Explaining UK debt with biscuits: Labour MPs get the hang of viral content

A perennial head-scratcher for progressives is how to craft a simple, compelling message on the economy. One Labour MP found the answer in a few packets of M&S biscuits.Gordon McKee, who represents Glasgow South, has racked up more than 3.3m views on X with an 101-second video in which he demonstrates the UK’s debt to GDP ratio using stacks of custard creams and chocolate bourbons.It may not seem like a major feat when several of the world’s most impactful politicians – Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Zohran Mamdani among them – have used sleekly produced short-form videos to spread their campaign messages with considerable success

Farage turns on broadcasters over racism allegations as number of claims hits 28

Nigel Farage has turned on broadcasters for questioning him about his alleged teenage racism and antisemitism as the number of school contemporaries who recalled such behaviour to the Guardian reached 28.In an angry performance at a press conference in London, the Reform leader suggested he would boycott the BBC and said ITV had its own case to answer, as he repeatedly shouted “Bernard Manning”.Manning, a comedian from Manchester who died in 2007, was a regular face on British television in the 1970s but he drifted from the public eye after claims that his material was racist and misogynistic.The intemperate performance by Farage, whose party has slipped in the national polls in recent weeks, came as a further five school contemporaries came forward to the Guardian with allegations that they had witnessed deeply offensive racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.The former Dulwich college pupils said they had been motivated to speak now by the response of Farage and others in his party to an investigation by the Guardian based on multiple accounts of racism

Christopher Harborne, the ‘intensely private’ mega-donor bankrolling Reform UK

As Nigel Farage toasted the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington earlier this year at a glitzy party hosted by Republican pollsters, there was an unfamiliar bearded figure by his side.Reform’s new mega-donor Christopher Harborne is based in Thailand and is rarely seen with Farage in the UK.But he was at a party sponsored by Reform supporter Arron Banks and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s anti-China campaign in January, having bankrolled Farage’s three-day trip to celebrate Trump’s return to the White House at a cost of £27,000.Harborne has given generously to Farage before, donating £10m to the Brexit party at the 2019 election – when Farage stood down many of his candidates against Tories and Boris Johnson won by a landslide.He switched his allegiance in 2022, giving £1

Tice steps up for Farage over past racism claims – and gets nothing in return | John Crace

Alas poor Dicky. Put not your trust in Nigel. For in him there is no salvation.It’s not easy being Richard Tice. A man who has spent much of his recent life in Nigel Farage’s shadow

Farage criticises BBC over racism allegations and claims one fellow pupil said he was ‘offensive’ but not racist – as it happened

In his response to the BBC, Farage went on to address the point about his own comments at the time being racists.He said he had received many letters from fellow pupils, and he quotes from one of them.The writer said he called “plenty of macho, tongue in cheek schoolboy banter” at the time, and some of it was offensive.But it was not done with malice, the writer said. The writer went on:I never heard [Farage] racially abused anyone

No 10 to delay four England mayoral elections amid accusations of ‘cancelling democracy’

Ministers are to postpone elections for new mayors in four parts of England, prompting accusations from opposition parties that Downing Street is “cancelling democracy”.Newly created mayoralties in Greater Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Hampshire and the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton will be first contested in 2028 under the plans, ministers confirmed on Thursday.The government argued that the areas needed more time to complete their local government reorganisation, but faced criticism from opposition parties and the Labour former local government minister.Jim McMahon, who was removed as a minister in September, said his party needed “to be better than this” and had “a moral and a legal obligation to honour its side of the bargain”.Criticising the postponement in the Commons, he said: “All involved had a reasonable expectation that these elections would go ahead, and the government knows that trust is hard won but is easily squandered