Farage calls Reform conference protest backlash ‘utter nonsense’ amid police appeal – UK politics live

Nigel Farage has hit back at criticism over the treatment of protesters at the Reform UK conference, calling it “utter nonsense” and accusing his critics of taking a “one-sided” view.

West Midlands police has asked a female protester to come forward after footage appeared to show her being manhandled and having her hair pulled by a Reform audience member as she was removed from the conference yesterday (see post at 12:08).

“Yet, well, we have a big event that people have paid a lot of money to come to and we get people there trying to disrupt it and we remove them. Suddenly we’re in the wrong. Utter nonsense.”

He added: “This is just also one sided. It is ridiculous. There were people there trying to disrupt our conference. We always have them. We always have them and we remove them quickly and expeditiously.”

Nigel Farage has told the Reform conference he wants to lead the party to victory at the next election, warning it could be the country’s “last chance” to avoid “terminal decline”.

He said:

I want us to win the next election, because I believe I can lead us into the kind of fundamental change of direction that this country needs.

If we don’t take it, well, it might be our last chance to turn the country around before we head for terrible and, frankly, terminal decline.”

“Much of mainstream media today says the Reform UK conference was subdued,” he told audience members in his closing remarks. “Are you subdued?”

He continued:

I tell you what we learned yesterday and today. There will be times in this journey when there are good days, and times when there are difficult days.

More often than not, things will be put upon us that are unfair. But sometimes we will make mistakes, sometimes we will get things wrong and get a bit of a kicking for it.

But what this conference has shown is whatever you throw at the leadership, whatever you throw at the people’s army, we immediately pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and start all over again.”

Braverman said within the first 100 days of becoming secretary of state for education under a Reform government, she will “scrap the cap on homegrown British doctors”.

Like Jenrick, she said if she fails to deliver this promise, she will “take responsibility, and I will resign”.

She told the Reform conference: “I will scrap all interest payments on student loans for British nurses, so that those young Brits who want to work in our NHS, will be able to do it.”

Back to the Reform conference stage now, where the party’s education spokesperson Suella Braverman is speaking.

The former Conservative home secretary said the last government “broke Britain”.

“They had a home secretary like me telling them repeatedly, year after year after year, to leave the European convention on human rights, to stop the boats, to cut visas, to ban the hate marches. They still refused to listen,” she said.

Raise the Colours leader given access to Reform UK conference while on bail

Ben Quinn

The leader of a flag campaign group who was arrested on suspicion of causing religiously and racially aggravated harassment was given access to Reform UK’s annual conference.

Ryan Bridge, whose Raise the Colours group has put up hundreds of union and St George flags across England, told the Guardian he was invited to the conference.

Raise the Colours has argued the campaign displays flags as a sign of patriotism, but it has been accused of using them to spread anti-immigrant sentiment.

Bridge’s attendance at the event comes as Reform UK has been attempting to attract more wavering centre-ground voters who have been reluctant to support the party. But a threat from its hard-right rival Restore Britain has given the party reason to pull rightwards.

Nigel Farage has hit back at criticism over the treatment of protesters at the Reform UK conference, calling it “utter nonsense” and accusing his critics of taking a “one-sided” view.

West Midlands police has asked a female protester to come forward after footage appeared to show her being manhandled and having her hair pulled by a Reform audience member as she was removed from the conference yesterday (see post at 12:08).

“Yet, well, we have a big event that people have paid a lot of money to come to and we get people there trying to disrupt it and we remove them. Suddenly we’re in the wrong. Utter nonsense.”

He added: “This is just also one sided. It is ridiculous. There were people there trying to disrupt our conference. We always have them. We always have them and we remove them quickly and expeditiously.”

To be up to speed with the issues plaguing Reform UK, my colleague Jamie Grierson has put together a useful explainer on the controversies surrounding Nigel Farage and the party.

It looks at the latest allegations over foreign donations, as well as the £5m gift Farage received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, donations linked to convicted fraudster George Cottrell and other questions surrounding Reform’s finances:

Farage says he expects more investigations against Reform

Before we hear from Nigel Farage on stage later this afternoon, he has been answering questions from the media on his party finances.

He again insisted Reform has not broken any laws after a report by Channel 4 News showed senior party figures discussing how to disguise donations from foreign sources.

Farage told ITV he expected to face more investigations and blamed “the establishment” for the scrutiny surrounding his party.

“You come back and see me in six months, there’ll be five more investigations. It won’t end,” he said.

“They are not going to give us a free ride. They will do anything they can. I expect many more investigations over the course of the next few months, I have no doubt about it.”

Speaking to GB News, he acknowledged that there would be “some people in the middle out there who aren’t quite sure (about Reform), that would be worried by some of these allegations”.

Farage offers legal support to flag activist facing council injunctions

Ben Quinn

Nigel Farage has told the co-founder of anti-migrant Raise the Colours movement, Ryan Bridge, that Reform UK would provide legal support as he fights injunctions being pursued by councils over his activities.

“What your campaign has done is wake up vast parts of this country,” Farage told Bridge from a stage inside the Reform conference, after the activist was among three people selected to ask questions during a discussion hosted by Jeremy Kyle.

Bridge was among 10 activists banned from France this year after travelling there to take part in actions intended to stop migrant boats taking to the sea.

He is also named, alongside six others, in an application by Birmingham city council for a high court injunction aimed at stopping Raise the Colours activists from putting up flags in the city. The first hearing is due to take place on Tuesday.

Footage showed the group, appearing largely to be men, dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, gathered at the Kent port.

A group was later seen marching through the town and chanting “whose streets? our streets!” and “stop the boats” as dozens of police officers followed.

