The former home and foreign secretary recently announced he was quitting the Tory front bench, where he was shadow housing, communities and local government secretary, to seek the party’s nomination for the London mayoral election in 2028.

If selected, Cleverly is expected to take a more moderate approach than the Conservatives’ last candidate, Susan Hall, whose 2024 campaign was heavily criticised for its “narrow and negative” focus on ULEZ and crime.

Yet Cleverly’s comments suggest that, despite his claims of offering something different, he may be returning to one of the Conservatives’ most familiar political battlegrounds, portraying measures designed to tackle air pollution and reduce car dependency as an attack on motorists.

Speaking to Times Radio, Cleverly said he would run a “classically Conservative” campaign.

“I am going to put forward a classic Conservative case to be the mayor of London, and it’s about enterprise, it’s about opportunity,” he said.

“That is a classically Conservative vision, and it will run in parallel to and supportive of Kemi’s plans for the country as a whole.”

But in an interview with the Telegraph, his pitch became more specific. Cleverly accused Khan of running a “vindictive assault on drivers” and promised to review the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which was introduced by Khan in 2019, but was initially conceived and championed by Boris Johnson as London mayor in 2013.

“I think there’s been a real war on the motorist,” said Cleverly.

“In outer London, this really quite vindictive assault on drivers – both people that drive for family reasons and for people that drive for business – is causing real harm. So I want to look at a whole range of options to ease the costs and pressure of people getting around the city and doing business in the city.”

As well as blindly ignoring the fact that ULEZ was originally introduced under a Conservative mayor, Cleverly’s argument ignores a much broader debate about how London should manage pollution, and how ULEZ has significantly cut air pollution and related deaths have fallen by 40 percent since its launch.

The Tories have been down this road before.

Hall’s 2024 campaign repeatedly attacked ULEZ, while presenting Khan’s record on crime as a central issue. At one point, Hall claimed to have been the victim of a pickpocketing on the Underground while criticising Khan’s record on crime. It later emerged that her purse had been found wedged between seats on the Jubilee line, with the £40 inside still intact.

Her campaign also faced criticism after footage emerged of her suggesting that the Black community has “problems with crime”.

Despite the criticism surrounding Hall’s campaign, Cleverly praised her after her defeat by Khan.

“Thank you @Councillorsuzie for standing and campaigning so passionately on behalf of Londoners. The vitriolic and personal attacks never got you down,” he tweeted.

Cleverly has also attempted to broaden his appeal by presenting himself as a defender of London against the Labour government’s devolution plans.

He has accused Andy Burnham of waging a “war on London,” claiming the government’s devolution drive could amount to “centralising power in his own backyard” at the expense of the capital. He has promised to “fight its corner” as part of his mayoral pitch.

Like how his defence of Susan Hall despite her heavy defeat to Sadiq Khan in 2024 attracted criticism, so has his “war on motorists” claim.

“Imagine looking at a city with great transport links, light rail, tube, bus and cycle lanes and thinking ‘you know what this city needs? Cars’,” one person wrote on social media.

“Is he talking about ULEZ that was introduced by (checks notes) Boris Johnson?” another mocked.

“Yes! Down with healthy children’s lungs! Go James!” said another.

“Is it a war on motorists or care for all non motorists? Even people with cars can benefit from clean air and the chance to take their kids on a safe bike ride,” another commented.

Others pointed to the benefits of cleaner air for children with respiratory conditions, while one commenter joked that “bookies reckon there’s more chance of Blackburn winning this season’s Champions League.”

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Reform said Jukes and Orr have been suspended pending an internal investigation.

However, in an interview this morning, Reform MP Lee Anderson said there is “no chance of them coming back” and “They have gone”.

In the undercover video footage, Jukes suggested a way to get around electoral law to secure a foreign donation of £500,000 for Reform.

The investigation was carried out by investigative journalism outlet Verbatim, founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting.

In one clip, Orr suggests that the undercover Verbatim reporter’s American father could pay for an opinion poll.

Orr said the poll would cost £18,000 plus VAT, and suggests the polling company could send the bill to the undercover reporter. 

UK electoral law states that to be a permissible donor to a UK political party you must be a UK registered voter, or a company registered in the UK.

In this case, Reform aimed to get around electoral law by arranging for the British-born son of an American donor to pay for the poll using money provided by his father.

