Nigel Farage latest: Leader battles to contain donations scandal – while police probe Reform crowd altercation

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See our latest report, on Nigel Farage saying he expects more investigations into Reform, here

Nigel Farage would “crush” Argentina if he were prime minister, Robert Jenrick has said.

On the second and final day of Reform’s annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Jenrick said: “If Nigel Farage was our prime minister, we would use every lever of the British state, our Armed Forces, our economic sanctions – everything to defend the Falklands. And we would crush Argentina.”

To publicise Reform’s tax-free allowance policy, Robert Jenrick has allowed himself a little Twitter stunt:

Robert Jenrick confirmed his promise to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000.

The Reform UK economic spokesman told the party conference: “Here is my pledge to you and to the country.

“In the first 100 days of a Reform government, in our first Reform budget, we will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570, not just with inflation, not just to £13,000, not just to £14,000, but to £15,000.

“The first 15 grand you earn is yours. Every penny, every penny is yours tax-free, £500 a year for the average basic rate taxpayer.”

He said: “A tax cut for 40 million people. The biggest rise in the personal allowance in its history, and delivered not in 10 years but in my very first budget.”

Mr Jenrick added: “If I don’t deliver this exactly when I have said that I will, I will resign. No ifs, not buts, I will be gone.”

Laila Cunningham received a double standing ovation at Reform conference as she declared that the “people that broke” London “cannot be the ones to fix it”.

There were loud cheers for Ms Cunningham as she set out her pitch for the capital and closed out her high energy speech – a marked change from the slightly downbeat tone at Reform’s conference.

More from Laila Cunningham:

Giving her pitch to be the next London mayor, she has said she wants “London to be a city where millionaires happen”.

“I’m not standing for mayor merely to tell you what has gone wrong in London. I don’t want to be another commentator commenting on decline. I want to be the person who ends it.”, she said.

“I want to restore the promise London gave me and have my family. I want a child growing up in Kilburn to believe the thing which makes them different might one day become their strength.

“I want the woman sitting at her kitchen table with an idea to believe she can build the next great company.”I want London to be a city where millionaires happen, where the nurse, the police officer, the teacher and the small business owner can afford a life.”

Earlier at the conference was Laila Cunningham, who has said she will have a “zero tolerance” approach to crime if she becomes London Mayor.

She claimed Britain has reached a stage “where crime is excused”, adding that Reform is “fighting for justice for the victims and not for the criminals”.

She added: “When I say there will be zero tolerance for crime, I mean it.

“I’m running because I want criminals looking over their shoulders, not Londoners.”

Activist group Climate Resistance have claimed responsibility for the protest during Nigel Farage’s speech yesterday, PA reports.

The group said it was “horrified at the violence” from Reform conference audience members, with a women having her hair pulled and her head grabbed.

The group also said the protester is considering whether to come forward to police.

Lee Anderson has accused schools in Britain of “brainwashing our children” after he was compared to dictator Benito Mussolini.

“Our schools, our education system are indoctrinating our children”, Reform’s chairman said. I visited a school in Ashfield a few months ago to check on the year 9 history lessons and on the wall they’ve got a chart. And on the chart it described different types of politicians.

“On the right hand side of the chart, it had words like ‘far right, nazis, fascists’. And underneath, they’ve got some pictures: Mussolini, Oswald Mosley, me and Nigel [Farage].”

“You might find that mildly amusing but I tell you what, it’s not mildly amusing to the thousands of people in Ashfield who voted for me at the last general election. Many of whose children are in that class still doing history.

“Imagine that kid going home and saying to his mum and dad, ‘dad you voted for a nazi or a fascist or someone who is on the far right of politics.’ Theyre brainwashing our children, these idiots. They must be stupid.”

Lee Anderson has dubbed politicians who believe refugees should be welcome in Britain “idiots” who “need to get a grip”.

He told Reform’s conference: “These idiots – and there’s quite a few idiots at the moment in parliament – who say these young men crossing the channel are in genuine need, they need to get a grip.”

And if they are that genuine, if they are doctors and engineers and scientists, why is it that these namby-pamby ‘refugees welcome’ politicians, once they’re told that a nearby camp is going to house 1,200 illegal migrants they’re suddenly up in arms?

“They’re protesting saying ‘its not suitable, we’ve not got the right infrastructure’. Absolute hypocrites the lot of them.”