No 10 clarifies that Andy Burnham not siding with Manchester City over finance scandal – UK politics live

Oct 1, 2026 · 14 min read

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Farage suggests Reform UK's internal inquiry will clear two aides suspended after undercover C4 probe

Ben Quinn

Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.

Nigel Farage has indicated that Reform’s internal probe into a donations controversy will absolve two key aides and that legal actions will be launched against journalists involved.

Hinting that he had already seen the report and knew its conclusions, Farage said its release was “imminent”.

“It’s been done. It’ll be out in public very soon and I think some of your co-conspirators might find themselves with one or two legal challenges,” he told a Channel 4 journalist among reporters who questioned the Reform leader today.

Farage was speaking ahead of the rally in Doncaster – taking place now – which is one of the number which the party has scheduled over coming weeks.

Reform was rocked on the eve of the Reform UK party conference after some of his team were filmed appearing to plot to avoid electoral laws on foreign donations in an undercover investigation broadcast by Channel 4 News. Soon after it was shown, the two aides most directly implicated – James Orr and Dan Jukes – were suspended by the party.

A group of investigative journalists called Verbatim, founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting, posed as a potential Reform supporter and his wealthy American father, an impermissible donor, who paid for £30,000 of polling commissioned by Reform and which benefited the party.

In Channel 4 News’ investigation, footage shows that the fake UK-based supporter also had conversations with Orr, Reform UK’s head of policy, who talked about commissioning polling that would be paid for by the US-based father.

In footage of another meeting, Jukes, a senior adviser to Farage, appeared to suggest to the fake UK-based supporter that his US-based father could make a substantial donation by channelling it through the son.

Jukes has denied “any wrongdoing” while Orr has said he would cooperate with the party’s internal investigation “fully”.

The Metropolitan police is carrying out a criminal investigation into Reform UK over allegations it broke foreign funding laws.

Key events

1h ago
Afternoon summary
1h ago
No 10 clarifies that Burnham not siding with Manchester City over finance scandal
2h ago
Global bond sell-off intensifies, as UK long-term borrowing costs reach 28-year high
2h ago
Badenoch says she's not bothered by people calling Tories 'nasty party'
3h ago
Farage claims Burnham's proposed National Care Service would mean 'higher taxes and less efficiency'
3h ago
'Bring it on' - Farage says Burnham 'in for a shock' if he thinks he could win referendum on rejoining EU
3h ago
Farage claims he's 'back' after being 'relatively absent' from politics
4h ago
Labour says it is 'insulting' for Badenoch to claim Tories on side of young people as her latest benefit crackdown plan unveiled
4h ago
Farage suggests Reform UK's internal inquiry will clear two aides suspended after undercover C4 probe
4h ago
Poland would welcome UK applying to rejoin EU 'with open arms', foreign minister says
4h ago
Farage speaks at Doncaster rally
5h ago
'Release from prison doesn't mean freedom,' says justice secretary
5h ago
Lib Dem row erupts over Ed Davey’s defence of pension triple lock
5h ago
Victim Support launches new offender release helpline
6h ago
Charities warn Tory ‘tough love’ benefits plan could push young people deeper into poverty
7h ago
'Thank you Andy Burnham,' say prisoners released early from jail
7h ago
Burnham rejects Tory/Reform UK claims his call for debate on all options for closer EU relations betrays byelection pledge
8h ago
Farage claims Labour will lose votes in 'red wall' after Burnham's call for new relationship with EU
8h ago
Foreign Office announces fresh sanctions against Russian 'propagandists and torturers'
9h ago
Annual homelessness deaths in England and Wales have almost doubled over past decade, ONS says
9h ago
Prisoners freed early in England and Wales risk living on the streets, say probation officers
9h ago
Tories suggest they would cut benefits for young people if they're living at home and parents can support them
9h ago
What Tories say about conditions that would apply to people getting their proposed Get to Work Allowance
10h ago
Badenoch proposes welfare reform that would stop many jobless under-25s getting universal credit

Afternoon summary

Nigel Farage has claimed that Andy Burnham has given him “the biggest boost in my career” by reviving the Brexit debate, which the Reform UK leader said had reopened a “huge flank” to his party.

