Farage laughs off question about Trump’s plan for Gaza, saying ‘casinos, nightlife … very appealing to me’ – as it happened

Nigel Farage during a press conference in Westminster on Wednesday. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

6.00pm GMT

Early evening summary

• The Southport killer’s interest in knives and mass atrocities should have been managed through the government’s official scheme to spot potential terrorists but his case was closed “prematurely”, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, has told MPs.

• Palestinians “must be allowed home”, Keir Starmer has said in the wake of Donald Trump’s proposal to remove people from the Gaza Strip and put the territory under US control.

• Keir Starmer claimed Kemi Badenoch is “not fit to be prime minister” as the pair clashed over national security and energy projects in the Commons. (See 2.43pm.)

• A voice coach employed by Keir Starmer during Covid was part of a small team preparing him to give Labour’s formal response to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, and needed to be there in person, Downing Street has said.

• Local elections in nine councils across England are to be postponed for a year as part of devolution measures that will reorganise local government in those areas, Angela Rayner has announced.

5.50pm GMT

Farage laughs off question about Trump's plan for Gaza, saying 'casinos, nightlife - very appealing to me'

At his press conference Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, was asked what he thought about President Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and make it the “Riviera of the Middle East”. He gave a light-hearted answer, saying:

I love that notion. The thought of that wealthy, wonderful thriving place with well-paid jobs, casinos, nightlife ... it all sounds very appealing to me.

Farage then went on to say he was “not here to answer for everything the Trump administration has to say”. He proudly counts Trump as a friend.

But, without referrring specifically to the Gaza plan, which has been condemned around the world as ethnic cleansing, Farage then praised Trump for what he had done in his first weeks in office. He said:

What I will say is he’s got the most extraordinary start as US president – promises made, promises kept, quite extraordinary …

So without being specific on Gaza, I would just say I think he’s off the most incredible start.

You witness international brinkmanship on the level perhaps never seen before, and the surrender after surrender that you get, whether it’s from Canada or South American countries, Panama, you name it, is amazing.

You use tariffs as a transactional tool, amazingly effectively – you can go back to the American people and say, ‘I’ve got a good deal.’

But Farage also claimed that, as a result of the Chagos Islands proposal, the UK might be subject to the tariffs that Trump says he will impose on the EU. And he claimed that those tariffs, unlike the Mexico and Canada ones, could be permanent, and not just a negotiating tool.

Updated at 5.50pm GMT