Reform UK drops three candidates as racism row continues to engulf party
Reform UK has withdrawn support from three of its parliamentary candidates as the racism row engulfing the party continues to grow.
The party led by Nigel Farage is no longer supporting Edward Oakenfull, who is standing in Derbyshire Dales, Robert Lomas, a candidate in Barnsley North, and Leslie Lilley, standing in Southend East and Rochford, after alleged comments made by them emerged in the media.
It comes as party leaders from across the political spectrum have lined up to condemn Reform UK, and told Mr Farage he needs to “get a grip” of his party.
Oakenfull has been suspended after reportedly having written social media posts about the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans – which he told the BBC were “taken out of context”.
Meanwhile, Lomas said black people should “get off [their] lazy arses” and stop acting “like savages”, The Times reported.
Lilley, according to the newspaper, described people arriving on small boats as “scum”, adding: “I hope your family get robbed, beaten or attacked.”
As the registration deadline for candidates has passed, all three candidates will remain on the ballot paper, despite no longer being endorsed by Reform UK.
Racism row
The decision to drop these candidates comes amid a vast row about racism in the party after Channel 4 news aired footage filmed undercover that showed Andrew Parker, an activist canvassing for Mr Farage, using the racial slur “P***” to describe the prime minister, describing Islam as a “disgusting cult”, and saying the army should “just shoot” migrants crossing the Channel.
Reform UK was condemned by party leaders across the political spectrum, and Rishi Sunak reacted furiously to the comments, saying Mr Farage had “some questions to answer”.
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Sunak ‘hurt’ over Reform race row
He said: “My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing P***. It hurts and it makes me angry and I think he has some questions to answer.
“And I don’t repeat those words lightly. I do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is.”
Parker has told Sky News he was a “total fool”, that he has learned his lesson, and there was “no racism” in what he said.
Reform UK has said it has reported Channel 4 to the elections watchdog for alleged “scandalous… interference” over what the party claims was a fake rant planted by the broadcaster.
The broadcaster has rejected the allegations out of hand, saying: “We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself. We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.
“We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation.”
The Electoral Commission said they were “aware of reports” that Reform UK had asked them to investigate.
But the commission said it had “not received such a letter”, adding that it would “consider [the letter’s] contents” if it did.
A spokesperson for the commission said Channel 4 News was exempt from its regulation as it is a licensed broadcaster.
They said any laws surrounding the potential defamation of candidates would be a matter for the police.
Questions to answer
Mr Farage faced a slew of questions on the row during a BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special on Friday night, during which he said he was “not going to apologise” for the actions of people associated with his party.
Asked why his party “attracts racists and extremists”, the former UKIP leader claimed he had “done more to drive the far right out of British politics than anybody else alive” – claiming he took on the British Nationalist Party (BNP) a decade ago.
He also appeared to throw his predecessor Richard Tice under the bus when read racist and xenophobic comments made by Reform candidates, saying he “inherited a start-up party” and has “no idea” why the people who said those things had been selected.
Mr Farage has today lashed out at the BBC as well, saying he is refusing to appear on the broadcaster’s Sunday morning politics show with Laura Kuenssberg until they apologise for their “dishonest” audience, accusing the broadcaster of having “behaved like a political actor throughout this election”.
But the right-wing firebrand has been condemned by all party leaders.
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‘Leaders have to set the tone’
Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News Mr Farage must “set the tone” for his party, adding: “It’s no good Nigel Farage after the event saying that he doesn’t agree with certain comments.”
The Labour leader went on to insist Mr Farage is “not a spectator” – but is the leader of Reform UK.
He added: “Leaders have to set the tone, set the standards and take the action so that people know in advance what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable.
What Reform attacks say about Nigel Farage’s mindset
Even by Reform’s standards, the frequency and ferocity of attacks flying out from the party has stepped up today.
We’ve had complaints going into Ofcom, the Electoral Commission and Essex Police.
The BBC boycotted; Channel 4 reported and a former campaigner cut adrift.
This tells you more about Nigel Farage’s mindset than his decision to suspend three candidates over online posts.
So five days from the election, will these seemingly rolling controversies shift many votes?
Much like the row over the Reform leader’s comments on Russia and Putin, that probably depends on how fully signed up you are the party’s agenda.
