Protester attacked at Reform conference considering coming forward after police appeal – UK politics live

Key events

Dover protest 'disgraceful', says Jenrick

Robert Jenrick has been asked about protesters blocking traffic in and out of the Port of Dover earlier today.

Footage showed the group, appearing largely to be men, dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, gathered at the Kent port.

A group was later seen marching through the town and chanting “whose streets? our streets!” and “stop the boats” as dozens of police officers followed.

Speaking to reporters at the Reform national conference, the party’s Treasury spokesperson said:

I’m sick of people disrupting life in this country.

I hope the police take all the actions as necessary to get the port open as quickly as possible.

It’s completely disgraceful that businesses and individuals are having their lives held up by those people.

Masked protesters march in Dover

Reform continues to cast doubt on climate science. Do its supporters agree?

On the second day of the Reform UK conference, in the wake of an undercover investigation alleging party officials plotted to evade the law on foreign donations, the deputy leader, Richard Tice, addressed the audience. Within minutes, a banner appeared behind him reading: “Collect £5m, burn the planet.”

It was taken down promptly and Tice, who has repeatedly called on people to enjoy the summer’s five successive heatwaves and record drought, rolled on. As Reform members at the Birmingham venue applauded Tice, there was plenty of agreement with his views. “I enjoyed the heat this summer,” said Jeanette Bowden, of Bexley. “I don’t think people need telling to take care of themselves.” Her partner, James, added, without scientific backing: “Carbon dioxide was much higher in the past, it was 10 times higher than this during the ice ages. It’s not a human problem.”

Amid stalls offering simulated helicopter rides, gold as an investment, tattoos and discounts on rum, climate scepticism was common. “It’s overhyped,” said Yvonne, who did not wish to give a surname.

“I don’t believe the predictions,” said Jim Langford. “They told us Norwich would be underwater by now and it’s not Atlantis yet.” Ed Rennie, a former Labour councillor from north London, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had reduced some of its higher predictions.

But many of the same people who, like Tice, cast doubt on climate science, also criticised the government for failing to protect people against the hot weather. Bowden pointed to new-build houses. “They have really small windows,” she said. “That might be good in winter, but in summer it must be too hot, you can hardly open them. The government should not force this on people.”

Yvonne added: “The government were all on their holidays in the summer, not doing their jobs [to help people during the heatwaves]. Government should ensure there is clean water and sewage, but they’re not even doing that.”

The confusion among Reform supporters, explained Michael Jacobs, an emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield, was to be expected given the party leadership’s peddling of “myths and lies” over the climate. Voters often say they want contradictory things, such as high standards of social care without tax rises to pay for them, Jacobs pointed out. But on the climate, they face an even more intense bombardment from contradictory viewpoints, as parties of the right try to turn the issue into a culture war.

Read on here:

Manchester model could unlock £80bn growth across England, report says

A yellow Bee Network bus passing Salford Quays in Greater Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Jenrick confirmed his promise to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 (see post at 11:09)

He said: “Here is my pledge to you and to the country. In the first 100 days of a Reform government, in our first Reform budget, we will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570, not just with inflation, not just to £13,000, not just to £14,000, but to £15,000.

“The first 15 grand you earn is yours.”

He added that if he failed to deliver his promise, he will resign. “No ifs, not buts, I will be gone,” he said.

Dexys frontman ‘disgusted’ by Farage using Come on Eileen as entrance music

Dexys Midnight Runners frontman Kevin Rowland has hit out at Nigel Farage for using the band’s hit Come on Eileen as his entrance music at the Reform UK conference yesterday.

Nigel Farage on stage to deliver his keynote speech of the Reform UK conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Rowland, the song’s main songwriter, said on social media he was “disgusted” by Farage’s use of the track, adding that he and the band are “passionately against Farage’s politics”.

He said:

I, Kevin Rowland (the son of Irish immigrants) and the main songwriter of ‘Come On Eileen,’ am disgusted to learn that Nigel Farage has used our Dexys Midnight Runners’ song to make his entrance for his party conference speech. Myself, and all of Dexys are passionately against Farage’s politics.”

Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, is now delivering his keynote speech at the party conference, where he has labelled the chancellor, John Healey, “the biggest fraud”.

"He [Healey] now runs the treasury, he is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. And what has chancellor Healey offered our armed forces? Nothing. The very same deal he resigned over,” said Jenrick.

He blamed “men like him”, including defence secretary Wes Streeting and prime minister Andy Burnham, for Argentinian president Javier Milei’s threats to reclaim the Falkland Islands.