In all, Channel 4 News says Reform commissioned three polls costing £32,500 in total and that the public was not told who commissioned or funded them. 

Not disclosing the funding of the poll and accepting foreign funding would both be illegal. 

Orr said Farage wouldn’t know anything about who funded the poll. He said: “I wouldn’t breathe a word of this to anybody. Nigel doesn’t know, won’t know. It’s the kind of thing he would rather not know.”

However, in another clip, an actor posing as an American businessman says he was “thrilled” to have been able to “pick up the tab” for the JL Partners Poll that Reform commissioned. 

Farage agreed: “Yes, that was great!”, indicating he was aware of who funded it. 

Jukes denied any wrongdoing but said that he had “stepped back from politics in order to clear my name”.

He also said: “This was entrapment over a prolonged period of nearly a year by foreign-funded climate change activists.”

Nigel Farage said: “The party has not done anything wrong, but entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve taken the action we have.”

Former Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell wrote on X: “If Orr and Jukes have had to step down then so should Farage. He was in on the whole thing, as was clear from the footage. Waiting to hear bluster from Richard Stupid Tice shortly … a clue to his conduct. The louder he shouts the guiltier they are.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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The Huffpost reports a van will be circling the NEC venue in Birmingham showing an image of Farage shoulder-deep in wads of cash with the slogan: “You have 5 million questions to answer, Nigel. Tell us about the money.”

Farage has a headache at conference as questions continue to be raised over his failure to declare a £5million gift received from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne. After quitting as Clacton’s MP only to restand in the subsequent by-election, Farage faces the resumption of a Standards Committee probe and the possibility of another by-election, depending on if the probe finds him guilty and sanctions him.

A senior Labour source told HuffPost UK: “The scandals are piling up for Farage and Reform.

“Farage needs to realise that no amount of bluff and bluster at his party conference is going to make the questions go away.

“It’s time he finally came clean with the public and proved he’s not just in it for himself.”

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In a Sun article published on Wednesday, Anderson said he thought the public would vote to bring back capital punishment in the UK. 

The death penalty was abolished in the UK in 1969, but Anderson has voiced support for it since he became an MP in 2019.

Asked if he backed a referendum on the death penalty, the Reform MP said: “We learnt that with the Brexit referendum, it divides the country and gets families falling out with each other. 

“So yes I would, but it would be divisive, very divisive.”

Anderson stated: “This is how out of touch I think Parliament is. I think the public would vote for the death penalty. Parliament would never vote for the death penalty.” 

A YouGov poll from November last year found that eight in ten Reform voters (82%) support bringing back the death penalty, as do two thirds (67%) of Conservative voters.

The level of support for the death penalty falls to 35% among Labour voters and 30% for Lib Dems, with Greens the least likely to support capital punishment at 26%.

Across all British voters, 50% backed a referendum on the death penalty, while 45% were opposed.

Defending the death penalty, Anderson dismissed concerns that innocent people could be executed.

“People say no you might get the wrong person. That’s nonsense. The people that killed Lee Rigby, PC Harper’s killers. They weren’t the wrong people,” he said. 

Maya Foa, CEO of Reprieve, a charity that supports people facing torture, unlawful detention and the death penalty, called Anderson’s comments “attention-seeking bluster, not a serious proposal”. 

“The death penalty is increasingly the preserve of authoritarian regimes, and it says a lot about Lee Anderson that he thinks the UK should be following the example of Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Donald Trump’s USA,” Foa said. 

“The death penalty does not deter crime – the murder rate is consistently higher in US states that have capital punishment than in those that don’t. There is no humane way to execute someone and it often goes wrong – just in the last year, we’ve witnessed horrific scenes of men being tortured in execution chambers in Tennessee and Alabama.

“Every criminal justice system makes mistakes, including Britain’s – look at Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison fighting a wrongful conviction for rape. The death penalty is irreversible, and where it exists, innocent people will inevitably be executed.

“The outcry after Timothy Evans was hanged for murders he didn’t commit eventually led to abolition in the UK. This is what Lee Anderson is proposing we go back to – a cruel, arbitrary and ineffective punishment that most democratic societies rejected long ago.”

Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain also has a policy to hold a referendum on bringing back the death penalty.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Delo was given a 30-month probation sentence in 2022, but Donald Trump granted him a presidential pardon for the offence in 2025. 

Delo gave two lots of £2 million to Reform in January and March this year while he lived in Hong Kong.