For the die-hards, talk of an establishment stitch-up will find sympathetic and supportive ears.
But wavering Tories dabbling with Reform may be queasier about all this talk of racism and a big media conspiracy.
One final point.
A fortnight ago, Nigel Farage demanded to be treated as one of the big players in this election citing a poll putting him ahead of the Tories.
But with more coverage comes more scrutiny.
You can construct a fair argument that’s exactly what Reform has been exposed to in the last week.
‘Get a grip’
Labour’s shadow defence secretary told Sky News Mr Farage should “get a grip” of his party amid the racism allegations.
John Healey said: “To some extent, I see him fuelling a row over this Channel 4 film to distract, really, from the fact that there are officials and there are candidates right at the heart of the Reform party, that have been responsible for racist, anti-gay, and other deeply offensive statements.
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Farage ‘needs to get a grip’ of Reform
“And it’s for Farage to take action on them. And in the end, the culture and the standards of any political party are set by the leader and Nigel Farage wants to be seen as a leader.
“He needs to get a grip of his own party and he’s failing to do that at the moment.”
Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, said of Reform’s politics: “I deplore it. I deprecate it. I want nothing to do with it.”
“We will always rail against racist and homophobic comments, and I can’t believe that there’s a single thing Nigel Farage can do to control a problem that he himself has started,” he said.
The SNP leader went on to claim that this is not a case of bad apples, but “an ingrained problem of Reform”.
Read more:
Police ‘urgently assessing’ racist comments by Reform activists
Reform candidates accused of ‘antisemitic’ posts
Reform canvasser says he was ‘a total fool’
He said: “Nigel Farage has set this all up. He has stoked it all. With every word over all these years, he has incited all that intolerance and prejudice in our society.
“I want to have nothing to do with it. And I don’t think there’s anything Nigel Farage can do to stop it, because he created it.”
The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, said his members and candidates “share no values with Mr Farage”.
“He can sort himself out. My job as a Liberal Democrat leader is to tell you what we’re about.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Here is the full list of candidates standing in the Derbyshire Dales constituency:
- Kelda Boothroyd, Green Party
- Robert Court, Liberal Democrats
- Sarah Dines, Conservative Party
- Rachel Elnaugh-Love, Independent
- Edward Hudson Oakenfull, formerly Reform UK
- Helen Wetherall, True and Fair Party
- John Whitby, Labour Party
Here is the full list of candidates standing in Barnsley North:
- Penny Baker, Liberal Democrats
- Tony Devoy, Yorkshire Party
- Neil Fisher, Independent
- Tom Heyes, Green Party
- Dan Jarvis, Labour Party
- Tamas Kovacs, Conservative Party
- Robert Lomas, formerly Reform UK
- Janus Polenceusz, English Democrats
Here is the full list of candidates standing in Southend East and Rochford:
- Bayo Alaba, Labour Party
- James Joseph Allen, Liberal Democrats
- Lee John Clark, Confelicity
- Simon Cross, Green Party
- Gavin Haran, Conservative Party
- Bianca Eleanor Isherwood, Heritage Party
- Leslie Lilley, formerly Reform UK
Cryptocurrency markets have extended their decline despite much-awaited political developments taking place in the US.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a funding bill to end the record 43-day US government shutdown, after the bill passed through the Senate on Monday and was approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The bill provides funding to the government until Jan. 30, 2026, and gives Democrats and Republicans more time to strike a deal on broader funding plans for the year ahead.
The end of the shutdown failed to lift demand among Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) buyers. Spot BTC ETFs saw a brief resurgence on Tuesday, attracting $524 million in inflows, but outflows quickly resumed, with a whopping $866 million in daily net outflows on Thursday, according to Farside Investors.
Bitcoin fell to a six-month low of $95,900 on Friday, a level last seen in May as its biggest demand drivers continued to lack momentum.
Investments from ETFs and Michael Saylor’s Strategy were the two main vehicles driving demand for Bitcoin’s price this year, according to Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant.
Bitcoin ETF demand stalls as US shutdown optimism fails to lift sentiment
The lack of demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs is raising concerns about Bitcoin’s prospects for the rest of the year.
On Monday, the US Senate approved the funding bill and brought Congress a step closer to ending the shutdown. The legislation headed for a full vote in the House of Representatives, which occurred on Wednesday.
