Nigel Farage to discuss Chagos Islands deal at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Donald Trump tonight
Table of Contents
- Nigel Farage to discuss Chagos Islands deal at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Donald Trump tonight
- UK tells Bahrain its jets can provide extra defensive cover against Iranian strikes
- Home Office may forcibly remove child asylum seekers from UK in handcuffs
- Nigel Farage to discuss Chagos Islands deal at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Donald Trump tonight
- Mahmood defends asylum reform plans amid backbench criticism
- Lammy calls for investigation into National Security Council leaks
- RAF jets could legally strike Iran’s missile bases, says Lammy
In the latest example of Nigel Farage doing absolutely anything rather than spend time in his Clacton constituency, the Reform UK leader is to meet Donald Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago tonight, where he says he will discuss the Chagos Islands deal.
Attending a ‘Save Chagos Boat Party’ yesterday, Farage said he would be flying to Florida to dine with the US president on Friday, GB News reported.
He said:
We think this is the central plan for this government’s foreign policy and we are beating them back.
President Trump has almost understood the deal, but I will be dining at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow night and we will reinforce the message.
Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran.
In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Farage earlier this week called for the UK to join Trump’s war in Iran, a view that is wildly at odds with British voters, according to the latest YouGov polling (only 29% support the joint US-Israeli strikes).
Key events
The UK won’t pay compensation to Mauritius in the event the deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands fails, the Mauritian prime minister has said.
In an interview with a local newspaperand first picked up by Sky News, PM Navin Ramgoolam said that he was considering legal action to ensure the deal is ratified, saying the delay had already blown a hole in his country’s budget.
You can now read my colleague Jamie Grierson’s full report on deputy prime minister, David Lammy’s full comments on the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, form this morning media rounds here:
Keir Starmer has also discussed the Iran crisis with Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Giorgia Meloni on Friday morning according to PA Media.
“The prime minister spoke to the leaders of France, Germany and Italy this morning about the situation in the Middle East,” Downing Street said. “The leaders began by condemning Iran’s egregious attacks and the prime minister updated on the defensive measures taken by the UK in recent days to protect and reinforce partners in the region.
“Ongoing intensive diplomacy and close military co-ordination would be vital in the coming hours and days, the leaders agreed.
“They also agreed on the need to coordinate closely on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, and reiterated their concern about the situation in Lebanon.
“The leaders welcomed the word leading drone interception expertise president Zelenskyy had offered to partners in the region and underlined the importance of ensuring support to Ukraine continued at scale.”
The Green Party has today announced that their membership has grown by more than 2,000 a day, over 15,000 in a week, since their historic byelection victory in Gorton and Denton going from 200,000 members to over 215,000.
The increase in membership comes on the back of a good week for the party. In a YouGov poll earlier this week, the party overtook Labour and only two points off Reform UK.
Hannah Spencer, the newly elected MP for Gorton and Denton, said”: “Hope was reflected the ballot box last week, in the polls we’ve seen this week and in the huge surge of new party members.”
It has been a tricky week for Starmer since the byelection and with the start of the conflict in the Middle East.
My colleague Ben Quinn has some analysis on the ‘cocktail on dissent’ faced by the prime minister here:
UK tells Bahrain its jets can provide extra defensive cover against Iranian strikes
Keir Starmer has held a call with the king of Bahrain in which the prime minister had agreed that operational teams would would together on plans for jets in the coming days.
Reuters reports that Starmer told the king of Bahrain that four jets the UK is deploying to Qatar could be used to help defend the kingdom from Iranian missile and drone strikes against Gulf states.
“The prime minister also offered further defensive air cover from these jets for Bahrain to bolster their security,” Starmer told Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in a call late on Thursday, according to a readout from Number 10.
“His majesty welcomed the confirmation, and they agreed operational teams would work together on plans in the coming days.”
Downing Street has rejected that David Lammy’s comments represent a change in position after the deputy prime minister said it would be legal for RAF jets to strike Iranian missile sites which could target Britons.
Asked if this was a U-turn, the prime minister’s official spokesman said “no”.
He referred back to the legal advice published by the government and the defence secretary’s comments that the focus is on “defensive action”.
Asked if that advice meant the UK could strike targets in Iran that have the capability to strike British targets, he said:
We have consistently said that we’ll take the necessary steps to prevent future strikes … [that] as we’ve set out over the course of the week, is allowing the US to take out those missiles at source whilst we are defending the skies.
And that is, that is a consistent position that we have conveyed throughout the week.
A second government charter flight to bring UK nationals back from the Middle East is due to depart Oman this evening, Downing Street has confirmed.
