David Tennant has been embroiled in a war of words with U.K. Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch just days after he was honored at the British LGBT Awards.

Tennant, who picked up the Celebrity Ally award at the ceremony, gave an acceptance speech in which he said how important Pride was to his family, saying “we have skin in the game.” During his speech he also mentioned the U.K. Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, who has said she would exclude trans women from single sex spaces.

“I suppose if I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special or award or special mention because it’s common sense, isn’t it?” Tennant said in his speech. “It’s human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist anymore — I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up — whilst we do live in this world I am honoured to receive this.”

After the video went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, Badenoch responded on the platform, saying: “A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only Black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win….Do not let the bigots and bullies win”

Five more police officers are alleged to have placed bets on the timing of the general election, the Metropolitan Police has said.

The force said it had been passed information about the officers by the Gambling Commission after Rishi Sunak's close protection officer was arrested last week over alleged bets on a July election.

The Conservatives' election campaign has been plunged into crisis over the issue, with two Tory candidates and two party officials currently being investigated by the watchdog.

A car has crashed into the gates of Rishi Sunak's official country residence, police have confirmed.

The incident took place on Tuesday shortly after midday, when the white Volkswagen Scirocco hit the barriers at the entrance to Chequers - the grace and favour manor house in Buckinghamshire which prime ministers are allowed to use while in office.

Rishi Sunak was not at the property at the time.

Thames Valley Police said the driver, who was a 44-year-old man from the county, had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and drink driving, and was the only person in the car.

A spokesperson also said he had "suffered serious injuries" and had been taken to hospital, "where he remains".

They added: "While we are still in the very early stages of our investigation, there is currently no evidence to suggest there was any intention to harm anyone."

Four men have been arrested at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency home in North Yorkshire on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

North Yorkshire Police said the group were stopped within a minute of entering the grounds at 12.40pm, before being escorted off the property.

The men, aged 52, from London, 43, from Bolton, 21, from Manchester, and 20, from Chichester, remain in custody for questioning.

It is not clear if Mr Sunak or his family were home at the time.

The manor house in the village of Kirby Sigston, near Northallerton, was previously subject to a protest from four Greenpeace activists in August last year.

I spent the day interviewing Reform UK candidates at a private event in Stafford and here's what they said:They know that their Brexit plans will make the UK...

Reform leader has attracted criticism from across the UK political spectrum after he said the West had 'provoked' Putin's war against Ukraine

Added bonus: Nigel Farage agrees with Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ rant in resurfaced clip

It’s easy to mock Nigel Farage: a cartoonish nationalist who’s made more comebacks than any pop star, who’s failed to win a seat in Westminster on seven different occasions, and whose urgent mission to save Britain from disaster doesn’t stop him selling bottles of “Farage gin” on the side (£40). Farage is aware of this mockery, too – and you sense a desire for revenge is partly what motivates him. As he infamously told the European parliament after the 2016 referendum, “When I came here 17 years ago … you all laughed at me – well, I have to say, you’re not laughing now, are you?”

...

Even influential Conservatives – who desperately consume whatever Farage is selling, praying his followers will be included in the deal – heap insults on him. Michael Gove recently likened Farage to a clown or showman – a source of “amusement and diversion” – and called Reform UK “a giant ego trip”. David Cameron says that Farage is “trying to destroy the Conservative party” and offers only “inflammatory language and hopeless policy”, having previously called his supporters “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists”. Farage’s friendly comments about Putin on Friday – that Nato and the EU “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has provided fresh opportunities for them to take the moral high ground. But Conservatives never square this condescension with their capitulation to his demands. Why, despite being in power for 14 years with ever bigger majorities, have they let Farage make such a strong claim to being the most influential politician of the period? Looking back on the soap opera of British politics since 2010, it is Conservative prime ministers who make cameo appearances, and Farage who is the arch protagonist, shaping events, sealing fates, hogging the media’s attention.

Now, as this series of Tory rule draws to a close, Farage is claiming that he wants to kill off the same Conservative party that has granted his every wish. There’s a strong sense of deja vu: in Reform, Farage is leading his third different party in four elections; immigration is again being framed as a national emergency, after a brief pause; and the “smug, complacent and snobby” Cameron, as he put it in a recent Daily Telegraph column, is again the target of Farage’s ire.

But there is one major novelty. Farage’s party has overtaken or drawn level with the Tories in many polls. In the past, Conservatives liked to say that a vote for Farage was a vote for Labour. Farage now says, gleefully, that a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Labour. “A Tory vote is a now wasted vote – we are now the real opposition,” he declares. Who’s laughing now?

As ever, Conservatives are split over what to do with the former City broker. While figures such as Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg are eager to incorporate Farage and his crowd into the Tories’ electoral coalition, others – from Cameron to Kemi Badenoch – are steadfastly opposed. The Conservatives know this conundrum well. In their quest to defeat Labour, a question recurs throughout the party’s history: how to maintain an aura of respectability, and thus keep its moderates on side, without losing voters to parties further on the right?

