Politicians attend funeral of ‘inspiring leader' Norman Tebbit
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Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Nigel Farage under pressure to distance himself from 'racist' Ant Middleton rant
Ant Middleton - who has been close with Nigel Farage and posed with him ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington - said first, second and third generation immigrants should be banned from top government jobs Pressure is mounting on Nigel Farage to distance himself from TV hardman Ant Middleton after he was accused of "overt racism". The former soldier sparked an outcry after claiming that first, second and third generation immigrants should be barred from "top tier government positions". Middleton - who gave a speech at last year's Reform conference and has been linked with a mayoral run for the party - was pictured smiling with Mr Farage and treasurer Nick Candy in Washington DC ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration in January. The ex-SAS: Who Dares Wins host has said he will stand to be London mayor - and claimed to be "very much aligned" with Reform. Mr Farage now faces calls to clarify if he condones the remarks by Middleton or cut ties with him. It comes after a Nigel Farage watchdog probe was revealed to centres on a mysterious fishing boat. In an outburst on Twitter /X, the former Special Forces commando wrote: "Our Capital City of our Christian country needs to be run by a native Brit with generational Christian values, principles and morals coursing through their veins from which our very society was built, thrived and was forged upon." By Middleton's criteria, Winston Churchill, whose mother was born in Brooklyn, Boris Johnson and King Charles would not qualify for high office. Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty responded on Twitter: "This level of overt racism shows who he really is once he lets the mask slip." He told The Mirror: 'After his starring role as a leading speaker at the Reform party conference last year, Ant Middleton's campaign to be the Mayor of London is increasingly being characterised with dangerous rhetoric that stokes division. "Given his prison sentence for assaulting a police officer and ban from being a company director over £1m in unpaid taxes he shouldn't even pass Reform's vetting process. With Nigel Farage claiming to be tough on crime he should clarify whether he supports the views of his likely candidate to be mayor of our capital; a man who doesn't even live in the country, let alone London.' A Labour Party spokeswoman said: 'These racist comments are completely unacceptable and have no place in our politics or our society. Nigel Farage has shared appearances at Reform UK events with Ant Middleton, but is yet to distance himself from these remarks or clarify whether he condones them. "Farage must urgently confirm that Reform UK will immediately cut all ties with Middleton.' Dubai-based Middleton, who was jailed in 2013 for wounding a male police officer and assaulting a female PC, vowed that if he becomes Mayor he will "prioritise the indigenous people" above all. In June he claimed rumours that Mr Farage was looking elsewhere for a candidate were "incorrect". He said: "We are still very much aligned and no such drifting away has happened. "However I have always voiced an option to run independently which may have been a cause of certain rumours!" He was loudly applauded at Reform's conference in Birmingham last September, when he was presented as an expert in security. Middleton told the audience: 'We are at a very, very important and crucial stage before it teeters into civil unrest, which we want to avoid at all costs, but it's coming. We're on that edge where violence has hit the streets, we've all seen it, I don't need to mention what it is, we've all seen it.' And voicing his support for the party he said: "I know enough about modern day politics to realise that it's not working here in the UK. Hence, the solution is in the title Reform." Last year Mr Farage posted a photo of himself alongside Middleton, who he described as "the big man". And he was snapped alongside Mr Farage and billionaire property tycoon Mr Candy with the White House in the background in January. The TV host was a controversial figure long before his appearance at the event in Birmingham. He was dropped by Channel 4 in March 2021 after tweeting about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. He moved to Dubai, telling GB News last year that people in the UK are "just stuck in a rut". In 2012 he body-slammed PC Christopher Brooksbank outside a nightclub and assaulted PC Katherine Alison. He was given a 14-month jail sentence the following year. He told The Mirror in 2015: "I was shocked by how I acted. I'm very ashamed of it, hence why I've put it behind me." And he said he had written to both officers to apologise. But he now claims he "never laid a finger on a woman". In March Middleton was banned from being a company director after his firm Sway and Starting failed to pay over £1million in tax. The Insolvency Service said he and wife Emilie were "taking millions of pounds out of" the company when they should have been paying tax. Sway and Starting, which provided media representation services, went into liquidation in 2022. At the time it owed £300,000 in VAT and £800,000 in corporation tax.
