Farage names Helen Jenner as Reform UK’s Welsh chief, saying resignation of predecessor after arrest simply ‘bump in highway’
Ben Quinn
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Nigel Farage has unveiled Helen Jenner as Reform UK’s new chief in Wales after her predecessor stood down final week following his arrest.
Jenner, who was beforehand Reform’s deputy chief in Wales, joined Farage on the steps of the Senedd, the place he described the lack of the celebration’s Welsh chief final week as a “bump within the highway”.
Dan Thomas introduced final week that he was standing down after he was arrested and bailed on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.
The previous Tory councillor had solely been introduced as Reform’s Welsh chief by Nigel Farage in February.
Jenner is a Welsh speaker from Neath, close to Port Talbot in south Wales. She represents Bangor Conwy Môn within the Senedd.
“I’ve identified Helen for a lot of, many yr. She is a decided campaigner and I believe she goes to do a really, superb job,” mentioned Farage.
Referring to the departure of Thomas, he added:
We’ll keep it up as if nothing has occurred
We may have finished with out this bump within the highway. However it has occurred, We’re making the very best of it.
Thomas issued an announcement final Tuesday within the wake of intense hypothesis about his future, saying that he had been reported to the police on the earlier weekend and was launched with out cost.
“I stress that I’ve finished nothing unsuitable, however I don’t want the approaching headlines to be a distraction from the incredible work our Senedd group is doing in holding this authorities to account,” he added.
Gwent police has mentioned {that a} 45-year-old man, from the Aberbargoed space, was arrested on 13 September, on suspicion of assault and fascinating in controlling/coercive behaviour. “He has been bailed pending additional inquiries,” the police mentioned.
Key occasions
Helen Jenner was anticipated to be named as the brand new Reform UK chief in Wales. However, in line with Adrian Masters from ITV Cymru Wales, Jenner was not elected unopposed by Reform UK members of the Senedd. He says:
Reform UK Wales confirms that there was a contest within the alternative of recent chief. Two candidates stood, Helen Jenner gained. The celebration gained’t say who the challenger was.
Wilkinson says leaving ECHR could be ‘Brexit 2.0 – one other catastrophe that fixes nothing’
Listed here are some extra strains from Max Wilkinson’s speech to the Lib Dem convention this morning.
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Wilkinson, the Lib Dem house affairs spokesperson, accused Shabana Mahmood, the house secretary, of utilizing “divisive language” that you’d anticipate from the “authoritarian proper”. After condemning the Tories and Reform UK for his or her anti-migration views, he mentioned:
And what’s the Labour response to this difficult proper agenda? Their house secretary has indulged within the form of divisive language that we’d normally anticipate from the authoritarian proper …
Well let me inform you house secretary – irrespective of how arduous you chase, you’ll by no means meet up with [Nigel] Farage – that may be a idiot’s errand.
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He mentioned that it was the obligation of the Liberal Democrats to face as much as the Tories and Reform UK, and the “poison” they had been spreading on migration. Repeatedly referring to Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick as a “plonker”, he mentioned:
[Jenrick] and his celebration are plonkers with harmful concepts … and £72m to ship them.
And their allies within the Conservative celebration are weakly following them.
We’ll stand as much as them.
We should, as a result of Nigel Farage’s path to energy runs via Liberal Democrat seats.
Reform will use their mega cash to dominate the airwaves – to drive their warped imaginative and prescient of Britain onto our TV and cellphone screens to divide us.
Who will arise towards their poison?
Liberals, that’s who.
Leaving the European conference on human rights won’t repair our asylum system.
It won’t cease harmful Channel crossings – not a single boat – and it’ll not cease the legal gangs.
What leaving the ECHR would do is rip up hardwon British rights for everybody.
… British rights that shone the sunshine of reality after victims of the Hillsborough Catastrophe had been falsely blamed for their very own deaths …
… British rights that compelled the state to confess that poor tools had contributed to the deaths of our troops in Iraq …
… and British rights that uncovered repeated police failings of victims of the Rochdale grooming gangs.
He additionally described leaving the ECHR as a “Brexit 2.0 – one other catastrophe that grinds this nation’s political and authorized system to a halt, and fixes nothing”.
