Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Dear Robin, As you know, Keir Starmer is colluding with Labour and Tory councils to attempt to cancel local elections for millions of British people in May. Again. I am pleased to inform you that yesterday, lawyers instructed by our party leader Nigel Farage, on behalf of Reform UK, successfully cleared the path in the High Court for our legal challenge to stop them from denying democracy again. Our Judicial Review will be heard on the 19th and 20th of February. The judge gave the government until the 16th of February to file their defence. We have also served legal papers to all 63 councils in question. As you know, sadly, we have a justice system in this country that has become politicised. However, our lawyers are first-class, and the law is on our side. We have a realistic prospect of victory. Our message to Keir Starmer and the Tory and Labour councillors trampling democracy is clear: we are coming for you in the High Court. Our message to you is that we will do ever...

Matt Goodwin 20/01/26 The Tory Wets - ‘One Nation’ liberal conservatives who have dominated the Tory party for much of the last thirty years - are in Cloud Cuckoo Land. That is the only logical conclusion one can reach based on how they are currently responding to the defection of Robert Jenrick, Andrew Rosindell, and many other right-wing Tories to Nigel Farage and Reform. Writing in The Times this week, Matthew Parris, the standard bearer of the Tory Wets who more than a decade ago famously urged the Tory party to “give up” on white working-class people from the likes of Clacton because they were “going nowhere”, argues this: “For [Kemi] Badenoch it’s time, now the nutters have gone, for an olive branch towards men like Kenneth Clarke, Michael Heseltine, David Gauke, Dominic Grieve”. Other Tory Wets have been similarly giddy with delight at ejecting their right-wing challengers, joining the growing calls to return the Tory party to its Cameroon past. In recent days, The Times...

Good afternoon. As Donald Trump lets his feelings about the Chagos “deal” be known, what role might Nigel Farage have played in this bolt-from-the-blue intervention? And as the Chinese embassy – similarly unpopular with the US president – is given the go-ahead, for how much longer can Keir Starmer walk the diplomatic tightrope? Annabel Denham, Senior Political Commentator. Daily Telegraph Donald Trump has just made a blow-your-socks-off intervention on Chagos. His Truth Social post, dripping with sarcasm about “brilliant” Britain, was a rebuke – some would say long overdue – to Keir Starmer’s decision to surrender the archipelago. Foreign policy is drifting into turbulent waters, and Starmer is not going to be able to chart a course with “calm discussion” alone. The Prime Minister had justified the deal on the grounds our allies supported it. Now the US president has described it as an act of “GREAT STUPIDITY”. If America is the rock, the hard place is the Starmeresque worldview ...

Daily Telegraph Newsletter 19/01/26 So much for “every minute we focus on anything other than cost of living is a wasted minute”. Once again, Sir Keir Starmer began the week intending to turn our attention to the economy; once again, the Orange One has torpedoed those plans. Donald Trump’s latest threat – a blanket 10 per cent tariff on imports – is not just dominating headlines but would worsen living standards here in Britain. The US is our single largest export market at country level, and economists warn that tariffs on such a scale could tip us into recession. As opposed to the 1 per cent growth we've been enjoying over the past 10 to 15 years – itself largely the effect of higher immigration rather than productivity (the only sustainable basis for rising living standards). Britain has no buffer; external shocks land harder here than they would in a healthier or more productive economy – notwithstanding Rachel Reeves’s implausible insistence, citing the IMF's latest ou...

Nigel Farage stands to benefit from having a talented politician with cabinet experience Daily Telegraph 18/02/26 It’s hard to know which Tory claim of the last week is more ridiculous. The one suggesting Kemi Badenoch handled Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform well. Or the one suggesting the Tories are better off without him. We’ve heard both absurdities in the last week, when the reality is Nigel Farage has been handed yet another nail to hammer into the Tory coffin. Let’s take the first one first: that Badenoch did a great job in firing him. It’s true that taking fast and decisive action – with a rapid briefing on her own terms – was a technical success. But too many people are missing a more fundamental point: Jenrick partly left because she consistently treated him badly after her leadership win. Jenrick ran a decent, energetic leadership campaign and had extensive experience in Government, not least as a cabinet minister. Even though Tory ranks were hugely depleted after...

