Farage criticises ‘disgraceful’ rhetoric after alleged attack on Reform council leader

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has criticised “disgraceful” rhetoric from the Labour and Green parties after the UK’s youngest council leader was allegedly assaulted.George Finch, 19, the Reform leader of Warwickshire county council,said he was called a “racist” and a “fascist” before being allegedly assaulted on Friday.The alleged attacker “was wound up and sent into battle by the dangerous rhetoric of Labour and the Greens”, Finch told the Daily Mail. He said the attack didn’t cause any lasting injury.Farage said he was “deeply upset” about the incident and “the words used against him echo the prime minister’s disgraceful attack on Reform during Labour conference week and wholly irresponsible comments from the leader of the Green party”

Government made ‘every effort’ to support China spying trial, says minister

The government made “every effort” to support the trial of two men accused of spying for China, a minister has said, as he accused the Tories of claiming the case was deliberately abandoned “without a shred of evidence”.Dan Jarvis, the security minister, issued a robust defence of Jonathan Powell in the Commons after reports that Keir Starmer’s national security adviser played a role in the collapse of the case.His intervention prolongs an extraordinary blame game between ministers and prosecutors over the abandonment of charges against two men, including a former parliamentary researcher, who were accused of spying for Beijing.Charges were dropped against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who had always maintained their innocence, last month after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it could no longer meet the evidential threshold needed to proceed.Jarvis said that since the charges against Cash and Berry were brought in April 2024, the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, provided three witness statements to support the trial in December 2023, February 2025 and July 2025

Badenoch accuses Labour of prioritising economic ties with China over national security – as it happened

At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson took questions for about 45 minutes on the collapse of the China spying prosecution. The briefing did not provide answers to all the questions raised by Kemi Badenoch (see 10.20am) and others, but it did move things on a bit. Here are the main points.The PM’s spokesperson said it was “entirely false” to claim the government played a role in getting the CPS to drop the prosection

Why Britain’s climate and defence strategies need to be better integrated | Letter

Your article (National security threatened by climate crisis, UK intelligence chiefs due to warn, 8 October) exposed the dangerous disconnect between climate policy and defence. It raises vital questions about Britain’s – and the world’s – readiness to face the security threats posed by the climate crisis, none of which can be met if leaders keep treating climate and defence as separate issues.This summer, wildfires linked to climate change brought Europe to its knees, wreaking economic havoc, overwhelming health systems and draining military resources. All over the world, climate breakdown is fuelling instability, conflict and displacement. The EU’s failure to break free from Moscow’s pipelines is jeopardising its energy sovereignty

Swinney says Scottish government will sponsor visas for foreign care workers

John Swinney has said the Scottish government will help hundreds of overseas care workers stay in the UK, as he attacked Westminster for its rising hostility to immigrants.The first minister said it was unfair Scotland’s older people had to “pay the price for Westminster’s prejudice”, and that his devolved government would sponsor visa applications for workers needed to staff care homes, at a cost of about £500,000.Swinney described the UK government’s decision to greatly restrict access to visas for those jobs, in an effort to respond to rising tensions over mass migration, as deeply damaging.“Thousands of care workers here in the UK entirely legally have been left high and dry, unable to work, while care homes are crying out for staff,” he told the Scottish National party’s annual conference in Aberdeen. “In what world does that make any sense?”Swinney told delegates the measure was further evidence Scotland’s interests were being damaged by continued membership of the UK, as he confirmed he would make a fresh push for independence central to Scottish parliament elections next year

Families of David Amess and Jo Cox voice concern at rise in violent political rhetoric

The families of the murdered MPs David Amess and Jo Cox have voiced concern about a recent surge in violent political rhetoric in Britain.While the fatal attack on a synagogue in Manchester and targeting of Muslims have placed a renewed spotlight on violent antisemitism and Islamophobia, there are also concerns over an increasing normalisation of language calling for political figures to be killed.Examples include the suspension of a Reform UK councillor linked to a social media account calling for Keir Starmer to be shot and the arrest of a man allegedly captured on film at major far-right rally last month in London threatening to kill the prime minister. At the same rally, Elon Musk made comments that later drew condemnation from Downing Street when he told the crowd that “violence is coming”.The language comes after a summer of anti-immigration protests, culture war flashpoints and a surge in podcasts and YouTube videos predicting civil war