Nigel Farage will today announce a new leader for Reform in Wales following the arrest of former leader Dan Thomas.
Reform made a spectacular breakthrough in May’s elections, going from having no seats at all in the Welsh Senned to becoming the second largest party.
But the party suffered a setback when Dan Thomas quit as the party’s Welsh leader, after he was arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour. He said he had been “released without charge”.
Gwent Police confirmed that a 45-year-old man from Aberbargoed, in Caerphilly, has been bailed pending further enquiries.
Latest UK-wide polling from Ipsos found 27% say they will vote Labour at the next General Election, 23% say Reform. 21% say the Conservatives, 13% say the Greens and 8% say the Lib Dems.
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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
Analysis: Burnham v Trump in New York – this is what could go wrong
Andy Burnham faces his first major international test as Prime Minister when he meets Donald Trump in New York.
The PM is travelling to the Big Apple for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.
The King of the North is due to hold face-to-face talks with the US President with the Middle East crisis and Ukraine high on the agenda.
But there are other thorny issues, namely the Falklands and Chagos Islands, as well as North Sea drilling and Israel that threaten to make the meeting less comfortable than the Labour leader hoped.
Jenrick blasts Badenoch over new pledge
Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick took to X to hit out at Kemi Badenoch over her pledge to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists.
He said: “Kemi Badenoch claims she’ll bring back tax-free shopping for visitors. But it was Kemi who abolished it in the first place!
“Will she now apologise for personally instigating this? Does she have any humility?”
Davey slammed by Lib Dem council leader
Sir Ed Davey said you “can’t please everyone all the time” after a Liberal Democrat council leader suggested the party could be “sleepwalking into irrelevance”.
The Lib Dem leader told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve grown really fast in recent years under my leadership. Record number of MPs. We’re running more councils than the Conservatives – councils up and down the country.
“Really proud of that record and it means when you have a bigger party, you can’t please everyone all the time.”
He said his party has a “historic opportunity” to win many more seats because of the “right-wing split between the Conservatives and Reform who are fighting each other”.
He added: “But, also, we have a moral responsibility to win more seats. I think it’s vital we stop Nigel Farage getting into No 10 and Kemi Badenoch giving him the keys to get into No 10.”
(Image: Getty)
Labour accuse Tories of U-turn
Labour accused the Tories of a “spectacular U-turn” over their promise to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists as Kemi Badenoch was a Treasury minister at the time of its abolition.
A party spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch used to say tax-free shopping was a costly giveaway and now she’s trying to sell it as an economic miracle.
“If they really think it’s such a great idea, they should explain why they scrapped it in the first place and how they’d pay for bringing it back.”
Badenoch promises to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists by reversing a post-Brexit rule change.
The decision to scrap the VAT refund scheme for international visitors in 2021 left the UK “less competitive” than many other European destinations as the country left the EU, the Tories said.
The Opposition leader said: “Britain should be the place where the whole world comes to shop.
“We have iconic retailers, inventive designers and brilliant manufacturers, but they are being let down by a tax policy that is chasing their customers away. Holidaymakers are choosing rival cities in other countries for the simple reason that it saves them money.
“British retailers are closing down shops with the knock-on effects damaging small manufacturers, suppliers and jobs across the UK. I want them to know I’m on their side and Conservatives will sort out taxes so companies can create jobs and grow our economy.”
Labour looking at capital gains tax hike
Labour is reportedly considering calls to cut income tax for lower earners by raising capital gains tax (CGT).
Andy Burnham and John Healey are looking at proposals to pay for an increase in the personal allowance by gradually bringing CGT in line with income tax, The Telegraph reported.
The idea was included in a submission to the Treasury by Labour donor and Ecotricity owner Dale Vince, who suggested funding a rise in the threshold by both hiking CGT and ending interest payments on Bank of England reserves.
These two measures combined could raise the money to increase the personal allowance to £15,570, which is just below what it would have been had it not been frozen in 2021, it has been claimed.
The proposal was made by Labour donor Dale Vince (Image: Getty)
Good morning
Welcome to our live blog where we will be bringing you the latest political updates.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is heading across the pond today to join other world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage will announce Reform UK’s new Welsh leader after Dan Thomas announced he was stepping down following his arrest on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is making a visit to Oxfordshire after pledging to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists by reversing a post-Brexit rule change.
And conference season is underway with the Lib Dems gathering in Brighton.
