Nigel Farage urged to root out Reform links to Russia after jailing of Nathan Gill

Nigel Farage is facing calls to investigate and root out links between Reform UK and Russia after one of his party’s former senior politicians was jailed for 10 years for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent.Keir Starmer said Farage had questions to answer about how this happened in his party. Nathan Gill, a former leader of Reform UK in Wales, admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia.The sentencing came at the end of a damaging week for Farage in which the Guardian revealed accusations that he engaged in racist chants and comments while at school more than 40 years ago, which he denies.Reform UK remains about 10 points ahead in opinion polls, but Labour believes the party is vulnerable to criticism that Farage and his allies have been too pro-Russia, with the Gill case proving that a paid pro-Kremlin propagandist was allowed to rise to become a senior leader

Starmer rebuffs renewed talk of Andy Burnham leadership challenge

Keir Starmer has attempted to dampen the latest round of speculation about his leadership, insisting that one of his potential rivals, Andy Burnham, is doing a “really good job as mayor of Manchester” and warning colleagues not to waste their time briefing against each other.The prime minister gave his backing to Burnham on Thursday night as he travelled to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, after the Greater Manchester mayor repeatedly failed to rule out challenging Starmer for his party’s leadership during interviews on Thursday.Burnham’s comments reignited speculation over the prime minister’s future, with his party languishing in the polls and days away from a tax-raising budget that could define the rest of his term in office.Starmer said: “Andy’s doing a really good job as mayor in Manchester and we work very closely together.”He added: “Only two days after Labour party conference we were in Manchester together in the aftermath of the terrible attack on the synagogue there

Farage’s views on Russia likely to be further tested after jailing of Nathan Gill

The discovery of a pro-Russian asset, Nathan Gill, at the heart of a British political party reads like the plot of a John Le Carré novel.Russia was long known to have been trying to interfere in foreign politics with online bots and cyber-disinformation over the past decade.However, the Nathan Gill case is now a concrete example of a pro-Russian agent enlisting and paying a Brexit-friendly party politician to spread the propaganda of Moscow and against Ukraine in Europe.In the 1960s, it tended more to be Labour and far-left politicians who were largely the subject of Soviet attempts to plant agents in the west. In modern times, it is no surprise that the parties Gill represented were Ukip, the Brexit party, and briefly Reform UK

Starmer accuses ‘spineless’ Farage of failure to tackle racism in Reform party

Nigel Farage has been accused of being “spineless” by the prime minister and a “coward” by Dulwich college contemporaries over his response to allegations of racism.Keir Starmer said the Reform UK leader had “questions to answer” about alleged comments and chants as a teenager that include songs about the Holocaust, and accusations of bullying towards minority ethnic schoolboys.He added that Farage had a “track record” when it came to racism, pointing to his failure to discipline his fellow Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts.Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Starmer said: “He needs to explain the comments, or alleged comments that were made, and he needs to do that as soon as possible. He hasn’t got a good track record in relation to this because Sarah Pochin, his MP, made some clearly racist comments and Nigel Farage has done absolutely nothing about it

UK politics: Reeves ‘not even sure what the popular path is’ on the budget – as it happened

The UK cannot continue to “muddle through” and must take “a different path” on the economy, the chancellor has said.Ahead of her second budget on 26 November, Rachel Reeves told the Times that the country could not continue on its current trajectory. But she admitted she was “not even sure any more what the popular path is” amid calls for a wealth tax from some politicians and heavy tax and spending cuts from others.In the interview published on Friday, Reeves said:I’m not even sure any more what the popular path is.There are lots of people who say cut taxes and the economy will grow, but what spending would they cut? Borrowing is too high, but you can’t cut it overnight

Reform UK’s former Wales leader jailed for taking bribes for pro-Russia speeches

Reform UK’s former leader in Wales Nathan Gill has been jailed for 10 and a half years for taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia when he was an MEP.Gill, a key member of the Ukip and Brexit party groups led by Nigel Farage in the European parliament, had pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.Police believe Gill received the equivalent of at least £30,000 and could have got even more from Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian MP and alleged Russian asset. He remains under investigation but is now believed to be in Moscow.Immediately after Gill was jailed, the defence minister Al Carns called on Farage’s party to launch a thorough investigation to guarantee that pro-Russia links were rooted out of Reform