Further flights are expected in the coming days and more than 160,000 British nationals have now registered their presence with the Foreign Office in the region.
British Airways is also putting on daily commercial flights from Muscat to help meet demand for those wishing to leave, the prime minister’s official spokesman said.
The Liberal Democrats have called for Downing Street to clarify whether it has changed its position after David Lammy said RAF jets could legally strike Iranian missile sites being used to attack British interests in the Middle East.
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, said:
The deputy prime minister is sliding down the slippery slope to full conflict by backing direct UK strikes on military positions in Iran.
We need an urgent clarification from number 10 on whether this is a change in Britain’s position on involvement in Trump’s illegal war.
Another Labour government cannot be allowed to pull the wool over the public’s eyes as it follows America into an overseas war with unclear goals.
They said any offensive action must be approved by a vote in Parliament, adding:
We must not copy Trump’s unconstitutional and illegal approach to war in the Middle East.
Patrick Butler
England’s “creaking” adult social care system is confusing and impenetrable to the people that rely on it and held together with “sticking plasters and glue”, the head of a government-commissioned review has said in a withering critique.
Louise Casey said the country faced a “moment of reckoning” over its failure to effectively and fairly meet the needs of Britain’s ageing population and rising numbers of people with chronic conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
In a frank and often passionate speech, Casey said society needed to face up to the major challenge of overhauling an underpowered system in which “some needs are barely met at all and others are met late and in piecemeal and random ways”.
Casey, who has been tasked with putting policy flesh on the government’s manifesto commitment to set up a national care service, said her review was examined through “the lens of the adult and their family who need social care”.
Home Office may forcibly remove child asylum seekers from UK in handcuffs
Diane Taylor
Children may be forcibly removed from the UK in handcuffs to “overcome noncompliance” as part of new proposals Home Office is considering to send more asylum seeker families back to their home countries.
Since coming into office, the government has pledged to deport more migrants and has increased both voluntary and enforced returns, although some of those who have left the UK voluntarily did so without informing the Home Office.
While some migrant families are removed each year on Thursday the Home Office announced a new pilot scheme to target 150 families in the asylum system – primarily those whose claims have been refused – for expedited voluntary removals with enhanced cash payments of £10,000 a person up to £40,000 per family.
Families will have just seven days to decide whether or not to accept the offer. If they decline, enforced removal proceedings will begin. According to a new consultation document proposals could include handcuffing children who resist being put on a plane and sent back to their home country.
One mother who received a pro forma email from the Home Office on Thursday morning sobbed after reading it. It states her asylum application was unsuccessful and has now been “concluded”. It adds that even families who have outstanding applications with the Home Office will be encouraged to leave.
She said: “My home country will not be safe for me. My family’s safety is more important than money.”
The email states: “Act now to request support and avoid potential forced removal from the UK.”
Former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott’s son has joined the Green party, according to Sky News.
David Prescott is understood to have joined the Greens in October 2025, a year after his dad died.
In a Facebook post, he is pictured with Green activists campaigning in Gorton and Denton. The caption read: “What. A. Day. Hope Beat Hate.”
Karl Turner, who succeeded John Prescott as the Labour MP in his former seat of Hull East in 2010, told Sky News the defection was “hugely disappointing” but “no surprise.”
“David was born into the Labour Party and like myself he was from a rock-solid socialist and trade union family,” he said.
“Again like myself, David was politically active from a very young age. David was always his own man not his old man.”
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch this morning reinforced that she would support Royal Air Force jets striking Iranian missile launch sites.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, she said:
That is the right thing to do. Otherwise, we are allowing our service personnel to be put in danger. We have to think about them.
Badenoch added:
If this was a nuclear attack, God forbid, it would be too late.
You can’t always wait for people to attack you. Sometimes you have to make sure that you get there first to stop their ability to hurt your citizens.
She said she would like to see a “de-escalation”, but said:
We are in this war whether we like it or not because we have put bases in other people’s countries and we need to protect them.
And what I’m worried about is that our government looks afraid to do anything and just wants to sort of make it go away, and we need to be stronger than that.
Nigel Farage to discuss Chagos Islands deal at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Donald Trump tonight
In the latest example of Nigel Farage doing absolutely anything rather than spend time in his Clacton constituency, the Reform UK leader is to meet Donald Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago tonight, where he says he will discuss the Chagos Islands deal.
Attending a ‘Save Chagos Boat Party’ yesterday, Farage said he would be flying to Florida to dine with the US president on Friday, GB News reported.
