LONDON: As Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party registers gains in British opinion polls, its candidates are coming under greater scrutiny, with several accused of making racist and misogynistic comments.
The veteran pro-Brexit populist has claimed that Reform is “now the real opposition” to predicted general election winners Labour, after a single YouGov poll published on Thursday put them a point ahead of the ruling Conservatives.
YouGov may be the only pollster so far to show a lead for Reform over the Tories but the hard-right party stands to gain from the support of right-wing voters disgruntled with 14 years of Conservative rule.
Earlier this year, Reform was polling in single digits.
It only obtained its first MP in March, when former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson defected to Reform after being reprimanded by the Conservatives.
He was sanctioned after refusing to apologize for falsely claiming that London mayor Sadiq Khan was “controlled by Islamists.”
Reform now has some 609 general election candidates — nearly double the number from 2019, when it was known as the Brexit Party.
According to Hope Not Hate, which campaigns against racism and fascism, Reform has ditched 166 candidates this year, with many having to be dropped for making offensive or racist comments.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s snap election call last month left Reform rushing to find nominees before final nominations were due last week — following its pledge to run in all of the country’s 650 constituencies.
“The real danger lies in the haphazard approach of the party to candidate recruitment and vetting,” said Georgie Laming, director of campaigns at Hope Not Hate.
One candidate was dropped in April for being “inactive” but the party had to apologize when it later transpired that he had in fact died.
“Time and time again, Reform UK candidates are exposed for racism and extremism,” Laming said.
Farage admitted on Thursday that the party had failed to fully vet all its candidates.
“Don’t forget, I’ve come in right at the last minute. We have not had time to do full vetting of candidates,” said Farage in an interview with LBC radio.
Farage is standing in the seaside resort of Clacton in eastern England after previously ruling out a bid to seek election.
The party had earlier conceded it was fielding some “paper” candidates, with Reform chair Richard Tice saying the “press and scrutineers” were doing the vetting for them.
In the week since final candidate lists were published, the party has dropped at least two candidates over revelations of racism.
One used slurs against black people, among other offensive comments found by the Times newspaper.
Another liked an Islamophobic post calling London mayor Khan an “undercover jihadist.”
Since then, dozens of accusations have been made against other Reform candidates still running for seats in Westminster.
One apologized after the BBC revealed he had posted online claiming that Britain would be better off if it had “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality,” and another calling women the “sponging gender.”
Reform defended the comments, with one spokesman saying they were “written with an eye to inconvenient perspectives and truths.”
Multiple candidates who are still running have liked and retweeted posts supporting Enoch Powell, a firebrand right-wing politician in the 1960s who stoked fears of racial war if immigration went unchecked.
One candidate was found by LBC comparing “Islam and Nazis” as being “the same.”
Another retweeted a post saying Labour leader Keir Starmer was “owned by Muslims.”
Others have, like the party’s leadership, voiced climate change skeptic views.
One candidate’s biography on the Reform website called net zero a “dangerous false ideology” and cited UAE and Russia’s questioning of the “science of climate change.”
Farage, who wants the vote to be an “immigration election,” has been accused of dog-whistle politics himself.
He said UK-born Sunak — Britain’s first prime minister of color and of Asian heritage — did not understand “our culture.”
Hard-right Reform UK’s patchwork candidates face scrutiny
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Hard-right Reform UK’s patchwork candidates face scrutiny
- The veteran pro-Brexit populist has claimed that Reform is “now the real opposition” to predicted general election winners Labour
- YouGov may be the only pollster so far to show a lead for Reform over the Tories
Ukraine’s path into NATO ‘irreversible’: European foreign ministers
“We are committed to providing Ukraine with ironclad security guarantees“
BERLIN: Ukraine’s path to eventual NATO membership is “irreversible,” seven European foreign policy chiefs said at a meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
“We will continue to support Ukraine on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” said the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, and the EU’s foreign policy chief.
“Ukraine must prevail,” they stressed in a joint declaration after meeting their Ukrainian counterpart.
“We are committed to providing Ukraine with ironclad security guarantees, including reliable long-term provision of military and financial support,” they added.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock hosted the meeting as Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion has raged for more than 1,000 days and into its third winter, with Kyiv’s troops under heavy pressure.
The top diplomats vowed to “remain steadfast in our solidarity” and “continue to support Ukraine in its right of self-defense against Russian aggression.”
US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has said solving the Ukraine crisis would be his top priority, but there are fears in Kyiv that he could try to force big concessions on Ukraine in return for a ceasefire.
The European ministers meeting in Berlin stressed: “There can be no negotiations about peace in Ukraine without Ukrainians and without Europeans by their side.”
They vowed to “stand united with our European and transatlantic partners to think and act big on European security.”
The group also said they would “continue to support Ukraine on its path toward accession to the European Union.”
UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder
- Ten-year-old Sara Sharif’s father, step-mother were convicted of murdering her this week
- Months before death, her father had taken Sharif out of school to be taught at home
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday called for better safeguards for home-schooled children and said there were “questions that need to be answered” after the brutal murder of a 10-year-old girl.
