Labour claims extremist candidate revelations show Reform UK’s launch in Scotland has fallen apart
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, has doubled down on his defence of the party’s vetting by dismissing remarks by candidates backing Tommy Robinson or describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron” (see 10.12am) as “fruity language”.
Offord was pressed on the reports about three of the party’s Holyrood candidates on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, and said the party was aware of those remarks, which had come up during candidate screening.
He also said comments during Reform’s rally near Glasgow yesterday by Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP who won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, that she wanted to appear on stage wearing a “Reform tartan burqa” but was told she could not, as “perfectly harmless”.
There was an unscripted moment and it was a moment where her autocue went down and she just ad libbed.
Pressed on claims from John Swinney, the first minister, that the Pochin remarks met his definition of racism, Offord replied: “I just don’t think the public are interested in this definition of racism.”
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the previous endorsements of Tommy Robinson and Britain First by the Senga Beresford, the Reform candidate for Galloway and West Dumfries, were “appalling comments from someone who is totally unfit for public office”. He told the Daily Record:
It has taken a matter of hours for Reform Scotland’s big launch to fall apart and their true colours to show.
If Nigel Farage refuses to act and remove this candidate, Malcolm Offord must step up and show some leadership himself. This incident has confirmed once and for all how poisonous and chaotic Reform is and I have no doubt that Scots will send them packing.
Offord said Beresford’s endorsement of mass deportations were a reaction to the grooming gangs scandal, and that “everybody had a right to express an opinion”. He added:
Again, as I say, this was done in a former life before she became a member of Reform. We’ve all said things in the past that may be intemperate… I am saying that we have to grow up on this and not take offence at every moment in time.
He also defended the attacks on Yousaf by Linda Holt, Reform’s North East Fife candidate, how described the former first minister as “a grandstanding Islamist moron”.
Offord said:
I’ve been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80% of whom are not politicians. They’re real people with real lives who said real things in a past life. Okay, this was said before she was a candidate. She wasn’t even a member of the party at that time.
And what we got in the situation is that in all our lives in the past, we’ve made comments that might sometimes be intemperate. But the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered. I just think we have to be more, more realistic about the fact that real people say real things, and now she’s a candidate, she will be held to a higher standard.
Key events
Greens says mass, public prayer events, for Muslims and others, represent ‘best of our society, not threat to it’
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, and his two deputies, Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward, have issued a joint statement condemning the attacks on Muslims taking part in a mass prayer in Trafalgar Square that have been launched by the Conservatives and Reform UK.
The Greens have said that, far from being gatherings that should be banned, these events reflect “the best of our society”.
They say:
Recent comments from Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch regarding public prayer by Muslim communities risk not only inflaming division and misrepresenting the nature of peaceful religious expression, but also undermining the very freedoms that form the foundation of a democratic and pluralistic society.
Britain has long been a country where people of all faiths, and none, can come together in shared spaces with mutual respect. Events such as the Trafalgar Square gathering ahead of Eid, where people of different backgrounds joined in prayer and reflection, are not “acts of intimidation or dominance”. They are expressions of community and coexistence. They reflect the best of our society, not a threat to it.
To characterise such gatherings as outside the “norms of British culture” is to misunderstand what British culture truly is: diverse, evolving, and enriched by the many communities that call this country home. Religious freedom is not conditional on whether a practice is familiar or comfortable to some, it is a fundamental right.
Words matter, and they can either build bridges or deepen divides. We choose to use ours to build bridges.
No 10 defends letting US use British bases for defensive strikes after Iran calls this ‘participation in aggression’
Downing Street has defended the PM’s decision to let the US use British bases for “defensive” attacks against Iranian missile sites.
But, in response to Iran describing the move as “participation in aggression”, No 10 also insisted that the UK does no want to get drawn into a wider war.
Asked about the comments from the Iranian foreign minister (see 10.01am) at the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:
Our position is very clear. We didn’t participate in the initial strikes and we’re not getting drawn into the wider war.
We have authorised the US, to use our bases for a specific, defensive and limited purpose in response to Iran’s continued and outrageous aggression. And we’ve always said that this is the best way to eliminate the urgent threat and restore a path to diplomacy.
Asked if the PM found the Iranian foreign minister’s words “worrying”, the spokesperson just repeated his point about the UK “not getting drawn into the wider war”.
