Southport 1) Over a hundred arrests in London during protest over attack
“More than 100 people have been arrested in a protest in central London following a fatal knife attack and subsequent riot in Southport, the Metropolitan Police has said. The Met said it made arrests for a range of offences including violent disorder, assault on an emergency worker, and breach of protest conditions on Wednesday evening. Police clashed with protesters on Whitehall, close to Downing Street, during a demonstration following the fatal stabbings of three girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on Monday.” – BBC
- 17-year-old charged with murder of three girls – BBC
- Clashes in Manchester, London and Hartlepool – Daily Mail
- Stabbing suspect ‘appeared in West End musical’ – The Times
>Today: ToryDiary: The riot in Southport reminds us that we must never surrender to mob justice
>Yesterday: Harvey Proctor on Comment: Violence cannot be allowed to shut down our democracy
Southport 2) Farage denies he “whipped up” rioters
“Nigel Farage has insisted he was asking “very legitimate questions” when he asked whether the “truth is being withheld” about the Southport attacks. The Reform UK leader rejected claims that he had “whipped up” rioters who descended on Southport on Tuesday night after three girls were killed and others injured in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club. He said it was “quite legitimate to ask questions” about details of the incident. Farage first commented on the attacks on Tuesday in a video on Twitter/X, in which he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us.” – The Times
- Jess Phillips was wrong to traduce Nigel Farage on Twitter – Michael Mosbacher, Daily Telegraph
- Social media companies urged to act on misleading Southport posts – Daily Telegraph
- Former counter-terror chief says Reform UK leader is ‘creating conspiracy theories’ – The Guardian
- Only a Reform-Tory alliance can prevent a decade of Labour – Jonathan Saxty, Daily Express
>Yesterday: Kai Suleman on Comment: Chasing Reform voters would be a dead end for the Scottish Conservatives
BBC paid Huw Edwards £200,000 after his arrest over child abuse images
“The BBC is facing questions after it emerged that it paid Huw Edwards more than £200,000 following his arrest for possessing indecent images of children. The corporation has admitted it knew about its star broadcaster’s arrest in November last year, yet continued to pay him his full salary until he resigned voluntarily five and a half months later. Edwards, 62, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to multiple counts of possessing indecent images of children, including one as young as seven years old.” – Daily Telegraph
- Pain of vulnerable young victims must never be forgotten – Leader, The Sun
- Culture Secretary to call in BBC boss Tim Davie over scandal – The i
Cooper drops plan to raise income threshold for migrants’ spouses to £38,700 next year
“Sir Keir Starmer has shelved Conservative plans to increase the minimum salary thresholds for the spouses of migrants amid concerns that doing so could damage the “economic wellbeing” of the UK. Earlier this year, the Tories increased the income threshold needed to bring a foreign partner to the UK from £18,600 to £29,000 in a bid to reduce legal migration. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has now paused plans to raise the threshold further to £38,700 next year. Instead she has asked the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), an independent body, to review the level at which it should be set.” – The Times
- UK firms addicted to cheap foreign labour and British workers are sidelined – Daily Express
>Yesterday: Columnist Olivia O’Malley: A lesson for the UK from New Zealand – don’t neglect emigration in the debate over immigration
Tory areas given six times bigger increase in housing targets than Labour regions
“Tory councils have seen their house building targets increase by six times more than Labour ones, analysis by The Telegraph reveals. On Tuesday Angela Rayner unveiled sweeping reforms to planning rules, including mandatory housing targets imposed on councils and a new algorithm to calculate them. Analysis shows that, as a result, across the 55 Tory-controlled English councils which have planning powers, targets have been increased by 43.3 per cent.” – Daily Telegraph
- Planning changes will not mean ‘load of ugly houses’, says Rayner – The Guardian
- Taylor Wimpey says Labour’s planning changes ‘important early step’ for more homes – The Guardian
Starmer would fear Badenoch most, says Mandelson
“Kemi Badenoch is the Tory leadership candidate Sir Keir Starmer would fear the most, Lord Mandelson has suggested. The Labour grandee said Mrs Badenoch’s readiness to “call out the sort of ‘wokery’ many voters dislike” set her apart from the other contenders to take over from Rishi Sunak. He added that the shadow housing secretary would be more likely to grab attention as the leader of the opposition because she “is not afraid to speak her mind”. His remarks will come as a boost to Mrs Badenoch, one of six Tory MPs vying to lead the party.” – Daily Telegraph
