Farage demands apology from Badenoch, saying 'fraud accusations were disgraceful'

Thanks for reading, here is a wrap-up of today’s biggest events:

• Nigel Farage has said he opened up Reform UK’s “systems” to news outlets for “full transparency”.
• He demanded Kemi Badenoch apologise for what he described as “disgraceful” behaviour after she accused Reform UK of falsifying their membership numbers to show they were higher than that of the Tories.
• Farage also threatened to take legal action against the Tory leader, telling Sky News he was “not going to take it lying down”.
• Keir Starmer paid tribute to his brother who died after his battle with cancer.
• An ex-justice secretary has said putting inmates in open prisons would ease overcrowding.
• Voters believe fixing the NHS must be the Prime Minister’s main priority, according to a new poll.
• Another poll showed Starmer was more popular than Farage.

Under the biggest shake-up of the BBC’s governance in more than a century, the corporation would operate in the same way as John Lewis or the Co-op bank.

Intended to give licence-fee payers a direct stake in the BBC‘s future, the mutual model could include a “viewers’ champion”, who would sit on the BBC’s ruling board and speak on behalf of the 24m people currently paying the £169.50 charge.

The post of “viewers’ champion” could attract respected broadcasting figures such as Sir Lenny Henry, Dame Joan Bakewell or Sir Michael Palin. But critics of the plan warned that creating a directly-elected “viewers’ voice” could attract political figures hostile to the BBC, such as Nigel Farage.

The Reform UK leader did not deny interest in such a post. Farage told The i Paper he would use any influence he had over the BBC to push for his party’s commitment to abolish the licence fee.

Read the full story here.

Speaking to reporters about the membership row with the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage said: “I’m going to take some action in the next couple of days. I’ve got to decide exactly what it is, but I’m certainly not going to take it lying down.

“I think it’s an absolutely outrageous thing… I know she’s got a very bad temper. I know she’s well known for lashing out at people, but I am not at all happy, and I’m going to take some action.”

The head of Reform UK added that he will confirm within two days exactly what this action will be if Badeboch does not apologise for the “intemperate outburst”.

Nigel Farage has demanded an apology from the leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch, and claimed he had opened his party’s “systems” up to a number of news outlets.

He posted on X: “The accusations of fraud and dishonesty made against me yesterday were disgraceful.

“Today we opened up our systems to The Telegraph, Spectator, Sky News & FT [The Financial Times] in the interests of full transparency to verify that our data is correct.

“I am now demanding @KemiBadenoch apologises.”

Over 1.5 million children are studying in deteriorated school facilities, it was revealed today.

An assessment of the condition of public sector buildings, looking at hospitals, schools and courts, has identified thousands requiring immediate attention, with many in such poor condition that they pose a risk to the safety of both visitors and staff.

An investigation by The Guardian found one instance where a school in Cumbria was forced to evacuate after inspectors determined that the floor was at risk of imminent collapse.

At a hospital in Sutton, masking tape was found to be securing windows, with mud coming up thorough the floor.

The Conservative chair of the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said: “Our committee has long warned of the short-term thinking and decision-making in government that has inexorably led to the miasma of rot rising over our public realm.

“Some of our nation’s hospitals are in a desperate state, with props having to be used to hold up floors – some of which cannot even bear the weight of patients needing treatment.”

Queen Elizabeth II was apparently relieved after Northern Ireland’s “silly marching business” was quieter than expected when the then-Irish ambassador to the UK visited in 2000, Irish government papers have revealed.

Ted Barrington, who met the late Queen at a summer garden party that year in Buckingham Palace, said it was not the first time he had heard “her dismissive views of the Orange marches”.

He added that her comments “were similar to those she has made to me on previous occasions”.

The Orange marches are a series of parades held by members of Protestant fraternal societies in Northern Ireland, which are generally Unionist organisations.

A senior member of the Orange Order, Grand Secretary Rev Mervyn Gibson, described it as a “throw-away comment”.

Nigel Farage has been working as a paid brand ambassador for the gold bullion firm Direct Bullion, promoting the company on a podcast sponsored by the firm, it has emerged today. 

On an episode hosted alongside Rob Moore, another brand influencer, the Reform UK leader and MP for Clacton said: “I’ve been working for Direct Bullion … I’ve been doing a bit of promotion for them, bit of advertising for them, bit of education for them, so you know I have an interest in this – declared.

“But I’m not doing it out of nothing … I’ve been doing this now with them for getting on for a year, but actually for the last five years I’ve been involved with financial markets newsletters etc, making this argument that you should give gold a serious thought and it is open and accessible to you.”

