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The Tories and Reform UK only offer “easy answers and snake oil” when it comes to the UK’s relationship with the European Union, Nick Thomas-Symonds has said. In a speech hosted by the Spectator magazine, the EU relations minister said: “Some will hysterically cry even treason. Some will say we’re surrendering sovereignty or freedoms, but that is nonsense.”
Thomas-Symonds also accused Farage of “dividing communities and stoking anger”. He dismissed Reform UK’s proposal to negotiate returns agreements with states such as Iran and renegotiate the Good Friday agreement, saying Nigel Farage was struggling to control his own parliamentary party.
Farage has rolled back on his pledge to deport “absolutely anyone” arriving in the UK on small boats just 24 hours after making it at a combative press conference in Oxford that led to accusations of ugly and destructive rhetoric. Farage announced plans to deport hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in the first five years of a Reform government and to pay despotic regimes such as the Taliban to take them back. He also said: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival, will be detained.” At a press conference near Edinburgh on Wednesday, however, when asked whether his comments on securing women’s safety in the UK rang hollow when he had committed to deporting women and girls back to countries where they faced oppression and sexual violence, Farage said that was not true. Asked if that meant women and children were exempt from the plans, he said: “I didn’t say exempt for ever, but at this stage it is not part of our plan for the next five years.”
Farage similarly rowed back on his proposal to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement after political parties in Northern Ireland condemned his comment as reckless and irresponsible. He said “the Northern Ireland situation is deeply complex” and “that will not be at the forefront of what we do”.
Claire Hanna, the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP) leader, said on Wednesday that Farage’s plan to withdraw the UK from the European convention on human rights would remove a pillar of the Good Friday agreement. Hanna said: “The agreement belongs to the people of this island. It is not Nigel Farage’s to tear up, nor any other British politician’s.” The Alliance party and SDLP have echoed Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, in saying that any attempt to unpick the 1998 peace agreement could destabilise the region.
Farage spoke in Scotland on Wednesday to announce the MSP Graham Simpson as the latest defection from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform UK. Simpson becomes Reform’s sole MSP sitting in the Scottish parliament, and its second MSP overall after the former Tory Michelle Ballantyne’s defection in the last parliamentary session.
Simpson said he decided to join Reform UK to “create something new, exciting and lasting” and appealed to former colleagues, saying “I say to those who have great ideas for Scotland and who may have felt ignored: ‘Talk to me, you will find my door – wherever I am put in parliament next week – open and receptive to the kind of fresh thinking that we need in politics.’” He added he thought Reform could “help” to remove the SNP from office after 19 years in power.
The Conservatives could “potentially” strike a deal with Afghanistan over migration, the party’s chair has said. Asked directly if the Tories would set up a returns agreement with the Taliban-run country, Kevin Hollinrake told Times Radio: “Well, potentially, yes.” However, Hollinrake later told Sky News such a deal would be “very expensive” and have “very significant” human rights consequences.
Hollinrake added that his party’s Rwanda deportation plan, which was published in May, is “far more comprehensive than the one we’ve seen from Reform, in that it dealt with both legal migration and illegal migration”.
Farage has been called “one of the most disastrous politicians” and “extraordinarily damaging” by the SNP after the Reform UK leader outlined his plans to curb migration. SNP MP Stephen Gethins, the SNP foreign affairs spokesperson at Westminster, questioned parts of the policy – which could see a future UK government potentially work with the Taliban to send people back to Afghanistan, with the UK also leaving the European convention on human rights. Reform councillor Ross Lambie defended the party’s immigration policy.
The UK has had reassurance from France that the deal between the two countries to allow small boat interceptions in the English Channel “will go ahead”, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said. He told Times Radio: “The Home Office have already set out that they’ve had reassurance from the French interior ministry that this change in maritime law will go ahead.”
Talks on a food and drink deal with the EU will begin in the autumn, with MPs having the final say on any agreement, the minister in charge of negotiations with the bloc has said. Thomas-Symonds told an event hosted by the Spectator magazine on Wednesday: “This autumn, we will start the detailed negotiations on the SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary standards) deal, as well as other commitments from our summit last May.” Earlier, it had been reported that UK companies spent up to £65m last year on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU – costs that the government is promising to eliminate as part of a new deal to be agreed by 2027.
Thomas-Symonds enthused about how excited he is by the prospect of an EU youth mobility scheme, as he signalled a broader government shift towards embracing closer ties with the bloc. Thomas-Symonds said on Wednesday he was looking forward to signing a deal to let young people travel and work more freely across Europe.
