Ministers call on Nigel Farage to address ‘repulsive’ teenage racism allegations

Cabinet ministers have described detailed and multiple allegations of racism by Nigel Farage as a teenager as “repulsive” and doubled down on Keir Starmer’s call for Farage to address the claims.Liz Kendall, the secretary for science and innovation and technology, said she was appalled by the descriptions reported by the Guardian.The Welsh secretary, Jo Stevens, asked how far the Reform leader had changed his views. “People can form their own judgment on what kind of character he is,” Stevens said.The Guardian has now heard testimony from about 20 individuals who claim they either witnessed or were victims of abusive behaviour by Farage at Dulwich college in the late 1970s and early 1980sAides to the Reform UK leader dismissed the allegations as “entirely without foundation” and claimed they are “one person’s word against another”

Familiarity breeds contempt as Shabana does her double act | John Crace

Truly we are spoiled. Not one, but two Commons announcements on immigration from the home secretary. Both of them statements of intent. Foreigners, your time is up. Britain isn’t just full

UK government insists it is ‘taking time to get this right’ on single-sex spaces

The UK government has insisted it will take as much time as necessary to “get right” new rules on access to single-sex spaces after a leak of guidance submitted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) raised concerns that its publication was being deliberately delayed.The equalities watchdog submitted its formal guidance on how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond to April’s landmark supreme court ruling on biological sex to the UK government in September. Since then, its outgoing chair, Kishwer Falkner, has urged the equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson, to approve it “as soon as possible”.Ministers are still considering the final guidance, which must be approved by Phillipson before being laid before parliament. Phillipson said on Thursday she was going through it “thoroughly and carefully”

Joy Crookes says UK and Ireland in ‘dark time’ amid rise of far-right politics

The UK and Ireland are entering a “dark time”, according to the singer Joy Crookes, who said the influence of far-right ideology on mainstream politics was comparable to the 1970s when the National Front was at its peak.Crookes, who has just played two sold-out shows at the O2 Academy in Brixton, said the recent wave of nationalism and the far-right march through central London in September made her feel unsafe in the UK.“I’m not blind to the political kind of landscape that we’re living in right now and I myself am a child of immigrants,” she said. “I travelled to central London to go shopping and ran into a bunch of St George’s flags. It doesn’t make me feel safe

Could you do better than Reeves as chancellor? Play our interactive budget game

On 26 November, Rachel Reeves will deliver this year’s budget to parliament. As in all years, the chancellor has to strike a balance between:Raising the money needed to fund the services that voters demand.Keeping taxes at levels that are acceptable to voters.Persuading the government’s creditors in the bond markets that it will continue to be able to pay its debts.In our game you get to try your hand at designing a successful budget

Reform’s Welsh hopes damaged after Senedd member suspended for ‘vile’ racial slur

Reform UK’s only member of the Welsh parliament has been suspended for two weeks over a racial slur she posted in an office WhatsApp group.Laura Anne Jones used an offensive Chinese slur in a discussion about the threat of the Chinese government utilising TikTok for espionage.On Wednesday evening, the Welsh parliament voted for Jones, who defected from the Tories to Reform in the summer, to be suspended for a fortnight without pay.Jones’s suspension is a blow for Reform, which has high hopes of making dramatic gains in next year’s Senedd elections.When Jones joined Reform, its leader, Nigel Farage, said the party was confident the allegations against her would “all go away”