“Let me tell you this, Mr Milei down in Argentina would not for one minute think about taking our British sovereign territory in the Falkland Islands if Nigel Farage was our prime minister,” said Jenrick.

Protester may come forward after police appeal, says activist group

Activist group Climate Resistance claimed responsibility for the protest during Nigel Farage’s speech yesterday, PA reports.

In a comment, the group said it was “horrified at the violence” from Reform conference audience members (see post at 12:08).

The group also said the protester is considering whether to come forward to police.

Reform UK’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, who defected from the Conservatives last year, said she left the party because “loyalty to a party can never, ever come before loyalty to the public. And that’s why I joined Reform”.

She repeated she is standing to be London mayor because the city “is broken in many of the same ways that Britain is”, and that “the people who broke it can never be the people that we ask to fix it”.

There’s a long list of former Tory MPs who have defected to Reform, including Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, both whom served in the previous Conservative government.

No real mention by Anderson of the problems that overshadowed events yesterday. He ended his opening speech saying: "Yesterday was great. Today is going to be absolutely brilliant.”

Laila Cunningham is speaking next.

Anderson shrugs off protests at conference

Lee Anderson, the Reform UK chair, has attempted to make light of the protests during Nigel Farage’s speech yesterday, where a woman appeared to be assaulted by a mob of Reform supporters (see previous post).

He described it as a “few nuisances”, saying he saw “an old chap” with a walking stick among the chaos. He could be referring to the man pictured here raising a crutch (or a walking stick) while a heckler is dragged out of the conference:

A heckler is removed from the Reform UK conference during Nigel Farage’s keynote speech. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

“I don’t condone any sort of that behaviour,” said Anderson. “But if anybody wants to have a quick whip round later, we are collecting for a new walking stick.”

Police appeal after protester appears to be assaulted during Farage speech

Police are appealing for a woman who was among the climate activists protesting during Nigel Farage’s speech at Reform’s conference to come forward, after footage appeared to show her being manhandled by people in the crowd.

Security at the event on the outskirts of Birmingham removed several protesters who stood up and heckled the Reform UK leader at intervals during his speech.

Footage which has been circulating on social media shows one of them having her hair pulled by a woman in the crowd, while another person who does not appear to be security puts his hand over the protester’s face.

West Midlands police released a statement on Saturday morning saying: “We’re aware of a video circulating from the Reform UK Conference showing an incident with a protester. We haven’t received a complaint but would ask the woman involved to come forward and contact us so we can carry out enquiries.

A heckler is carried out during Nigel Farage's keynote speech at the Reform UK annual conference. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

“Anyone with any information should contact us on 101 quoting log number 924 of 5 September.”

When asked about the incident, Nadine Dorries, a former Conservative MP who has joined Reform, said sensitivities were “heightened” in the aftermath of the killing of Anne Widdcombe.

“They tried to completely derail the speech. It was an organised sting again,” she told LBC.

“It was a number of people at spaced intervals, they wanted to completely disrupt the speech. That was what was shocking.

“I’m afraid if you’re going to come into a venue with such high security following the murder of Anne Widdicombe, obviously people’s sensitivities are going to be heightened, and I think it was foolish of those people to come into the audience and to try and do what they did, given how nervous people are following Anne’s murder.”

The second and final day of Reform UK’s conference has begun, you can watch live here:

Quarter of Reform supporters want Brexit reversed, poll finds

A quarter of Reform UK supporters want to rejoin the EU, according to polling carried out to coincide with the party’s ongoing conference in Birmingham.

The study, which was to be set out at a fringe event on Saturday showed some attitudes among Reform backers were unexpected, as with Brexit. But on other subjects, notably immigration, Reform supporters’ views were very similar to what people expected.

The polling, carried out by Opinium for the Policy Institute at King’s College London and UK in a Changing Europe, charted both what Reform supporters believe, and what backers of other parties think they believe.

A Reform UK branded bus at the party conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters

In some areas there was a notable gap between the two. While 25% of Reform supporters said they want to see Brexit reversed, the public at large estimated the proportion at just 9%. In contrast, 76% of Reform supporters want to stop all immigration to the UK, close to the guess of 80%.

A more potentially alarming finding for Reform was that they are the party that voters at large most want to stop winning in their area, suggesting the possible damage to Nigel Farage’s party from tactical voting. Overall, 41% of voters named Reform as the party they would want to block.

Such is the strength of feeling that around a third of Labour and Green voters said they would consider voting Conservative tactically to keep Reform out.

