UK politics: Reform will axe councils’ special needs funding if they win in local elections, Lib Dems claim – as it happened

The National Autistic Society has described Nigel Farage’s comments about Send children (see 12.09pm) as “wildly inaccurate” and accused him of perpetuating “stigma” and making life harder for disabled people. Mel Merritt, head of policy and campaigns at the NAS, said:Nigel Farage’s comments are wildly inaccurate and show that he’s completely out of touch with what autistic children and adults have to go through to get a diagnosis or any support at all.For the record, absolutely no one has got an autism diagnosis through the GP – this is just incorrect, wrong, fake news.Children with Send and disabled adults, including autistic people, are not victims who are being ‘over diagnosed’

Charities attack Farage claims of ‘mental illness problems’ overdiagnosis

Nigel Farage says the UK is “massively overdiagnosing those with mental illness problems” and creating a “class of victims”.In comments, which have drawn criticism from campaigners and charities, the leader of Reform UK said it was too easy to get a mental health diagnosis from a GP.“It’s a massive problem. I have to say, for my own money, when you get to 18 and you put somebody on a disability register, unemployed, with a high level of benefits, you’re telling people aged 18 that they’re victims,” he told a local elections press conference in Dover.“And if you are told you’re a victim, and you think you’re a victim, you are likely to stay [a victim]

Lowering the voting age will benefit democracy | Letters

Simon Jenkins disagrees with the government’s proposal to reduce the voting age to 16 (Votes for 16-year-olds? Sorry, but I’m not convinced, theguardian.com, 17 April). But the voting age of 18 is an arbitrary threshold. Quite a recent one too – until 1969 the minimum voting age in Britain was 21. Other countries have minimum voting ages from 16 to 21

Nige doubling up, Dicky in No 11 and 30p Lee at foreign? Run for the hills! | John Crace

With two opinion polls giving the Reform party a clear lead over Labour and the Conservatives, it may be time to start thinking about some practicalities. Like, just who will be doing what job in a Reform-led government?It can probably be taken it as read that Nigel Farage will be prime minister, but that leaves three MPs – make that two, as James McMurdock isn’t trusted enough by his colleagues to be allowed out in public – to fill the remaining 20-plus cabinet posts. Unless we take it that two dozen or so newly elected MPs with no experience of anything will be drafted in by Nige after the 2029 election. Run for the hills, everyone.It’s probably fair to assume that Richard Tice has his eyes on becoming chancellor

Planning bill would allow builders to ‘pay cash to trash’ nature, say UK experts

Leading economists, former government advisers and ecologists are calling for a key section of the government’s planning bill to be changed because it creates a “licence to kill nature”.Sir Partha Dasgupta, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Cambridge, ecology professor Sir John Lawton and Dr Tom Tew, a former chief scientist of Natural England, are among the signatories to a letter to MPs that warns them to ignore government slogans and false rhetoric about nature and wildlife being a block to growth.The letter warns that part three of the planning and infrastructure bill, applying mainly to England and Wales, allows developers to pay “cash to trash” wildlife and the environment. They say it allows companies to sidestep environmental laws affecting their project by instead paying into a national nature levy.“It is a blunt instrument that rewards bad planning and penalises good practice, all the while adding cost and delay to the planning and development process,” the letter said

Making plans for Nigel: tense Tories wonder whether Badenoch has what it takes to see off Reform | Pippa Crerar

Some veteran Conservatives are so convinced that Robert Jenrick, the ambitious shadow justice secretary, is intent on striking an election pact with Reform UK that they have nicknamed him “Nigel’s chancellor”.The joke, however, gets to the heart of what many of them fear most: that the Tory party is in such a parlous state that their only hope of survival will be to work with Nigel Farage to unite the right.Kemi Badenoch, the party leader, has ruled this out, pointing out that Farage vowed to “destroy” the Conservatives. But she has struggled to escape constant speculation about her own leadership as her party struggles to adjust to its new reality in the political wilderness.Tensions bubbled over again this week when it emerged that Jenrick, who lost the leadership contest but who has made little secret of his ambitions, had told a private meeting he would try to ensure that the Tories and Reform did not compete against each other at the next election