Farage argued during the podcast that gold was a good investment because there was no capital gains tax, The Guardian reported.

As well as being paid MP, Farage is also a GB News presenter.

His role for Direct Bullion was not listed on the latest MPs’ register of interests published on 9 December but it is likely to appear soon, with MPs having to declare all earnings of more than £300 in a calendar year within 28 days of receiving payment.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said: “It is an insult that Labour has allowed 858 illegal immigrants into the country on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

“By scrapping the Rwanda deterrent before it started, Labour has let us down. We saw removals deterrents work in Australia. Crossings are up over 20 per cent since the election.”

Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, believes stripping water firm bosses of their bonuses will not be enough to tackle the UK’s sewage crisis.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Reed said water bill increases over the next five years are the “price of Conservative failure”.

He promised Labour would ring-fence funding for vital infrastructure investment so that money can only be spent on upgrades.

It comes as The i Paper revealed water companies in England have been fined just £2 by Ofwat since 2021 for breaching regulations.

The Government has launched an independent review of the water sector that will report back its findings next year. 

It has also introduced a Water Bill to Parliament that will give Ofwat the power to restrict bonuses, as Mr Reed accused the Conservatives of allowing “consumer money be spent irresponsibly on bonuses and shareholder payouts”.

“People deserve to enjoy their festive swims and cherish that frightfully cold start to Boxing Day without taking a chance on getting sick,” Mr Reed said.

“Polluted water is neither inevitable nor acceptable. Let’s seize this opportunity to restore clean rivers, lakes, and seas to this country.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has offered her condolences to Sir Keir Starmer over the death of his brother from cancer.

Nick Starmer died aged 60 on Boxing Day, with the Prime Minister paying tribute to him as a “wonderful man”.

In a post on social media, Badenoch said: “This is such awful news. Particularly devastating at Christmas time.

“My sincere condolences to Keir Starmer and all his family.”

Voters who switched from the Tories to Labour believe they were “lied to” and given “false hope” by Sir Keir Starmer, a focus group has found.

The event by the More in Common think-tank found “Red Wall” and “Blue Wall” voters were disappointed by the Government’s record so far, the Telegraph reports.

More in Common spoke to eight voters in Dudley and South Norfolk, two seats Labour won from the Tories at July’s general election.

Donovan, a financial adviser from South Norfolk, said he changed to Labour as he had believed the Tories needed “to be pulled down a notch or two” over scandals like “Partygate”.

But he said: “I thought maybe Labour would use the opportunity to do some good.

“But being a financial adviser and a money person, I’m disgusted with how they have handled things in the first three, four months, especially with the Budget and what they’re doing. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Thousands of Land Registry workers have voted to strike in a dispute over office working.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said around 3,800 of its members based in 14 offices were being ordered back to the office for three days a week.

PCS members working at the Office for National Statistics have already voted for strike action over compulsory office attendance.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The Government doesn’t seem to learn that applying arbitrary targets on office attendance doesn’t increase productivity and is unpopular with staff members.

“If they want a motivated, hard-working workforce, ministers should trust their own employees to have some say over their working conditions, rather than acting like Victorian bosses.

“It’s not too late for management to avoid strike action by ending this dispute.”

The woes of this Government are overdone.

Too much froth is spewed from the mouths of journalists and commentators still addicted to the permanent sugarcane of the Tory years.

Excited talk of Sir Keir Starmer being finished and out in 2025 continues to ignore the cardinal fact of this political era: Labour’s parliamentary majority is unassailable and Labour rarely changes its leaders.

There have been some solid achievements. The riots, which were a moment of genuine and potentially irrecoverable political peril, were handled well by both the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.

Angela Rayner’s workers plan is the biggest expansion of labour rights for 15 years. Proposed planning reforms are genuinely radical, if executed in full. Strikes have been averted, albeit at a cost. 

Sterling has been strengthened, despite the teetering economy – but it will benefit in the long term from parliamentary political stability in a world which looks volatile with few reliable investment destinations in developed markets.

Read the full story here by Lewis Goodall

As Labour and the Tories clashed over migration, a Home Office source has accused the Conservatives of leaving “an appalling legacy of broken border security”, as the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats hit 150,000 since 2018.

A source for the Home Office said: “We are fixing the foundations with a new Border Security Command, 100 new specialist investigators and new agreements with Europe and beyond to break up the business models of the evil criminal gangs making millions from small boat crossings.

“We are increasing removals of those with no right to be here and are clamping down on illegal working.”

Home Office officials have previously told The i Paper they do not believe Labour’s plan to “smash the gangs” will work as a way of bringing down illegal migration to the UK.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has paid tribute to his brother Nick who died on Boxing Day aged 60 after suffering from cancer.

