Farage calls Burnham ‘a liar’, saying he was wrong to say Russia interfered in Brexit referendum
Q: Andy Burnham says Russia interfered with the Brexit vote. Does this taint the result? And do you think you gained from Russian interference?
Farage replied:
The prime minister is a liar. Yes, a liar.
Boris Johnson, when he became foreign secretary, one of the first questions he asked was, ‘Was there seen to be Russian interference in the referendum campaign?’ And the answer was no.
But I can give you a stronger answer than that. And that’s Stephen Doughty, the minister, Foreign Office minister, who was on the Today programme this morning, who within 24 hours of Andy Burnham making that outrageous comment, rowed it back and said even if there was some, it made no difference. [See 9.28am.]
There was no Russian interference. And the Russia hoax has run all the way through this.
And I particularly have to mention my friend and supporter Arron Banks, who was severely libelled over this. But in the end, I’m pleased to say, [he] won in the high court.
Farage went on to criticise Burnham’s argument that Brexit has done more harm than good. He said:
And [Burnham] says Brexit has done more harm than good. Well, I don’t think our growth figures are anything to write home about. But I tell you what, they’re a damn sight better than France and Germany and Italy.
Farage admitted that Brexit has caused more “inconvenience” for people trading with the EU. But, when it was necessary to protect borders, there would always be “some level of inconvenience”, he said.
Key events
Farage criticises Sun for being part of pro-Badenoch ‘establishment ecosystem’ that won’t accept Tories doomed
In response to a question from a Sun reporter, Farage complained about the Sun giving positive coverage to Kemi Badenoch today. He said:
[It’s] almost like a desperate attempt by the establishment ecosystem to keep the two-party system and the appointments to quangos and the OBEs and the knighthoods and the membership of the House of Lords. ‘Let’s not change anything. Let’s leave everything as it is. It doesn’t matter that Britain’s going to hell on a handcart. As long as we’re OK. That’s all that really matters.’
And I think that’s what’s going on.
I’m going to say this: the Conservative party cannot win the next election.
Do you know why? Literally they’ve disappeared in the Midlands, in the north. And I think in counties like Kent and Essex, they even on a good day could not come back with a fraction of the seats they won back in 2019, let alone the last election. So that is the point that I would make to you.
Farage seemed to be referring in particular to this column by Trevor Kavanagh in today’s paper.
Q: Your policy document says that, under your policy, at any point there could be 24,000 illegal migrants detained. Doesn’t that mean local communities will continue to be affected?
Farage replied no, because “none of them will be free to roam the streets, [to] molest people, intimidate people.”
Farage concedes Brexit has made life ‘marginally harder’ for some firms, but claims others have benefited
Q: [From the Kent Messenger] What do you say to businesses in Kent who say Brexit has made life harder for them?
Farage replied:
There’s no doubt that for some businesses Brexit makes life marginally harder.
It’s also true that, for some businesses who do their business outside of the European Union, Brexit has made their lives easier.
But let me say this to you – 95% of Kent businesses do no business overseas whatsoever. They do their business in this county or neighbouring counties or somewhere in the United Kingdom. Why should they be subject to rules that are designed for international trade between giant companies of multinationals?
Again, this is one of the points of Brexit, making life easier for men and women running their own companies, acting as sole traders.
And who was it that had the chance, with a stroke of a pen, to get rid of 4,000 of those regulations that had been agreed by everybody, but decided not to? Well, I’ll tell you what her name was. Kemi Badenoch [who was business secretary in the last government].
Q: Where did you get the dinghy behind you (see 11.25am), and how much did it cost?
Farage did not answer these questions, but he joked about how long it took him to blow it up.
Farage calls Burnham ‘a liar’, saying he was wrong to say Russia interfered in Brexit referendum
Q: Andy Burnham says Russia interfered with the Brexit vote. Does this taint the result? And do you think you gained from Russian interference?
Farage replied:
The prime minister is a liar. Yes, a liar.
