Concern about immigration is a “manufactured panic”, a campaign group has said after polling suggested only a quarter of people think it is an important issue locally.As PA Media reports, a YouGov poll found only 26% of people said immigration and asylum was one of the three most important issues facing their community.This was half the 52% who said it was one of the biggest issues facing the country as a whole.These figures have been set out in a report published by the Best of Britain campaign group.It also shows that, while immigration comes second in the list of issues that people say matter nationally, it is only seventh in the list when people are asked about what matters in the places where they live.

Best for Britain’s Tom Brufatto said:The data clearly demonstrates that media exposure and political discourse are fanning the flames of anti-immigration sentiment in the UK, causing the government to lose support both to its right and left flank simultaneously.Measures designed to tackle the cost of living, such as undoing the economic damage caused by Brexit through closer trading relations with the EU, will instead draw support from across the political spectrum.And Saeema Syeda of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said the polling confirmed “there is no immigration crisis”.She went on:It’s a manufactured panic, pushed by some politicians and parts of the media to distract from what actually matters to people.Across our communities, we share the same priorities – making ends meet, accessing healthcare, decent schools and secure homes.

We need to end scapegoating and look for solutions.This chart shows what happens when people are asked what they think are the most important issues facing the question – a question where their responses are likely to be shaped by what the media are saying.And this chart shows what happens when people are asked about the most important issues facing them and their communities – a question where real-life experience is likely to count much more.Andrew Mountbatten Windsor should go to the US to answer questions on Jeffrey Epstein if asked to do so, a UK government minister has said, as it emerged that the former prince’s name has already been struck from the official roll of the peerage.Concern about immigration is a “manufactured panic”, a campaign group has said after polling suggested only a quarter of people think it is an important issue locally.

(See 11.16am.)The MP Zarah Sultana has said she hopes her new political party will ultimately replace Labour as she revealed she was committed to winning power.John Swinney should spend more time on domestic issues than seeking a deal with the US on Scotch whisky, Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary has said.As PA Media reports, the first minister has pushed hard for an exemption to tariffs imposed by the US administration of Donald Trump, meeting the president four times this year.

But, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Alexander said:I’m very happy for the first minister to be supporting the British government’s efforts on tariffs, but that’s all that he’s doing …Respectfully, many of us here in Scotland wish the first minister was spending more time avoiding the underspend of £1bn as we discovered last night, or the state of our schools and hospitals.But there’s a second point beyond the legal requirement that this is a competence of the UK government – Donald Trump doesn’t give gifts, he does deals.The only counter-party in those negotiations that can do a deal is the UK government.Celebrities, MPs and children’s charities are among dozens of signatories to an open letter ramping up pressure on the government to set targets for reducing child poverty in the UK.Jaguar Land Rover has not drawn down any of a £1.

5bn loan facility guaranteed by the government, with suppliers expressing anger over ministers’ claims to have supported the carmaker’s supply chain after a crippling hack,For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog,Ukraine is being asked to fight a proxy war against Russia on behalf of Nato without being given the means to win it, Nick Houghton, a former head of the armed forces, told the Lords today,Houghton, who was chief of defence staff between 2013 and 2016, was speaking in a debate in the Lords on Ukraine,Without proper backing, Ukraine could be forced into a ceasefire that would humiliate the country and embarrass western governments while leaving Russia bullish, he suggeested.

Houghton said it was hard to derive any “moral satisfaction” from what Nato was asking Ukraine to do.He told the Lords:I say this primarily because the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to be a limited war – limited by both the means and the geography.These limitations are ones imposed by the United States and by Nato more widely.They almost exclusively constrain Ukrainian activity to Ukrainian soil and deny Ukraine the capabilities required to carry the fight to Russia.They do so, arguably, and understandably, to avoid provoking Russian escalation – hence a preference for financial sanctions as opposed to Tomahawk missiles.

But such choices limit Ukraine’s ability to hurt Russia in ways that might bring the war to a conclusion on acceptable terms.In short, therefore, we continue to accept that Ukraine is fighting a proxy war on behalf of Nato that we are denying it the means to win.Reflecting on this, I worry that we forget that war is not ultimately a battle of physical exchange but a battle of human will.Sadly, the trajectory of this war increasingly looks like one that is hurting Ukraine more than Russia.More specifically, it is hurting Ukrainian society more than Vladimir Putin.

Putin appears content to incrementally grind this war towards a ceasefire that will be humiliating to Ukraine and embarrassing to western governments,Houghton also called for higher spending on defence,Hard investment choices have for ever been the challenge of peacetime planners, but we should not be engaged in peacetime planning,We face an outcome to the current conflict that leaves behind a humiliated Ukraine, a residually dangerous Russia and an impoverished Britain devoid of threat awareness with an unfunded SDR [strategic defence review],On Sunday, Kemi Badenoch will celebrate the first anniversary of her election as Tory leader.

But “celebrate” might not be the appropriate word.According to new polling from YouGov, most Britons (62%), and a majority of Conservative voters (53%), think she does not look like a prime minister in waiting.To be fair to Badenoch, there is a good reason why the polling numbers are producing numbers like this; it’s because she doesn’t look like a PM in waiting.The Tories suffered a catastrophic defeat in 2025, they are languishing in the polls, and the election may be more than three years away.What matters is whether she or not she looks like a PM in waiting in 2028.

