Nigel Farage is set to meet Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago mansion on Friday to discuss Sir Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands deal, as the war in the Middle East escalates. Mr Trump has dramatically U-turned on his support for Sir Keir's controversial agreement in recent weeks, at one point describing it as an act of great stupidity.
"You can't go on the sick because you've got mild anxiety. But it is an attitudinal change that Britain needs. "An attitudinal change to hard work, rather than work-life balance. "An attitudinal change to the idea of working from home. "People aren't more productive working at home - it's a load of nonsense. "They're more productive being with other fellow human beings and working as part of a team."
For the first time since the row broke following a Guardian investigation, the Reform UK party leader appeared to indicate some remorse for the impact of his alleged behaviour while at Dulwich college, a private school in south London. I think there are two people who said they were hurt, and if they genuinely were, then that's a pity, and I'm sorry, Farage said in an interview with the BBC. But never, ever did I intend to hurt anybody. Never have.
It comes after a Guardian investigation found more than 30 people who went to Dulwich College with the Reform UK leader have accused him of racist and antisemitic bullying. Farage has denied directly targeting anyone with racist or antisemitic abuse or having the intent to hurt anyone. Earlier this month, he dismissed the allegations as complete made-up fantasies based on political motivation.
Elliptic, a crypto analytics company, said it had traced at least $507m (377m) of cryptocurrency issued by Tether a company touted by the Reform UK leader passing through accounts that appear to be controlled by Iran's central bank. Elliptic's report tracked what it says is the Iranian central bank's systematic accumulation of Tether stablecoins, a type of crypto that is pegged to the dollar so it can easily be exchanged for hard currency.
I'm all for Trump taking out enemies of the West. Maduro, the Iranian regime. But if he falls out with his own allies and leaves America isolated, that, that would be a very bad place to be.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
Essex Police said it could not investigate the Clacton MP because more than a year had passed since the alleged offence. It followed a former member of Farage's campaign team claiming Reform spent more than the 20,660 spending limit set by law. A police spokeswoman said: "Any prosecution for such an offence must commence within one year." She said an "allegation around misreported expenditure by a political candidate" in July 2024 was made on 5 December.
You shouldn't have to pay any inheritance tax, as you've already been taxed on that money. When my grandad died, it was particularly sad because he was too young for my grandma to receive his pension. That's disgusting. Reform has sensible positions on immigration and inheritance tax, so I stand with Nigel Farage.
A lot of people are coming out saying he did say those things. He should just apologise. If he just said: You know, I was a kid, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It was wrong. People shouldn't speak like that,' this would all have gone away. And that's the problem. It's not that he's racist, that he doesn't care.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Bardella told the BBC's Nick Robinson he believed the "extremely resilient" Reform UK leader would become the UK's next prime minister. The 30-year-old French MEP is leading in opinion polls to win the first round of the next presidential election due in 2027. A Reform source said the two politicians discussed small boat crossings and energy policy, particularly nuclear energy. Farage has in the past kept his distance from NR, the successor party to the National Front (FN), formerly led by Marine Le Pen.
