The Times - 05.11.2026 — 2026-11-05

Thursday November 5 2026 | thetimes.com | No 75182

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Trump faces backlash as Democrats make history

President's opponents seize control of Congress • Vance blames Iran war as party inquest begins

David Charter Washington

Larisa Brown Defence Editor

President Trump warned Democrats against impeaching him for a third time after the party's historic success in the US midterm elections gave them full control of Congress and kicked off Republican recriminations.

James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton to win a Senate seat in Texas. He is the first Democrat to do so for nearly 40 years

Trump said impeachment would “destroy” the Democratic Party because the US was “more successful now than at any time in its history”, despite his unprecedented repudiation by voters in traditionally Republican red states.

Democrats captured seven Republican Senate seats, in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and, in the biggest prize of the night, in Texas. They also took several dozen seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Votes were still being counted in close Senate races in Alaska and, in one of the stand-out shocks of the election, in deep red Mississippi.

JĐ Vance, the vice-president, who privately argued against the US-led war on Iran, blamed the conflict for the defeats in a move seen as an attempt to maintain his probable campaign for the 2028 presidential nomination.

"The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," Vance wrote on X. He was referring to Trump's remarks to The Wall Street Journal that "Iran was a piece of it" but that "I don't think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again."

While declining to make the same argument as Trump, Vance added: “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so... But everyone knows why we lost.”

As Trump entered a lame duck period with Congress stacked against him for the first time during his two presidential terms, another possible 2028 contender emerged in Ron DeSantis, the outgoing governor in Florida, where Republicans defied the “blue wave” that swept much of the country. He called it as “close to an extinction-level event” for the party “in many parts of the country, as we have seen probably in the last 100 years”.

NBC News projected that the final outcome for the House of Representatives could be a Democratic majority of 81, far beyond all forecasts.

Among many history-making moments, the US has its first Muslim senator in Abdul El-Sayed, a left-winger from Michigan, and its first Democratic senator from Kansas for 94 years in Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor new to politics. Several Republican candidates forced onto the ballot by Trump crashed out: the former Texas attorney-general Ken Paxton lost to James Talarico in the most expensive US Senate contest to date: more than \$500m was spent. In South Carolina, a state Trump won by 18 points in 2024, Darline Graham, sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham, was beaten by Annie Andrews, a paediatrician.

Elon Musk spent \$446m on Republican races, including \$224m in Texas, which went so badly for the party that, as well as the Senate seat and governor's mansion, Democrats won the four seats up for election on the state supreme court.

Trump, who in the campaign urged voters to “pretend I am on the ballot”, reacted defiantly by posting that if he had been on the voting paper, “We would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”

He told Fox News his supporters were simply not enthusiastic about many of the Republican candidates. “I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he said. An Associated Press exit poll found three quarters of voters were “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the direction of the US. Six in ten said higher prices were “more because of Trump’s policies”. Young and Hispanic voters who moved towards Trump in 2024 shifted away.

Allaying fears among many in America that he would try to overturn adverse results, Trump told The New York Times that he was “absolutely willing to accept those results ... We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out.”

Trump was criticised on the eve of the election for holding his final press conference in front of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, one of his renovation projects in Washington.

MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS

For his first appearance after the vote he chose the White House ballroom, another project symbolic of criticism that he is out of touch with voters. Trump told reporters on an impromptu tour of the ballroom that Vance's words were “largely true” because the Iran war drove up petrol prices “a little bit, short term”.

Andy Burnham described the results as an “opportunity” to bring down the cost of living, and urged the president to “resolve” the Middle East conflict.

When Trump was asked about reports that Pete Hegseth's future as secretary of war was on the line, he said: "No, I think he's doing a very good job."

Senior Democrats have been wary of calls for another impeachment of Trump but Hakeem Jeffries, the incoming House Speaker, has said he wants to "run Hegseth out of town". Reports and analysis, pages 4-7 Voters want cheaper prices not ballrooms, leading article, page 25

Billions spent on post-Brexit food checks will be wasted

Oliver Wright Policy Editor

The taxpayer has spent billions of pounds preparing Britain for post-Brexit food checks that are to be scrapped as part of Labour's reset with the European Union.

This month Andy Burnham is due to announce a new deal with Brussels that will eliminate controls on food and agricultural goods crossing the Channel and the Irish Sea. The prime minister said on Tuesday that the deal could increase Britain's long-term growth by 0.4 per cent of GDP.

But the deal will mean that several billion pounds of projects introduced under the previous Conservative government to prepare the UK for the checks will have been wasted.

This includes about £750m spent over three years to implement the Windsor framework that processes goods crossing between Britain and Northern Ireland.

It also includes hundreds of millions spent on setting up eight temporary inspection units around ports that were due to implement phytosanitary checks, which show if plant products are free from pests or diseases, on foods entering the UK from Europe. Those checks have never been implemented.

Overall, the National Audit Office has estimated that the taxpayer has spent about £4.7bn on 13 significant border-related programmes between 2019 and this year. The figure is the equivalent of about £130 each for every taxpayer in the country and about 10 per cent of the entire schools budget.

While those programmes include the cost of updating Britain's customs systems, which is not included under the present deal, many relate to the food checks and implementing the new trade border in the Irish Sea.

Some £800m has been spent on setting up the infrastructure and systems required to deliver the sanitary and phytosanitary controls on the movement of goods.

Hundreds of millions of pounds more were spent providing support for exporters who had to adapt to the new rules that will now go.

Meanwhile, the headcount of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs tripled in the decade after Britain left the EU as it took on about 3,000 more staff to deal with the consequences of Brexit red tape.

One of the most significant costs has been the construction of customs facilities that were designed to process EU food imports into the UK to make sure that they complied with British phytosanitary rules.

But despite a pledge to impose these Continued on page 2

News

Today's highlights

7am Angela Eagle, environment secretary

10.15am How to Win an Election with Daniel Finkelstein, Polly Mackenzie and Sally Morgan

3.35pm Laura Kuenssberg discusses her book Pay Attention

5.10pm Mehdi Hasan British-American broadcaster

5.35pm Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, right, former prisoner in Iran

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TODAY'S EDITION

UK's shocking policies attract migrants, says Élysée hopeful

Adam Sage Zuydcoote

British police will be prevented from carrying out border checks on France's Channel coast unless the UK changes its “shocking” immigration policies, a centre-right presidential candidate has vowed.

Édouard Philippe, President Macron's former prime minister, said that Britain's approach to immigration was "incoherent" and responsible for "tragedies" in the Channel. He criticised what he called the "absurdity" of a situation where French police tried to stop migrants from crossing to Britain when Andy Burnham's policies encouraged them to do just that.

He also said that if he became president next year, he would ask Britain to fund the entire cost of French policing operations on the coast. Under a three-year deal signed in April, the UK government agreed to provide £662m — about half the overall cost, according to French officials.

Philippe, 55, who casts himself as the mainstream champion in the face of extremist threats from the radical left and populist right, was speaking after meeting police officers and mayors in Zuydcoote near Dunkirk to discuss cross-Channel migration.

He said France should “significantly review our relationship with Britain”.

Philippe added that if Burnham refused to tighten immigration policies and pay Paris more money, he would pull out of the Touquet treaty, which authorises police from Britain and France to carry out border checks in each other's country, giving British officers the right to operate in Calais and other coastal towns.

He said Britain gave residency rights or asylum to almost two thirds of migrants who crossed the Channel, and added that even those officially told to leave were in practice able to stay and live and work. “We must take stock of the absurdity of the current situation. French ... police officers are working tirelessly to stop people who have no right to be on French territory from leaving French territory. And when they do manage to leave French territory, they have a 60 to 65 per cent chance of obtaining legal status in England. And those who do not obtain regular legal status in England can work in England because there are no control mechanisms over illegal working.”

He went on to urge Brussels to follow a similar path by adopting a tougher stance, saying the UK's failure to regulate immigration was creating disorder in Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as in France. "I believe we must enter into much firmer discussions with the British. We are all confronted with this issue of the UK's power of attraction and the burdens borne by ... European countries, linked in my view to a form of incoherence in how the UK organises entry onto its territory.

“That is why I think we ... must find a way to process asylum applications within Europe. We must have a much stronger agreement with the UK.”

He added that Britain's policies were a “pull factor” for migration and were to blame for “tragedies” in the Channel, with 24 lives lost so far this year.

Marine Le Pen, the populist right-wing National Rally candidate, is polling at about 35 per cent in the first round of the spring presidential election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hard-left France Unbowed contender, is on about 17.5 per cent and Philippe is third on about 15 per cent. The top two candidates go through to the second round if no one gets 50 per cent in the first.

Labour will make it harder to issue oil drilling licences

Aubrey Allegretti

Chief Political Correspondent

The government is to bring in legislation that will make it harder to reverse its ban on new oil and gas licences.

A bill introduced yesterday will permanently enshrine the moratorium on further drilling applications. Any subsequent government will require a majority in parliament to overturn it in future.

It builds on Labour's 2024 manifesto pledge, which sought to end new oil and gas licences being granted to help the UK meet its climate targets.

Pioneered by Ed Miliband when he was energy secretary and taken up by his successor, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Independence Bill is designed to appeal to environment-minded voters but has angered some unions.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the bill would “end new oil and gas licensing to explore new fields and support the management of existing fields for their lifetime”.

Transitional Energy Certificates will be introduced in an attempt to provide “certainty” to North Sea oil and gas operators during the transition. These will replace the present open-ended licences and govern the management of existing fields through their remaining lifetimes.

Andy Burnham said: "This bill will make the changes needed for the long term: protecting people when energy companies let them down, giving communities a stake in the power produced on their doorstep and building more cheap, green power here at home.

"Together, these changes will bring bills down for good, give families greater security and put Britain back in control of its energy future."

Fahnbulleh approved the Jackdaw gasfield but has yet to make a decision about the Rosebank oilfield, both off Scotland.

Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, told The Daily Telegraph: "Labour's so-called energy independence bill will only make Britain more dependent on oil and gas imports. Labour might as well hang a ‘closed for business’ sign over our North Sea."

David Whitehouse, the chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, a trade body for Britain's oil and gas producers, told the newspaper: "This will leave households and businesses exposed in an increasingly volatile world." Oil falls after US vote, page 31

Crunch time for Britain's 'meaty' crisps

Geraldine Scott, Ben Clatworthy

Smoky bacon crisps could be banned under a food agreement with the EU. The snack would need to be repackaged or reformulated to comply with laws being considered by Brussels.

Calling the flavour “bacon” would fall foul of a directive that would prohibit “meaty” terms being used to describe vegetarian food. Almost all smoky bacon crisps are made with flavourings as opposed to real meat products. Vegetarian “steak”, “pork” Pot Noodles and “chicken”-flavoured crisps could also be banned.

The UK and EU will align on food standards for the first time since Brexit under a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement due to be ratified this month. It will mean that UK products will be considered as EU ones.

The Food and Drink Federation has backed the deal because it would ease barriers to trade and reduce red tape, but warned there would be unintended consequences. Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer, said: “It is important that UK interests are considered in EU decisions.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Cost of post-Brexit checks

checks immediately after Brexit, their implementation was delayed repeatedly, leaving the new facilities largely empty. They are now being scrapped altogether as part of the new deal with Brussels, due to be agreed at a special summit between Burnham and EU leaders later this month.

In an interview with the BBC, Mike Sellers, the director at Portsmouth International Port, said it had built one of the biggest border control posts to carry out these biosecurity checks for food products coming in, which was now wasted. While £17m was paid by the government, the port itself, which is owned by the city council, had to find a further £6m that would otherwise have been spent on “essential services”.

“We’ve gone through stages from 2022 to 2024 when the government at the time changed their policies, changed the way they were going to carry out those checks,” Sellers said.

“We built something that took two acres of our land that had to carry out, on average, 80 trailer checks a day. By the time of the operating model the government settled on in 2024 that went down to on average two checks a day. It’s never ever been used for the scale that it was built for.” He added: “We need compensation.”

Anand Menon, a professor of politics at King's College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, said: "There is more than a touch of the grand old Duke of York to all this. Ever since the referendum the government has spent billions of pounds preparing the UK for Britain's new trading relationship with Europe and helping businesses adapt. And this is not just a cost to the taxpayer. Businesses as well are spending money and time adapting to ever-changing regulations."

A government source said: "The Tory Brexit deal was bad for business and bad for the country, leaving piles of red tape and extra costs. That's why we're securing a better deal that will tear down barriers to trade and back British business and jobs." Reset with Europe is no big deal for this PM, Hugo Rifkind, page 23 Pure pragmatism should govern reset with the EU, leading article, page 25

Winslet leads stars bringing Pelicot case to the stage

Four-hour play based on the trial of dozens of sex abusers will also feature real lawyers, David Sanderson writes

The cream of British acting talent, including Kate Winslet and Brian Cox, will team up with lawyers for a one-off London stage production based on the Gisèle Pelicot sexual abuse case.

Ambika Mod, Tobias Menzies, Juliet Stevenson, George MacKay and Indira Varma will also form part of the starry cast of The Pelicot Trial alongside Harriet Wistrich, a leading solicitor, and Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, a human rights lawyer.

The four-hour production created by Milo Rau and Servane Dècle is based on the testimony delivered during the trial of Pelicot's husband Dominique and 50 other men accused of sexually assaulting her while she was drugged.

In December 2024 Dominique Pelicot was convicted of aggravated rape and 50 other men were found guilty of various sexual offences.

The play has been performed in Avignon, southern France, where the trial took place, and in Vienna, New York, Lisbon and Milan with a different company performing it each time.

The British production, by the Young Vic Theatre, is due to be held at London County Hall on November 30. It has sold out but will be streamed live on the Young Vic's YouTube channel from 6pm on the day.

Other members of the London company include the comedian Rosie O'Donnell, the countertenor Hugh Cutting, the Rizzle Kicks rapper Jordan Stephens and the actors Adjoa Andoh, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Samuel West.

Nadia Fall, artistic director of the Young Vic, said she had found the French version of the play “jaw-dropping, harrowing, really emotional”.

She said that such a strong ensemble was made possible because it was a short commitment with just one rehearsal and one performance.

Since waiving her right to anonymity at the trial of her husband and his fellow abusers, Gisèle Pelicot, 73, has become a feminist role model.

Pelicot, who only became aware in 2020 that she had been sexually abused by her husband for the previous decade, said she wanted to publicise the case to help protect other woman and to help ensure the “shame” fell on her abusers. Her memoir, A Hymn To Life, has been one of the year’s most

successful books. Dècle said Pelicot had agreed to the writing of the play, which was based on notes from

around 600 hours of hearings at the trial, and had seen it in New York.

Dècle previously said that Pelicot told her the actress playing her “was doing better than I did on trial”.

Fall said Pelicot represented resilience and courage with her story being "two fingers up to

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Gisèle Pelicot became a feminist icon after waiving her right to anonymity to ensure the “shame” fell on her abusers. Below, Ambika Mod, Kate Winslet and Brian Cox

the patriarchy”. She said The Pelicot Trial was “a piece of confronting event-theatre which bears witness to the harrowing story of Gisèle Pelicot”.

The Swiss playwright and director Milo Rau, who has previously adapted for the stage the trial in Russia of the Pussy Riot band and the one in Romania of its former ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, said in an interview this year that the play was performed only once in each city adding that it was a “political act”. He said the journalists covering the trial had handed over thousands of pages of their notebooks.

“Everyone wanted to share with us,” he told the Guardian. “It became a trial of our society, of the patriarchy ... Sadly it is a universal experience. It would be better for humanity if this was just a French experience.”

Son shoots down spy chiefs casting doubt on Le Carré's work

David Sanderson Arts Correspondent

John le Carré's son has questioned why a spy chief is relitigating an argument about the authenticity of his father's depiction of the espionage world, saying his father had already publicly “trashed” spies who questioned his prose.

Nick Harkaway said the spy chiefs who criticised his father's depiction of Britain's security services worked in a "totally different world" from the one his father inhabited and wrote about in books such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Harkaway said that prior to his death in 2020 his father had in The Times rebutted suggestions from Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, that his novels were not realistic depictions.

Harkaway, whose latest Le Carré' continuation novel The Taper Man has just been released, was responding to criticisms of his father's novels from Sir

David Omand, a former head of GCHQ. Omand said to “forget about Le Carré” when asked at Cheltenham Literature Festival which spy novelists were worth reading. “Just read it for pleasure,” Omand said of Le Carré’s canon. “It is not realistic. The level of mistrust that Le Carré portrays; no intelligence service could survive if there is insider conflict.”

His comments echoed Dearlove's criticisms when the former MI6 chief said Le Carré flipped the "coin of reality ... intelligence organisations are based on trust between colleagues. His books are exclusively about betrayal." Dearlove said he resented how Le Carré had "traded on his knowledge and reputation and yet the feeling I get is that he really rather intensely dislikes the service", adding that the writer had a cynical view of Britain's security services.

