LONDON: Hard-right anti-immigration party Reform UK said Tuesday that Conservative defector Robert Jenrick will be its finance spokesman, as leader Nigel Farage announced policy portfolios for his top team.
Brexit cheerleader Farage appointed Zia Yusuf, who had been the party’s head of policy, as home affairs spokesman and deputy leader Richard Tice to a new role combining business, trade and energy policy.
The announcements follow Reform — which only has eight MPs in the 650-seat House of Commons — leading in polls for the past year and with the under-fire Labour government beset by crises and missteps.
The next general election is not due until 2029. But Reform and other opposition parties are eyeing a by-election this month for a parliamentary seat and local polls on May 7 to ratchet up the pressure on center-left Labour.
“We are the voice of opposition to this government, and so it’s time for the party to take the next step,” Farage said at a London event unveiling his picks for the new roles.
The 61-year-old — whose Euroskepticism and anti-immigration stances have proved increasingly popular in recent years — insisted his party now has “its own identity.”
“Reform has its own senior characters, with their own departments to lead,” he added, branding his top team a “shadow cabinet” — a term formally reserved in British politics for the main Conservative opposition.
Reform — founded in 2021 from the ashes of Farage’s Brexit Party — has in recent months lured lawmakers away from the Tories, while racking up sizeable donations.
In December, Thailand-based cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur Christopher Harborne gave it £9 million ($12 million).
However, several recent polls have shown the party’s popularity potentially plateauing, while Farage’s own disapproval ratings have risen.
The latest YouGov weekly voting intention survey showed Reform on 24 percent and its lead over Labour down to five points. The pollster also recently found 64 percent of respondents viewed Farage unfavorably. That was up from 59 percent last June.
In another sign of possible shifting sentiment, betting company Ladbrokes said Monday that, for the first time since last May, Reform were no longer favorites to win the most seats at the next general election.
Reform UK name Tory defector Jenrick as finance spokesman
https://arab.news/g4m5x
Reform UK name Tory defector Jenrick as finance spokesman
- Brexit cheerleader Farage appointed Zia Yusuf as home affairs spokesman
- The next general election is not due until 2029
Guinea launches probe after nationals expelled from Germany
- The government in Conakry has been under pressure in recent days to respond to the deportations
- Ministers have summoned the charge d’affaires from Germany’s embassy to explain why the Guineans were expelled
CONAKRY: The authorities in Guinea said Thursday they were looking into why a number of its citizens had been kicked out of Germany, after an angry online response to the expulsions.
The government in Conakry has been under pressure in recent days to respond to the deportations, videos and testimony of which have been circulating on social media.
Ministers have summoned the charge d’affaires from Germany’s embassy to explain why the Guineans were expelled and to urge a halt to future deportations.
“We want our fellow citizens to have their dignity respected,” Foreign Minister Morissanda Kouyate told the diplomat before television cameras.
At a news conference on Thursday, Kouyate announced that a “bilateral commission of investigation” had been established involving both Guinea and Germany to get to the bottom of the matter.
“Instead of hurling abuse at each other... we are going to sit down at a table in the strict interest of European citizens and Guinean citizens,” he told reporters, alongside German ambassador Irene Biontino.
Some 6,000 Guineans are living irregularly in Germany, the minister said.
Biontino on Wednesday said in an interview that there had been “no offensive” recently. The deportations of irregular Guinean nationals were being conducted in line with bilateral agreements and Germany’s “sovereignty,” she added.
“A total of 30 people were deported to Guinea in January 2026. (In comparison), in January 2025, 20 people were sent back to Guinea,” a German interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
There were 169 expulsions to Guinea in 2025, they added.
In recent years, Guinea has become a key starting point for young migrants trying to smuggle themselves into north Africa and Europe in the hope of a better future.
According to a 2021 International Organization for Migration study, the Guinean diaspora was estimated at between three and five million people.
Most were living in west Africa and in France, Germany and Belgium.
