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Lowe accuses Farage of lying but says pact offer 'remains open' to Reform
Rupert Lowe has accused Nigel Farage of lying, potentially scuppering talks about a political pact before they have even begun.
In a post on X, the Restore Britain leader wrote: “I do not want to make private conversations public, but Farage has just done so at a national press conference. He just stated he said to me yesterday ‘Shall we have a call?’.
“Sadly, that is just a lie. Yesterday at 10.30 Nigel messaged me, saying the following three words. ‘Will call later’. The evidence is below. I have received no call. Senior Reform figures then went public to rubbish my offer.”
“The offer remains open to Nigel and Reform. Although outright lying about our private conversations does not help that,” Lowe added.
“For Restore Britain, it will always be country before party - ahead of any personal differences or past disagreements we have.”
Key events
Raphael Boyd
The new mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, has announced her first official policy in the role: free bus travel 11 to 18-year-olds across the city region by 2027.
Craig, who succeeded Andy Burnham in the role after a comfortable byelection victory on Friday that saw her achieve 47.1% of the vote, announced the policy in Bolton on Monday, her first official day of the job.
She described the move as a “commonsense thing” that would “put more money in families pockets while lifting up young people”.
The policy, which had been a key pledge made during Craig’s election campaign, expands on the ‘Our Pass’ scheme introduced by Burnham which allows free travel for 16 to 18-year-olds on the Bee Network in Greater Manchester.
About 50,000 16 to 18-year-olds currently use the scheme – and Craig said her change will benefit a further 200,000 young people around Greater Manchester and possibly save a family as much £500 every year for every child that qualifies.
The pass, which Craig hopes to launch by January 2027, will make Manchester the first city in England outside London to make travel free for young people, coinciding with Burnham’s ‘Great Summer Savings Initiative’ that offers free bus travel for children between the ages of 5 and 15 across the UK in August.
The i paper is reporting that Andy Burnham could hold a fresh King’s speech to set out his legislative priorities – notably on devolution – in an attempt to signal a differentiation between his government and Keir Starmer’s.
“The question is what legislation will be needed to make the changes he wants and whether an entire new King’s speech will be required to set out the new government’s priorities,” a source told the newspaper.
The king’s speech is given by the monarch in his constitutional role as the UK head of state and maps out the government’s agenda for the next year.
The last king’s speech took place in May when King Charles unveiled the government agenda with Keir Starmer attempting to reassert his authority over the Labour party.
New governments can continue bringing forward legislation under an existing parliamentary session, so there is no constitutional obligation for Burnham to hold a new king’s speech.
The i reports that, in any case, there are no plans to hold one this calendar year and that Burnham, who did not choose to call a snap general election when entering No 10 over the summer, is broadly sticking to the programme Starmer was elected on in July 2024.
Written UK constitution must include method to leave union, says SNP
A written constitution for the UK must include a method for leaving the union, the SNP has said.
SNP Westminster leader Dave Doogan has urged the prime minister to enshrine in any constitution how countries of the UK can leave the union, saying any document would be “fundamentally flawed” without such a clause. PA reports Doogan said:
Andy Burnham spent the weekend talking about a written UK constitution after telling Scotland discussion about our constitutional future is “off limits”. There are pro-independence first ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – that’s the context of this discussion, so clearly a written UK constitution is fundamentally flawed if it doesn’t spell out a path to leaving it.
Over the weekend, Burnham suggested a written constitution should be created in a push to ensure everyone in the UK lives a “comparable life”.
The cross-party campaign organisation Compass has reacted to the suggestion of any possible alliance deal between Reform UK and Restore Britain. Director Neal Lawson said:
Talk of an alliance on the right between Reform and Restore – and who knows who else – is the inevitable next state of Britain’s political fragmentation and age of multi-party politics.
Reform as the media-friendly face and Restore the even more radical little brother of right-wing populism is something that should alarm everyone of progressive stripes in this country. It proves that now, more than ever, is the time to galvanise Britain’s progressive majority.
If we don’t use this time to build a long-lasting plural politics then the backlash of the right will ensure the next chance we get is far too late.
PA reports that DUP MP Sammy Wilson is being investigated by Westminster’s standards commissioner.
According to the parliamentary standards commissioner’s website, he is accused of a “failure to declare an interest”. No further details have been revealed about the investigation.
