Latest news with #Clacton
Sky News
2 days ago
- Business
- Sky News
Reform UK to accept crypto donations, Farage says
Reform UK will start accepting donations in cryptocurrency, making it the "first" British party to do so, its leader Nigel Farage has said - but the move has sparked concern from some experts. The announcement came as Mr Farage spoke at a Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, and as his party pledged to cut taxes on cryptocurrencies if elected. "My message to the British public, my message particularly to young people, is help us to help you bring our country properly into the 21st century," he said. "Let's recognise that crypto, Bitcoin, digital assets, are here to stay." The MP for Clacton also introduced a 'Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill' - which he described as a "bold, post-Brexit roadmap" to make London a "world-leading trading centre". However, experts have warned against the idea of allowing political donations to be made via cryptocurrency. Financial crime expert Steve Goodrich told Politico's Playbook: "The anonymity offered by digital currencies makes it nearly impossible for political parties to have confidence in their donors' identities. He added that the growth of crypto threatens a "widening loophole that could allow unlimited anonymous donations to flow into British politics." Seven million Britons now own cryptocurrencies, and Nigel Farage is trying to court their votes Donald Trump, who called Bitcoin a "scam" in 2021, changed course before the presidential election last year - and ended up receiving millions in donations from deep-pocketed investors. Mr Farage appears to be following the same playbook, and has pledged to create a "sovereign Bitcoin reserve fund" so taxpayers can benefit if this cryptocurrency's price rises. The Trump administration unveiled a similar policy in March - meaning Bitcoin seized from criminals would no longer be auctioned off, but held in case its value grows. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows the UK currently holds £4.7bn worth of Bitcoin - but Labour has ruled out treating it as an investment, arguing that this asset is too volatile. The government is yet to sell off these crypto holdings, despite the fact that it could comfortably pay for a U-turn on winter fuel payments - with plenty of change left over. Mr Farage announced his policy at the Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas. Pro-Bitcoin policies are unlikely to be front of mind for many British voters, who are still grappling with a cost-of-living crisis. But Reform's stance marks another point of difference from both Labour and the Conservatives, who are yet to take a definitive stance on crypto. It came as Reform chairman Zia Yusuf told reporters on Friday that if the party were elected to government, the party would allow people to pay their taxes through Bitcoin. He also said Reform would reduce capital gains tax on assets like Bitcoin to 10% - with the hope of generating up to £1bn for the Treasury in 10 years. Currently, cryptocurrencies incur a capital gains tax of either 18% or 24%. He added that the cut may encourage additional use of the currency, and encourage people to move their assets to Britain. Cryptocurrencies - like Bitcoin - have become increasingly popular over recent years, with research suggesting that around 12% of adults in the UK currently, or once, owned cryptoassets - compared to 4% in 2021. Last month, the chancellor announced plans to regulate cryptoassets in order to make Britain a "world leader".
Sky News
3 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Farage has 'grabbed the mic' to dominate media agenda, says Harman
Nigel Farage has successfully exploited the Commons recess to "grab the mic" and "dominate" the agenda, Harriet Harman has said. Speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the Labour peer said that the Reform UK leader has been able to "get his voice heard" while government was not in "full swing". Mr Farage used a speech this week to set himself, rather than Kemi Badenoch's Tories, up as the main opposition to Sir Keir Starmer at the next election. The prime minister responded on Thursday with a speech attacking the Clacton MP. Baroness Harman said: "It's slightly different between opposition and government because in government, the ministers have to be there the whole time. "They've got to be putting legislation through and they kind of hold the mic. "They can dominate the news media with the announcements they're making and with the bills they're introducing, and it's quite hard for the opposition to get a hearing whilst the government is in full swing. 1:37 "What we used to do when we were in opposition before 1997 is that as soon as there was a bank holiday and the House was not sitting, as soon as the half-term or the summer recess, we would be on an absolute war footing and dominate the airwaves because that was our opportunity. "And I think that's a bit of what Farage has done this week," Harman added. "Basically, Farage can dominate the media agenda." She went on: "He's kind of stepped forward, and he's using this moment of the House not sitting in order to actually get his voice heard. "It's sensible for the opposition to take the opportunity of when the House is not sitting to kind of grab the mic and that is what Nigel Farage has done." But Baroness Harman said it "doesn't seem to be what Kemi Badenoch's doing". She explained that the embattled leader "doesn't seem to be grabbing the mic like Nigel Farage has" during recess, and added that "there's greater opportunity for the opposition".