Speaking to reporters at the Reform national conference, the party’s Treasury spokesperson said:

I’m sick of people disrupting life in this country.

I hope the police take all the actions as necessary to get the port open as quickly as possible.

It’s completely disgraceful that businesses and individuals are having their lives held up by those people.

Reform continues to cast doubt on climate science. Do its supporters agree?

Fiona Harvey

On the second day of the Reform UK conference, in the wake of an undercover investigation alleging party officials plotted to evade the law on foreign donations, the deputy leader, Richard Tice, addressed the audience. Within minutes, a banner appeared behind him reading: “Collect £5m, burn the planet.”

It was taken down promptly and Tice, who has repeatedly called on people to enjoy the summer’s five successive heatwaves and record drought, rolled on. As Reform members at the Birmingham venue applauded Tice, there was plenty of agreement with his views. “I enjoyed the heat this summer,” said Jeanette Bowden, of Bexley. “I don’t think people need telling to take care of themselves.” Her partner, James, added, without scientific backing: “Carbon dioxide was much higher in the past, it was 10 times higher than this during the ice ages. It’s not a human problem.”

Amid stalls offering simulated helicopter rides, gold as an investment, tattoos and discounts on rum, climate scepticism was common. “It’s overhyped,” said Yvonne, who did not wish to give a surname.

“I don’t believe the predictions,” said Jim Langford. “They told us Norwich would be underwater by now and it’s not Atlantis yet.” Ed Rennie, a former Labour councillor from north London, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had reduced some of its higher predictions.

But many of the same people who, like Tice, cast doubt on climate science, also criticised the government for failing to protect people against the hot weather. Bowden pointed to new-build houses. “They have really small windows,” she said. “That might be good in winter, but in summer it must be too hot, you can hardly open them. The government should not force this on people.”

Yvonne added: “The government were all on their holidays in the summer, not doing their jobs [to help people during the heatwaves]. Government should ensure there is clean water and sewage, but they’re not even doing that.”

The confusion among Reform supporters, explained Michael Jacobs, an emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield, was to be expected given the party leadership’s peddling of “myths and lies” over the climate. Voters often say they want contradictory things, such as high standards of social care without tax rises to pay for them, Jacobs pointed out. But on the climate, they face an even more intense bombardment from contradictory viewpoints, as parties of the right try to turn the issue into a culture war.

Manchester model could unlock £80bn growth across England, report says

Pippa Crerar

In other news, a timely report that suggests Manchester’s economic success – one of Andy Burnham’s biggest legacies as mayor – could be replicated across England to unlock untapped growth potential of up to £80bn is released this weekend.

Mandala Partners, a global economic research consultancy that was led by Nick Williams – a former Downing Street economic adviser who is now working for the first secretary, Louise Haigh – found that housing, transport and health devolution would be crucial to achieving the prime minister’s aim of “growth in every postcode”.

Of these, the impact of following Manchester’s housing investment model is most striking. The report found that an £8.5bn programme of revolving public risk capital across mayoral strategic authorities could unlock almost 100,000 additional homes, crowd in more than £20bn of private investment and support more than 70,000 jobs.

While not commissioned by No 10, Mandala’s study nevertheless bolsters Burnham’s central argument that learning from the success of Manchester’s devolution model could deliver far-reaching economic benefits and release the country from its low-growth chokehold. Given the caution that exists in parts of the Treasury towards the prime minister’s more radical plans, Downing Street aides may read with interest.

Jenrick confirmed his promise to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 (see post at 11:09)

He said: “Here is my pledge to you and to the country. In the first 100 days of a Reform government, in our first Reform budget, we will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570, not just with inflation, not just to £13,000, not just to £14,000, but to £15,000.

“The first 15 grand you earn is yours.”

He added that if he failed to deliver his promise, he will resign. “No ifs, not buts, I will be gone,” he said.

Dexys frontman ‘disgusted’ by Farage using Come on Eileen as entrance music

Dexys Midnight Runners frontman Kevin Rowland has hit out at Nigel Farage for using the band’s hit Come on Eileen as his entrance music at the Reform UK conference yesterday.

Rowland, the song’s main songwriter, said on social media he was “disgusted” by Farage’s use of the track, adding that he and the band are “passionately against Farage’s politics”.

He said:

I, Kevin Rowland (the son of Irish immigrants) and the main songwriter of ‘Come On Eileen,’ am disgusted to learn that Nigel Farage has used our Dexys Midnight Runners’ song to make his entrance for his party conference speech. Myself, and all of Dexys are passionately against Farage’s politics.”

Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, is now delivering his keynote speech at the party conference, where he has labelled the chancellor, John Healey, “the biggest fraud”.

"He [Healey] now runs the treasury, he is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. And what has chancellor Healey offered our armed forces? Nothing. The very same deal he resigned over,” said Jenrick.

He blamed “men like him”, including defence secretary Wes Streeting and prime minister Andy Burnham, for Argentinian president Javier Milei’s threats to reclaim the Falkland Islands.

“Let me tell you this, Mr Milei down in Argentina would not for one minute think about taking our British sovereign territory in the Falkland Islands if Nigel Farage was our prime minister,” said Jenrick.

Reform UK’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, who defected from the Conservatives last year, said she left the party because “loyalty to a party can never, ever come before loyalty to the public. And that’s why I joined Reform”.

She repeated she is standing to be London mayor because the city “is broken in many of the same ways that Britain is”, and that “the people who broke it can never be the people that we ask to fix it”.

There’s a long list of former Tory MPs who have defected to Reform, including Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, both whom served in the previous Conservative government.