Prisoners have thanked Andy Burnham as they celebrated walking free from jail early. (They would be better advised to thank collective governments over the past few decades that have legislated to send more and more people to jail, without building the prisons to house them. This meant that, whoever won the 2024 election, it was almost inevitable that an extensive prisoner release scheme would be announced. Burnham actually tightened the details of the prisoner release scheme applying from today when he became PM in July.)

The turmoil in global bond markets has intensified amid fears the US deficit is reaching unsustainable levels, helping drive UK long-term borrowing costs to a 28-year high.

Downing Street has clarifed that Andy Burnham is not siding with Manchester City in its finance scandal dispute with the Premier League – after in an interview yesterday he implied he was. (See 5.07pm.)

Alex Norris (centre) with Lady Chief Justice Lady Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill and Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos, outside the Royal Courts of Justice, ahead of Norris’s swearing in as lord chancellor. The role goes with his job as justice secretary. Photograph: James Manning/PA

No 10 clarifies that Burnham not siding with Manchester City over finance scandal

In an interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason yesterday, when asked about Manchester City being found guilty of breaking the Premier League’s spending rules, Andy Burnham sounded quite sympathetic to the club. He said that proceedings were still going on, and that “it would be wrong to jump to a conclusion” at this point.

As Henry Zeffman from the BBC reports, Downing Street has now issued a statement clarifying the PM’s position – and stressing that he is not siding with City. A No 10 spokesperson said:

double quotation markAs the prime minister made clear, the initial judgment is serious and there can’t be any suggestion that anyone is above the rules. He also stressed that it is an ongoing independent process. It is essential that it is allowed to run its course and the outcome respected.

If wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the appropriate consequences.

Global bond sell-off intensifies, as UK long-term borrowing costs reach 28-year high

The turmoil in global bond markets has intensified amid fears the US deficit is reaching unsustainable levels, helping drive UK long-term borrowing costs to a 28-year high, Phillip Inman and Graeme Wearden report.

Badenoch says she's not bothered by people calling Tories 'nasty party'

With the Conservatives turning to the right under Kemi Badenoch, particularly on immigration and welfare, there has been talk of the Tories becoming the “nasty party” again. In her interview with Tim Shipman for the Spectator, Badenoch told him that she was not bothered by the label.

She said:

double quotation markThe people who are going to say “nasty party” will always say it. Quite frankly, the reason why we’re in this mess is because we kept pandering to those people and trying to make them like us. And did it work? No, it didn’t.

That is not quite accurate. The Tories lost an election in 2005 when they were led by Michael Howard, who was famously denounced as being nasty by one of his colleagues, the late Ann Widdecombe. Howard was replaced as leader by David Cameron who did try to make the party more popular with the people who used to hate it. It seemed to work.

And here are some of the other lines

Badenoch said the Tories should be “more aggressive” in saying what they think. She said:

double quotation markWe’re finally saying what we believe and we’re not scared to say it. We should be more aggressive.

She said that she was a person saying “no”. She dismissed Andy Burnham as someone “who likes to say yes to everyone” and said that was “something which I learned a long time ago is a recipe for disaster”. She went on:

double quotation markNo one wants to be the person to say “no”. And I want Spectator readers to know that the person who’s saying “no” has arrived and is leading the Conservative party.

She implied that she won’t let Grant Shapps stand as a Tory candidate again because of his reputation for plotting. Asked about him, she did not comment on him directly but said:

double quotation markI am looking for improved standards of conduct. When people have nothing except politics, that’s when the psychodrama comes, when they’re in the bars all the time. They’ve got nothing else to do.

Shapps was heavily involved in organising against Theresa May, running a sophisticated spreadsheet about the views of Tory MPs that was helpful to the Boris Johnson campaign.

Badenoch claimed that the £72m in donations going to Reform UK meant other donors were more willing to give to the Conservatives. She said:

double quotation markIt’s actually encouraged quite a few people to give us a bit more. People who were thinking of splitting their money between the two parties said, “They don’t need my money now”, so that’s helpful.

She criticised Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, for shaking hands with his Iranian counterpart at the UN, describing Miliband as “incredibly naive” and “gormless”.