Harkaway told Times Radio yesterday that Dearlove had joined MI6 in

1966, three years after Le Carré had left the service, and would have little idea of the “office culture” in his father’s time, a period when the Cambridge spies, including Kim Philby, were “starting to be revealed”. He said his father left in 1963

Sir David Omand advised readers to "forget about" John le Carré, right

after the success of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and that when Dearlove and “much later” Omand had joined Britain’s spy agencies it was a “totally different world”. He added: “I would like to know why they are relitigating an argument that Richard Dearlove lost with my father when he was still alive. My dad articulated his response [to Dearlove in 2019 in a letter to The Times] rather eloquently and it was one of the most extraordinary public thrashings he ever administered."

In his letter Le Carré rebutted suggestions from Dearlove that Britain's spies were “pretty angry” about his portrayal of MI6 and said other spy chiefs including Sir John Scarlett, David Spedding and Antony Duff had invited him to dinner or became friends.

He said Spedding, who preceded Dearlove as MI6 chief, told him that "due in part to my novels, MI6 had assumed a sensible place in the public awareness: human, fallible, aspirational, contentious, and part of real life".

The author, whose real name was David Cornwell, also responded to Dearlove's claim that something must have happened to Le Carré during his service “to breed this cynicism”. He agreed that something had happened writing in the letter that during his basic training George Blake was exposed as a Russian spy having “consigned several hundred British agents to prison, death, torture, or all three” along with Philby who he said had betrayed MI6 agents and operations over his 30-year career.

“Throw in Blake’s few hundred or so, and we’re safely into the thousands: liquidated, imprisoned or missing believed interrogated,” Le Carré wrote in the year before his death aged 89.

Harkaway said yesterday that “if you were betrayed before you started working for MI6 by the Cambridge spies, a degree of mistrust is probably going to be inevitable in your perception of the office”. He added that “other senior officers have occasionally been known to comment [on Le Carré’s novels] that there was a degree of reality here”.

News US midterms

Victorious Democrats seek

The party has big plans with its new-found powers but there are splits over priorities, and impeachment. David Charter reports

Democratic victory speeches were peppered with promises to hold the Trump administration to account and address the cost of living concerns that drove voters to hand the party large majorities in Congress.

Leaders on the left are united in their plans to drag senior officials to Congress for inquiries and to put forward legislation to restore healthcare funding and environmental measures that were cut by President Trump. Their main legislative weapon will be control over budgets that could starve the Iran war and other Trump priorities of cash.

However, there is less agreement on the emphasis to be placed on investigations, up to and including the impeachment of cabinet members and perhaps Trump himself, while the party is at odds internally over whether to put forward more radical bills that may simply be seen by voters as performative.

Democratic leaders say they can manage both accountability and legislation. A new era of civility and collaboration was certainly promised by prominent figures who won this week.

“A politics of division is no match for a politics of love,” James Talarico, the newly elected senator from Texas, said in his victory speech.

That did not mean avoiding “accountability” for the Trump administration, he told NBC News. “We have to establish checks and balances,” he said.

Talarico said that Democrats should also “work with President Trump to deliver for working people across Texas and across this country ... We can and must do both of those things. It is not an either/or choice.”

Trump said he was open to making deals but also made clear he is prepared to block bills he does not like, posting the image of a red cap adorned with the single word “veto” on Truth Social.

A presidential veto can be overruled by Congress, but only by two-thirds majorities in both chambers, a rare feat.

How Democrats use their powers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate is crucial to their longer-term fortunes, with the centrist and left wings of the party both taking heart from victories in the midterm elections and preparing to battle for the 2028 presidential nomination.

While a string of centrist hopefuls won, including the governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and JB Pritzker of Illinois, as well as the senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, there were big Senate wins for left-wingers, including

Seat distribution by year

Seat distribution by year

Abdul El-Sayed and Troy Jackson, which may encourage a 2028 run from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive New York congresswoman who is a prominent supporter of both.

Despite the stunning successes in the midterms, exit polls found the party itself has negative favourability ratings. An NBC News poll found the Democratic Party was unfavourable with 53 per cent of voters, faring slightly better than the Republican Party with a 59 per cent unfavourability rating.

Some senior Democrats think that going after top Republicans more aggressively is the answer. Robert Garcia, who is expected to chair the House oversight committee, had a two-word warning for Trump after the midterm results: "Lawyer up." Ron Wyden, a senator leading investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Trump family finances, gave a one-word preview: "Subpoenas."

Burnt by two failed impeachments in the Senate during Trump's first term, no Democrat has repeated the vow of Rashida Tlaib, a left-winger who said after the 2018 midterms: "We're gonna impeach the motherf\*\*\*er." But some believe it could be an option. Adam Smith, a congressman from Washington state set to become chair of the House armed services committee, said last week: "Trump has become beyond dangerous. He is just completely out of control in what he says and how he is governing ... I think we have to try [to impeach], even if it doesn't succeed."

Frank Luntz, a veteran political analyst, told The Times that two years of infighting on Capitol Hill would lead to the Democrats squandering their midterms victory. “I think it’s going to be a very contentious two years,” Luntz said.

“I think that things have gotten pretty difficult for our democracy right now and I just hope that the Democrats coming to power will choose reform rather than revenge.”

There are a large number of bills on Democrats' to-do list but internal disputes about priorities. Centrists want to legislate on cryptocurrency and the proliferation of security cameras. Progressives want to force more radical bills on to the House floor, including a wealth tax, “Medicare for All” and tough AI regulation.

“We cannot be the party of nervous lawyers who just tinker around the edges,” Greg Casar, a congressman from Texas, said.

However, these bills are very unlikely to pass and would put Democratic divisions on display.

Chuck Schumer, the party's leader in the Senate, urged his party to focus on issues voters really wanted. “We must end the Iran war,” he said, saying Congress could cut off funding. “The American people don't know what the heck we're fighting for in Iran.”

Depending on two outstanding Senate results, Schumer would need at least a dozen Republicans to reach the 67-vote threshold to beat Trump's veto. Play it right and the Democrats can win the White House, Katy Balls, page 22 Trump is to blame for Republicans' mess, leading article, page 25 What's next for Melania? Times2

ABDUL FOR US SENATE

THANK YOU MICHIGAN

Ex-teacher delights ‘Talafreakos’ by turning Texas blue

George Grylls Austin

Texas Democrats had endured decades of disappointment, wondering if the state would ever turn blue. So when the election was called for James Talarico just before 10pm, many of his supporters in downtown Austin simply did not know how to react.

Plenty screamed. Some sobbed. A few phoned their relatives, shaking in disbelief.

Stepping on to the stage at the Long Center auditorium, Talarico, 37, a Bible-quoting former schoolteacher, told the ecstatic crowd that the Senate race had been a David vs Goliath struggle. “The people of Texas were my slingshot,” he said. “Tonight, we defeated Goliath.”

On a night of defeats, the Republican collapse in Texas was particularly humiliating for President Trump given he handpicked Ken Paxton, a loyalist, as his preferred candidate despite a litany of scandals. It was also costly for Elon Musk, who donated at least \$212m to the Paxton campaign. Almost \$600m was spent by both parties in the most expensive non-presidential election in US history. The Lone Star State had not elected a Democratic senator since 1988. Trump won Texas by 14 points just two years ago.

In a further upset, Gina Hinojosa, a civil rights lawyer, ousted the incumbent, Greg Abbott, in the Texas governor's race, sending the "Talafreakos" — the nickname for the Democrats' supporters — into raptures. With almost all the votes counted, Talarico secured 55.1 per cent of the vote, ahead of Paxton on 43 per cent. Hinojosa won with 52.8 per cent against Abbott's 45.7 per cent.

Democrats had tried and failed to conquer Texas before. With an economy larger than Canada and a population projected to become the largest of any state between 2040 and 2050, Texas represents the future of America. "It means everything to us," said Donna Schmidt, 73, a lifelong Democrat, with husband, Tom, 71, recalling the heartbreak of watching Beto O'Rourke slip to defeat against Ted Cruz in the Senate race in 2018. "We've been crushed in the past. But never lost faith."

Latino voters, in particular, rallied behind Talarico and Hinojosa. In 2024, a majority of Hispanics in Texas backed Trump, particularly in the border towns of the Rio Grande Valley. Two years later, many of those same voters swung back the other way, angered by high gas prices and the violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics, including the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, a Mexican construction worker, in Houston in July.

Talarico secured 72 per cent of the vote in Hidalgo County, a border community that is more than 90 per cent Hispanic and voted for Trump in 2024.

A fluent orator and wildly successful fundraiser (he drew in \$134m in campaign donations), Talarico was so smooth it felt like he had been preparing for this moment for a long time. Indeed, his contemporaries at the University of Texas remembered him dressing like Bill Clinton.

While Democrats rallied around a candidate they thought could reclaim the centre ground, Trump did the opposite, ignoring the pleading of Republican operatives who thought that John Cornyn, the steady incumbent senator, was their best chance of holding onto the state.

"I'd vote for a leaf falling off a tree over Ken Paxton," said Brad Moles, 37, exiting a polling station on Tuesday.

The scandals engulfing Paxton were endless, and even Trump appeared to find him physically unappealing.

Education

News

revenge with a loving touch

BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS; BRANDON BELL, WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Among the Democrats celebrating were James Talarico (senator) and Gina Hinojosa (governor) in Texas, above; Jon Ossoff (re-elected as senator) in Georgia, right; Annie Andrews (senator) in South Carolina, left; and, far left, Abdul El-Sayed (senator) and his wife, Sarah Jukaku, in Michigan

The races that defined the night

Texas

No Democrat had won a Senate seat in Texas for almost 40 years and the fight to turn the Lone Star State blue has been a totemic one for the party for decades. But all the way down the ballot, the Democratic party swept to power, most notably with James Talarico, a Bible-quoting moderate and former teacher, winning the Senate seat. President Trump won the state by 14 points two years ago with the help of strong support from Hispanic voters, but after the most expensive Senate campaign in history, that trend reversed.

South Carolina

The most seismic result was Annie Andrews winning the Senate seat for the Democrats. This was a result scarcely believable just a few weeks ago, given Trump won there by 18 points in 2024. But his insistence on appointing Darline Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, who

held the seat for two decades, cost him the race.

Kansas

Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. But Adam Hamilton, who founded the country's largest United Methodist congregation, performed a miracle to flip the seat. Trump, who won the state by 16 points in 2024, visited twice in the campaign's closing weeks.

How America voted

■ Democrat ■ Republican | Gender | % | Male | 50 | 48 | Female | 59 | 40 | Race | White | Black | Latino | Asian | Other | 49 | 49 | 90 | 34 | 64 | 28 | 71 | 43 | 54 | Age | 73 | 25 | 30-44 | 62 | 36 | 45-64 | 52 | 47 | 65 or over | 50 | 50 | High school graduate | 44 | 54 | Associate's degree | 49 | 49 | Bachelor's degree | 60 | 38 | An advanced degree | 68 | 31 | Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender? | Yes | 86 | 12 | No | 52 | 46 | Which issues mattered the most when voting? | Crime | 79 | Economy | 52 | 46 | Foreign policy | 47 | 50 | Healthcare | 67 | 31 | Immigration | 10 | 89 | State of democracy | 79 | 20 | Have the Trump administration's actions on immigration enforcement... | Gone too far | 90 | 8 | Not gone far enough | 7 | 92 | Been about right | 7 | 91 |

First Muslim senator shows socialist flank can win

Susie Coen Detroit

The victory of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan was symbolic in more ways than one.

El-Sayed, 42, a Democrat, will become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate but his win over Mike Rogers, 63, the Republican, is also a victory for the progressive flank of the party at a time of deep rifts over its direction.

The Democrat ran on a platform of healthcare for all, abolishing ICE, taxing billionaires and halting US military aid to Israel. His triumph will be held up as proof that progressive Democrats can win in swing states ahead of 2028.

El-Sayed was endorsed by the Democratic Party's socialist flank, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie

Sanders, although he views himself as a capitalist.

The Michigan Senate contest was one of the most bitterly fought and tight races of this year's midterms. Haley Stevens, the Democratic moderate whom El-Sayed narrowly defeated in the primary, crossed the aisle to endorse Rogers at the eleventh hour.

It was an act of “despicable betrayal”, according to Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, who had backed Stevens in the primary. According to President Trump, it was “a thing called bravery”. Either way, it was not enough to influence the race.

Michigan is a true swing state. It has voted for every presidential election winner since 2008, including Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Trump again in 2024. At polling stations, Arab-American voters who sat out the 2024 election because of concerns about Kamala Harris's support of Israel said they saw El-Sayed as a Democratic candidate they could trust.

El-Sayed's criticism of Israel was one of the race's most contentious issues. He has called the Israeli government evil, said that he opposes Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and was scrutinised for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a controversial Twitch streamer, which prompted complaints from Jewish leaders. Throughout the race, El-Sayed's relationship with parts of the Jewish community was strained.

During his victory speech, the senator-elect told the crowd: "We don't want our money sent into apartheid or genocide or war." Later, he added: "It shouldn't be this hard to pay your taxes and know that money is going to be spent on you and your kids instead of dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids."

On Tuesday, Trump announced that the US would stop providing almost \$4bn a year to Israel in what was viewed as a last-ditch effort to influence the Michigan race.

During his campaign El-Sayed was subjected to a barrage of anti-Islamic attacks by Trump, who called him a “ji-hadist”, accused him of being “on the side of the terrorists” and said that he would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate”. He was also called a “little weasel” by JD Vance, the vice-president.

From Nando's at Oxford to Capitol Hill

Profile

‘You know how many votes I want to get in the UK? Zero,’ declared an agitated Abdul El-Sayed at a

polling station in Michigan (Mario Ledwith writes).

The target of his frustrations was a correspondent from Sky News who had asked for his thoughts.

"Are you registered to vote in the state of Michigan?" El-Sayed asked James Matthews. "So why would I care to have a conversation with you? I don't care what you think or the questions you ask."

El-Sayed's apparent hostility towards the UK was surprising, given that he spent some of his defining years in Britain. El-Sayed arrived at Oriel College, Oxford, in 2009 to study on a Rhodes scholarship. "My classmates in Oxford taught me more than I could learn in any classroom," he wrote.

Fellow students were soon seeing the seeds of the political organisation El-Sayed has deployed in the US. “He is a connector and includer,” said Brian Krohn, who studied in the same Rhodes intake. That included arranging dinners at Nando’s for the Rhodes cohort.

Greg Lippiatt, a fellow scholar, said: “I don’t recall him ever explicitly mentioning intentions for a political career but he was clearly ambitious.” Lippiatt added that “he was a great deal of fun to be around ... He was an extremely hard worker but with a great capacity for joy.”

Sunday afternoons were often spent at an informal philosophy discussion group held in a room at Magdalen College with fellow Rhodes scholars, which they informally called “phight club”.

He was also a regular at an unassuming café named Ricardo's, now closed, under the roof of the city's covered market.

Its owner, Ricardo Chasebi, eventually placed the student's favourite sandwich on the menu.

"The Abdul" was a ciabatta with coronation chicken, cheddar, peppers, grilled red onion, lettuce and tomato.

"He was a very, very good guy," recalled Chasebi.

Abdul El-Sayed and Sarah Jukaku, his wife, in London during his studies

News US midterms

Seize chance to end wars and ease cost of living, urges PM

Geraldine Scott Assistant Political Editor

Andy Burnham has urged world leaders to seize the “opportunity” after President Trump’s midterm election defeat to end conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and bring down the cost of living.

The prime minister said voters in the United States had sent a message that politicians should put living standards ahead of division after Democrats wrested control of both houses of Congress from the Republicans.

Speaking at a Commonwealth summit in Antigua, Burnham called for an end to the conflict in the Middle East and the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The scale of Trump's defeat exposed public anger over household bills, tariffs and the economic consequences of the war with Iran, which the president began alongside Israel earlier this year.

Asked whether the result might make the US president more unpredictable, Burnham declined to speculate about his response and instead urged international co-operation.

He said: “President Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that’s the cost of living.

“That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we’ve made moves.

“But I can’t get people’s cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved, the conflict in Ukraine started by Russia. These are the things we have to focus on, and I hope the world has a moment to do that. And certainly, in my calls with leaders, that is what I will be asking.”

Yesterday Trump sought to distance himself from Republican candidates who had lost despite his attempts to turn the elections into a personal endorsement of his presidency. He wrote

Analysis

Iran welcomed the results as a vindication of its campaign to punish President Trump with economic pain (Samer Al-Atrush writes).

"Americans said NO TO WAR and we endorse this message," Mohammad Ghalibaf, the Speaker of the Iranian parliament, wrote on X.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader, hailed the vote as a humiliation for Trump but warned that those who thought it would change American policy towards Iran were “seriously mistaken”.

Khamenei may be correct, at least in the short term. Trump has shown no sign that he intends to change course, but acknowledged the war had raised the cost of living and taken its toll on his party.

He has been planning with Israel a renewed offensive. At the weekend he suggested he did not want to kill “lots of people” but would do so if needed. There is little the incoming Congress can do to stop him. One Democratic senator briefed on the planned offensive described it as “insane”.

The midterms made two things clear: the unpopularity of the war on Iran and the historic drop in support for Israel among the American electorate.