Boris Johnson, when he became foreign secretary, one of the first questions he asked was, ‘Was there seen to be Russian interference in the referendum campaign?’ And the answer was no.
But I can give you a stronger answer than that. And that’s Stephen Doughty, the minister, Foreign Office minister, who was on the Today programme this morning, who within 24 hours of Andy Burnham making that outrageous comment, rowed it back and said even if there was some, it made no difference. [See 9.28am.]
There was no Russian interference. And the Russia hoax has run all the way through this.
And I particularly have to mention my friend and supporter Arron Banks, who was severely libelled over this. But in the end, I’m pleased to say, [he] won in the high court.
Farage went on to criticise Burnham’s argument that Brexit has done more harm than good. He said:
And [Burnham] says Brexit has done more harm than good. Well, I don’t think our growth figures are anything to write home about. But I tell you what, they’re a damn sight better than France and Germany and Italy.
Farage admitted that Brexit has caused more “inconvenience” for people trading with the EU. But, when it was necessary to protect borders, there would always be “some level of inconvenience”, he said.
Farage suggests, if a Reform UK government were to fail to deliver on its promises to cut immigration, it would be replaced by an even more extreme goverment.
He says:
I think the single biggest problem in British politics is the increasing feeling that people say things to the electorate that they never actually intend to carry out, and that trust in the whole system is beginning to break down.
If we were to let people down in that way, I shudder to think what would come after us. I genuinely shudder to think.
And maybe we’ve seen one or two potential signs of that in the last few weeks.
Farage seems to be referring to the masked protests. (Earlier he said he did not approve of protesters wearing balaclavas.)
Q: [From GB News] Have you taken advice from Donald Trump on how you will implement these plans?
No, says Farage. He says he is prepared to disagree with “many things” the president has said recently. But he goes on to praise Trump’s record on cutting immigration.
Farage and Yusuf are taking questions now.
Q: Are you going to include children among the asylum seekers you deport or repatriate?
Farage says they would not be exempt. If children were allowed to stay, that would open the door to family reunions, he says.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, is speaking now. He started his speech with an account of a 73-year-old woman dying in North Wales after having to wait 23 hours for an ambulance, and he sought to link this to immigration.
He said:
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that 15,000 people across Britain died last year due to excess wait times for emergency treatment. That’s 300 people a week, 300 lives destroyed, 300 families devastated.
And that number has increased tenfold over the last decade. This is a moral outrage, and it is a direct result of decisions made by Tory and Labour governments.
The Tories imported 5 million net new people and left the country with fewer hospital beds. More people, fewer beds.
Today, we must be frank. Britain is full.
In his opening speech, Nigel Farage did refer himself to what Andy Burnham said about him on the Rest is Politics. (See 11.17am.)
Farage said it was “interesting” that Burnham was “for the first time … lashing out at me”.
He went on:
I don’t think that’s because he wants to have a fight over the European Union. I think that’s because he knows what we’re talking about today impacts hard in what is known as the red wall.
One consequence of Reform UK being awash with cash from donors is that they can afford to pay for the sort of stunts that other parties would find too expensive. We have seen an example this morning. At his press conference (where he has just finished giving his opening speech), Nigel Farage is standing in front of a replica of the boat that brought a record 230 asylum seekers to the UK in August.
Burnham says Farage ‘very significantly responsible’ for UK failing to move forward in past decade
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is starting his press conference now. There is a live stream here. He is talking about illegal immigration, and claiming that he just wants the UK to get back to being a “normal country” in the sense of being a state able to control its borders.
If any journalists are short of a question, they could ask about Andy Burnham saying Farage is “very significantly responsible” for Britain being deadlocked over the past decade.
Burnham told the Rest is Politics:
I don’t know whether Nigel Farage has got the appetite that he once had. We will see.
