Tice defends Farage’s parliament attendance report forward of Reform occasion convention – UK politics reside

There was a few fascinating bits of polling out this morning, neither of which make nice studying for Labour forward of their first annual convention whereas being in energy for greater than a decade.

Savanta have discovered that half of the UK public say that will probably be unacceptable for Labour to proceed blaming the Conservatives after a 12 months in authorities, fewer than one in seven UK adults suppose there can be any noticeable enchancment to life within the UK in that point, and {that a} third of the general public say that Labour in authorities has been too damaging in regards to the challenges going through the UK.

Ipsos, in the meantime, saytheir newest survey exhibits half of Britons say that they’re upset with what Labour have executed in authorities to date, together with 1 / 4 of those that voted for the occasion in July. And Britons are barely extra prone to suppose the Labour authorities will change Britain for the more severe (36%) than the higher (31%). Keir Starmer’s private approval ranking has declined considerably.

I discussed that the principle occasion “on diary” right now is the Reform UK convention in Birmingham. Based on the agenda, right now delegates can be listening to from …

• 12.15 James McMurdock MP (South Basildon and East Thurrock)

• 12.30 Ann Widdecombe

• 15.00 Rupert Lowe MP (Nice Yarmouth)

• 15.15 Lee Anderson MP (Ashfield, Reform UK chief whip)

• 15.30 Richard Tice MP (Boston and Skegness, Reform UK deputy chair)

• 15.45 Zia Yusuf (Reform UK chair)

• 16.00 Nigel Farage MP (Clacton, Reform UK chief)

TV character Ant Middleton from SAS: Who Dares Wins can be talking. Reform UK took 14.3% of the vote in July’s normal election, and it’s their first convention since having MPs elected – Anderson was elected within the earlier parliament as a Conservative.

Lowe, Anderson and Tice have been extraordinarily energetic within the media this morning. My colleagues Peter Walker and Ben Quinn revealed this interview with Tice earlier.

Richard Partington is the Guardian’s economics correspondent

UK nationwide debt has hit 100% of the nation’s annual financial output, the best degree for the reason that Sixties, underscoring the problem going through the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she prepares for subsequent month’s finances.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, mentioned the figures demonstrated the difficult state of the general public funds left by the Conservatives, which might drive Labour to take “tough decisions” to rebuild the financial system.

“When we came into office, we inherited an economy that wasn’t working for working people. Today’s data shows the highest August borrowing on record, outside the pandemic. Debt is 100% of GDP, the highest level since the 1960s,” he mentioned.

Figures from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) present the federal government’s debt pile as a share of gross home product elevated by 4.3 proportion factors over the 12 months to August to achieve a dimension equal to the annual worth of every part produced within the financial system.

Authorities borrowing – the distinction between public sector spending and revenue – was £13.7bn, a rise of £3.3bn on the identical month a 12 months earlier, and the third highest August deficit since month-to-month information started in January 1993.

The most recent snapshot of the general public funds from the ONS confirmed that whereas tax receipts grew strongly in August, this was outweighed by greater expenditure – largely pushed by advantages uprating and better spending on public companies as a consequence of elevated operating prices and pay.

Learn extra of Richard Partington’s report right here: UK debt hits 100% of GDP, the best degree since Sixties

Richard Tice has been out beating the drum for Reform UK in a sequence of media appearances forward of their convention later right now. He defended chief Nigel Farage’s report of appearances in parliament, claiming that “no one works harder than Nigel Farage.”

Farage has spoken seven occasions in parliament since he was elected.

Chatting with PA Media, Reform UK’s deputy chair mentioned:

As chief, you’ve received an enormous job, since you’re campaigning in all places. You’re checking out the professionalisation with the chairman and so we’re sharing and sharing alike and that’s an essential a part of it. You’ll be able to’t be in all places on a regular basis. It’s actually tough. However let me inform you, nobody works tougher than Nigel Farage.

