Badenoch claims Farage getting \u00a35m gift from donor shows he can’t claim to be in touch with ordinary people<\/p>\n
On BBC Radio Merseyside the presenter, Tony Snell, put it to Kemi Badenoch that Merseyside was a lost cause for the Tories. He said that Nigel Farage, the Reform UK<\/a> leader, had been on the programme yesterday. He said that Farage argued that Scousers were down to earth and the Tories they were seen as \u201caloof and remote\u201d.<\/p>\n Badenoch said no one had ever described her as aloof and remote. When it was put to her that Farage was talking about the party, she said the Tories were the party of working people. Labour<\/a> were only interested in welfare, she claimed.<\/p>\n She also claimed that the revelation yesterday that Nigel Farage had received a \u00a35m gift showed that he was not down to earth.<\/p>\n double quotation markNigel Farage can say as much as he wants that he\u2019s the one who\u2019s down to earth. Someone just gave him a \u00a35m gift to the other day. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s down to earth about that.<\/p>\n Who gets \u00a35m is a gift. If I got \u00a350,000 as a gift, I think people would raise their eyebrows. That\u2019s a hundred times that. And he forgot to register it. He forgot that he\u2019d been given \u00a35m. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s down to earth. So I\u2019m not going to be taking any lessons from Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.16 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n Number of households in temporary accommodation falls for 1st time in three years, figures show<\/p>\n The number of households in temporary accommodation in England has fallen slightly for the first time in three years, the Press Association reports. PA says:<\/p>\n double quotation markTemporary accommodation is a form of homelessness and can include hostels, refuges and bed and breakfasts.<\/p>\n There were 134,210 households in such accommodation at the end of December, down from 134,700 at the end of September 2025, according to official data.<\/p>\n Publishing the figures today,<\/a> the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: \u201cWhile this shift is small, this is the first quarter that the number of households in temporary accommodation has fallen since 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n The last quarterly fall was at the end of March 2022 when the number of households stood at 95,000, down from 96,280 at the end of December 2021.<\/p>\n Since then the figure has increased every quarter.<\/p>\n But while the latest number has dropped slightly below the previous record levels, it is still 5.0% higher than the figure for the end of December 2024 which was 127,820.<\/p>\n The number of children in temporary accommodation has however continued to rise, standing at 176,130 at the end of December, up from 175,930 at the end of September.<\/p>\n The number is up 6% year on year, from 165,450 at the end of December 2024.<\/p>\n Of all households in temporary accommodation at the end of December, 12,550 were living in bed and breakfasts (B&Bs).<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch claims Farage getting \u00a35m gift from donor shows he can’t claim to be in touch with ordinary people<\/p>\n On BBC Radio Merseyside the presenter, Tony Snell, put it to Kemi Badenoch that Merseyside was a lost cause for the Tories. He said that Nigel Farage, the Reform UK<\/a> leader, had been on the programme yesterday. He said that Farage argued that Scousers were down to earth and the Tories they were seen as \u201caloof and remote\u201d.<\/p>\n Badenoch said no one had ever described her as aloof and remote. When it was put to her that Farage was talking about the party, she said the Tories were the party of working people. Labour<\/a> were only interested in welfare, she claimed.<\/p>\n She also claimed that the revelation yesterday that Nigel Farage had received a \u00a35m gift showed that he was not down to earth.<\/p>\n double quotation markNigel Farage can say as much as he wants that he\u2019s the one who\u2019s down to earth. Someone just gave him a \u00a35m gift to the other day. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s down to earth about that.<\/p>\n Who gets \u00a35m is a gift. If I got \u00a350,000 as a gift, I think people would raise their eyebrows. That\u2019s a hundred times that. And he forgot to register it. He forgot that he\u2019d been given \u00a35m. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s down to earth. So I\u2019m not going to be taking any lessons from Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.16 EDT<\/p>\n On BBC Radio Sussex, the presenter, Sarah Gorrell, put it to Kemi Badenoch that councils were struggling because of the funding record left by the last Conservative government. Badenoch refused to engage with this point, and instead argued that Conservative-run councils were better managed than councils run by other parties.