Refugee charities warn that thousands of people in the UK could find themselves homeless on the streets this winter after the Home Office quietly reverse its asylum accommodation policy. The Guardian has learned that ministers are planning to halve the period asylum seekers are given to find new accommodation after getting a decision on their case, from 56 to 28 days. Refugee organisations say this is not enough time to find work and a home to rent and will lead to many people pitching tents in the streets.
Energy costs will rise for millions of British households this autumn after the price cap for a typical annual dual-fuel bill increased by 2% to £1,755. The energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, will raise the cap on gas and electricity charges from October by the equivalent of just over £35 a year for the average home, following a rise in European gas prices. Labour responded by saying its plan for change will protect consumers, but the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said the government should cancel the rise and take up his party’s plan “to halve energy bills instead”. Plaid Cymru called for the government to “tax the super rich and lower bills for our communities”.
Tim Jarvis, director general of markets at Ofgem, told Sky News that the government’s increase in the warm home discount would help some of the lowest income households in the country and see them receive an additional £150 towards their energy.
The cost of UK government borrowing has jumped to near a 27-year high, piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to reveal how she will tackle the deficit in the public finances before the autumn budget. The yield, or interest rate, on the UK’s 30-year bond rose by eight basis points (0.08 of a percentage point) on Tuesday to 5.62%.
Patrick Harvie has urged Scottish Green members to back whoever is elected to the leadership on Friday as he steps down. The MSP announced earlier this year he would be stepping away from heading up the party after 17 years, but plans to continue as an MSP.
The UK government sold £5bn worth in three-year bonds in a scheduled action on Wednesday. Demand was good, with the auction covered 3.16 times. The bonds were sold with a yield of 4.375%, due in 2028.
Ministers have approved plans to help a further 30 students leave Gaza to take up places at UK universities next month but their evacuation remains uncertain and dependent on Israel’s approval. It takes the total to 39, after a government commitment last week to work to secure the evacuation from Gaza of nine Chevening scholars with places at some of the UK’s leading universities.
Thames Water has agreed a payment plan with the water regulator for fines it owes worth £123m, as it races to secure funding to avoid temporary nationalisation. The water company, which serves 16 million customers across London and the south-east, is trying to pull together a deal to avoid collapse.
Inequality in transport emissions between the richest and the poorest in the UK is set to widen dramatically over the next decade, an analysis has found. The most affluent and mobile already produce 10 times more carbon through their domestic travel than the poorest and least mobile. Under current decarbonisation policies, thinktank researchers forecast this to grow to 13 times by 2035. But revised policies that tackle domestic flying and excess private car use could not only lessen inequality, they say, but also reduce emissions faster overall.
Updated
Inequality in transport emissions between the richest and the poorest in the UK is set to widen dramatically over the next decade, an analysis has found.
The most affluent and mobile already produce 10 times more carbon through their domestic travel than the poorest and least mobile. Under current decarbonisation policies, thinktank researchers forecast this to grow to 13 times by 2035.
But revised policies that tackle domestic flying and excess private car use could not only lessen inequality, they say, but also reduce emissions faster overall.
“Fairness isn’t a barrier to climate action – it’s the key to unlocking it,” said Stephen Frost, the head of transport policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). “A fairer approach doesn’t just cut carbon faster, it builds a healthier, more inclusive transport system for everyone.”
The IPPR research updates a study last year that broke down transport emissions by income, gender, location, ethnicity and age, finding that wealthy white men from rural areas are the country’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
They found there was a stark divide in people’s experience of getting around, with some having effectively unlimited ability to travel how, when and where they like, while millions of others are unable to access community life or jobs.
In the current research, they used the same 12 traveller profiles on which the original study was based, ranging from the most to least affluent and mobile, and projected their decrease in transport emissions over the next decade according to the government’s current policies.
They found that the poorest groups were due to decarbonise much faster than the wealthiest, with the richest 4% set to emit 13 times more carbon from their domestic travel than the poorest 14% by 2035 – up from a tenfold gap today.
When international travel was included, the richest were expected to emit 22 times more than the poorest – up from 20 times today.
Transport is the highest emitting sector in the UK and almost 30% of emission savings will potentially come from surface transport between now and 2030. The government’s approach to decarbonising the sector focuses heavily on the adoption of climate technologies, such as zero-emission vehicles and sustainable aviation fuels, with limited policies focusing on demand reduction.