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The Conservatives justify these contortions by arguing that if they weren’t there to acknowledge these views, they would carry Britain to even darker places. But for the past decade, far from being a check on the far right’s power, the Conservatives have opened the door for it, allowing fringe reactionary interests to swamp Britain’s culture and politics. Leaving the European Union, tying all overseas aid to foreign policy interests, trying to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, prioritising funding for the armed forces – all these policies would be at home in a Thatcher-era National Front manifesto, and they are all now promoted by the Conservative party. The Tories might bicker over whether Farage has a place in their party, but in truth they made their peace with Faragism long ago: lax on inequality and authoritarian on immigration, with a few kind words about the NHS thrown in, sums up the Tory strategy for most of the past 50 years.

Could Farage become leader of the Conservatives? One tempting answer is that he already has. But as this bruising phase of Tory government has taught us, things can always get worse. A Conservative party featuring Farage anywhere near its leadership would be a more reactionary mainstream force than Britain has ever seen in modern history. Is this what Farage is working towards? Does he want to destroy the Conservative party and rebuild it in his image, or simply flog a few more bottles of gin? Unless Farage thinks the Conservatives will get even fewer than Reform’s half-dozen or so expected seats, his claim to being the opposition is bluster. But Farage didn’t get where he is by understating his influence and, more worryingly, the Tories have an unhappy habit of making his outlandish fantasies come true.

Ipsos’ latest General Election campaign tracker, taken 14-17 June explores attitudes towards Count Binface. Findings show that 16% of the public hold favourable opinions towards him and 17% are unfavourable.

When comparing Binface to other politicians in Britain – either today or throughout this parliament we can see that more Britons hold favourable opinions of Count Binface (16%) than Liz Truss at the time of her resignation as Prime Minister (7%). Truss’ ratings have not improved much since then. In February 2023 9% held favourable opinions of the former Prime Minister and in February this year 8% did.

The 16% favourable towards Binface is 4 points below the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Britons aged 18-34 are more favourable towards Binface (31%) than Sunak (16%). Overall, only 22% know a great deal or fair amount about Binface. When asked whether favourable or unfavourable whilst 16% are favourable and 17% unfavourable. 28% are neutral and 4 in 10 (40%) say they don’t know.

This is opinion. So read it as such. But consider it please.

Obviously if you read this based on the title. I assume you oppose the Tories.

But if you are wondering why labour are so keen to manage expectations. There is a reason.

Campaign funding wise the Tories are estimated to be 19m ahead of labour. But honestly at the moment they are not spending a huge amount more.

We know the Tories are skilled at election manipulation. So there is genuine fear that the Tories plan to launch a campaign within the last few days.

I.E. when there is less time and funding to ensure fact checking is effective.

They know Starmer is more publicity aware then Corbyn was. He is able to play it in a way that dose not scare traditional Conservative voters.

They also know thanks to Boris, that the courts are unable to punish them for outright lies during any political campaign. And that Rishi is prepared to lie about and accuse civil servants of lying when challenged.

As huge as polling is against the Tories. All it would take is some dramatic claim against the party or Starmer. To convince Tory traditional voters to bite their tongue and vote Tory. While convincing left wing voters not to vote or to switch to 3rd party in seats where labour are the 1st or 2nd party.

The fact we know they have a huge amount of money unspent. Makes it clear they plan to launch something nearer the end of the election. And the only advantage of leaving it so late. Is it will limit the ability of the party to effectively react. Or fact checkers to be able to prove and distribute evidence of lies.

Please be prepared for this.

James Cracknell, who is standing to be a Conservative MP, has called the Tories a “shower of shit”, in a video he posted on Facebook.

The former Olympic rower, who is the Conservative candidate for the key Labour target of Colchester, said: “Two weeks out from the Olympics, if we are competing against the Conservative party my teammates and I would be saying they are a shower of shit.

“And if one of my teammates got caught for cheating they’d be dead to me. That abuse of trust is unforgivable.”

...

Cracknell is competing to retain the seat, which had a majority of more than 9,000 under the previous MP, Will Quince, but polls indicate it is likely to be won by Labour for the first time since 1945.

He said he was still fighting for the seat because he believed in the party’s values. “Why am I still canvassing and delivering leaflets? Because I believe the Conservative way is the best for the country. Freedom to succeed, protection of our national security and personal responsibility.”

More than 120 Conservative MPs, including Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid and Gillian Keegan, paid £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to the Conservatives’ in-house web design services, it can be revealed.

The MPs used the Bluetree website service to design their websites. When billed by Bluetree, they would pay for the sites then claim back the costs from the public purse via expenses, prompting a complaint to parliament’s expenses watchdog about the practice.

Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has denied Bluetree is wholly owned by the party and says it is a separate organisation, but repeatedly refused to deny the party receives income from the company, saying it has “commercial arrangements with CCHQ”.

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The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has said it would not allow websites to be funded if it was clear they were being used for party political purposes – regardless of the services offered by the company. It said if any evidence was found that rules had been broken then it would work with the MP to make amendments or repay expenses.

