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Watchdog weighs investigation into Farage’s undisclosed £5m gift

The UK elections watchdog is considering whether to investigate an undisclosed £5m gift received by Nigel Farage before he announced his candidacy at the last general election.

The move comes after the Guardian revealed this week that the Reform UK leader was given the money by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

In a written response to the Conservative party, the Electoral Commission said it was “aware of this matter and are considering it under our regulatory remit. We will consider all the available relevant information and recommend what, if any, next steps the commission will take.”

Farage had previously stated he did not intend to stand as an MP but reversed his position in June 2024, within weeks of receiving the personal gift from the Thailand-based businessman.

Read the full report here:

The Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley said he was “concerned” about the scale of upcoming protests in London.

“There’s some big marches planned for two weeks, tomorrow and the 16th,” he told LBC.

“I’m sort of concerned about the scale of those in this context and we’re looking hard at what conditions and powers we should use in respect of those events.

“Protests can’t be banned, parliament has made it clear, but they can’t be.

While police lack the power to ban demonstrations outright, they can place conditions on marches or, in extreme cases, restrict them to a static event. Keir Starmer said yesterday that the government was “looking at what further measures we can take on protests, particularly in relation to chants, to banners and the repeated nature of protests”.

Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has called for a temporary ban on pro-Palestine marches, saying it was impossible for them not to “incubate” antisemitism.

The minister for victims, Alex Davies-Jones, said pro-Palestine marches have been “hijacked” by people looking to sow division in the UK.

“We have seen chants of death, calls for global intifada, and that is wrong,” she told Times Radio.

There have been regular pro-Palestine marches in the UK since the latest Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza in 2023, with further demonstrations planned for 16 May. The government has faced calls to ban the marches in light of recent attacks against the Jewish population, with demonstrators accused of antisemitic chanting or holding antisemitic signs.

Davies-Jones said she acknowledged people had “the right to protest the actions of Israel” and that “not everybody on these marches is antisemitic”, but she suggested some protests have been “hijacked by certain individuals who are seeking to cause division and hatred in our country”.

Updated

Met commissioner denies he was 'intervening in politics' with Polanski letter

Morning, welcome to our UK politics blog.

The Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley has denied he was “intervening in politics” after he wrote an open letter to Zack Polanski over the way officers arrested the Golders Green attack suspect.

He accused Polanski of fuelling “rising tensions” after the Green party leader reshared a post on X which said: “Essentially his officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser.”

In the open letter published on social media, Rowley said he was “disappointed” that the politician had amplified “inaccurate and misinformed commentary” that “undermines officer confidence to act”.

The public spat comes days before the local elections, with commentators questioning whether Rowley’s letter breached regulations that prohibit police from engaging in political activity.

Rowley denied the letter to Polanski meant he was “intervening in politics”.

“When somebody influential puts something out there which is incorrect and can undermine the confidence of my officers to protect Londoners, they need to see that I’m supporting them to give them that confidence to carry on and do their job,’ he told Times Radio.

“I’m not intervening in politics. He was intervening in operational policing and I need to defend my officers’ ability to do that.”

A Green party source said: “Zack has seen the video like everyone else, and doesn’t know the full picture and knows it was a very difficult situation for the authorities, but we do need to understand more about the response.”

You can read more on that story here:

In other news, police are assessing if nationwide marches can go ahead, as ministers are pressed on the timing and details of the prime minister’s additional measures on protests.

Yesterday, Keir Starmer vowed to crack down on those “venerating the murder of Jews” at protest marches as the UK terror threat level was raised to “severe” in the wake of the Golders Green attack.

Rowley told broadcasters this morning that he was “concerned” about the scale of upcoming protests, and that his force was “looking hard at what conditions and powers we should use”, while justice minister Alex Davies-Jones claimed it was “a fact” that pro-Palestine marches had seen “antisemitic activity”.

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