Tice additionally defended Farage’s curiosity in campaigning overseas through the US election, telling PA Media:

As a pacesetter of a celebration that’s now turning into mainstream, worldwide affairs, our relationship with our most essential, strategic worldwide companion – the US – is essential and the world can be a safer place if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. Nigel’s robust relationship with Donald Trump is definitely to the advantage of this nation and it’s fairly proper that he cements and strengthens that.

In a busy morning for him, Tice has additionally appeared on GB Information, the place he claimed that Reform UK, which was third within the July normal election on vote share, he mentioned that his occasion was the true opposition to the newly elected Labour authorities. He advised viewers:

Nobody’s received extra visibility, frankly, than Nigel on social media. I’m getting thousands and thousands of views on mine. The opposite three MPs, likewise. We’re on the market. We’re making a noise. Frankly, we’re the true opposition. The Tories have vacated the premises, we infrequently see them within the Home of Commons.

I’ve spoken 16 occasions, I’ve challenged the zealot-in-chief, Ed Miliband. I’ve challenged the house secretary. I’ve challenged the well being secretary on the failings of the NHS. So look, we’re holding them to account. That’s what folks count on of opposition events.

Yesterday Farage was embroiled in a row after he claimed he acquired official parliamentary recommendation towards holding in-person surgical procedures for his constituents in Clacton – then his declare was instantly known as into query by parliamentary insiders.

On the morning media spherical Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, was additionally selling authorities plans to embed specialist groups in police forces’ 999 management rooms with expertise to cope with calls about home violence.

She advised Sky Information:

Now we have to cease this taking place within the first place, and the federal government has a mission to halve the incidences of violence towards ladies and ladies in a decade.

And a lot of that work goes to need to be in regards to the prevention of perpetration, the altering of attitudes round wholesome relationships inside schooling, this can be a mission that’s going to take each Authorities division.

I don’t wish to simply give someone who’s taken a beating a great [999] name. I need them to not take that beating within the first place.

Phillips mentioned she was in discussions with the Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) over what number of stations could be included in a pilot scheme, anticipated to launch in 2025.

In her look on Occasions Radio, PA Media studies Phillips mentioned:

Really working with police over the past couple of weeks, I believe for the primary time I’m noticing how a lot they recognise there’s a nationwide emergency [of violence against women and girls], a complete nationwide emergency, and they’re, I’ve to say, fairly delighted that the Authorities is placing fairly a lot precedence into it.

And so we are going to work with police forces throughout the nation and from the centre to guarantee that once we are asking them to do issues, that may be delivered safely and fairly.

I’m not going to do what the final authorities did, the place they only introduced a load of issues that then meant nothing modified on the bottom, actually nothing.

In feedback launched in a single day, dwelling secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned “What we’ve seen is if there is proper domestic abuse expertise [on 999 calls], it means that you can get the right response to the calls that come in and proper understanding of the seriousness of domestic abuse as a crime and how lives are at risk.”

A home abuse safety order pilot is because of be launched in November that may place more durable sanctions on home abusers in the event that they fail to keep away from their victims

Well being secretary Wes Streeting has given a blunt one phrase reply on social media to a name by the Institute of Financial Affairs to “abolish the NHS” and substitute it with a type of social insurance coverage. “No,” mentioned Streeting.

Jess Phillips has defended prime minister Keir Starmer over accusations that he has taken too many presents whereas being a politician, saying he has lived “entirely by the rules” and was respiration down the necks of his ministers to ensure they have been doing the precise factor.

The Dwelling Workplace minister and MP for Birmingham Yardley advised Occasions Radio this morning:

The prime minister has lived fully by the principles which have ruled each single member of parliament, actually since I’ve been there – he acquired presents and issues, and he declared them. Let me inform you, it appears like he’s respiration down my neck to guarantee that we’re doing issues proper in my division.

We get invited to theatre performances and issues, and also you go alongside and also you help the humanities, and folks need you to go to their issues as a result of they need it supported.

So if you could find me a politician who has by no means executed something like that, has by no means ever, you recognize, gone to their native theatre to look at one thing then, properly, I believe they’re mendacity to you.

