Reform candidate calls for ‘gunfire' at migrant boats
Reform UK council candidates have been found defending Southport rioters and allegedly advocating shooting at migrant boats, despite Nigel Farage claiming that the party has done a 'damn good job' at vetting for offensive remarks.
Farage has said his party's use of artificial intelligence techniques to vet potential councillors meant that there would be no one 'who persistently has said things that we would find fundamentally offensive'.
However, The Times has uncovered comments from several candidates that rival parties have called 'disturbing' and 'loony'.
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John Birch, a candidate in Warwickshire, reposted a message on the seventh day of last summer's far-right-led riots that described the violence as Britons insisting that 'we have had enough'. It read: 'Now our patience
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Rangers appoint new boss Russell Martin on three-year contract
Rangers have confirmed the appointment of Russell Martin as the club's new head coach. The 39-year-old former MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton boss has signed a three-year contract. He will be joined at Ibrox by assistant head coach Matt Gill and performance coach Rhys Owen. Martin guided Southampton to promotion to the Premier League last year but was sacked in December following one win from their first 16 games. Rangers finished last season under the caretaker management of former captain Barry Ferguson, having dismissed Philippe Clement in February. Ex-Scotland defender Martin, who had a short loan spell as a player at Rangers in 2018, is tasked with wrestling power back from the other side of Glasgow after Celtic's stranglehold on Scottish football continued with a 13th William Hill Premiership title in 14 seasons. 'From my time here, I had a taste of how special this club is, the expectation, the passion and the history,' he told the club's website. 'Now, as I return, I'm determined to bring success back, for the supporters, the players, and everyone inside this club. 'There's a lot to be done, but the goal is clear: win matches, win trophies and give Rangers fans a team that they can be proud of.' Martin's arrival is the latest in a series of major changes at the club. An American consortium led by Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises secured a majority shareholding on Friday, while new sporting director Kevin Thelwell officially began work on Monday. Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart, who led the recruitment process alongside Thelwell, said: 'Our criteria for our next coach were clear: we wanted a coach who will excel in terms of how we want to play, improve our culture, develop our squad, and ultimately win matches. Russell was the standout candidate.'
Telegraph
25 minutes ago
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Ed Miliband is laying a trap for Nigel Farage
If Reform UK wins the next election, scrapping net zero is first on their list of policies. Party leader Nigel Farage believes the move could save tens of billions over the next parliament, freeing up funds for tax breaks and benefits boosts. Labour's Ed Miliband, on the other hand, appears to be building his platform on preventing this coming to pass. If Labour can block Reform by triumphing at the ballot box, that's all well and good. If it can't, then there are other tools. As the New Statesman has noted, Miliband's newfound enthusiasm for community wind projects may partly be an attempt to 'future-proof' net zero, pushing things through today that will be tricky to unwind tomorrow. Underhand, possibly, but potentially effective. And it's an approach we could well see expand to other elements of the policy in the near future. Reform's targeted savings from the transition to net zero are already under fire. While the party believes it's possible to save £225bn over the next parliament, the Institute for Government (whose report the figures are partly based on) has argued that some of this sum constitutes private sector spending. Just as important, however, is the question of how much of it will be easily cut. Depending on which analysis you follow, spending over the rest of this parliament could average somewhere between £13bn and £19bn per year, with the latest Climate Change Committee Carbon Budget suggesting that anywhere between £6bn and £23bn of public funding could be needed in 2035. Over the period to 2050, one Office for Budget Responsibility report (now a little old) estimated the net cost at £344bn to the public sector, with the downside risk at £553bn. These are large sums. The upper end – £22bn or so each year – would be enough to fund the reversal of the winter fuel payments cuts (£1.65bn per year), raise the personal allowance by £1,250 (£11.1bn), scrap the two-child benefit cap (£3.4bn) and add another 0.2pc of GDP onto the defence budget – covering almost half the gap between Labour's distant 3pc ambition and the mooted Nato 3.5pc target. It's also the case that these sums could be underestimated. The Climate Change Committee's analysis shows net zero coming in at a net annual cost of 0.2pc of GDP per year over the next quarter century, or roughly £4bn per year, with the costs front-loaded and net savings towards 2050. But underlying these figures are some very optimistic assumed cost curves for the future price of electricity capacity, including a forecast for offshore wind unit costs to fall by 39pc over the next 25 years. Now, this might happen. 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By March this year, it had been discontinued on the grounds of 'adverse developments relating to continued increase of supply chain costs, higher interest rates and an increase in the risk to construct and operate Hornsea 4 on the planned timeline'. Poof! 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of planned capacity vanished into the ether, just as the plan is to boost it from 15GW to 88GW by 2040. It's a neat illustration of one of net zero's risks. If other technologies also stall out on cost reductions, if delays to projects push the mooted benefits further back into the future, if higher interest rates raise the cost of capital, or if the costs of projects slip in typical fashion, then the costs of the transition could rise further still. And that uncertainty makes scrapping net zero even more appealing for Reform. A policy which they believe will cut energy bills – contracts for difference, the renewables obligation feed-in tariffs and the guarantee of origin system have added £280 to annual household costs between them, before we get to balancing payments and transmission costs – is also a way to work towards balancing the books and reducing fiscal risks. It's a win-win. If, that is, they can pull it off. The concern will be that Labour is trying to tie their hands, setting up contracts and legal commitments well in advance of the next election that will make it extremely hard for a future government to change course. There are early signs the party is moving in this direction, with the next auction round for renewable subsidies taking the approach of inviting bids first towards a targeted capacity, then setting a cash budget after reviewing them. 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Sky News
26 minutes ago
- Sky News
Energy costs 'an anchor on our ambition', CBI chief warns government
The head of a major business lobby group is warning that energy bills in the UK are an "anchor" on private sector ambitions, exacerbating the effects of an annual £24bn burden from government costs. CBI boss Rain Newton-Smith was to tell the body's annual business dinner in London that a "serious" plan was needed to address the energy issue, arguing they were holding back investment and the country's competitiveness. A reliance on natural gas has meant that both households and businesses have been exposed to volatile prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The CBI says UK companies pay 50% more for their energy than counterparts in France and Germany - and four times more than comparable operators in the US and Canada. Ms Newton-Smith was to tell her audience of business leaders and politicians that 40% of UK firms were holding back on investment due to punitive energy costs alone. She argued they were on top of an estimated extra £24bn a year in tax and wage hikes imposed by government. They included three increases to minimum pay rates since the 2023/24 financial year and rises to employer national insurance contributions which came into force in April. 3:15 The CBI said Ms Newton-Smith will say: "Business is now straining under £24 billion in extra costs per year. "That's more than the cost of Crossrail. More than the Home Office budget - on business, every year." She will add: "With costs running so high, there is one issue we absolutely must tackle. "Without it, any industrial strategy, any serious plan for economic security will fall flat on its face. Energy." She will say the rising cost of energy "isn't just a cost issue". "It's a jobs issue. An investment issue. A security issue. "Because how can UK business compete with one hand tied behind its back - and the other straining to keep the lights on? "This is an anchor on our ambition. A crack in our economic security. And it must be fixed." The CBI's suggestions include removing policy costs from electricity bills and a focus on low-carbon energy to help achieve economic security. The latter wish has formed the centrepiece of the Labour government's approach, arguing that a push for renewable energy is a key pathway to bring down bills, emissions and grow the economy at the same time. A government spokesperson said: "Through our sprint to clean power, we will get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets - protecting business and household finances with clean, homegrown energy that we control.