In March, Keir Starmer’s government placed a £100,000 cap on donations from overseas electors.

At the time, Delo and fellow crypto investor Christopher Harborne said they would move back to the UK to donate more to Reform. It seems Delo was not affected by the cap, as he donated a further £2 million to Reform in April and another £2 million in May. 

According to the latest Electoral Commission data published yesterday, Harborne did not make any donations in quarter two of this year. 

Iranian-born Sasan Ghandehari did not make any donations during the quarter either. 

In July, Ghandehari pledged to donate millions to Reform despite the donations cap, stating that he was in the process of moving his tax residency from Switzerland to the UK to donate. 

Even without donations from some of its biggest backers, Reform received £5.3 million during the quarter.

Reform received by far the largest amount of donations out of any political party, with the Conservatives taking £3.5 million and Labour receiving £2.8 million.

Other notable donations during the quarter include £100,000 from Johan Christofferson, a hedge fund manager and fox hunter who previously donated thousands of pounds to Boris Johnson. 

Maria Rost, who appears to be the wife of US crypto and insurance investor John Rost, donated a further £15,000 to Reform. She has donated £130,000 to the party since July 2024. 

Sotheby’s International Realty, the real estate branch of Sotheby’s the art dealer, donated £20,000 to Farage’s party in June.

Bassim Haidar, a telecoms and fintech billionaire and one of Reform’s biggest donors, donated a further £192,000 to the party between April and June this year.

Lucas Bitencourt, who is founder of investment firm Arbra, donated £100,000 to Reform UK. 

Roger Nagioff, the founder of another investment firm, JRJ Group, also donated £100,000 to the party. 

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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A senior aide to Farage, Dan Jukes, was filmed suggesting a way to get around electoral law to secure a foreign donation of £500,000 for Reform UK.

Electoral law in the UK states that to be a permissible donor to a UK political party you must be a UK registered voter, or a company registered in the UK.

The undercover investigation was carried out by a group of investigative journalists called Verbatim, founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting.

Posing as the son of an American donor , he is filmed raising a concern that his father wouldn’t be able to directly donate to Reform within the law.

Filmed standing outside a pub in Westminster, Jukes tells the undercover reporter “you do realise that you can do it?”

Channel 4 say Jukes was suggesting that the donation could be in the UK-based son’s name, although the money would have come from his American father.

“Actually that does strike me as a solution,” Jukes continues.

He then admits to having done the same thing several times before.

“That’s one of the ways in which we do it,” he is recorded as saying.

In an earlier clip taken by Channel 4, James Orr, Reform’s head of policy, suggests to the undercover reporter that perhaps his father could pay for opinion polling to help Reform’s campaigning.

He says the poll would cost £18,000 plus VAT – and Orr suggests that perhaps the polling company could send the bill to the undercover reporter.

Channel 4 News says Reform commissioned three polls costing £32,500 in total and that the public was not told who commissioned or funded them.

Not disclosing such funding would be illegal and accepting this kind of foreign funding would also be illegal.

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The Representation of the People Bill passed its third reading yesterday, but key amendments from backbenchers on voting reform and a donations cap were not heard.

Campaign group Unlock Democracy has branded the government’s failure to act on electoral reform and barriers to overseas voting “major missed opportunities”. 

Alex Sobel MP’s amendment, which called for a national commission to review alternatives to first-past-the-post for UK elections, was ruled out of scope by the Commons speaker.

This is despite widespread support for the amendment, which 185 MPs signed.

Democracy minister Florence Eshalomi responded to the amendment saying: “The government’s priority is a politics that works for all people in all places, not some people in some places. The Prime Minister remains committed to electoral reform as a way of supporting that objective.

“However, we must be honest, this is a complex constitutional matter and it is premature to legislate now for one approach. I would be very happy to meet with many Members from across the House to hear their views, and look at how we can work on a strong proposal and discuss the next steps.”

Tom Brake called the decision to rule the amendment out of scope “palpably absurd and an embarrassment”.

Brake said: “The Prime Minister says he wants to build cross-party consensus on changing the voting system before the next election. An independent commission is the best way to do that. It would put reform above the immediate interests of any one party and help build support for a lasting settlement.”

Labour MP Stella Creasy tabled two amendments on introducing a donations cap, neither of which were considered or voted on during the bill’s third reading yesterday.

One of her proposals, which was signed by more than 60 MPs, called for an immediate £500,000 limit which would reduce to £100,000 in the second calendar year.

