Berlin, where he is having dinner with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.33 EST<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n Farage accuses female journalist of playing ‘silly little game’ after she asks about Reform’s likely choice for chancellor<\/p>\n Q: [From the Telegraph\u2019s Camilla Tominey] You say you expect an election in 2027. The fact that Zia Yusuf is here \u2013 does that mean he is your preferred candidate for chancellor, not Richard Tice?<\/p>\n Farage says that is a good try. He tells Tominey that is it no wonder she is so well paid. But he goes on: \u201cI\u2019m just not playing your silly little game.\u201d<\/p>\n Farage has got form for patronising female journalists. Recently, being interviewed by Bloomberg\u2019s Mishal Husain, he called her \u201clove\u201d<\/a> as she asked him difficult questions about his stance on Russia.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.41 EST<\/p>\n Q: [From the Sun] Are you saying you are opposed to taking assets like jewellery off asylum seekers?<\/p>\n Farage says it is never going to happen. And if he were to propose that, he can imagine what people would say about that. It is not going to happen. It was just a \u201cperformative\u201d proposal, he says.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Q: [From the Daily Mail] So will you be happy if Reform councils raise council tax by 5%, the maximum?<\/p>\n Farage says he cannot tell them what to do. But he hopes councils will only raise tax in line with inflation.<\/p>\n He says councils have massive debts.<\/p>\n He says he is worried by reports saying the government will postpone council elections again in areas where reorganisation is taking place. He suggests that is because Reform would win, and fight against reorganisation.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Q: [From Sky News] You talk about massive savings. But Reform UK<\/a> are in power in councils, and they have not found council tax. They are going to have to put it up.<\/p>\n Farage says during the election campaign he never promised that Reform councils would not raise council tax.<\/p>\n (He may not have done, but Reform candidates for councils did<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Q: What do you think of Shabana Mahmood saying she is not interested in what Reform UK<\/a> has to say, and telling you to \u201csod off\u201d?<\/p>\n Farage says Mahmood has been using a lot of bad language. And he says, for Labour<\/a> to say they are not interested in Reform, is \u201cutter rot\u201d.<\/p>\n He says, if Reform did not exist, Mahmood would not have made those announcements.<\/p>\n Yusuf says Keir Starmer accused Reform of being racist. But imagine what he would have said if Reform had proposed taking jewellery off migrants, he asks.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Farage says proposal to take items like jewellery from asylum seekers ‘a gimmick’<\/p>\n Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf are now taking questions.<\/p>\n Q: [From GB News] What impact will the increase in the NHS surcharge have on waiting lists? And will the home secretary\u2019s asylum plans stop the boats?<\/p>\n Farage says, in rhetorical terms, what Shabana Mahmood said was very encouraging. But he does not think it will work.<\/p>\n And he describes the proposal to take jewellery off people as a \u201cgimmick\u201d. Even in Denmark, where this has been tried, only 17 people have had items removed from them, he says.<\/p>\n On the NHS surcharge, Yusuf says the changes he is proposing would not have a \u201cmeaningful impact\u201d on demand.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Reform UK policy chief Zia Yusuf claims Labour spending on foreigners, to deteriment of British nationals, is ‘treachery’<\/p>\n Back at the Reform UK<\/a> press conference, Zia Yusuf, the party\u2019s head of policy, has just finished outlining his plan to cut spending on foreigners<\/p>\n As he finished, Yusuf claimed this was \u201ctreachery\u201d.<\/p>\n Labour is making the conscious and deliberate decision to continue funding extortionate amounts to foreign nationals, to the detriment of British citizens.<\/p>\n And I don\u2019t know what to call that. Frankly, my view is treachery. I think it\u2019s appalling. British people are sick and tired of it.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch says Labour is raising taxes in budget ‘to pay for Starmer’s weakness on welfare cuts’<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, are speaking at their press conference.<\/p>\n The Tories released an extract from Badenoch\u2019s speech overnight, and in it she says Labour<\/a> will raise taxes in the budget \u201cto pay for Keir Starmer\u2019s weakness on welfare cuts\u201d. She says:<\/p>\n Just a few months ago, Rachel Reeves was saying she couldn\u2019t afford to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Now it looks like becoming her latest U-turn.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t because the economic circumstances have improved. Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n Remember, a fortnight ago Reeves summoned the media to Downing Street to blame everyone from the OBR, to Brexit, to Trump, for her own economic mismanagement.<\/p>\n We need to call this out for what it is: Labour are raising taxes to pay for Keir Starmer\u2019s weakness on welfare cuts.<\/p>\n He has already U-turned on \u00a35bn of welfare savings in the face of pressure from his left-wing backbenchers.