Latest news with #NigelFarage
Daily Record
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Record
Anas Sarwar blasts 'toxic little man' Nigel Farage and says Reform cannot win Hamilton by-election
EXCLUSIVE: The Scottish Labour leader accused Nigel Farage of being a "poisonous, pathetic and toxic little man", as well as a 'coward' and 'charlatan'. Anas Sarwar has blasted Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as a 'toxic little man' as he backed Labour to win a bitter Holyrood by-election. The Scottish Labour leader rejected claims Reform can win Thursday's crunch vote and laid into Farage as a 'coward' and 'charlatan'. Voters in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse will elect their new MSP on June 5th after one of the ugliest by-elections in decades. The SNP and Labour were believed to be locked in a two horse race early on, but anti-immigration Reform are also in the hunt. Farage 's party was accused of taking the contest into the gutter over an online advert which claimed Sarwar would prioritise Pakistani communities. SNP leader John Swinney then said the by-election is now a 'straight contest' between his party and Reform. He made the claim after Labour by-election Davy Russell was accused of hiding from the media. In an open letter to voters, Sarwar dismissed the First Minister's framing and rubbished the idea Reform UK are contenders: 'Don't believe the spin and the nonsense of John Swinney - this by-election is a two horse race between Scottish Labour and the SNP. Reform can't win here. 'Throughout this by-election campaign, Reform have tried every dirty trick in the book to drive a wedge to divide this community - but I know you will see right through it. 'They know they can't win - they don't care about beating the SNP, all they care about is getting attention . ' Nigel Farage is a poisonous, pathetic and toxic little man that doesn't understand this community or our country." On the Reform advert, which Labour and the SNP say is racist, he wrote: 'He and his cronies in Reform have spent thousands of pounds spreading bile, misinformation and racial slurs. Scotland is my home. I was born here. I am raising my children here. And I was proud to work in Scotland's NHS, serving one of our most deprived communities. 'While I am seeking to unite and change our country after 18 years of SNP failure, Nigel Farage wants to divide us. He left the Tories because they weren't Right Wing enough for him - but now that former president of the Margaret Thatcher Appreciation Society claims to be the great champion of working people in Scotland. 'Like every other plastic hard man he shrank from the challenge. He is a charlatan and a coward who knows nothing and cares less about this community.' In his open letter, Sarwar said the by-election is between Labour and the SNP, not Reform and Swinney's party: 'The truth is Reform can't win in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and they can't win in Scotland. They can't beat the SNP and they have already admitted that they are aiming for third place.' He concluded: 'The SNP has failed you. Reform can't win in Scotland. And only Scottish Labour's Davy Russell can beat the SNP.' Swinney claimed the by-election is a two horse race between Reform and the SNP in an open letter of his own to Labour voters this week. When the Record broke the story over the 'racist' advert earlier in the campaign, Reform had spent around £8,000 on it. According to Meta, which owns Facebook, the total spend is now between £15,000 and £20,000. An SNP source said: "This is desperate spin from a Scottish Labour Leader who knows his party's campaign has been dreadful. "This by-election is a two horse race between the SNP and Reform. On 5th June, only a vote for the SNP will put Scotland first and stop Farage."
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Reform UK Wants To Turn Britain Into The World's Premier Hub For Crypto
Nigel Farage holds up a copy of his proposed Cryptocurrencies and Digital Finance Bill at The ... More Bitcoin Conference at The Venetian Convention & Expo Center on May 29, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage unveiled his party's plan to turn Britain into a crypto powerhouse if it gets elected. 'We are going to launch in Britain a crypto revolution,' Farage said. 'We're going to make London one of the major trading centers of the world. We're deadly serious, and here it is.' He was holding up a copy of the party's 'Crypto Assets and Digital Finance Bill' during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. The party's bill promises to cut the capital gains tax on crypto investments to 10% from the current rate of 24%. The legislation also would mandate the creation of a Bitcoin digital reserve at the Bank of England and make it illegal for banks to close the accounts of people who trade in cryptocurrencies or digital products. Farage also announced that his Reform UK party will now accept donations in crypto. His comments come just over a week after bitcoin hit an all-time high near $112,000. Despite retreating from that level, it's still up 15% for the year. Farage thinks the U.K. is falling behind. He said that 7 million people in Britain already have crypto assets, and one in four under the age of 30 have crypto assets. 'And yet, our outdated Labour and Conservative governments have done nothing in this space at all,' he added. The finance ministry declined to respond directly to Farage's comments, pointing instead to the draft legislation for regulating crypto assets that was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the end of April. The government's new law promises to extend existing financial regulation to crypto exchanges, dealers and agents in an effort to crack down on bad actors while supporting legitimate innovation. 'Crypto firms with U.K. customers will also have to meet clear standards on transparency, consumer protection, and operational resilience—just like firms in traditional finance,' the finance ministry said in a statement at the time. Reeves said she had discussed crypto regulation with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during her most recent visit to Washington, and that the two countries planned to discuss this further in June. U.S. President Donald Trump was initially a critic of crypto, but he later embraced cryptocurrencies and digital assets during his presidential campaign, vowing to roll back regulatory curbs on the industry. After Trump came to office, securities regulators have dropped or put on hold investigations and prosecutions of about a dozen crypto companies. Last week, the U.S. President held a private dinner for the top buyers of his personalized meme coin, known as $Trump. Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who are both been involved in crypto ventures of their own, appeared at the same Bitcoin 2025 conference, as did Vice President JD Vance. Britain's efforts to align with the U.S. on regulating crypto currencies and digital assets is also a source of concern for the EU. The European Central Bank (ECB) thinks that Trump's support for the crypto industry heightens the risk of a financial crisis that could spread to the European economy. It's worth noting that Reform UK currently has only five lawmakers in Britain's 650-seat parliament, but its popularity has soared over the past year. The governing Labour Party has dropped behind Reform UK in recent polling. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. spoke at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 28, ... More 2025.
