Farage told the Sun’s political editor Jack Elsom that Zia Yusuf would get a dressing down for referring to former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as a “traitor” in his X posts last night:
“That is too strong language. I shall give him a ticking off… I’ll speak to him today, but it’s over the top.”
Not the first time Yusuf’s forthright style on the platform has caused tensions in Reform…
Burnham has said it’s all on his Justice Secretary now when it comes to early release. He also failed to guarantee that PC Harper’s two killers won’t be released early:
“What I have said is that I believe we can go much further, and I hope we can get to a position where people who have committed serious crimes are not in a position where they are being released early, and that would include the killers of PC Andrew Harper. That is my intention. I believe we can do it, but I now have to give time to the Justice Secretary to develop that plan, put in the detail, and present it to Parliament in around three weeks’ time.”
This is after he insisted that he had already gone as far as possible, and Downing Street saying yesterday it was “not possible” to keep Harper’s killers behind bars. Burnham’s populism making contact with reality…
ConHome’s latest Shadow Cabinet rankings have Badenoch extending favourability among Tory members since May, with Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho pipping Shadow Justice Sec Nick Timothy to second place. At the bottom of the list, Stuart Andrew has come out of single digits, and Priti Patel is heading that way…
| Net | Change | ||
| 1 | Kemi Badenoch | +86.9 | ▲ +2.0 |
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| 2 | Claire Coutinho | +71.3 | ▲ +11.7 |
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| 3 | Nick Timothy | +64.2 | ▲ +2.4 |
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| 4 | Mel Stride | +63.4 | ▲ +9.1 |
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| 5 | Laura Trott | +55.7 | ▲ +5.4 |
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| 6 | Chris Philp | +55.4 | ▲ +1.9 |
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| 7 | Andrew Griffith | +53.9 | ▲ +8.6 |
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| 8 | James Cleverly | +52.5 | ▲ +3.9 |
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| 9 | James Cartlidge | +49.8 | ▲ +3.0 |
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| 10 | Kevin Hollinrake | +48.7 | ▼ −0.1 |
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| 11 | Helen Whately | +48.1 | ▲ +7.1 |
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| 12 | Alex Burghart | +45.6 | ▲ +5.1 |
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| 13 | Victoria Atkins | +42.7 | ▼ −0.7 |
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| 14 | Jesse Norman | +36.3 | ▲ +4.7 |
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| 15 | Nigel Huddleston | +34.1 | ▲ +6.7 |
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| 16 | Richard Fuller | +33.1 | ▲ +3.3 |
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| 17 | Neil O’Brien | +32.6 | ▲ +1.8 |
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| 18 | Andrew Bowie | +32.0 | ▲ +6.2 |
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| 19 | Lord True | +27.8 | ▼ −1.1 |
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| 20 | Julia Lopez | +27.4 | ▲ +6.5 |
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| 21 | Rebecca Harris | +27.2 | ▼ −3.8 |
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| 22 | Baroness Williams | +23.8 | ▲ +0.3 |
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| 23 | Mims Davies | +23.2 | ▲ +3.5 |
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| 24 | Richard Holden | +20.3 | ▲ +1.7 |
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| 25 | Stuart Andrew | +13.8 | ▲ +4.4 |
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| 26 | Priti Patel | +12.0 | ▼ −3.7 |
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| Devolved leaders | |||
| Russell Findlay | +22.9 | ▲ +19.0 | |
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| Darren Millar | +11.6 | ▲ +7.5 | |
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Labour is now two points ahead of Reform in YouGov’s latest polling, on 24% compared to 22% respectively. Reform’s lowest score since March 2025…
The Tories are now one point behind Reform on 21%, with the LibDems and the Greens bleeding support since Burnham walked into No10. Younger voters are fleeing Polanksi’s circus in droves…
No10 is in a bind this morning as it is forced to remind its own ministers that Burnham has only ‘instructed’ Justice Secretary Alex Norris to find a way to keep Andrew Harper’s killers behind bars by September. Thus throwing him under the bus if it fails – but it’s too clever by half…
Angela Rayner told broadcasters on her morning round that Norris will simply announce in September the method by which Harper’s killers will be exempt from the early release scheme. Prompting No10 to ring around with a clarification…
No10 is stressing the line from its briefing: Burnham “has asked the Justice Secretary to work through further options to keep a greater number of the most serious offenders in prison, including the killers of PC Harper.” That won’t hold, it’s Burnham’s boat now…
Guido reported exclusively on the situation inside No10 and the options presented to Burnham yesterday. You’re either in front of Guido…
UPDATE: Burnham releases a statement:
“I understand the depth of public concern about the potential early release of those involved with the killing of PC Andrew Harper – and I share it.
I fully appreciate the anguish of Andrew’s family and, more broadly, of all those victims and their families who may see those who caused them such harm not serve their full sentence.
It is incumbent on me as Prime Minister to do everything within my power to minimise that possibility. And I am determined to do so.
I have spent recent days considering in depth all of the issues involved and the range of advice I have received. I have been pushing for further progress. I have not accepted that it is impossible to do more.
I am increasingly confident that a more focused approach along these lines will allow us to reduce the number of people released early and, in the case of the most serious offenders like those convicted of the killing of PC Harper, prevent their early release altogether
In advance of the Justice Secretary’s proposals being presented to Parliament, we will seek to engage other political parties in discussions with the aim of gaining the widest possible public and political consensus on the approach being taken.
Murderers have always been exempt and our actions have already ensured that rapists, serious child sex offenders and those convicted of grooming offences will never be released early.
And today I have shown a determination to go further. However, I recognise that, even with all these changes, there will be concerns from many victims about who will still be released early for other offences. I am doing all I can, but it is simply not possible to prevent all offenders from being released early without the prison system collapsing.”
Angela Rayner was asked on the Today programme whether it is appropriate for people to be crossing the channel on boats carrying the same number of passengers as an EasyJet flight. Nick Robinson noted that at this point along with sympathy Brits are also feeling “rage.” Rayner said:
“Well, these are desperate, vulnerable people getting into these vessels that are dangerous and we’ve got to stop that. The Home Secretary has got this agreement which is pay by results with the French to stop these boats from coming over.
We’ve seen a reduction in the number of boats that are coming over. And we’ve also seen a huge increase in the amount of deportations of people that come here illegally. So, we’re cracking down on those that are in the country illegally and removing those that shouldn’t be here.
But we’re also saying that those criminal gangs that are putting often, you know, children and women into vessels that are not seaworthy, we’re seeing people that are dying at sea that are desperate to come here and we’ve got to crack that and stop it.”
More than three quarters of all crossings are men over the age of 18…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”