Sara Sharif’s father and step-mother were convicted of murder on Wednesday in a trial that revealed gruesome details of the abuse inflicted on her, and the failure of child protection services to intervene despite warning signs.
Months before her death, her father Urfan Sharif had taken her out of school to be taught at home, after Sara’s teacher reported her bruises to child services.
At the time, child services had probed the incident but did not take any action.
Starmer said the “awful” case was “about making sure that (there are) protecting safeguards for children, particularly those being home-schooled.”
The Department for Education said it was “already taking action to make sure no child falls through the cracks” and “bringing in greater safeguards for children in home education.”
The government plans to “make sure that schools and teachers are involved in safeguarding decisions,” a Downing Street spokesperson said, adding that details would be included in upcoming legislation.
Parents will also need local authority consent for home-schooling at-risk children under the proposed changes, and a register of children who are not in school will be drawn up.
Sara was found dead in her home in August 2023, with extensive injuries including broken bones, burns and even bite marks after being subjected to years of abuse.
She had also been in and out of foster care after Sharif separated from her mother, Olga Sharif, to marry the step-mother Beinash Batool.
Despite previous allegations of abusive behavior against the father made by Olga, Sharif won custody of Sara in 2019, just four years before she was killed.
Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza said Sara’s death highlighted “profound weaknesses in our child protection system.”
De Souza said it was “madness” that an at-risk child could be taken out of school, calling for a ban on home-schooling of suspected abuse victims.
According to a child safeguarding report published on Thursday, 485 children in England died or were seriously harmed by abuse or neglect in the year to April 2024.
Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, who was cleared of murder but convicted of causing or allowing her death, are due to be sentenced on Tuesday.
Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks
- Discussions will focus on “key issues facing Europe in a tense geopolitical climate,” the government said
- Finland has accused Russia of orchestrating a surge of migrants
HELSINKI: Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo will host four high-ranking EU counterparts in late December for talks on security and immigration, the Finnish government said on Thursday.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will join the summit, which will take place in Saariselka in Finland’s far north on December 21 and 22.
Discussions will focus on “key issues facing Europe in a tense geopolitical climate,” the government said in a statement.
Topics like “European security, defense and preparedness, as well as migration, instrumentalization of migration and border security” will be on the agenda.
“The summit will provide an opportunity to discuss issues confidentially and come up with ideas for new initiatives,” the statement said.
Finland has accused Russia of orchestrating a surge of migrants after nearly 1,000 migrants without visas arrived at its 1,340-kilometer-long (830-mile) eastern border with Russia in the autumn of 2023.
Helsinki dubbed it a “hybrid attack,” but the Kremlin has denied the accusation.
“Europe has to take greater responsibility for its own security,” Orpo was quoted saying in the statement.
“This means that European countries have to be strong leaders, both in the EU and in NATO. Our greatest threat is Russia, which is trying to consolidate power and sow discord in Europe.”
Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire
- Tusk was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Warsaw
- Diplomats said the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia would be on their agenda.
WARSAW/PARIS: Poland has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, amid speculation that Western powers could put boots on the ground if a ceasefire is reached.
Tusk was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Warsaw. Diplomats said the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia would be on their agenda.
“To cut off speculation about the potential presence of this or that country in Ukraine after reaching a ceasefire... decisions concerning Poland will be made in Warsaw and only in Warsaw,” Tusk said. “For now, we do not plan such actions.”
Macron said it was up to Ukraine to decide what concessions it wanted to make for peace, but for Europe to be secure the people of the continent as a whole must take responsibility.
“(We have) the same desire to say to the Ukrainians that... nobody can discuss for the Ukrainians in their name the concessions to be made, the points to be raised, it is up to the Ukrainians to do it, but there is no security in Europe without the Europeans,” Macron told a news conference.
European powers are keen to demonstrate to Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20, that they are willing to assume their share of the burden to end the almost three-year war in Ukraine.
Finance and foreign ministers from France, Germany and Poland are also meeting on Thursday in Warsaw and in Berlin, just weeks before Poland takes over the rotating EU presidency from Hungary.
The talks in Poland and Berlin will look at how to strengthen financial and military support for Ukraine in the immediate term and how Europe can boost defense financing, including through common debt.
Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line
- “Let the HIMARS not fail, let them hit enemy targets,” Zelensky said
- In a video published on his Telegram channel, he was filmed addressing soldiers in a bunker
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops fighting on the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, he said Thursday in a post on Telegram.
Zelensky said he had visited soldiers from the 27th Rocket Artillery Brigade, dubbed Ukraine’s “HIMARS division” for its use of the US-supplied rockets.
“Thank you for your service and defense of our country and people. Let the HIMARS not fail, let them hit enemy targets,” Zelensky said.
In a video published on his Telegram channel, he was filmed addressing soldiers in a bunker and awarding some state awards.
Russia has occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region since the first days of its 2022 invasion, and claims to have annexed the full region.
The regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia, has been pounded with Russian aerial strikes in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said earlier on Thursday that 11 people had been killed in a missile strike on Tuesday, after rescue workers spent more than 46 hours sifting through rubble for bodies.
Another 22 were wounded in the strike, including a girl aged five.