Sky News
7 hours 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".
The Sun
9 hours ago
- General
- The Sun
Hermer and Starmer are drunk on concept of international law…and their blind faith to it is leading us down dark path
THE longer a political argument goes on, US lawyer Mike Godwin wrote back in 1990, the greater the probability that it will end with a comparison with the Nazis. It is inevitable, in other words. If 'Godwin's Law', as it has come to be termed, was true 35 years ago, it is even more so now. 4 4 Attorney General Lord Hermer has become the latest to make the jibe, during a lecture at defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute. In it, he compared the arguments of those who want to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) — which includes Reform UK and many Conservatives as well as ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption — to those of Nazi lawyers who rejected international law. To be fair to Hermer, he didn't quite call Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch 'Nazis', but he did accuse them of naivety, suggesting that they would embolden dictators like Vladimir Putin. Chemical warfare Only human rights treaties, he asserts, stand between us and a return to fascism. I don't know what world Lord Hermer is living in, but Russia's membership of the ECHR didn't exactly stop Putin bumping off his enemies, invading Crimea and waging chemical warfare on the streets of Britain with the Skripal poisonings. It was only when he attempted to annex the rest of Ukraine in 2022 by blasting its cities and sending in the tanks that the Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR, finally had enough and suspended Russia's membership. At the time there were more than 17,000 cases pending against Russia before the European Court of Human Rights. So much for the effectiveness of international law. Meanwhile, as we have seen over and over again, the ECHR is being used by activist lawyers to frustrate the deportation of illegal migrants — serious criminals and terrorists among them. If your child doesn't like the chicken nuggets available back home in Albania, or if your conviction for sex offences against children will make you unpopular back in Iraq, deporting you is, apparently, a terrible breach of your human rights. Starmer signs deal with Mauritius to hand over Chagos Islands The 'right to a family life' now seems to mean pretty well anything, including the right to run a criminal gang in Britain. This is as far from the original intentions of the ECHR as could be imagined. Those who drafted it in 1950 would be turning in their graves if they knew what it had become. Hermer and Starmer are simply drunk on the concept of international law The convention, as written then, contained relatively few clauses but ones on which most of humanity could agree, such as a prohibition against torture. It didn't even ban the death penalty. Over the years, however, it has been expanded via various protocols, many of them highly political. Activist judges have been able to interpret the convention how they wish, using something called 'living instrument doctrine'. Democracy doesn't seem to count for much. Unlike the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which predates the ECHR by two years and declares that 'the will of the people shall be the basis of government', the ECHR provides no such assurance. That is why it must go. It has become an instrument for an elite band of lawyers to rule over the rest of us, suppressing democratic will. Not that this will cut much ice with the likes of Hermer and Keir Starmer. They won't want to dump the ECHR, or other such structures of international law, because they, of course, are members of that elite — it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas. Again, to be fair to Hermer, he did acknowledge that there are some problems with the ECHR, and suggested it might have to be renegotiated. But we have had endless amendments and they have ended the same way — with ever more protocols giving activist judges ever more powers. Hermer and Starmer are simply drunk on the concept of international law. Even when they can see its faults they can't pull themselves away from it, can't bring themselves to ask whether Britain really needs to be a member of every supra-national treaty and body. They end up being suckers for the devious agendas of people who populate those bodies. Lord Hermer's big idea is 'progressive realism', which he defines as 'a rejection of the siren song that can sadly now be heard in the Palace of Westminster, not to mention some sections of the media, that Britain abandon the constraints of international law in favour of raw power'. 4 Perverse ruling But we have already seen where a blind faith in international law leads: for example, to the outrage of the Chagos Islands being given away to Mauritius, a country which has never had ownership of the islands. The Chagos Islands, by the way, were uninhabited before European settlement. But then came the perverse ruling of a body called the International Court of Justice and Starmer, of course, could not bring himself to argue against it. Russia's membership of the ECHR didn't exactly stop Putin bumping off his enemies, invading Crimea and waging chemical warfare on the streets of Britain with the Skripal poisonings The result is not just a multi-billion-pound bill for UK taxpayers to lease back our military base: we have handed sovereignty of a strategic group of islands to a country which is becoming increasingly friendly with China — a nation whose autocratic government doesn't give a damn for human rights. That is where a pedantic following of international law gets you. As Mike Godwin argued, comparing everyone and everything you don't like to the Nazis belittles the Holocaust. But the beneficiaries of Hermer and Starmer's progressive realism aren't exactly lovers of freedom and democracy. On the contrary, a blind faith in international law is leading Britain down a dark path.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Labour's on the ropes and Starmer has no answers