- I’ve seen how toxic Tory leadership races are, new rules won’t change that – David Scullion, The i
- Badenoch asked to use taxpayers’ money to pay for holiday flight, sources claim – The Guardian
- Hague and Mandelson set to compete in election to be Oxford University chancellor – The Times
>Yesterday: Ewan Cameron on Comment: Rushing into a leadership contest would have been wrong-headed
Labour’s pledge to fill a million more potholes in doubt
“Labour’s election promise to fill one million more potholes each year and a £8.3billion pledge for road repairs were in doubt last night. New Chancellor Rachel Reeves pulled the pothole cash this week as part of her spending squeeze to plug a £22billion black hole in the nation’s finances. But it came weeks after Sir Keir Starmer promised Sun readers in his election campaign that he would launch a road repair blitz.” – The Sun
Maduro threatens Venezuela opposition leaders amid crackdown on dissent
“Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has warned “justice must come” to opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González and leader María Corina Machado as authorities cracked down on protests amid claims of a stolen vote. “I hold you, Mr González, and Ms Machado, directly responsible for the criminal violence, the wounded, the dead, and the destruction,” Maduro said during a government meeting on Tuesday, as demonstrations over the authoritarian president’s disputed election victory continued across the country.” – Financial Times
- The west must not let Maduro get away with a stolen election – Leader, Financial Times
>Today: Columnist Garvan Walshe: Venezuelans voted for freedom. Will they be allowed to have it?
Iran vows revenge after Hamas leader assassinated in Tehran
“Iran has threatened “harsh punishment” for Israel, which it says was responsible for assassinating Hamas’s leader on Wednesday. Israel has not commented directly on the strike which killed Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early on Wednesday. However, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had delivered “crushing blows” to its enemies in recent days, including the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon hours before the Tehran strike.” – BBC
Other political news
- Trump questions whether Harris is black or Indian – Daily Telegraph
- Ukraine receives first F-16 fighter jets from Netherlands – The Times
- Brussels issues UK list of demands if it wants better relationship – Financial Times
- Labour tries to attract clean energy contracts with record £1.5bn for auction – The Guardian
- UK ministries should get five-year budgets to ensure stability, think-tank says – Financial Times
- ‘No evidence’ SNP MSPs misused parliament stamps – BBC
- Treasury minister took 16 months to declare £10,000 rental income – The Times
- GPs could cap appointments in work-to-rule – BBC
- North Norfolk District Council has seen the money it spends placing people in bed and breakfasts increase by 335 per cent in the last five years – BBC
Heath: Reeves will punish the prudent and successful to reward the feckless state
“The inescapable conclusion is that Labour remains a party enthralled by class warfare. It seeks to take rather than create, to coerce rather than incentivise, to control and regulate and tax all that moves. It divides the country into two classes: its friends, the “good” people, and its enemies, the “bad” people. Its mission is to hammer the latter pitilessly while helping the former in every way possible, partly out of misplaced ideological conviction and partly to buy votes. Woe betide if you fall in the “wrong” category, if you work too hard, are too thrifty, too prudent, too successful, too productive or too entrepreneurial: the Labour Party is coming for you, for your income, for your capital gains, for your school fees. “Unearned” income, a Marxist concept that demonises the proceeds of investment, including dividends, interest, rents and capital gains, is deemed inherently suspicious, as opposed to “earned” income from salaries and wages, which is “good” as long as there isn’t too much of it.” – Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph
- The Chancellor must tempt savers to splash the cash – James Kirkup, The Times
- Rachel Reeves and the limits of clever politics – Robert Shrimsley, Financial Times
- Voters who know what the money is spent on are less likely to support tax rises – Ryan Bourne, The Times
- City warns over punishing impact of capital gains tax raid – City AM
News in brief
- Condemning the Southport riot is not enough – Brendan O’Neill, The Spectator
- A lower target won’t fix London’s housing shortage – Ben Hopkinson, CapX
- Will Biden intervene in Venezuela’s election? – Paola Romero, Unherd
- The British family is nuclear powered – Sam Bidwell, The Critic
- Chief Secretary To Treasury meets Labour MPs over Winter Fuel Payment concern – Nadine Batchelor-Hunt, The House magazine
