
Farage to promise tax breaks for married couples
Nigel Farage will promise tax breaks for married couples in a major speech today as he looks to position Reform UK as the true opposition to Labour.
The Reform leader will attack Sir Keir Starmer and seek to outflank the Prime Minister on welfare with pledges to scrap the two-child benefit cap and fully reinstate winter fuel payments for every pensioner.
Mr Farage will also announce his party's intention to introduce a new transferable marriage tax allowance in an attempt to encourage people to have more children.
The allowance, first reported by The Mail, would see one spouse made exempt from paying tax on the first £25,000 they earn.
Reform has already promised to lift the starting threshold for paying income tax to £20,000.
Mr Farage will reportedly warn the collapsing birth rate in the UK represents 'an existential crisis for our country' and his party will 'do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them'.
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The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘Spiteful' boss cut pregnant accountant's hours after she told him she had morning sickness
A 'spiteful' boss cut his pregnant employee's work hours after she told him she had morning sickness, and then fired her when her maternity leave was due to start, a tribunal has heard. Sadia Shakil had worked as an accountant and bookkeeper at the property development firm Samsons in Bedford since October 2020, and became pregnant early the following year. But after Ms Shakil phoned her boss Mohammed Saleem on 30 March 2021 to inform him that she was experiencing morning sickness due to her pregnancy, he then proceeded to tell her in an email the following day that he was cutting her working hours. In the email seen by the tribunal, Mr Saleem wrote: 'Considering that I am unable to give you extra work as I am abroad and in view that you are feeling unwell during your pregnancy it would be best if you only come into work for 2 days per week.' The tribunal ruled that this was a 'fundamental' breach of Ms Shakil's employment contract, which caused her to experience 'stress, anxiety and panic' while questioning how she and her husband would be able to afford essential items for their baby now that their main source of income had been unilaterally reduced. During this period, Ms Shakil suffered sleepless nights and panic attacks while being 'plagued by worrisome thoughts', including 'doubts about whether she had done the right thing to have a baby at all when she was not financially stable'. After informing her boss that she needed to resign, Ms Shakil managed to secure a second full-time job in May, but she continued to work at Samsons in her spare time in the hope she would be able to resume her full-time role at the firm after her maternity leave. In the months that followed, Mr Saleem ignored multiple emails from Ms Shakil about her upcoming maternity leave, 'which caused her further stress and worry', at a time when she also suffered complications, being admitted to hospital on two occasions. By the end of September, blood tests had revealed a potentially serious condition which Ms Shakil was told put her baby at risk of still birth, resulting in the hospital booking her in to have her baby induced on 17 October. Two days after Ms Shakil's final email on 27 September, informing Mr Saleem that her leave would now commence on 1 October, he finally responded – referring to a letter she had not received 'putting her role at risk of redundancy '. Ms Shakil was dismissed with effect from 1 October 2021, when she began maternity leave, the tribunal noted. After her son was born on 18 October, the family were forced to move back in with Ms Shakil's parents 'due to the financial pressure that [her] loss of employment and lack of maternity pay had created'. Ms Shakil's subsequent claim to the Department for Work and Pensions for maternity allowance was then rejected on the grounds that her employer was responsible for paying it. 'The claimant's early weeks and months with her new baby were marred by the need to devote time to trying to resolve her financial predicament and bringing the employment tribunal proceedings,' the tribunal found. After an initial tribunal in Birmingham in April 2023, Ms Shakil was awarded £5,000 in damages for maternity discrimination and Samsons ordered to pay her for income lost while on reduced hours. In an email sent in June 2023 in which he asked Ms Shakil to provide her bank details so that he could pay her the sum awarded by the tribunal, Mr Saleem wrote 'I hope that you have a wonderful time utilising the monies gained from me', adding that the loss of money 'will make no difference to me'. A further appeal hearing in March 2025 found that Ms Shakil 'was horrified' by the email – which she described as 'disturbing and 'nasty' – and 'was shocked that Mr Saleem could be so spiteful to her'. Ms Shakil's appeal that the sum awarded to her had been too low was accepted, and the judge ordered Samsons to pay her a total of £31,860. Finding it to be a 'serious case of discrimination', the tribunal found: 'The discrimination took place at a time in the claimant's life which she had hoped and planned would be exciting and happy – the pregnancy, birth and early life of her first child. 'Instead, she suffered physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety and distress. These included sleepless nights, panic attacks, intrusive anxious thoughts and tearfulness. There was evidence that the claimant's confidence and self-esteem were damaged by the discrimination. 'These symptoms persisted from the time she was told that her hours had been cut to two days per week, until her baby was born. The symptoms did not stop then, however, because of the claimants' ongoing financial struggles.' It added: 'The effects of the discriminatory dismissal were ongoing at the time of the hearing, four years later, because the claimant is still worried that she might have a similar experience with her new employer if she decides to have another baby.'