The Israeli government has alienated many Democrats, both voters and legislators, and is braced for a change in the decades-long approach of successive US governments to grant Israel preferential treatment in arms sales and military support in the region.

on Truth Social: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”

Trump later admitted he was surprised by the result. “I thought they’d do better,” he told Fox News.

The Democrats' gains mean the president will face a hostile Congress when the new members take office in January. Their majorities will give them the power to block legislation and nominations, demand concessions on spending and begin investigations into his administration.

Burnham refused to characterise the Republican losses as evidence of a wider retreat by the populist right, despite recent setbacks for right-wing parties elsewhere.

“I think people want to see the world coming together and focusing on the things that matter to people, and that’s what the voters, in my view, are saying in the United States,” he said.

"I think around the world there's a recognition that countries can't do that on their own, and can't do that when we have division between nations.

"I've been working hard to bring a new approach, a new approach in the Middle East and the foreign secretary set that out.

“A new approach to Europe, and we believe that will help us get growth back up and reduce those cost of living pressures. But a new approach with the Commonwealth too.”

Burnham, who entered Downing Street in July, has made easing pressure on household budgets a central test of his premiership. His remarks also underlined how heavily his domestic ambitions depend on decisions taken beyond Britain. Asked whether he feared a further escalation of the Iran war, he said: "I'll be working for de-escalation to make it very clear. You know, we want to see a resolution, the Strait of Hormuz fully opened again. That's what we will be working towards." Markets rally and oil price falls, page 31

Supporters of James Talarico celebrate his win in Texas. Republicans had little

President paid price for vanity, cronyism and economic lunacy

Gerard Baker

Comment

It was less a blue wave and more a red wedding. Across the United States, in places that had not elected a Democrat in decades, Republican candidates were scythed down in a political bloodletting worthy of the most colourful fantasy fiction.

They lost in traditional red states: Kansas, where the last Democratic senator was elected along with Franklin Roosevelt in 1932; Texas, where the last time the state elected Democrats to both the Senate and the governorship was in 1982; and, assuming the provisional numbers are confirmed, Mississippi, which President Trump carried two years ago by nearly 23 percentage points.

On and on it went. When the final votes are counted, it looks like the Democrats will have won the popular vote by about 13 points. This is the

largest margin for any party in midterm elections since the Democratic sweep of 1974, in the immediate aftermath of Watergate.

The shock is palpable. But the surprise is that anyone should really be surprised. Seldom has there been such a perfect convergence between what a party and a president deserved from the voters and what they got.

We have become so injured to the polarised and partisan nature of politics that we think one-sided elections, in which swing voters plump heavily for one side, can never happen. Not this time. Tuesday night was a reminder that the rules of democratic politics still apply.

When you govern without any evident regard for the voters who elected you; when you start a war with no proper explanation for it and no real plan to end it; when that war results in punishingly high prices for the things people need to live by, on top of the higher prices they already have to pay because you raised taxes on imports on a whim and a lunatic economic theory; when you use your office to enrich yourself and your cronies with lucrative deals on a scale that would make the Bourbons blush; when you direct law enforcement to spend their time prosecuting your political foes; when you side with America's enemies and menace its friends; when you act as though the only things that matter to you are putting your name on government buildings and constructing a ballroom; above all, when you tell voters that criticism of all this is fake news and they just need to get in line and do what they're told ... when you do all this, is anyone surprised when voters say: "You're fired"?

The confounding aspect of Trump's calamity is that it was all so avoidable. In less than two years he has blown one of the greatest historic opportunities any American president has earned.

When he was elected as the first president in 132 years to win non-consecutive terms, he had a few

simple tasks: get prices under control with sensible economic policies; reduce illegal immigration; keep the US out of costly, unnecessary wars; get allies to do more to help defend the West's security and take a firm line against its enemies. That was more or less it.

But even in the one area where he has had success among those — immigration — he has managed to alienate Americans who, understandably, do not like seeing masked gunmen out of uniform rounding up brown-skinned people on the streets of their cities. All the others have been signal failures.

The repudiation by the voters should lead to a fundamental reassessment of the Republican Party and a determined effort to get it back on course. Not to its pre-Trump days but to the simple, winning, populist message of “America First” that Trump promised two years ago.

But will the party do that? Trump's grip remains asphyxiating. The paradox of a defeat on this scale is

that the rump of Republicans left are even more Maga than the party was before. Any attempt by a leading figure with an eye on the White House in 2028 to put some clear water between himself and Trump will be slapped down by the president and punished by his loyal supporters.

And yet, there are early signs of an attempted breakout. Yesterday JD Vance, the least secure heir apparent to a throne since Louis Charles, dauphin of France under Louis XVI, stuck his head tentatively above the parapet and called for a rethink.

"The reason we lost is the war," the vice-president posted on social media, carefully noting that the president agreed. But he urged an end to hostilities and, strikingly, a "change" to the US relationship with Israel, as well as a renewed focus on inflation and domestic priorities.

It was a starting gun. Winter is coming for the Grand Old Party. The fighting will get fierce and its outcome is uncertain.

to cheer but President Trump's "public service announcement" pointed out that one position, at least, had not changed

News

Putin may now see betting on Trump as increasingly risky

Democratic success could provide check on president's ability to force peace on Ukraine, writes Marc Bennetts

For Ukraine, the Democratic Party's gains provide a glimmer of hope that the new Congress will act as a check on President Trump's pivot to Moscow.

Top Democrats have criticised Trump's decision to pause sanctions on Russia and halt American military and financial assistance for Kyiv.

Yet while Democrats may succeed in pushing through bills on aid for Ukraine or harsher sanctions on Russia, Trump will still retain the right to impose a presidential veto. Overturning his vetoes would require a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers, something that Democrats would struggle to achieve, analysts say.

"I don't think that the situation will change radically, because foreign policy will remain in the hands of the president," said Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee.

"At the same time, the new Congress in general might be more critical and more vigilant with regard to Trump's attempts to make deals with Putin at the expense of Ukraine or with regard to his possible attempts to lift sanctions against Russia."

Control of Congress will give the Democrats the power to scrutinise White House policies on Ukraine and even try to impeach the president and members of his administration.

They could also investigate Elon Musk, the SpaceX owner, over the restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine last month. The satellite communications system is used extensively by the Ukrainian military and the slowdown, which has now been reversed, was a setback for Kyiv's forces.

In Moscow, a spokesman for President Putin said Russia hoped that Trump would continue his effort to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has accused

President Zelensky of being the main obstacle to peace, despite Russia rejecting several ceasefire proposals.

“Trump continues to exercise his powers, and we sincerely hope that he will continue his peacemaking efforts,” said Dmitry Peskov. US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine, the first for nine months, will take place next week in Abu Dhabi. A US-Russian peace plan that was drawn up last year in Florida called for Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia’s army had been unable to capture. Kyiv has ruled out ceding land to Moscow.

Other Russian officials sought to shrug off the midterm results as a business as usual. “The Democratic Party leadership’s approach to relations with Russia is sharply negative. There is nothing new about that,” said Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister.

He also criticised what he said was a “stable bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States. “Sensible forces tend to be grouped outside the current composition of the US Congress,” he said, without giving details.

Republican politicians recently backed tough new sanctions against Moscow and countries such as China and India that buy Russian oil and gas. Although Trump signed the bill into law in September, he also issued an immediate waiver, citing US national interests. His move was criticised by both Democrats and Republicans.

Away from the rhetoric, Moscow is likely to see the defeat of Trump's allies as evidence that its relationship with the US president is entering its end-game. The Kremlin no longer believed that Trump was capable of forcing Ukraine to sign a peace deal on Moscow's terms, Bloomberg reported this week, citing sources.

"For Moscow, the main takeaway is that betting exclusively on a personal relationship with Trump is becoming increasingly risky," said Ilya Grashchenkov, a political analyst in Moscow.

As Kyiv is increasingly willing to defy Trump's demands, including his call for it to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, Putin appears set to intensify his attempt to force Ukraine to surrender by increasing attacks on infrastructure.

China may gloat at western chaos, but the AI battle will decide all

Roger Boyes Comment

The three big powers — China, Russia and the United States — have been discussing a trilateral summit for this month and

It should be an interesting spectacle. It is likely to be on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific economic shindig in Shenzhen, home turf for President Xi, who can now make the case that he is more personally powerful than President Trump and the likely saviour of President Putin.

Trump's midterm debacle means he may work out his frustrations by behaving as a relatively unfettered foreign statesman. But to Xi at least, the US president has lost face. American voters have helped the Chinese leader assume the role of the strongest strongman in a wobbly world. Even so, on balance, Chinese decision-makers probably prefer the old, strutting Trump to the newly chastened one. Trump has flattered Xi and seeks out personal encounters. He is vague about how, or even whether, he would defend Taiwan should it be invaded by mainland China.

The Democratic wins mean Trump's erratic behaviour may be reined in but China has long since learnt how to manage the presidential zigzags and even quite likes them; they give Chinese decision-makers time to prepare a counterstrategy and exploit weaknesses. The Democrats will bring new rigour to assessing China's strategic threat and, on the hunt for Trump family misdemeanours, will be looking into the clan's business interests in Asia.

Both Xi and Putin know how to play the American president and his envoys. On tariffs, on sanctions-dodging, on supporting America's enemies, they game him. They see the American argument that the midterms will always be better than

Beijing and Moscow's alternative of unchecked authoritarianism and they shrug. For them the democratic system's ability to self-correct is a sign of decadence, of leadership uncertainty, of core weakness. One-man, one-party rule is much simpler.

For Putin in particular, the spectacle of Trump's late imperial isolation in Mar-a-Lago may remind him of the Tsar's Winter Palace, a symbol of a leader's growing alienation from his people. He should think carefully about this comparison as Ukrainian drones smash into the grounds of his Sochi hideaway.

There is still, of course, a great deal that Trump can do between now and his 2029

checkout date. He no longer has to be so careful about the political consequences of his actions abroad.

President Xi knows how to play President Trump

If he chooses to take out his frustration on his European allies, the Democrats may deplore his tone but will not be able to hold him back. Democrats can criticise the management of the Pentagon and press him to find a new war secretary but Nato will still get a rough ride.

At international conferences European ministers seek out Democrats, trying to drum up support for Ukraine. But what is the European strategy doing for Kyiv? Ukraine's EU membership effort has been decoupled from Moldova,

which will be given access first. Montenegro, too, could be signing an EU accession treaty as early as June. Ukraine, which has been fighting as

Europe's proxy army against Russian invaders, is left to stew in its juice and this has nothing to do with Trump. Yes, Trump has been humiliating allies and coddling foes but the midterm vote will not change that.

The biggest foreign policy challenge of the late Trump era will be the contest for AI supremacy over China. This will be his last throw of the dice to demonstrate the US has not lost its technological edge. He has moved to restrict China's access to advanced US chips, which it had secured through overseas cloud computing deals. The chipmaker Nvidia, responding to criticism from US politicians, has told cloud computing clients they must sell more than half their services to non-Chinese companies. For Trump that is a step in the right direction. It seems this could be a path to a more solid bipartisan agreement, some strategic coherence at last in the scramble for the prize of AI.

If it works he can start to attend Beijing summits without fearing that Xi is laughing behind his back.

News

LONDON EYE

High lights An abseiler on the London Eye inspects some of 12,288 LEDs installed for a festive light show that will run every 15 minutes after dark from November 14

Under-35s unwilling to fight for country ‘they don’t have stake in’

Sanchez Manning

Social Affairs Correspondent

Charlie Parker

Less than a quarter of under-35s regard a willingness “to serve in the military at a time of need” as important according to the UK’s longest-running survey into social and political attitudes.

The latest British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA), published yesterday, surveyed 4,656 Britons aged over 16 between August 26 and October 6 last year. It has been conducted annually since 1983. The survey also revealed that the number of Britons who perceived the United States as a serious threat to global peace was at an unprecedented high and that most Britons favour increased defence spending.

Researchers found that against a backdrop of international instability and conflict, just 22 per cent of those surveyed under 35 attached high importance to a willingness to serve in the armed forces at a time of need. In comparison 45 per cent of those aged 55 and over considered serving in the military highly important.

Sophia Gaston, the report's author, said the findings would be “concerning” for ministers as younger people would be needed to physically defend the nation if Britain went to war.

Gaston, a foreign policy researcher and geopolitical analyst, suggested a reason for the lack of support for the civic duty of serving in the military among under 35s was that younger people felt less invested in the country.

She said: “I think that some of this comes from the fact that we are in a time of perceived generational unfairness. There are a lot of young people who don’t feel that they have a stake in the nation or its national institutions in the way that older Brits do. That has a follow-on impact into their willingness to put themselves on the line and defend that nation.”

Russia was regarded as the biggest threat to global peace among 89 per cent of the survey participants. Some 78 per cent regarded Israel as a significant threat to international stability, followed by 75 per cent naming Iran and 62 per cent naming China.

But Gaston said the number of Britons who saw the US as the biggest threat was at a record high with a rise in concern when President Trump began his second term in January last year. The BSA findings show that the proportion describing America as a serious threat almost doubled from 36 per cent in 2024 when Joe Biden was in power to 71 per cent in spring last year and then to 74 per cent in spring this year.

Gaston said the jump in the perception of the US being a threat typically coincided with acts of aggression from Trump such as the clash with Zelensky in the White House early in his presidency and the start of the war with Iran.

The number of people in the UK who want to see defence spending increase is also at a record high, rising from 28 per cent in 2006 to 56 per cent this year. This desire for an increase spans the political spectrum with supporters of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties all backing a hike in spending, the survey has found.

Gaston said over the longer term the results showed there had been an upward trend in Britons favouring higher defence spending since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Government spending on defence has decreased from about 5 per cent during the Cold War to less than three per cent now, she noted.

“You can see that there has been an incremental shift edging up in every one of these surveys towards wanting higher defence spending,” Gaston concluded. “But the government has not increased defence spending in a commensurate way, which is why we’ve now reached this majority position.”

Gen Alpha youngsters take after their grandparents

Nicola Woolcock Education Editor

Collecting knick-knacks and pottering around shops are pastimes usually associated with people in later life. However, it appears that Generation Alpha has inherited the same enjoyment in physical experiences as their grandparents, rather than a solely digital lifestyle.

A report by the publishers of the Beano comic found that Gen Alpha children, aged up to 14, were more likely to spend their money on tangible objects than gaming currency. They also like collecting ornaments, DVDs and trading cards, and enjoy shopping in person, seeing it as a shared bonding experience.

Nevertheless, the report's authors urge the government to exclude YouTube from its impending social media ban, saying the platform is an essential part of children's lives and the equivalent of TV for older people. The report also claims that YouTube leads to creativity and entrepreneurship among children, with many using it to seek inspiration, start businesses and reinforce classroom learning.

The seven-year study was led by Beano Brain, an insights consultancy, in partnership with Future Forum. It claims that children are less passionate about environmental matters than Generation Z, aged 14 to 29, because they have more pressing worries, having grown up amid the turmoil of the Covid pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis.

"When we began, hopes were high that Gen A would be planet saviours. Instead we find a generation that not only loves to shop but has access to endless inspiration to feed that desire," the report's authors said. Rather than worshipping Greta Thunberg, they put "me first, then the planet".

Quintagram® No 2726 Solve all five concise clues using each letter underneath once only 1 Pontiff (4)

2 Loose rigid bracelet (6)

3 Ostentatious (6)

4 Brittle savoury biscuit (7)

5 Australian wooden projectile (9) | A | A | A | A | B | B | C | C | E | E | E | E | F | G | G | H | K | L | L | M | N | N | O | O | O | P | P | R | R | R | S | Y | Solutions see MindGames page 15

Cryptic clues MindGames page 14

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No more worlds to conquer: cancer survivor's Alexander book wins prize

David Sanderson Arts Correspondent

An author who battled cancer while tackling the intricacies of 12 ancient languages is celebrating after his biography of Alexander the Great won the “world’s leading non-fiction prize”.

Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson marks the first time the Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction has been awarded to a book on ancient history, highlighting the current “craze for the classics” prompted by the release Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey film.

Richardson, a professor of classics at Durham University, spent a decade writing Alexander, building on recent advances in genetic sequencing, archaeological discoveries and the unearthing of new cuneiform tablets.

The end result, according to Kirsty Lang, the chair of judges, was a “biography for our time”.

Richardson's book was chosen ahead of the bookmakers' favourite, Patrick Radden Keeffe's London Falling, a biography of James Baldwin by Nicholas Boggs, and Matthew Sweet's The Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland.

In his acknowledgements, Richardson laid out how he had written the book “when my own mortality felt hideously close; through years which dissolved into fluorescent-lit hospital corridors and despair”.

He outlined in The Times in June how “thanks to brilliant doctors, the cancer was cut out of me”. Then, he added, late last year he had collapsed, his body having “been in crisis for a long time", leading to neurological tests and a further hospital stay. Weeks after leaving hospital, he "finally finished" the biography, which upon release was met with critical acclaim.

Richardson was presented with his £50,000 winner's cheque last night, becoming the 28th winner of the award formerly known as the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.