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Why Vance is worth watching this summer
America's two most powerful men are visiting Britain this summer. After Donald Trump's trip to Scotland last month, his Vice President is expected shortly in the Cotswolds. Both men share an interest in the UK – but for different reasons. Trump's ties are ancestral; Vance's passion is more intellectual. 'What's going on with Reform?' he asked Peter Mandelson at a recent function. His choice of England as a holiday destination reflects an engagement in this country's politics. Among Vance's friends and contacts are several prominent British academics. They include Blue Labour founder Maurice Glasman, who corresponded with Vance over email, and James Orr, with whom Vance bonded in 2019 after converting to Catholicism. Shortly after his election to the Senate in January 2023, he came to London and was keen to meet with prominent conservatives. As Vice President, he has shown an eagerness to use his office to engage in UK domestic issues. The best example of this was his Munich Security Conference speech in February. Here he attacked successive British governments for ignoring voter concerns on migration and free speech. He demonstrated too a level of familiarity with specific UK case studies – including a man in Bournemouth convicted for praying outside an abortion clinic. Vance has subsequently weighed in on different European issues, calling the continent the 'cradle of Western civilisation'. All this is to say that Vance is willing and able to use his status to shape the dynamics of the UK-US relationship and, potentially, the future of British conservatism. Right-to-life groups in this country were ecstatic when Vance raised the little-known-case of the Bournemouth abortion clinic. The Vice Presidency might have once been dismissed as 'not worth a bucket of warm piss' – but JD Vance has shown that it affords a bully pulpit with considerable clout in the social media age. Prominent figures in both Reform and the Conservative party are clearly aware of this dynamic. Allies of the Vice President have already met with senior members of Nigel Farage's party. The Clacton MP, who made little comment about Trump's Scotland visit, was this week willing to publicly indulge talk of a meeting with Vance when interviewed on LBC. Other engagements are expected with other leading conservative personalities of interest. Such engagements are timely, given Vance's status as the Intellectual-in-Chief of this White House. For now, he remains the second most powerful in the United States – but all that could change very shortly. The race for 2028 is set to begin in earnest in about 18 months' time and Vance is in prime position to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Much as how Thatcher and Reagan first met in 1975, an engagement with Vance this summer could prove most fruitful in four years' time.
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Dining across the divide: ‘Wait a minute, you vote Reform and you read the Guardian?'
Occupation Engineering manager Voting record Generally a small-c conservative, has voted Tory in every election but 2024, when he voted Reform as a protest against the Conservative government. Doesn't see himself voting Reform in 2029 Amuse bouche Buys individual pieces of Lego to make his own creations. For his 30th birthday, his fiancee bought him the makings of a 3ft wingspan Tiger Moth biplane Occupation Retired maths teacher Voting record Labour or Lib Dem – whoever is most likely to beat the Tories Amuse bouche Spent seven years teaching in Africa, first in Kenya, then in Malawi Bernard He was very young, very smartly dressed. I wasn't scruffy, but I didn't have his polish. A nice guy; a bit diffident to start with, but we both were, really. It's a strange situation. Once we got talking, we got on fine. Michael He seemed welcoming, more than warm. Bernard I had buffalo chicken wings, followed by haddock, followed by a fantastic sticky toffee pudding. Perhaps I overdid it a bit. Michael I had pork belly to start, and then a Portuguese beef stew. Bernard We both agreed that we had to get away from fossil fuels, but his solution is nuclear. If there is an accident, they tend to be disastrous accidents – he had all kinds of arguments for why Chornobyl couldn't happen here, but even Sellafield in the early years, leaking radioactive water into the Irish Sea, was awful. Michael We should be pushing hard for nuclear, whereas Bernard leaned heavily into renewables. My reasons are the reliability of nuclear, the compactness. It's unfair to judge nuclear on Chornobyl. The causes of that disaster were largely unqualified people and political interference, rather than science. It was the politicians running it, not the engineers. Bernard The cost of Hinkley Point is immense. The French are building it, aren't they? He thinks the reason why that's happening is because the red tape in this country is so terrible. And what do you do with the waste? You bury it. But you've haven't got rid of it, you've just left it for future generations. Michael My response to the half-life issue, which he raised, is that we take very diffuse radioactive material and concentrate it – so it's not like we're creating this deadly thing; it's a natural element, or minerals rather, that's been concentrated. So it's a long problem but it's not a big problem. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Bernard I think Brexit is a done deal and I'm pretty sure that it won't be reversed any time soon. Although I was furious about it, I do tend to think: what can we do? It's like being really cross there was an earthquake. Michael We voted opposite ways but agreed that it was time to move on. It wouldn't have happened this way were I dictator and in charge of everything, and I'm not particularly happy with the results, but we live in a democracy and you've got to accept compromise. Bernard We both felt there should be more consensus in politics. PMQs is a bit of a joke: it doesn't mean anything – it's like a tennis match. If you can make a select committee work, where people from all political parties manage to meet and agree on things, why can't you make law like that? Michael Towards the end of the evening, he mentioned Wes Streeting's new plan for the NHS. It's nice that it's a 10-year plan and is supported by the shadow health secretary. So that's almost a glimmer of hope against the normal discourse of A says this and B says, 'That's bad because A said it.' If both sides say it's a good thing, then it's probably a good thing. Bernard I certainly had an enjoyable evening. I don't think I made a friend, in so far as he's half my age. I said to him, 'Wait a minute, you vote Reform, and you read the Guardian?' It turned out his fiancee is a teacher and she encouraged him to do it. Michael We walked out of the restaurant together, chatted as we walked down the street. We didn't exchange numbers; I'll never see him again, but I very much enjoyed talking to somebody I'd never normally have crossed paths with. I almost felt guilty about how much I enjoyed it. Additional reporting: Kitty Drake Bernard and Michael ate at The Chapter House in Salisbury. Want to meet someone from across the divide? Find out how to take part