Labour claims extremist candidate revelations show Reform UK’s launch in Scotland has fallen apart
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, has doubled down on his defence of the party’s vetting by dismissing remarks by candidates backing Tommy Robinson or describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron” (see 10.12am) as “fruity language”.
Offord was pressed on the reports about three of the party’s Holyrood candidates on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, and said the party was aware of those remarks, which had come up during candidate screening.
He also said comments during Reform’s rally near Glasgow yesterday by Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP who won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, that she wanted to appear on stage wearing a “Reform tartan burqa” but was told she could not, as “perfectly harmless”.
There was an unscripted moment and it was a moment where her autocue went down and she just ad libbed.
Pressed on claims from John Swinney, the first minister, that the Pochin remarks met his definition of racism, Offord replied: “I just don’t think the public are interested in this definition of racism.”
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the previous endorsements of Tommy Robinson and Britain First by the Senga Beresford, the Reform candidate for Galloway and West Dumfries, were “appalling comments from someone who is totally unfit for public office”. He told the Daily Record:
It has taken a matter of hours for Reform Scotland’s big launch to fall apart and their true colours to show.
If Nigel Farage refuses to act and remove this candidate, Malcolm Offord must step up and show some leadership himself. This incident has confirmed once and for all how poisonous and chaotic Reform is and I have no doubt that Scots will send them packing.
Offord said Beresford’s endorsement of mass deportations were a reaction to the grooming gangs scandal, and that “everybody had a right to express an opinion”. He added:
Again, as I say, this was done in a former life before she became a member of Reform. We’ve all said things in the past that may be intemperate… I am saying that we have to grow up on this and not take offence at every moment in time.
He also defended the attacks on Yousaf by Linda Holt, Reform’s North East Fife candidate, how described the former first minister as “a grandstanding Islamist moron”.
Offord said:
I’ve been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80% of whom are not politicians. They’re real people with real lives who said real things in a past life. Okay, this was said before she was a candidate. She wasn’t even a member of the party at that time.
And what we got in the situation is that in all our lives in the past, we’ve made comments that might sometimes be intemperate. But the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered. I just think we have to be more, more realistic about the fact that real people say real things, and now she’s a candidate, she will be held to a higher standard.
The Liberal Democrats have said the government’s waste crime action plan (see 11.18am) does not go far enough. They want the National Crime Agency to be involved in investigating the worst waste dumping offences. Calum Miller, the Lib Dem MP for Bicester and Woodstock, site of the Kidlington waste dump, said:
Liberal Democrats urge the government to ensure the NCA or new National Police Service takes over investigations into serious waste crime. We also need an independent review of the entire waste crime system to crack down on organised gangs once and for all. New powers for the Environmental Agency simply won’t cut it.
Government to fund clean-up of worst illegal waste sites as action plan launched
The government has said it will directly fund the clean-up of some of the worst illegal waste sites in England, where thousands of tonnes of rubbish have been dumped, the Press Association says. PA reports:
The move is part of a “zero-tolerance” new action plan to tackle the £1bn problem of waste crime, as officials warn around a fifth of all rubbish is illegally managed, with gangs behind it becoming increasingly sophisticated.
It comes in the wake of figures showing fly-tipping on public land climbed 9% last year to new highs, while massive illegal waste sites such as a 150m-long mountain of rubbish near the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire have prompted public outcry.
The government has committed to clearing up some of the worst sites, and says on-site feasibility assessments would take place as soon as possible at Bolton House Road in Wigan, where 18,000 tonnes of waste was dumped, and a stretch of land in Hyndburn, Lancashire, where 10,000 tonnes has been left.
An assessment will also take place for clearing an industrial site in Sheffield where 20,000 tonnes of waste was dumped, officials said.
The action plan will ramp up efforts to punish offenders, with proposals to force fly-tippers into “clean-up squads” doing up to 20 hours of unpaid work clearing up mess in public spaces and make them pay the cost of clearing the waste they dumped.
The government will also introduce landfill tax rebates for local authorities that step up to clear sites.
The plan also includes giving courts the power to award penalty points on driving licences for fly-tipping offences.
Under the plans, the Environment Agency will step up enforcement and intervene earlier, backed by an additional £45m from the Government over the next three years.
The agency, which regulates waste – will make greater use of powers that can shut down an illegal waste operation immediately – with up to 51 weeks in prison for an operator who ignores the restriction.
It will also suspend or revoke permits for rubbish handling where there is evidence of criminal activity, and create a new “intelligence unit” to hunt down criminals using tools ranging from aerial surveillance to financial data.