Dickens's man cave on heritage red list

Charles Dickens's writing chalet has seen the best of times,

but now it is facing the worst of times. Historic England has published its annual update to the Heritage at Risk Register — and the Victorian author's personal sanctuary is one of a number of high-profile sites deemed to be in danger as climate change and the rising cost of maintenance take their toll (Jack Blackburn writes).

Dickens's Swiss chalet was a Christmas gift in 1864 — a prefabricated man cave that arrived in 94 pieces. Originally it stood in his garden at Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, but it was moved to Eastgate House in Rochester in the 1960s. It is grade I listed but suffers from timber decay and is unstable. Medway council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Dickens Fellowship have put money towards its restoration, but more is required.

Hall's Croft, a grade I listed house of 1613 in Stratford-upon-Avon, was once home to Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and has since served as a boarding school and a family home. Its literary

credentials are bolstered by the former tenants George Bernard Shaw and Marie Corelli, the Victorian novelist.

Hall's Croft was sold in 1949 to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which made substantial repairs before opening it to the public in 1951. Now it faces huge conservation challenges, not least from damage caused when a car backed into the building last year, and its timber frame is in need of urgent work costing millions.

Other threatened properties include Hastings Castle, one of the first to be built by the Normans after the conquest of 1066, the Bristol Corn Exchange and Bidston

HISTORIC ENGLAND ARCHIVE

Hall's Croft, built in 1613 and once home to Shakespeare's daughter Susanna, is on the risk register, as is Dickens's writing chalet, far left

Windmill, an 18th-century structure in the Wirral.

“This list is always a snapshot of important, cherished historic buildings at risk of being lost for ever,” Emma Squire, co-chief executive of Historic England, said. “What we’re hearing ... is that there’s more extreme weather impacting on historic fabric. Droughts in the summer means more subsidence. More heavy rainfall means that if you have damp or water ingress issues, those are exacerbated.”

However, a number of buildings have been removed from the list after interventions secured their future. These include Newlyn

Old Harbour in Cornwall, a wharf in Ironbridge, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, a 1,000-year-old church in Norfolk and church in Norfolk and a Georgian house in north London saved with the help of Tottenham Hotspur FC.

Was ‘king’ who persuaded Romans to invade Britain actually a queen?

Rhys Blakely Science Editor

The Romans encountered some formidable women in Britain. Boudica, queen of the Iceni, led a bloody revolt against their rule in AD60. Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, took a more diplomatic approach, cultivating Rome's friendship.

Now an archaeologist claims another powerful British female has been hiding in plain sight for nearly 2,000 years. Verica, long regarded as an Iron Age king, was actually a queen, he says.

Verica ruled the Atrebates tribe in southern England in the decades before the Roman invasion of AD43. Unlike Boudica, Verica was friendly towards Rome. However, neighbouring rulers were less accommodating and Verica was driven from power. After fleeing across the Channel Verica

ca appealed to Emperor Claudius for help — and triggered the invasion that brought much of Britain under Roman rule.

Historians have assumed for centuries that Verica was a man. However, Miles Russell, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University, believes they got it wrong. His evidence includes Verica's name. In ancient Britain, male names such as Caratacus commonly ended in -us or -os. Female names, including Boudica, frequently ended in -a. Verica fits the latter pattern.

A second clue involves coins issued by Verica, which depict a mounted figure with a spear. Russell argues that the rider is female, which would make sense if Verica had been a woman.

An artist's impression of a female Verica and a coin from the period

Some coins bear the inscription "COM F". This is usually interpreted as standing for Commios filius, or "son of Commios", an earlier ruler. But Russell says it could equally stand for Commios filia: "daughter of Commios".

Verica also used the title “rex”, meaning “king”, on her coins. Russell argues that this should not be seen as an indication of gender but as a signal that she ruled with the authorisation of the emperor.

“Her story has long been overlooked and her memory misgendered,” he said. “It is time her place in the narrative of Roman Britain was restored.”

The theory comes as other evidence burnishes our understanding of the role of women in Iron Age Britain. Recent DNA research on burials from the period point towards communities organised around female family lines. According to Russell, Britain would have seemed extraordinary to the fiercely patriarchal Romans — one of the few places, alongside Cleopatra's Egypt, where women wielded political power.

However, the case that Verica was a queen is far from conclusive. Female figures on ancient coins may represent goddesses, and names do not give a certain indication of sex.

Professor Rachel Pope, an archeologist at Liverpool University, said: “It seems a well-supported proposition. It would certainly not be too surprising, given the nature of Iron Age society in western Europe now unfolding.”

Classical historians have given his ideas a more frosty reception, however. "They have a very fixed idea of the past," Russell said.

Nevertheless, the implications are intriguing. If Verica really was a queen, it means the history of these islands would include not only the tale of a warrior queen resisting the power of Rome, but of one inviting it in. Academics challenge received wisdom, leading article, page 25

Wells from Iron Age unearthed

Kaya Burgess Science Correspondent

Five “exceptionally well-preserved” wooden wells from the Iron Age and Roman period, whose intact structures still bear axe marks and signs of repair, have been found in Hampshire, with some as ancient as 2,700 years old.

One of the five wells could date back as far as 719BC, having tapped into a natural spring to supply water to Iron Age villages north of where Southampton is today, researchers from University College London found.

It is highly unusual for buried wood to have survived for millennia without rotting, let alone to bear marks made by the people who built the structures.

Rachael Geoghegan, who led the excavation, said: “The oxygen-starved conditions caused by the wet soil around the spring prevented the wood’s decomposition.”

Four of the wells date from the Iron Age and appear to have been made from hollowed-out trunks of trees.

The fifth well was built during the Roman occupation of Britain.

News Politics

Badenoch edges out Farage in fight to unite the right

The Tory leader is growing in popularity while Reform is bogged down by scandal, Steven Swinford writes

Kemi Badenoch chose not to mark her second anniversary as Tory leader on Monday evening, instead carrying on with business as usual. In this case that meant attending a post-budget reception for banks.

Her decision was born in part of her desire not to be seen to be resting on her laurels. But there is growing optimism among the Tory rank and file after a YouGov poll this week recorded the highest level of support for the party since the general election, putting it within two points of Labour.

True, the figure is broadly similar to the 23.7 per cent of the vote share it won at the last election. But it is a significant improvement on the polling average of 17 to 19 per cent for much of this year.

Crucially, the party has now been ahead of Reform UK in a succession of polls having spent much of Badenoch's leadership trailing Nigel Farage's party by as much as 14 points. This matters both psychologically and psephologically: the hope for the Tories is that if the polls consistently show they are in second place they will attract tactical voters on the right who will vote for the party best placed to stop Labour.

Badenoch draws a clear distinction between Reform UK's leadership and its voters. At the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham she was adamant that there would be no deal with Farage's party, highlighting the slew of scandals surrounding its leadership. "To those who say 'unite the right', we are not uniting with that," she said.

Some colleagues believe she should offer a way back for Danny Kruger, who is still well liked in the party despite defecting last year. Badenoch insists the door is closed. “People who have defected and done the dirty on colleagues are not coming back,” she said recently.

At the same time she has made overt appeals to former Tory supporters who abandoned the party for Reform. "Many of them are our people," she said. "We let them down and want them to come back home. They deserve better than Reform politicians."

There are grounds for optimism. Polling by YouGov suggests that 41 per cent of Reform supporters would be willing to vote Tory to keep Labour out, and half of those who backed Reform at the last election have a favourable opinion of the Tory leader. Separate polling by Stack Data Strategy suggests 39 per cent of Reform voters would pick the Tories as their second preference.

Then there are the personal ratings of the party leaders. In a YouGov poll last month, 33 per cent of the public said they viewed Badenoch favourably compared with less than 20 per cent last year. Forty-eight per cent viewed her unfavourably. By contrast 25 per cent of people regarded Farage favourably, and 67 per cent unfavourably.

The Tories believe that voters have made up their minds about Farage while Badenoch still has room to grow.

Dylan Difford of YouGov said: “Now that it’s the Tories with the momentum, there’s a real risk to Nigel Farage’s party. Those 2024 Tory voters who’ve switched to Reform are actually fairly positive about Kemi Badenoch and her party, while having reservations about Reform’s experience and ability to manage the economy. If the Tories can more clearly assert they’re best placed to defeat Labour, there’s a good chance the Tories could win back voters they’ve lost to Reform since the last election, and maybe more.”

Badenoch believes that the path back to power is simple: it is to focus on the economy, taking the Tories back to their low-tax, low-spend core values. Her conference speech was a case in point, with a pledge to scrap inheritance tax on family homes at its heart.

However, there is still a big obstacle: migration. The Stack Data Strategy polling suggested that 68 per cent of Reform voters did not trust the Tories on migration, and it was the most important issue for them.

Aaron Iftikhar, a director at the consultancy firm, said: "There are signs that Reform voters are warming to Kemi Badenoch, but they still don't trust the Conservatives to deliver on immigration, their top issue. Until that changes, it remains the biggest barrier to the Tories winning them back."

Reform believes that the Tory strategy represents a retreat from any attempt to appeal to voters in the red wall, instead reaching out to wealthier people in the southeast and London, particularly Liberal Democrat voters.

It contrasts its offer of a broad increase in the basic rate income tax threshold with the inheritance tax pledge, which will mostly benefit richer households. Reform said: “The Tories are deluding themselves if they believe the red wall or East Anglia are ever coming back — they have no path to a majority, they are now a regional party like the Lib Dems.”

Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband on the

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drums in Antigua; in London Kemi Badenoch backed single-sex spaces in sports and John Healey helped with poppy sales

Long jail terms for evading tourist tax

Aubrey Allegretti

Chief Political Correspondent

Evasion of Angela Rayner's new “tourist tax” will carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

The measures, set out in a bill published yesterday, target accommodation providers in England who evade the proposed overnight visitor levy.

The new bill is also designed to prevent property owners offering “mates’ rates” to friends that would reduce the amount of tax paid on temporary stays.

Mayors and local authority leaders will gain powers from as soon as 2028 to impose a proportionate but uncapped extra cost on short-term accommodation. The move is designed to increase revenues for reinvestment in the local area and mirrors schemes in Wales, Scotland and several overseas capitals.

Critics say that it risks deterring visitors, will cost Britons as well as tourists from overseas and could hit revenue among retail and hospitality firms.

Under the terms of the legislation, a maximum prison sentence of 14 years would be imposed on those who fraud-

ulently try to evade paying the tax.

Accommodation providers who wrongly claim they do not need to pay it, or fraudulently ask for a repayment, would face prison, a fine or both in the most extreme cases.

Authorities will be able to pursue any future unpaid levies, up to 20 years after they are found to be owed, the bill said.

Short-term commercial stays are covered by the legislation, meaning that hotels, B&Bs, camping and caravan sites will all have to charge the levy to customers. Vessels such as boats permanently based in a single location are covered too.

The amount will be up to mayors and local authority leaders. Labour's ten metro mayors have vowed to cap the limit at 5 per cent, while Reform UK and Conservative mayors oppose the tax completely. Temporary accommodation — including hotels used to house asylum seekers — as well as shelters and refuges will not be charged.

There were warnings that the overnight visitor levy would also not be reduced when accommodation is offered at a discounted price to friends. The bill said that where the amount paid for overnight stays was “less than could reasonably have been expected to be the result of a bargain made at arm’s length” between two independent parties, the amount of money subject to the levy “is instead the market value of the qualifying stay”.

Katie Lam, the shadow housing secretary, told The Times: “Not content with taxing people on their well-deserved breaks, this Labour government appears to be attempting to outlaw bargains ... And the threat of prison sentences of up to 14 years for non-compliance is a staggering response to what could become a bureaucratic minefield.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Of course, people will not be going to prison for minor mistakes under this policy. The provisions for enforcement measures in the Visitor Levy Bill are in line with precedent, and are a standard approach already in place, for example, for the evasion of VAT.”

News

Burnham bangs a drum as deputy faces the music

Tom Peck

Political Sketch

With Andy Burnham otherwise engaged in Antigua, giving a never-ending stream of ever more cryptic

interviews with regard to possibly at some point “opening a dialogue” about eventually apologising for the transatlantic slave trade, it fell to his deputy, and to Kemi Badenoch’s deputy, to take this week’s prime minister’s questions.

For most of the past two years, Badenoch has been rotating her top team on these occasions, a rolling audition that most of them, let's face it, have failed. The shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, to give but one example, has not been called on again after his recent pyrotechnic failure to count to six.

The Labour Party has not been intentionally deploying the same rotation strategy, but has managed to do the exact same thing anyway, given the government is two and a bit years old and is already on its third deputy prime minister.

While PMQs was taking place, Andy Burnham was being filmed playing Mary had a Little Lamb on some steel drums that belonged to a band called the Hell's Gate Orchestra. It's one of the

simplest nursery rhymes, that one, both in musicality and meaning. If you're nice to people, or indeed lambs, they'll be nice to you. Kindness and loyalty are qualities that are always

reciprocated. And, in a shocking coincidence, who should come swanking into the House of Commons, in a blouse as

Commons, in a blouse as white as snow, but Burnham's own Makerfield by-election campaign manager, Louise Haigh, whose loyalty has been rewarded in the form of a sweet new gig as deputy prime minister?

Once upon a time, indeed not all that long ago, Haigh's name was mainly heard as an example of the ruthlessness of the late, though not dead, Sir Keir Starmer, who sacked her as transport secretary when it emerged she had perhaps not been entirely truthful over the disappearance of a company mobile phone more than a decade ago. Who would have thought that unimpeachable moral virtue can only get you so far? Starmer is long gone, and yet Haigh is very much back on the scene.

The details of the mobile phone imbroglio are complex, but strictly as a matter of fact they do mean that when the Sky News studio cut to the House of Commons for the session to begin, the Tory MP Graham Stuart was technically correct when

Louise Haigh wore a blouse “white as snow” for her appearance at PMQs

he said that PMQs was about to be taken “by a convicted fraudster for the very first time”.

It was just as well he did so because Haigh's opposite number, Alex Burghart, didn't mention it once. Burghart is now the official, permanent holder of the title of deputy leader of the Conservative Party, and had concluded these sorts of cheap shots were beneath him, which was a shame, because they really shouldn't be. There is a time and a place for lowest common denominator politics and if it's not deputy PMQs, then when is it?

There's not much worth saying about the exchanges themselves. Both of them read closely from their scripts. At one point Haigh even accused Burghart of "reading from his script", looking very much like she was reading from her own script as she did so, suggesting that the accusation of script-reading had itself been scripted.

Haigh is no natural orator, not that such things seem to matter now. Burghart used to serve as the parliamentary secretary to Sir Geoffrey Cox and is very much of the view there is no higher calling in politics than to sound as much as possible like Sir Geoffrey Cox — a craft that he has been carefully honing with modest success.

He chose to make the entire exchange about the subject of

Labour's ballooning welfare

bill, returning time and time again to the same horrifying statistics. "The welfare bill is the highest it's ever been," he said, "higher than during Covid." Whoa whoa whoa! Surely that can't be true? Higher than when 11.7 million people borrowed each other's sourdough starter and the

Ah, nope, hang on, it's not true. The furlough scheme was never included in the welfare bill, which makes Burghart's jawdropping claim quite a bit less jawdropping. Not that it made it any less effective. Each of his repetitions came with a new grim factoid, another being that the welfare bill now costs "working households £10,000 a year".

Haigh did her best to repeat the claim that “the government it is committed to bringing down the welfare bill”. But unfortunately for her, it is well known that the last time the government tried to bring down the welfare bill was last summer, and she, having recently been sacked, was instrumental in the backbench rebellion that defeated it. And if that wasn’t well known, it is now, because Burghart reminded everyone.

It did not make for easy viewing. That welfare spending ballooned out of control under the Tories is not Labour's fault but it is their problem to solve, and the next three years are likely to be defined, perhaps above all, by how hard they will fight each other to try and not do it.

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Drinking oat milk instead of dairy ‘puts health at risk’

Eleanor Hayward Health Editor

Switching from dairy products to oat or almond milk could carry health risks because they contain fewer vital vitamins and minerals, a study suggests.

Experts said that favouring plant-based milks, yoghurts or cheeses may lead to deficiency in nutrients such as iodine, which is essential for thyroid function and brain health, as well as being important in pregnancy.

The study, led by the University of Surrey, called for mandatory fortification of plant-based milks and foods such as bread with iodine to mitigate the risk of nutrient deficiencies.

The researchers said giving up dairy was a particular risk when it came to teenage girls because they already had low intakes of milk and were at particular risk of nutrient deficiencies.

The study, published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, built on previous research by the authors, which examined 146 plant-based milks, 76 yoghurts and 67 cheeses for levels of micronutrients including iodine, calcium and vitamins B2 and B12. It found that swapping dairy for vegan options led to “marked declines in all four micronutrients”, especially iodine.

Only 12 per cent of dairy alternatives had added iodine, while 61 per cent had added calcium and 46 per cent had vitamin B12. Calcium is important for building healthy bones and teeth, while vitamin B12 helps keep the nervous system and blood cells healthy.

