Government’s process behind tackling violence against women ‘worse than under the Tories’

Leading organisations have criticised the development of the government’s flagship violence against women and girls strategy, calling the process chaotic, haphazard and “worse than under the Tories”.Ministers are gearing up for a policy announcement blitz before the publication of the long-awaited plan next week.Important voices in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector have privately accused ministers of sidelining first-hand expertise and expressed concern that the strategy will not be sufficiently radical to achieve the government’s flagship manifesto promise to halve the rate of VAWG in the UK in a decade.Initially expected in spring, the VAWG strategy was delayed until summer and then autumn.On Friday it emerged that schoolboys would be the target of the strategy, which the BBC reported would be built around the pillars of preventing radicalisation of young men, stopping abusers and supporting victims

Reform UK claims it has overtaken Labour as Britain’s largest party

Reform UK says it is now the largest political party in Britain and has overtaken Labour, which has reportedly seen its membership fall below 250,000.Nigel Farage’s party says it has more than 268,000 members on the live tracker displayed on its website.Farage said: “As we have suspected for some time, Reform has overtaken Labour to become the largest political party in British politics – a huge milestone on our journey to win the next election. The age of two-party politics is dead.”Meanwhile, the Times reported that, according to internal figures, the Labour party’s paid-up membership had fallen below 250,000

UK politics: Trump talks ‘complete nonsense’ about crime in London, says Met police commissioner – as it happened

Wes Streeting was not the only person doing an LBC phone-in this morning. Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, was on too, and he used his interview to accuse President Trump of talking “complete nonsense” about London.Trump has regularly complained about the level of crime in London, apparently inspired by alarmist reports he has seen on TV or social media, and he criticised the city again in a recent interview with Politico. He said he hated to see what is happening there, and he blamed the mayor, Sadiq Khan.In an interview last month with GB News, he claimed that there were areas in the capital that were no-go areas for the police, and he claimed sharia law applied there too

Tory transport culture wars risked making roads less safe, says minister

Conservative policies that pitted drivers against cyclists risked making the roads less safe by inflaming tensions, a minister has said, promising that the era of transport culture wars is over.Lilian Greenwood, whose Department for Transport (DfT) role includes road safety and active travel, said seeking to divide road users into categories was pointless given most people used different transport methods at different times.Speaking to the Guardian after the announcement of more than £600m for new cycling and walking schemes across England, Greenwood condemned the way Conservative governments had moved from boosting cycling under Boris Johnson to clamping down on active travel measures when Rishi Sunak was prime minister.Sunak’s government explicitly sought to present its transport policy as prioritising drivers over the needs of cyclists and others, a shift in tone accompanied by an occasional embrace of conspiracy theories about supposed efforts to limit driving.Such an approach was “infuriating”, Greenwood said, and had potential repercussions for safety

Reform councillors accused of ‘rash promises’ as council tax rises loom

Reform UK council leaders have been accused of making “rash promises” after a local authority led by the party has been told it will have to increase council tax by the maximum amount, despite its election promises to cut costs.Warwickshire county council has been warned by its executives that anything less than a 5% maximum council tax increase will put its financial viability at risk.In a report published on Thursday, the council’s board said anything below a 4.99% council tax rise – the equivalent to a £1.75 a week increase on a band D property – is a “riskier financial strategy” that would threaten the medium-term sustainability of the local authority

Dulwich college head responds to claims of teenage racism by Nigel Farage

Dulwich college’s headteacher has responded to allegations of teenage racism by Nigel Farage by saying he recognised the “seriousness of the behaviours described in the media”.Robert Milne, who joined the school as its “master” this summer, said the alleged behaviour was “at odds” with the modern-day school in a letter in which he said he understood why 28 former pupils had felt compelled to speak out.Milne was responding to a letter from Jean-Pierre Lihou, a former friend of Farage’s at school, who claims he witnessed abusive chanting and the targeting of Peter Ettedgui, today a successful film director, with antisemitic abuse.Farage has denied “directly” abusing school contemporaries while adding that some of his “banter” may be interpreted differently today.The deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice, went further by describing those who made claims as liars, although he appeared to backtrack on Wednesday by telling LBC “some recollections may vary”