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Farage launches preemptive attack on Commons standards committee, claiming it won’t judge him fairly

In his Daily Mail interview, Nigel Farage also claimed that the Commons standards committee, which will impose a punishment if Farage is found to have broken Commons rules, was biased against him.

He said:

There are people on that standards committee who will judge me, who have reported me for Islamophobia. It is going to be a completely subjective judgment. There’s no objectivity in this.

According to Christian Calgie, who interviewed Farage for the Mail, Reform UK sources are describing the committee as a “kangaroo court”.

Allegations about MPs breaking parliamentary rules are investigated by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. He has confirmed that he is investigating the £5m donation. On Tuesday Farage implied undeclared donations from George Cottrell were also being investigated, and Greenberg is also being urged to investigate claims Farage broke lobbying rules.

In his speech on Tuesday Farage implied the standards inquiry was evidence of the establishment using “foul means” to defeat him.

But this is his most explicit attack on the standards committee – and it implies that Farage now believes he will be found guilty of a serious breach of Commons rules.

It is also a move that could see him facing a harsher penalty. The committee regularly imposes harsher punishments on MPs who have not cooperated with or respected the disciplinary process.

In a case with some parallels, Boris Johnson condemned the privileges committee as a “kangaroo court” before it published its final report into him. The committee (comprised of MPs who also serve on the standards committee) said Johnson’s criticism amounted to “a further significant contempt” and this contributed to it proposing a 90-day suspension – which it was not able to enforce because Johnson resigned as an MP first.

In the interview Farage did not name the committee members he said had accused him of Islamophobia, but he may have been referring to a letter from Labour MPs saying the Equality and Human Rights Commission should investigate Islamophobia in Reform UK.

Farage admits he did not anticipate main parties turning his byelection gambit into farce by not standing

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has admitted that he did not anticipate the main political parties failing to put up candidates when he resigned to trigger a byelection in Clacton.

Farage announced the move on Tuesday because he thought a resounding byelction win would somehow invalidate the inquiry into claims he broke parliamentary rules when he did not declare a £5m donation from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

But, because he will not face any serious opposition, it will be hard to argue that a win shows voters have chosen to side with him against the parliamentary authorities and, with Count Binface now Farage’s main opposition, the contest looks farcical.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, asked if he thought the other parties might not contest the byelection, Farage replied:

No, of course not. Why would they [not contest]? It’s a real election.

The fact Labour and the Conservatives don’t want to stand, they’re both showing contempt for the electorate. They can use whatever terms they want – it’s a real election with real people.

Explaining why he took the surprise decision to call the byelection, Farage said it was a response to the ongoing negative publicity he was getting about his personal finances. He said:

If there’s a daily media pile-on saying that I’m dishonest on this, that or the other, it leaves me in a position of paralysis. So I’ve done this to try and break that.

The extent of the co-ordination of the pile-on had left us slightly in a state of paralysis – that could have gone on for months. What if [the parliamentary commissioner for standards, who is investigating the donation] doesn’t answer until October?

There is an urgent question in the Commons at 10.30am. Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, has asked for a statement about the “Iran’s violation of the ceasefire”.

And there will be two ministerial statements after business questions.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, will give one on the Nato summit at about 12.15pm.

And, about an hour later, Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, will give one on his review of the personal independence payment.

Hospital waiting list numbers in England rising for second month in row, NHS figures show

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen for the second month in a row, PA Media reports. PA says:

An estimated 7.28 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of May, relating to 6.16 million patients, NHS figures show.

This is up from 7.22 million treatments and 6.11 million patients at the end of April.

The increase means the waiting list is now at its highest level since December 2025.

Reform UK’s Lee Anderson moves writ for Clacton byelection to take place in August

Reform UK have formally triggered the process that will lead to a byelection in Clacton.

At the start of Commons business this morning, Lee Anderson, the Reform UK chief whip, moved the writ for the byelection.

He said:

I beg to move that Mr Speaker do issue his warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new writ for the electing of a member to serve in this present parliament for the county constituency of Clacton in the room of Nigel Paul Farage, who since his election for the said county constituency has been appointed to the office of Steward and Bailiff of His Majesty’s Manor of Northstead in the county of York.

Reform UK want the byelection, where the main parties are not standing against Nigel Farage and his principal opponent may turn out to be Count Binface, to be held on Thursday 6 August.

