Reshuffle to continue with junior ministerial changes
Aletha Adu
The shake-up in Downing Street is not yet over.
A No10 source told the Guardian there will be “substantial” changes to the government’s junior ranks, with hopes to push most of them through before the end of today.
Jonathan Reynolds, Keir Starmer’s new chief whip, and Darren Jones, newly appointed chief secretary to the prime minister, were seen entering Downing Street, as the process is set to kick off.
Many Labour insiders, some reluctantly, accepted the cabinet reshuffle as Starmer aligning his government to the right, a position Morgan McSweeney is believed to see where most voters are. However, some argue it has left Labour further from its own membership. With a deputy leadership contest looming, critics warn the government could be chasing voters and drifting out of step with its base.
Today’s changes will decide who rises with Starmer’s “phase two”, who has been frozen out and could highlight how tightly Starmer will grip the PLP.
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Updated at 15.20 CEST
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Aneesa Ahmed
A local resident has paid for the cleanup of graffiti calling Angela Rayner a “tax evader” outside her flat in Hove, according to Brighton and Hove city council.
The graffiti, which called the former deputy prime minister a “tax evader” and a “b****”, appeared on a white wall outside her £800,000 seaside flat on Thursday – after she admitted to not paying the right amount of stamp duty on the property.
On the other side of the road to the property, graffiti which said “tax evader Rayner” and “Rayner tax avoidance” was sprayed onto some construction chipboard.
Sussex police said it was treating the matters as criminal damage. While originally scheduled to be cleared on Thursday afternoon, the council said that a resident had paid for the graffiti to get removed early.
A council spokesperson said: “Due to security concerns, and in line with our policy of removal of offensive graffiti, we have removed graffiti reported in Hove. This has been paid for by a resident.”
A spokesperson for Rayner called it “unjustifiable”, saying the politician nor other local residents should have to be subject to “harassment and intimidation”.
“It will rightly be a matter for the police to take action as they deem appropriate,” they said.
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Reshuffle to continue with junior ministerial changes
Aletha Adu
The shake-up in Downing Street is not yet over.
A No10 source told the Guardian there will be “substantial” changes to the government’s junior ranks, with hopes to push most of them through before the end of today.
Jonathan Reynolds, Keir Starmer’s new chief whip, and Darren Jones, newly appointed chief secretary to the prime minister, were seen entering Downing Street, as the process is set to kick off.
Many Labour insiders, some reluctantly, accepted the cabinet reshuffle as Starmer aligning his government to the right, a position Morgan McSweeney is believed to see where most voters are. However, some argue it has left Labour further from its own membership. With a deputy leadership contest looming, critics warn the government could be chasing voters and drifting out of step with its base.
Today’s changes will decide who rises with Starmer’s “phase two”, who has been frozen out and could highlight how tightly Starmer will grip the PLP.
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Updated at 15.20 CEST
Ben Quinn
Jacob Rees-Mogg has told a gathering at the Reform UK conference that his teenage daughter, Mary, has joined Reform UK and that he is “having my arm twisted” by her to follow suit.
The former MP told Reform UK members at a fringe event who put him under pressure to defect to their party that he was going to remain a Tory because he believed it was fundamental “to bring the family of the right together.”
There were loud cheers when Rees-Mogg said: “I am having my arm twisted by my infant daughter who is standing over there.”
“I am sorry to tell you … I am embarrassed to say I have clearly failed as a father. Mary has joined Reform but I am not going to. I am going to remain a Tory because I think it is fundamental that we bring the family of the right together. The right wing family has to unite in a first past the post system. It’s how you get a majority.”
There has been speculation that Rees-Mogg could be one of the latest Conservatives to defect to Reform since he lost the battle for the newly created seat of North East Somerset & Hanham to Labour’s Dan Norris in the 2024 general election.
He told the event on Saturday said that he had to “to be careful” because he was still a Tory, but warned of a future scenario in which Reform won a general election but did not deliver on his pledges to achieve change.
“If a Nigel-led government does not succeed in change in six months … the nation is so angry that we will then be in real real trouble. There will be no where else to go.”
Rees-Mogg recommended that if Farage wins the next election, the Reform UK leader should ask the king to appoint 500 peers so that Reform has a working majority in the House of Lords, where he said that many Tory lords such as John Gummer had “drifted leftwards.”