She dismissed suggestions she would announce plans to abolish inheritance tax at the Tory conference. She said:

double quotation markI’m not someone who likes to play the same movie twice. Inheritance tax – we want to get rid of it, but we’ve got to do our working first.

Farage claims Burnham's proposed National Care Service would mean 'higher taxes and less efficiency'

Farage also attacked Andy Burnham’s proposal to set up a National Care Service, partly funded by making the pensions triple lock less generous.

On the National Care Service, Farage said it would deliver “far less than initially we thought” (because it would only cover care costs, not accommodation costs) and he said he would be delivered by a government “a government that is overseeing HS2 and can’t give us a third runway at Heathrow until 2039”. He went on:

double quotation markI don’t trust government, this government, to do any more than it does. It’ll mean higher taxes and less efficiency, in my view.

And, on the triple lock, which Reform UK is pledging to keep, he acknowledged that life for young people is tough. But he went on:

double quotation markPlease do not be under the myth that Britain’s pensioners are having a great time. They’re not.

'Bring it on' - Farage says Burnham 'in for a shock' if he thinks he could win referendum on rejoining EU

In his speech, Nigel Farage is now addressing what Andy Burnham said about the EU in his party conference speech.

Farage accuses Burnham of going back on what he said during the Makerfield byelection about not proposing that the UK rejoin the EU.

Referring to the prospect of the UK rejoining, he goes on:

double quotation markYou can prove what you want with opinion polls.

Let me tell you, when the great British public realise [rejoining the EU will] mean paying £25bn a year, when the great British public realise it’ll mean effectively joining Schengen and accepting at least another 200,000 people a year into Britain, and when they realise that any new treaty would ensure we signed up to a commitment to join the euro, I think he might just be in for a shock.

Farage also accuses Burnham of inconsistency.

double quotation markHe says he wants to unite the country. A second referendum will divide the country bitterly in a way perhaps we’ve never seen before.

And he says he wants devolution. He wants power passed down as near as possible to everybody, that somehow by doing that, we all become better off and richer.

Yet what he wants to do here is transfer all power, potentially up to Brussels.

If Andy Burnham, the king of the North, wants a fight in Doncaster and the red wall with me on rejoining the European Union, then bring it on.

It is hard to tell how much of this is confidence, and how much of it is bluster. Farage is probably right that rejoining would involve accepting some terms unpalatable to the electorate (although in practice Brussels probably would not insist on the UK joining Schengen and the euro).

But Farage is probably wrong to assume rejoining is the likely Labour manifesto proposal for the next parliament, and wrong to assume that Burnham wants a referendum. Burnham has even hinted rejoining could happen without one. (See 11.18am.)

Farage claims he's 'back' after being 'relatively absent' from politics

Farage says that, apart from the Clacton byelection, he has been “relatively absent from the political scene over the course of the last few months”. But that’s over, he claims.

double quotation markToday I’m back. I’m back on the road.

And today is when our general election campaign starts.

At the Reform UK rally, Nigel Farage has just started speaking. He was proceeded by Richard Tice, his deputy, who used his speech to attack net zero policies and restate his pledge to resign if he cannot cut energy bills by £250 within 100 days of Reform forming a government.

They are in Doncaster. Farage says the party came to Doncaster because it used to be a centre for manufacturing.

Nigel Farage speaking at Reform UK rally Photograph: Reform UK

Labour says it is 'insulting' for Badenoch to claim Tories on side of young people as her latest benefit crackdown plan unveiled

Andrew Sparrow

I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up from Taz Ali.

Earlier I said it might be hard for Labour to respond to the Conservative party’s plan to stop many jobless under-25s claiming universal credit because the government is about to publish its own Neet proposals which are likely to include some “tough love” elements. (See 9.04am.)

Labour has issued a response now. It’s from Bridget Phillipson, the party chair. She does not comment on the detail of the plans at all, but just says it is “insulting” for Kemi Badenoch to claim she is on the side of young people.

Phillipson says:

double quotation markAll young people deserve the chance to get on in life, through good jobs, proper training and the support they need to succeed. That’s what Labour is delivering.

Kemi Badenoch’s Tories held young people back and caused the welfare bill to spiral. To pretend she’s suddenly on the side of young people is frankly insulting.