But the final decision rests with Tendring district council, who are organising it, and the BBC reports Tendring has not confirmed 6 August. In their London Playbook briefing for Politico, Sam Francis and Megan McElroy say there are “rumblings in Labour circles” that it’s likely to be on 13 August.

The latest episode our of Today in Focus podcast is out. It features Helen Pidd and Ben Quinn talking about the Clacton byelection, and the contest between Nigel Farage and Count Binface.

Burnham calls for ‘more open’ public debate about defence spending in article setting out foreign policy agenda

Good morning. Andy Burnham is due to become Labour leader a week tomorrow and, as nominations open for a leadership election that will not happen because Burnham is set to be elected unopposed, we are learning a bit more about how he intends to lead his party and his country.

Yesterday, in a letter to Labour MPs, Burnham told them he would never use party discipline to “stifle debate” and said they should raise problems and policy ideas “without fear or favour”. Jessica Elgot has the story here.

The full text of the letter is available here.

And Burnham has also published an article in the Times in which he has set out the core elements of his thinking on foreign policy. Burnham’s campaign in Makerfield was all about “change”, but what is striking about this article is how much continuity it implies with the policies of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. He says that he wants “a Britain that is more resilient” and that he wants to “simultaneously defend our national security, protect and grow our economy and make our nation stronger”. Reeves even coined her own word for this approach: securonomics.

Here are the main points.

Doing politics differently means levelling with the public, engaging them in decisions and ensuring more social value in return for increased government spending.

I want to be more open with the public about how and where defence funding is spent. For our biggest defence and infrastructure projects, I want to see more detailed, public progress updates, with more transparency and accountability to tackle cost overruns or delays before they spiral out of control. Our increased investment must be combined with an increase in scrutiny.

This sounds like a warning shot to the Ministry of Defence over how it handles defence procurement (badly, according to most experts). The article also talks about defence spending in terms of broad principle; it does not say anything specific about the amount of money he would spend on it – the argument at the heart of the debate about the defence investment plan.

In response to the evolving threats we face, and as we meet our Nato commitments, it is right that we rebuild our hard power for a new era that is very different to the one in which much of our current military equipment was first designed.

Crucially, as we do so, I want to ensure we back British workers and businesses. This means we must go much further than ever before through the defence investment plan in backing British resilience, using a sustained increase in defence investment not only to provide the kit our armed forces need, but also to generate economic growth and create apprenticeships and jobs in communities that have seen opportunities drain away …

We will also focus on reducing foreign dependency, securing inward investment and building new industrial partnerships with allies. Reindustrialisation through defence — and other sectors — is critical for both our economic and national security, building resilience in all our places. It will be a core priority for me.

Starmer also repeatedly talked about how he wanted to use higher defence spending to create and sustain good jobs in the defence sector.

I want an even closer relationship with countries across Europe, working more through European-led groupings, such as the E3 (the UK, France and Germany), strengthening the European pillar in Nato and breaking down any barriers to defence industrial co-operation.

Our commitment to Nato and the UK’s nuclear deterrent will remain absolute. Our relationship with the US will remain critical as our most important defence and security ally. And Britain’s support for Ukraine will not waver. We know that British security and wider Euro-Atlantic security are inseparable from what happens in Ukraine.

From this, it sounds as if Burnham is not a fan of Mark Carney’s thesis about the Atlantic alliance reaching a moment of “rupture”, and the need for democratic “middle powers” to do more without the US.

I want to consolidate the progress made on the existing UK-EU negotiations and make further progress quickly, including by strengthening our co-operation on illegal migration, economic security and the broader resilience of our societies to external threats — from terrorism to AI-driven disinformation.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly hospital performance figures, as well as its annual GP patient survey.

10am: Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, hosts an LBC phone-in, standing in for James O’Brien.

10am: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and Lord Hermer, the attorney general, speak at the Chatham House London conference. Theresa May, the former PM, is speaking at 11.30am.

10.30am: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, speaks at the launch of the Green candidate Geraldine Coggins’ campaign to be Greater Manchester mayor.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Also, nominations open today for the election of a new Labour leader. Burnham is the only declared candidate. In Wales nominations also open for the election of Welsh Labour’s next leader.

I’m afraid comments will not be open today due to staffing.

If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.

I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.