Telegraph
39 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Every time Nigel Farage has fallen out with his colleagues
Nigel Farage's bust-up with Zia Yusuf is only the latest in a string of extraordinary sackings, resignations and break-ups in his political career. Mr Yusuf, the former Reform UK chairman, quit on Thursday following a disagreement over a Reform MP's call for a burka ban. But Mr Farage has fallen out with multiple senior figures in the party and its predecessors, Ukip and the Brexit Party. Godfrey Bloom Nigel Farage was forced to suspend the Ukip party whip from economist Godfrey Bloom after he described women at a party conference in 2013 as 'sluts'. Mr Bloom also hit journalist Michael Crick over the head with the conference brochure. Mr Farage, furious that one of his conference speeches had been overshadowed, said: 'We can't put up with it. We can't have any one individual, however fun or flamboyant or entertaining or amusing they are, we cannot have any one individual destroying Ukip's national conference and that is what he's done today.' Douglas Carswell Douglas Carswell was Ukip's first MP after defecting from the Conservatives in 2014. He won the Clacton seat twice for the party but soon fell out with Mr Farage, who accused him of trying to block efforts to put him in the House of Lords. The party leader branded Mr Carswell a 'Tory party posh boy' and accused him of trying to 'undermine everything we've stood for for a very long time'. Mr Carswell quit Ukip at the 2017 election to stand as an independent, but he lost to the Conservatives. Suzanne Evans Suzanne Evans was the most senior woman in Ukip but fell out with Mr Farage over his leadership style in 2015. She called for two of the Ukip leader's advisers to resign and praised Patrick O'Flynn, economy spokesman, after he accused Mr Farage of being 'snarling and aggressive'. Ms Evans later went on TV to say Mr Farage was seen as 'very divisive' – a move that saw her sacked and party officials told not to have any further contact with her. Diane James Diane James was elected leader of Ukip in 2016 after Mr Farage quit in the wake of the Brexit referendum victory. But within three weeks, he was back, after senior party figures refused to accept her as leader. The story of Mr Farage's role in Ms James' departure is not fully understood. Ben Habib After leaving Ukip in 2018, Mr Farage set up the Brexit Party, which campaigned for a final ending of ties with the EU, and later Reform UK. Its co-deputy leader was Ben Habib but he was sacked soon after last year's general election. He later quit Reform, saying Mr Farage needed to learn that the party 'should not be controlled by one man'. Asked what impact his departure would have, Mr Farage said: 'None whatsoever.' Rupert Lowe Businessman Rupert Lowe was one of five Reform MPs elected last year – but his ego clashed with that of Mr Farage. After he accused Mr Farage in an interview of acting like a 'messiah', Mr Lowe lost the party whip and was reported to police over allegations he had physically threatened Zia Yusuf, then party chairman. Mr Lowe said at the time: 'I am 67 years old, and I have a 67-year-long unblemished record with the law. These are false allegations, designed to maliciously smear my name and ruin my reputation after I dared to bruise [Nigel] Farage's ego.' A party source told The Telegraph: 'This is what happens when you mess with Nigel.'


Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: 'Love cheat' Navy chief Sir Ben Key's affair with junior female officer was 'exposed after her husband reported them to the MoD'
An affair involving the suspended head of the Royal Navy and a junior female officer was exposed by her husband, sources have revealed. Admiral Sir Ben Key, 59, was told to 'step back from all duties' last month over claims the married father of three had an affair with a female officer. At the time, allies of the former First Sea Lord claimed the allegation was part of a 'dirty tricks campaign' against Sir Ben following months of fierce in-fighting at the top of the Armed Forces. But now it has emerged the 'consensual' relationship came to light after the officer's non-serving husband filed a complaint with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), The Telegraph reported. It is understood the husband believed Sir Ben should be held accountable to the same standards as those beneath him. He stands accused of breaching regulations barring sexual relations between commanders and those below them in rank, while endangering the marriage of a comrade is also forbidden. A source said: 'The husband was upset, because this is a man who prides himself on his Christian values and how he was raised by missionaries – but was doing this with someone else's wife.' Sir Ben, who was formerly in the running to become the next Chief of the Defence Staff, now faces a misconduct probe. Admiral Sir Ben, pictured with his wife Elly, is the subject of a misconduct probe following a complaint to the Ministry of Defence about the affair It is the first time in the 500-year history of the Navy that its First Sea Lord has come under such scrutiny. Insiders understand that he had attempted to retire 'quietly' once the affair was exposed, but General Dame Sharon Nesmith, the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, and John Healey, the Defence Secretary, insisted on an investigation. Many female officers particularly are understood to have felt 'let down' by Sir Ben's double standards. The source said: 'The female naval workforce feels shockingly let down by his moral high stance and hypocrisy.' In March, Sir Ben appeared in Parliament to provide oral evidence on the treatment of women in the armed forces and commented on 'unwelcome sexual behaviours'. He told the defence select committee: 'We are absolutely determined to create a Royal Navy in which people are judged for their professional conduct, welcomed for the contribution that they make, and accepted for who they are. 'Behaviours that run counter to that will not be accepted, and particularly those around unwelcome sexual behaviours. 'We have removed people from the service, including those who have commanded, where we have discovered that their behaviours were not appropriate, or we have removed people from positions of responsibility before situations have got out of hand.' In March, Sir Ben appeared in Parliament to provide oral evidence on the treatment of women in the armed forces and commented on 'unwelcome sexual behaviours' Those close to Sir Ben previously told MoS that they were 'shocked' by the news of an affair. A senior Navy source said: 'Across the board he is very popular, very competent and the majority of the naval service are extremely shocked and really sad to see it potentially end like this.' Another insider added: 'He is a stand-up bloke and treats everyone well.' His wife Elly has previously told of the 'burden' being in the Navy can place on family members. Last week Sir Gwyn Jenkins became the first Royal Marine to be appointed as head of the service. An MoD spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation into the matter continues.