All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Nigel Farage’s bank account with Coutts was closed earlier this year. Here is the bank’s dossier, obtained by Farage using a subject access request, that reveals why: Item 1: Personal data extracted from minutes from Wealth Reputational Risk Committee on 17th November 2022 Content • Seeking approval to continue the relationship with Nigel Farage (NF)
Everyone was very keen to attack Labour at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, particularly over Keir Starmer’s decision not to scrap the two-child benefit limit. Before the session, SNP staffers handed out ‘controls on family sizes’ mugs to journalists in the Commons press gallery, a reminder of Labour’s disastrous 2015 ‘controls on immigration’ mug. Then SNP
There was a good old ding dong at PMQs today. No, not between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, but rather between Mark Francois and an absent Tobias Ellwood. The two Tories both sit on the Defence Select Committee, with Ellwood serving as chair. But the Bournemouth MP has horrified his fellow MPs this week by
There are, of course, many people struggling with their mortgage repayments. There are first-time buyers who have been especially hard hit, but also the buy-to-let investors who fooled themselves into thinking that ultra-low interest rates would last indefinitely and have over-borrowed. Few will feel a lot of sympathy for the latter group, many of whom
It is strange and surreal, even by the standards of the looking-glass world of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). Foreign Minister Qin Gang has disappeared, not seen in public since 25 June and the information vacuum about his whereabouts has inevitably been filled with all manner of rumour about marital infidelity, a love child, and
The Tories now have their candidate to take on Sadiq Khan next May. Susan Hall, the right wing member of the Greater London Authority, has today defeated Moz Hossain by 57 per cent to 43 per cent in a ballot of Conservative members across the capital. Hall, who led the GLA Tories for six years,
The rate of inflation has fallen again. CPI rose 7.9 per cent on the year in June, down from 8.7 per cent on the year in May. This takes the headline rate back to its lowest level since March last year – although it remains the highest across major economies. A drop in motor fuel
Oh dear. It seems that Auntie has done it again. This time it’s the row over Nigel Farage’s bank account, with the Brexiteer revealing at the end of last month that his Coutts account had been closed with ‘no explanation.’ Farage suggested that this was for political reasons but a week later, the BBC offered
The Department for Education has delayed yet further its long-awaited transgender guidance for schools. Rishi Sunak had pledged that the document would be in our hands ‘for the summer term’, but that looks increasingly like another broken promise. I’m a teacher who also happens to be trans, so I have more than a passing interest. In schools
The plot thickens. Nigel Farage claims he has got to the bottom of why he was ditched by the elite bank Coutts earlier this year. In a video published to his YouTube account, the former UKIP leader claims he has gained access to a report documenting the bank’s decision to close his account. According to
Nigel Farage’s cancellation by Coutts and Co – a blackballing which seems to have extended nationwide – brought to mind two similar events with which I had to contend a few years ago. First, in the East, where I was fortunate to have a flexible bank manager who allowed me to step behind her PC and spy next to my name the words ‘politically exposed’ – affixed
You could almost sense climate campaigners willing those thermometers in Sardinia to nudge into the unknown – a reading above 48.8°C would have marked a new European record and unleashed yet more forewarnings of climatic Armageddon. But alas, they don’t appear to have got their way – at least not today. As of 6.30 p.m.
Keir Starmer is in the middle of his first proper row with his party. The Labour leader is not rowing back from his decision to tell Laura Kuenssberg that he wouldn’t reverse the two-child limit on child benefits. In fact, he’s leaning into it, even though he has achieved the incredible feat of uniting Rosie
It’s been more than two days since Keir Starmer told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that Labour would keep the two-child benefit cap, yet the party seems no closer to finding resolution on the issue. The pushback within the party has been intense, with plenty of people (including, reportedly, members of the shadow cabinet) asking how
Will Rishi Sunak reshuffle his top team in a matter of days if not hours? That’s the rumour going around Westminster this evening. As I first reported last month, there have been plans for some time for a summer reshuffle before MPs head home for the long recess. However, this was then complicated by the
Carla Foster is to be released from prison. Her 28-month sentence for illegally obtaining abortion pills and terminating a pregnancy sparked angry protests from feminists and pro-choice activists when it was handed down last month. Now, following weeks of legal dispute, the Court of Appeal has reduced her sentence to 14 months suspended. Having spent
It has now been almost two years since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. In recent weeks, a number of international assessments have been published looking at the state of the country under their leadership. One UN report looked at the potential for terrorism in a country where ‘terrorist groups enjoy greater freedom… than at
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Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and former Labour advisor John McTernan to discuss the ongoing Labour row over the child benefits limit. Reactions were muted during today’s shadow cabinet meeting, but is this a reflection of a looming reshuffle? Produced by Natasha Feroze.