A royal author has taken aim at Charles Spencer and his latest allegations in his new book.
Earl Spencer has been accused of joining forces with Prince Harry in a bid to “damage” the King with his explosive new book about Princess Diana. The late Princess of Wales’s brother is said to have forged an alliance with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as his incendiary memoir ignites a bitter new royal war.
In an interview with GB News, royal author Tom Bower said: “[Earl Spencer] is not only selling a book, but he’s also undoubtedly formed an alliance with Harry and with the Duchess to somehow damage the King.” On Friday evening, Charles Spencer defended himself following the furore, insisting that “he’s telling the truth”. He sparked controversy this week after he claimed in the book that the King, then Prince of Wales, told him, “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” following his sister’s death in 1997.
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Charles Spencer released a series of allegations about the royals (Image: Getty)
In his first comment since, Earl Spencer stood firmly by his account, insisting: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Friday evening, Diana’s brother branded the King’s alleged remark “monstrous” and doubled down on his version of events.
He recalled: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened.”
“And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s gonna pull himself together and say something more appropriate’, and then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.”
Earl Spencer added: “I really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, ‘I cannot believe you just said that’, and I hung up on him.”
Regarding any “evidence” about the bombshell comments, the earl said: “I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous. I’m telling the truth.”
Earl Spencer is releasing a book (Image: BBC)
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister saw parts of it being serialised this week, featuring a fresh string of bombshell allegations about the royals and reopening old wounds over the aftermath of Diana’s death.
Prince Harry and Prince William’s mother died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.
Royal commentator Mr Bower fiercely rejected Spencer’s account of the King’s reaction to Diana’s death, dismissing claims that Charles sounded “giddily elated” as “complete rubbish”.
He said: “When I wrote my book about Charles, Rebel Prince, I had impeccable sources in Balmoral and all sorts of things, and I called some of them today, and all of them united in saying that Charles was in real grief.
“The idea that he would even say ‘rest assured’ that bit – but the idea was giddily elated, is complete rubbish. The man was absolutely smitten. He was horrified. He was frozen.
“So I think it’s rather sad that Charles Spencer, who I had great regard for as a historian, should be doing this. But then Prince Harry did the same with his biography. I think it’s money troubles, personal troubles.”
Prince Harry is understood to have been aware of the book (Image: Getty)
It is understood that Prince Harry was aware of the book before its release but not of its contents. He reportedly discussed it with his uncle at Althorp, the Spencer family’s 13,000-acre Northamptonshire estate, in July.
The publication comes weeks after the Sussexes returned to Britain following six years in California, with Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, now enrolled in British schools.
The author further noted that Charles Spencer’s book is published by the same publisher as Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare – Penguin Books.
He said: “They want headlines, which they’ve got. But I think it’s more serious than that. The return of Harry and Meghan is heading towards a crisis. They haven’t declared why they’re here. They haven’t declared what they’re how long they’ll stay.
“Their object is not only to ingratiate themselves with the Royal Family, but to cause trouble. And there’s no doubt that Harry knew that Spencer was going to bring out this book. It was a pincer movement.”
Veteran royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams echoed the sentiment, saying it was all “planned”.
He told the Daily Express: “I believe what was planned was a pincer movement to blindside the Royal Family.
“It’s all been planned. The biography shows the King, when Prince Charles, in the worst possible light.
“It is essential that the Palace let this disreputable tract masquerading as a biography have a few more days of sensation, and say nothing, however horrible its contents.”
Among further revelations, Spencer claimed that “in her later years” Diana drove to Beachy Head in East Sussex, intending to end her life, but stopped because of her love for her sons.
The earl also alleged that the late Queen Elizabeth II considered restoring his sister’s Her Royal Highness title, which she lost when she divorced Charles and blasted the “lack of care” towards Harry during Diana’s funeral in his latest allegations against the royals.
Buckingham Palace delivered a pointed response to the memoir on Wednesday.
A Palace spokesman said: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.” No further response to the allegations has been released.
Elsewhere in the BBC interview, the earl said: “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life.
“I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now.’
He suggested Buckingham Palace has not denied that the King told him “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough”, telling Ms Kuenssberg: “They haven’t actually (denied the claims), Laura, they’ve sort of smudged that one, haven’t they? They’ve said recollections may vary.”
Diana’s brother even questioned whether His Majesty is feeling “embarrassed” or “furious”.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry was contacted for comment.
Charles Spencer’s new bombshell book is out next week.