<\/p>\n Gorrell reminded Badenoch that she was a student at the University of Sussex, and said the leftwing students she encountered there helped to make her a rightwinger. She said Badenoch had described students there as \u201cspoilt, entitled, privileged, metropolitan elite in training\u201d. Would that apply to the ones there now, Gorrell asked.<\/p>\n Badenoch said she did not know the students there now. But she said the \u201csilly things\u201d she had encountered in student politics she was now seeing in the Labour<\/a> government.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.58 EDT<\/p>\n Badenoch told BBC Radio London that the Conservatives were committed to keeping council tax \u201cas low as possible\u201d. She said, unlike Reform UK<\/a>, the Tories were not promising to cut council tax. Reform did that, but could not deliver, she said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n In an interview on BBC Radio London, asked what would be a good result for the Conservatives in London, Kemi Badenoch said she wanted to win as many seats as possible. And she said she would like to win back councils the party had lost, citing Westminster as an example. But she refused to set a target for how many seats she expected to win.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch is doing a round of interviews on local radio this morning. She started on BBC Radio Leeds where, at one point, she said that people should vote for Conservative councillors because they were \u201cnot drama queens\u201d and \u201cnot playing games\u201d. At that point the presenter, Gayle Lofthouse, put it to her that that was exactly what she had been doing in Westminster this week, with the vote on the privileges committee inquiry. Lofthouse also said that BBC reporters were being told the voters in West Yorkshire weren\u2019t interested in this.<\/p>\n In response, Badenoch said she had spent much of the past month focusing on energy policy and petrol prices. But she quickly reverted to defending the vote on Tuesday. She said:<\/p>\n double quotation markIt\u2019s not a TV show, this is real life. Having a prime minister who appointed someone who is a national security risk affects your residents, your listeners.<\/p>\n It is a problem if we cannot defend our country because someone who had links to Russian companies that were closely linked to the Kremlin was appointed American ambassador.<\/p>\n Although Badenoch has repeatedly claimed that Peter Mandelson was a national security risk when he was ambassador, not a shred of evidence has emerged to show that he did anything while he was in that job to jeopardise national security. He was sacked because Keir Starmer<\/a> concluded he had lied to No 10 about the depth of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and because the extent of that relationship made it impossible to defend Mandelson having an ongoing role in public life.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Robert Hayward\u2019s forecasts for the English local elections (see 9.06am<\/a>) are broadly in line with the equivalent figures produced by other experts.<\/p>\n Here are projections from Stephen Fisher, an Oxford politics professor who is part of the team led by John Curtice that produces general election exit polls for the BBC and others. He published this in a post<\/a> on his Elections Etc blog last month.<\/p>\n Seat projections Photograph: Elections Etc<\/p>\n And here are projections from Sam Freedman, the political commentator, in a post <\/a>on his Comment is Freed Substack blog.<\/p>\n Seat projections Photograph: Comment is FreedShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.05 EDT<\/p>\n More Send inclusive schools \u2018actively penalised in Ofsted grades\u2019, union says<\/p>\n Lower grades in parts of a watchdog\u2019s new report cards \u201cactively penalise\u201d schools more inclusive to pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), a headteachers\u2019 union has said. The Press Association reports:<\/p>\n double quotation markAnalysis by the NAHT headteachers\u2019 union of Ofsted inspections under the report card system found one in five (20%) schools with above average numbers of pupils with Send were judged \u201cneeds attention\u201d \u2013 the second lowest grade \u2013 in the report card\u2019s attendance and behaviour area.<\/p>\n This is compared with one in 10 (9%) schools with below average numbers of pupils with Send, the NAHT said.<\/p>\n It comes after the Government unveiled sweeping reforms to the Send system intended to make the system and schools more inclusive.<\/p>\n NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said the findings should \u201cring serious alarm bells\u201d for the government\u2019s ambitions for more pupils with Send to learn in mainstream schools.