9 h. ago Ministers call on Nigel Farage to address ‘repulsive’ teenage racism allegations

Liz Kendall and Jo Stevens intervene after about 20 people claim they witnessed or were victims of Farage’s behaviourCabinet ministers have described detailed and multiple allegations of racism by Nigel Farage as a teenager as “repulsive” and doubled down on Keir Starmer’s call for Farage to address the claims.Liz Kendall, the secretary for science and innovation and technology, said she was appalled by the descriptions reported by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago The Guardian view on devastation in Gaza: the world wants to move on, but Palestinians can’t | Editorial

Drenched by floods and abandoned amid the ruins, people in Gaza can draw no comfort from US plansThe declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza in October brought initial relief to its inhabitants. Yet officials there said Israeli strikes killed 33 people, including 12 children, on Wednesday; Israel said its troops had come under fire. Another five Palestinians were killed on Thursday. Hundreds have died since the ceasefire was declared. Even if the shelling stops, the destruction of Palestinian life will carry on as Israel continues to throttle aid, and the consequences of two years of war unfold. The World Health Organization warned last month that the health catastrophe would last for generations.Food remains in short supply. While displaced families shiver in flooded makeshift shelters, with many facing a third winter of homelessness, aid organisations say they cannot deliver stockpiles of tents and tarpaulins. Israel, which denies blocking aid, has designated tent poles ...

Politics

9 h. ago The Guardian view on Nigel Farage’s youthful views: the past still matters | Editorial

Voters need to know if a party leader said racist things at school. Interviewers have a duty to keep pressing for fuller factsFor one contemporary, it is the hectoring tone of today that evokes what it was like to be at school with Nigel Farage. “He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘Gas them’,” Peter Ettedgui recalls when asked about life at fee-paying Dulwich College in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Later, he adds: “I’d hear him calling other students ‘Paki’ or ‘Wog’ and urging them to ‘go home’.”For others, including some in the college’s combined cadet force (CCF), what lingers is the image of the young Mr Farage in uniform and his renderings of a racist anthem titled “Gas ’em all”. Tim France, a CCF member from those years, remembered Mr Farage “regularly” giving the Nazi salute and strutting around the classroom. “It was habitual, you know, it happened all the time,” he recalls. Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago Next Prime Minister Odds: Here are the 13 leading contenders to succeed Keir Starmer

Who will be the next inhabitant of Number 10 Downing Street? There are a few leading candidates.

Politics

13 h. ago Blow for Nigel Farage as Reform UK councillor suspended over Whatsapps

County Councillor Tom Pickup was suspended after messages were posted by the X account Reform Party UK Exposed, allegedly claiming the party was hiding an even tougher immigration stance

Politics

17 h. ago Keir Starmer calls on Nigel Farage to explain ‘disturbing’ school racism accusations

The Clacton MP has emphatically denied the allegations

Events

23 h. ago Payments to help migrants return home could see ‘big increase’, says Mahmood

The UK currently offers payments of up to £3,000 for some people with no right to remain in the country who agree to return home.

Events

33 h. ago No 10 calls on Farage to urgently address ‘disturbing allegations’ of past racist behaviour

Keir Starmer ramps up pressure on Reform leader, who has dismissed claims as ‘one person’s word against another’‘He used to say things like “Hitler was right”’: Farage faces more allegations of racist behaviour at schoolKeir Starmer has called on Nigel Farage to urgently address multiple and detailed allegations of racist behaviour during his teenage years, as the Reform leader attempted to dismiss the claims as “one person’s word against another”.Pressure was put on Farage by the prime minister over what Downing Street said were “disturbing allegations” after the Guardian reported the testimony of more than a dozen school contemporaries, including an award-winning director who claimed to have been targeted with antisemitic abuse. Continue reading...

Politics

33 h. ago Reform UK councillor suspended over WhatsApp group featuring post calling for ‘mass Islam genocide’

Nigel Farage’s party is launching an investigation into the messages

Politics

34 h. ago The Guardian view on falling net migration: political debate is now detached from the facts

A fixation on reducing numbers leaves no room for rational discussion of what that means for the economy and societyBritish political debate has long been dominated by public anxiety about rising levels of immigration. How might that change if the population tide were to turn? Not at all, would appear to be the answer. Net migration has in fact been falling since before Labour came to power last July, and yet there has been no end of demand for ever tighter controls and no end of government acquiescence.New figures published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), adjusting historical data for methodological changes, show that net migration was 944,000 for the year ending March 2023 – about 40,000 higher than had previously been thought. The drop since then has also been steeper. The number for the year ending December 2024 is now thought to be 345,000 – lower than the earlier count by 86,000.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would li...

