General election latest: Farage lashes out at BBC with new policy in speech and denies Reform has Russia links
Party leaders have just four days to go to secure votes before looming 4 July deadline
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Nigel Farage said Reform UK would campaign as the “leading voice of opposition” to abolish the BBC licence fee, claiming the broadcaster has “abused its position of power” at the party’s rally in Birmingham.
It comes after the Reform UK leader was questioned about the state of his party, and the views expressed by some of its candidates and campaigners, by a live audience during an appearance on BBC Question Time on Friday night.
“They stand for nothing. I was told they were a broad church. Well they’re a broad church without any religion,” he added.
“It simply doesn’t work. So we will again renew our campaign with added vigour to say that the state broadcaster has abused its position of power and we will campaign for the abolition of the BBC licence fee.”
It comes as Rishi Sunak has said the UK is a better place to live in now than it was when the Tories took office in 2010.
In a fiery interview with BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister acknowledged the last years have been “difficult” as he cited the pandemic and the war in Ukraine driving up energy bills, but insisted “we are now on the right track”.
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Litvinenko’s widow ‘disgusted’ by Farage and Reform UK candidate’s praise for Putin
Russian dissidents living in the UK have hit back at “deeply offensive” words of admiration for Vladimir Putin by Nigel Farage and another Reform UK candidate.
It comes as a former British defence attache posted in Moscow described Mr Farage and his party, now third in the polls, as “deeply maligned actors … working against the security interest of our country”.
When asked about both accusations, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter, before suggesting Julian Malins, a party candidate who last weekend bragged about meeting Putin and that he “seemed very good”, was merely a highly-intelligent “eccentric sort of character”.
Litvinenko’s widow ‘disgusted’ by Farage and Reform UK candidate’s praise for Putin
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Tories say only a vote for them can stop Labour majority
The Tories said that if 130,000 voters joined the Reform UK candidate who switched to back the Conservatives, “it would be enough to stop Labour’s supermajority”.
A party spokesman said: “(Liam) Booth-Isherwood knows a vote for Reform is a vote for Keir Starmer.
“If just 130,000 voters like him currently considering a vote for Reform or Liberal Democrat voted Conservative, it would be enough to stop Labour’s supermajority which means higher taxes and an illegal immigration amnesty.
“There is no doubt, only a vote for the Conservatives can prevent an unaccountable majority for Labour, and the ruin this would bring for the country.”
Families bemused as Jacob Rees-Mogg walks in on children’s church ceremony
Candidates can turn up just about anywhere on the campaign trail, but several families were shocked when Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg walked into their children’s first holy communion.
Sir Jacob had permission to appear with his family and a film crew for a mass at St Joseph and St Teresa Church in Somerset earlier this month, but while a sign had been put up, the families of some dozen children said they did not know he would be in attendance.
Parents, including Gideon Davey, whose 10-year-old daughter Ottilie received her first holy communion, initially believed the film crew was there on behalf of the church.
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Reform candidate defects to Tories
A Reform UK candidate has defected to the Conservatives, citing a “failure of leadership” over behaviour within the party which has led him to become “increasingly disillusioned”.
Liam Booth-Isherwood, who is standing in Erewash, said he would instead be endorsing the Tory contender Maggie Throup.
He said in a statement: “I am today announcing my decision to leave the Reform Party and have suspended my campaign as the Reform candidate for Erewash with immediate effect.
“Over the past few weeks, I have been increasingly disillusioned with the behaviour and conduct of Reform.
“Whilst I have campaigned alongside many decent, honest and hardworking people during the course of the General Election campaign in Erewash, the reports of widespread racism and sexism in Reform have made clear that there is a significant moral issue within certain elements of the party, and the failure of the party’s leadership to not only take this matter seriously, but also to fundamentally address it, has made clear to me that this is no longer a party I want to be associated with.”
“As a result, I am announcing my endorsement of the Conservative Party candidate, Maggie Throup, for Erewash. Only she can stop Labour.”
John Redwood accuses Rishi Sunak of helping to deliver large Labour majority as Tory blame game escalates
A former Tory cabinet minister has accused Rishi Sunak of helping to ensure a large Labour as the Tory blame game escalates before even a single vote has been cast.
John Redwood hit out at what he called the ‘One Nation leadership’ of his party.
He said that together with Nigel Farage’s Reform, if they polls are correct, they will “visit on us” a Labour government “that may have a lower vote share than Labour led by Jeremy Corbyn... but have a large majority of MPs giving it a lot of potential power.”
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Reform leader calls postal voting system ‘potentially corrupt'
Nigel Farage reiterated his criticism of the electoral system and described postal voting as “potentially corrupt”.
He said: “I know that under the electoral system things are tough - we’re likely to get fewer seats for the number of votes should deserve - but get seats next Thursday we will, believe it, it is going to happen.
“We’ll likely to see a Labour Party with, you know, not a particularly high share of the vote but a massive number of seats.
“Part of what we’re about is reforming the potentially corrupt postal voting system, reforming the voting system, getting rid of the unelected House of Lords in their current form.”
Farage comments on three candidates Reform has withdrawn support from
Speaking to the media after addressing the Rally for Reform in Birmingham, Nigel Farage said the status of three candidates his party has “disowned” was an electoral “oddity”.
Mr Farage said: “The Greens are facing the same problem but what can you do because they are on the official ballot paper anyway?
“There is almost no time to get messages out. It’s an oddity of our system. It’s where we are.”
Because ballot papers are printed in advance of polling day, candidate names may still appear beside party logos even after they have been suspended and are standing instead as independents.
Farage attacks UK education system
Nigel Farage claimed schools and universities are making a “wilful attempt to poison the minds of young people”.
He said the education system was leading young Britons to believe “somehow we are uniquely bad in terms of our history, when in fact completely the opposite is true.
“Critical race theory, which tells an eight-year-old white boy that he’s an oppressor, an eight-year-old black boy that he’s a victim - this is a disaster.”
After appearing Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips earlier in the day, Mr Farage told his rally his views on education left Sir Trevor “dumbstruck for about 10 seconds”.
He told the crowd: “Because everyone’s bought into the diversity and inclusion agenda, they all seem to have bought into the idea that we should be divided up according to our race, according to our sexual preference, of which there are so many I can’t even keep up, or understand what many of the definitions are.”
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