This was the week in which Reform UK finally shattered the facade of indifference maintained by the British political establishment. It was only a year ago next week that Nigel Farage announced his return to frontline politics. As opinion polls show the upstarts leading all other parties by ever wider margins, a whiff of panic has permeated the Downing Street bunker. After its triumph over Labour and the Conservatives in the local elections and the Runcorn by-election at the start of this month, Reform has emerged as a threat to the SNP, which is defending its Holyrood seat in Hamilton next Thursday. What has brought about this sudden intensity of focus on a party that still has just five MPs in Westminster? There is no longer much doubt about Reform's ability to translate its popularity into electoral success. Labour's legions of backbenchers know that their chances of serving more than a single term depend on seeing off this unfamiliar challenge. Mr Farage is visibly morphing into a different kind of politician. The welfare and fiscal policies he has just espoused are to the Left of the Tories and, in some cases, of Labour too. Reform promises not only to restore benefits that Rachel Reeves has curtailed, such as the Winter Fuel Allowance, but to go further by removing the two-child benefit cap. This unaccustomed apparition of the Father Christmas of Clacton seems to have rattled the Prime Minister – so badly, indeed, that he turned up at St Helens on Merseyside this week to devote an entire speech to attacking Mr Farage. Sir Keir Starmer achieved nothing by this excursion apart from drawing attention to the Reform leader and his policies. Even worse, the Starmer counter-attack found itself bogged down in an unexpectedly fierce barrage of criticism from accompanying journalists, including even those who had been hitherto well-disposed. The irreverence, even hostility, of the PM's interrogation in St Helens signals a serious loss of prestige. After only a year in office, prime ministerial power is visibly ebbing away. Ironically, Sir Keir has identified the right problem: Nigel Farage and Reform really are an existential threat to Labour. But he has so far failed to come up with any plausible answers. The incoherence of the Government's policies – cutting disability benefits with one hand, while handing out big public sector pay rises with the other – is patently obvious. And the intellectual vacuity of Starmerism has just been highlighted by the absurd comparison of Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives with the Nazis by Lord Hermer, the Attorney General and Sir Keir's right-hand man. Next week the battle will shift further north to the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election for the Scottish Parliament. This has degenerated into a slanging match between the SNP and Reform, with the former accusing the latter of playing the race card, while the Labour vote is squeezed. Fresh from an appearance at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, next week Mr Farage will be in Scotland and doubtless steal the show there too. If Reform were to capture Hamilton, it would be a bitter blow for the SNP: Winnie Ewing's victory there in 1967 first put them on the Westminster electoral map. Over the summer the Prime Minister hopes to regain momentum with public spending and strategic defence reviews. Yet neither of these worthy documents seems likely to deliver the relaunch that Labour sorely needs. The UK economy is struggling to generate any growth at all after the bloodletting of the Reeves Budget and the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs. Still living in denial, ministers will resist departmental cuts, thereby thwarting the boost in military investment required by the global threat level. Another spectre at the feast is the prospect of large-scale revolts over welfare reform. A growing number of Labour MPs are ready to risk the implosion of the Government rather than let down their favoured lobby groups. Labour and Reform could find themselves locked in an unedifying competition to bribe voters with their own money. The Conservatives now have an opportunity to recast themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility, national security and the work ethic. With millions living on out-of-work benefits, Kemi Badenoch could regain the initiative by showing how to bring people back into the workforce. With the country longing for strong leadership, Mrs Badenoch could well do a better job of taking on Mr Farage than Sir Keir has done so far. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
