Reform accused of seeking to insert ‘toxic politics’ into English football
Reform UK has been accused of seeking to insert “toxic politics” into football after the party pressed the Football Association in England to scrap diversity and inclusion policies.Suella Braverman wrote to the FA on Tuesday to ask for a meeting to discuss the governing body’s diversity policies, which Reform’s equalities spokesperson described as “utter woke nonsense”.Under the FA’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy 2024–2028, the association wants 30% of the England men’s coaching staff to be from ethnically diverse backgrounds by 2028.In a letter to the FA chief executive, Mark Bullingham, Braverman described this as “fundamentally flawed, inherently racist and bad for the game”.Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, told the Guardian: “Reform should keep their toxic politics out of our national game.
“Sport belongs to everyone in our country,It unites us and brings us together, which is exactly why Reform has such a problem with it,”Braverman wrote in her letter: “The FA has led the fight to kick racism out of football, a mission I utterly support,There is no place for discrimination of any kind in our national game,Yet your DEI strategy does precisely that, it divides rather than unites.
”The former home secretary, who recently defected from the Conservatives to Reform, added in the letter: “White working-class boys are the most disadvantaged in the country, they are the lifeblood of our game, but they are absent from your strategy.Why?“These boys miss out on opportunities and are overlooked because of who they are.The policies within your document will increase resentment and should be abandoned.”The FA’s policies were also defended by Dame Tracey Crouch, a former Conservative sports minister who is also a qualified FA coach, who told the Guardian: “Sport has long been a vehicle to drive inclusion and community cohesion, often turned to by politicians of all parties as a way of supporting them in the challenges they face.“Football is the most played sport in the country, drawing participants from both genders and all ethnicities.
The FA has done an incredible job in identifying gaps in skilled areas and opening up pathways to those groups, and others, to make sure we continue to lead the world on and off the pitch,”The attack by Reform UK came on the same day as a backlash from Ipswich fans, who said they were “disgusted and ashamed” after the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, staged a photo opportunity at Portman Road,Some supporters criticised the club on social media, with one describing it as “PR suicide for a family club”,Another fan, Alex, told PA Media he was disgusted and ashamed at what had happened, adding: “It is a slap in the face to supporters and players, past and present,”Reform posted “Portman Road Awaits” on X on Monday evening and Farage followed up with a post on Tuesday morning, with club branding and sponsors clearly visible in the photos posted online.
“I’ve never been too bad on the right wing,” Farage wrote on his X account.It is understood that no official invitation was made by Ipswich to Farage.The club issued a statement saying that it “remains apolitical and does not support or endorse any individual or party”.The FA defended its EDI strategy in a statement on Tuesday night, saying that “football has the unique ability to break down barriers and bring communities together”.A spokesperson said: “Through our EDI strategy, we aim to ensure the game reflects the full diversity of our nation.
This means opening up pathways and creating opportunities for people from all backgrounds – including those from historically underrepresented groups.“While we will always take a meritocratic approach by appointing the best people for roles, we also recognise the importance of having a broader range of participants across the sport.We are proud that our strategy is supporting the growth of football among men, women, boys and girls from all communities.”The diversity strategy which has now been targeted by Reform was launched after the FA was told that it needed to make more of an effort to create a diverse pool of candidates for the England head coach position.Data published in 2024 by the Black Footballers Partnership found that while 43% of Premier League players were black, a far lower number were in senior coaching positions.
Bullingham said at the time of the launch of the diversity strategy that tackling discrimination was one of the FA’s “core ambitions”, adding: “We have seen how the power of football can bring communities together and celebrate diversity, and we want to continue to use our influence to deliver positive and lasting change that we can all be proud of.”Last year the FA launched its first strategy for supporting south Asian people in English football, as it seeks to confront the “overt racism, often in mainstream places” that keeps players away.