Requested whether or not she would settle for related presents to the prime minister, Phillips quite jokingly replied “I don’t like the Arsenal.”

There may be additionally extra information on troubled water firm Thames Water. A number of the firms largest lenders are contemplating easing compensation phrases because it fights for survival.

It has mentioned it has sufficient money to maintain its operations operating till the top of Could subsequent 12 months, however has introduced it was in search of recent compensation phrases.

Thames Water was privatised by the Margaret Thatcher Conservative authorities in 1989. The corporate has continued to pay out dividends to shareholders lately regardless of accruing a debt exceeding £14bn.

You’ll be able to learn a report on the newest improvement from Anna Isaac right here: Thames Water lenders ponder easing compensation phrases because it fights to outlive

Graeme Wearden

The UK authorities has borrowed over £6bn greater than forecast to date this monetary 12 months, after a bounce in borrowing final month.

The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics has reported that the UK borrowed £13.7bn in August, which is £3.3bn greater than in August 2023.

It’s the third highest borrowing for any August since 1993, and greater than £1bn greater than the £12.4bn Metropolis economists had anticipated.

Learn extra on our enterprise reside weblog: UK client confidence tumbles as households worry ‘painful’ finances; UK debt hits 100% of GDP – enterprise reside

PA Media is carrying some extra quotes on the menace that monetary penalties could be utilized to Serco for a failure to electronically tag all the prisoners launched in England and Wales as a part of the brand new Labour authorities’s try to cope with the jail overcrowding disaster it inherited from Rishi Sunak in July.

It quotes a Ministry of Justice spokesperson saying:

We’re holding Serco to account to handle delays in becoming some offenders with tags, and can apply monetary penalties towards the corporate if this isn’t resolved rapidly. Whereas this problem is ongoing, we now have prioritised tagging domestic-abuse offenders to ensure their licence circumstances, equivalent to staying away from their victims, are strictly adopted.

For its half, Serco has mentioned:

Since we took over the digital monitoring contract in Could we now have been working exhausting to cut back the variety of folks ready to have a tag fitted. We work carefully with the MoJ and the probation service to suit tags swiftly and prioritise instances primarily based on threat profiles.

The place a person just isn’t at dwelling once we name to suit a tag the time taken could be longer. We prioritise making one other go to in order that individuals are tagged as quickly as potential.

Jess Phillips has prompt that Serco might face “penalties” for delays in becoming some offenders with digital tags after they’ve been launched from jail.

PA media studies she advised LBC Information radio “It’s not the Government who has made the backlog in tags, it is a contract signed with Serco in May this year.”

Yesterday it was reported that prisoners freed early to ease overcrowding in jails haven’t been fitted with digital tags regardless of it being a situation of their launch, prompting criticism from a parliamentary watchdog.

Phillips mentioned:

I’ve been in conferences with regard to making sure that … any perpetrators of home abuse, are put to the highest of the record, to make sure that they’re being fitted with these tags.

The prisons minister, I consider, has had some fairly sturdy conferences, and is assembly with Serco right now, however the contract actually has in it the allowances for there to be penalties.

I’m nearly sure that on this case, that until one thing massively improves very, in a short time, that each one of these issues can be thought of.

Officers have declined to say how most of the 1,700 prisoners in England and Wales who have been allowed out after serving 40% of their sentences final week weren’t given monitoring gadgets. It’s understood to be “hundreds” quite than “dozens”, a supply advised the Guardian.

Good morning, welcome to our reside UK politics protection for Friday. Listed here are your headlines …

The primary “on diary” occasion right now is the Reform UK convention in Birmingham. The occasion had the third-highest vote share in July’s normal election, and all 5 of its MPs are anticipated to talk right now. Occasions will start shortly after noon and run till round 5pm.

It’s Martin Belam with you. The easiest way to get in contact with me, particularly in case you spot typos, errors and omissions is by e-mail: martin.belam@theguardian.com.