Politics live: Reform announces plan to rip up Equality Act as Farage unveils top team
Zia Yusuf given home affairs brief as leader unveils top team, claiming to be ‘voice of opposition’ to Labour
Reform UK would repeal the Equality Act on day one if it won the next election, Suella Braverman has announced.
The party’s new education, skills and equalities spokeswoman said Britain was being “ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion” policies – and the party would scrap the equalities minister, part of her own brief.
As Nigel Farage announced members of his front-bench team, he put Robert Jenrick in charge of Reform's plan for the economy, dubbing him the party's “shadow chancellor of the Exchequer”.
Mr Farage has unveiled four spokespeople in all who would form part of a cabinet if Reform won the next general election, saying his party was “the voice of opposition” to Labour.
He also announced Zia Yusuf will be Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman, while its new business, trade and energy spokesman Richard Tice said the party would create a new “super-department” in government.
Local government leaders are still reeling after Labour abandoned plans to postpone elections across 30 councils this May, in the wake of advice from lawyers following a legal challenge from Reform UK.
Farage promotes Jenrick and Braverman as he unveils new Reform front bench
Which parties run the councils where elections are no longer postponed?
Every Labour U-turn – from tractor tax to digital IDs – as Starmer rows back on postponing local elections
Tories could be hit harder by local election U-turn than Labour, top pollster says
WATCH: Farage responds to Reform candidate’s suggestion people who don’t have children should pay more tax
Nigel Farage has suggested people should be offered tax breaks for having more children, after he was asked about comments Reform UK’s by-election candidate made about Britain’s “fertility crisis”.
Last week,The Independent revealed that Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Matt Goodwin previously suggested people who don’t have children should be taxed extra as punishment.
When asked by The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke about whether he would back such a plan, Mr Farage said: “I wouldn’t want to tax anybody more, but you might give people tax breaks for having quite a few children given the cost of living is as high as it is.”
He added: “If part of our strategy going forward is to find some way that we can help young working people have kids in an affordable manner, that would be a very decent and good thing to do.”
The 30 local councils where elections will now go ahead in May
The government has abandoned plans to postpone local elections for dozens of councils in May after receiving legal advice against the move.
Of the 63 councils able to apply for a delay, a total of 30 were due to go ahead with the postponement.
The councils that were due to have their elections delayed were:
- Adur District Council
- Basildon Borough Council
- Blackburn with Darwen Council
- Burnley Borough Council
- Cannock Chase District Council
- Cheltenham Borough Council
- Chorley Borough Council
- City of Lincoln Council
- Crawley Borough Council
- East Sussex County Council
- Exeter City Council
- Harlow District Council
- Hastings Borough Council
- Hyndburn Borough Council
- Ipswich Borough Council
- Norfolk County Council
- Norwich City Council
- Pendle Borough Council
- Peterborough City Council
- Preston City Council
- Redditch Borough Council
- Rugby Borough Council
- Stevenage Borough Council
- Suffolk County Council
- Tamworth Borough Council
- Thurrock Council
- Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
- West Lancashire Borough Council
- West Sussex County Council
- Worthing Borough Council
'Conservatives, current or former, are totally unfit to govern', Lib Dems say
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper described Reform’s front bench as a “Reform-Tory ‘Fifty Shades of Blue’ love-in”.
She said: “Robert Jenrick voted for Liz Truss’s economic disaster of a mini-budget, now he wants to do the same damage to the economy all over again.
“Nigel Farage is welcome to give his colleagues new name badges but it won’t change the opinion of the country, that Conservatives, current or former, are totally unfit to govern.”
Farage 'shadow chancellor' claim incorrect
Even though Nigel Farage has termed Robert Jenrick the “shadow chancellor”, in fact only the official opposition in Parliament has a shadow cabinet.
The leader of the Opposition – the second-largest party – appoints a shadow team, considered a government in waiting.
They sit on the frontbench opposite government ministers in parliament.
Other parties may use the term “shadow” but only in a loose, not official, sense. Their top teams instead have spokespeople for each department.
Elections U-turn may hit Tories harder than Labour, pollster says
Tories could be hit harder by local election U-turn than Labour, top pollster says
Yusuf says more migrants crossed Channel than on D-Day in war
Reform UK home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said that "more people have turned up on our beaches uninvited in the last seven years than stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day".
Border Force data show that since 16 February 2019 - seven years ago - 193,786 migrants have crossed the Channel on small boats.
The Allies landed more than 156,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy on D-Day, June 6 1944. By the end of Operation Neptune on June 30, more than 850,000 men had landed on Normandy beaches.
Starmer hits out at Reform over past vaccine claims as measles cases surge
In pictures: Farage announces Reform's top team
Farage responds to Reform candidate’s suggestion people who don’t have children should pay more tax
Politcal reporter Athena Stavrou reports:
Nigel Farage has suggested people should be offered tax breaks for having more children, after he was asked about comments Reform UK’s by-election candidate made about Britain’s “fertility crisis”.
Last week,The Independent revealed that Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Matt Goodwin previously suggested people who don’t have children should be taxed extra as punishment.
When asked by The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke about whether he would back such a plan, Mr Farage said: “I wouldn’t want to tax anybody more, but you might give people tax breaks for having quite a few children given the cost of living is as high as it is.”
He added: “If part of our strategy going forward is to find some way that we can help young working people have kids in an affordable manner, that would be a very decent and good thing to do.”
'Nothing socialist' about government having stake in British industries, Farage says
There is “nothing socialist” about saying the government should take a stake in British industries, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said.
Asked by reporters about the party’s policy for state involvement in industries, Mr Farage said: “I don’t think state involvement in strategic industries is socialism.
“There’s nothing socialist about saying that the British government should maybe take a stake in some of these strategic industries. That’s not nationalisation, far, far from it.”
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, added: “There’s nothing socialist about saying that our economy should be concerned about salvaging strategic industries like steel or carmaking.
“We’re losing those strategic industries now.”
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