Farage faces questions over failure to declare use of donor’s helicopter

Nigel Farage is facing questions about why he did not declare his use of a donor’s helicopter to travel around Britain for rallies.The helicopter, which was used by Farage as recently as Friday after local elections across Britain, is the property of a company owned by Lorenzo Zaccheo, a businessman who gave Reform £25,000 last year.Farage was pictured in May last year getting off the helicopter in Kent after his party won the county council elections there, and data shows that it has travelled to and from other locations on dates when Reform rallies were being held.When questioned about why Farage had not declared the travel, Reform UK said the flights had been paid for “at commercial rates” and there was “no undeclared registrable interest” arising from those flights.But the party did not respond to follow-up questions about who paid for the flights and whether they were paid for by Farage himself, who may face an inquiry over an undeclared £5m gift he was given by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne

Youth mobility scheme disagreement hampering reset of UK-EU relations

Significant gaps remain in negotiations on the reset in relations between the UK and the EU despite Keir Starmer’s latest pledge to put Britain “at the heart of Europe” after last week’s election drubbing.The UK wants to limit the number of young people from the EU who come into the country as part of a post-Brexit youth mobility scheme to below 50,000, it has emerged.The EU has already rejected a cap and wants unlimited visas with an annual review on numbers instead, to allow an “emergency brake” on the scheme if politically desirable.It is understood that the UK is also unwilling to budge on the issue of “home” fees for EU citizens, although it can argue that this was never a topic in the reset roadmap.Catherine Barnard, a professor of EU law at the University of Cambridge, said in relation to negotiation on the youth mobility scheme: “I fear that things are still very tricky

Tax cuts and cost of living help proposed by Labour-linked groups allied to Streeting and Burnham

Groups connected to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, have proposed large changes to government policy, giving a sense of how the country may change should either one succeed Keir Starmer.The Labour Growth Group, allied to Streeting, and the Tribune group of Labour MPs, allied to Burnham, have published competing visions for how Britain should be run, including sweeping tax cuts, help with the cost of living and big changes to government machinery.With Keir Starmer under concerted pressure to stand down, the groups are two of a number of Labour-linked organisations that have proposed radical measures as they try to influence the thinking of a future prime minister.In a document entitled An Honest Day, Mark McVitie, the director of the Labour Growth Group, which has connections with Streeting, called for a rise in capital gains tax to pay for a 2p cut in national insurance.The document also called for mayors in England to be given greater powers over tax and spending, for the creation of a new Department of the Prime Minister and for ministers to allow Thames Water to fail

Minister resigns from Starmer government with call for PM to quit

Miatta Fahnbulleh has become the first minister to resign from Keir Starmer’s government, calling on the prime minister to quit.The communities minister’s resignation came as one of Starmer’s closest aides declined to say whether he would lead Labour into the next election amid mounting calls for him to resign.Darren Jones, a close ally of Starmer, said the prime minister was “listening to colleagues” who were asking him to set out a timetable for departure but would make his own decisions about the way forward, the prime minister’s chief secretary said on Tuesday.He warned the prime minister’s rivals that it was a “gruelling” job. “Anybody who thinks that they can just walk into the job of prime minister and, like the second coming of the messiah, fix all of our problems probably hasn’t really thought carefully enough about how difficult it is,” he said

Greens’ Zack Polanski admits failing to pay correct council tax on houseboat

The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has admitted he may have failed to pay the correct council tax while living on a London houseboat.Polanski had faced mounting questions over whether the houseboat, moored in east London, was his primary residence.A Green party spokesperson described the situation as an “unintentional mistake” and said Polanski had “immediately taken steps” to pay any tax owed.The spokesperson said: “Until relatively recently, Zack was living on a houseboat, which came with its own unique practical circumstances and considerations. He has immediately taken steps to pay any council tax he may be found to owe

Wes Streeting faces narrow road to Labour members’ favour

“Country first, party second” is a mantra Keir Starmer and his cabinet have repeated since being in opposition, seeking to draw a dividing line between Labour and their Conservative predecessors’ inclination for self-destruction.But party members do matter in politics – and a key problem for Wes Streeting, one of those with ambitions to succeed Keir Starmer, is that many of Labour’s do not like him.Just before Labour’s heavy local election losses, a Compass survey of more than 1,000 members found that if they were given a free choice, 42% would pick Andy Burnham to succeed Starmer – against just 11% for Streeting. And whereas Burnham had a 44% favourability rating, only 18% felt the same towards the health secretary.That result put Streeting roughly on a par with Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband – but given those potential candidates and Burnham are firmly to his left, it would appear to suggest that the majority of the party would prefer not to have a candidate in Streeting’s place on the ideological spectrum