He said:
We think this is the central plan for this government’s foreign policy and we are beating them back.
President Trump has almost understood the deal, but I will be dining at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow night and we will reinforce the message.
Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran.
In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Farage earlier this week called for the UK to join Trump’s war in Iran, a view that is wildly at odds with British voters, according to the latest YouGov polling (only 29% support the joint US-Israeli strikes).
Mahmood defends asylum reform plans amid backbench criticism
The home secretary has defended her plans for asylum reform after one backbencher said she was mimicking Donald Trump and another claimed it could lead to a Windrush-style scandal.
Shabana Mahmood announced her plans on Thursday, including an end to permanent refugee status and the removal of government support from asylum seekers who are deemed not to need it or who break the law.
She also launched a pilot project to pay 150 families whose asylum claims had been rejected up to £40,000 each to voluntarily leave the country or face forcible removal.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News last night, she said:
This is about immigration enforcement and it’s about being in a process where you are able to enforce your rules.
If you don’t do that, the flip side is you just end up picking up the tab for hundreds of families, hundreds of thousands of pounds per family every single year.
And it is the taxpayer in the end that’s paying the price of that.
She added:
Otherwise you might as well say to everybody, there’s no rules enforced at all. It’s an open border situation. And I don’t think that has public support either.
Lammy calls for investigation into National Security Council leaks
David Lammy also said there should be an investigation into leaks from a National Security Council meeting which revealed splits in the cabinet over allowing the US to use British bases for strikes against Iran.
The Spectator reported that Keir Starmer suggested allowing the US to use the bases to carry out defensive strikes against Iranian targets at a meeting last Friday but was met with opposition from Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood.
Permission to allow the bases to be used against Iran’s missile sites was only granted on Sunday after Tehran had launched a wave of retaliatory attacks against countries across the Middle East.
Lammy told Sky News:
I don’t recognise those reports and I have to say I think it is a travesty that any anyone should report from a National Security Council… because of course it puts British lives at risk and I hope that is properly investigated.
RAF jets could legally strike Iran’s missile bases, says Lammy
Hello and welcome to the UK politics blog.
Royal Air Force jets could legally strike Iranian missile sites being used to attack British interests in the Middle East, David Lammy has said this morning.
The deputy prime minister stressed that F-35 and Typhoon jets were currently only shooting down missiles and drones fired by Iran at allies in the region.
But he said there was a legal basis for them to do more and strike directly at the Iranian bases being used to launch attacks.
The UK has already given the US permission to use British bases to carry out defensive strikes against Iran’s missile facilities.
He told BBC Breakfast:
It is entirely legal to protect our people and protect our staff, and therefore all operational capability is available to us in those circumstances.
He said the UK had the satellite and intelligence capability to identify Iranian sites.
Asked if the UK could fire at an Iranian base in anticipation of it launching an attack, he said:
It is my understanding that that would be legal.
In other developments:
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The UK is sending four additional Typhoon jets to Qatar, as well as Wildcat helicopters with anti-drone capabilities being sent to Cyprus, Keir Starmer said in a press conference yesterday. He said the US has been allowed to use British airfields to carry out defensive missions and that HMS Dragon is heading for the Mediterranean.
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Kemi Badenoch has said the UK should take offensive action against Iran after UK bases were attacked. “We need to do what we can to stop the ability for these attacks to take place,” the Tory leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
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Shabana Mahmood put herself on a collision course with Labour MPs after announcing a set of changes to the immigration system that one backbencher said mimicked Donald Trump and another claimed would lead to a Windrush-style scandal. The home secretary announced her plans on Thursday, including an end to permanent refugee status and the removal of government support from asylum seekers who are deemed not to need it or who break the law.
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A small number of asylum seekers whose claims are rejected will be offered an “increased incentive payment” of £10,000 per person and up to £40,000 per family to leave Britain under a pilot scheme, Mahmood said. The home secretary said the government would seek to echo reforms introduced in Denmark, where she said there had been “great success” in using incentives.
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The husband of a Labour MP and two other men have been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of spying for China. David Taylor, who is married to the Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid, is accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
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Nigel Farage has described May’s Senedd elections as a “referendum” on Keir Starmeras Reform UK gears up to battle Plaid Cymru for the chance to end a century of Labour dominance in Wales. Launching Reform’s election manifesto in Newport on Thursday alongside the party’s newly appointed Welsh leader, Dan Thomas, Farage said: “It’s a Welsh election, but I’m afraid, whether you like it or not, it doubles up as a referendum on Keir Starmer’s premiership.”