I certainly wouldn’t be one of those who would write him off. I think people have done that before at their peril …
I don’t think it’s a politics of the kind that Nigel provides [that the UK needs], because he’s given Britain a decade of division and drift. I would hold him very significantly responsible for our failure to move forward in the last decade.
Burnham says Badenoch’s attack on ethnonationalism in Tory conference speech ‘very brave’
Many commentators said the best moment in Kemi Badenoch’s party conference speech last week came when she attacked ethnonationalists, and people like Suella Braverman who suggest black people can’t be English.
Andy Burnham liked it. He told the Rest is Politics:
I thought Kemi Badenoch did a very brave thing at her conference this week. In some ways, she did something similar to what I did at Liverpool, where she spoke from real personal experience. And that gave her the power to make that point that she did about the racism that we see in politics these days. And that clear dividing line she drew with others on the right, I thought was a real moment in British politics.
Burnham says US plan to livestream execution by firing squad ‘quite abhorrent in many ways’
In his Rest is Politics interview, Andy Burnham said he found the US proposal to livestream the execution of a mass killer by firing squad “abhorrent”.
Asked if Britain would take a stand on this, he replied:
It’s something that I can’t say I ever want to see anywhere in the world. It’s something that I find quite abhorrent in many ways. But I only want to speak for what we will do, and why we will do it.
Burnham said the government did not have to provide a “constant running commentary on everybody else”. But it should be clear about “what we stand for, what we believe is right and wrong.” He went on:
Let Britain stand for something in a world that seems to change every day.
Burnham says governments in past have not done enough to tell public about extent of Russian interference in UK politics
Andy Burnham made his comment about Russian interference in the Brexit campaign (see 9.28am) in an interview with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart for their podcast, the Rest is Politics. The full interview is available today for podcast members, but the producers have released extracts to journalists.
Here is the full quote on Russia and Brexit. In it, Burnham specifically addressed the argument made by the Conservative party today – that he should not be raking up the past. Burnham said the government had not done enough to tell people about the extent to which Russia is interfering in western politics.
On Brexit, he said:
I asked the question coming to Downing Street, ‘Was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia?’ And I’ve had the clear answer that, ‘Yes, there was.’
These things are important now to put clearly on the record, and I believe, help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely Russia.
And, I think we’ve been too much on the back foot on that, actually. And we haven’t informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas.
Burnham also said he had discussed this issue with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, when they met in Berlin last week. Burnham said:
We have had a decade of drift and division that has caused more harm than good. In my view, we are a more fractious country than we were. We have a weaker sense of direction. And these are all the things I’m trying to fix as prime minister.
I want to draw a line on that decade … And one thing I did say to Chancellor Merz yesterday is, ‘We need to support you in taking on the threat that you face and particularly the type of politics that you’re facing.’ He was saying to me that the AfD is clearly linked to Russia, funded, I believe.
There is certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics, as I heard yesterday. And I’ve asked the question myself coming into this role, because I gave a speech to the UN recently on this very topic.
I don’t think we knew back then the extent to which there was state-sponsored interference in the British democratic process.
Farage says Reform UK would stop anyone being granted asylum for five years
Nigel Farage is set to announce a pledge to ban anyone from being granted asylum for five years if Reform were elected, the Press Association reports. PA says:
The Reform UK leader will announce a plan this morning to suspend the asylum system for a full parliamentary term and declare void any applications in progress.
All asylum tribunals, legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes will be scrapped.
A Reform government would not hear the around 90,000 outstanding asylum and humanitarian protection appeals and instead deport the claimants.
The party would immediately close resettlement schemes that home secretary Shabana Mahmood recently said would reopen, with around a quarter of those admitted to the UK expected to be Palestinians and women and girls from Afghanistan.
Reform says there is “no mandate” for such schemes and that anyone who has arrived under them would be deported.
Any refugees granted asylum in the last five years would have their cases reviewed by the Home Office under the plans.