And for the first time the Environment Agency will name and shame illegal waste operators.
The government is also looking to give the agency “police-style” powers so that officers could search premises, seize assets and arrest people suspected of waste crime without a warrant.
Here is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s news release about this. And here is the waste crime action plan.
Zack Polanski says he wants Greens to hold balance of power after election, letting them push for PR and wealth tax
Earlier this week YouGov published a poll showing the Green party in second place in general election voting intention. The Greens were on 19%, behind Reform UK (25%), but ahead of the Conservatives and Labour (both on 17%) and and the Liberal Democrats (both on 14%). Most other polls have not put the Greens quite this high but, as Politico’s poll of polls shows, they do show the Greens competitive with what until recently we used to call the two main parties in UK politics.
All of this explains why Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has said that he now starts to think about the possibility that he might one day become prime minister. He said this in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast.
When Robinson asked him if his party’s recent success meant he thought there was a chance of becoming PM, Polanski replied:
That really isn’t the target right now.
When Robinson suggested this prospect must be on Polanski’s mind, Polanski replied:
It’s definitely in my mind because I get asked about it all the time. But my burning ambition really is to have a wealth tax, action on the climate and proportional representation. I think a change to the voting system is a huge prize.
But Polanski said that his main goal was for the Green party to be able to hold the balance of power at Westminster after the election. He said that, when he was campaigning to be leader last summer, he said that his ambition was for the party to have 30 to 40 MPs after the next election. (Currently they’ve got five.) But he said that target now feels “under-ambitious”.
He added:
The next step is to win a lot more MPs and potentially hold the balance of power and then I think that’s really interesting because you’re having conversations about proportional representation, a wealth tax, climate action and various other policies to reduce people’s cost of living and make life better for everyone in this country.
I will post more from the interview later. The BBC write-up is here.
Reform UK brushes off concerns about extremism of some of its MSP candidates, with one saying Humza Yousaf ‘not British’
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Reform UK’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, has reportedly brushed off questions about the views of Holyrood candidates accused of spreading false rumours about asylum hotels, of describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron”, and of backing Tommy Robinson.
Offord and Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, unveiled the party’s slate of 73 Scottish parliament candidates at a country club west of Glasgow on Thursday, claiming they were on course to become Holyrood’s second largest party.
The Courier newspaper reported on Friday that its candidate for North East Fife, Linda Holt, had described Yousaf, the UK’s first Muslim first minister, as “not British” and a “grandstanding Islamist moron” in social media posts.
It said that Rachael Wright, its candidate for Stirling, shared a petition which wrongly claimed a former private school in Perthshire was being “turned into migrant accommodation”. The school’s owners said that claim was “wholly unfounded”, but Reform asserted that denial was a result of its intervention.
Offord told the Courier:
I can’t comment on individual cases. We’ve only just announced the 73 candidates. What I’m very clear about is we’ve done a very, very thorough vetting of those. Inevitably there might be some comments people have made in the past, we’ve all made those comments in the past.
The Record reported that Senga Beresford, Reform’s candidate for Galloway and West Dumfries, endorsed social media posts by Tommy Robison and Britain First, including tweets calling for mass deportations and a ban on burqas. The paper said a Reform spokesperson said they were aware of the remarks, which were “not criminal.”
In January, Farage was pressed by the Guardian on whether Reform UK’s vetting was robust enough in the wake of the conviction of Nathan Gill, his former Ukip ally and Welsh Reform leader, for accepting Russian bribes. He replied:
It has been piss poor in the past and it won’t be in the future …
I promise you, I promise you, we are doing everything we can to make sure these candidates for the Scottish parliament are vetted, and are fit and proper people to put before the electorate. Whether you agree with their views or not, is a separate matter but they’re fit and proper people in every way.
Attorney general Richard Hermer asks if Kemi Badenoch would object to Jewish public prayer
Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public, after the Conservative leader backed one of her shadow ministers who said an Islamic prayer event was intimidating and un-British, Peter Walker reports.
Iran’s foreign minister tells Yvette Cooper UK letting US use bases is ‘participation in aggression’
Iran’s foreign minister has warned the UK it sees its choice to let the US use British bases as “participation in aggression” in a phone call with Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi criticised the “negative and biased approach of Britain” towards the US-Israeli military action against Iran, as well as the UK’s decision to provide military bases for the US to use.