Even power cuts and the three-day week seem preferable to today’s circumstances for businesses Daily Telegraph 13/01/26 While the voice of big business is seldom absent from public debate with its professional lobbying and media operations, family businesses receive less of a hearing, which is surprising because they comprise 85 per cent of all British businesses and provide more than half of the UK’s private-sector employment. To get a sense of what the people who run the businesses, that make up the backbone of our economy, think about the current economic and political climate, the Jobs Foundation commissioned a poll of more than 1,100 family business leaders. The verdict is in, and it’s not pretty. It is important to say from the outset that their deep sense of disillusionment is not confined to the current government. Just one in five say that they trust the Conservatives the most to help their business thrive – a poor result for a party which has historically received stron...

Former frontbencher launches savage attack on Conservatives as he defects to Reform Daily Telegraph 15 January 2026 10:20pm GMT Robert Jenrick declared that the Conservative Party “broke Britain” in a highly personal attack on former colleagues as he defected to Reform UK. Speaking at a press conference alongside Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, on Thursday, Mr Jenrick called his former party “rotten”, “dishonest” and “no longer fit for purpose”. Arguing that the Tories lacked the “backbone” to solve the country’s problems, the former shadow justice secretary criticised Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, for overseeing an “explosion of the welfare bill” and Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, for enabling “five million migrants to come” to Britain. Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Jenrick also singled out Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, saying her team was not “willing to change”. His shock departure will raise fears in Tory circles of more defectio...

Tories and Reform accuse Prime Minister of ‘running scared’ of the electorate as at least 27 council elections are expected to be cancelled Daily Telegraph 13/01/26 Four million people are to be denied the vote in May’s local elections in a “disgraceful attack on democracy” by Labour. The Government is expected to cancel at least 27 council elections, meaning hundreds of councillors will avoid the risk of being voted out. The Tories and Reform accused Sir Keir Starmer of “running scared” of the electorate at a time when polls show a collapse in support for Labour. Nigel Farage’s party will on Thursday launch a judicial review in an attempt to make the elections go ahead. The Prime Minister is relying on an obscure clause in the 2000 Local Government Act which gives his ministers the power to delay votes. The Telegraph on Thursday launches a Campaign for Democracy calling for this rule to be scrapped, forcing ministers to seek a full vote in Parliament for any delay to votes. ...

Rachel Reeves must make more policy reversals before they crush entrepreneurs and small businesses Daily Telegraph 10/01/26 Far from an “iron Chancellor”, Rachel Reeves should probably now be called the “marshmallow Chancellor”. She has proven once again that as soon as it becomes painfully clear how much pointless damage one of her idiotic policies is doing to the economy, she will be as pliable as the sugary snack and perform a screeching about-turn. Over the next few days, a support package for pubs will be unveiled after she imposed punishing increases in business rates in her Budget three months ago. It follows reversals on the winter fuel allowance and on inheritance tax on farmers. Yet there are at least four more major reversals that Reeves needs to make before they crush entrepreneurs and small businesses – and the sooner she changes her mind, the better. It remains to be seen whether the rescue plan for pubs actually works. It is extraordinary that Reeves could not wor...

We have not stressed the ‘revolutionary’ aspect of the Islamic Revolution enough Daily Telegraph 11/01/26 What do these countries have in common? Argentina, Australia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States. The answer is that all have been on the receiving end of Iranian terrorism, either directly or through a Tehran-backed proxy, such as Hezbollah. Think about that list. What possible interest could the ayatollahs have had in, say, Buenos Aires, which lies 8,500 miles from Tehran? In 1994, a militant drove an explosives-laden van into a Jewish community centre, killing 85 people and injuring more than 300. Argentine prosecutors followed the trail back to Iranian state officials. Why, for Heaven’s sake? Why Argentina? Maybe just to show that they could. Maybe the mullahs were flaunting their reach, demonstrating that they could strike where they wanted. That charred horror was what “globalise the ...

