Latest news with #politicalRow
Daily Mail
08-08-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Reform's Olympic mayor Luke Campbell is 'at war' with his staff: Boxing champ, 37, demands officials quit as row explodes over first-class train tickets
Reform UK's Olympic boxing champion mayor has gone to war with staff over claims they are 'blocking' his agenda. Luke Campbell, who won gold for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics, is embroiled in a vicious row at Hull and East Yorkshire combined authority. The 37-year-old pugilist-turned-politician reportedly demanded five staff at the council to resign last week over the internal stand-off. Mr Campbell, who was elected as the regional inaugural mayoral contest in May, claims workers have been deliberately undermining his work to roll out his policies. He has accused civil servants - who were reportedly working from home - of trying to 'get paid a fortune and do as little as possible'. But his comments have sparked a vitriolic war of words, with Mr Campbell facing accusations of trying to book first-class train tickets on expenses, staging an office move without following council rules and creating a 'toxic working environment'. The mayor - seen as one of Nigel Farage's party's poster boys - is the latest Reform politician to stumble into difficulties following the group's historic election victory, which saw them claim 12 council areas and two mayoral authorities. Former Olympian Mr Campbell - who has previously posed with a gloved-up Mr Farage in a boxing ring - says his work has been frustrated over the past three months by local bureaucrats. One insider told the Daily Telegraph staff had clashed with the mayor over his 'one-man band' approach to politics, which has sparked friction in his council HQ. According to the paper, the simmering row reached a head on Wednesday when the mayor allegedly demanded the resignation of five senior officials. Three of them have reportedly been put on gardening leave after announcing they would be quitting. It's unclear whether the two others reportedly told to leave have resigned. Mr Campbell is believed to have butted heads with officials shortly after taking office, following an allegation he tried to claim first-class train tickets on expenses. The claim - denied by Reform UK - would have been in breach of government rules. However, the row led to a review by an independent remuneration panel, which later clarified in a recommendation that he could only claim for standard class travel. Things escalated further when Mr Campbell took 'huge issue' after he was told his ambition to hire Reform digital strategist Jack Anderton, 23, and ex-UKIP official Robin Hunter-Clarke, to serve as political advisers had been barred. The pair assisted him in his campaign to become mayor. However, under local government rules, campaigners and employees from political parties are not allowed to serve in such 'politically restricted' roles. Bantamweight boxing ace Mr Campbell - who was born locally in Hull - was reportedly so frustrated at the decision, that he is now seeking to create two entirely new roles within the authority in a bid to bring the men into his team. The final straw that caused the row to go nuclear is believed to have came last month, when Mr Campbell decided to find a new office building to replace the temporary arrangement used by the mayoral authority since it was established. He opted to shift his team to a modern block at 2 Humber Quays on the banks of the Humber after reportedly telling council officials he had negotiated a 'discount' with the building's owner. However, staff railed against the move and claimed he had failed to follow council guidance and complete the necessary paper work. They also demanded the mayoral team should move into a cheaper former council building instead. However, those close to the mayor claimed he was enraged that his plan had been snared in bureaucratic red tape and staff who appeared to be firmly against him. Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Campbell claimed he 'didn't feel like they were doing a good enough job', as he took aim at some of his senior civil servants. 'They don't know the region and didn't put any effort in, thus blocking my agenda. The rest of the team I've got a fantastic relationship with,' he told the paper. 'It's only these civil servants that are coming in from all over the country that think they can run the show, get paid a fortune and do as little as possible that I have an issue with.'
Telegraph
07-08-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Badenoch must stop ‘mud fight' with Truss, says Kwarteng
Kwasi Kwarteng has urged Kemi Badenoch to stop the 'mud fight' with Liz Truss over the fallout of the mini-Budget. The former chancellor, who worked with Ms Truss on the mini-Budget, said that the pair having a 'ding-dong battle about whose fault it is' did not help the Conservative Party. Mrs Badenoch wrote in The Telegraph last week that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were making 'even bigger mistakes' than Ms Truss and had not learnt the lessons of her mini-Budget. Ms Truss then hit back, claiming that the Tory leader was 'repeating spurious narratives' and not telling the truth about the 'real failures' of the previous government. Addressing the row, Mr Kwarteng told the Political Currency podcast: 'It's like a mud fight. 'It's not going to help the Conservative Party. Having Kemi Badenoch and Liz Truss having a ding-dong battle about whose fault it is, it doesn't help the party at all because what the party needs to do is essentially project unity, a degree of competence, a degree of humility.' The former MP for Spelthorne was sacked as chancellor a fortnight after he delivered the mini-Budget, as Ms Truss scrambled to save her premiership. The programme of £45bn in tax cuts led to market chaos and ultimately the downfall of Ms Truss, who served just 49 days in Downing Street. The former chancellor urged Mrs Badenoch to 'try and draw a line' under the mini-Budget and the previous administrations. 'It's not just about Truss and me, it's about 14 years. When I talk to people, you know, the Conservatives who are flipping to Reform, they talk about economic management, but they talk a lot about immigration and that. 'So she's got to somehow distance herself from a whole range of policies over that 14-year period, particularly the last period.' He added: 'It's all right, bashing Liz and me. It's all right, bashing Rachel Reeves. But what is the Conservative Party actually standing for?' Before Mrs Badenoch's article in The Telegraph last week, Mrs Badenoch had only criticised the former prime minister in private. She had told her shadow cabinet in January that it would be helpful if she made fewer interventions. The Tory leader wrote: 'For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes. They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books.' After the comments were published, one shadow frontbencher told The Telegraph that they believed Mrs Badenoch was right to have said something publicly. They said that past prime ministers should 'intervene sparingly', and added that Ms Truss had 'had her chance' at governing. Sir Keir continues to refer to the fallout from the mini-Budget at the despatch box, almost three years since it was delivered. He and the Chancellor have claimed it was in part because of it that they had been forced to make unpopular decisions on tax and spending.
