UK politics latest: Reeves criticised for China trip amid fall in pound as Reform MPs cash in on Musk’s X

Reform MPs including Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson have been accused of profiting from “spreading hateful rhetoric” after it emerged they’ve made thousands of pounds from posting content on Elon Musk’s social media site X.

Mr Farage, Mr Anderson and Rupert Lowe MP have all declared thousands in payments from the company in their recent parliamentary register of interests, via its ‘Creator’ revenue programme.

The scheme allows premium users with over 500 verified followers to ‘monetise’ their accounts on the controversial site, which has grown increasingly toxic since it was taken over by billionaire Musk in 2022. More than £10,000 has been paid to the trio since July last year, according to parliamentary filings.

However, Mr Farage has suggested that Reform MPs are not the only ministers making money from the scheme. He said: “Many MPs are on X and have the tick. Whilst their views are tiny compared to ours they will be receiving money, it’s automatic once you pay for the tick so why are we the only ones declaring?”

Athena Stavrou and Millie Cooke report:

A senior minister has said she disagrees with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s calls for a limited national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Asked about his intervention, culture secretary Lisa Nandy told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I get the point that Andy’s making. He said that there was a case for a smaller, more limited national inquiry into the specific issues that the inquiry that he instigated could not pick up.

“I do understand that because the inquiry that we had here in Greater Manchester, astonishingly, some of the Greater Manchester Police officers refused to even take part, and the local inquiry couldn’t compel them to do so.”

She added: “But I do disagree with Andy actually. The reason that the Theresa May government set up a national inquiry, which ran for seven years and took evidence from thousands of victims, is precisely because of the points that Andy made.

“That inquiry found what every inquiry has found, that young girls weren’t believed because they were young, they were female, and they were working class, and that the systems that were supposed to protect them protected themselves instead of protecting those brave young victims.”

Asked if Labour was cross with Mr Burnham, Ms Nandy said: “It’s impossible to be cross with Andy Burnham, but also this is the whole point of devolution, is that we want to make sure that people’s views are heard from across the country.”

Former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve has warned that Rachel Reeves could soon be forced to raise taxes or make “very severe” cuts to public services.

“Really what the Budget did was to increase the provision for public services in the coming year quite markedly to a 3 per cent increase. But the projections assume thereafter it will fall back to a little over 1 per cent a year,” Sir John told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“And if you then say ‘well but the health service has to go up by a lot more than 1 per cent a year, and defence spending is due to go up, and so on’, you quite quickly realise that 1 per cent a year for the total is going to require cuts in many programmes.

“And those have not been announced. So the choice she’s going to face in the spending review and then the Budget in the autumn is: can I raise borrowing – and the increase in interest rates that’s happened now, if it continues, will decrease her scope for doing that within her rules – or do I increase taxes again, or do I actually institute some very severe reductions and squeezes on public services?”

The cost of UK government borrowing climbed again as markets opened on Friday, following a week of volatility.

The yield on a 10-year gilt rose to 4.85 per cent in early trading, up more than three basis points compared to Thursday’s closing price.

Meanwhile, yields on 30-year gilts reached 5.41 per cent in early trading, also up three basis points. The longer-term gilt yield had hit its highest point since 1998 on Thursday, before settling later in the day.

Both 10-year and 30-year gilts eased back slightly after early trades, but remained up several basis points.

The rise in gilt yields has an inverse effect on the price of government bonds, which have fallen in recent days as a result, increasing the cost of borrowing.

The pound was down 0.1 per cent against the dollar on Friday morning, with Sterling valued at $1.229.

Former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve has warned that a lot of “difficult new decisions” will need to be taken for Rachel Reeves to stick to her fiscal rules.

Asked why the cost of government borrowing is rising now, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well this is very different from the Truss debacle, in that it’s not a response to anything that we’ve done in the UK. Our long-term bollowing yields tend to follow US borrowing yields quite closely.

“And what’s happening is that markets are taking a different view on how [the US] economy is going to go once President Trump’s in office, and their rates have gone up to 4.75 per cent on 10-year Treasuries, and ours have gone up in parallel to that.

“So I don’t think this is a response to something we’ve done … We’ve always followed US movements more closely than Europe has, and also we’re borrowing a lot of money. The Budget did increase our projections of borrowing markedly for the next few years and we already spend £100bn on debt interest every year.”

He added: “So yes we are a bit more vulnerable. I think what’s happening here in relation to Britain is that the Treasury has come forward and tried to reassure markets by saying ‘we’ve got new fiscal rules and we’re definitely going to stick to those’.

“But it’s becoming clearer and clearer that that’s going to be very difficult and going to require a lot of difficult new decisions.”

Elon Musk has privately discussed with allies how Sir Keir Starmer could be removed as prime minister ahead of the next general election, the Financial Times has reported, citing people briefed on the matter.

The billionaire, who is set to hold a senior post in Donald Trump’s new US administration, is looking into ways that he and his allies can destabilise the Labour government in the UK beyond his campaign of attacks on X, those sources claimed, with one saying: “His view is that western civilisation itself is threatened.”

He is claimed to have sought information about whether it might be possible to do so by building support for alternative British political movements such as Reform UK.

As the UK’s borrowing costs hit their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride accused Rachel Reeves of being “missing in action” as he warned that she should cancel her trip to China and “and focus on this country instead”.

In the Commons, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice also said Ms Reeves should “return from her ridiculous trip” given that the pound is “almost collapsing”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also backed Tory calls for Ms Reeves to cancel her trip, saying: “Instead of jetting off to China, the chancellor should urgently come before the House of Commons to cancel her counterproductive jobs tax and set out a real plan for growth.”

There is no need to be worried about high Government borrowing costs, Lisa Nandy suggested.

Asked about the UK’s shaky financial markets, the Culture Secretary told Sky News: “I don’t think we should be worried.

“It’s obviously something we take very seriously, but these are global trends that have affected many countries, most notably the United States, as well as the UK.

“We are still on track to be the fastest growing economy, according to the OECD in Europe.”

Ms Nandy said the Government’s self-imposed tax and spend rules are “non-negotiable”.

“We’re not going to borrow for day-to-day spending,” she added.

Rachel Reeves was “absolutely” right to continue in her trip to China despite trouble in the UK financial markets, Lisa Nandy said.

Asked if the Chancellor had made the right call in not cancelling the overseas visit, the Culture Secretary told Sky News: “Absolutely it was.”

She added: “China is the second largest economy, and what China does has the biggest impact on people from Stockton to Sunderland, right across the UK, and it’s absolutely essential that we have a relationship with them.

“We need to make sure that the UK economy remains competitive, we need to challenge where we must, including in the area of human rights, but we also need to make sure that we are working with China on those areas of shared interest.”

Elon Musk interviewed the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party live on X on Thursday evening.

In a 74-minute conversation with the party’s frontwoman Alice Weidel touched on immigration, German bureaucracy, energy policy, space colonisation, God and Adolf Hitler.

The Tesla boss doubled down on his support for the party and urged Germans to vote for AfD in the upcoming election.

“People really need to get behind AfD, otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany,” Musk said. “I think Alice Weidel is a very reasonable person. Nothing outrageous is being proposed.”