Dover port disrupted as dozens of masked men block roads

Meanwhile, police are dealing with an apparent protest by groups of masked men in Dover, which a local councillor said appeared to be a “coordinated” demonstration related to “illegal migration”.

Dozens of men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas were pictured gathered at the port this morning, with the Port of Dover confirming that the disruption is affecting “all routes” in and out of the port, as well as around the town.

Dozens of masked men gathered near the port in Dover. Photograph: Ay_audits/Youtube

Chris Vinson, leader of the Conservative group at Dover District Council, said the protest appeared to be “illegal migration-related”. He told the Press Association:

Overnight, clearly what appears to be several hundred masked men wearing black clothing and balaclavas seem to have coordinated and loaded into rental vans and then descended on roads leading in and out of Dover with the intent to block them, and that’s what they’ve successfully done, and it’s brought the town to a standstill.

There are stacks of people who are stuck in their cars or in their workplaces as a result.”

In a brief statement, Kent police said: “We are aware of a protest currently taking place at the Port of Dover. Officers are in attendance and engaging with protesters.”

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Jenrick to promise £15,000 income tax threshold

Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a major tax-cutting pledge at Reform UK’s conference today, as the party seeks to shift the focus back to its economic agenda.

PA has the following report:

The party’s treasury spokesman is expected to tell the final day of the Reform conference in Birmingham that he would increase the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 within the first 100 days of taking office.

The threshold has been set at £12,570 since 2021 and is due to remain there until 2031.

Reform said the plan would save the average taxpayer £500 a year and take 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether, at a cost of £17.7 billion in its first year, rising to £21 billion five years later.

The party has previously said it wants to increase the personal allowance to £20,000, with Mr Jenrick expected to say he will approach the figure “step-by-step” when it is affordable.

Mr Jenrick will also use his speech to set out some £80 billion in spending cuts, primarily through slashing the welfare budget.

He is expected to say: “The hard choice for Burnham and for us is exactly the same. It’s either welfare waste, foreign aid and migrants — or the British worker. We choose the worker.”

Reform UK home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf spotted at the conference, taking photos with supporters as the event gets under way.

Photograph: Will Colebourne/PA

Before we get into today’s events, here’s a look back at the controversy at Reform UK’s conference yesterday.

My colleagues Rowena Mason, Ben Quinn and Pippa Crerar have the full report on a day which saw Nigel Farage attempt to shore up his leadership as the party faced fresh scrutiny over its finances and the suspension of two senior aides.

The report covers the fallout from the undercover investigation, the allegations over potential foreign donations and the divisions emerging within the party. They write:

The row comprehensively overshadowed the first full day of the party’s conference with every Reform politician repeatedly questioned over the scandal.

It also exposed splits at the top of the party, with Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, strongly distancing himself from Jukes and Orr. He told reporters “anyone who supports Reform is disappointed”, and added of the investigation: “It’s just not something I am personally involved in.”

He also launched a personal video about his backstory, leading to speculation he could attempt to run for the leadership as a rival to Robert Jenrick or Richard Tice if Farage were to be forced out over his financial scandals.

However, some Reform insiders are convinced Farage will part company with Yusuf before long, partly over his ambition and combative style on social media, including one post on X that saw him accused of racism towards a Somalia-born Labour councillor. Farage is understood to have used a rude term about Yusuf recently in relation to his troublemaking on social media.

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Opening: turmoil engulfs Reform conference

Morning, and welcome to our UK politics blog. Reform UK’s annual conference continues in Birmingham today, with speeches from Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman and others, before Nigel Farage takes to the stage for the closing remarks.

The conference has been overshadowed by a scandal involving senior Reform figures caught in an undercover sting discussing potential foreign donations, prompting the suspension of two senior aides and renewed scrutiny of the party’s finances.

Jenrick, Reform’s treasury spokesperson, said James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a close aide to Farage, have been “permanently suspended”, telling Times Radio this morning: “There is obviously due process, and so there is going to be an investigation, and we want to learn all the facts, give them obviously a right of reply.” Neither Orr or Jukes have commented on the allegations.

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage speaks at the party conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Violence descended on the conference yesterday during Farage’s speech when hecklers were assaulted by a mob of Reform supporters. The New Arab, which published footage of the incident, reported the protesters could be heard raising the issue of an undeclared £5m gift to Reform, which has become a key focus of controversy surrounding the party. Farage appeared to laugh off the incident, according to the news outlet.

We’ll be bringing you the latest from the conference throughout the day, including the key speeches, reaction and any developments.