The Liberal Democrats, responding to the news that Britain’s parliamentary standards watchdog is investigating Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, have said the public deserve “answers and transparency”.
In a statment, the party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said:
The rules on declaring interests in debates are there for good reason but the bigger picture here is that [Nigel] Farage and Reform UK are still under investigation for receiving an undeclared £5m donation from a bitcoin billionaire. People deserve answers and transparency form their politicians, not sleaze and scandal.
Tice has said the parliamentary investigation related to a complaint over “whether I should have referenced my register of interests at the start of a debate on UK democracy and Israeli influence”. Police are investigating at least £500,000 in donations to Reform, which Tice has said is part of a “politically motivated smear campaign”.
Downing Street has said when the Royal Navy had primacy for small boat crossings in 2022 there was no reduction during that period.
Asked about Reform UK’s proposal to use the Navy to use the Royal Navy to “intercept” small boats crossing the Channel and return them to France or Belgium, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
The Royal Navy had primacy for small boat crossings under the previous government in 2022. I’d remind you there was no reduction in small boat crossings in that period.
The Royal Navy is already tackling many threats, including monitoring any Russian warships operating near our shores, protecting our waters and our critical national infrastructure.
Border patrol officers have significant capabilities and skills that make them the best suited candidate to lead small boats operations in the Channel.
Lowe accuses Farage of lying but says pact offer 'remains open' to Reform
Rupert Lowe has accused Nigel Farage of lying, potentially scuppering talks about a political pact before they have even begun.
In a post on X, the Restore Britain leader wrote: “I do not want to make private conversations public, but Farage has just done so at a national press conference. He just stated he said to me yesterday ‘Shall we have a call?’.
“Sadly, that is just a lie. Yesterday at 10.30 Nigel messaged me, saying the following three words. ‘Will call later’. The evidence is below. I have received no call. Senior Reform figures then went public to rubbish my offer.”
“The offer remains open to Nigel and Reform. Although outright lying about our private conversations does not help that,” Lowe added.
“For Restore Britain, it will always be country before party - ahead of any personal differences or past disagreements we have.”
Farage says he will begin negotiating with Lowe if he 'genuinely wants to have talks'
Asked if he had any “red lines” for a pact with Rupert Lowe, Nigel Farage said he was open-minded to a “conversation” with the Restore Britain leader, but was not at a point of doing any negotiating.
“A conversation is different to a negotiation. I opened the door to that conversation yesterday, late morning, and at the moment I have not yet had a reply.”
“We will find out whether he genuinely wants to have talks – if he does then we will start to negotiate,” he said, adding that he is happy to let go of things that were “said in the past”.
“I am not going to commit myself to anything more right now,” Farage said. The Reform UK leader said he agrees with a lot of what Lowe champions policy wise.
Nigel Farage claimed that there was a “one-sided pile-on” against Reform UK, attacking what he called “the establishment” – in reference to the media, which has been scrutinising his party’s finances.
He said: “I just feel there’s been a one-sided pile-on against Reform. I don’t think Kemi Badenoch’s family members or Andy Burnham’s family members would be subject to the harassment and increased security risk that mine have been.”
Farage says he responded to Restore-Reform pact offer 'with an open mind'
Taking questions from journalists, Nigel Farage was asked about Rupert Lowe’s offer to work together to build a coalition between Reform UK and Restore Britain that unites right.
One of Lowe’s five conditions for the pact was a demand that ex-Tory ministers such as Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman be excluded from any Reform-Restore cabinet.
“My understanding is that he had a bit of a fallout last week with the Conservatives who he had been working quite closely with for some time,” he said, adding that Lowe had a political “deal” with the Tories.
Farage said he contacted Lowe in response to the video in which he suggested the political alliance, adding that he responded to the offer “potentially with an open mind”. “I did actually reach out back yesterday to him,” Farage told reporters. “I did say ‘look should we have a call’. I haven’t heard back yet so I don’t know what the sincerity of this is.”
“But it seemed to me that he was sort of more than anything putting out this gesture saying ‘look I am the good guy – Nigel’s the bad guy’. Well that is not the case,” Farage said. He added:
If you look at my history in politics over the last few years I am prepared to do things and make sacrifices if I believe it is in the national interest. I certainly did that in 2019 and I would do whatever I could for us to have a sane centre right alliance that beat Labour at the next general election. But I don’t ditch my friends. I don’t ditch my allies – whether that is Suella Braverman or Posh George (Cottrell).