Farage told The Telegraph: “The country is currently facing a national security emergency and the first duty of government is to protect its citizens. We cannot accept more asylum seekers while we still have no idea how many people are in the country illegally and the threat they pose. A Reform government will always put British people first and protect our borders.”
The party will also pledge to use tariffs to force countries to take back migrants.
Summing up his announcement on social media this morning, Farage said:
Today, I am announcing that a Reform UK Government will SHUT DOWN the asylum system.
This is a national security emergency and must be dealt with.
Ed Davey praises Burnham for confirming Russia tried to influence Brexit referendum result
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has praised Andy Burnham for confirming that Russia tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum. (See 9.28am.) In a statement, he said:
I’m not going to agree with Andy Burnham on everything, but this statement needed to be said by a prime minister. After the Conservatives suppressed the truth for years, this took courage.
We must do far more to protect our democracy from attack by the Kremlin and other hostile states, before it is too late.
Tories accuse Burnham of being ‘dangerous and divisive’ after he confirms Russian interference in Brexit campaign
Good morning. The last time Andy Burnham gave a statement to MPs after a recess, it went on for more than three hours. This prompted Kemi Badenoch to make a lewd joke later about the PM’s stamina (which she repeated at a party conference reception with an additional line about how she just had to “sit back and lie there”.) Today we are getting another post-recess, potentially wide-ranging statement from the PM, but the mood might not be so cordial.
Quite a lot has happened since MPs were last in the chamber almost a month ago, and they will want to ask the PM about issues like the cost of living, North Sea oil and gas, the Iran war and Ukraine. We have not been told yet exactly what Burnham’s statement will cover. But, as Aletha Adu reports, Burnham will talk about Brexit, restating what he told Labour’s conference about how he thinks it has done more harm than good and making the case for trying to find a better, closer relationship with the EU.
The statement will come after 3.30pm
Burnham has also given an interview to the Rest is Politics podcast and in it he confirmed that Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum. This is one of those statements, quite common in politics, which are simultaneously unremarkable and newsworthy. Unremarkable – because it has been obvious to anyone reading the news for the past decade that the Russians were trying to help the leave campaign. And newsworthy – because it is not something that any previous PM has been keen to say.
For some years ministers have been using the line – set out in 2020 in the government’s response to the intelligence and security committee’s report on the threat posed by Russia – that “we have seen no evidence of successful interference in the EU referendum”. That implies there is evidence of unsuccessful interference. But in the past prime ministers have not said that explicity. Post-2016 Tory PMs, whether they voted leave or remain, did not want to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the leave vote, and Keir Starmer was also reluctant to poke his stick into that particular hornets’ nest.
Burnham is taking a different approach. In his interview, Burnham was not asked, and did not say, if he thought that Russian interference had an impact on the result. Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, has been giving interview this morning and he told Times Radio:
The result is the result, and I think the prime minister has been very clear that he’s talking about attempts to interfere. The security minister has spoken about this before. I’m confident that both the British people and the British state are able to respond to and defend against these types of threats, but we need to be very honest that those threats exist.
(“I think the PM has been very clear” is the sort of thing a minister says when what they mean is “Of course, the PM wasn’t clear at all, but I’m happy to give you the line now.” Doughty later told LBC the Russians “haven’t succeeded in their many, many attempts to undermine our [democratic] processes”.)
The Conservatives have criticised Burnham for even raising the topic. Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, told Times Radio this morning:
That Brexit referendum was a legitimate vote. People voted in this country in record numbers to leave the European Union. And I actually think it’s very dangerous and divisive of the prime minister to reopen this debate in such an explosive fashion.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: Kanishka Narayan, the AI minister, gives a speech.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Zia Yusuf, its home affairs spokesperson, hold a press conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Afternoon: MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) will vote on a no confidence motion in Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister, over her support for a protest against the proposed Orange Order march down the Garvachy Road.
After 3.30pm: Andy Burnham makes a statement to MP.
Late afternoon: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, makes a statement to the Commons on the safety of MPs.
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