Starmer said in a statement: “My brother Nick was a wonderful man. He met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour. We will miss him very much.

“I would like to thank all those who treated and took care of Nick. Their skill and compassion is very much appreciated.”

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Nick Starmer.

“Nick, 60, died peacefully on the afternoon of December 26 after battling cancer.

“We ask for privacy for Nick’s wider family at this time.”

The PM was set to go on holiday with his family on Friday but it is understood he will now stay at home.

More than 150,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since the small boat crisis started in 2018.

In total, 150,243 people have made the journey, according to analysis of Government figures.

The milestone was reached when 407 people crossed the Channel in 10 boats on Boxing Day.

On Christmas Day more than 450 people crossed the Channel in 11 boats.

It comes after the Home Secretary said the Government had a moral responsibility to tackle Channel crossings, but refused to set a deadline on when a target to see the numbers fall “sharply” would be met.

Reform UK chairman, Zia Yusuf, has suggested Nigel Farage could sue Tory leader Kemi Badenoch for libel after she claimed on Thursday the insurgent political party was “faking” its membership numbers.

A Reform source later told The Telegraph that legal action was being considered.

They said: “The more I read, the worse it gets for Kemi.

“Not only has she lied and embarrassed herself, but she’s shown a horrific lack of judgement.

“Our membership has surged even more thanks to her ludicrous conspiracy theories.”

Water companies in England have been fined just £2 by Ofwat since 2021 for breaching regulations, The i Paper can reveal.

Campaigners described the fines as “pathetic” and accused the regulator Ofwat of failing to hold water companies to account over sewage dumping.

Ofwat – which has the power to fine water companies 10 per cent of their annual turnover – said firms had agreed multi-million pound compensation and investment packages in lieu of paying fines to The Treasury.

If Ofwat suspects a company of rule-breaking it will open an enforcement case and announce its intention to fine the firm, however this fine can be reduced if water companies agree to compensation packages for customers.

Since March 2021, Ofwat has issued fines against just two companies, Thames Water and Welsh Water, both of which were for £1. Neither of these fines were issued in relation to sewage dumping.

Thames Water was fined £1 in 2021 after Ofwat found the firm was responsible for data errors that led to some customers being charged incorrectly.

Ofwat originally threatened Thames Water with a fine equivalent to 1 per cent of its turnover, but reduced this to £1 after Thames agreed to a £11.3m compensation package for affected customers, which is equivalent to 3 per cent of its turnover.

In 2024, Welsh Water was fined £1 after it was found to misreport its data on leakages over several years.

Ofwat originally proposed a penalty equivalent to 4.5 per cent of turnover (around £15.2m), but reduced this to £1 after Welsh Water proposed a compensation and investment package that Ofwat said was worth £73m to customers.

Nick Measham, chief executive of the campaign group WildFish, said: “Law breaking can occur almost every day yet not only are the fines pathetic they are almost non-existent.

“Ofwat failure to hold water companies to their statutory duty not to dump sewage in anything other than exceptional conditions – which have been in existence since 1994 – is appalling.

“This failure to regulate has contributed to the catastrophic underinvestment in our sewage infrastructure and destruction of our rivers.”

Almost two thirds of Britons believe there should be a cap on individual political donations, a new poll shows.

It comes amid reports that billionaire Elon Musk is considering giving Nigel Farage’s Reform UK up to $100m (£79m).

Polling for LBC by More in Common shows six in ten people want a ceiling on the amount any individual can donate.

Fifty-two per cent of the people polled say Mr Musk should not be allowed to donate $100m to Reform, while 27 per cent say he should be.

While a majority of Reform voters also back a cap, 68 per cent say Mr Musk’s donation should be allowed.

Europe’s security is on a knife edge. Russia’s war is moving increasingly past its border with Ukraine and the military alliance standing in the way of Putin faces an uncertain 2025 with the incoming US Presidency of Donald Trump.

The UK’s military capability is far from where it needs to be and now is the time to invest in it. At least that is the opinion of Britain’s once most senior military officer and former Nato Commander, Sir James Everard.

With a long and distinguished military career, including deployments in Bosnia, Germany and Iraq, Sir James went on to serve as Nato’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until 2021.

He has seen first-hand how the international military alliance works against Kremlin aggression and, as Europe plunges deeper into hot and cold war with Russia, he says now is the time to “get on” with spending on military solutions.

“Nato leaders have agreed a really good strategy but they have also agreed the capabilities you need to deliver that strategy and so allies should be focused on delivering,” he told The i Paper. “If we’re strong we won’t have a problem.” 

Read the full story by Richard Holmes here