Burnham says long-awaited 10-year plan may be delayed until January – UK politics live

Peter Walker has also posted these on Bluesky about what Angus MacIntyre said when Peter asked him why he did not mention Ukraine in his first speech as Reform UK’s armed forces spokesperson. In a 16-minute speech on defence, Reform’s new armed forces spokesperson did not mention Ukraine or Iran once.

Worth noting that I asked MacIntyre about this after and he said this was simply as his speech was to introduce him and his role, and that Ukraine/Iran are very much a focus

Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent. Polling numbers which have seen the Conservatives climb above Reform UK are not credible, Nigel Farage has said, claiming that there had been “jiggery-pokery” intended to restore the two-party system.

Farage made the claim unprompted while speaking to reporters after a speech when he was asked if Reform UK had failed in vetting, given the number of councillors and candidates found to have said offensive things or, in some cases, charged with serious offences.

The Reform UK leader said that while politicians from other parties had been arrested for alleged offences, it was only those connected to his party – notably this week’s charging of George Madgwick, its leader on Hampshire county council, with 12 counts of rape and other offences – that led to “a BBC push notification – the others don’t”.

Digressing into polling, he said: What I will tell you is this: the jiggery-pokery that is going on with polling is utterly astonishing

Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent. The main lesson for Reform UK from the Republicans’ huge defeat in the US midterm elections is “keep your promises”, Nigel Farage has told reporters in his first comments since the results.

Speaking after a media event at which the party unveiled their new armed forces spokesperson, Angus MacIntyre, a former RAF officer, Farage said Trump was also being punished for the “bizarre” decision to wage a long-term conflict with Iran. Asked if he had learned something from the US results, Farage said: Yes, keep your promises.

Trump was very good in the first term and the second term in keeping his promises, but he broke a promise. That was no more foreign wars, and we’re eight months in, and the resultant rise in gas and diesel prices, more than anything else, is what did them in. The key focus must be keeping your promises, and the cost of living, of course. Asked if the Iran war – which Farage did not initially oppose – was a mistak

The government has announced it is spending £13m on another wave of Valour-recognised support centres for military veterans and their families. In the first round, 14 organisations got funding earlier this year, and another 21 organisations are now getting money.

“An estimated one million veterans and their families in the UK will benefit from easier access to local services, thanks to the Valour network expanding,” the government says.

Shabana Mahmood has been accused of causing “distress and uncertainty” to hundreds of thousands of refugees by quietly introducing plans to force them to wait up to 30 years before being granted the right to settle in the UK, Rajeev Syal reports.