It’s long been the case that trips abroad can allow for a new perspective – to broaden the mind. But Mr S can’t help but think, Tobias Ellwood’s summer jaunt to Afghanistan is taking this to an extreme. The Tory MP and chair of the Defence Select Committee has shared a video on Twitter urging people to
A fierce new critic of the SNP has burst onto the Scottish political scene. This acid-tongued detractor describes Humza Yousaf’s deputy Shona Robison as ‘a bit of a cold fish’, ‘like an automaton’ and ‘painful to listen to’, and says Angus Robertson’s promotion to the Scottish cabinet meant ‘the ego has landed’. Who is this
Is rewilding, where nature is allowed to take its course, all it’s cracked up to be? Alan Titchmarsh, the nation’s joint favourite gardener along with Monty Don, appears to think not. In an intervention in the House of Lords’ horticultural sector committee inquiry, Titchmarsh said that rewilded gardens are bad news for wildlife. ‘With their
30 min listen
Freddy is joined this week by Roger Kimball, editor of the New Criterion to talk about the diminishing power of Ron DeSantis. It wasn’t so long ago he looked like a serious challenger that could beat Donald Trump to the Republican nomination. Where did it all go wrong?
Whenever the right gets itself in a froth over ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, I keep my head down. You see, I am the holder of such a qualification: a degree in film and television studies. I rush to point out that my student days preceded the global financial crisis. There were so many jobs sloshing around
It’s not difficult to pick holes in Education Secretary Gillian Keegan’s plan, publicised over the weekend, to deal with so-called ‘rip off’ university courses. True, there is a serious problem. Too many students are being inveigled into signing up for degrees with low entry requirements, little intellectual stimulation, a high drop-out rate and not a great
In world sport, the Commonwealth games are a bit of a sideshow. In swimming and athletics, at least, they are seen as something of a mid-cycle training event for the Olympics. Australians, however, love the Commonwealth games. Not just because they are about friendly sporting rivalries and promote goodwill between the nearly 60 nations of
When the Lib Dem peer Brian Paddick complained on social media last month that the House of Lords was keeping punishing hours, it is fair to say the plight of peers was not greeted with universal sympathy. Lord Paddick, the Lib Dem spokesman on home affairs in the upper house, had the battle around the
As the Tories chalk up a rare win with the passing of the Illegal Migration Bill in the Lords, Keir Starmer is facing a revolt in his own party over his insistence that a Labour government would keep the two-child benefit limit. As James Heale reports, MPs from across the party gathered at Monday’s parliamentary
The Illegal Migration Bill is making its final crossing today to become an Act, after peers and MPs voted into the small hours on the final changes to the legislation. The House of Lords eventually dropped the amendments that they’d been holding out on, including the plan by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, for
Rishi Sunak is a big fan of a ‘crack down’. He has previously vowed to crack down on migration, anti-social behaviour and climate protests. ‘Rip off’ university courses that ‘don’t offer the prospect of a decent job at the end of it’ are the PM’s latest target. But Sunak’s tough talk and aggressive rhetoric smacks of over-compensating for any lack
OK, what did you make of the new series of University Challenge then, with Amol Rajan occupying the seat that Jeremy Paxman once graced? Actually, if it was the same chair, it was a bit big for Amol, and I’m sure there’s a metaphor there somewhere. But really, the whole thing was just fine. Amol
Clive Myrie, now probably the top face of the BBC, and host of their television coverage of the Proms, had a strange one on Twitter this weekend. A fan gushed at him that ‘[the Proms are] completely accessible – no formal dress code and you can buy a Prom ticket on the day for the
Sparks flew at tonight’s Parliamentary Labour party (PLP) meeting. Deputy leader Angela Rayner had been due to speak to MPs as part of an end of term pep talk. Instead, the ongoing row over Keir Starmer’s decision to maintain the two child benefit cap if Labour enters government dominated the entire session. Rayner herself has