Estate of Mike Lynch ordered to pay £920m to Hewlett-Packard
The estate of late British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been ordered to pay £920m to the technology company Hewlett-Packard (HP) two years after he died in a superyacht disaster.The ruling by London’s high court said the estate was liable to pay the sum as compensation, costs and interest for HP’s acquisition of Lynch’s firm Autonomy, after a UK legal ruling in 2022 that he duped the US firm into paying £8.2bn for his software firm Autonomy.The deceased entrepreneur’s estate has been estimated to be worth about £500m, so the damages could leave it bankrupt.Lynch and six others, including his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, died in August 2024 on a trip with friends and family celebrating his acquittal on US fraud charges relating to HP’s $11bn takeover of Autonomy in 2011
Energy price shock and interest rate rises could cause ‘pronounced’ UK recession, economist warns – as it happened
Britain’s economy could be dragged into recession by the end of this year by high energy prices and interest rate hikes, economists at Morgan Stanley have warned.Following this morning’s data showing a slowdown in private sector growth this month and a surge in input costs (see 9.41am), Morgan Stanley economist Bruna Skarica has warned that the energy price shock is likely to prompt the Bank of England to raise interest rates, which would hurt growth.Skarica points out that oil prices have risen by around 40% since January, with natural gas contracts up by around 80%, prompted the financial markets to predict the BoE will raise rates this year.Skarica told clients:double quotation markShould these financial conditions and commodity prices be sustained in the coming months, we would be calling for a pronounced UK recession at the turn of the year
What levers could Rachel Reeves pull to help with rising prices?
Rachel Reeves updated MPs on Tuesday about the steps the government was taking to cushion the impact of the Iran war on consumers and the UK economy. The chancellor stopped short of announcing specific immediate support but said she was contingency planning for the tough months ahead.Here are some of the levers she could pull:Speculation has been rife since the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz sent oil and gas prices soaring, that the government may be forced to step in to protect households from a jump in utility bills.But Reeves gave the clearest indication yet that she has no intention of repeating the across-the-board subsidies introduced by Liz Truss in autumn 2022, which went on to cost the Treasury about £40bn, and were worth £1,350 to households in the top 10% of earners.Reeves said Truss’s approach had “left us with high levels of national debt, a cheque written then for a bill that is still being paid today”
Seven charts that reveal how unprepared Australia was for the fuel crisis
It’s been a bewildering few weeks since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran triggered a global energy shock that shows little sign of ending.Here are seven charts that tell the story so far.At the turn of this century, Australia produced 563,000 barrels of oil a day, with eight refineries supplying 98% of our total petroleum product needs.From that high point, oil and petroleum production has slumped to the point where the country relies on imports for 90% of its liquid fuel needs and oil production is at its lowest since the late 1960s.Over the past 25 years, the number of local refineries has also dropped:Mobil’s Port Stanvac refinery in South Australia was mothballed in 2003 (and permanently closed in 2009)
UK manufacturers hit by sharpest rise in cost inflation since Black Wednesday in 1992
The UK’s manufacturers have suffered the sharpest one-month acceleration in costs since the aftermath of Black Wednesday in 1992 as conflict in the Middle East has driven up oil prices, new survey evidence shows.The closely watched purchasing managers’ index (PMI) lays bare the impact of the conflict on the UK economy, with growth slowing sharply across manufacturing and services and costs rising.Chris Williamson, the chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, which collects the data, said: “Output growth across manufacturing and services has slowed to a crawl as companies blamed lost business directly on the events in the Middle East, whether through heightened risk aversion among customers, surging price pressures, higher interest rates, or via travel and supply chain disruptions.“Inflationary pressures have surged higher on the back of rising energy prices and fractured supply chains.”Responding to the survey, Morgan Stanley warned the economy could potentially be dragged into “a pronounced UK recession” by the end of this year by high energy prices and interest rate hikes
Revolut warns it risks backlash over support for energy-intensive AI and crypto
The UK banking app Revolut has said it could face a backlash over its support for energy-intensive sectors such as crypto and AI, as it posted a 57% increase in profits for last year.The fintech, which can now launch as a fully fledged UK bank after a five-year wait for regulatory approval, warned in its 2025 annual report that such activities posed a “reputational risk”. Revolut offers crypto trading.Cryptocurrency mining, particularly for bitcoin, and AI datacentres demand large amounts of power, with competition for electricity supplies only getting steeper since the US-Israel war on Iran sent energy prices soaring over the past month.The company also reported a £1
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