Senior transparency campaigners said they were alarmed if MPs were using taxpayer funds that could end up with the Conservative party. Tom Brake, the director of Unlock Democracy, said the money should be repaid if any surveys from the website were used to give MPs information for campaigning.

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The party said Bluetree was part of a registered company separate from the Conservative party but would not say what that company was. All contact details for Bluetree on its website are directed to CCHQ and Bluetree does not have a separate Companies House registration.

Yeeer jolking.... anuthurr wan?

British democracy is designed in such a way that the collision of the country’s most powerful people and its most powerfully motivated pranksters is all but inevitable. To stand for parliament all you need is a deposit of £500 and ten signatures from people registered to vote in your chosen constituency. The low barriers to entry are a historical accident. Deposits were introduced in 1918, part of the same bill that extended the franchise to women over 30 and men who didn’t own property. The sum was set at £150 (about £9,000 in today’s money), seemingly designed to protect Parliament from being overrun by the men and women who were newly allowed to vote for it.

Yet inflation gradually lowered the cost until it was a mere inconvenience, opening the gate for a minor stampede of mad cows. Some joke candidates were single-issue satirists. In 1979 Auberon Waugh, a journalist, ran for the “Dog Lovers’ Party” in Devon against Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party (Thorpe had been charged with conspiring to murder his lover, Norman Scott, after a bungling hitman bumped off Scott’s dog. He was later acquitted).

Others had broader platforms. In 1983 the founder of the Monster Raving Loony Party ran as a candidate in a London by-election. “Screaming” Lord Sutch, a former DJ, wore a top hat and an animal-print jacket. A self-styled peer of the realm, he started a trend for joke candidates to adopt noble titles – a way to poke fun at the most obviously ridiculous element of British democracy.

Sutch proved something of a prophet – his “joke” policies kept being passed into law. As a young man he had founded the National Teenage Party, which demanded votes for 18-year-olds (the voting age used to be 21) and an end to the state’s broadcasting monopoly. (Check, check.) The Monster Raving Loony Party’s proposal for pet passports also eventually became law, and another long-standing Loony demand will be met if the Labour Party reduces the voting age to 16, as it has promised to do if it wins the election.

“Blackadder”, a popular tv sitcom, satirised the Monster Raving Loonies with its fictional “Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly Looking Stupid Party”, while Peter Hennessy, a constitutional historian, praised them as being “part of the continuity of the realm”.

In 1985 the deposit was raised from £150 to £500 in an attempt to make sure only serious candidates stood for Parliament. By then it was already too late. Lamenting the flood of candidates “dressed like idiots, behaving like idiots and waving idiotic slogans”, David Mellor, a Conservative minister, said: “I think we are just going to have to live with this.”

Archive

Eight Reform UK candidates have made a wide range of offensive remarks online about women in the past, the BBC can reveal.

The remarks include disparaging comments about the murdered MP Jo Cox, former Prime Minister Theresa May, and a black reality TV contestant.

The comments were posted between 2011 and 2023.

Reform UK and the candidates involved have all been approached for comment.

Earlier this week, the party said it planned to sue a company it hired to vet potential MPs.

Among the candidates whose comments the BBC has uncovered is Simon Moorehead, standing in Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West, who wrote on X: "[Jo] Cox was a dreadful woman, with bad ideas".

He then added: "No-one wanted her dead though"

Mark Cole, the candidate in Harwich and North Essex, said in a Facebook post: "Accidently switched on to X-Factory. The only thing worth watching is the black bint.... whoever she is."

Mr Cole deleted this comment after being approached by the BBC.

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Malcolm Cupis, the candidate for Melksham and Devizes, accused women dancing in a music video posted on Youtube of "behaving like a gutter slut" and referred to one woman as a "malignant old hag".

Mr Cupis told the BBC he stood by his comments.

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Ian Gribbin, the candidate for Bexhill and Battle, who we previously revealed had written that the UK should have stayed neutral in World War Two, posted a series of comments on the UnHerd website which included saying: “Right now all men pay for all women: we pay 80% of tax and you take out 80%. The fact you’re able to write on a technological device is all down to us.

“The cultural feminisation of the west is a disaster of epic proportions. We have elevated female characteristics – especially neuroticism, to the highest levels. Hysteria is now common place. The evidence from repeated psychologically testing is that women are appalling at taking criticism.

“Modern feminism belongs in the sewer of self hate from which it came: you say it yourself, you’re all jealous of the perceived freedoms of men.”

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Asked about the vetting issues in a BBC Panorama interview which aired on Friday, Mr Farage said: "Frankly, they [Reform UK] were so desperate for people to stand that people stood, and then we employed a big vetting company who didn't do the job.

"I can assure you that when the Labour Party go through those that apply, when the Conservative Party go through those that apply, they have to reject many."

He also said the party had had "an awful lot of candidates being stitched up in the most extraordinary way, with quotes taken out of context".