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s data experts have also been looking at Labour\u2019s prospects in the elections, and they say Labour\u2019s vote-share could fall to historic lows across elections for councils in England and devolved parliaments in Wales and Scotland<\/a> on 7 May, with big gains for Reform, the Greens and nationalist parties, according to recent polling. This is from Alex Clark and Ashley Kirk.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Robert Hayward has also given his predictions for the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections. He says:<\/p>\n double quotation markScotland- SNP to be just short of a majority<\/p>\n Wales- Plaid to be the largest party in terms of both votes and seats<\/p>\n But there is much more interest in what Hayward, and other psephologists, are forecasting for the English local elections because they are hard to poll. By contrast, there is a lot polling available for the Holyrood and Senedd elections. One source of seat projections based on this polling is Nowcast UK.<\/a><\/p>\n Share<\/a>Local election campaigning enters final week as forecaster warns Labour could lose 1,850 English seats<\/p>\n Good morning. We are now into the final week of campaigning for the Scottish parliament, Welsh Senedd and English local elections. Keir Starmer had been planning a big speech today, but he, and other political leaders, are today focusing on their response to the Golders Green stabbing and the antisemitism threat facing Britain\u2019s Jewish community \u2013 described as a \u201cnational security emergency\u201d by Jonathan Hall KC, the government\u2019s independent reviewer of terror legislation. Here is our overnight story<\/a>. And here is our live blog by Taz Ali.<\/p>\n Taz will be covering most of the political reaction to that story, and so that won\u2019t be something I will be covering here. (And because criminal proceedings are active, comments relating to the attack won\u2019t be allowed below the line, I\u2019m afraid.)<\/p>\n Instead, let\u2019s start with the elections, and a member of the House of Lords called Robert Hayward. Hayward is a Conservative and former MP but at Westminster he is best known as an elections specialist who produces detailed forecasts ahead of elections. They are not always perfect \u2013 no forecast is \u2013 but they are well-informed, and politically neutral, and Hayward is one of the very few people doing forecasting of this kind whose views are taken seriously by the main political parties. He won\u2019t necessarily tell you exactly what will happen; but he is worth reading if you want to know what the politicos expect to happen (which is useful intelligence because often election results are assessed by how they match up against expectations).<\/p>\n Last night Hayward revealed his forecast for the English local elections on ITV\u2019s Peston.<\/p>\n Robert Hayward\u2019s forecast for English local elections Photograph: ITV\u2019s Peston<\/p>\n And this is how Hayward explains it in his summary.<\/p>\n double quotation markEngland all figures given are net losses and gains<\/p>\n Labour will lose 1850 seats<\/p>\n The losses will be nationwide<\/p>\n What impact on Sir Keir\u2019s role? Given S Times comment re 1500 losses and \u2018nervous breakdown\u2019 this is bad news for Sir Keir and Labour.<\/p>\n Reform will be biggest gainer from both Labour and Conservatives, overwhelmingly outside London. They will gain 1550 seats<\/p>\n Will their national equivalent vote be lower than last year? I believe it will be<\/p>\n Conservatives will lose 600 seats many in councils deferred from last year. These seats were previously contested in the vaccine bounce year of 2021.<\/p>\n Do they gain any notable councils or stop Reform from taking control of target councils? Yes<\/p>\n Have they improved on the national equivalent vote last year? About static<\/p>\n Greens will gain 500 seats in London and middle class areas of other cities<\/p>\n Can they take any mayoralties or control any councils? Yes definitely mayoralty possibly a council or two<\/p>\n Lib Dems will gain 150 seats but will need to gain councils to be involved \u2018in the conversation\u2019.<\/p>\n Will national equivalent vote share reflect decline in poll position. Yes<\/p>\n Have they lost their position as part of the protest parties? Up to a point.<\/p>\n Independents will gain 250 seats<\/p>\n Many of these will be in east London, Birmingham and Lancs<\/p>\n Other forecasts are available too. I will post more on those soon.<\/p>\n Parliament is not sitting today, and there is not much in the diary. But we won\u2019t be short of politics.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), 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