Fellow Tories fear the ambitious Newark MP, once liberal on immigration and an ardent Remainer, is on a path that ends with Farage’s party Daily Telegraph 09/01/26 Laila Cunningham’s assertion that Robert Jenrick would not be welcome in Reform UK will have landed awkwardly with Nigel Farage, who has spent months attempting to keep the Newark MP within his orbit. Reform’s newly unveiled London mayoral candidate said she would not want to see Jenrick defect because he “allowed migrant hotels to flourish” while serving as immigration minister under Rishi Sunak. It was a pointed intervention and one that cuts directly across Farage’s subtle courtship of the former Conservative leadership contender. Jenrick, who has hardened his rhetoric in recent years, is keen to remind anyone listening that he resigned from government over what he described as the failure to control Britain’s borders. That version of events sits uneasily with his past. Critics are quick to dredge up his insistence ...

YouGov poll shows more people than ever disapprove of the Government as net approval rating hits -59 Daily Telegraph 07/01/26 The Labour Government’s popularity has plunged to a new low despite attempts by Sir Keir Starmer to reset his premiership. A YouGov tracker monitoring the popularity of the current administration shows the Government’s net approval rating is now -59, its lowest since Sir Keir took power. Seventy per cent of voters now disapprove of the Government, according to polling carried out on Jan 5 – an increase on the previous peak of 69 per cent. Rishi Sunak’s government had a record net approval score of -63 in October 2022, weeks into taking office. Baroness May’s low point was -61 in May 2019, while Liz Truss’s government recorded a nadir of -68, also in October 2022. The amount of people who approve of Labour’s performance in office has also fallen, reaching a joint record low of 11 per cent. The last time so few voters approved of Sir Keir’s administration...

Farage unveils London mayoral candidate to take on Khan Daily Telegraph 07 January 2026 12:14pm GMT Reform UK has vowed to oust Sir Sadiq Khan by promising an “all-out war” on crime in London. Nigel Farage unveiled Laila Cunningham, a former public prosecutor, as the party’s candidate for the next London mayoral elections in 2028. She told a press conference on Wednesday morning that safety for Londoners was the first duty of the mayor, and that if elected she would bring in more visible policing and zero tolerance for criminal behaviour. “There’ll be a new sheriff in town and I’ll be launching an all-out war on crime,” she declared. Mrs Cunningham, a Reform UK councillor and mother of seven, defected to the party from the Tories last year, warning of an epidemic of knife crime in the capital. She also vowed to scrap London’s controversial Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez) and automate Tube trains to stop its drivers going on strike. And she called on Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropo...

Millions are taking action to avoid being punished for working harder Daily Telegraph 02/01/26 During his 30-year career as a cardiac surgeon, Money reader Alan Edwards** never considered working part-time. The job was stimulating, the pay was good, and reducing your hours “wasn’t the done thing”. “I enjoyed it enormously but it was physically extremely demanding,” he says. “You’d go to bed, then get a phone call at 1am, head back to the operating theatre, get back home at 6am, then be back to work at 7:30am or so to do a heart transplant. I don’t know how I did it.” Edwards’ adult children – who are both doctors themselves and now have children of their own – have chosen a different approach. The combination of childcare pressures and high income taxes persuaded them to reduce their hours. One works four days a week, the other just three days. Edwards can see the wisdom of doing so. Decades of well-paid work mean he has accrued a pension pot worth more than £600,000. But the...

Stepping inside the party’s headquarters, The Telegraph is granted exclusive access to an insurgent force preparing for power Daily Telegraph 03/01/26 A country recovering from political post-traumatic stress disorder, with its leaders promising renewal that never materialises. Fundamental structural and economic issues marked by soaring debt and rising unemployment remain unresolved. And an insurgent force from the Right, led by an unconventional figure, to supplant the Tories. The parallels between 1990s Canada and 2025 Britain are striking. Look closely, and Nigel Farage has been drawing them for over a decade. The difference now is that people are listening. For much of his political life, Farage has been cast by enemies and opponents as a nuisance, a dilettante, even a lunatic. He could split parties, panic leaders – Sir Keir Starmer has claimed a Reform government would keep him up at night – and dominate media cycles. But run the country? Even now, many remain sceptical t...