Keir Starmer should 'stop wasting valuable time' on Farage
He may also wish to observe what is happening in the U.S., specifically, the budget and reconciliation bill that is currently being considered in the Senate.
Within that legislation are cuts to welfare, Medicaid, and food stamps, all targeted at the poorest communities. Add the imposition of tariffs, which will be paid by everyday Americans as the cost of day-to-day living rises exponentially.
Except for Medicaid, it is difficult not to see the similarities between what is being proposed by our chancellor relating to welfare cuts and the winter fuel allowance.
It is likely that taxes will rise in October, adding further misery to the middle and lower income earners and pensioners, while personal allowance thresholds stagnate.
I suggest the P.M. address these issues soon and leave the battle with Farage for another day.
Malcolm Richards.
Newport
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Daily Mirror
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Nigel Farage gets another slap in the face to end disastrous week of chaos
Nigel Farage has seen his Reform party descend into chaos after an MP's question was branded 'dumb', the chairman quit with a scathing message and Labour unexpectedly triumphed in the Hamilton by-election Nigel Farage may be wishing he had stayed on holiday. Reform UK is in chaos after its chairman quit hours after accusing the party's newest MP of asking a "dumb" question at PMQs. And shortly after it finished third in a hotly-contested by-election, despite being projected to beat Labour. To make matters worse for Mr Farage there are reports of disgruntlement as big donations fail to materialise. Following a brutal few days, his former-ally-turned-nemesis Rupert Lowe said he "must never be Prime Minister". It raises further questions about Mr Farage's ability to lead effectively as he tries to convince voters he can be trusted to run the country. Here we look at how the week unfolded for Mr Farage. Criticism over his holiday Mr Farage arrived back in Parliament on Monday with criticism about his termtime holiday ringing in his ears. You'll remember that he swanned off overseas rather than grill Keir Starmer about his EU reset agreement. Despite griping about the deal on social media, Mr Farage had already headed off on holiday when the PM came to the Commons to ask questions. He was slammed for "sunning himself in Europe" and being a "part time leader". A Tory spokesman said "the part-time leader of Reform UK is sunning himself in Europe while Parliament is sitting". He continued: "He clearly doesn't have the stamina to stand up to Starmer." And a Labour spokesman said: ' Nigel Farage clearly cares so passionately about this issue he's decided he can't get up from his sunbed to represent his constituents or his party. 'He's not a leader – he's an opportunist who just talks Britain down whenever it suits him." MP demands Starmer does something Reform wouldn't do either Things got tasty at PMQs on Wednesday when Reform's newest MP, Sarah Pochin, stood up to ask her first question of Mr Starmer. She demanded to know whether Mr Starmer would follow the lead of other countries in Europe and ban the burqa. Ms Pochin suggested it should be done in the name of "public safety". The problem is that her own party had not committed to doing it either - although colleagues have rolled in behind her. Mr Starmer said he was "not going to follow her down that line". Reform later clarified that banning the burqa was not one of its policies. Chairman brands MP's question 'dumb' The plot thickened when the party chairman, Zia Yusuf, publicly attacked Ms Pochin, branding her question "dumb". He posted on social media that he "learnt about the question and the party's position re: it not being policy for the first time on my X feed". But in a scathing conclusion he went on: "I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do." Yusuf quits with scathing verdict Things went from bad to worse for Reform when Mr Yusuf decided he'd had enough. In a scathing post he said he no longer thought getting Reform into power was a "good use of my time". He had been brought in last year by Mr Farage to professionalise the party. But according to The Express he has been increasingly sidelined in recent weeks, setting the scene for a showdown with the leader. Mr Yusuf posted on Twitter /X: 'Eleven months ago I became chairman of Reform. 'I've worked full-time as a volunteer to take the party from 14 to 30%, quadrupled its membership and delivered historic electoral results. I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.' Labour win surprise by-election Mr Farage started the week up in Scotland, where he may have been hopeful of an upset in the Hamilton by-election. It was expected to be a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform, but in the early hours of Friday it was confirmed that Labour had won the seat. Reform were pushed back into third. Mr Starmer said people had "voted for change" after Davy Russell won the Scottish Parliament seat. Mr Russell said the community had "sent a message to Farage and his mob tonight - the poison of Reform isn't us, it isn't Scotland and we don't want your division here." Frustration as donations do not materialise There was more bad news for Mr Farage as reports emerged of disgruntlement with Reform's new Treasurer. Insiders griped to the Financial Times that big donations have failed to materialise since property tycoon Nick Candy took over the role. One of them told the newspaper: 'He has been all talk and no trousers.' Another senior figure said the party had 'not been receiving as much as I'd like' in recent weeks. Reform UK has been contacted for comment. Farage 'must never be PM' says former ally Mr Farage's spectacular fallout with Rupert Lowe is another headache to contend with. You'll remember he was suspended and reported to police over allegations about his behaviour toward Mr Yusuf. The investigation was closed with no further action. The spat happened after Mr Lowe accused Mr Farage of acting like a "messiah" and venting frustration over his leadership. Reform insists the two things were not linked, but the battle looks set to continue for some time. Meanwhile it's fair to say Mr Lowe, who now sits as an independent MP, is enjoying what he sees. He posted on Twitter/X: "Farage says he would 'rather eat razor blades' than allow me back into Reform. " Having sat with him as an MP for eight months, I've already got plenty of them in my back. Farage and his ego are together incapable of building a team. He must never be Prime Minister."
