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Reform UK is looking to majorly influence the next general election, with leader Richard Tice saying the right-wing party will stand in every seat. Mr Tice kicked off his campaign this year by saying he would be "pleased" if he could help "punish the utter failure of the Conservative Party" - while labelling a Labour win "Starmergeddon". But who is the 59-year-old Reform UK leader and how has he ended up in this position? Here's what you need to know about Mr Tice, who describes himself on his website as "a no-nonsense, can-do type of person who gets things done"....

Reform UK is now just one point behind the Conservatives as the second-biggest party in Wales, new polling has shown. Polling company Redfield and Wilton show that the Welsh Conservatives, led by Andrew RT Davies, have plummeted from 36 per cent in 2019 to just 16 per cent, with Labour ahead on 49 per cent and Reform UK on 15 per cent in Wales. Reform UK leader Richard Tice took to social media, saying: "Reform within a whisker of being second largest polling party. England next." Reacting to the news, Lee Anderson MP said: "It's happening! It's up to you...

The British Conservative Party is facing an “extinction event” with a comprehensive poll predicting a defeat on the scale of the loss to Tony Blair’s Labour in 1997 on the backs of growing anger over failures to control migration and the rise of the Nigel Farage-founded Reform UK. A YouGov survey of 14,000 people released in The Telegraph newspaper on Sunday found that the Conservatives will win just 169 seats in the House of Commons, a decline of 196 from the last general election in 2019. This would outpace the seismic defeat of the party in 1997 when Sir John...

@PaulBrandITV EXCL: Latest reports that PM will drop conversion therapy ban follow intense lobbying by @miriam_cates who wrote to Tory MPs: “This Bill will anger our base, split the party and effectively put a Stonewall (gay rights group) charter into law. We have a matter of days to persuade No 10 to pull it.” MPs opposed will meet on Monday and are trying to see PM face to face to make their concerns heard. Conservative Party is deeply divided over the matter of banning conversion therapy. No10 simply say wait for Kings Speech.

Rishi Sunak has said he believes that 100 per cent of women do not have penises. The prime minister has put himself at odds with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer by declaring that 100 per cent of women do not have male genitals. By contrast, Sir Keir earlier this month suggested that as many as one in every thousand women has a penis. Asked whether it is true that 100 per cent of women do not have a penis, in an interview with Tory-supporting website Conservative Home, Mr Sunak said: “Yes, of course.” He added: “We should always have compassion...

Matt Hancock suggested to an aide that they "frighten the pants off everyone", messages published by the Sunday Telegraph show. It appears the former health secretary discussed when to reveal the existence of the Kent variant of Covid, to ensure people comply with lockdown rules. In another exchange, the head of the Civil Service, Simon Case, suggested the "fear/guilt factor" was vital to the government's messaging. The BBC has not verified the messages. More than 100,000 WhatsApp messages were leaked to the Telegraph by the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who has been a vocal critic of lockdowns. The former health secretary...

Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party has faced a raw deal as Tory voters leave the party, while a poll has revealed they may be headed elsewhere. A YouGov poll on voting intention showed a spike in Reform UK’s support now at nine points - up by four. This follows the Tories dropping three points to 22 per cent and Labour dropping one point to 47 per cent, a change apparently in favour of Reform UK. The Liberal Democrats have seen no change, with nine per cent of the vote. The poll, from November 29 to 30, also saw Keir Starmer’s lead...

The Conservative (Tory) Party appears to have surrendered the one true vote-winning card they have always held up their sleeve, the ability to sell British voters the idea they will cut their taxes, with polling clearly showing the Tories are now clearly thought of as the high tax party. Voters, asked by a pollster which political party out of the United Kingdom’s two establishment legacy parties they more associated with high taxation, opted in a considerable plurality for the Conservative Party, it is claimed.

Rishi Sunak will become the next U.K. prime minister after his last competitor, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew, just minutes before a deadline to get support from 100 lawmakers. Sunak, the former chancellor of the exchequer, will become the first ethnic minority leader of the U.K. Sunak is set to speak in the next half hour.

LONDON — Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, was poised to become Britain’s next prime minister as soon as Monday, after Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss on Sunday evening. If Mr. Sunak wins, he will become the first person of color, the first person of Indian heritage and the first person of Hindu faith to lead Britain. Mr. Sunak, who lost a leadership contest to Ms. Truss this summer, is the clear front-runner, with the public backing of 192 Conservative lawmakers as of Monday afternoon, according to the BBC. That number represents...

