Nigel Farage latest: Britons back Count Binface in new Clacton by-election poll amid Reform donations row – UK Times

A cap on private political donations would rebuild trust in British politics, a new report has argued.

Published by think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the major report makes the case for a “radical overhaul” of the UK’s democracy through a new model of “democratic citizenship”, in response to a crisis of pride in the country and growing disillusion with the current political system.

It has proposed several reforms that it believes will rebuild trust in the UK’s political institutions and boost national unity.

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According to a new YouGov poll, 73 per cent of Britons think the Reform UK leader is sleazy, while 69 per cent of people say the same of his party.

Some 56 per cent categorised Mr Farage as “very sleazy”, with an additional 17 per cent finding him “fairly sleazy”, while 40 per cent of those who voted Reform at the last election today consider him to be sleazy.

The polling highlights a clear gap between the public’s perception of Mr Farage and the other party leaders, with 51 per cent of Britons seeing Sir Keir Starmer as at least fairly sleazy, while 42 per cent said the same of Green leader Zack Polanski.

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So here we stand, outside the EU in a place no one voted for. It’s time for a reality check. Ten years ago, the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU by a slender majority. That vote, however, was meaningless. Nobody knew what outside the EU would come to mean, and without such knowledge, there was never a legitimate choice.

Some drew the inference that the result was a vote to go anywhere outside the EU, but this ignored the distinct possibility that, on seeing what Brexit looked like, the nation might prefer to remain inside.

Keir Starmer saw the point. As shadow Brexit secretary, he argued that the public should have a “final say” on the terms of the deal once it had been negotiated. Yet, the truth is, we never even had a first say.

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Andy Burnham’s Labour will “wear our hearts on our sleeve more”, the PM-in-waiting’s ally Lisa Nandy has said, in an apparent swipe at Sir Keir Starmer who has been criticised for failing to connect with voters.

Ms Nandy, the culture secretary, said a Burnham government would also be “faster and bolder” because he is “willing to think very differently about how we deliver… change”.

“I think people will see us taking the fight to any system that stands in the way of them living better lives,” she told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Sir Keir Starmer has left the door open to putting forward a resignation honours list despite previously ruling out such a move.

With his time as Prime Minister almost at an end, Sir Keir refused to rule out issuing resignation honours, telling reporters: “We’ll look at it in the usual course of things.”

His statement was a marked difference from his position on the issue while leader of the opposition in 2023 amid a controversy over Boris Johnson’s own resignation honours list.

At the time, Sir Keir criticised Rishi Sunak’s decision to approve Mr Johnson’s honours list before MPs had ruled on whether he had lied to Parliament over the Partygate scandal.

Criticising Mr Sunak’s approval of the list, Sir Keir ruled out putting forward a similar list of his own if he ended up quitting after a stint in No10.

He told the BBC it was “very hard to justify” resignation honours, adding: “There are other avenues for that and I think it is easier to be clean about this and say no, I wouldn’t do it.

“Tony Blair didn’t do it and I wouldn’t do it.”

Andy Burnham has been hit by backlash from Jewish leaders who say they have “significant concerns” over his indication he will oversee a tougher policy on Israel in support of Gaza.

The prime-minister-in-waiting issued a video on social media on Thursday in which he apologised for Labour’s previous response to the violence in Gaza, and admitted that the government had been too slow in calling for a ceasefire.

In the video, he said: “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right – and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better.”

While the statement has welcomed by many in the Labour party, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council expressed concern over the comments on Friday.

“We have been in touch with Andy Burnham’s team to convey directly our significant concerns in relation to his remarks yesterday,” the groups said in a statement.

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This result saw him unseat the incumbent Conservative MP, Giles Watling, who garnered 27.9 per cent, while Labour trailed in third place with 16.2 per cent.

The Liberal Democrats and Greens secured 4.4 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively, placing them considerably behind the main contenders.

The coastal Essex constituency of Clacton, established in 2010, boasts a colourful political history.

Its first MP, Conservative Douglas Carswell, famously defected from the Conservatives to the UK Independence Party (Ukip) in 2014, then under the leadership of Mr Farage.

Mr Carswell subsequently resigned his seat, triggering a by-election which he won for Ukip, increasing his majority.

He held the seat at the 2015 general election – the only constituency won by Ukip in the country – but left the party two years later after disagreements with colleagues, becoming an independent MP.

At the next general election in 2017, Douglas Carswell did not stand as a candidate in Clacton and the seat was won by Giles Watling for the Conservatives with 61.2 per cent of the vote, while the new Ukip candidate polled only 7.6 per cent.

Nigel Farage then announced early in the 2024 campaign that he intended to return to his job as Reform leader and that he would be the party’s candidate in Clacton.

Andy Burnham’s Labour will “wear our hearts on our sleeve more”, the PM-in-waiting’s ally Lisa Nandy has said, in an apparent swipe at Sir Keir Starmer who has been criticised for failing to connect with voters.

Ms Nandy, the culture secretary, said a Burnham government would also be “faster and bolder” because he is “willing to think very differently about how we deliver… change”.

“I think people will see us taking the fight to any system that stands in the way of them living better lives,” she told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Read the full article here:

So here we stand, outside the EU in a place no one voted for. It’s time for a reality check. Ten years ago, the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU by a slender majority. That vote, however, was meaningless. Nobody knew what outside the EU would come to mean, and without such knowledge, there was never a legitimate choice.

Some drew the inference that the result was a vote to go anywhere outside the EU, but this ignored the distinct possibility that, on seeing what Brexit looked like, the nation might prefer to remain inside.

Keir Starmer saw the point. As shadow Brexit secretary, he argued that the public should have a “final say” on the terms of the deal once it had been negotiated. Yet, the truth is, we never even had a first say.

Read the full opinion piece here: