Category: Politics

Reform UK is a registered company with its deputy leader Richard Tice also listed on Companies House as a person with significant control….reports Asian Lite News

Nigel Farage has announced he is “relinquishing” his majority shareholder position of Reform UK, one day before the party begins its annual conference. In a post on social media, the Clacton MP said: “I’ve now made a decision. I no longer need to control this party. I’m going to let go.”

Unlike most other political parties, Reform UK is a registered company with its deputy leader Richard Tice also listed on Companies House as a person with significant control.

The annual party conference, which is taking place in Birmingham on Friday, has been hailed as the “coming of age” for the party, which gained success in July’s election by winning five seats.

Meanwhile, a row has broken out over Farage’s claim that safety concerns prevent him from holding constituency surgeries, with Parliament’s security services disputing the suggestion. He has repeatedly been accused of not prioritising his Commons role, coming under fire for spending time in the US endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign since July.

Farage has repeatedly been accused of not prioritising his Commons role, coming under fire for spending time in the US endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign following the July 4 election.

Farage said he planned to lead the party into the next election, when he will be 65, unless someone “better looking and brighter comes along”. Two months after getting its first MPs elected, Reform UK is planning a major overhaul of how it is run at its Birmingham conference, with Farage claiming he was “giving ownership of the party and the big decisions over to the members”.

For the first time, members will be able to vote on policy motions, including to adopt a new constitution, which sets out party rules and the responsibilities of the leadership.

Reform won 14% of the vote at July’s general election and has a foothold in Parliament with five MPs, including Farage. Farage announced he was returning as leader during the campaign – something he would have been unable do in a party with a more conventional structure, where leaders tend to be elected by members.

Under the proposed new Reform UK constitution, members will be able to remove Farage – or any other party leader – in a no-confidence vote. A vote can be triggered if 50% of all members write to the chairman requesting a motion of no confidence.

Reform MPs can also force a vote if 50 of them, or 50% of them, write to the chairman requesting one. But this only applies if there are more than 100 Reform MPs in Parliament – a high bar. Zia Yusuf, the chairman of Reform UK, claimed the party’s membership had jumped by 15,000 since its general election result.

He said a “surge” had increased the membership to more than 80,000, as the party attempts to build a base of dedicated activists. He said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the number of Reform members overtook the Conservative Party in the coming months. Yusuf, a millionaire former banker who was appointed chairman in July, said there had been “huge enthusiasm” for the party since the general election.

“So what we need to do now is build the infrastructure at grassroots level so that enthusiasm can be converted at the ballot box.”

The Conservative Party does not publish its membership figures. But in the most recent Tory leadership contest of 2022, more than 140,000 members voted in an election with a 82% turnout.

Attracting new members is part of Reform’s plan to develop a more formidable party and campaigning machinery to match its political rivals. Yusuf is leading the process of setting up hundreds of local Reform branches across the UK and growing its pool of activists.

ALSO READ: Netanyahu criticises UK over arms ban, ICC case

Conservatives have asked whether the prime minister personally signed off Gray’s new salary and an increase in the cap on the highest pay band…reports Asian Lite News

The prime minister has insisted he is “completely in control” after it was revealed a row within the government over staff pay. It has emerged Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, received a pay rise which means she is now on a higher salary than him.

The story painted a picture of fractious relationships at the heart of government, less than three months after Labour’s general election victory. The PM said: “I’m focused and every day the message from me to the team is exactly the same, which is we have to deliver.” He added: “We were elected on a big mandate to deliver change. I am determined that we are going to do that.”

Starmer, in his media interactions, defended his decision to accept corporate hospitality from Arsenal football club, saying he could no longer use his season ticket as prime minister. The Premier League club has made two seats available to the prime minister in the corporate area of Emirates Stadium. He said he had been advised it would cost the taxpayer more in security costs to use his normal seat. He would “rather be in the stands”, but accepting a corporate ticket was a “perfectly sensible arrangement”, he added.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that it had been told that Gray asked for and was given a salary of £170,000 after July’s election – about £3,000 more than the PM and more than her Conservative predecessor, Rishi Sunak’s chief of staff. One source said, “It was suggested that she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this very story. She declined.”