Despite optimistic news from the US, spot Bitcoin ETF investments remained flat on Monday, with just $1.2 million of inflows, according to data from Farside Investors.
“Despite the US shutdown seemingly ending, and the S&P and Gold bouncing hard, Bitcoin ETFs saw NO bid yesterday,” said Capriole Investments founder, Charles Edwards, adding that this is not a dynamic we want to see continue.
“Risk assets usually see a strong bid in the weeks out of the Shutdown. Still time to turn this ship around, but it needs to turn,” Edwards wrote in a Tuesday X post.
Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows were the primary driver of Bitcoin’s momentum in 2025, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, told Cointelegraph recently.
Bitwise exec says 2026 will be crypto’s real bull year; here’s why
Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan is more confident that crypto markets will boom in 2026, particularly as there hasn’t been a late 2025 rally.
Speaking to Cointelegraph at The Bridge conference in New York City on Wednesday, Hougan said a crypto market rally at the end of 2025 would have fit the four-year cycle thesis, meaning 2026 would mark the start of a bear market, similar to 2022 and 2018.
When asked to revise his prediction about whether the crypto market will boom in 2026, Hougan said: “I’m actually more confident in that quote. The biggest risk was [if] we ripped into the end of 2025 and then we got a pullback.”
Hougan said interest in the Bitcoin debasement trade, stablecoins and tokenization would continue to accelerate, while arguing that Uniswap’s fee switch proposal introduced on Monday would reinvigorate interest in decentralized finance protocols in the coming year.
“I think the underlying fundamentals are just so sound,” Hougan said. “I think these earlier forces, institutional investment, regulatory progress, stablecoins, tokenization, I just think those are too big to keep down. So I think 2026 will be a good year.”
Arthur Hayes tells Zcash holders to withdraw from CEXs and “shield” assets
The privacy coin sector returned to the spotlight after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes urged Zcash holders to withdraw their assets from centralized exchanges (CEXs).
On Wednesday, Hayes told holders to “shield” their assets, a feature that enables private transactions within the Zcash network. “If you hold $ZEC on a CEX, withdraw it to a self-custodial wallet and shield it,” Hayes wrote on X.
The comments came as Zcash (ZEC) saw sharp price swings in the last few days. The token rallied to $723 on Saturday before dropping to $504 on Sunday. It then surged to a high of $677 on Monday, only to see another sharp decline. At the time of writing, ZEC was trading at about $450, marking a 37% decline from its Saturday high.
Analysts had warned that ZEC might undergo a sharp correction due to its relative strength index (RSI) reaching its highest reading after continuing to rally above its overbought zone.
Vitalik Buterin champions decentralization in “Trustless Manifesto”
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has authored and signed the new “Trustless Manifesto,” which seeks to uphold core values of decentralization and censorship resistance and push builders to refrain from adding intermediaries and checkpoints for the sake of adoption.
The Trustless Manifesto, also authored by Ethereum Foundation researchers Yoav Weiss and Marissa Posner, said crypto platforms sacrifice trustlessness from the first moment that they integrate a hosted node or centralized relayer, explaining that while it feels harmless, it becomes a habit, and with each passing checkpoint, the protocol becomes less and less permissionless.
“Trustlessness is not a feature to add after the fact. It is the thing itself,” the Ethereum Foundation members said in the manifesto published Wednesday. “Without it, everything else — efficiency, UX, scalability — is decoration on a fragile core.”
“When complexity tempts us to centralize, we must remember: every line of convenience code can become a choke point.”
While the manifesto wasn’t aimed at any particular person or company, some Ethereum layer 2s have been criticized for sacrificing decentralization to focus on scalability to speed up adoption.
Sonic Labs pivots from speed to survival with business-first strategy
Sonic Labs, the organization behind the Sonic layer-1 blockchain, announced a major strategic shift as it pivots from emphasizing transaction speed to building long-term business value and token sustainability.
After claiming industry-leading performance last year, Sonic Labs said its next chapter will focus on upgrades that deliver measurable financial outcomes, including new Ethereum and Sonic Improvement Proposals (EIPs and SIPs), token supply reductions and revamped rewards for network participants.
“Every decision we make moving forward will be guided by the principles of building real value, with price, growth, and sustainability always in focus,” said Mitchell Demeter, the new CEO of Sonic Labs.
