Labour MPs urge Burnham to ditch Mahmood’s ‘hostile rhetoric’ on immigration – UK politics live

Libby Brooks has written her First Edition briefing about the Reform UK funding scandal. It features an interview with Anna Isaac, who broke the story about Farage’s undisclosed £5m donation and who has led the Guardian’s coverage of this controversy.

The Labour party has welcomed the news that the Metropolitan police are investigating donations worth £500,000 made to Reform UK by Fiona Cottrell, whose son George is a convicted fraudster and a friend and aide to Nigel Farage. Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, said:

Nigel Farage can run against a bin in his distraction byelection, but he can’t hide from legitimate questions. Why did the mother of the convicted criminal who secretly bankrolled him donate half a million pounds to Reform UK? Where did the money come from? Why did George Cottrell have such a prominent role in his operation without having an actual job? It’s right that the Metropolitan Police are looking into this.

The British public know when they’re being taken for fools – if Nigel Farage could clear his name, he would have done it by now.