Farage names Helen Jenner as Reform UK’s Welsh chief, saying resignation of predecessor after arrest simply ‘bump in highway’
Ben Quinn
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Nigel Farage has unveiled Helen Jenner as Reform UK’s new chief in Wales after her predecessor stood down final week following his arrest.
Jenner, who was beforehand Reform’s deputy chief in Wales, joined Farage on the steps of the Senedd, the place he described the lack of the celebration’s Welsh chief final week as a “bump within the highway”.
Dan Thomas introduced final week that he was standing down after he was arrested and bailed on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.
The previous Tory councillor had solely been introduced as Reform’s Welsh chief by Nigel Farage in February.
Jenner is a Welsh speaker from Neath, close to Port Talbot in south Wales. She represents Bangor Conwy Môn within the Senedd.
“I’ve identified Helen for a lot of, many yr. She is a decided campaigner and I believe she goes to do a really, superb job,” mentioned Farage.
Referring to the departure of Thomas, he added:
We’ll keep it up as if nothing has occurred
We may have finished with out this bump within the highway. However it has occurred, We’re making the very best of it.
Thomas issued an announcement final Tuesday within the wake of intense hypothesis about his future, saying that he had been reported to the police on the earlier weekend and was launched with out cost.
“I stress that I’ve finished nothing unsuitable, however I don’t want the approaching headlines to be a distraction from the incredible work our Senedd group is doing in holding this authorities to account,” he added.
Gwent police has mentioned {that a} 45-year-old man, from the Aberbargoed space, was arrested on 13 September, on suspicion of assault and fascinating in controlling/coercive behaviour. “He has been bailed pending additional inquiries,” the police mentioned.
Max Wilkinson says Lib Dems would correctly regulate use of good glasses, or ‘perv goggles’
Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem house affairs spokesperson, has simply completed addressing the Lib Dem convention. He has additionally been speaking about a difficulty of specific concern to feminine voters – the potential abuse of Meta’s good glasses.
He instructed the convention
Convention, while Reform needs to erode individuals’s rights, we Liberal Democrats need to shield them.
Which is why I wished to point out you these.
It’s possible you’ll know them as, let’s be sincere, as perv goggles … creep glasses … stalker specs.
These are greater than a benign piece of tech that gives a little bit of enjoyable.
Since I put them on, I’ve been recording each single one in all you with out consent and with out warning.
Does that make you are feeling uncomfortable? As a result of it ought to.
But that is turning into the brand new norm, as a result of this authorities gained’t stand as much as Massive Tech to guard our civil liberties.
Convention – I’m not a Luddite – I’m the MP for a city with a thriving cyber and tech sector. [Wilkinson is MP for Cheltenham.]
The expertise in these glasses may very well be a drive for good.
However it wants regulation.
As a result of ladies and ladies are being secretly filmed and sexualised with out consent – for clicks and revenue.
On Instagram, nicely over half of content material filmed with smartglasses options harassment.
That’s completely unacceptable.
Due to my good colleagues within the Commons, Anna Sabine and Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrats are main the cost to correctly regulate the manufacture and use of good glasses and pushing for authorized loopholes to be closed round covert filming.
As a result of the Liberal Democrats will at all times combat for the security of ladies and ladies.
I’ll publish extra from Wilkinson’s speech shortly.
Lib Dems say maternity providers in disaster as they launch figures exhibiting critical childbirth accidents at new excessive
Ed Davey has claimed this morning that NHS maternity providers are in disaster. He did in order the Liberal Democrats launched figures which they mentioned confirmed “the chance of life-altering childbirth accidents has reached a document excessive in 2026”.
Explaining the figures in a information launch, the Lib Dems mentioned:
NHS knowledge analysed by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that 3 in each 100 ladies present process a vaginal start now undergo extreme third or 4th-degree tears. These are agonising accidents so profound that sufferers should be rushed to an working theatre for surgical restore. The speed of those extreme tears has surged by 29% since 2021.
The disaster extends to life-threatening postpartum haemorrhages, with 2026 recording peak charges of extreme bleeds involving a blood lack of greater than 1.5 litres. The newest quarter (April-June) had the best stage ever recorded – at 32.7 ladies per thousand. Greater than 8,000 ladies have been recorded as struggling these extreme bleeds because the begin of the yr, greater than double the quantity recorded over the equal interval in 2021.