The focus aims to bring “measurable, lasting value” for builders, validators and tokenholders, wrote Demeter in a Tuesday X post. “Our mission at Sonic is to move beyond hype and build a sustainable business model for a layer one, that creates, captures, and returns real value to tokenholders.”
The new fee monetization upgrade will include a tiered reward system for builders and fixed rewards for validators.
Sonic Labs will also increase the rate of programmatic Sonic (S) token burns, which means permanently removing tokens from circulation to tighten the supply.
Sonic claims to be the world’s fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, with a “true” finality of 720 milliseconds (ms) — the assurance that a transaction is irreversible, which occurs after it is added to a block on the blockchain ledger.
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the red.
The privacy-preserving Dash (DASH) token fell 45% to stage the biggest decline in the top 100, followed by the Internet Computer (ICP) token, down over 27% on the weekly chart.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
The UK’s central bank, the Bank of England (BOE), has released a proposed regulatory regime for stablecoins. The consultation paper took into account the perspectives of the crypto industry, but some observers say it remains restrictive.
BOE released the document on Nov. 10 — some two years after it announced the initial discussion paper. The original offered a vision for crypto that many in the industry claimed would doom the UK’s digital asset space.
The BOE said that it received comments and feedback from a broad range of 46 different stakeholders, including “banks, non-bank payment service providers, payment system operators, trade associations, academia, and individuals.”
The UK’s central bank may have scrapped some more hardline requirements, but some in the industry believe that it isn’t enough. Tom Rhodes, chief legal officer at UK-based stablecoin issuer Agant, said the bank remains “disproportionately cautious and restrictive.”
Bank of England still cautious on stablecoins
The new iteration presents a number of improvements on the 2023 version, Rhodes told Cointelegraph.
“The latest proposals do include some innovative features, such as direct BOE liquidity lines and the ability to repo reserves for liquidity purposes.”
He said that, as it concerns the UK market, “these proposals can be further explored and potentially expanded to create a more competitive backing asset regime, without compromising on stability.”
But despite the “welcome progress in the BOE’s sentiment towards stablecoins,” it has been “unusually vocal about the perceived risks of stablecoins,” said Rhodes.
One of the more controversial restrictions in the paper was limits on what the BOE called a “systemic retail stablecoin.” In the paper, this is defined as a stablecoin that is “widely used by individuals to make everyday payments such as for shopping and receiving salaries.”
The central bank wants to see limits of 20,000 pounds for individuals and 10 million pounds for businesses that accept it as a form of payment. This is an increase from the initial proposal, but the idea of limits on how much crypto you can hold didn’t sit well with some.
Crypto influencer Aleksandra Huk wrote, “Bank of England wants to cap stablecoin holdings at £20,000. Who gave them the right to tell us what to buy, where to store our money and how much we can have? […] Honestly, this is the best advert ever for privacy coins and for leaving the UK.”
Related: UK crypto hopes stall, but ‘encouraging signs’ are there
There are a few caveats to the suggested rule. Geoff Richards, head of community at the Ontology Network, noted, “The proposal applies only to sterling-denominated stablecoins used in UK payment systems that could become ‘systemic.’ Not USDT, not USDC, not random DeFi tokens.”
Ian Taylor, board member of crypto industry advocacy group CryptoUK, told Cointelegraph that he understands the central bank’s more cautious approach, at least as it applies to the stablecoin limits:
“The Bank of England has a mandate to protect against financial stability. And that financial stability is connected to the banking system. So insofar as banks take deposits and they issue loans against those deposits […] creates credit, this is an economic benefit to any economy that we have.”
The BOE is rightfully worried that taking deposits out of banks would reduce their ability to lend, affecting financial stability. “So, that’s why they want to baby-step this.”
Rhodes said that the “vast majority” of UK stablecoins will not fall under the regime anyway, at least not as stated in the paper. He noted that Mastercard was only recognized as a systemically important payment system in 2021 and that non-systemic stablecoins will be regulated under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ruleset, “which is less restrictive.”
Still work to be done as UK opens up to crypto
Access to central bank liquidity and deposit accounts at the BOE was a welcome update for stablecoin issuers. But crypto industry representatives believe that there is still room for improvement in the central bank’s plan.
