Nigel Farage responds to racism claims saying he never ‘tried to hurt anybody’

Nigel Farage has broken his silence nearly a week after he was accused by about 20 people of racism and antisemitism as a teenager, by saying he “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody”.His remarks came after the publication of a detailed investigation by the Guardian in which many of his school contemporaries claimed to be victims of, or witnesses to, repeated incidents of deeply offensive behaviour.The Reform party leader’s aides emphatically denied the allegations, saying that any “suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.In a broadcast interview on Monday, Farage appeared to give a more nuanced response when he was asked if he had racially abused fellow pupils at school.He replied: “No, this is 49 years ago by the way, 49 years ago

BBC finds its happy place inflicting latest round of self-harm | John Crace

This was the BBC in its happiest of happy places. Sure the Beeb likes to do the news, but there is nothing it likes more than reporting on itself. The holy grail of its output. There are whole departments within the Beeb dedicated to making TV and radio programmes about other BBC TV and radio programmes.There can be no other organisation that subjects itself to quite so much self-analysis

UK politics: Risk of Maccabi Tel Aviv facing antisemitic attacks not ‘predominant’ reason for match ban, police tell MPs – as it happened

MPs have been told that the risk of antisemitic hate crime was not the “predominant” reason why West Midlands police wanted to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Europa League match at Aston Villa.Mike O’Hara, WMP’s assistant chief constable, said in a letter to the Commons home affairs committee that the threat of violence by Maccabi fans was a more important consideration.The letter, which has been published this afternoon by the committee, confirms reporting by the Guardian last month which said that the fans were banned “after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club”.Keir Starmer and other political leaders reacted with outrage after the ban was first announced in October. Starmer suggested the police were accepting they would not be able to protect the Maccabi supporters from antisemitic violence, and he said: “The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation

Political corrrectness that made me laugh | Brief letters

Among the endless gems in your paper, the Corrections and Clarifications column is an unheralded jewel. As well as a vehicle for setting the record straight, it is an endless source of wicked mirth. The first correction on 20November was: “An article referred to the current government as looking ‘on course to be the worst for living standards on record’. The analysis of official data on which this comment was based in fact related to the previous government.” I offer Labour the following advice: don’t give up! You have nearly four more years in office

Two peers suspended from House of Lords for breaking lobbying rules

Two long-serving peers are to be suspended from the House of Lords after a parliamentary watchdog ruled that they had broken lobbying rules.Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army, and David Evans, Lord Evans of Watford, were filmed breaking the rules in undercover footage recorded by the Guardian.Lord Dannatt is to be suspended for four months after he was found to have broken the rules, having offered to secure meetings with ministers for a potential commercial client who wanted to lobby the government.He was secretly filmed telling undercover reporters he could make introductions to ministers and that he would “make a point of getting to know” the best-placed politician.After he was exposed in the undercover footage, the Guardian uncovered three further cases in which he had provided parliamentary services in return for payment

Lords rules and culture make it easy for peers to abuse privileged position

The former head of the British army Richard Dannatt and David Evans, or Lord Evans of Watford, a so-called high-level facilitator, have been found to have broken the House of Lords rules and are facing hefty suspensions as a result.The punishments follow official inquiries into their conduct, after undercover investigations by the Guardian revealed how the two peers separately offered to make introductions to ministers for a potential commercial client. A parliamentary watchdog ruled that the conduct was lobbying for personal profit, behaviour that breaks the fundamental principle that peers should always act solely for the public good.Lord Dannatt bragged to the undercover reporters that he would “make a point of getting to know” the best-placed minister, and make the relevant introduction, while Evans said how it was “great being a Labour peer at the moment because we’ve got our mates who now have senior jobs”. Both thought they were speaking to property developers offering a potentially lucrative deal