Researchers said that 54 per cent of teenage girls already did not get sufficient iodine from their diets, and that if this age group switched to vegan options then 80 per cent would be deficient in the mineral. Inadequate calcium intake among teenage girls would rise from 54 per cent to 70 per cent, they said.

The Climate Change Committee is urging people to reduce their intake of meat and dairy as part of its net zero strategy, and the study said this could “unintentionally exacerbate nutritional risks” particularly in women.

Sarah Bath, lead author and associate professor in public health nutrition at the University of Surrey, said: "People may also be unaware of the importance of iodine, which is needed to make thyroid hormones to regulate our metabolism, support healthy growth and brain development. Iodine is particularly important during pregnancy, when the requirement increases, but it is also essential prior to pregnancy to ensure that stores are optimised.

“People are also unaware that dairy products are a major source of iodine, particularly in the UK, and that plant-based alternatives, unless fortified, have a very low iodine content.”

Katie Nicol, a co-author of the study, said: "With the growing need to address environmental sustainability, many dietary recommendations are focused on plant-based diets and the reduced intake of animal products.

“Nutrition policy must evolve in tandem with environmental targets. However, it is important that shifts towards more sustainable diets do not compromise on public health. Fortification of foods is one way that this could be achieved. However, government policy is needed to make this happen.”

The research found that even partial diet changes, such as switching to oat milk but continuing to eat dairy yoghurt, could have negative consequences. For example, replacing 20 per cent to 35 per cent of dairy products with plant-based ones increased the inadequate intake of iodine among girls aged 14 to 18 from 54 per cent to 65 per cent, and from 32 per cent to 42 per cent in women aged 19 to 49.

Professor Mairead Kiely, from the Cork Centre for Vitamin D and Nutrition Research, said: “Nutrients such as iodine and calcium are already in short supply in the usual diet of people who avoid dairy, and are therefore of public health concern.”

UK agrees to begin 'dialogue' over slavery

B

ritain has agreed to "engage in a structured, time-bound, inclusive and good-faith dialogue" with countries affected by the slave trade, the group's leaders said last night (Kate Mansey writes).

The statement followed comments from Andy Burnham in which he opened the door to a formal apology on behalf of the UK for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, while ruling out

POOL/GETTY IMAGES

direct reparations. The Commonwealth statement said: “We welcome the agreement of the government of the United Kingdom to engage in a structured, time-bound, inclusive and good-faith dialogue with affected parties addressing the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and its historical harms.”

The King's joke about being caught in the rain during a ceremony on Sunday, above, was met with laughter and applause at a dinner in Antigua

On Tuesday night the King had joked at a dinner to celebrate the Commonwealth at the end of his Caribbean tour about the moment he was caught in a downpour without an umbrella.

He thanked the people of Antigua and Barbuda and joked about how many British prime ministers had come and gone during his tenure.

"We have been enormously touched by the kindness with which we have been received wherever we have gone," the King said. "And I must say that, during my visit here, it has been a great pleasure to meet so many prime ministers — almost as many as I've had at home!"

Since Charles acceded to the throne in September 2022, there have been four prime ministers in as many years.

The King received laughter and applause after he joked that he would provide an “umbrella for you all” after he was caught in a tropical rainstorm on Sunday. He gesticulated and called for an umbrella during a military ceremony in video that was watched worldwide.

The King and Queen left Antigua and Barbuda yesterday, ending a nine-day tour that featured more than 40 engagements. Celebrity Watch, Times2

Sussexes to tell MEPs of online harm

Peter Chappell, Herbie Russell

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will speak at the European parliament next week to promote awareness of the harms posed to children by social media.

Harry and Meghan will travel to Brussels to deliver a keynote address at the opening of their Lost Screen Memorial project on Tuesday. It is expected to be the first time they have been seen in public since the duchess's father, Thomas Markle, was reported to the FBI and Philippine police over an alleged hoard of child abuse images.

The Lost Screen Memorial is an art installation and awareness campaign by the couple's Archewell Foundation. The art piece comprises lightboxes with images of young people who have lost their lives to “digital dangers”, depicted as if on phone lock screens.

The charity's website says: "The responsibility to keep children safe online should not lie with parents alone. The technology companies who profit from children's time on their apps have an obligation to design them with safety in mind and should be held to safety standards. Join us as we demand safety by design from the social media platforms so that no child is lost to social media."

The Sussexes' address is expected to last 15 to 20 minutes. Later, Harry will join a panel discussion entitled “Building a Digital Future that Works for Children”. The panel will take questions from the audience but not the media.

Thomas Markle, 82, has denied ever possessing child abuse images. Philippine police say videos of the sexual abuse and exploitation of children were among files found in four storage boxes that allegedly belonged to him. Officers are examining nine phones, three memory cards, five hard drives and a camera, as well as printed material.

The haul was reported to police last month by Markle's son, Thomas Markle Jr. Markle Sr moved back to the United States in May and lives in a dementia care home.

After the allegations surfaced last month, Meghan said she had received a letter from the Metropolitan Police in 2019 containing “disturbing allegations” against her father. She said she hoped that people would understand that her “distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them”.

Scotland Yard initially failed to locate the letter and had to ask Meghan for her copy. It has referred itself to the police watchdog after failing to share its information with foreign police forces.

The Sussexes registered Archewell in the US in 2020. Its charitable arm, Archewell Philanthropies, delivers grants to charities involved in mental health, refugees and family welfare.

Train commuters ‘looked at phones as girl was assaulted’

A 14-year-old runaway told a court yesterday that commuters stared at their phones when she was attacked by two Afghan migrants on a train.

Baryalai Rahimi, 25, allegedly raped the girl three times in the toilets on the Southeastern train before his friend Mirebadurahman Sadat, 29, also assaulted her on February 5, Inner London crown court was told. The pair had followed her on to the London-bound train at a rural station in Kent.

In a police interview played in court the girl said Rahimi had asked her age. "I said 14, and he just laughed about it," she said.

Rahimi complimented her appearance and repeatedly tried to put his coat around her while Sadat observed from a distance. She described Rahimi putting his arms around her and kissing her on the mouth. She told police Rahimi asked her to sit on his lap five minutes after they got on the train. Asked why she did so, she replied: "I don't know. It's a bit hard for me to say no to men. He's bigger than me, stronger, and I can't do anything. I just like to do what people want so it keeps me out of a dangerous situation."

She said Rahimi kissed and sexually assaulted her while she sat on his lap. Asked what other passengers were doing, she said: "No one was really looking at us. Everyone was just on their phones." The court was shown CCTV footage of Rahimi brushing past commuters as he led the girl to the toilet.

Rahimi, of Southall, west London, and Sadat, of Cricklewood, northwest London, deny a string of offences.

The trial continues.

News

Paperwork slip-up denies injured interpreter payout

Rafi Hottack was told his wounds from a 2007 bomb blast would be lifelong

UK Government

Larisa Brown Defence Editor

A former Afghan interpreter for British forces who suffered life-changing injuries from a Taliban bomb in Helmand has been denied compensation because of a council tax bill.

Rafi Hottak was saved by doctors at the British military hospital in Camp Bastion after the blast in November 2007, which killed a British officer, Captain John McDermid. He needed 160 stitches to his stomach, upper body, head, arms, face, neck and left shoulder and was told by a surgeon that his "injuries and trauma would be lifelong". His plight was highlighted by The Times in 2012.

Now an accountant in the Midlands, Hottak applied for compensation under the government's ex-gratia medical payments review. He said he was initially rejected by officials who claimed he had not suffered a life-long injury. Hottak appealed after learning the scheme was to close but MoD officials refused to look at his case because he submitted a council tax bill rather than a utility bill to verify his address.

The 39-year-old told those overseeing the scheme he continued to suffer flashbacks, nightmares, pain, emotional distress, problems with hearing and vision and post-traumatic stress disorder from the blast. He described how, despite being “blown up into the air” and with “blood pumping” from his wounds, he was required to continue to interpret as British soldiers came under intense Taliban fire.

He said he was “shocked and dismayed” to receive an email from the MoD stating his case would not be considered for compensation. The email, seen by The Times, states: “Your claim has been deemed invalid and will not be progressed to the review panel.”

As part of his appeal, he was required to provide a utility bill together with his passport or driving licence as proof of his address. Alongside evidence of his treatment and photographs of his time at the British military hospital, he submitted his most recent council tax bill.

Hottak attending a Remembrance Day service in Westminster in 2015

Hottak, a father of four, pointed out that most banks, solicitors and government bodies accepted a council tax bill as valid proof of address and that his address was also on his driving licence.

Hottak is one of Britain's leading campaigners for his former Afghan colleagues and has given evidence to Labour and Conservative governments as well as parliamentary committees. “It is devastating,” he said. “I cannot believe that after all I have been through, I am being denied the chance of compensation because of a council tax bill which is widely considered to be a clear proof of address.”

Professor Sara de Jong, a founding member of the Sulha Alliance, which helps former Afghan interpreters and their families, said: "The MoD's treatment literally adds insult to injury. I am simply incredulous that someone who has so loyally served the British government, first as an Afghan citizen and now as a British citizen, is so profoundly let down by British bureaucracy."

After gradually recovering from his injuries, Hottak returned to work at the British base in Kabul as supervisor of all interpreters.

Hottak said that to save his life, he fled to the UK in 2011. There were no government schemes offering sanctuary at the time.

He claimed asylum but his case was initially rejected in a mistake-riddled letter because his case officer did not believe that he was an interpreter or that his life was in danger. The Times highlighted his plight and after three weeks, officials concluded he was a worthy asylum applicant.

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RAF veteran is Reform's first defence spokesman

Larisa Brown

An RAF officer who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Northern Ireland and quit the military on Friday has been appointed Reform UK's first defence spokesman.

Wing Commander Angus MacIntyre joined the army in 1986 aged 18 and later transferred to the RAF Regiment.

In recent years MacIntyre, who is married with two sons, served at Nato headquarters in Brussels as part of the team delivering support to Ukraine.

A party source said MacIntyre's appointment by Nigel Farage was part of Reform's drive to have people with “high-level experience — as opposed to relying on career politicians — to run government departments”.

MacIntyre's views on defence are expected to be further revealed at a press conference today. He said the armed forces had been left “under severe pressure” by the Conservatives and Labour.

He added: “The cuts during the Brown and Blair years took chunks from the ranks of all three services. The Conservatives promised to fix it, but over their 14 years in government they oversaw a further decline in our military power. Neither can be trusted. Only Reform UK can fix and rebuild our armed forces.”

Farage said: “Having someone of Angus’s stature and calibre speak for us on defence shows how seriously Reform UK takes protecting the interests of Britain’s military. Angus has more experience than the entire government defence team combined.”

Luke Pollard, the minister for defence readiness, said Reform's “defenceless plan” would “wave a white flag” to the country’s enemies.

Analysis by Labour found that Reform MPs had taken part in less than a third of the more than 200 defence debates and question sessions in parliament since the general election.

Labour said the fact it had taken nearly 2,000 days for Reform to appoint a defence spokesperson added to a “disturbing picture” of the party’s record on defence and national security.

Farage has previously described President Putin as the world leader he admired most, calling him “brilliant” as he praised his handling of the crisis in Syria in 2014. In 2022 Farage called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a consequence” of Nato and EU expansion.

News

Middle England freezes cost of Christmas dinner

Andrew Ellson

Consumer Affairs Correspondent

The marzipan is being rolled, the Christmas cake is under way and party food is being stockpiled in the freezer. There are 50 days until Christmas but in the kitchens of middle England, preparations are gathering pace.

It might look like a triumph of festive organisation. There is, however, a less cheerful explanation: even Waitrose shoppers are feeling the pinch.

The upmarket supermarket says its customers are making an unusually early start on their Christmas preparations, pushing demand for frozen food and baking ingredients significantly ahead of this time last year as households try to spread the cost of festivities and make their money go further.

Searches for “frozen party food” on the supermarket’s website have soared by more than 300 per cent, while searches for “frozen turkey” are up nearly 200 per cent. Searches for “frozen Christmas” are up 80 per cent and “frozen Christmas food” 29 per cent.

The chain reports particularly strong demand for frozen party snacks and centrepieces, among them Korean-style chicken bites, arancini, chorizo croquettes and roast sweet potatoes.

Frozen food has the advantage that it can be bought long before the guests arrive, with no anxiety over use-by dates; it also tends to be cheaper than fresh equivalents.

There are signs in the baking aisle too. Sales of home baking products are up by 14 per cent on the same 30 days last year. Ready-rolled icing is up by 31 per cent, marzipan 19 per cent and brandy-soaked mixed fruit 16 per cent. Demand for Christmas cake kits has risen by 12 per cent.

Maddy Wilson, director of own-brand at Waitrose, said: "We are seeing customers planning ahead more for Christmas this year, where demand for key products is ahead of what we anticipate and greater than last year. Although we haven't launched our fresh ranges yet, customers are eager to spread the cost of Christmas this year."

It fits a wider trend. A recent survey for Sensormatic Solutions found that more than half of British shoppers intended to spread their festive spending across several pay days, and a similar proportion planned to direct more of it towards discount and budget retailers.

There are also signs of strain in household finances. Consumer confidence dropped 11 points to minus 24 last month, according to the market research firm GfK, its steepest monthly fall since the pandemic. Food prices have risen by 40 per cent in five years.

However, austerity is relative. Another survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising found that almost half of consumers planned no cutbacks at all, and people expected to spend an average of £647 on Christmas.

[AI FROM BT BUSINESS | TMS diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary] Rubber stamp of success

The trouble with satire is that the politicians so often love it. John Lloyd, the legendary TV producer behind Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image, says that the only politician he heard of who hated his puppet on the latter show was Ted Heath, though the grumpy Tory PM may not have been entirely alone. On the All Talk podcast, Lloyd recalled being told that when Margaret Thatcher watched the show she said to her husband: "Denis, who's that awful-looking woman there?" He replied: "That's you, darling." She was sure he was mistaken. Otherwise, no matter how rude the show was, politicians would lap it up. In fact, Lloyd ended up interviewing Norman Tebbit, one of the show's main targets. He nervously asked: "Should I call you Lord Tebbit?" The Tory, who adored his puppet, said: "You may call me a semi-trained polecat if you wish."

How could it have gone so wrong for Donald Trump? After all, as he said, "I've actually kept far more promises than I've made". Despite this seemingly impossible feat of fidelity, voters delivered one of the worst beatings the Republicans have ever suffered. Was it entirely down to the president? Or could some angel of death have affected his chances? On an unrelated note, his Florida home of Mar-a-Lago had a visit on election night from Liz Truss.

VOTE LABOUR, GET SPURS

Sagal Abdi-Wali, Keir Starmer's successor as MP for Holborn and St Pancras, has made her maiden speech in the House of Commons and noted the significant changing of the guard her

victory caused in her constituency. "I'm Holborn and St Pancras's first Tottenham Hotspur supporter MP," she said, "bringing an end to a rather lengthy period of Arsenal and West Ham dominance in our representation in this House." She said that part of the definition of being a Spurs fan is "to remain eternally hopeful despite overwhelming evidence". She'll find many kindred spirits on the Labour benches.

At the launch of his book

Everything Happens So Much, the author Andrew Hunter Murray gave his guests a bit of a history lesson. He said he had recently found a quote from Somerset Maugham who said: "There is one form of advertisement which I deplore: the cocktail party that is given to launch a book." The author said these grisly affairs involved inviting a photographer to get a picture for the papers and gossip writers to get you a "paragraph in their columns". The rest of the crowd were "eminent people" who "expect to get a signed copy of the book for nothing". Glastly but times have changed. Murray got his photo and his paragraph, but he directed everyone else to the chip and pin machine.

DENCH'S BOREDOM CURE

The power of gossip can be a wonderful thing. Dame Judi Dench's new book, Is it Too Late to Make a Run for It?, has a story about the actress's love of alleviating boredom by making up mad pieces of rumour. When Sir Ian McKellen and the now sadly late Sir Patrick Stewart were doing

Waiting for Godot together, Dench saw an opportunity. She started telling people the pair were getting on so well they were planning “to adopt a baby from Malawi”. To her delight, it was a mere two hours later that it was reported back to her as fact.

JACK BLACKBURN

MISSED CALLS

BEHIND BRILLIANT THINGS

SALES SECURED

News

Post Office inquiry KC leads Arday review

Georgia Lambert

Education Correspondent

Cambridge University has appointed the barrister who was lead counsel to the Post Office inquiry to examine its appointment processes after the death of Professor Jason Arday.

Jason Beer KC will lead the second phase of an independent review commissioned by the university, which will also look at its handling of misconduct claims and support for academics facing public scrutiny.

Arday, who became Cambridge's youngest black professor in 2023, resigned as professor of sociology of education on August 5 after facing intense scrutiny over allegations of plagiarism and claims that parts of his personal history were fabricated or exaggerated.

Arday, 41, who denied the plagiarism claims, was found dead at his home in Battersea, south London, on August 14.

The terms of reference make clear the review “will not determine” if allegations over Arday’s research, qualifications or academic record are proven.