NBC News
40 minutes ago
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7 senators to watch as Republicans make changes to Trump's big bill
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The National
an hour ago
- The National
This is the genuine silver lining in the SNP by-election loss
The swing implied by the Norstat poll a few days ago suggested that the SNP ought to defeat Labour in the by-election by a tiny margin of less than one percentage point, whereas in fact Labour came out on top by just over two points. That's a trivial difference, and thus the result lends support to the main message of the polls, which is that the SNP enjoy a substantial nationwide lead on the Holyrood constituency ballot. Hamilton should not be mistaken for a bellwether constituency. READ MORE: SNP campaign chief addresses independence focus after by-election loss It's significantly tilted towards Labour, in the sense that if support for the SNP and Labour was roughly tied across Scotland, Labour would likely be winning Hamilton by a double-digit margin. It's absolutely possible for the SNP to remain the largest single party in the Scottish Parliament if they lose in Hamilton again next May, and even if they lose by a bigger margin than they did in the by-election. The potential problem, however, is that by-election results do not just passively provide insights into the present state of play. They can also in themselves be drivers of public opinion. In particular, surprise by-election outcomes often generate snowball effects in favour of the winning party. The SNP are still haunted by the memory of how their unexpectedly heavy drubbing in the Rutherglen & Hamilton West by-election in 2023 provided Labour with a springboard that helped propel Keir Starmer to a majority of Scottish seats in the 2024 general election. Fortunately, there's a good reason for doubting that a similar effect will occur after Hamilton. The UK Labour government is one of the most hapless administrations in living memory, and it seems entirely plausible that within a few days the afterglow of the by-election result will be overshadowed by yet another misstep from Starmer or Rachel Reeves. If the SNP can just weather the short-term storm of a few painful headlines, it's conceivable that within a few months they'll look back at this by-election as having no real significance beyond the obvious fact that it reduced their contingent of MSPs by one. That said, it's also important to consider the question of the dog that didn't bark. The only reason the Labour win comes as a surprise is that expectations of a massive Reform UK breakthrough, and a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform, had been allowed to run away with themselves. If the result had played out in line with those expectations, there was a theory that John Swinney would have been in a no-lose situation, because he could have used any Reform win to rally the anti-Farage vote behind the SNP, who would have looked like the only remaining alternative to a Reform-led government in Edinburgh. READ MORE: 'We have work to do': John Swinney reacts to shock Hamilton by-election loss Instead, Anas Sarwar has been reconfirmed as the leading challenger to Swinney, albeit only just - and it's obviously a lot harder to paint Sarwar as a bogey-man. But in truth it's perhaps just as well for the SNP that Reform weren't able to use Hamilton to establish themselves as the main opposition party in Scotland. If they had done, there's a danger that the rump Tory vote might have moved across to Farage en masse, and pushed Reform to the type of vote share where they could have seriously threatened the SNP on the constituency ballot next year. There's something to be said for staying in the more familiar territory of an SNP v Labour battle, not least because Starmer's unpopularity ought to ensure there is a hard ceiling on Labour support next May. Another consolation for the SNP is that they can point to their narrow defeat as a timely wake-up call for the independence movement. The Scottish Green candidate in Hamilton took 695 votes, amounting to a 2.6% vote share. If there had been no Green candidate, and if the SNP had taken at least 87% of Green votes, Labour would have been defeated. In practice that's not what would have happened in the real world, so the Green intervention did not cost the SNP victory. But it's now clear that there are some central belt constituencies that the SNP will not win next year unless they can squeeze votes from smaller pro-independence parties, and unless they can persuade disillusioned SNP voters not to stay at home. A few constituencies here or there could make all the difference between retaining the pro-independence majority at Holyrood, and losing it.