With this in mind, there is some modest good news for Badenoch in the other results of the poll: although 77% of people think the Tories are in a weak position, among this group 67% of them say the Tories would be doing just as badly with any other leader, 19% say they would be doing worse, and only 5% say they would be doing better with another leader.Even among Tory supporters, only 10% of those who think the party is in a weak position say it would be doing better under someone else.The poll also suggests there has been a rise in Badenoch’s approval ratings since the spring – although she is still more unpopular than she was in February.The success of Reform UK and the Green party in current polling (see 2.08pm), and the perception that England has replaced two-party politics (or two-and-a-half-party politics, as some would say) with five-party politics, has renewed interest in whether parliament’s procedures are appropriate for this new era.

In an article for the Politcal Quarterly, Louise Thompson, an academic at the University of Manchester, argues that they are not.“Parliament is still operating as if it were the 1950s, when two big parties dominated,” she says.She says the smaller parties are not treated fairly as a result.This chart highlights the way parliament’s standing orders, which were drafted for a two-party system, disadvantage parties like Reform and the Greens.Thompson says these rules create a particular problem for Northern Ireland.

MPs from all political parties are elected in their constituencies as equals, but at Westminster, some political party groups are more equal than others.This creates a representational deficit and breaks the link in the chain of accountability.It is particularly acute in the case of Northern Ireland.As the only nation of the UK without any large-party representatives, Northern Ireland MPs have no formally guaranteed participation in any parliamentary spaces.In practice, no Northern Ireland MP is guaranteed to be called to speak during any legislative debate or following any ministerial statement whatsoever.

Thompson suggests Commons rules should be changed to give smaller parties greater rights.She says:Multiparty politics is here to stay.If parliament doesn’t modernise, it risks silencing the voices of millions of voters and undermining trust in democracy.Find Out Now has released polling showing the Green party, on 17%, in second place to Reform UK, on 32%.It has the Tories and Labour on 16%, and the Lib Dems on 12%.

The firm uses a system that seems to favour insurgent parties like Reform and the Greens and the main parties seem to do less well in their polls than they do in other firms’.But that has not stopped the Greens getting excited about these figures.This is from Caroline Lucas, the former Green party leader, commenting on a tweet showing the Find Out Now numbers.An extraordinary realignment of British politicsIf you want to see @TheGreenParty take on Reform - this is the momentKeir Starmer has paid to keep a silver necklace he received from Donald Trump, the Cabinet Office has revealed.It has published updates for September listing what gifts ministers have received, and when Trump came for the state visit he gave Starmer personalised silver cufflinks, a personalised silver necklace (presumably for Starmer’s wife – although the listing does not spell that out) and a personalised golf club.

There were also cowboy boots for Starmer’s wife (not personalised).Ministers are allowed to keep gifts if they were worth less than £140.For anthing more valuable, ministers either have to pay for them, or surrender them to the government.Starmer has paid to keep the necklace, but handed over the other Trump gifts, the Cabinet Office listing shows.In an interview this morning, Chris Bryant, a trade minister, suggested that Lord Mandelson should not lose his peerage because of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and his support for Epstein even after Epstein had been prosecuted for child sex offences.

Asked if it was right for Mandelson to stay in the Lords, Bryant said that “I don’t think that just having known somebody is the issue,”At the No 10 lobby briefing, asked if the PM agreed with this, the No 10 spokesperson said that Keir Starmer has already admitted that Mandelson would not have been appointed as ambassador to the US if all the information about his friendship with Epstein had been known at the time,Asked if Mandelson should lose his peerage, the spokesperson claimed that was a matter for the Labour whips,That is not correct,For Mandelson to lose his peerage, there would have to be an act of parliament, of a kind that has not been passed for more than 100 years.

But it will be up to the Labour whips to decide if Mandelson is allowed to sit as a Labour peer should he ever return to the Lords.He is currently on a leave of absence.Fellow peers think Mandelson won’t retain the Labour whip.Downing Street has said that Keir Starmer fully supports King Charles’s decision to strip his brother Andrew of his titles.At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning, the No 10 spokesperson said:We fully support the decision taken yesterday by the Palace.

Our hearts go out to the family of Virginia Giuffre and all the victims who suffered from Jeffrey Epstein’s despicable crimes.Referring to Buckingham Palace’s statement last night, the spokesperson added:We echo the statement yesterday that our thoughts and utmost sympathies have been and will remain with the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.It is understood that the government was consulted on the king’s decision, and that it thinks the king is acting in a way that is constitutionally proper.Although Andrew has lost his titles, he remains in the line of succession, meaning that he is eighth in line to the throne.(You can read the names of the other seven who are ahead of him here.

) For that to change, there would have to be primary legislation,But the government wants to focus on using parliamentary time for legislation that will improve people’s lives,“There are no plans to make legislative changes,” the spokesperson said, in a sign that the government will not be backing the private member’s bill tabled by Rachael Maskell,(See 9,27am.

)There were six council byelections yesterday.Here are the results, from Election Maps UK.Reform gained two seats, from Labour and from an independent group.Roebuck (Stevenage) Council By-Election Result:➡️ RFM: 39.2% (New)🌹 LAB: 26.

9% (-12.4)🌳 CON: 12.0% (-11.4)🔶 LDM: 11.3% (-5.

5)🌍 GRN: 10.6% (-4.9)No TUSC (-5.0) as previous.Reform GAIN from Labour.

Changes w/ 2024.Garlinge (Thanet) Council By-Election Result:➡️ RFM: 44.6% (New)🌳 CON: 32.0% (+10.6)🌹 LAB: 7