Keir Starmer has granted the US permission for “defensive” action against Iranian missile sites from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
In a post in Farsi on Telegram, Araghchi said he told Cooper: “These actions will definitely be considered as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries.
“At the same time, we reserve our inherent right to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence.”
The UK has faced repeated criticism from Donald Trump since the war began, and is among countries the US president has recently berated for failing to respond to his request for support in the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran’s throttling of the key shipping route and attacks on energy facilities across the Gulf have heightened concerns about the security of the supply of fossil fuels.
This morning oil and gas prices retreated after painful cost spikes the previous day and financial markets calmed at the end of another turbulent week.
Rightwing narrative fuelling false belief UK public oppose net zero, study finds
Political elites are out of step with the public appetite for net zero, according to analysis that identifies rightwing media narratives as fuelling a false backlash against climate action. Damien Gayle has the story.
Reform UK’s record in local government shows it ‘doesn’t accept need for evidence-based policymaking’, report says
Here is an extract from the conclusion to the report from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment on Reform UK’s approach to climate change in the councils it runs.
The key finding from this study is that councils led by Reform UK are largely delivering on the party’s pledge to scrap net zero at the local level, and that ”scrapping net zero” is not only a policy position but a signal of a broader retreat from taking climate change seriously. This takes the form of both climate change delay, where commitments are weakened or deferred, and outright climate change denial, where the anthropogenic origin of climate change is rejected. Voters should be aware that this is the case, despite the party’s lack of an explicit position on climate change.
The promotion of climate change denial by both its national leadership and many of its local councillors indicates that Reform UK is failing to recognise the growing risks the British public face from climate change impacts, including rising sea levels, heavier rainfall and more intense heatwaves. It also demonstrates that the party does not accept the need for evidence-based policymaking.
If Reform UK expands its council base in the upcoming local elections, further climate target rollback, the dismantling of scrutiny structures and the withdrawal of voluntary emissions reporting should be expected. Given the vital role local authorities need to play in helping the UK reach its statutory target of net zero emissions by 2050, the government should consider strategic options including incentives to promote progress, rather than assuming voluntary action, and making standardised emissions reporting mandatory, to track progress of programmes that reduce emissions.
Reform UK success in local elections could endanger national climate targets, report says
Good morning. Seven weeks from today, counting will be taking place for the English local elections and, unless the polls are more wrong than they have ever been before, Reform UK will be celebrating record wins. The commentary will focus on the implications for national politics. But councils have significant powers, and a report today says Reform wins in local government could have a significant impact on climate policy.
We know that Reform UK are opposed to net zero, and they have pledged to cut green subsidies, but there is still some lack of clarity as to exactly what they would do on climate policy more generally. Some Reform UK figures refuse point-blank to acknowledge that human-made global heating is a reality. Others claim they are just opposed to the pace of transition to renewables. But Nigel Farage, the party leader, has a long history of climate change scepticism.
To explore this in more detail, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the LSE has invesgtigated what Reform UK has been doing in the councils it has been running since it won them last May, and it has published its report this morning. Here are the key findings.
• Seven Reform UK-led councils have “scrapped” their climate targets and climate change denial has been expressed by Reform UK councillors in five councils. Some of these councils have removed content about climate change from strategy documents.
• While work related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions continues in these councils, mitigating climate change is no longer explicitly cited as the motivation.
• However, there is variation in how “scrapping net zero” is being implemented, reflecting an apparent divergence of views within the party.
• There is also a lack of clarity in the party’s claims of how “scrapping net zero” has achieved financial savings and how the party defines expenditure on net zero.
• Reform UK is likely to win control of more local authorities in May 2026, including further unitary authorities with responsibilities for planning applications and housing, policy areas of importance to national climate targets.
• National government will face greater challenges in ensuring that local authorities contribute to the delivery of legislative and policy climate goals if Reform UK wins more seats.
This chart sets out what has been happening in the 10 councils where Reform UK has full control.
Edward de Quay, one of the analysts who wrote the report, said:
In our study we found that ‘scrapping net zero’ is not only a policy position but a signal of a broader retreat from treating climate change as urgent. This takes the form of both delaying action and outright climate change denial. Voters should be aware that this is the case.
In the upcoming local elections in May, should Reform UK expand its council base, we can expect further retreat from climate action. The government must be alert to this challenge, given the importance of local authorities to the delivery of national climate goals.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Steve Reed, the housing secretary, is on a visit.
10am: Peers resume their debate on the assisted dying bill.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in the south of England.
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