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PA provides some more on Lucy Connolly, who is expected to appear at the Reform Party conference later today:
Connolly will appear on stage at the Reform Party conference on Saturday before Nigel Farage closes the event in Birmingham.
The former childminder and wife of a Conservative councillor was jailed for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers in the aftermath of the Southport murders last year.
She will speak on the main stage of the conference in a special live recording of The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast with Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, the newspaper confirmed.
It comes as party leader Farage said he would stop the boats within two weeks of passing immigration legislation, having previously said he would stop them within two weeks of “winning the government”.
The party’s deputy leader Richard Tice is also due to give an address later before Farage speaks to close the two-day event at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
The main stage will also see a speech titled “Make Britain Healthy Again” by Dr Assem Malhotra, a cardiologist who campaigned against the use of the Covid mRNA vaccines.
Malhotra said the Covid vaccines should be paused in their rollout because of the “uncertainty” around excess deaths.
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Updated at 14.44 CEST
Arrests have begun at the largest demonstration yet opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.
More than 1,000 people pledged to risk arrest on Saturday at a fresh London protest against the ban, about double the number who took part in a demonstration last month where 532 people were arrested.
Read the Guardian’s report on today’s demostration at the link below:
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Palestine Action protests begin in central London
A person holds a sign on the day of the rally challenging the British government’s proscription of Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters
Police vans have been lined up near parliament ahead of protests in support of Palestine Action on Saturday.
Police vans are seen lined up in a side-street close to Parliament Square, central London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
A protester in Parliament Square has been spotted wearing a “Plasticine Action” T-shirt – a satirical play on the banned group which drew headlines last month when another demonstrator was mistakenly arrested for it.
Franco Ferrer, 69, from Llanberis in north Wales, said police had been photographing him since he arrived. He told PA:
Maybe they can’t read.
The T-shirt is an effective way of getting the message across without risking arrest … I won’t write a sign because I don’t think I have the courage to do that. I’ve come to support the action because the government banning a protest group by using terror laws is outrageous. It’s silencing free speech.”
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator at the rally in Parliament Square. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/ReutersShare
Updated at 14.14 CEST
Ben Quinn
Lee Anderson will be crafting Reform UK’s welfare policies ahead of its bid to win power at the next election, Nigel Farage has announced.
The Reform UK leader cited Anderson’s past work at a Citizens Advice Bureau and said that he was becoming the party’s spokesperson on welfare.
“You know, he knows there are those that genuinely deserve help, but there are many frankly that don’t. And the current system is that, you know, you go to your GP, your own GP is almost pressurised to put you on the disability register. All of that has to change,” Farage said in an interview with ITV News.
As a Conservative MP, before he left the party after being accused of making Islamophobic comments about Sadiq Khan, Anderson was condemned by opposition after arguing that food banks are largely unnecessary because the main cause of food poverty is a lack of cooking and budgetary skills.
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Updated at 14.16 CEST
Ben Quinn
The cousin of an Israeli hostage in Gaza who was shown looking emaciated and weak in a video released by Hamas has met Nigel Farage at Reform UK’s conference to ask for help to raise his case.
Tamar Eshet, cousin of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, told the Guardian: “We wanted to speak to the people here because we know that their power is getting stronger at the moment, and that they can make a difference and have an impact on the British government.”
Eshet, a student, has been at the conference in the company of diplomats from the Israeli embassy and met Farage briefly on Saturday in private, as well as talking to other delegates. They showed a video of David which was released by Hamas.
The footage, released last week, shows Evyatar David speaking in what appeared to be a Hamas tunnel in Gaza. In scenes that caused outrage and dismay in Israel, he is shown digging what he says could be his own grave. In comments made under duress, he urges the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to agree to a ceasefire.
Eshet said Farage and others in Reform were “understanding” that Hamas were being “rewarded” by the British government moving towards recognising a Palestinian state.
Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK, Daniela Grudsky, on Saturday praised Reform UK for the support the party has given Israel. She was speaking at a fringe event ‘Hostages of Hamas: Setting their voices free.’
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Updated at 14.08 CEST
Hundreds of protestors risk arrests in support of Palestine Action
Hundreds of protesters have gathered in Parliament Square for a Palestine Action demonstration on Saturday, PA reports.
Some are handing out pens ahead of plans to write on boards at 12.50pm.
