Farage expected to name Jenrick as potential future chancellor
Nigel Farage is expected to name Robert Jenrick as his potential future chancellor, as part of a series of appointments of key Reform UK politicians on Tuesday.The appointment of the recently defected former Conservative cabinet minister is likely to raise eyebrows within the party when the role had previously been widely expected to be handed to the former leader Richard Tice.Tice, a net- zero sceptic, will instead get the brief of business, energy and industry.Reports on Tuesday also suggested the party’s former chair Zia Yusuf would become home affairs spokesperson, responsible for immigration policy.Last year, Yusuf unveiled the party’s mass deportation policy, with the aim of deporting up to 650,000 people over a five-year period.
The roles are not a formal shadow cabinet as Reform UK has only eight MPs.But Farage is expected say that the appointments will counter accusations that the party is a “one-man band”.Tice is reportedly being offered a combined business and energy role that would put him in charge of climate policy that he has dubbed “net stupid zero”, according to the Telegraph.The former businessman led the party for several years before Farage returned to stand at the general election.Tice had previously hinted that he expected he would get the second most senior role in government due to his experience in business.
“I’m not going to assume anything, but …” he told the BBC last year.On Tuesday, Politico reported that there would also be a new role for a fifth, newly created great office of state alongside the Foreign Office, Home Office, Treasury and No 10.Speaking at a rally in Romford on Monday, Farage said he was not concerned about a potential clash of egos.“I think the moment to properly move away from the potential criticism that we’re a one-man band has been there now for a few weeks, and that’s why I’m doing this,” he said.“Am I concerned? No, I’m relieved actually.
I’m relieved that other people are taking up these big areas, and from [reporter’s] perspective, on a given issue, you will know who to call.”Jenrick, the former housing secretary and immigration minister who defected to Reform after being sacked by the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, had previously denied being offered a role with Farage’s party before defecting.Jenrick refused to confirm on Monday night he was being appointed as Reform’s Treasury spokesperson, but told GB News he was “very happy” with the role he was getting.Reform UK’s lead has begun to narrow across some polls in recent weeks.On Tuesday, the latest YouGov poll showed Reform leading Labour by just five points, despite weeks of turmoil for the government and the departure of several senior figures from No 10.
Grand National field ‘stands out’ in 2026 with elite runners and promising underdogs
The unveiling of the weights for the 2026 Grand National started with a montage of clips from 50 years ago, when the world’s most famous steeplechase was at its lowest ebb, the crowd had dipped below 10,000 and the track was odds-on to be sold off for housing. It was, as Ruby Walsh pointed out on the voiceover, a reminder of how the National has been revived and transformed.A glance back no further than the 2011 Grand National, however, also offers clear evidence of how much the great race has changed, even in the space of 15 years. The field, of course, is now down to a maximum of 34, rather than the 40 runners that we all grew up with, but it is the depth of quality in the names, ratings and weights that were published on Tuesday that stands out.The bottom weights in 2011 raced off a rating of 138
A part-time job and DJ gigs helped Lara Hamilton reach the Winter Olympics. Now she wants to put Australia on the map
When Lara Hamilton started skiing as a child her parents would not let her join them on the slopes until she could keep up. Off she went to ski school, while her mum and dad traversed the New South Wales ski town of Perisher unshackled by children. Her dad raced World Cup Nordic skiing, so they didn’t dawdle. Now, Hamilton is about to make her Winter Olympics debut, and she is solely focused on keeping pace with the best ski mountaineers in the world.“It was just in the family and we had a lot of old gear and he taught me and my sister how to Nordic ski,” Hamilton says
Lindsey Vonn back in US for treatment but ‘not yet able to stand’ after Olympic crash
Lindsey Vonn is back home in the US to continue treatment after she broke her leg during the Winter Olympic downhill.“Haven’t stood on my feet in over a week… been in a hospital bed immobile since my race. And although I’m not yet able to stand, being back on home soil feels amazing,” Vonn posted on X with an American flag emoji. “Huge thank you to everyone in Italy for taking good care of me.”The 41-year-old suffered a complex tibia fracture after she crashed early in her downhill run on 8 February
Elana Meyers Taylor’s victory in her fifth Olympics was about far more than gold
The American won her first Winter Games title at 41. She did so while advocating for Black athletes, mothers and the deaf and Down’s syndrome communitiesElana Meyers Taylor had already cemented her place in Olympic history long before Monday night. She had competed with and against men on the World Cup tour and at the world championships to help force women’s monobob into the Winter Olympic program. She had surpassed the speed skater Shani Davis as the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Games history. She had stacked more Olympic medals than any female bobsledder ever, reaching the podium at Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing
‘No cushion, no seatbelt, no airbag’: the GB bobsledder who races with her eyes closed
Ashleigh Nelson was never meant to be in the Winter Olympics. If you’d asked her 18 months ago where she expected to be competing this week, she would have told you she would be at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham running the 60m at the UK Indoor Championships, not standing at the top of the world’s newest ice track riding a £75,000 bobsleigh.“I was tricked into it,” Nelson says. “You laugh, but it’s true.” Nelson got into it only after the GB bob pilot Adele Nicoll sent her a message on Instagram just after the Paris Olympics asking if she fancied giving it a go
‘I’m trying to expand what it means to be a skier’: Mallory Duncan on jazz, freedom and the mountains
The Californian once had ambitions of winning gold at the Winter Olympics. But now he is more interested in what skiing can do for the soulGrowing up in the Hayward Hills, just south of Oakland, California, Mallory Duncan lived a hybrid lifestyle throughout his childhood. Weekdays were spent at school, avoiding homework, disrupting class and getting in trouble. Weekends at Alpine Meadows, a ski resort on the north-west shores of Lake Tahoe, were for jumping off cliffs and skiing powder with friends. Every Sunday he would have dinner at his grandad’s house, watch football and listen to jazz
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