‘Where’s Nige?’ Reform leader skips Commons statement on Ukraine, leaving Tice to face pile-on | John Crace

Just occasionally the House of Commons is more remarkable for who isn’t in the chamber than for who is. So it was striking that Nigel Farage was absent for Keir Starmer’s statement on the G20 summit and the Ukraine peace process.You might have thought the man who has spent the last six months telling anyone who will listen that he will be the next prime minister might take some interest in geopolitics and Britain’s global standing. Apparently not. Only Richard Tice from Reform stayed for the session

‘I didn’t start it’: Starmer apologises for ‘six seven’ uproar during school visit

It has become the bane of many parents’ and teachers’ existence: children bleating out “six seven” for apparently no reason.So parents of pupils at Welland Academy in Peterborough will be unimpressed to discover that none other than the prime minister was encouraging their youngsters in the viral phenomenon.In a clip posted to Keir Starmer’s Instagram account, the prime minister can be seen reading with a young girl who points out she is on “page six-seven”, prompting him to start the dance move – a juggling like motion – that accompanies the infuriating craze.Before long, other members of the class are joining in and laughing hysterically.“That was a bit wild,” Starmer says as he exits the classroom, before he is swiftly reprimanded by the school’s headteacher, Jo Anderson

How Lord Dannatt used his peerage to open doors for business interests

The flowers and hamper that arrived at the Tower of London had been sent by a small energy company based in Sierra Leone. They were a gift to Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British army, who a few months earlier had introduced the company’s executives to the minister for Africa. It was a move they hoped would smooth the way for the fledgling company’s grand plans to build a £500m hydroelectric dam.With support from the UK government, the company had a better chance of getting the dam built. The dam, they said, would bring much-needed cheap electricity to many people in Sierra Leone

Reform’s ‘Trumpian’ legal threats hint at more aggressive approach to media

“It was Trumpian,” said Mark Mansfield, editor and CEO of Nation.Cymru, a small English-language Welsh news service. “It has perhaps given us a flavour of how a Reform UK government would behave towards the media.”Mansfield is referring to what he described as an attempt by a figure at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party to “bully” his publication, but he believes a wider lesson might be learned.On 12 November, Nation

Nigel Farage’s shifting answers on school-days racism claims – a timeline

Nigel Farage’s response to allegations of teenage racism during his time at Dulwich college have ranged from vehement at times and rather more nuanced at others.Here is what he has said.After Channel 4 reporter Michael Crick revealed a June 1981 letter written by a teacher about Farage during his time in Dulwich referring to him as “racist” and “fascist” or “neo-fascist”, Crick tracked down Farage.Farage said: “Of course I said some ridiculous things that upset them.” Crick asked him if these were “racist things”

Nigel Farage responds to racism claims saying he never ‘tried to hurt anybody’

Nigel Farage has broken his silence nearly a week after he was accused by about 20 people of racism and antisemitism as a teenager, by saying he “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody”.His remarks came after the publication of a detailed investigation by the Guardian in which many of his school contemporaries claimed to be victims of, or witnesses to, repeated incidents of deeply offensive behaviour.The Reform party leader’s aides emphatically denied the allegations, saying that any “suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.In a broadcast interview on Monday, Farage appeared to give a more nuanced response when he was asked if he had racially abused fellow pupils at school.He replied: “No, this is 49 years ago by the way, 49 years ago