Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin says parliament mounting ‘vicious and desperate campaign to stop Reform UK’

A Reform UK MP has complained that the standards system investigating Nigel Farage over undeclared gifts is a “kangaroo court”.

Sarah Pochin, the Runcorn MP, said Farage had called a byelection in his Clacton seat so voters could decide whether they backed him or not, and argued that “the media, the British state and the old parties have mounted a vicious and desperate campaign to stop Reform UK”.

Labour leader will visit king to accept role on Monday and will start making cabinet appointments that afternoon

Andy Burnham will say Britain must be honest about the challenges it faces when he becomes its sixth prime minister in a decade on Monday, as he prepares to introduce measures to ease the cost of living and allow more North Sea fossil fuel drilling.

The Labour leader is expected to start making appointments in the afternoon after going to Buckingham Palace to accept the role of prime minister from the king.

Reform leader says support from fraudster before last election is ‘totally undeclarable in every single way’

Nigel Farage has admitted his close friend the fraudster George Cottrell let him use one of his London homes and paid for social media filming before the last election but insisted it was “totally undeclarable in every single way”.

The Reform UK leader spoke in depth for the first time about his support from Cottrell and the £5m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne in an interview with the anti-woke Triggernometry podcast.

Reform UK leader reveals he faces second inquiry over financial gifts but says he will fight byelection in Clacton

• UK politics live – latest updates

Nigel Farage has announced he is to resign as the MP for Clacton to fight a byelection, after revealing he is under a second investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog over undeclared gifts.

In a high-stakes move, the Reform UK leader said it was part of “sticking two fingers up at the establishment” and it would prove that the public wanted him to stay on as an MP.

Relocation of Action on World Health raises questions over why Reform UK leader is involved in a US pressure group

Nigel Farage’s campaign against the World Health Organization (WHO) is moving to the US with a new board of lobbyists, raising questions over why the Reform UK leader is involved in an American pressure group.

The Action on World Health campaign, co-founded by Farage, is relocating to the US state of Delaware as a charitable foundation and grassroots non-profit.

Labour mayor giving advisory roles to ex-Bank of England economist and others seen as attempt to reassure markets

• Makerfield byelection – latest updates

Three economic heavyweights have been brought in to advise Andy Burnham as he attempts to reassure the markets before his possible return to parliament on Friday and challenge to Keir Starmer.

Burnham is understood to be getting advice from Andy Haldane, a former Bank of England chief economist, as well as Richard Hughes, a former chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility and Jim O’Neill, a crossbench peer and former Treasury minister who worked on George Osborne’s “Northern Powerhouse”.

Farage’s party brings in £9m largely from crypto billionaires in three months, more than twice that of Labour and Tories

• UK politics live – latest updates

Reform UK is raising millions more than the other political parties from private donations, bringing in £9m largely from cryptocurrency billionaires in the first three months of the year.

Nigel Farage’s party took a £3m donation from the cryptocurrency and aviation investor, Christopher Harborne, who is a British-Thai dual citizen, and £4m from the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Ben Delo, who is relocating to the UK from Hong Kong.

Prime minister says ‘£5m question still remains’, as pressure grows on Reform UK leader over Christopher Harborne gift

Keir Starmer has pressed Nigel Farage to stop “dodging questions” about the £5m personal gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The gift, first revealed by the Guardian, was given to Farage in the months before he stood as an MP in the 2024 general election. It is now under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner.

Reform UK leader records video with Essex pastor to support his battle against council banning order

Nigel Farage has been criticised for giving his full support to a Christian church leader who preached that homosexuality was an “abomination” and would lead to eternity in hell.

The Reform UK leader recorded a video with Stephen Clayden after Colchester council applied for a banning order to limit his street preaching.

Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick, among others, have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro

Reform UK’s leading figures have repeatedly promoted a new pothole-fixing machine by the construction company JCB, while the party received £200,000 from the British digger maker, the Guardian can reveal.

Several Reform politicians including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro machine.

Brown calls for police to look into former prince’s use of public funds and says he had colleague raise issue in 2008

Gordon Brown has revealed he ordered that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor be questioned about incurring “unacceptable costs” as a trade envoy in 2008, as he called for the police to widen their inquiry to include the use of public funds.

