A former friend and others who were at Dulwich college with the now Reform UK leader speak of his behaviour * ‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school It had been a fun sleep-over at Nigel Farage’s house and Jean-Pierre Lihou, a teenager with an appetite, was delighted with his schoolfriend’s mother’s hospitality. “I remember the fantastic cooked English breakfast, as opposed to what you get at a boarding house on a morning,” Lihou recalled. “I was a boarder and he was a day boy,” he said of their education at Dulwich college in south-east London. Farage was a great mimic, and funny with it, Lihou said. But, over time, he found that there was a darker side to his 14-year-old friend. Continue reading...

Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations

Chancellor, who is expected to announce tax rises and spending cuts, says effect of leaving bloc worse than predicted

Britain’s post-Brexit paralysis demands independent scrutiny. A Royal Commission could finally confront the evidence politicians avoid

Chancellor cites the UK’s exit from EU alongside austerity and Truss’s mini-budget as issues affecting economy Downing Street is under pressure to publish its evidence in the collapsed China spy case after the Crown Prosecution Service denied having blocked its release, Emine Sinmaz reports. Good morning. In a much-praised FT column yesterday, Stephen Bush argued that one problem facing the Conservatives today is that “an essential condition for entry into the upper echelons of [the party] is being willing to at least pretend that you think taking Britain out of the EU was a good idea”. As Bush memorably put it, “this is a never-ending lobotomy for the Tories”. Starmer and Reeves are expected to argue that, if it hadn’t been for Brexit, this type of downgrade would not have been needed, and to cite official figures suggesting that if Britain had not left the European Union the economy would be about £120bn bigger by 2035 than current forecasts suggest it will be. The message is simple: [Nigel] Farage is ultimately to blame as the man who delivered Brexit with “easy sloganeering” then walked away from the aftermath rather than putting in the hard yards. Or, to put it another way: Farage, not us, is responsible for putting up your taxes. Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy. Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit. Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year … but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long lasting and that’s why we are trying to do trade deals around the world, US, India, but most importantly with the EU. Continue reading...

The majority of the arrests were for supporting a proscribed group, police say.

Footballer Suleiman al-Obeid, was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Gaza last week, according to the Palestine Football Association Mohamed Salah has criticised Uefa for failing to state how a footballer known as the “Palestinian Pelé” died in a tribute it posted. Suleiman al-Obeid, 41, was killed on Wednesday in southern Gaza when Israeli forces attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) said. Continue reading...

Officers accused Laura Murton who also had a sign saying ‘Free Gaza’ of supporting a proscribed organisation

Six children waiting for water are among those killed in an Israeli air strike, emergency service officials say.

Deaths from crushing and gunshot wounds come a day after Israeli forces opened fire at a food distribution point

Letter also signed by Hanif Kureishi and Russell T Davies urges ceasefire and unrestricted distribution of aid

Agreement reached to ‘slash red tape’ on food products, in exchange for extended EU access to fishing waters