"The United Kingdom is a great country but we face a profound economic crisis. "The choice our Party makes now will decide whether the next generation of British people will have more opportunities than the last. "That's why I am standing to be your new Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party. I want to fix our economy, unite our Party and deliver for our country. "I served as your Chancellor, helping to steer our economy through the toughest of times. "The challenges we face now are even greater. But the opportunities - if we make the right choice...

Having survived the recent cabinet reshuffle the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is confronted with the biggest headache of her short ministerial career: the fallout of the US intention to cut funding to UNRWA, which constitutes one of the most serious challenges to UK policies in the Middle East. Donald Trump’s threat to cut financial assistance to the UN agency specifically responsible for Palestinian refugees will be a disaster not only for the refugees but also for Israel and neighbouring countries. It does not advance US interests either. Provoked by the Palestinian rejection of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as...

LONDON — British Prime Minister Liz Truss has fired her finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, as she fights to hang on as prime minister after her budget crashed the markets. Truss will give a press conference later Friday, amid reports of another imminent U-turn on significant parts of her plan to cut taxes. Downing Street announced Jeremy Hunt, who has previously served as health secretary and foreign secretary, would replace Kwarteng as chancellor. Despite several attempts to calm the markets, including reversing a plan to cut tax for the highest earners and bringing forward a more detailed budget statement, Truss has...

“… I am sorry, but if you have voted Conservative, you do not deserve to be resuscitated by the NHS,” former nurse Mirada Hughes declared while ranting to Host Jeremy Vine during a Channel 5 debate titled “Britain on the Brink.” […] … Hughes made the comment while complaining that nurses don’t have enough resources to compassionately care for their patients. […] After being challenged by the incredulous host, Hughes eventually backed off and said that “of course” she would resuscitate a conservative. …

Boris Johnson and his allies have launched a legal fightback against a Commons inquiry into claims he lied to parliament about partygate. The government has commissioned legal advice from a top QC, Lord Pannick, which the PM's supporters claim undermines the legitimacy of the inquiry. Lord Pannick is a crossbench peer who has previously acted against the government for anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller and Shamima Begum over the removal of her British citizenship. The inquiry into Mr Johnson, by the all-party Privileges Committee, has been denounced as "a witch-hunt" and "a kangaroo court" by his allies after the committee announced...

Boris Johnson has given the green light to the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, promising £700m of government funding for the project. He confirmed the move during a speech from the site in one of his final acts as prime minister - and amid the rising cost of living crisis - saying he was "absolutely confident it will get over the line" in the next few weeks. The government has previously said the £20bn power plant would take just under a decade to build and could power six million homes. Mr Johnson is due to be replaced as...

Since Britain’s first prime minister took office in 1721, a total of 55 people have held the job. They’ve come from a variety of backgrounds and political persuasions, but they’ve all had at least one thing in common: They were white. The next prime minister may not be. Rishi Sunak, a 42-year-old multimillionaire of Indian heritage and former Treasury chief, is one of two finalists for the job, which will be filled early next month with a vote by rank-and-file members of the Conservative Party.

...Who is 47-year-old Liz Truss and how did she manage to overtake her rival Rishi Sunak in the race to succeed Boris Johnson? With 57.4 percent of the vote in the Conservative Party leadership contest, Truss can savour a comfortable victory over ex-chancellor Sunak. The outgoing foreign secretary's success is all the more satisfying because her challenger was initially the bookmakers' favourite to be the next prime minister. Truss's triumph can be explained by some strategic moves on her part that have played to the party faithful, but also by mishaps in the campaign of her rival. When the scandal-plagued...

Liz Truss will be the new UK prime minister after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership contest It was a closer result than many pundits expected, with Truss taking 57% of valid votes cast

You ain’t seen nuthin’, yet.Don’t be fooled into thinking this disaster movie is coming to an end.Rishi Sunak was quick off the mark last week with his pitiful, self-serving claims about having known the lockdowns were a bad thing but that despite him drumming his tiny fists on the table until they were a little bit sore no one would listen to him.He said his heroic efforts to avert disaster were deleted from the official records of meetings he attended.If that’s true – if minutes of meetings affecting government policy were doctored – then Sunak’s claims demand criminal investigation and...