Not too long ago the federal government introduced that it’s appointing a maternity and neonatal commissioner. The Lib Dems say this was a victory for his or her MP Helen Morgan, who had been campaigning for one.
Commenting on the figures launched by the celebration at present, Davey mentioned:
These figures are a devastating indictment of our NHS maternity providers. 1000’s of ladies are being left alone throughout labour, terrified and uncovered to life-altering trauma – as a result of extreme staffing shortages and lacking consultants have pushed wards to breaking level.
The federal government can not flip a blind eye to this nationwide security scandal. Each mom deserves secure, compassionate care when bringing a toddler into the world. The well being secretary should act now – with the staffing, coaching and sources maternity wards want. This disaster should finish by the shut of this parliament.
In response, a spokesperson for the Division of Well being and Social Care mentioned:
Each lady deserves secure maternity care and the brand new well being secretary [Yvette Cooper] has made this challenge a private precedence.
By way of the nationwide maternity and neonatal taskforce that she is chairing, this authorities will ship the reforms wanted to make sure the very highest requirements of security and care for each mom and child.
Davey has raised maternity providers on the final two PMQs and at the newest one, responding to Andy Burnham’s reply, he mentioned: “Britain needs to be the most secure nation on the earth to have a child. We’ll hold elevating this challenge till it’s the most secure.”
‘Fallacious query’ – how Lisa Sensible instructed John Curtice she thought he was too unfavorable about Lib Dems’ electoral prospects
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent on the Lib Dem convention in Brighton.
It’s a courageous one who tells John Curtice, the eminent political scientist and guru of British polling, that he doesn’t actually perceive trendy politics, however that’s what Lisa Sensible of the Liberal Democrats did on the celebration’s convention in Brighton.
It was the job of Sensible, the Hazel Grove MP and Lib Dem Cupboard Workplace spokesperson, to reply to Curtice after he gave a presentation at a fringe occasion on Sunday night to set out what the newest polling says in regards to the celebration.
Curtice does a model at every celebration convention nowadays, and so they primarily all say a lot the identical factor in numerous methods: you’re most likely doomed.
The Lib Dem variant identified that the celebration’s anonymity, one of many major speaking factors of the convention, was seeing them shed votes to Labour, the Conservatives and Greens, and that they had been miles from the nationwide presence they loved in 2010.
Responding, Sensible’s message was blunt: Curtice was pondering of the world because it was when it comes to two-party politics, and it’s now one in all 5 and even six. As such, issues have modified:
How will the celebration get again to the 24% it gained in 2010? I would gently recommend, Prof Curtice, that with profitable 57 seats on 24% in 2010 and profitable a record-breaking 72 seats on 12.2% of the vote in 2024, I do know which one I desire. I believe John is asking the unsuitable query. We’re not in two-party politics any extra.
It is a distillation of the plan beneath Ed Davey – there is no such thing as a level piling up votes throughout the nation, and in a squeezed political world, a celebration just like the Lib Dems wants to choose its targets. As Sensible put it: “We’re unashamedly executing a technique that’s excited about profitable elections.”
In response, Curtice argued that whereas this labored nicely in 2024, when the Lib Dems took 60-plus seats from the Conservatives, that they had “already maxed out the technique”, and had been vulnerable to stalling. They had been additionally, he warned, “probably very, very uncovered to a restoration in Conservative fortunes”.
Badenoch accused of U-turn after she pledges to carry again tourism VAT refund scheme she scrapped when minister
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to carry again tax-free purchasing for vacationers by reversing a post-Brexit rule change, the Press Affiliation experiences. PA says:
The choice to scrap the VAT refund scheme for worldwide guests in 2021 left the UK “much less aggressive” than many different European locations because the nation left the EU, the Tories mentioned.
Badenoch, who personally introduced the abolition of the VAT refund scheme when she was a Treasury minister in 2020, mentioned retailers had been being “let down by a coverage that’s driving their prospects away.”