But others in government have spoken passionately in Gray’s defence, and believe there is a misplaced, grossly unfair and deeply personal campaign against her. Baroness Harman, former deputy Labour leader and veteran MP, said, “There is something about an older woman in authority that some young men find hard to put up with. For them to be moaning about their pay and trying to show her in a bad light when she’s really an exceptional and talented public servant, I think that’s a thoroughly bad thing.”

Her salary has proved particularly controversial partly because other advisers believe they are being underpaid. Most were expecting pay rises when they entered government, only to discover they would be paid less.

Many of the disappointed advisers blame Gray specifically – although others insist pay is a matter for civil servants. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds dismissed suggestions the prime minister had personally intervened to increase Gray’s salary, saying ministers had “no input” in what their advisers were paid.

“There’s a process that exists; it’s a civil service process, and it hasn’t changed. It’s wrong to say there’s any kind of political input in there or people set their own pay bands. I don’t even get to set the pay for my own advisers… I think there are and always have been officials who are paid more than politicians in our system and that hasn’t changed,” he said.

Reynolds acknowledged that leaks about issues in government such as Gray’s pay were “annoying” and “a permanent frustration”.

He also told Sky News that Gray was “getting on with the job of this government, delivering on our promises. I think that’s what matters more than anything else for anyone who works in Downing Street.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said, “We’re very lucky to have Sue.” The appointment of Gray, a former senior civil servant whose report into Covid lockdown parties in Downing Street contributed to the downfall of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to Starmer’s team last year was controversial.

In recent weeks, she has been the subject of a series of reports of mounting acrimony at the heart of the new government, involving Gray, Labour’s director of political strategy Morgan McSweeney and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case. Over the weekend, Starmer played down these stories, saying “most of them are wildly wrong”.

The Conservatives have asked whether the prime minister personally signed off Gray’s new salary and an increase in the cap on the highest pay band. They have also asked whether a special adviser remuneration committee still exists and if Gray is a member, as well as what role she played in setting her own salary and changing pay bands.

Shadow Commons leader Chris Philp said, “The prime minister’s chief of staff is getting an enormous pay rise. At the same time this Labour government is slashing winter fuel payments for pensioners earning half the level of the minimum wage. It’s pay rises for Labour cronies and cuts for hard-pressed pensioners.”

Guto Harri, a former Downing Street director of communications under Boris Johnson said that being paid more than your boss at No 10 was “basically a no-no”. “If you accept a job at the heart of No 10, whatever you’re worth, whatever you’re earning before, it’s not a good look to ask for more than the prime minister,” he said.

ALSO READ: India rejects report on diversion of Indian defence exports to Ukraine

Sturgeon refused to say whether she believed Irish reunification would come before Scottish independence…reports Asian Lite News

Nicola Sturgeon has predicted an independent Scotland and a united Ireland as part of a “wider shake-up” of the UK’s constitution.

The former first minister speaking to the BBC to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2014 referendum. “I believe that, perhaps as part of a wider shake-up of UK governance, the reunification of Ireland, perhaps, more autonomy in Wales, that I think we will see Scotland become an independent country,” she said.

“I’ll certainly campaign and advocate for that for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”

Sturgeon refused to say whether she believed Irish reunification would come before Scottish independence but added: “I do think that will happen. “I think we will see over the next number of years, I’m not going to sit here and put a figure on that, what I would describe as a very healthy realignment of how the nations of the British Isles are governed and cooperate together.”

Asked whether he supported Sturgeon’s predictions about an independent Scotland and a united Ireland, John Swinney told journalists: “Do I think they’ll both happen? Yes, I do. So I agree with that point very much. I think the tide and the pattern of those debates is moving decisively and emphatically in that direction.”

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chairman, said: “Nicola Sturgeon simply cannot help herself. Not only is she still pushing Scottish independence at every turn, she has now decided to weigh in on the divisive issue of a border poll in Ireland too.

“Rather than constantly talking about the break-up of the United Kingdom, the former SNP leader should be focused on the real priorities of the people in Glasgow Southside. She should stop being a part-time MSP and stand up for what really matters to her constituents like record NHS waiting times, good local jobs and keeping communities safe from crime.”

Sturgeon said at the time that the departure from the EU had “brought to the fore some very fundamental questions” over governance in the UK.

O’Neill became Northern Ireland’s first nationalist first minister in February, fuelling debate about the possibility of a border poll.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement says that “the people on the island” should be able to exercise “their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland”, subject to the principle of consent in Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Act 1998 states that “if at any time it appears likely” that a majority of those voting in a border poll would “express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”, the secretary of state will consent to a border poll. It is not clear exactly how this process would come about.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said last year that an Irish unity referendum was “not even on the horizon”.