The former prime minister said he asked a colleague from the business department to question Mountbatten-Windsor about his travel expenses.

Previous Labour voters in Yardley discuss issues including cost of living, public services and the Iran war

Almost two years into Keir Starmer’s government, the polls suggest that many swing voters, including some of those who voted Labour, are unimpressed with how the country is being run.

In the constituency of Birmingham Yardley, a focus group of eight previous Labour voters last week found support was now splintering in different directions, with one person considering going to Reform and several to the Greens. The group, convened by More in Common, had very little good to say about the government on the key issues.

Delo, pardoned by Trump after violating US banking law, describes himself as champion of free speech

A British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business has given £4m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Ben Delo, 42, who is now based in Hong Kong, wrote in the Telegraph that he had made the donation since the start of the year, before the government’s cap on donations to political parties by British citizens living abroad.

PM gets widespread backing after president’s mocking impersonation takes US-UK relationship to new low

Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Donald Trump may be beyond repair after the US president derided the prime minister for consulting his team about military decisions, in a mocking impersonation.

In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to imitate Starmer in a weak voice during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, and said the UK was “not our best” ally.

Footage shows US president saying UK ‘should be our best’ ally and accusing PM of prevarication over sending ships

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Footage has emerged of Donald Trump mocking Keir Starmer by claiming the prime minister said he would have to consult his team before deciding whether to send UK aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to impersonate Starmer during an Easter lunch speech at the White House.

Anna Turley questions revised £25,000 figure for failed attempt to reach Chagos Islands on jet linked to billionaire

Labour has queried Nigel Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to a billionaire donor cost as little as £25,000 as the Reform leader attempted to reach the Chagos Islands.

Farage initially recorded his two-day trip to the Maldives as costing £12,500 funded by Thailand-based Reform megadonor Christopher Harborne, before upgrading this to £25,000 in the latest register of interests.

Yvette Cooper hosts virtual summit of more than 40 countries to consider coordinated action in face of closure of vital shipping lane

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

More than 40 countries gathered to discuss “every possible diplomatic, economic and coordinated measure” to pressurise Iran into reopening the strait of Hormuz, the UK foreign secretary has said.

After chairing a virtual summit on Thursday, Yvette Cooper said coordinated action was needed as Iran’s “reckless strikes” on international shipping and efforts to “hijack the global economy” were hitting nations from across the globe “who played no part in this conflict”.

Legislation subject to MPs’ approval but will be backdated due to urgency of threat to UK democracy, says minister

Keir Starmer is set to embark on a fundamental overhaul of the political finance system, starting with an emergency ban on cryptocurrency donations and £100,000 cap on donations from Britons living abroad in a blow to Reform UK.

In a hugely significant move, the government said it would bring in the annual cap as well as a moratorium on crypto donations from Wednesday as part of its new elections legislation.

Requiring third-party campaigners to declare donations all year round, not just election periods, and allowing funding only from permissible donors.

More stringent checks on the source of funds from political donors, bringing it more into line with know-your-customer checks in the financial services industry.

Preventing donations from shell companies by ensuring funding is from post-tax profits rather than revenue.

Requiring foreign consultant lobbyists to join the official register, from which they are currently exempt because they do not charge VAT.

Banning foreign-funded political adverts.

PM’s most costly quarter for travel was in last quarter of 2025, with the most expensive trip to Cop30 in Brazil

Keir Starmer’s government is spending an increasing amount on foreign trips, with almost 40 visits abroad adding up to more than £4m since he took office, the latest transparency figures have showed.

The prime minister had his most costly quarter for foreign travel in the last three months of 2025, with eight trips adding up to £1.2m.

Keir Starmer says the UK has not been involved in the US-Israeli strikes, but warned that 200,000 British people are in countries being targeted by Iran

The UK has agreed to let the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, Keir Starmer has said.

The UK has so far not been involved in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, but in a recorded statement on Sunday evening, the prime minister said that Iran’s approach was becoming more reckless and putting British lives at risk, leading to the decision to allow the US to use two of its military bases.