The other called for a £100,000 cap on donations and was sponsored by 45 MPs.

On the government’s commitment to tackle “mega donors” in UK politics, Brake welcomed the fact that Angela Rayner and Louise Haigh have asked the Electoral Commission to review political spending limits.

Democracy Minister Florence Eshalomi announced a cross-government taskforce to tackle the issue of “UK-based mega-donors” during yesterday’s elections bill debate.

However, Brake added that “the Ministers’ statement from the despatch box leaves important questions unanswered. We know nothing about its membership, the options it will consider or when it is expected to report. A promise to act “as soon as possible” offers no guarantee that reforms will be in place before the next general election.

“These reviews must deliver real reform, not provide an excuse for putting off difficult decisions. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating – and whether the government is prepared to restrict the influence of big money in our politics.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Sagal Abdi-Wali is among the names being suggested as a potential Labour candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election triggered by Keir Starmer’s resignation from parliament.

Abdi-Wali is the Labour leader of Camden Council as of May. She came to the UK as a child refugee with her family more than 30 years ago.

In a disgraceful post on X, Yusuf, who is Reform’s home affairs spokesman, said: “The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia. Do you understand what’s happening?”

His comments were immediatly condemned, with Dan Hodges replying: “This is simply racism. No other word for it.”

Another social media user wrote: “Yes we understand Zia, it’s called a parliamentary democracy. Rather than being a racist twat, why not man up and run against her.”

Labour NEC member Abdi Duale replied to Yusuf: “You are a disgraceful racist.”

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Farage, who quit as an MP after facing questions and a Standards Committee probe into his failure to properly declare a £5million donation he had recieved from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne, decided to re-stand in the same by-election in a bid to deflect from difficult questions.

His stunt spectacularly backfired after all of the major parties decided not to stand and Farage was left to face satirical candidate Count Binface.

However, now that Farage is back in the Commons, the parliamentary investigation into his alleged failure to declare the donation has resumed.

If Farage is found to have broken the rules and is suspended by parliament’s standards committee for more than 10 days, yet another by-election could take place.

When the BBC’s Chris Mason asked Farage what was the point of last month’s by-election, the Reform leader claimed that he would not be given a fair hearing.

Then asked about a separate Metropolitan Police investigation into four large donations to Reform UK, Farage insisted “we live in a complainant society”.

He said: “If you complain about me, automatically that triggers an investigation. So we’re under investigation every day for virtually everything we do, because the other political parties are constantly writing to all the authorities.

“There is a whole ecosystem with a century of development around this, and we come along from virtually nowhere and threaten the whole thing.

“So I think what you’re seeing is the establishment, in a very coordinated way, fighting back. But do you know something, it isn’t going to work.”

Mason answered: “Doesn’t that sound a bit conspiracy theory-like? This ‘the whole world’s out to get us’ stuff.”

Farage insisted there was a “degree of collusion” between Reform’s opponents.

Rather than playing victim, maybe Farage could answer the questions about his failure to declare the donations?

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Polanski had previously said he would stand in a by-election if a seat became vacant in London and has now announced he is ready to fight one.

The high-profile contest has been triggered by the ex-prime minister Keir Starmer stepping down as an MP earlier this week.

As reported by the Camden New Journal, Polanski said he was “excited” by the prospect of representing Holborn and St Pancras in Parliament.

He told the local newspaper: “I have lived and worked in this community over many years, I know it well and I love it.”

“It represents so many of the things that make London so special. I am so excited by the prospect of representing this place in Parliament.”

Polanski added: “We know that the Greens can win here, and by electing me, voters will have someone who will always fight their corner – never scared of big donors or the party whip.”

The Green party leader said that “too often Labour has stood up for corporations and big money”, adding “I will stand up for people struggling to pay their bills”. 

At the 2024 general election, Andrew Feinstein stood as an independent and came second behind Starmer with almost 19% of the vote.

It is unclear whether Feinstein plans to stand again. However, Polanski’s announcement suggests he may not, given that he teamed up with the Greens and Your Party at last year’s local elections to avoid splitting the vote.

LFF has contacted Feinstein for comment. 

Labour has yet to confirm its candidate. However, there is speculation that journalist Paul Mason, who previously backed Jeremy Corbyn before becoming a staunch supporter of Starmer’s project, could run as the party’s candidate.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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