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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he should be allowed into a political leaders’ event next week – and challenged Sir Keir Starmer to a head-to-head debate.

The parliamentary hopeful was speaking at an event in London, after a single poll put his party one percentage point above the Conservatives.

This is within the margin of error, and more than a dozen other polls have Reform behind the Tories in their most recent datasets – with support ranging from 9% to 17%.

Election latest: Reform passes Tories in poll

YouGov, the pollster Mr Farage was quoting, puts his party on 19% compared to the Conservative’s 18%.

The Sky News poll tracker, which collates all the results to provide an average, has Reform in third place.

In order, it has Labour on 42%, Conservatives on 21.8%, Reform on 14.3%, the Liberal Democrats on 10.4%, the Greens on 5.9% and the SNP on 3.1%.

More on Nigel Farage

Speaking on Friday lunchtime, Mr Farage made a “demand of right now” that “the BBC put us into that debate”.

He appeared to be speaking about a special episode of Question Time, set to take place on Thursday 20 June.

There is a one-on-one leadership debate the following week between Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak.

Mr Farage has already appeared in two seven-person leadership events – however, while smaller parties sent their respective leaders, Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems did not.

Mr Farage said: “I would also very much like to do a debate head-to-head with Keir Starmer and the reason is very simple – we think this should be the immigration election.”

In the same event, Mr Farage declared himself the “leader of the opposition” against Sir Keir, having said he believes Labour will form the next government and the Tories are “done”.

The former UKIP leader said he believed his party could win six million votes at the election – which works out to close to 19% of the valid votes cast in 2019.

Read more:
Sunak: Voting for Reform would give Starmer ‘blank cheque’
Tory MP engages in political ‘flirting’ with Farage

In 2019, the Conservatives won just under 14 million votes, Labour won around 10.3 million, the SNP won 1.2 million and the Liberal Democrats won 3.7 million.

However, it’s hard to say how many seats the six million could work out to due to the first past the post system – as shown by the fact the SNP won 48 seats in 2019 and the Liberal Democrats won 11.

Mr Farage is claiming he wants his party to build towards the next general election – which must take place by summer 2029.

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Nigel Farage speaking in London. Pic: PA
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Nigel Farage speaking in London. Pic: PA

He said: “Remember, this is not a short-term commando raid, this is a five-year commitment. This election is our first step towards building for 2029.

“So, however many seats we win, you have my absolute assurance that our campaigning of the 29 election, our building of a big movement in this country, will begin the very next day on 5 July.

“If we did finish up with a huge number of votes and a paltry number of seats, do you know what it would do? It would tell us yet again that Britain is broken and Britain needs reform, and that reform includes the electoral system, that reform includes the abomination that is the House of Lords, and that reform includes the right, as people in Switzerland have, to call referendums on key issues if they think their government and parliament are out of touch with them.”

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Asked about his party’s financial situation, Mr Farage said Reform had raised “£2-3m in 25 quids” – but it needs to raise more and does “not have the ammunition that we need”.

The BBC and the Labour Party have been approached for comment.

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‘Shameful’ that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief

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'Shameful' that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief

It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.

The commissioner told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that relations with minority communities “is difficult for us”.

Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.

“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”

He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.

However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”

Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.

“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.

The Met Police chief’s admission comes two years after an official report found the force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

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Police chase suspected phone thief

Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.

She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.

At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.

However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.

After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.

A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.

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Unite votes to suspend Angela Rayner over Birmingham bin strike

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Unite votes to suspend Angela Rayner over Birmingham bin strike

Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.

Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.

They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.

There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.

But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.

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The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.

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Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.

The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.

Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.

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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem

Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.

‘Missing in action’

General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”

She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.

“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.

“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.

“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”

SN pics from 10/04/25 Tyseley Lane, Tyseley, Birmingham showing some rubbish piling up because of bin strikes
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Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.

He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.

“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.

A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.

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Binance’s CZ threatens to sue Bloomberg over Trump stablecoin report

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Binance’s CZ threatens to sue Bloomberg over Trump stablecoin report

Binance’s CZ threatens to sue Bloomberg over Trump stablecoin report

Binance co-founder CZ has dismissed a Bloomberg report linking him to the Trump-backed USD1 stablecoin, threatening legal action over alleged defamation.

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