UK politics live: Farage cedes Reform control ahead of conference amid row over his surgery absence claim

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of handing “gold-plated pensions” to his top team while pensioners across the UK brace for the consequences of a cut to winter fuel payments.

On Wednesday, it emerged that Sue Gray was awarded a salary of £170,000, around £3,000 more than the prime minister and more than any cabinet minister or her Conservative predecessor.

The Conservative Party claimed Sir Keir had “snatched away support for the vulnerable”, while handing large pensions to his senior officials.

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Reform UK opens its annual conference in Birmingham sporting its first elected members of parliament, a much-expanded membership, and plenty of enthusiasm. Its leader, Nigel Farage, who has been knocking around at the top of politics for longer than all his many rivals combined, has made it into the Commons, on his eighth attempt. He has pledged to spearhead “the real opposition” to the Labour government...

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Nigel Farage is at the centre of a row after he claimed security concerns had prevented him from holding surgeries in his Essex constituency.

Before he was elected to Westminster, 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 the last day of the week, for safety reasons.

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Reform UK’s five MPs will each address the conference stage, leading up to a keynote speech by Mr Farage at 4pm which will see him issue a “clarion call for change”.

The party branded the conference “the most exciting of all the political conferences this year”, mocking its mainstream rivals for “festival gratuities” and hosting “lobbyists all offering gifts”.

A preview released on Thursday read: “You have already had the vapid ‘It’s a knockout’ shambles of the Lib Dems in Brighton.

“Next week you will have the Labour festival gratuities and gradgrinds, surrounded by lobbyists all offering gifts.

“And then, oh the pity, the extended funeral rites of a Tory party, lost in its own navel, casting public lots to chose its own pallbearers.”

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is “completely in control” following a row within Government over his top adviser’s pay.

Disclosures that Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, received a pay rise after the election which means she earns more than Sir Keir have sparked a row within Government and prompted opposition critics to demand answers about how the decision was made.

But Sir Keir would not be drawn into the row as he spoke to broadcasters before Labour’s party conference this weekend, only insisting his team was focused on his Government’s “big mandate to deliver change”.

The BBC said a number of Whitehall sources had briefed the organisation on Ms Gray’s salary increase, meaning she earns about £3,000 more than Sir Keir, who is paid about £167,000.

Sir Keir signed off a rebanding of the salaries for special advisers shortly after taking office in July, according to the BBC.

Speculating on next month’s Budget will “put the fear of God” into people, the Prime Minister has said as he declined to rule out further cuts.

In a series of broadcast interviews, Sir Keir Starmer repeatedly said he did not want to “get ahead of the Budget”, due to be revealed on October 30, as he was asked to rule out measures such as scrapping the single person council tax discount and cutting the farming budget.

Asked about the single person council tax discount, which gives people living alone 25% off their council tax bill, he told BBC West: “I am really concerned about this and obviously I’m not going to pre-empt the Budget, but I don’t want to risk putting the fear of God into people.”

Sir Keir added: “I don’t want to get into this, you know, ‘Will you rule out? Will you rule out? Will you rule out?’ because it just puts fear into people and I don’t want to do that.

“What I will say is that I’m very conscious of how hard it’s been for people and we intend to make sure that we have those people who have faced the greatest hardship in our minds’ eyes when we take our decisions.”

Less than three months after he was elected on a promise to restore trust in politics, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is trying to shake off criticism over donations from a wealthy businessman and the hefty salary of his most senior aide.

The Labour Party leader, who won power in a landslide victory on July 4, denies impropriety over thousands of pounds (dollars) worth of clothes and eyeglasses paid for by Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and longtime Labour donor.

Starmer is also facing grumbling among his own employees over the salary of chief of staff Sue Gray. The BBC disclosed that she is paid 170,000 pounds ($225,000) a year — about 3,000 pounds more than the prime minister’s salary.

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Radio listeners have applauded James O’Brien for his ‘savage’ takedown of Nigel Farage.

The LBC presenter, 52, who hosts a much-lauded show on the political live debate channel every weekday, unleashed a scathing appraisal of the Reform UK leader, 60, who had been interviewed by his colleague Nick Ferrari moments earlier.

During the on-air onslaught, which O’Brien delivered while Farage was still in the same room as him, the radio presenter referenced accusations claiming the MP for Clacton had incited UK race riots this summer with his claims the Southport attacker had been known to the police.

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Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is “completely in control” following a row within Government over his top adviser’s pay.

Disclosures that Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, received a pay rise after the election which means she earns more than Sir Keir have sparked a row within Government and prompted opposition critics to demand answers about how the decision was made.

But Sir Keir would not be drawn into the row as he spoke to broadcasters before Labour’s party conference this weekend, only insisting his team was focused on his Government’s “big mandate to deliver change”.

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