Regarding the stablecoin caps, “The systemic thresholds remain uncertain,” said Rhodes. He said it would be helpful to have clarification from His Majesty’s Treasury when an issuer has reached sufficient scale to “pose a risk to the UK economy as a whole, before they will recognize the issuer as systemic.”
Taylor also noted the difficulty of enforcing these stablecoin caps. If the government is licensing an issuer, then they’re the ones “responsible for monitoring each individual client or customer, whether wholesale, corporate or retail, as to how many stablecoins they’ve given them.”
The problem is that many people get their stablecoins on secondary markets or a “host of different sources.” People can receive stablecoins as compensation at work or on an exchange or peer-to-peer transaction. “So, the actual operational enforcement of that I question, and we’ve seen no detail in regards to that.”
Overall, “clarity and speed” will make the UK stablecoin ecosystem more competitive, said Arvin Abraham, partner at Goodwin Procter. He told Cointelegraph that regulators need to give issuers “a clean runway and predictable timelines” to navigate the approvals process.
Speed isn’t the government’s strong suit, however.
The British government has been working on crypto regulations since 2017, when it first adopted Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer requirements for crypto-related businesses like exchanges. Now, eight years later, the central bank is still developing its policies based on industry feedback.
The slow pace of progress presents a problem. According to Taylor, “We’ve been consulting on a wider framework to regulate stablecoins for almost five years, and we still haven’t gotten any actual license framework in place, which is problematic for a number of reasons,” he said.
“It doesn’t help businesses that want to launch stablecoins in the UK. They don’t have a clear roadmap of how to do that,” he said, “which in turn forces them to move offshore to jurisdictions where there are other regulatory frameworks already live.”
This is for a number of reasons, Taylor explained, including consecutive changes in government, as well as a lack of “real champions in any of our key stakeholders, be that the current government, be that Treasury, be that the FCA.”
Progress on crypto regulations may be slow in the UK — slower than many in the industry would like — but for Abraham, “The Bank is being pragmatic and fair. The overriding message is that innovation is welcome, but if you want your token to function like money, you need money-grade controls.”
Magazine: 2026 is the year of pragmatic privacy in crypto: Canton, Zcash and more
The debut of the Canary Capital XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) is signaling renewed demand for altcoins, after the fund posted the strongest first-day performance of the more than 900 ETFs launched in 2025.
Canary Capital’s XRP (XRP) ETF closed its first day with $58 million in trading volume, marking the most successful ETF debut of 2025 among both crypto and traditional ETFs, said Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a Thursday X post.
The new fund garnered over $250 million in inflows during its first trading day, surpassing the recent inflows of all other crypto ETFs.
Part of the reason behind the successful launch was the ETF’s in-kind creation model, according to ETF analyst Nate Geraci.
“A few people asking how it’s possible to have ‘only’ $59mil trading volume, but nearly $250mil inflows… The answer? In-kind creations, which don’t show up in trading volume,” wrote Geraci in a Thursday X post.
The in-kind redemption model enables the creation and redemption of ETF shares through the underlying asset, as opposed to cash-only transaction models. In this case, Canary Capital’s ETF shares can be exchanged for XRP tokens.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved in-kind creation and redemption for cryptocurrency ETFs on July 29, Cointelegraph reported at the time.
Smart money traders rotate into XRP longs after ETF debut
The launch of the ETF inspired a bullish rotation among the industry’s most successful traders, as tracked by returns and labeled as “smart money” traders on the crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
Related: Circle enters world’s largest financial market with onchain FX engine
Smart money traders have added $44 million worth of net long XRP positions over the past 24 hours, signaling more upside expectations for the token.
The cohort was net long on the XRP token, with a cumulative $49 million, but remained net short on the Solana (SOL) token, with $55 million worth of cumulative short positions on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
Related: Metaplanet’s Bitcoin gains fall 39% as October crash pressures corporate treasuries
“XRP is holding near $2.30, showing relative stability but still feeling the effects of declining liquidity and cautious investor sentiment,” Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget exchange, told Cointelegraph.
“For now, the setup looks like a healthy reset, not the end of the cycle, with both SOL and XRP well-positioned to lead the next wave once confidence snaps back.”
Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $866 million worth of negative outflows on Thursday, their second-worst day on record, after the $1.14 billion daily outflows on Feb. 25, 2025, according to Farside Investors.
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