Instead, it will examine the university's institutional arrangements for recognising and responding to race equality, including the experiences of black academics, disability, neurodiversity and reasonable adjustments, including how these arrangements operated in relation to the scrutiny of Arday.

The review also won't examine the “scholarly merit or integrity” of Arday's published work, nor make a “retrospective academic judgment” about his suitability for appointment.

In a video message calling for evidence, Beer said: "I will ask who was responsible for making decisions in Professor Arday's case, what information was available to them, whether concerns were properly addressed and whether different parts of the university worked together effectively." Beer will be assisted by an independent panel of four experts and will be expected to report within six months.

The first part of the review, led by Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for North West England, is examining the welfare support and protections available to Arday.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Cambridge's vice-chancellor, said: "Jason Beer is an eminent legal expert who will bring vast experience of leading complex reviews and inquiries."

Beer specialises in public inquiries and, this year, was made an honorary professor of law by the University of Warwick. He was appointed as leading counsel for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, one of the most high-profile public inquiries Britain has had.

The Cambridge-commissioned review has come under wider scrutiny.

Last month, the committee for academic freedom commissioned a rival inquiry to examine whether Arday's appointment met the standards of “academic excellence, merit, integrity and rocedural fairness”. The move followed concerns among academics that the inquiry would sidestep the original questions surrounding his appointment.

REMEMBER

REMEMBER

LITTLE EARS

THIS

NOVEMBER.

Noisy fireworks are often frightening for dogs and cats, but our expert advice can help keep them relaxed this Bonfire Night.

Because we're all in, for them.

PAMELA HANSON/HARPERS BAZAAR

Boot camp Glenn Close, 79, the Fatal Attraction star, strikes a pose for Harper's Bazaar. She has won the icon prize in the magazine's women of the year awards

Cocaine causes more deaths than heroin for first time

Poppy Koronka Health Correspondent

Deaths due to cocaine use have over-taken heroin deaths for the first time since records began, national figures have shown.

There were 5,519 fatalities related to drug poisoning in 2025 in England and Wales – down from 5,565 the year prior.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that this equated to 92.4 deaths per million people and was the first annual drop since 2012.

Deaths specifically mentioning cocaine overtook those from heroin or morphine for the first time – 1,233 were registered last year. Experts said that cocaine was “growing in purity”, creating a “much higher risk to users”.

Ketamine-related deaths were also at an all-time high. There were 115 deaths last year, compared with 27 in 2020 and seven in 2015.

Experts warned that Britain was fighting the drug epidemic with “one hand tied behind our backs" without the proper investment or communication between services.

Mike Trace, the chief executive of the addiction charity Forward Trust, said: "We know that increasingly potent drugs like nitazenes [a synthetic opiate] are making their way on to the market. We know that established drugs like cocaine are growing in purity, which means they come with much higher risks to users.

“And we know that there is not enough treatment for people while they are at risk or to help them recover. We’re trying to tackle the problem with one hand tied behind our backs.”

Trace called for better investment in services and for less punishment and more support for those with addictions.

Statisticians from the ONS also said the gap between the sexes had “reached an all-time high” this year. Men accounted for 72.5 per cent of deaths and women 27.5 per cent.

News

Greens avoid inquiry into claims of secret backing by mosques

Fiona Hamilton Chief Reporter

The Charity Commission has declined to investigate allegations that Green candidates were secretly endorsed by mosques.

After reviewing video evidence from the party's annual conference, the commission said it could not act on “unsubstantiated allegations, rumour or opinion”. It had been sent footage of the Green Party's campaign co-ordinator claiming mosques had gone “undercover” to support candidates.

Mosques that are registered charities are subject to restrictions on political campaigning and must remain politically impartial.

The comments by Asma Alam, made at a fringe meeting at last month's conference, were the basis of a complaint to the commission by the National Secular Society (NSS).

It also complained to the Electoral Commission, which also declined to take further action.

Alam had said: “Talking about mosque endorsements, it’s actually really really hard, in fact it's impossible because they all have got charitable status and with that charitable status it means that they can't endorse a political party. So they can do it undercover, which happened with me."

She suggested that mosques might say they were going to endorse but not follow through with it, and named a Manchester mosque that “did break away ... and they actually announced it [a Greens endorsement]”.

The party said at the time that the comments were anecdotal, that Alam had not sought or facilitated any breach of the rules, and in referring to “undercover” support she meant from individuals not mosques.

The Charity Commission said: "As a risk-based regulator of almost 180,000 registered charities, the commission's actions have to be guided by evidence. It cannot act on hearsay or assumptions ... After careful consideration, we have determined there is no substantiated evidence of wrongdoing or non-compliance by charity trustees."

Megan Manson, NSS head of campaigns, said: "It is concerning that regulators seem neither willing or able to stop registered charities endorsing political parties "undercover", even when those parties themselves have named the charities in question.

“It is therefore likely we’ll continue to see political parties using religious charities as a tool for bloc votes.”

Alam said: “The Charity Commission declined to investigate because there was no basis for an investigation. Sometimes the least exciting explanation is also the correct one.”

Fleabag star's free flat will open door to new writers

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is offering a rent-free flat in London for writers early in their careers.

The Fleabag creator, writer and actress, 41, has bought and donated the flat as part of the new theatre initiative Writers' Block — which aims to address the cost of London accommodation for playwrights from underprivileged backgrounds.

She bought the flat specifically for writers early in their careers to use rent-free and has donated its use alongside what the scheme called a “generous financial contribution”. The resident will pay bills only.

The Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne — who also wrote the films Wonder and Enola Holmes and the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play — is also providing financial backing. He said: "I was lucky when I started out, my brother lived in Croydon and was able to put me up. He did so, rather selflessly, for five years, before I moved to Luton and he got his peace. For many writers the need for a roof makes writing impossible."

Other backers include the playwright and screenwriter James Graham – who wrote stage shows including Ink, Quiz and Dear England – the Happy Valley

Phoebe Waller-Bridge bought the flat specifically for writers early in their careers

creator Sally Wainwright and Peter Morgan, who wrote The Crown.

Waller-Bridge's partner Martin McDonagh is also involved. He is best known for writing and directing films including the Oscar and Bafta-winning The Banshees Of Inisherin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Graham said the scheme tackled the class barrier facing writers. He said: "The industry's urgent pursuit of representation is still letting down the biggest area of under-representation of all, which is class."

Writers' Block was born from the Adopt a Playwright Award initiative, which was founded in 2008 and offers affordable accommodation to writers from disadvantaged backgrounds. Both schemes were created by Sofie Mason and Diana Jervis-Read.

\- More than 300,000 homes are lying long-term empty, outnumbering the number of homes built last year. In England, 303,185 properties were empty for six months or longer in October last year, according to the housing ministry. There were 190,600 homes built in 2024-25.

Lethal weapon The Atlantean Sword used by Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in Conan the Barbarian (1982) is expected to fetch up to £150,000 at a Propstore auction in London next month. The 1,400 lots, including Batman's motorbike from the Dark Knight films and Indiana Jones's fedora and whip, are set to make £10m

ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA; ALAMY

Arrests as judges hear appeal against Palestine Action ban

Ali Mitib

Protesters holding placards in support of Palestine Action were arrested outside the Supreme Court as justices heard an appeal against the Home Office's decision to ban the group.

Huda Ammori, the group's co-founder, is seeking to overturn its designation as a proscribed terrorist group at the UK's highest court on the grounds that the ban infringed on her rights to freedom of expression and assembly under the European Convention on Human Rights.

More than 30 demonstrators assembled outside the court before the start of the two-day hearing yesterday.

Police officers were seen carrying several people away into nearby vans, many of whom held placards using the same wording used by Sarah Helm, the wife of Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser.

Last month Helm posted on X: "God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action." The Metropolitan Police investigated her post and later decided to take no further action.

Police carry away a Palestine Action supporter during yesterday's protest

The protesters inserted different words instead of “authors” on their signs including “normal people” and “sons of Holocaust survivors”.

In the hearing Raza Husain KC, for Ammori, said the objectives of Palestine Action “were aligned with rather than abhorrent to liberal democratic values”. In written submissions the barrister said Home Office advisers determined only three out of 385 actions carried out by Palestine Action over five years met the definition of terror under part of the Terrorism Act 2000.

More than 3,000 people have been arrested for supporting the group since it was banned in July last year after a break-in at RAF Brize Norton. Those charged could face up to 14 years in jail.

Husain said Palestine Action was the first of 98 proscribed organisations to be banned exclusively for causing serious damage to property “with no suggestion that it advocated serious violence against the person”.

The case has been elevated to the Supreme Court after a series of legal battles. In February three judges at the High Court found the decision to proscribe the group was unlawful. This was overturned in June by five Court of Appeal judges who found the ban was lawful and a “justified and proportionate” interference with freedom of expression rights. The Home Office, which is opposing the appeal, has said the Court of Appeal made no legal error in rejecting Ammori’s attempts to portray the group as a “non-violent direct action protest group”.

In written submissions Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said acts that involved serious damage to property could be considered terrorism and the action did not need to involve violence or an intent to endanger life.

A decision from Lords Reed, Sales, Lloyd-Jones, Briggs and Stephens is expected at a later date.

The Metropolitan Police said: “Officers have arrested a total of 27 people outside the Supreme Court on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organisation. The policing operation is ongoing and officers will continue to arrest those who break the law.”

URGENT MEDICAL RESPONSE CRISES MOVE FAST. HELP US MOVE FASTER

FADI HUSAM IS AN MSF NURSING TEAM

SUPERVISOR IN KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA

"I was working in MSF's clinic in Khan Younis when I heard the explosions. My colleagues and I all had the same first thought: were our families safe? But we didn't have time to worry: what we'd heard was a huge airstrike very close to our facility, and 10 patients had been rushed into our emergency department.

One was a 32-year-old man in critical condition, with shrapnel wounds to his face and neck. Another was a child, only seven years old, who'd also been struck by shrapnel. We had to act fast.

Over the past three years, MSF teams have treated more than 200,000 emergency cases in Gaza. Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, airstrikes and

shootings continue.

As healthcare workers, we do everything we can for every patient we see, even though we're afraid for our lives and those of our families too.

But we're working in extremely difficult conditions. Every healthcare facility in Gaza is overwhelmed because of the Israeli restrictions on supply. We're short of even the most basic medicines and equipment, like gauze for wound dressings. We don't have a reliable power supply: at any moment, our generators can break down because of the lack of engine oil and spare parts. We desperately

need to see more medical and logistical supplies enter Gaza.

After the airstrike near our clinic, we were thankfully able to stabilise all 10 of the injured patients and refer them to Nasser hospital for further treatment. MSF isn't just treating trauma patients: in 13 locations across Gaza, our teams are providing surgical support, general healthcare, maternity and paediatric care, wound treatment, physiotherapy, vaccinations and mental health services. Our services are desperately needed – and to continue to provide them, we urgently need your support."

A patient receives care in MSF's Al Zawayda field hospital in Gaza. Photo © Nour Alsaqqa/MSF

SUPPORT LIFE-SAVING MEDICAL CARE

Right now, there are many medical crises happening around the world. MSF must act fast to provide urgent life-saving care during conflicts, natural disasters and disease outbreaks.

In places like Gaza, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo, people needing vital medical care cannot wait.

Please donate today and help us move faster to save lives. | £155 | could cover the cost of an MSF surgeon working in a hospital for one day | £77 | could pay for emergency splints to immobilise injured limbs for 8 patients | £40 | could pay for 40 IV bags which provide life-saving fluid and blood during surgery |

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A light-footed celebration of Madam Ballet

Dance Debra Craine

Madam

Linbury, Royal Opera House,

London (90min)

★★★☆☆

Having marked the centenary of the Royal Ballet School with a gala programme last month, the Royal Ballet turned its attention to the woman who founded both organisations. Ninette de Valois, known to many as Madam (hence the title of this show), died 25 years ago after a lifetime of building British ballet into the envy of the world.

This tribute to her extraordinary legacy took place in the Linbury, downstairs at the Royal Opera House. It was an odd — it didn't really hold together thematically — yet enjoyable evening, with live music (the pianist Kate Shipway and the violinist Melissa Carstairs). It brought together performances of de Valois's choreography — fascinating — along with archive film and recent filmed interviews that remind us of what a formidable visionary she was as a director (she ran the Royal Ballet for 32 years) and choreographer.

The dancing began with students in the spotlight. The First Voice, created by Jessica Lang and inspired by a trio of poems written by de Valois and read out loud, provided 16 of them with emotional focus. Peace with Honour, the quirky student duet that followed, was danced with heart by Soren Chisholm (who choreographed it) and Krysante Bianinova.

The Royal Ballet weighed in with a succession of solos made by de Valois. Caspar Lench delivered the precise vivacity of Vestris. Nadia Mullova-Barley sharpened her weapons as the deadly Black Queen from Checkmate, although Luc Foskett was less comfortable as the Red Knight. Olivia Findlay was charmingly poignant as the Betrayed Girl from The Rake's Progress, while Job offered two solos — Martin Diaz as the devout Elihu and Marco Masciari as a strutting, muscleman Satan.

To honour the company's classical roots we had Aurora's variation from the third act of The Sleeping Beauty, performed with jewelled delicacy by the aptly named Aurora Chinchilla. Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan — the two choreographic giants nurtured by de Valois — had their moment, with Marianna Tsembenhoi shimmering as Ashton's Ondine and Yasmine Naghdi and

Ryoichi Hirano evoking the slow beauty of MacMillan's Concerto pas de deux.

We closed with a pair of 21st-century duets that showed how de Valois's Royal Ballet is moving forward. The squiggles and wiggles of Wayne McGregor's Chroma sat uneasily, despite efforts by Marcelino Sambé and Anna Rose O'Sullivan to give them shape. But I suspect Madam would have been happy to have seen her tribute end with Christopher Wheeldon's Beautiful Shadow, an elegantly restrained lyrical coupling for Lauren Cuthbertson (who co-curated this evening) and Lukas B Braendsrod.

News

BEN MARTIN/GETTY IMAGES

Ninette de Valois in 1960. The visionary director ran the Royal Ballet for 32 years

Farewell to one NHS quango, hello to another

THIS MORNING

FROM 6:30AM

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WITH Moneybox

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Eleanor Hayward Health Editor

A quango is being set up to partially replace the “world’s biggest quango” NHS England, which the government had promised to abolish.

Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, will create a national organisation to employ thousands of NHS regional managers, who had been due to be merged into the health department.

The Times revealed last month that the initial plan, to make them civil servants, was unravelling because NHS managers earned significantly more than their counterparts in the department.

In March last year, Wes Streeting and Sir Keir Starmer announced they would abolish NHS England, the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the health service, which they described as the “world’s biggest quango”.

They said half of NHS England's 15,000 staff would lose their jobs, and the remainder would be rolled into the health department.

But merging the two organisations has proven difficult because the staff are on different pay scales: NHS England staff earn up to £45,000 more.

As a result, Cooper was advised to find a workaround. Yesterday, she wrote to NHS England staff, confirming they would stay on “their current contracts of employment”.

Those working on national matters will be made part of a new “NHS group” being set up in the department, to continue the key tasks carried out by NHS England. Cooper also said she would retain the “crucial role” of an NHS chief executive, currently Sir Jim Mackey.

She will also set up an entirely new “special health authority”, a type of quango, to employ NHS England staff who work in the regions. There are seven NHS regions, which have about 3,000 staff.

Cooper insisted this new quango would be a “temporary arrangement that will support the transition to a more devolved model”, and said it would be accountable to her.

Her letter said the rest of NHS England would be rolled into the department on April 1, adding that we “cannot continue with two parallel national organisations with so many overlapping, uncoordinated functions”. She said this would require them to “establish an NHS Group within [the department], focused on NHS operational delivery”.

Cooper added: “We need to ensure that the new arrangements co-ordinate the very best strengths of the NHS with civil service skills and experience, cross-government partnerships and democratically accountable decision making. The vast majority of the current NHSE national delivery functions will therefore transfer into an NHS group within the department.”

Having a new “NHS group” in the department of health will mean the two cohorts can be employed on present pay scales. For senior civil servants, the pay band is £86,000-£117,800, whereas for their equivalent grade of senior NHS England managers the salary range is £112,782-£129,783.

Thousands of NHS England staff have taken voluntary redundancy as part of the restructuring, and the remainder have spent 18 months in limbo waiting to hear whether they will retain their jobs. Cooper apologised for “the stressful uncertainty”. She added: “I recognise the significant reductions in headcount that colleagues have already experienced and the understandable disruption this has caused.”

News

'Misled' parents call for inquiry into closure of boarding school

Pupils, parents and staff protest over the closure of Leweston School, which taught Kristin Scott Thomas

Georgia Lambert

Education Correspondent

Shayma Bakh

When the 135-year-old Leweston School was taken over by Concept Education in November 2025, governors promised an “exciting new chapter”.

An announcement touted the philosophy of Concept's founders to “safe-guard independent education for the next generation”, promising Leweston would “continue to thrive”.

Less than a year later, the boarding school, whose alumni include the actress Kristin Scott Thomas, has closed without warning, leaving nearly 600 pupils with an uncertain future, parents out of pocket and staff without pay.

