Reform UK conference – live: Tice defends Farage’s appearance record in parliament as party speeches begin

Reform Deputy Leader Richard Tice has said he’s “very happy” with the party’s new constitution as he and party leader Nigel Farage give up their shares in Reform UK limited.

Mr Tice told the PA news agency at the party conference in Birmingham: “We’re basically taking the party to the next step from being an entrepreneurial political startup through the election, so now we’re growing the professionalisation of it. Branches up and down the country, there’s, give or take, 150 already set up.

“And as part of the democratisation, we’re going to change the structure, change the constitution and that’s a natural evolution. Nigel committed to that, we did immediately after the election we knew we’re going to do that and so already we’re delivering on it.”

Asked about comments made by his predecessor Ben Habib criticising the party’s constitution that would require 50% of party members to remove the leader, Mr Tice said: “I’m very happy with the Constitution. Life would be boring if we all agreed with everything.

“And so Ben’s entitled to his view. We’re entitled to our view, we think it’s the right balance and the thing is, the key about leadership is you got to look forward. Let’s not be looking over our shoulder backwards. Let’s be looking forwards.”

Nigel Farage has ignited a row after he claimed security concerns had prevented him from holding surgeries in his Essex constituency.

Before he was elected, the Reform UK leader famously asked: “Do I want to be an MP? Do I want to spend every Friday for the next five years in Clacton?”

Now he has said he was told not to hold the face-to-face meetings with voters, traditionally held on Fridays, for safety reasons.

Read the full report below:

Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces a fresh headache ahead of her first Budget this autumn after official figures revealed Government borrowing jumped by more than expected last month.

Borrowing rose to £13.7 billion last month, marking the third highest August on record, driven by higher spending on public services due to increased running costs and pay increases.

The increase means public sector debt hit 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of August 2024.

The figure, which excludes public sector banks, means national debt is at levels last seen in the early 1960s, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Domestic abuse specialists will work in 999 control rooms under a new ‘Raneem’s Law’, Yvette Cooper has announced.

Speaking this morning, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said she wants to do more than give domestic abuse victims “a good call”, as she outlined the Government’s plans.

“We have to stop this happening in the first place, and the Government has a mission to halve the incidences of violence against women and girls in a decade,” she told Sky News.

“And so much of that work is going to have to be about the prevention of perpetration, the changing of attitudes around healthy relationships within education, this is a mission that is going to take every Government department.”

Read the full report from The Independent’s Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin here.

Jess Phillips has suggested that Serco could face “penalties” for delays in fitting some offenders with electronic tags after they have been released from prison.

Speaking to LBC News radio, the Home Office minister said she was “disappointed” to learn of the delays, adding: “It’s not the Government who has made the backlog in tags, it is a contract signed with Serco in May this year.

“And I have been in meetings with regard to ensuring that … any perpetrators of domestic abuse, are put to the top of the list, to ensure that they are being fitted with those tags.”

She went on to say: “The prisons minister, I believe, has had some pretty robust meetings, and is meeting with Serco today, but the contract certainly has in it the allowances for there to be penalties.”

“I’m almost certain that in this case, that unless something massively improves very, very quickly, that all of those things will be considered,” she added.

Sir Keir Starmer has defended accepting free tickets to watch Arsenal FC.

Home Office minister Jess Phillips has also come to Sir Keir’s defence , saying the PM has  “lived entirely by the rules”.

Watch below:

Reform UK will begin its party conference on Friday with claims that it plans to win the next general election.

The party, which secured five seats in July, is set to begin its two-day conference in Birmingham with speeches from party leader Nigel Farage, deputy leader Richard Tice, chair Zia Yousuf and MPs Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock.

Mr Anderson, Reform’s chief whip, is expected to say: “We have five MPs and we are growing our membership and support every day. Next year we will win hundreds of council seats across the UK. We must take this fight to Parliament so we can take back control of our country and in 2029 win the general election.”

Mr Anderson was Reform’s first MP after he joined the party in March following his suspension from the Conservatives over Islamophobic comments about London mayor Sadiq Khan.

James McMurdock, whose victory in South Basildon and East Thurrock was an unexpected gain for Reform, will also talk up the party’s prospects in five years, saying the 2029 conference will be “ready to welcome prime minister Nigel Farage”.

Sir Keir Starmer has “lived entirely by the rules”, Jess Phillips said, after the prime minister was criticised for accepting lavish gifts and tickets to football matches.

The Home Office minister told Times Radio: “The prime minister has lived entirely by the rules that have governed every single member of parliament, certainly since I’ve been there – he received gifts and things, and he declared them.”

“Let me tell you, it feels like he’s breathing down my neck to make sure that we’re doing things right in my department,” she added.

Asked whether she would accept similar gifts, Ms Phillips replied: “I don’t like the Arsenal.”

She added: “We get invited to theatre performances and things, and you go along and you support the arts, and people want you to go to their things because they want it supported.

“So if you can find me a politician who has never done anything like that, has never ever, you know, gone to their local theatre to watch something then, well, I think they’re lying to you.”

Local MPs have sniped at Reform’s parliamentarian in Great Yarmouth after he pledged to donate his MP’s salary to local causes.

Multimillionaire Rupert Lowe – a businessman and former Southampton FC chair elected to parliament for the first time in July – has promised to donate around £5,000 every month to a different local cause, including to fund redecorations at the tea room of a local football club and to take local schoolchildren to visit Westminster.

But his generosity has sparked annoyance from fellow local MPs, with an unnamed Labour MP telling the Financial Times: “It’s all very well for him to do this, but of course there are some people who think MPs shouldn’t be paid and that we should do the same.”

And a Tory MP sniped: “He’s a multi-millionaire and he’s not really an MP in the way that most of us are.”

Mr Lowe told the paper that he found the criticim “pretty petty”, adding: “It’s a personal choice. Certain Labour MPs are richer than me and still don’t do it. I think being an MP should be a vocation, not a gravy train.”