<\/p>\n And because Starmer has no backbone, he is now set to lift the two-child benefit cap. That\u2019s around \u00a38.5bn of additional welfare spending.<\/p>\n I have already said that if this Labour government scraps the two-child benefit cap a future Conservative government will bring it back.<\/p>\n The cap is fair because it forces people on benefits to decide if they can afford to have more children, in the same way those who work have to decide if they can afford more children.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer has already broken his pre-election promise not to raise tax on working people with last year\u2019s Jobs Tax, which has been passed on to all of us through higher prices, lower wages and fewer jobs.<\/p>\n He and Reeves are now set to go even further: freezing income tax thresholds so that more and more people are dragged into higher rates through a stealth tax bombshell.<\/p>\n Rachel Reeves even said at the Budget last year that \u201cextending the threshold freeze would hurt working people\u201d and \u201ctake money out of their payslips\u201d.<\/p>\n They\u2019re hiking taxes on people in work, to give handouts to people on benefits, the last group of people who might still vote Labour.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not fair, it\u2019s not right, and we will oppose them every single step of the way.<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride at their press conference at the British Academy in Carlton House Terrace, London. Photograph: Lucy North\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n At the Reform UK press conference Nigel Farage, the party\u2019s leader, opened by saying he agreed with \u201ca lot\u201d of what Shabana Mahmood announced yesterday.<\/p>\n But the real problem was not illegal migration, but legal migration, he said. He went on:<\/p>\n It is doing enormous damage to the British economy. And it\u2019s been so difficult to even talk about this subject without being screamed down.<\/p>\n (Obviously, that has not stopped Farage, who has talked about little else in recent years.)<\/p>\n Farage went on to introduce Zia Yusuf, the party\u2019s head of policy, who is now discussing the proposed spending cuts briefed overnight. (See 9.01am<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Steve Reed suggests Labour MPs have duty to support asylum plans, saying manifesto promised secure borders<\/p>\n Steve Reed, the housing secretary, has suggested that Labour<\/a> MPs have a duty to support the asylum plans announced yesterday.<\/p>\n In an interview with Sky News, asked if Labour backbenchers opposed to the plans should join the Green party, Reed replied:<\/p>\n Absolutely not. Every single one of us who is a Labour MP was elected on the same manifesto, and that manifesto committed us now as a government to securing our borders.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very important that we do that. The British people expect us to do that. But we also have to end this vile trade in human lives.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.08 EST<\/p>\n Rajeev Syal is the Guardian\u2019s home affairs editor.<\/p>\n Net migration under Rishi Sunak\u2019s Conservative government peaked at a slightly higher level than previously estimated, according to new figures<\/a> from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).<\/p>\n In the year ending March 2023, overall numbers of people entering and leaving the UK reached 944,000 compared with the previous estimate of 906,000 for the year ending June 2023.<\/p>\n The figures were released after an improvement in the method by which the number of UK and EU nationals entering and leaving the country is calculated, the ONS said.<\/p>\n This was followed by a sharper fall than initially reported, with net migration in the year ending December 2024 now estimated to be 345,000, lower than original estimate of 431,000 that was published by the ONS in May of this year.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n There are two press conferences starting at 10am.<\/p>\n You can watch the Reform UK one here<\/a>.<\/p>\n And you can watch the Conservative party one here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, arriving at Downing Street for cabinet this morning. Photograph: Toby Melville\/ReutersShare<\/a>Most Reform UK voters would back wealth tax on very rich, poll suggests<\/p>\n A majority of potential Reform UK<\/a> voters would back a one-off wealth tax on the very rich, polling suggests, with about three-quarters supporting windfall taxes on energy companies and banks, Peter Walker reports.<\/p>\n In France the far-right National Rally, whose politics loosely align with Reform UK\u2019s, has backed a wealth tax.<\/a> But the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has consistently opposed the idea, saying it would lead to high earners leaving Britain, and the party itself was, in its early days, highly dependent on a relatively small number of wealthy donors.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Alf Dubs says he’s ‘depressed’ by Labour’s asylum plans, which are ‘going in wrong direction’<\/p>\n Alf Dubs, the Labour<\/a> peer and former MP who came to the UK on Kindertransport in 1939 and who campaigns on behalf of migrants, told the Today programme this morning that he was \u201cdepressed\u201d by the asylum politicies announced by the government yesterday. He explained:<\/p>\n I find it upsetting that we\u2019ve got to adopt such a hard line \u2013 what we need is a bit of compassion in our politics, and I think that some of the measures were going in the wrong direction, they won\u2019t help.