Enterprise chiefs together with the bosses of Fortnum and Mason, Paul Smith and the operator of Claridge’s resort hailed the coverage change as “pro-growth” and “pro-jobs”.
Customer numbers to the UK have returned to close pre-Covid ranges, however real-terms spending stays 8% decrease than earlier than the pandemic, in line with estimates from tourism company VisitBritain based mostly on knowledge from 2024.
The Tories mentioned returning the VAT refund could be partly offset by a proposed “crackdown” on so-called “well being tourism”, together with extra constant charging of sufferers ineligible without cost therapy.
Tax-free buying is also prolonged to cowl EU vacationers topic to proof, with the rollout full by the top of the following Parliament, the celebration mentioned.
Commenting on the announcement, a Labour spokesperson mentioned:
The Tories have pulled off a spectacular U-turn. Kemi Badenoch used to say tax-free buying was a pricey giveaway and now she’s attempting to promote it as an financial miracle.
In the event that they actually suppose it’s such an ideal thought, they need to clarify why they scrapped it within the first place and the way they’d pay for bringing it again.
A Treasury spokesperson mentioned:
The UK is without doubt one of the most-visited international locations on the earth with worldwide tourism driving billions into our economic system. We’re supporting the continued development of this business and the federal government is working to fulfill our ambition to welcome 50 million worldwide guests a yr to the UK by 2030.
Guests can nonetheless declare VAT reduction the place the gadgets bought are shipped on to their house nation as exports.
Ed Davey has additionally claimed that Liberal Democrats at the moment are a tax-cutting celebration.
Requested on the Right now programme if that was an correct solution to describe the celebration, Davey replied:
Sure. Yesterday I talked about the necessity to have a short lived tax minimize in gas obligation as a result of persons are paying an enormous quantity of the pumps, and we confirmed how we may pay for it. I’m exhibiting via our development technique how we will pay for extra tax cuts.
Davey mentioned extra proposed tax cuts could be introduced in his speech tomorrow.
Davey says break up on proper in UK politics presents ‘historic alternative’ for Lib Dems
Ed Davey has mentioned the break up on the best in UK politics offers the Liberal Democrats a “historic alternative” to overhaul the Conservatives.
In his interview on the Right now programme this morning, Davey mentioned:
I’m excited by the prospect of extra Liberal Democrat MPs and constructing on the success we’ve had in recent times.
I believe there’s an ethical duty to cease the far proper. I actually take that very significantly. It wears closely on my shoulders. Now we have to win to cease Mr Farage and cease Kemi Badenoch giving him the keys [to Downing Street].
However we even have an enormous alternative, a historic alternative, as a result of the best is break up. The best is fragmented for the primary time in parliamentary historical past.
I don’t suppose that is recognised sufficient. With them being break up for the primary time in 200 years of parliamentary election, that Liberal voice can’t solely be heard louder, however can come via and win many, many extra seats.
Davey was referring to the way in which the Conservative celebration and Reform UK are primarily competing for a similar voters and that with no pact – which each events have rejected – the break up may enable progressive events to win in right-leaning seats on the subsequent election.
Davey even claimed his celebration may beat the Tories on the subsequent election. He mentioned that developments within the Conservative celebration beneath Kemi Badenoch meant that liberal conservatives and pro-European conservatives had been more and more interested in the Lib Dems and he went on:
And that’s why I believe there’s an actual likelihood we may find yourself with extra MPs than the Conservatives after subsequent election.
However when the presenter, Justin Webb, requested Davey if that meant, in his convention speech tomorrow, he could be telling his members to “return to your constituencies and put together for presidency”, Davey declined to say that he would copy the David Metal soundbite that grew to become a much-mocked emblem of Liberal hubris. Laughing on the reference, Davey simply mentioned he could be speaking about what the Lib Dems stand for.
Davey urges Burnham to ‘take a stand’ when PM meets Trump in New York tomorrow
Ed Davey has urged Andy Burnham to ship some “house truths” to Donald Trump after they meet on the UN tomorrow.
Requested how Burnham ought to deal with the US president, Davey instructed Sky Information:
Take a stand, please. And the cosying as much as him that was finished by Keir Starmer completely failed miserably.
