UK ministers aim to ban cryptocurrency political donations over anonymity risks

Ministers are working to ban political donations made with cryptocurrency but the crackdown is not likely to be ready for the elections bill in the new year, Whitehall sources have said.The government increasingly believes that donations made with cryptocurrency pose a risk to the integrity of the electoral system, not least because the source can be hard to verify.However, the complex nature of cryptocurrency means officials do not believe a ban will be workable by the time of the elections bill, due to be published shortly, which is set to lower the voting age to 16 and reduce loopholes in political finance.The government’s ambition to ban crypto donations will be a blow to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which became the first to accept contributions in digital currency this year. It is believed to have received its first registrable donations in cryptocurrency this autumn and the party has set up its own crypto portal to receive contributions, saying it is subject to “enhanced” checks

David Lammy tells of ‘traumatic’ racial abuse in youth after Farage allegations

David Lammy has spoken of his own “traumatic” experience of being racially abused at school as he called on Nigel Farage to apologise for comments he allegedly made while a teenager.Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said the testimony of more than 20 of the Reform leader’s school contemporaries of his racist and antisemitic behaviour was “deeply troubling”.Farage has faced repeated calls for a show of contrition after a Guardian investigation into his time at Dulwich college, in south-east London, but he is yet to apologise.He has denied that anything he did as a young man was “directly” racist or antisemitic while conceding that “banter” then could be interpreted differently today.Lammy, 53, whose parents, David and Rosalind, came to the UK from Guyana, contrasted Farage, 61, to those who abused him as a young man growing up in north London

Angela Rayner to lay amendment to speed up workers’ rights bill

The former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner will lay an amendment on Wednesday to speed up the workers rights’ bill, after “considerable anger” that unelected Lords forced the watering down of day-one rights.The amendment would mean the new shorter qualifying period is in place by early next year.A number of MPs have told the Guardian that while they accept the need for the change, they fear that the climbdown by the government will embolden peers and critics of the bill to push for further changes.Rayner, who was the driving force behind the legislation in government, is understood to have accepted the compromise to remove day-one rights against unfair dismissal and replace it with a reduced qualifying period, down from two years to six months.Trade unions have mostly accepted the compromise – arguing that the alternative of a nine-month probation period needed extra time for consultation amid worries it was unworkable

UK terror watchdog warns national security plan ignores escalating online threats

The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism laws has criticised the government’s latest national security strategy for failing to take online threats more seriously, despite Keir Starmer claiming it would result in “a hardening and sharpening of our approach” in the face of Russian menace.Jonathan Hall KC said it was “a very surprising omission” that the 2025 national security strategy did not focus more on online risks, including from terrorists and hostile states, which he said were now a “major vector of threat”.Hall said the need to protect the country against online threats – with digital channels being employed widely by terrorists and states – was now little different from the need for robust air, naval and land forces. The adviser, appointed by the home secretary, was speaking before a speech on Tuesday in which he is expected to say that not dwelling more on the implications of online threats to national security “is a gross error”.Hall, who has been the reviewer of terrorism legislation for six years, said that almost all terrorism in the UK starts online

Attorney general urges Nigel Farage to apologise over alleged racism and antisemitism

The UK’s top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish government ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim the Reform UK leader racially abused them while at school.The attorney general, Richard Hermer, said Farage had “clearly deeply hurt” many people judging by their descriptions of his behaviour, and that his “constantly changing” denials had been unconvincing.Speaking to the Guardian, Hermer said: “Throughout his defensive responses to legitimate questions put to him, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism.”A Guardian investigation last month reported the testimony of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage at Dulwich College, in south London.They included Peter Ettedgui, who said a 13-year-old Farage “would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”

Starmer has little choice but to bind himself closer to his chancellor

When Keir Starmer was mounting the case for the prosecution against Boris Johnson for his Partygate antics, it took almost two months and a police investigation for him to formally call for the prime minister to resign. He was of the view there was no point calling for things until they were likely to happen.This is not the philosophy of the current leader of the opposition. Since October, Kemi Badenoch has called on Starmer to sack his chancellor three times, once over a mishap with her rental licence, then for considering raising income tax, and finally because she did not in fact raise income tax.It is unclear whether Badenoch genuinely believes Reeves may be forced out because of how she spun the forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility to help her step back from the brink of a manifesto breach