Ministers and regulators have now been urged to investigate the sudden collapse, which was announced on October 27 during half-term with “no advance warning”.

The closure of the Catholic school in Sherborne, in Dorset, came just three terms after Concept took over.

MPs in Dorset have called on the Department for Education and the Charity Commission to intervene, criticising the operator's conduct and demanding accountability for the failure.

Edward Morello, the Liberal Democrat MP for West Dorset, who is working alongside Simon Hoare, the Conservative MP for neighbouring North Dorset, said neither elected representatives nor the local authority were alerted about plans to close the school.

“I am outraged that Concept made the decision to close the school with no advance warning to staff or parents,” Morello told The Times.

He said he was “deeply upset” that staff had been left unpaid for October and residential workers had been made homeless, adding that 577 pupils were left without places.

“Dorset Council wasn’t informed ahead of time,” Morello said. “It demonstrates complete disregard for the care that any company should be showing towards its employees or its customers and I want there to be further investigations by relevant authorities.”

Under the deal announced last November, the Catholic Schools Trust holds the land and build-

ings while Concept Education ran operations to advance Catholic education.

However, according to a letter sent to parents and seen by The Times, Hugh Dickinson, chief executive of Concept, admitted that “in the end the financial headwinds were too great” and that they had “failed to turn it around”.

Independent schools face mounting financial pressure after the government's introduction of 20 per cent VAT on fees in January last year.

Concept Education allegedly told parents last week it needed up to £2m to survive the academic year. Dickinson allegedly told attendees of a webinar organised by the firm that “shareholders and lenders had lost their money".

Belinda Rastall, whose son attended Leweston, said: “Having spoken to other parents, it’s clear we all feel we were seriously and deliberately misled.” The Times understands that some parents had paid fees up to four years in advance.

Concept Education said that it “deeply regrets” the distress caused by Leweston’s closure. Dickinson added: “We fully understand why parents feel let down... however, it is important to distinguish between a rescue attempt undertaken in good faith that ultimately failed, and an allegation of deliberate deception. We firmly reject the latter.”

Husband said wife pretended to be asleep, rape trial told

Will Humphries

Southwest Correspondent

A taxi driver filmed having sex with a “snoring” drugged woman said that he had been convinced by her husband she would “pretend to be asleep” as part of a sexual fantasy.

Richard Wilkins, 62, of Swindon, Wiltshire, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one of assault by penetration in 2016. He is one of four men on trial for sexually abusing Joanne Young, who has waived her right to anonymity. Philip Young, 50, has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually abusing his wife over 13 years at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Wilkins told the court that he answered an advert posted by Mr Young on Craigslist and, after speaking with him on the phone, understood “she would pretend to be asleep and you just come, have your fun and then leave”.

Sarah Jones KC, for the prosecution, said a video shot by Mr Young showed his wife snoring and “quite evidently asleep” as she was blindfolded and tied to a single bed.

Jones said Wilkins was filmed touching her “without any attempt to rouse or have a word with her”.

Wilkins said he heard the “snoring noise” after he undressed. “I presumed it to be the role-play,” he told the jury. “When I climbed on the bed and started, she continued the noise. If she had been asleep I presumed she would have at least woken up or been startled.”

The trial continues.

A husband who drugged and raped his wife for more than 20 years asked a man to leave a review on a swingers' website after sexually abusing the unconscious woman, a court heard.

The husband sought feedback on his Fabswingers profile to attract other men with a sexual interest in unconscious women, Louise Oakley KC, prosecuting, told Manchester Minshull Street crown court.

The man, from Stockport, cannot be named to protect his wife's anonymity. He has admitted multiple offences and will give evidence against nine men on trial who deny sexual offences.

The trial continues.

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Comment

Mahmood can't get back the Boriswave billions

Cost to the state of migrant workers and their dependants is now clear and no amount of ‘savings’ can balance the books

Juliet Samuel

@CITYSAMUEL

In the history of suicidal delusions permeating western civilisation after the Cold War, we can only hope that the Boriswave will prove to be a turning point. The decision in 2021 to open Britain's borders en masse to hundreds of thousands of low-paid care workers from the developing world, with their dependants, helped to double the pace of population change from levels that had already seen Britain vote to leave the EU. In the aftermath, the Tories, bewildered as much by their own policies as by the public's rage, fled government.

Labour found the kingdom booby-trapped, but instead of defusing the bombs it has generally resorted to lengthening the fuses. That had seemed to be Shabana Mahmood's plan for the Boriswave, the first tranche of whom will soon be able to claim leave to remain, with full access to benefits and, a year later, citizenship. In March, Mahmood said this could not be allowed to happen, but Labour backbenchers have now disarmed the government's chief bomb technician. The best she could offer this week was a warning: get ready to cut the wire!

The demographic bomb will explode over several years. The visa scheme for cheap care workers, needed because the government refused to sort out funding to attract domestic workers instead, began in 2022. Thousands of care “agencies”, many in fact fronts or frauds, sprang up to recruit workers from India,

Nigeria, Zimbabwe and so forth. Visas granted, starting with a minimum salary of just £20,480, peaked at 45,000 per quarter in 2023, before horrified ministers belatedly cracked down. It was too late.

Not only workers but many dependants were already arriving in the tens of thousands. Over the course of 2022 to 2024, 150,000 care workers arrived, with 175,000-200,000 dependants in tow. But that is just an estimate. Home Office data differs from ONS data, which differs from HMRC data. All that's known for sure is that it was a lot.

Alongside a rising exodus of Brits, a huge rise in “skilled worker” visas and the arrival of Hongkongers and Ukrainians, the overall population churn over this period was probably about 10 per cent. The long-term cultural and political impact will no doubt horrify progressive idealists. But for now let’s focus on the cost,

The demographic bomb will explode over several years

because one of the notable results of the Boriswave is that the government has officially admitted immigration does not always make us richer.

You might think this obvious. But then you have to ask how the Boriswave happened. Why were the Oxbridge control freaks at the Treasury so willing to give the dunderheads at the Home Office free rein to bail out the low-paying spivs in the social care sector? It helps to understand that Treasury officials play the role of pharaonic sorcerer in government, wheeled out to perform reassuring tricks for

frazzled ministers. The trick is to flatter the public balance sheet and get through another budget or two. Behind the curtain there is little metaphysical discussion. The dogma, that more immigration always means more money, was considered proven by the old synod of Blairite economists, and critiques are “xenophobic”.

What those economists established is that if a 25-year-old Polish graduate comes to Britain to live in a crowded flatshare and work in construction, he costs the state little and pays some tax. After five to ten years, once he has had some children, most fiscal benefit melts away, but that's after the budget cycle and maybe he has gone home by then.

If you take a 30-year-old French banker, of course, the tax take stays good. But even the most optimistic models always showed that low-paid, non-European immigration was a net drain on the exchequer. Besides, none of the calculations ever took into account how many more reservoirs, hospitals or railway stations you might need for all these extra people, and what those might cost.

The Treasury model also doesn't take into account services immigrants might need, such as school places. The Office for Budget Responsibility has started modelling this for interest's sake, but its official forecast is largely required to assume that Treasury departmental budgets will be met. By contrast, the forecast does assume that more immigrants will generate more tax revenues.

They also get to bank revenue from visa fees, health surcharges and skills charges, a few billion a year, but don't have to account for benefit costs once immigrants get leave to remain. That's because this currently takes five years, which also happens to be the Treasury's forecast horizon. Then there's the question of dependants. The Migration Advisory Committee estimates that a dependant coming in with a care worker will cost the state £67,000, in addition to the £36,000 lifetime cost of the worker. But that's just for an adult. A child costs more (not least, £7,000 per year in education from day one) but for some reason, no one has crunched those numbers.

Shabana Mahmood has had to water down changes to care worker visas

What's clear is that the Boriswave has conclusively broken the Blair-given Treasury dogma and various arms of government are struggling to figure out what should replace it. Mahmood's shift illustrates the dilemma. For a year, she has been arguing for an urgent policy change for care workers. The cost of granting them leave to remain, and therefore benefits, on the original

five-year timescale, she claimed, will be £10 billion.

But Labour MPs care more about the nebulous sort of “promise” a government supposedly makes when it grants a visa than about the flagrantly broken promises made to voters over 15 years to run migration policy in the service of British citizens and cultural cohesion. So Mahmood couldn’t get her changes through for care workers who have met their original visa conditions, only for those who haven’t or for future migrants. The “saving” has thus been downgraded to unspecified “billions”. All of which shows you pay a political cost in owning up to fiscal costs.

As for the Tories, having spent a year or so dazed by the magnitude of what they had done, variously claiming that it was all a brilliant idea or that they'd deport the lot of them, they are now groping towards a policy. They'll strip benefits and leave to remain from the Boriswave workers who haven't "paid their way", they claim, but they don't know how they'll calculate that or what they'll do if those workers decline to leave but instead slip into the unofficial chicken shop/carwash economy, where thousands are already being exploited.

The upshot is that this isn't going to be undone. The Boriswave is a permanent change to our economy and our country. Undoubtedly, talented and driven people will emerge from this cohort, as from any large population. But this was a trainwreck of a policy and we'll be paying the price for decades to come. I'd like to think it will at least sound the death knell for the blind ideology of open-border economists. But ministers can't help themselves. They're already devising more migration schemes. Bombs away!

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Comment

Play it right and Democrats have a lock on power

If the party can put aside divisions and resist revenge, midterms can be more than a protest vote

Katy Balls

@KATYBALLS

On Tuesday lunchtime in Washington, Democrats gathered at the Opaline restaurant near the White House to drink

“Blue Waves” (prosecco, blue curacao and a splash of pineapple juice for those who want to try at home) in the hope of inviting a political one.

Twenty-four hours on and the party's successes have exceeded what most dared dream. The Democrats didn't just take back the House of Representatives and Senate but did so in style, flipping states from Texas to Kansas (which elected its first Democratic senator in 94 years). They are on course for an 80-seat majority in the House and sitting on a 54-44 majority in the Senate, which could rise if they clinch Alaska or Mississippi (where bookmakers had put their odds of success at 10/1).

Those numbers, as the outgoing but ambitious Florida governor Ron DeSantis put it, are “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans”. The cull is instant: several hundred Republican staffers will be out of a job. Those who remain will be looking to escape a miserable lame-duck presidency.

“This is a 1994 level repudiation,” says a figure close to the administration, referencing Bill

Clinton's disastrous midterms and the way they restructured the Senate, a realignment known as the “Republican revolution”. Senators, elected for a six-year term, have a say over who gets to be cabinet members, federal judges, Supreme Court justices, ambassadors and numerous other senior officials. A furious JD Vance seems to have been having similar thoughts, saying on social media that those who backed the Iran war (presumably including President Trump) need to accept that the price they paid was “losing the Senate for the next six years.”

"These historic majorities are an opportunity to earn the trust of voters heading into 2028, not to

There are plenty who would like to go for Trump and his cronies

take it for granted," says one DC Democrat. So, how do they do that?

The most powerful Democrat in Washington will be Hakeem Jeffries, the probable House Speaker. As the party's effective commander he'll decide which bills reach the floor and who chairs the committees. It will be his job to herd the tribes of newly elected and freshly returned Democrats: five card-carrying Democratic Socialists of America (the group has backed abolishing the immigration service ICE along with the US Senate) were elected on Tuesday and there are now twice as many “Blue Dogs” (moderate and fiscally conservative Democrats).

Jeffries, 56, a Brooklyn native, who likes to quote scripture and rap depending on his mood, is set to become the first black person to hold the gavel. His job: to stop his party looking like the feuding, disorganised rabble Republicans will portray them as.

Most can agree that addressing voters' concerns on affordability should come first. There are plans for a legislative offensive in the first week on reversing Trump's cuts to Medicaid, Trump's tariffs and limiting what Trump can do in Iran. Jeffries has set the tone, declaring that "the American people don't want us to get even. They want us to get things done on their behalf."

But there are plenty of Democrats who would like to get even — and go for Trump and his cronies.

Jon Ossoff, the re-elected senator from Georgia now seen as a probable presidential contender, made a name in this campaign by going after Trump's circle on corruption. He combined his political centrism with fiery denunciations of the "Mar-a-Lago mafia", the "Epstein class" and "Prince Don and Prince Eric". Robert Garcia, the California congressman set to chair the oversight committee, the primary investigative body of the House, has told Trump and Republicans to "lawyer up". In Washington, Republican staffers drinking margaritas began to fret about being subpoenaed or talked of the need for pardons, which Trump has suggested he could grant en masse.

Now the investigations will start. The Democrats will take charge of committees likely to investigate everything from the \$400 million

White House ballroom renovation to Elon Musk's influence on the Starlink slowdown. There is an appetite to impeach Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war. In September the congressman Thomas Massie introduced eight impeachment articles to the House citing unauthorised military actions in Iran, Venezuela and the Caribbean. He may try to force a floor vote before the new intake arrives in the new year. There are plenty of Republicans in Congress with axes to grind against Trump after he backed Maga candidates over Republican incumbents in the midterm primaries.

But Democrats are cooler on a Trump impeachment. It's not about the charge but whether it's a good use of their time. Will Jeffries be able to grip his party? He has in the past been hostile to the democratic socialist wing, backing incumbents against insurgent progressives. He failed. Now he needs to coerce the politicians he went against.

The “blue wave” was one of anger with Trump not love for the Democrats. It was about mismanagement of the economy, senseless trade wars and the cost of a real war in Iran. If Jeffries and his colleagues can put aside internal divisions, focus on the cost of living and demonstrate that they can govern effectively, it will likely lead them to the White House in 2028. But if it turns into a festival of revenge, trials and ideological infighting, they may squander the prize that has unexpectedly landed in front of them: the chance to lock the Republicans out for years to come.

Janice Turner Notebook

John Lewis wishes you a cold, hard Christmas

When my sons were small, I'd rush from wherever I was in the house to witness the moment my parents

arrived from Yorkshire. The door opened, the boys hurtled into their arms, my eyes welled: three generations exalted in a moment of uncomplicated joy.

John Lewis could bottle that feeling and sell us any old tat. Instead its dead-eyed Christmas advertisement suggests love is wholly transactional. The grandchildren of Kristin Scott Thomas, the ad's star, run straight past her without a hug to bounce on the sofa and trash her home. Her conclusion is not that these brats need a few sharp words but that she must open her wallet.

Saatchi's cool young creatives clearly think families are dull and older women are dumb. (Why would Granny Kristin, who has raised a daughter, try to entertain these nine or ten-year-olds with a toddler's pull-along dog?) But ad folk relish destructive kids who smash stuff up: transgression, rebellion! And it works: Granny spends a fortune in JL transforming her front room (weirdly) into a gaudy yurt. Hurrah, now she gets her hug!

Millions were spent on this cold, rapacious ad. (Its director, Lucy Forbes, made the cruel, misogynistic TV drama This Is Going to Hurt.) But the John Lewis brand is based on “higher” values and understanding the national mood. Odd that while a tough, spartan Christmas looms for many families, JL’s message is “spend harder or you won’t be loved”.

Thorny questions

My new favourite podcast is Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth, whose premise is to examine the formative experiences and key emotional moments of his guests. Celebrities who seldom do interviews, such as Ralph Fiennes, are lured in by his flattering, urbane, lightweight breakfast TV persona. But once he has them in his studio, Brandreth is a raptor.

"I don't want to talk about your films," he says to an astonished Geoffrey Rush, probing harder on the #MeToo allegations he denies. "You're tough, aren't you!" says Dylan Jones as Gyles pushes him on how a violent father formed his psyche.

The interviews have an air of

the therapist's couch. Questions like "what was your first memory?", "what did your childhood bedroom look like?", "can you describe the exact moment you first saw your wife?" seem banal but generate fascinating answers. All success reads the same; it is the upward scrabble that reveals the most.

Just for kicks

Red wine, one of the few good things about winter, now gives me a banging headache, and anyway we're told not to hit the booze every night. Yet still I need some kind of drink to mark that evening has begun. Fruit cordials are too sweet. A friend suggested Tanqueray

0 per cent gin but it has no kick. (The supermarket still checked I was “visibly over-25” to buy it.)

An aperitif must be bitter enough to keep your tongue interested and con you into believing it contains alcohol. Then I tried Botivo in a fancy Islington restaurant. This tastes absolutely disgusting neat, since its main ingredient is cider vinegar. But heavily diluted with fizzy water and a slice of orange, you'd think you were enjoying a fine vermouth.

Green waste

My local Green-Lib Dem council has sent out a stapled 16-page booklet asking Southwark residents for ideas of how to save £102 million to fill its funding gap. My first thought is, stop producing 130,800 copies of a stapled 16-page booklet (estimated print cost £20k).

My second relates to a team of workmen who last week painted a vast, lime-green banner right across the entrance road of my local park reading, "WELCOME TO DULWICH PARK, PLEASE SLOW DOWN." They daubed the same bossy message at another park gate that isn't even open to traffic. A friend in local government reckons this cost a minimum £15,000. I'm guessing residents would rather pay the council to remove graffiti that defiles our streets, not paint its own.