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Farage's cynical pitch: Labour must be bolder to see off the threat
Last July, concluding his election victory speech after winning in Clacton, Nigel Farage announced that after inflicting grievous damage on the Conservative party that night, Reform UK would now 'be coming for Labour'. Since then, on issues such as the nationalisation of Britain's beleaguered steel industry, Mr Farage has carefully positioned his party as sympathetic to working-class concerns and fears. His heavily-trailed speech on Tuesday, in Westminster, was the most direct attempt yet to present himself as a new spokesperson for Labour's traditional blue-collar voters. The most talented and cynical political opportunist of his generation, Mr Farage knows where the openings lie. Labour has tied itself in unedifying knots over its deeply unpopular cuts to the winter fuel allowance, and agonised over reversing the Tories' two-child benefit cap. Mr Farage simply marched his party into the vacant political space where a centre-left party should be. Even if the government belatedly U-turns on both issues, Reform will be able to claim to have blazed the trail. Understandably, Labour figures have ground their teeth at airy promises of largesse to the less well-off, and pointed to the Reform leader's track record. There was no serious effort on Tuesday to make any of the sums add up by addressing the fiscal implications of a huge tax overhaul. There are also, of course, compelling grounds to doubt that Mr Farage's conversion to egalitarian politics is wholly sincere. Since entering politics as a privately educated former stockbroker, he has been a Thatcherite advocate of low tax, low regulation and privatising the NHS. More Jacob Rees-Mogg than Aneurin Bevan, in short. But cries of cosplay, and allegations of 'unserious' politics, will not suffice. Before partygate, the Eton-educated Boris Johnson did not do too badly by indulging in both. Mr Farage will not expect Sir Keir Starmer to take up his invitation to pay a joint visit to a working men's club. But he does spy a working-class route to power. As is increasingly clear, Reform's leader views a form of rightwing communitarianism as the means to weld together the kind of shire and town coalition that won the Brexit referendum. This means performatively pivoting to the left on some economic issues, in the hope of attracting less well-off Labour voters into his authoritarian anti-immigrant project. It is the same kind of political realignment that Marine Le Pen has pursued, with some success, in France. As Reform continues to score significant polling leads, eclipsing the moribund Tories, Labour badly needs a progressive strategy that can adequately respond. At the next election, it will need the support of the blue-collar voters Mr Farage hopes to seduce, as well as public sector professionals and liberal graduates in university towns and cities. Yet for now an unattractive combination of economic timidity, cuts and courting the anti-migrant vote has seen it simultaneously lose support to Mr Farage, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. There is another way. Policies such as the public ownership of utilities, and the introduction of wealth taxes in an ever more unequal society, enjoy broad support both among blue-collar voters and in Labour's urban strongholds. That suggests a broader groundswell of support for a more expansive social democratic approach – one that can deliver a more collectivist and equal society without embracing the xenophobia and extreme social conservatism that defines Mr Farage and his movement. Last week, Sir Keir told his party's MPs to view Reform as their 'main rivals for power'. A different, nastier Britain may await, if Mr Farage's attempt to park his tanks on Labour's working-class lawns is not taken by the party as a final warning.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Farage taunts 'terrified' Starmer as he vows to scrap two-child benefit cap, restore winter fuel payments and hand married couples tax breaks
Nigel Farage derided 'terrified' Labour today as he launch a dramatic bid to woo left-wing voters. The Reform leader trolled that Keir Starmer is running scared of the threat from the insurgents as he committed to scrap the two-child benefit cap altogether and fully restore winter fuel payments. Alongside the moves on two totemic issues for left-wingers, Mr Farage also announced plans for a transferable marriage tax allowance worth around £1,000 a year. At a press conference in London, the Clacton MP accused Sir Keir of not 'believing in anything' and merely copying Reform's positions. He also took aim at the Tories saying they were 'finished', mocking Robert Jenrick for having his 'teeth' fixed as he manoeuvres to take over from Kemi Badenoch. Mr Farage also swiped that Boris Johnson will be too busy looking after his latest child to make a political comeback. However, Reform is facing mounting questions about how they plan to pay for the extraordinary giveaways, with national opinion polls showing a clear advantage over Labour and the Tories. Mr Farage denied there was a contradiction between being 'the party of workers' and the 'party of entrepreneurs'. He said lifting the two-child benefit cap was a way of helping 'British families' rather than people who 'come in and have a