Davey praised Mark Carney, the Liberal Canadian PM for “standing as much as Trump with success” and, referring to what he wished to see from Burnham, he mentioned:
It’s a must to stand as much as them. And it is a man who’s ruining our world. He’s ruining his personal nation, however he’s hitting individuals in our nation.
His disastrous struggle in Iran is resulting in the hike in oil and fuel costs, which implies persons are paying extra for petrol and diesel.
So if Andy Burnham goes to characterize Britain’s pursuits and the pursuits of British individuals, he wants to inform Donald Trump some house truths, whether or not it’s on the economic system and defence, whether or not it’s on Iran, whether or not it’s on NATO.
I’m afraid, beneath President Trump, we not have a dependable ally within the White Home … You may’t belief this man. And I believe, whereas he might need to select his phrases barely extra diplomatically than I’m giving to you, he wants to face up for Britain and British pursuits.
With Trump deeply unpopular within the UK, it’s straightforward to see why Davey criticises him harshly. However prime ministers who’ve needed to negotiate with Trump have tended to be extra tactful and, in her preview of what’s prone to occur when Burnham meets Trump tomorrow, Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, says Burnham is just not angling for a combat. She says:
Downing Avenue insiders anticipate Burnham to be a bit extra forceful [than Keir Starmer was] when he feels there’s a necessity to face up for British pursuits. However there is no such thing as a suggestion he’ll comply with the extra combative method of Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister.
As a substitute, one supply mentioned he would most likely take a “third manner” between Starmer and Carney, pushing again greater than his predecessor publicly and privately, however avoiding open diplomatic warfare. A second supply mentioned the prime minister had three ambitions for Tuesday’s talks: bond with Trump, make the case for Ukraine, and keep away from any drama.
Ed Davey rejects claims celebration is ‘sleepwalking into irrelevance’ beneath his management
Good morning. Ed Davey grew to become Lib Dem chief in 2020, which implies he’s technically the longest-serving chief of a nationwide celebration within the UK. (“Technically” as a result of, whereas Nigel Farage solely grew to become chief of Reform UK in his present incumbency in 2024, he had led it earlier than when it was referred to as the Brexit celebration and, in the event you embrace Ukip, he has been chief of the anti-migrant, anti-EU proper in British politics for greater than 20 years.) After six years in cost, it’s inevitable that some Lib Dems are beginning to complain and, with the Lib Dem convention happening in Brighton, Davey has been giving interviews this morning the place he has had to reply to complaints from his critics.
Probably the most vocal has been Julian Brazil, the chief of Devon county council, who instructed the BBC yesterday that the Lib Dems had been “sleepwalking into irrelevance” with Davey on the helm.
Not surprisingly, Davey doesn’t agree.
Requested about Brazil’s feedback, the Lib Dem chief instructed BBC Breakfast:
We’ve grown actually quick in recent times beneath my management. Report variety of MPs. We’re operating extra councils than the Conservatives – councils up and down the nation.
[I’m] actually pleased with that document and it means when you could have a much bigger celebration, you’ll be able to’t please everybody on a regular basis.
And Davey was a bit extra blunt when requested the identical query on Sky Information.
I’d say to the Devon councillor, we’ve now obtained six Liberal Democrat MPs in Devon. That’s not occurred because the Nineteen Twenties.
Now we have an enormous variety of councillors throughout Devon and are main the way in which in Devon, and I may go round the remainder of the nation.
I occur to know Brazil. We’ve hardly ever seen eye to eye. So, all I’d say is, we’re going to construct on the success we’ve had.
I’ll publish extra from Davey’s interviews shortly.
There may be extra protection right here of what was occurring on the Lib Dem convention on the weekend.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
9am: The Liberal Democrat convention proceedings resume in Brighton. The primary speech this morning is from Max Wilkinson, the house affairs spokesperson, at 11,50am. Right here is the agenda.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a go to within the south of England.
11.30am: Downing Avenue holds a foyer briefing.
11.45am: Michael Marra carries out a go to in Dundee following his election as Scottish Labour chief on the weekend.
Late morning: Nigel Farage unveils the brand new Reform UK chief in Wales.
Night: Andy Burnham leaves the UK for New York, the place he’s attending the UN basic meeting and assembly Donald Trump tomorrow.
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