Politics

34 h. ago The Guardian view on funding Ukraine’s resistance: a looming financial crisis in Kyiv must be averted | Editorial

Whether by leveraging Russia’s frozen assets, or other means, the EU must deliver the cash necessary to withstand Putin’s war of attritionIn the early part of this year, as the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated European leaders in Munich, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was subjected to a televised mauling in the White House, it became starkly apparent that the bonds of solidarity between the European Union and Ukraine would need to be strengthened to cope with a new geopolitical reality. As 2025 draws to a close, a moment of reckoning has arrived.According to EU estimates, Ukraine will need more than €70bn in extra financial assistance next year to keep defending itself against Vladimir Putin. That money won’t be coming from Washington, where Donald Trump has refused to seek new funding for military aid from Congress. Yet Kyiv’s ability to negotiate an acceptable peace depends on its capacity to withstand Mr Putin’s relentless war of attrition, which is designed to drain Ukraine of...

Economics

34 h. ago Keir Starmer furiously told 'be a man' in parliament as plot to oust PM thickens

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson challenged Sir Keir Starmer over delayed local elections in a fiery PMQs clash, with the Prime Minister later calling on Nigel Farage to explain himself

Politics

34 h. ago ‘He used to say things like “Hitler was right”’: Farage faces more allegations of racist behaviour at school

A former friend and others who were at Dulwich college with the now Reform UK leader speak of his behaviour‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at schoolIt had been a fun sleep-over at Nigel Farage’s house and Jean-Pierre Lihou, a teenager with an appetite, was delighted with his schoolfriend’s mother’s hospitality. “I remember the fantastic cooked English breakfast, as opposed to what you get at a boarding house on a morning,” Lihou recalled. “I was a boarder and he was a day boy,” he said of their education at Dulwich college in south-east London.Farage was a great mimic, and funny with it, Lihou said. But, over time, he found that there was a darker side to his 14-year-old friend. Continue reading...

Events

37 h. ago Tory crisis in London as second councillor defects to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK at flagship town hall

Alan Mendoza on Wednesday joined Laila Cunningham as Reform’s second representative on Westminster Council

Events

38 h. ago Nigel Farage denies claims of antisemitic behaviour as a schoolboy at Dulwich College

Nigel Farage has denied claims of racist and antisemitic behaviour while at Dulwich College

Politics

39 h. ago Keir Starmer has spiky jab at Nigel Farage after Reform MP's 'dog whistle' rant

Keir Starmer lashed out at Nigel Farage after Reform chief whip Lee Anderson accused Labour of engaging in 'dog whistle' politics in a tense PMQs spat

Politics

39 h. ago Starmer urges Farage to explain himself over claims of past racist behaviour

PM raises Guardian reporting of allegations from more than a dozen school contemporaries of FarageUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has called on Nigel Farage to explain himself after the Reform leader wholesale denied numerous detailed allegations of racist behaviour during his teenage years.Responding to the Reform MP Lee Anderson at prime minister’s questions, Starmer raised the Guardian’s reporting of allegations from well over a dozen school contemporaries of Farage. Continue reading...

Politics

40 h. ago Another Tory on flagship London council defects to Reform as Nigel Farage eyes gains across capital

Alan Mendoza on Wednesday joined Laila Cunningham as Reform’s second representative on Westminster Council

Politics

40 h. ago Reform UK leader Nigel Farage showed racist and antisemitic behaviour at school, claim ex

‘The allegations are entirely without foundation – we expect cynical attempts to smear Reform to intensify closer to the election,’ says Reform UK

Politics

41 h. ago Nigel Farage’s biographer says Reform UK leader should apologise after fresh claims of racism at school – UK politics live

The Guardian published an investigation into Nigel Farage’s time as a schoolboy at Dulwich College, a private school in south LondonHealey is now taking questions.Q: How close are are we to war?It is Labour that is the party of defence. Continue reading...

Politics