<\/p>\n The hard line approach will not, in fact, deter people from coming here \u2013 at least on the basis of people I spoke to in Calais, for example \u2013 I don\u2019t think it will deter them.<\/p>\n There are some some minor things in the proposal which will be okay but on the whole I think we\u2019re going in the wrong direction \u2013 very much so.<\/p>\n He said he was particularly concerned by the proposal for the government to focus more on deporting families with children<\/a>.<\/p>\n I think there is a proper case for children, there\u2019s a proper case for family reunion \u2013 when there are children who are on their own and who\u2019ve got family in this country, then I think the right thing to do is to have family reunion and bringing children over here.<\/p>\n But to use children as a weapon, as the home secretary is doing, I think is a shabby thing \u2013 I\u2019m lost for words, frankly, because my concern was that if we remove people who come here, what happens if they\u2019ve had children in the meantime?<\/p>\n What are we supposed to do with children who are born here, who\u2019ve been to school here, who are part of our community, our society? We can\u2019t just say, \u2018oh well, out you go because your parents don\u2019t claim to be here\u2019.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Reform UK’s plan to cut EU citizens\u2019 benefits would risk trade war with Europe, Labour claims<\/p>\n Good morning. Yesterday, as the government announced drastic plans to curb the number of asylum seekers able to stay in the UK, it was accused of adopting the politics of Reform UK, the anti-immigration party with a big lead in the opinion polls<\/a>. In response, ministers argued that Labour would be doing even worse if it just ignored the legitimate concerns of voters who are supporting Nigel Farage\u2019s party.<\/p>\n But, when mainstream parties move on to the territory of the more extreme parties, those parties often respond with a further lurch to the right, and we will see an example of that today. Nigel Farage<\/a>, the Reform UK leader, is holding a press conference where he is going to announce proposals that cover immigration and the budget (the other huge story preoccupying Westminster politics at the moment). As Peter Walker reports, Farage will propose spending cuts which he clams would save \u00a325bn a year.<\/p>\n At the heart of the plan are three proposals, all of which involve penalising foreigners. They are:<\/p>\n Removing the right of EU nationals living in the UK to claim benefits, which Reform UK<\/a> says would save \u00a36bn.<\/p>\n Increasing the cost of the NHS surcharge, the fee paid by non-UK residents when they get a visa to stay in the UK. This would rise form \u00a31,035 to \u00a32,718 a year, which Reform UK says would save \u00a35bn.<\/p>\n Yesterday the Home Office triggered outrage by suggesting that the government might remove jewellery from asylum seekers to help compensate for what they cost the taxpayer. According to Politico<\/a>, one Reform official described this as \u201cvindictive\u201d. But the \u2018jewellery\u2019 plan<\/a> (which does not even mention jewellery at all \u2013 that story only emerged from a hypothetical comment in an interview<\/a>) would probably only raise paltry sums. Farage is proposing a huge fiscal rethink that would appropriate billions earmarked for people who aren\u2019t British.<\/p>\n With nationalism an increasingly powerful force in politics, Farage is clearly calculating that this will go down well with voters.<\/p>\n In advance of the Reform press conference, Labour has issued a press notice criticising the proposals. But it does not refer to aid spending, or the NHS surcharge. Instead it points out that removing benefits from EU nationals would be a breach of the post-Brexit trade deal, which potentially could mean a trade war with Europe. A Labour party spokesperson said:<\/p>\n Nigel Farage\u2019s fantasy numbers don\u2019t add up, and he\u2019d leave British taxpayers footing a hefty bill.<\/p>\n Farage is happy to slap British shoppers with higher prices at the checkouts by risking a trade war with Europe. He\u2019d betray working people and hammer British businesses who want to trade with the EU.<\/p>\n Farage seems to think that the threat of trade retaliation from the EU is just a bluff, but he will explain more at his press conference. It is all a bit reminiscent of Brexit, when leavers were accused of having a rosy view of quite how strong their leverage would be in talks with Brussels.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.<\/p>\n 10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Zia Yusuf, the party\u2019s head of policy, hold a press conference.<\/p>\n 10am: Kemi Badenoch<\/a> and Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, hold a press conference.<\/p>\n 11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n After 12.30pm: MPs debate the Northern Ireland Troubles bill at second reading.<\/p>\n Afternoon: Keir Starmer flies to Berlin, where he is having dinner with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n![\"Rajeev](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/uploads\/2023\/09\/18\/Rajeev_Syal.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5d99437b4f0619ea54913f442065a26c\")
Rajeev Syal<\/p>\n