Author: MoorningTimes

Nigel Farage has been accused of “performing Maga stunts” after claiming the British government stopped him from travelling to the Chagos Islands on a humanitarian mission.The Reform UK leader said he had flown to the Maldives to join a delegation bringing aid to four Chagossians who are trying to establish a settlement on one of the archipelago’s islands to protest against Britain’s plans to transfer control of the territory to Mauritius.In a video posted on X on Saturday, Farage claimed the UK government had blocked his trip to the territory, which cannot be entered without a valid permit.Wearing a striped…

Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives would scrap the “unfair debt trap” of high interest rates on student loans, piling pressure on Labour ministers to tackle the growing outrage over the high costs.The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, admitted the system of plan 2 loans had “problems” but suggested the government’s priority would be maintenance grants for poorer students, rather than tackling the high interest rates.“The reality is that we inherited a system, and the Conservatives left behind this system, the system they’re now complaining about. But it does have problems, it does,” she told the BBC. “But there are also…

What send reforms are expected to be brought in by the government – and will Labour MPs back it?A total overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system is due to be unveiled on Monday in a schools white paper that could face major opposition from Labour MPs.The changes will raise the bar at which children in England qualify for an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which legally entitles children with Send to get support. EHCPs will be reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for children on lower tiers will…

On a bracingly cold February night in Levenshulme, a black Volkswagen people-carrier draws up outside a little parish church, around which a small crowd has begun to gather. From behind the car’s darkened windows steps the Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, dressed in the trademark gilet that makes him look less like a politician and more like a man who has come straight from a grouse shoot. As he enters the church where the electoral hustings will take place, a leaflet is thrust into his hand, which as he will later discover with a horrified grimace, is…

A Conservative donor who was suspended from the party after being accused of bullying and inappropriate language spent £50,000 last week to have dinner with Kemi Badenoch, the Guardian has learned.Rami Ranger was the successful bidder for the dinner at a Tory fundraising event and will attend the meal with a small group of friends, infuriating those in the party who believe he should not have been readmitted.Lord Ranger, who has given more than £1.5m to the Conservatives since 2009, was suspended in 2023 after complaints about remarks he had made to an independent journalist, and separately, about Pakistanis. He…

Plans to halve the attainment gap between the poorest pupils in England and their more affluent peers will be set out by the government on Monday.The schools white paper will detail proposals to change the criteria under which schools receive funding to support the most disadvantaged students.Disadvantage funding is now allocated based on how many pupils at a school receive free school meals – generally available to children from families with an annual income of less than £7,400.Labour wants to broaden this criteria, overhauling the funding formula to give greater weight to funding pupils based on family income.The policy is…

Too many Labour MPs want it all, and no amount of pleading from the top of government about the depleted public finances seems to make a difference.The mainly leftist MPs want all the wrongs of the last 15 years put right and quickly. Their next opportunity to demand more cash arrives when Rachel Reeves delivers her spring statement on 3 March.All the signs are that the chancellor will try to marry caution about the public finances – directed at backbench MPs – with an optimistic message about the economic recovery to cheer the public.Whatever she says, there will be many…

Politicians from across the spectrum have said a minister should be sacked after a Guardian report that he had accused journalists of having links to Russian intelligence.Their comments came after an investigation showed that Josh Simons, who was running Labour Together at the time, had falsely concluded the journalists had obtained information about the thinktank from a Russian hack.The revelation has added to the pressure on Simons, a Cabinet Office minister, who is already the subject of a departmental ethics inquiry, and prompted calls from several politicians that he should be sacked or resign.Kevin Hollinrake, the chair of the Conservative…

Two days after Keir Starmer had been disowned by the Scottish Labour leader last week, and as a row raged over another controversial peerage, the prime minister decided to pick a fight with a billionaire.It was a dark week for the prime minister, with the departure of his longtime chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who had become a deeply divisive figure and who took the hit for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite his links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.But last Thursday morning had – for a change – been dominated by a different…

An influential committee of MPs could launch an inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s role as a UK trade envoy despite his arrest, it is understood, as it emerged that the disgraced former royal pestered ministers about getting a bigger government role.After his arrest on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, the cross-party business and trade committee said it would meet next Tuesday to discuss a possible investigation into the role he held from 2001 to 2011.The decade-long spell as what was formally titled the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment ended after a series of controversies, including…