Nigel Farage ‘living his best life’ in Clacton after questions over his whereabouts

Published

3 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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Nigel Farage has announced that he has paid a visit to Clacton following criticism that he does not spend enough time in his constituency.

The Reform UK leader shared an image of himself on X alongside the caption: “I would like all my haters to know that I am once again in Clacton living my best life.”

It is not clear where he was visiting or if he met constituents, as his team declined to provide further information to Sky News.

Mr Farage was elected to the Essex seat at the July general election but has since faced accusations he has not spent much time there amid trips abroad to the US.

Asked about the issue in an interview with Sky News last week, he said: “I’ve just exchanged contracts on the house that I’ll be living there in, is that good enough?”

He said that while he was elected to represent Clacton he is “also leading a national political party”, so he has more commitments to juggle than a typical backbench MP.

A source close to him later said he had been in Clacton 10 times since the general election, and that he “has kept his promise to have a property in the constituency, writes a weekly column for the Clacton Gazette… and is having two further visits next week”.

Mr Farage is a close ally of US president-elect Donald Trump and has been ridiculed by Sir Keir Starmer for making trips to America since being elected to parliament.

The matter was brought up during an exchange at PMQs on Wednesday, when Mr Farage suggested the prime minister “mend some fences between this government” and Mr Trump, accusing the cabinet of being “so rude about him over the last few years”.

Sir Keir replied: “Well I’m glad to see the right honourable member making a rare appearance back here in Britain. He’s spent so much time in America recently, I was half expecting to see him on the immigration statistics.

“He may have missed that I did congratulate the incoming president last week.”

Questions about Mr Farage’s whereabouts were also raised after he claimed he was advised by the House of Commons’ Speaker’s office not to hold in-person surgeries over fears for his safety.

A source at the Speaker’s Office told Sky News at the time they had no record of giving Mr Farage these instructions, and the former UKIP leader later backtracked on the remarks, saying: “The Speaker’s Office is always right.”

Politics

NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

Published

6 mins ago

November 15, 2024

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NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

The state Department of Environmental Conservation botched the permitting process, but it still gets a do-over.

Politics

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

Published

6 mins ago

November 15, 2024

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UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”

“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.

“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”

New economy data tests chancellor’s growth plan

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.

The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.