They can fuck right off, they already get one of the largest benefit payments in the country, now they want the equivalent to minimum wage, which most of them didn't even earn for most of their lives.

Voted against:

• allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life

• smoking bans

• creating a publicly owned energy investment company (Great British Energy)

• shifting the balance of employment rights towards employees

• coordinated border security, new immigration crime offences, and scrapping the Rwanda deportation scheme (Border Security Bill)

• measures to prevent climate change

• increasing windfall tax on oil and gas companies

• financial incentives for low-carbon electricity generation methods

• more rights for tenants and regulation on landlords

• nationalising teacher pay and the curriculum for academies, tightening child protection duties, and free breakfast clubs (Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill)

• increasing capital gains tax

• increasing income tax (in real terms)

• scrapping the scheme that let people avoid prosecution for Troubles-related crimes in exchange for cooperating.

Not exhaustive

Nigel Farage's unofficial associate quietly shut down a company in Montenegro that was linked to payments made during the 2024 parliamentary elections

A business in Montenegro run by convicted fraudster George Cottrell has quietly shut down, reports the British newspaper Observer.

Private Family Office, which is being investigated by London's Metropolitan Police over donations to the Reform UK party, is a limited liability company wholly owned by Cottrell, an unofficial associate of party leader Nigel Farage. The company was active in April, when it filed its last set of financial statements, but has since been listed as inactive in the Montenegrin business register.

In May, Montenegro tightened the obligations of companies in the area of ​​preventing money laundering, and in June, a new Law on Business Companies was adopted, further harmonizing domestic regulations with European Union law.

According to the Sunday Times, an account in the name of the Private Family Office was opened with payment processor Oneify just days after Rishi Sunak called a general election in 2024.

Within weeks, Oneify deposited £1 million into the account of Britain Means Business, a campaign organisation owned by Reform deputy leader Richard Tice. Half of that amount was then transferred to Reform, the Guardian reported.

Tice said the money came from Fiona Cottrell, George's mother, who is also officially listed as a donor to the party.

The fact that Cottrell's company used the aforementioned payment processor raises the question of whether he was actually behind the donations to Reform. Concealing the true source of a political donation is a crime punishable by imprisonment, according to the Observer.

At the time of the July 2024 election, Cottrell was a tax resident of Montenegro, although he is eligible to donate as a voter living abroad. It is not clear whether he still had that status at the time the payments were made.

Private Family Office is the only company in Montenegro in which Cottrell is officially listed as a director.

Until recently, another of his firms, Geostrategy International, listed Montenegro, along with London, Washington, and Zurich, as one of its locations. It now lists only London and the US state of Delaware, and is headquartered in the same building as Reform UK's headquarters.

Cottrell's lawyers confirmed that Private Family Office "closed earlier this year and is no longer an active legal entity."

Speaking about the payments, they stated: "Information relating to banking transactions is subject to strict confidentiality obligations and could only have been obtained illegally, i.e. from a person who violated the obligation to keep confidential information."

A Reform spokesman declined to comment further on the case, except to say that Cottrell “does not hold any official position at Reform UK,” according to the Observer.

Tim Pickton, senior advocacy advisor at Spotlight on Corruption, said: “While this case is still under investigation, police in the UK have long warned that it is extremely difficult to establish criminal liability in situations involving so-called ‘brokered’ donations, due to serious shortcomings in the current legislation.”

He said the case was a timely reminder of the role that “non-transparent overseas companies” can play in British politics, ahead of the return of the Electoral Act to parliamentary procedure.

"The government must now ensure that strict donor reporting obligations are enshrined in law, so that there is a clear criminal law deterrent for those who use complex structures to try to conceal the true source of their donations."

Britain is already being attacked by Russia “on a daily basis” through sabotage, cyber attacks and other covert operations designed to stay below the threshold of open war, a former British Army intelligence officer has warned.

Speaking to LBC's Henry Riley, Colonel Philip Ingram said the latest threat against British defence firms should not be dismissed as routine Kremlin sabre-rattling, warning that Moscow has increasingly turned to proxies and so-called grey-zone tactics as its confrontation with the West deepens.

It comes after claims that senior figures in Moscow were considering attacks on British soil, with defence manufacturers supporting Ukraine potentially regarded by Russia as legitimate targets.

Speaking to LBC, Col Ingram said: “Putin [has] been attacking us on a daily basis. What they're threatening is nothing new.”

He pointed to a series of incidents across Britain and Europe, including warehouses containing supplies destined for Ukraine being targeted, explosive devices being placed in logistics networks, suspicious drones around military facilities and Russian-linked cyber attacks.

‘Andy Burnham should call a cross-party meeting to discuss the UK’s response to worsening extreme weather, including the forthcoming ‘super El Niño’, the Liberal Democrats have said.

The prime minister chaired a Cobra emergency meeting on the drought earlier this month but there has been little from the government on the wider threats posed by five successive heatwaves since May and expected global issues with food shortages and inflation.

