Crowd gathered to watch Jacob Rees Mogg event at the Reform conference

Huge turnout for Jacob Rees Mogg at the Reform party conference

Reform chairman David Bull a little late arriving for his welcome speech at the party conference – can imagine he's writing up a reaction to the Rayner news

Unfortunate comma placement for Reform's chairman in the conference agenda

Why are there so many English flags everywhere all of a sudden? In many parts of England, the St George's Cross has become unavoidable in recent weeks.

I wrote about why people are putting these flags everywhere - and why they might feel the need to cover their faces.

The movement has kicked off at a febrile moment in the UK, and it's been embraced by influential figures on the far-right.

metro.co.uk/2025/08/27/m...

A picture of a man in a blue T-shirt wearing a homemade balaclava painted with the St George's Cross and holding a paint roller covered in red paint. It is beside another picture of the same man with another who is wearing a white T-shirt and a similar head covering.

Last weekend, two men in homemade English flag balaclavas were filmed running around Walsall in the West Midlands, painting red crosses on white surfaces.

On social media, they were called 'absolute idiots' by some - but others said they were 'saving the country'.

(Pics from SWNS)

🚨BREAKING: Donald Trump announces he will present Michael Crawford, best known as Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, with a Kennedy Center Honor later this year.

Israeli leader of the opposition (and former PM) Yair Lapid tells the Foreign Affairs Committee "I don't know if we'll ever know for sure" how much damage the US bombs did to Iran's nuclear capabilities, and says "some" uranium was "smuggled" away before strikes

No Tussauds waxwork for Starmer over fears he won't be relevant in five years

EXCLUSIVE: There are no plans to make a waxwork of Keir Starmer at Madame Tussauds – because they can't be sure he'll be relevant for long enough

metro.co.uk/2025/06/04/n...

Reform's rise isn't just a protest vote - it might be permanent Will Reform be able to take advantage of its success?

Have a look at my thoughts from today – and why I reckon Reform actually are here to stay

metro.co.uk/2025/05/02/r...

Quite a few seats remaining in the arena where Nigel Farage is launching the Reform UK local election campaign

The Arena Birmingham, where Reform UK is launching its local elections campaign.

We're now running 50 minutes late at Reform UK's big local elections campaign launch – I'm told it's due to protesters outside

Jeremy Corbyn: Keir Starmer says there's no money - I don't believe him The government cites 'difficult choices' when they are harming the most vulnerable, but increasing defence spending is apparently easy.

Writing in Metro, Jeremy Corbyn has slammed the government's decision to boost defence spending

"To me, what they really mean is that taxpayers' money will be paid directly to arms companies. These are the only victors of war."

metro.co.uk/2025/03/05/j...

Neil Kinnock spills the beans on 125 years of Labour Party history The former Labour leader spoke to Metro about Keir Starmer, Aneurin Bevan, and the worst moment in Labour history.

Happy St David's Day – why not mark it by reading my interview with Lord Kinnock for Labour's 125th birthday?

Also featuring two other Welsh giants of 20th century politics in Nye Bevan ("the best of the human race") and Roy Jenkins ("impressive but self-indulgent")

metro.co.uk/2025/02/27/n...

Seems Starmer managed to contradict both Trump – saying European countries won't be repaid their Ukraine support – and Vance – saying the UK is proud of its tradition of free speech – with very little pushback

Now believe this will be an announcement on the target of increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.

Could we finally get a timeline for this? It would make sense ahead of the Trump visit, as that's one of the president's key demands for Nato countries

The prime minister himself will be making a ministerial statement in the House of Commons at 12.30pm today – quite an unusual sight.

The topic is defence and security, so we can probably expect Ukraine to come up ahead of his Trump visit later this week. But we'll have to wait an hour to find out

BREAKING: Donald Trump has lashed out at Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a "dictator" and a "moderately successful comedian" in a post on Truth Social

"I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job"

John Healey at the IfG on the US backstop in Ukraine: "It is only the US that can provide the deterrent to Putin that will prevent him attacking again."

Says the detail is "being developed", but he won't go into it as "the one thing I don't want to do is make Putin any wiser"

"We are strengthening workers' rights to request flexibility in their working pattern which is different to this and organisations will still be able to reject unworkable requests if it doesn't work for the business or organisation."

Government spox responds to group of Labour MPs calling for four-day week to be included in the Employment Rights Bill:

"We have no plans to manage a four-day work week for five days' pay – not in government nor in any other sector.

(cont'd)

If we can get the Canadian Bryan Cranston (Rick Moranis) to star, then it's got Emmy written all over it

Wouldn't mind a job as the newly announced Canadian fentanyl czar – stop a kilogram every three weeks or so and you're dandy

Ach, David Lynch. I'll try to track down Dune tonight, which will mean I've watched every movie he's made. I'll miss the way he saw the world.

BREAKING: Tulip Siddiq is OUT as economic secretary to the Treasury and city minister

'I will keep up Downing Street hunger strike until my son is free or I collapse' Laila Soueif is 107 days into a hunger strike calling for the release of her son, British citizen Alaa Abd El-Fattah.

I spoke to human rights activist Laila Soueif yesterday about her most personal and difficult campaign yet – a hunger strike outside Downing Street, calling for the PM to ramp up pressure on the Egyptian government so they will free her son from prison.

metro.co.uk/2025/01/14/i...

Apologies, that should be Jess Asato.

Labour MP Jess Asoto has called out Reform MPs for not turning up to today's debate on violence against women and girls

Says Jess Phillips "has done more for abused women than anyone at X, or anyone in the party opposite that does not appear to be here today".

There's a lot of heat around yesterday's vote on the Children's Wellbeing Bill – I tried to explain why it's more complex than it may appear in my latest Alright Gov newsletter.

Subscribe here: metro.co.uk/newsletters/...

Starmer very robust in his defence of Jess Phillips after days of attacks from Elon Musk and his followers

Who could Musk have in mind for the next Reform leader? Surely not the man whose videos he's been retweeting the last few days, and who he wants to see released from prison...?