lot of kids'. He argued that Reform was going to make 'big savings' in local government and could save £40billion a year nationally by scrapping Net Zero, as well as axing 'DEI' initiatives and quangos. The party would also stop 'young undocumented males' coming across the Channel and being put up in 'five star hotels' with 'free dental'. The Tories have strongly backed the two-child benefit cap saying it is 'fair' Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe laid into Mr Farage for his 'cynical' move on benefits Tories pointed to a massive black hole in Reform's spending plans Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the pledges amounted to well over £60billion of extra spending, while Reform supporter Tim Mongtomerie this morning admitted the sums do not yet 'add up'. Mr Farage's intervention is designed to embarrass Sir Keir, as the PM and ministers wrestle over proposals for cutting benefits. There have been hints that the government will bow to pressure to loosen the two-child benefit cap, which critics argue fuels poverty. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson suggested this morning changes are 'on the table'. However, no firm announcements have been made, and Sir Keir has been unable to spell out how he will widen eligibility for winter fuel allowance, as Rachel Reeves desperately tries to balance the books. The speech, framed as Mr Farage's 'pitch to working people', saw the Reform leader flanked by council leaders, mayors and new Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin. He said the Government are 'collapsing in terms of support' and later added: 'Reform really are now the party of working people.' Mr Farage went on the attack over the deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, accusing Sir Keir of being 'a man that puts international courts before British sovereignty' and the 'most unpatriotic PM in history'. 'He and his government are so hopelessly out of touch with working people. They U-turn on everything as they do not believe in anything.' Mr Farage accused Labour of lacking the will to bring net migration down to zero, and claimed Sir Keir's deal with the EU 'betrays the very essence of Brexit'. 'This Prime Minister has no connection with working people. No connection with what we used to call working class communities,' he said. 'He doesn't understand what it's like to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and go out and work physically hard for the time, he doesn't seem to understand that the tax burden, the cost of living, energy bills have meant that people genuinely have had a lower standard of living, quite consistently, over the course of the last 10 years.' Mr Farage added: 'His leadership frankly is dismal, it is uninspiring, it is disconnected from real life, it is in my view, unpatriotic, and now even opinion polling today suggesting that over half the country thinks his leadership, frankly, is pointless.' Laying out his view on the family benefit cap, Mr Farage said: 'We built this party around three key principles, things that we think need to be fought for and defended, things that we think most people in this country hold the dearest in their hearts. 'That is of course family, community, and country. That is why we believe lifting the two-child cap is the right thing to do. Not because we support a benefits culture, but because we believe for lower-paid workers this actually makes having children just a little bit easier for them. 'It's not a silver bullet, it doesn't solve all of those problems. But it helps them.' The married couple tax allowance would exempt one spouse from paying tax on the first £25,000 of their income. The other would enjoy a tax-free income of £20,000, the level to which Reform has promised to raise the threshold for the basic rate. At present, workers pay the 20 per cent rate of income tax on everything between £12,570 and £50,270. Critics say that move alone would cost at least £50billion. Mr Farage said: 'We need to encourage people to have families and ensure they feel financially able to have them. The collapsing birth rate in the UK, now well below the rates needed, is an existential crisis for our country. The Tories and Labour have sought to solve it with open borders. 'A Reform government will cut net immigration to zero and do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them. 'Scrapping the two-child [benefit] cap is just the start. We will, as soon as finances allow, introduce a UK 25 per cent transferable marriage tax allowance.' He branded the current benefits system 'perverse' because it means some can work part-time 16 hours a week but earn less than if they claimed benefits. Mr Farage said Reform would pay for winter fuel payments and ending the two-child benefit cap by scrapping net zero and the 'DEI agenda'. He said: 'The national debt is now £2.8trillion, and that's not just the last government, but this one too, are hopelessly adrift when it comes to government borrowing. 'We are going to make big savings. We will stand here before you in one year's time and show you the excessive costs that we've taken out of local government and at a national level. 