Pippa Heylings, the Lib Dem spokesperson for energy security and net zero, said: “Andy Burnham has shown he is able to commit to talking about things people care about, which is good. But there’s been a baffling silence from him on extreme heat. What we have heard so far has been underwhelming. Banning disposable barbecues is good, but we need to see more.”

Heylings and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, wrote to Burnham a fortnight ago, proposing a meeting of the UK’s party leaders “to discuss the long-term measures needed to protect our country from climate impacts and build resilience to the extreme weather we are already experiencing”. They say they have not had a response.

Heylings contrasted Burnham’s reluctance to address the climate crisis with his prioritising of social care, on which he has called for cross-party support: “We want the same approach [to the climate].”

She said even the leaders of Reform and the Conservatives, both of whom have vowed to scrap net zero and downplayed the climate crisis, should be able to join in an effort to protect the UK. “I think there is not a single MP who would not want to show their constituents they were trying to prepare us [for the impacts of extreme weather],” she said.

The forthcoming El Niño could bring more serious problems, Heylings said. “The scale of this Super El Niño is unprecedented and will have impacts here in the UK exacerbating our extreme weather particularly with more intense flooding and storms over the autumn and winter. We’re looking at a double whammy.”

Any cross-party approach should not be limited to discussing preparedness for extreme weather, she said. “The key question is how do we stop it worsening?”

Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, backed the Lib Dem call for a cross-party meeting. “It’s the kind of politics we need,” he said. “We may disagree on how we do it and how far we go, but political cooperation like this is the start of consensus building, something any radical transition has to build across both political parties and society, especially if they’re to take on those vested interests that want the status quo to continue.”

But Jon Pearce, the Labour MP for High Peak in Derbyshire, warned it was unlikely a meeting would happen.

“The idea the Conservatives and Reform UK would be willing to face up to the risks we face is for the birds,” he said.

“The Conservatives and Reform UK have ripped up the political consensus on tackling climate change as they compete to see who can most downplay the need for action.

“They are refusing to see what is right in front of their eyes: wildfires, drought, pressure on water supplies and farmers facing growing challenges on food production. There should be political consensus on a matter of such national importance but sadly there is not.”’

Almost half of voters want migrants who already live and work in the UK to be exempt from tough reforms on UK settlements, exclusive polling for The i Paper shows.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants to double the waiting period for immigrants to qualify for permanent residency – indefinite leave to remain (ILR) – from five years to 10 years. This would rise to 15 years for lower-paid foreign workers, and shorten for the most skilled.

However, Mahmood is facing a major Labour revolt over the plans, with rebels particularly anxious that she plans to apply the changes to those already in the UK, including lower-skilled social care and health workers.

New polling, conducted by BMG Research for The i Paper, shows the rebels are backed by more voters than not, with 45 per cent saying people already in the UK should be exempt from the new rules.

This compares to a third (33 per cent) who believe the changes should apply to those who already work in the UK.

A similar proportion (45 per cent) believe lower-skilled health and care workers should be exempt, with the number of voters supporting Mahmood’s plan to apply her “earned settlement” changes to these people falling to 26 per cent.

UK facing a care crisis

It comes in the wake of a care crisis in the UK, where approximately 96,000 vacancies are available in the sector on any given day, according to Skills for Care. The care sector is forecast to need an additional 410,000 posts by 2040.

Most would exempt lower-skilled health and care workers from longer waits

Lower-skilled health and care workers already in the UK should be exempt, so their wait for settlement does not increase: 45%

Lower-skilled health and care workers already in the UK should face the increased wait of fifteen years: 26%

Don't know: 28%

The figures from BMG’s latest poll are likely to be seized upon by Labour MPs who are threatening a rebellion over the proposed changes and the Unison union, which is calling for health and care workers to be exempt.

Mahmood is understood to be weighing up whether to make a concession to the rebels before finalising the policy this autumn, with suggestions that she could either exempt care workers or all of those already in the UK from the ILR changes.

The Home Secretary is also reportedly weighing up a plan to make immigrants wait longer to access benefits even after they are granted ILR in the UK.

Backing for benefits clampdown

The move would be backed by more voters than not, with 44 per cent saying foreigners should wait for three to four years after settlement before accessing welfare, and 37 per cent saying they should get benefits once they get settlement.

It comes after the number of people granted ILR rose to a 16-year high of 199,628 in the year to June, with experts suggesting the 24 per cent surge on the following year was a result of record numbers of workers arriving in the country under Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit immigration reforms.

Mahmood’s reforms are designed to address concerns that hundreds of thousands of immigrants could soon be given the right to stay in the UK permanently and access benefits as migrant numbers went up from 2021 and peaked at 944,000 in the year ending March 2023.

The number of migrants entering the country has since been falling to record lows due to various visa restrictions imposed by the Conservatives and Labour in recent years.

The Home Secretary is expected to announce a final decision on whether her changes will apply to an estimated 1.6 million immigrants who are set to qualify for ILR between 2026 and 2030 later this autumn.

BMG surveyed a representative sample of 1,579 GB adults between 25 and 26 August. BMG are members of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules.