Left Foot Forward

Labour has urged the Electoral Commission to investigate funds given to Nigel Farage by convicted fraudster George Cottrell. Over the weekend, the Sunday Times revealed that Farage did not declare funding he received from Cottrell to pay for social media staff and security before the 2024 general election.

This is the angriest and rattled many of us have seen Nigel Farage look. The Reform UK leader, visibly frustrated, threatened a Sky News journalist with ‘serious consequences’ after being asked whether he should’ve declared the gifts from convicted criminal George Cottrell.

British donors living overseas could face a £100,000 annual cap on any donations they make to a political party for a year after their return. In March this year, Keir Starmer’s government announced a cap of £100,000 per year on any donation from British citizens living abroad in a bid to reduce the influence of foreign money on UK politics.

The Labour party’s bounce in the polls is continuing according to yet another opinion poll, which shows support for the party surging in recent weeks. It comes after Keir Starmer announced he would be  stepping down as Prime Minister, with Andy Burnham’s coronation as Labour leader looking increasingly inevitable.

Nigel Farage is facing growing questions over his finances, after yet another scandal emerged, this time over allegations that a convicted fraudster provided funding for his political operation, funding which he failed to declare.

Reform UK has said it is “delighted” that another billionaire has pledged to donate millions to the party. Iranian-born British billionaire venture capitalist Sasan Ghandehari is the third billionaire to back Nigel Farage’s party. This makes Ghandehari the third billionaire to give Reform financial backing. The party has already received £15 million from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne since 2025. Crypto investor Ben Delo also donated £4 million to Reform at the beginning of this year.

While America may have marked 250 years of independence on July 4th, a poll has found that an overwhelming majority of Britons now hold a negative view of its president, Donald Trump. The poll, carried out by YouGov, found that 83% of the British public have a negative opinion of Donald Trump, and 60% now say the same about the USA itself. Under Biden, the average number of Britons with a negative view of the US had been 39% (and indeed it had been 38% during Trump’s first term).

Nigel Farage failed to declare gifts from George Cottrell, a crypto gambling entrepreneur convicted of fraud. According to a Sunday Times investigation, the Reform leader appears to have broken parliamentary rules by failing to declare more benefits that he received before he became an MP. These include Cottrell having paid for Farage’s private security, staff, transport and accommodation.

If anyone needed further evidence that the anti-woke culture war has become one of the defining organising principles of parts of the English-speaking media, look no further than Bari Weiss’s growing reliance on British conservative journalists and commentators. Yes, it seems that Britain’s well-established anti-‘woke’ ecosystem is now being treated not merely as an inspiration, but as a talent pool.

Two years into the Labour government, what’s their record on public services? With Keir Starmer on the way out, what should the next Labour leader do to ensure public services deliver properly for people? These are the big questions we’ll be discussing on episode 5 of LFF Live at 6pm on July 8. We’ll be joined by Johnbosco Nwogbo – outreach and growth lead at anti-privatisation campaign group We Own It to discuss all this and more.