'If we win the next election, we will scrap net zero, something that is costing the Exchequer an extraordinary £40 billion plus every year. There will be no more asylum hotels or houses of multiple occupancy. People who come here illegally, across the channel or on the back of lorries will not be allowed to stay. We will scrap the DEI agenda, which is costing the taxpayer up to £7 billion a year throughout the public sector, and yes, we see considerable savings to be made amongst the quangos. 'So yes, I do accept that these proposals, especially the one of lifting to £20,000 the level at which people start paying tax, I accept that it's expensive, but I genuinely believe that we can pay for it because we're not ideologically tied to the same ideas upon which we believe the Conservative and Labour governments have gone so wrong.' Mr Farage also declared that he would reverse the deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay billions of pounds to lease back the Diego Garcia military base. However, it is unclear how Reform would do that after the treaty has been ratified. Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said: 'Nigel Farage, a private-educated stockbroker and career politician, has only ever cared about his own self-interest and personal ambition, never about what is good for working people in this country. 'Farage wants to abolish the NHS, praised Liz Truss' disastrous mini-budget, opposed Labour's landmark employment reforms and said Jaguar Land Rover, a huge employer, deserves to go bust. 'His Reform manifesto included billions of pounds worth of unfunded spending pledges but did not commit to the triple lock. Farage must urgently clarify whether he will cut the state pension to pay for his reckless tax cuts.' Ms Phillipson told BBC Breakfast on the two-child benefit cap. 'We're certainly looking at it as part of the task force. As I say, nothing's off the table but this is not straightforward, the costs are high,' she said. 'When we came into Government we had to make some difficult decisions about how we got the economy back on a stable footing, because actually it's working people who lose out when you have that kind of instability that we saw under Liz Truss, when mortgage rates went up, rent went up as a result of all of the instability and the chaos. 'But I came into politics to tackle child poverty, to make sure that wherever you're from doesn't determine what you can go on to achieve in life, to break that link between background and success. 'That is the moral mission of this Labour Government. That is what we are all as a Government determined to deliver.'
BreakingNews.ie
25-05-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Farage ‘backs scrapping child benefit cap and restoring winter fuel payments'
Nigel Farage will commit to restoring the winter fuel payment to all pensioners and to scrapping the two-child benefit cap, reports have suggested. The Reform UK leader is expected to appeal to left-wing voters with the moves in a speech next week, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Advertisement The newspaper said Mr Farage will describe Sir Keir Starmer as 'one of the most unpatriotic prime ministers in our history and this past week has been evidence of that', in his first speech since Reform made large gains in the local elections. Reform UK is riding high in the opinion polls after its victories in town halls and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, according to YouGov. It is the most popular political party with voters, followed by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and then the Tories in a historic fourth place. Mr Farage, MP for Clacton, spent last week on holiday while the House of Commons was sitting. Advertisement While MPs have left Westminster for recess, he is expected to return to the political arena and say: 'The Prime Minister is out of touch with working people, he doesn't understand what they want and how they feel about the big issues facing Britain. 'It's going to be these very same working people that will vote Reform at the next election and kick Labour out of Government.' A Reform source told the newspaper: 'We're against the two-child cap and we'd go further on winter fuel by bringing the payment back for everyone. 'That's already outflanking Labour.' Advertisement Sir Keir Starmer (Justin Tallis/PA) This week at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Starmer signalled he wanted to restore the winter fuel payment to more pensioners, which is likely to take place at the budget in the autumn. The payment was previously made to all pensioners, but Labour reduced it to only those receiving pension credit in one of its early acts in government. Ministers are planning to restore the payment to all but the wealthiest pensioners, the Sunday Times reported. Civil servants have warned that any changes are very unlikely to be made before the winter due to ageing computer systems, the newspaper said. Advertisement Elsewhere, the UK government's action plan to tackle child poverty – a document likely to contain proposals to scrap the two-child benefit cap – has been delayed until the autumn. The plan is likely to be aligned with the budget so it can be fully costed. The Observer newspaper reported Mr Starmer has privately backed plans to scrap the cap, and made it clear he wants to drive down child poverty. The UK government is facing pressure from its own backbenchers to eliminate the cap, all while the threat of a rebellion over a wide-ranging package of welfare reforms looms. Advertisement