Many are sitting around the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, with Palestine flags visible across the square.
Organisers say they expect about 1,000 people to attend.
The Met Police has warned it would be ready to arrest people today showing support for the group which was banned by the UK government under terrorism laws earlier this year. Last month, police arrested over 530 people at a previous Palestine Action protest.
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Nigel Farage is signing the backs of turquoise football shirts released by Reform UK with his name on the back at the Reform UK conference.
“Get back, get back … The barrier is here for a reason,” photographers were told by Reform UK media handlers amid a rush when the Reform UK leader arrived.
Reform UK claim that about 10,000 of the shirts, which have become an upiquitous presence at the conference, have been sold since their launch.
Reform UK annual Conference – Day 2
epa12356802 Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage attends a shirt signing session on day two of the Reform UK annual conference in Birmingham, Britain, 06 September 2025. The Reform UK Conference 2025 takes place at the NEC Birmingham from 05 September to 06 September 2025. EPA/NEIL HALL Photograph: Neil Hall/EPAShare
Reform leader Nigel Farage said the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner over her tax affairs “screams to entitlement” during his speech to the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham.
Farage said last year that he had bought a home in his Clacton constituency, but it was later reported that his partner had actually made the purchase.
Mr Tice, the party deputy, was asked on Saturday whether Mr Farage would be transparent about his tax affairs and address questions over his partner buying the Clacton home. He called Farage’s tax affairs “irrelevant” to voters.
Mr Farage has denied the arrangement had saved tax, telling The Mirror it was a “disgusting allegation” that is “unfair and untrue”.
Separately, the Guardian revealed on Friday that Farage diverted money from his prime-time TV show into a private company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
The use of personal service companies is not illegal but has been criticised in recent years.
A spokesperson for Mr Farage told the Guardian: “Thorn in the Side Ltd has traded for 15 years and has a variety of interests. It renders the services of several contractors and is a properly functioning company.”
Read more on that report here:
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Updated at 13.29 CEST
Albanian ambassador says Farage claims ‘completely false’
Ben Quinn
Albania’s ambassador to the UK has met with Nigel Farage to tell him that the Reform UK leader was repeating false information by making the claim that one in 50 Albanians in Britain were in jail.
“It’s completely false, and yet it is being repeated on GB news and by politicians,” said Uran Ferizi, the ambassador, who is attending Reform UK’s conference.
“It is misconstruing officials statistics which are taken and used to come up with difference claims that bear no resemblance to reality.”
Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, has already crossed swords with Farage online over the Reform UK leader’s uses of the figure. Data from the Albanian embassy in the UK has disputed reports that the number of Albanians is UK 53,000, which was used as a source for the one in 50 claim.
Ferizi said: “I told him it was deeply unfair to peddle these lies essentially. They are just not true. My perception was that he was receptive when he heard this and understood this.
“I also made the case Albanians were a very good example of people who integrate well into Britain. They work hard, learn the language and the customs and the rules of the country. I told him it was deeply unfair for a country that prides itself on being fair, and he seemed to appreciate that.”
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Updated at 13.35 CEST
The British couple killed in the Lisbon funicular crash have been remembered as “hugely talented” members of the theatre community dedicated to “inspiring the next generation, PA reports.
Theatre director Kayleigh Smith and her partner Will Nelson, a lecturer at Manchester’s Arden School of Theatre, were named as two of the three Britons who died after the popular tourist attraction derailed in the centre of the Portuguese city on Wednesday night.
The third British victim has yet to be named.
Macclesfield MP Tim Roca paid tribute to Smith and Nelson, saying: “I was deeply saddened to learn that two much-loved members of our Macclesfield community, Kayleigh Smith and her partner Will Nelson, were among those who lost their lives in Wednesday’s tragic funicular crash in Lisbon.
“Kayleigh was a hugely talented theatre director at MADS Theatre, where she poured her creativity, energy and kindness into every production. The moving tribute from the MADS team says it all, she was a dear friend to so many and will be greatly missed.
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Lucy Connolly will appear at the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham, PA reports.
The former childminder and wife of a Conservative councillor was jailed for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers in the aftermath of the Southport murders last year. She was released last month.
She will speak on the main stage of the conference in a special live recording of The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast with Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, the newspaper confirmed.
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Updated at 12.46 CEST