Sturgeon described herself as a natural pessimist but said that was not the case come polling day, 18 September 2014. “Unusually for me, in the final days, I was really optimistic,” she said.

“I definitely felt that victory was within grasp.” The then deputy first minister had a leading role in the Yes campaign and spent the summer touring around Scotland.

ALSO READ: Starmers’s Gray Quid Row

The decision to increase the PM’s chief of staff’s salary to £170,000 has ignited a row within the government. Gray, whose report while a senior civil servant into Downing Street parties during the pandemic contributed to Johnson’s downfall…reports Asian Lite News

Keir Starmer’s chief of staff received a pay rise after the election which means she is now paid more than the prime minister. Sue Gray asked for and was given a salary of £170,000 – £3,000 more than the PM and more than any cabinet minister – or her Conservative predecessor.

A government source close to Gray said this claim was “categorically untrue” and she had “had no involvement in any decision on her pay”.

The decision has ignited a row within government over Gray, whose report while a senior civil servant into parties in Downing Street during the pandemic contributed to the downfall of Boris Johnson. She then went on to work as a Labour Party adviser.

Her wide-ranging role as the prime minister’s chief of staff includes controlling access to the PM and helping to ensure the government’s policies are put into action.

Her Conservative predecessor Liam, now Lord, Booth Smith, who did the job under Rishi Sunak, was paid at the upper end of the highest pay band for special advisers, between £140,000 and £145,000 a year.

The boost in Gray’s pay comes after the prime minister signed off a rebanding of the salaries for special advisers shortly after taking office. The government says the rebanding was done by officials, not by Gray herself, and her salary is not at the top of the new highest band for special advisers.

News of Gray’s pay rise is the latest in a line of leaks about her which paint a picture of fractious relationships at the very top of government, just months into Labour’s tenure. “It speaks to the dysfunctional way No10 is being run – no political judgement, an increasingly grand Sue who considers herself to be the deputy prime minister, hence the salary and no other voice for the prime minister to hear as everything gets run through Sue,” one insider said.

The prime minister earns £166,786.

One angry government insider branded Gray’s pay “the highest ever special adviser salary in the history of special advisers”. Others in government speak passionately in Gray’s defence and believe there is a misplaced and deeply personal campaign against her which is grossly unfair.

A government source said “any questions should be directed at the process and not an individual”. Asked about Gray being paid more than the PM, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We’re very lucky to have Sue.”

Another cabinet minister, speaking on condition of anonymity said: “Sue has done an enormous job preparing Labour for government, and is now showing her customary drive to get Whitehall to deliver on Labour’s priorities. She won’t be distracted, she will carry on doing what she always does, focus on delivering the change that the British people voted for.”

Gray’s salary has sparked such a row in government partly because other advisers believe they are being underpaid.

Every cabinet minister has at least two special advisers, many of whom also worked with them in opposition. Then, they were paid by the Labour Party.

Most were expecting pay rises upon entering government only to discover they would in fact be paid less. Many of the disappointed advisers blame Gray specifically – although others insist that pay is a matter for civil servants.

The majority of those on the committee within Whitehall responsible for special advisers pay and conditions are civil servants, but Gray is on it too. “It’s bizarre,” one furious adviser said. “I’m working harder than ever in a more important job and they want to pay me less than the Labour Party was paying me when it was broke.” These frustrations are not confined to junior advisers.

A source claimed that the prime minister’s director of communications, Matthew Doyle, was initially offered a salary of £110,000, significantly less than Gray’s. This was later raised to £140,000, a figure in line with several of his predecessors doing the same job.

There is no suggestion there was any anger internally over Doyle’s pay.

Many special advisers worked for weeks without being shown a proposed employment contract, meaning that by the time they discovered what their salary would be they had essentially no choice but to accept it.

Again, Gray was widely blamed for the delay in formal contracts being circulated. When Gray was hired as Starmer’s chief of staff in 2023 she was tasked with working on Labour’s preparations for government.

Special advisers see the row over their salaries as a sign that the work was not carried out in enough detail. “If you ever see any evidence of our preparations for government, please let me know,” one adviser said.

ALSO READ: India, UK may resume FTA talks in Oct