Without regulation, rogue therapists are free to cause harm Charlotte Lytton

o seek out a psychotherapist is to acknowledge that a problem requires a professional fix, just as a heart complaint would

send you to a cardiologist's chair. But there is a gulf between the protections afforded to each patient.

Therapy and counselling remain unregulated professions in the UK, meaning that anyone can set themselves up as a sage to the vulnerable — and, in the worst cases, inflict significant harm without recourse. Given that 37 per cent of people pursued mental health help last year, the potential for abuse is becoming ever larger.

That has been acknowledged this week in a report from an independent commission set up by the voluntary professional associations for therapists and counsellors. It calls on ministers to enforce industry-wide statutory regulation in what they see as a “watershed moment” for the profession — one that remains entirely without proper guardrails. In 2021 the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy received 228 complaints; by last year, that figure had more than doubled to 559. Between 2021 and 2025, just 52 memberships were withdrawn.

The problem is that, even when complaints are made, the lack of regulation means little can be done. For the past month I've been investigating harm caused by therapists, hearing cases such as the young woman urged to move into her therapist's home and cut off her family, which left her feeling as though she had "joined a cult".

Another began marital counselling, only for the “professional” in question to have an affair with her husband. Several reported inappropriate touching, such as hugs or kisses during sessions, or being forced to recount childhood sexual abuse in lurid detail. Many experienced round-the-clock messaging and a level of intimacy so intense it felt as though they were “cheating” on their partner. This blurring of boundaries was more psychologically damaging, some said, than what they sought therapy for in the first place.

While the nature of the inappropriate conduct differed, two grim factors united each story: that every complaint to a professional body (to which practitioners can anyway choose not to sign up) had gone nowhere. And that every therapist continued to practise, putting other members of the public at risk.

While regulation will not make misconduct disappear, it would at least introduce consequences that have been non-existent for too long. The person charged with caring for your heart would be struck off if they harmed you, as they should be. It's time to demand the same of those purportedly looking after your head.

Charlotte Lytton is a freelance writer

Comment

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Reset with Europe is no big deal for this PM

A once contentious plan for closer relations with the EU may slip through because nobody has the energy to oppose it

Hugo Rifkind

@HUGORIFKIND

Look, I know nobody wants to be reminded of the Brexit wars. But guys, remember the Brexit wars? Not the referendum, but afterwards. The heaving lunacy of it all. Governments faltering, parliaments prorogued. The way we all had to learn so much, so quickly, about things like the Northern Irish border, and what “prorogued” meant.

For months, for years, no decision seemed possible without entire Tory WhatsApp “research groups” springing up to call it a bad idea. While outside, gangs of furious people in blue berets would rage and scream, also saying it was a bad idea, but for completely different reasons.

“No deal is better than a bad deal,” Theresa May used to say, as her government failed to grasp not only the nettle of our new reality, but also grammar. On TV, you’d find freshly lobotomised Brexiteers championing “no deal” despite not really seeming to know what it meant. Meanwhile we Remainers tried to embark upon the five stages of grief, but tended to get hung up on denial. Hence Boris Johnson winning an election on the wilfully vague promise of just making it all bloody stop.

All of which makes it pretty remarkable that, this month, Andy Burnham hasn't had to endure any of that. Rather, he just seems to have popped up one day and said, "Yeah, no, let's now do something completely different." No debate, no fight, no WhatsApp rebellions, no berets. Just a man and a new plan.

In truth, Burnham's EU reset is Sir Keir Starmer's EU reset, bubbling away for months. This is often the way with Burnham's announcements, but it does help that he always sounds so pleased about them, albeit also like he's explaining them to a five-year-old on Jackanory. Still, it beats how Starmer sounded whenever he made a big announcement, which was as if it was being birthed from one of his nostrils with surgical tongs.

The details remain fuzzy, with deals on youth mobility, universities and something to do with gherkins. Bigger deals may loom, primarily about aligning ourselves with EU tariffs against China. All of these are British concessions, designed to buy our way back into the EU economy, thereby boosting our economy by up to 0.4 per cent. The only concession the EU is making, meanwhile, will be letting us.

“Later, we’ll be speaking to a relieved cheesemaker,” a presenter on the BBC declared on Tuesday. That took me back. My own main contribution to the Brexit wars, and arguably to journalism itself, was when in 2018 I put out a few tweets likening May’s deal to “a submarine made of cheese”. It doesn’t sound like much of an achievement now, I’ll grant you, but my analogy made most major European newspapers (“Il compare le Brexit à

It leaves Britain at best as rule-takers rather than rule-makers

un sous-marin en fromage!" wrote Paris Match, surreally) and was eventually read out, word for word, in the German Bundestag.

My point, bluntly, was that even the best Brexit deal was only ever going to be an optimal way of embarking on a fundamentally terrible idea. I still think that. Clearly, Burnham does too.

His deal leaves us at best as rule-takers rather than rule-makers; subject to EU legislation on all sorts of things that we, as outsiders, can have no role in changing. Once, this was precisely the sort of dynamic

that Remainers and Brexiteers alike would have rejected out of hand; the worst of both worlds. Today, oh God, who cares? Just make it end.

For all the differences in their cheesy submarine plans, this is why Burnham's calculation is actually quite similar to Johnson's; that he can basically do what he likes, thanks to the sheer ennui of his opponents. Nigel Farage has called the reset a "betrayal" but even his arsenal of objections is looking badly depleted. Leaving was supposed to unlock trade deals around the world. It didn't. Leaving was also supposed to help us control immigration. Let's just say that one hasn't quite worked out as planned, either.

Perhaps you've noticed how Burnham, a far more ruthless politician than he lets on, has started quietly contrasting EU immigration with that from elsewhere. Back in 2016, believe it or not, Farage briefly took to complaining that high EU immigration meant “it is now very difficult for somebody who's qualified from India or from Africa to get into this country”. I'm not sure that's an argument he'd like to advance to his base today.

Plus, of course, there's the changing terrain of Europe itself, with the threat of Russia, and of abandonment by the US, and indeed with the rise of the somewhat Reform-like right in France and

Germany. I have no idea how even die-hard Brexiteers would begin to navigate all of that today. Nor, I expect, do they.

If the blue berets are cheering, for all that, then they should check themselves. Burnham is admirably open about his long-term urge to see us fully back in the EU fold, at least when he isn't speaking to the voters of Makerfield. At the same time, though, he clearly isn't actually going to do it, either in this parliament or in a manifesto for the next. The more he tries, the less he'll manage, and I expect that even most people who basically agree with him would rather he tried less. This is odd, I know. But ten years of stasis and circumspection are a hard habit to break.

Whatever this reset involves, then, two things remain true. First, it will be a better settlement than any we have had since 2016. Second, it will also be one that almost nobody on either side would actually have voted for when they had the chance. Sure, Theresa May was wrong. A bad deal is indeed better than no deal. Far better. But don't kid yourself. It's still bad.

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Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor should be sent to letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

Consultants' strike

Sir, Your article “Why consultants are poised to strike despite healthy pay rises” (Oct 31) perpetuates some misconceptions and omits to acknowledge the substantial contribution that consultants already make. The £150,000 pay figure you quote for an “average” consultant includes work outside scheduled hours. It is with this extra work that consultants are keeping an NHS riddled with rota gaps and staffing shortages afloat. This should not be mistaken for the contracted pay package. In Ireland, the starting basic pay for a consultant in the state health service is the equivalent of about £200,000 for a shorter working week. In an international market for skills, pay is simply not keeping up.

We must also address working conditions. A quarter of consultants are taking time away through stress. A gradual reduction in the “standard” working week would simply bring consultants in line with other workforces. We cannot be in the operating theatre or clinics all the time, much as policymakers might like the idea. We need protected time, because it is that investment of time to train the next generation of doctors, advance medical research and innovate that will build an NHS fit for the future.

Dr Shanu Datta and Dr Helen Neary

Co-chairs, consultants committee,

British Medical Association

Consultants' strike

Sir, Your article “Why consultants are poised to strike despite healthy pay rises” (Oct 31) perpetuates some misconceptions and omits to acknowledge the substantial contribution that consultants already make. The £150,000 pay figure you quote for an “average” consultant includes work outside scheduled hours. It is with this extra work that consultants are keeping an NHS riddled with rota gaps and staffing shortages afloat. This should not be mistaken for the contracted pay package. In Ireland, the starting basic pay for a consultant in the state health service is the equivalent of about £200,000 for a shorter working week. In an international market for skills, pay is simply not keeping up.

We must also address working conditions. A quarter of consultants are taking time away through stress. A gradual reduction in the “standard” working week would simply bring consultants in line with other workforces. We cannot be in the operating theatre or clinics all the time, much as policymakers might like the idea. We need protected time, because it is that investment of time to train the next generation of doctors, advance medical research and innovate that will build an NHS fit for the future.

Dr Shanu Datta and Dr Helen Neary

Co-chairs, consultants committee,

British Medical Association

Double trouble

Sir, I have every sympathy for those whose family names include an apostrophe (Thunderer, Nov 2; letters, Nov 3 & 4), but please spare a thought for those of us encumbered by a hyphenated surname, which often encounters an IT refusal as an unrecognised symbol.

Dr Margaret Jackson-Roberts

London NW3

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Independent Press Standards Organisation rules and regulations and the Editors' Code of Practice that IPSO enforces. Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent to feedback@thetimes.co.uk

Routing of Trump in US midterm elections

Sir, The midterm results fire the starting gun for the post-Trump era but leave us in an uneasy transition (reports, Nov 4 & 5). The president will be constrained domestically, but much less so in foreign policy. He is notoriously difficult to influence, but the task for Europe now is to prevent him using his declining power to our disadvantage and to convince him that his remaining time is best spent on negotiation and working with allies. The test cases are no return to major operations against Iran, and maintaining at least the present level of support for Ukraine.

For success, the UK and its allies need to play their hand with unusual skill. They know that the new Democratic majority and centrist Republicans broadly share their aims but need to be subtle to avoid antagonising a president adjusting to new realities. They need to remain united, which is not easy given the political volatility in Europe. They need substantive ideas to contribute on the current conflicts, something this one-man US administration oddly lacks. And they need to act quickly as Putin, Xi, Netanyahu and others will all see opportunities in this twilight Trump phase, which may

prove every bit as problematic for America's traditional allies as the past two tumultuous and damaging years. Sir Nigel Sheinwald British ambassador to the US 2007-12; London SE10

Sir, The vast majority of American people have always been open, decent and fair-minded, and it has been inexplicable that they have given support to such a reckless and clearly morally flawed person as Donald Trump. It is consequently a relief that the midterm results re-establish such positive characteristics and that the US constitution provides a means of ensuring at least some checks and balances to executive power. One can only hope that Trump will feel suitably chastened, co-operate closely with his allies and behave responsibly on the world stage in the next two years.

Tim Marking

Amsterdam

Sir, President Trump says the results of the midterm elections are because his name wasn't on the ballot, but surely it has been US voters' only chance to reject the divisive, ill-informed, unpredictable buffoonery that has tarnished the

Republicans' reputation across the world. In both houses, Republicans now have the opportunity to distance themselves from the president's vulgar, swaggering, self-aggrandising excesses, and they must take it.

The Democrats, meanwhile, can tackle their perceived Washington remoteness and disengagement, which Trump exploited. They can develop approaches that are more in touch, warm and inclusive, demonstrating a readiness to work across political boundaries to focus on improving people's lives. In short, Congress can now show real leadership in helping to consign the ravages of the present era to the dustbin of history, unmourned but never to be forgotten.

Tony Hunter

London El7

Sir, Given that, as the headline to Louisa Clarence-Smith's article puts it, "the American dream is turning into a Silicon Valley nightmare" (Nov 4), one of the Democratic Party's key strategic priorities must surely now be to persuade Elon Musk to double his contribution to the Republican Party for the 2028 presidential election. Richard de Friend London NW5

Pension reforms

Sir, Torsten Bell is right to protect people from outliving their pension savings, and Sir Steve Webb is right that a default income must not become a straitjacket (“Private sector staff get right to a pension income for life”, Nov 3; letter, Nov 4). Retirement does not follow a standard spending pattern. People may need money to adapt a home, support a partner or meet unexpected care costs. A good default must retain genuine flexibility.

The government is linking these reforms to its proposed national care service. Yet it is striking that ministers want to protect people against outliving their savings while the risk of catastrophic care costs remains, even with free personal care.

Ministers must also be clear that collective pensions do not guarantee the amount paid. Nor can a better retirement product make an inadequate pension pot sufficient. The test is whether reform brings greater security without taking away control when circumstances change.

Paul Burstow

Care minister 2010-12;

Wadhurst, E Sussex

Social care solution

Sir, Alice Thomson is right that young and old need each other (“Train up teens to tackle crisis in social care” Nov 4). Her Dutch example, of students housed free in care homes in exchange for keeping residents company, points to a cheaper and quicker reform. Millions of older people live alone in homes with empty bedrooms, while many people in their twenties cannot afford rent. A tax incentive for older homeowners to let rooms at affordable rents to younger lodgers would ease loneliness and the housing shortage, and save the Treasury millions. Every room let reduces the need to build affordable homes. Companionship also keeps older people healthier: we found that it cut their calls on GPs by 25 per cent. A young person in the house could also spot trouble before it became an emergency admission. Pilot schemes would show whether it works. Young carers, and others in their twenties priced out of renting, could then find a home as well as a calling.

Trevor Lyttleton

Founder, Contact the Elderly (now Re-engage); London NW11

Migration rules

Sir, Melanie Phillips (“Migration tweaks signal we’re still a soft touch”, comment, Nov 3; letters, Nov 4) portrays a public “beyond enraged”. Polling tells a different story: a YouGov poll we commissioned found that 63 per cent of Britons were sympathetic towards people fleeing war, persecution or serious danger. The public want control and compassion, and the two are not in conflict.

The government's new safe routes answer that instinct, and we welcome them; they must now operate at greater scale. Social cohesion depends on belonging, hope and the opportunity to play your part. A 30-year wait for earned settlement for refugees puts all three out of reach, however hard people try. That undermines the cohesion that Phillips invokes and the connected communities that the government wants to build. Anyone legally recognised as a refugee should be able to apply for settlement after five years, however they arrived.

Flora Alexander

Executive director, International Rescue Committee UK

DISCOVERY IN A VILLAGE CHURCH

FROM THE TIMES NOVEMBER 5, 1926

Important discoveries in Hoxne Church, Suffolk, are described in the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Magazine for November. The walls have been cleaned, and a remarkable series of wall paintings has come to light in the north wall above the arches which separate the nave from the north aisle.

These paintings, the article suggests, probably belong to the end of the 14th century or the first half of the 15th. They may fall into four groups. Beginning at the west end opposite the south door is part of a large figure of St Christopher

crossing the river with the child Christ on his shoulder. Such a figure of St Christopher in this position is usual, but the next scene is most unusual, and at present it is impossible to guess its meaning. There is a large tree; two men — or devils, for one has a tail — seated on the ground at the foot are sawing it through with a long two-handled saw. Above, there are branches on either side which sprout into dragons with bat-like wings, from the open mouths of which issue small figures of kings. At the top is seated our Lord in glory.

Farther east are scenes in two tiers. The upper one is too broken to be intelligible, but it may be possible in time to interpret the lower one. At the left side a figure with staff in hand meets or takes leave of another on the extreme left; then there is a figure with a bell, while in the extreme right is a seated figure, apparently the Virgin Mary. Above the heads of these figures are scrolls containing

inscriptions, which will be difficult if not impossible to read. The last scene towards the east seems to be a Doom or Last Judgment.

The paintings described are not all the new discoveries. The remains of five crosses have been discovered above the pillars and beneath the other paintings. They are part of a series of 12 painted at intervals round the walls of the church inside, and there were also probably 12 outside. These crosses marked the points at which the church walls were anointed by the bishop when the building was consecrated. Every church had them at one time, but in most cases they have disappeared.

The paintings, however, are the more striking of the Hoxne “finds”. Immediate action may be necessary to preserve them from deterioration through exposure to air and light.

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Rural retirement

Sir, Professor Sir Chris Whitty is right to highlight the health inequalities and practical challenges facing people living in rural communities (“A rural retirement could be bad for your health, warns Whitty”, Nov 4). However, I would caution against allowing the narrative to become one in which rural retirement is viewed primarily as a health risk.

As a GP working in rural Somerset, I see both sides of this every day. Rural living can bring isolation, transport difficulties and barriers to accessing healthcare, particularly for older and more vulnerable patients. But it also offers enormous benefits: community spirit, social connection, physical activity and a quality of life that can be profoundly beneficial to health and wellbeing.

We should not be warning people off rural retirement; instead, we should be making rural communities places where people can age safely, independently and well. That means properly resourcing rural GP services, improving transport links and recognising that healthcare provision cannot be planned around population density alone.

GP, North Curry, Somerset

Surgery in wartime

Sir, Colonel David Rew (letter, Nov 2) says that it is several decades since the surgeon-general was actually a surgeon. Surgeon Vice-Admiral Alasdair Walker was surgeon-general from 2015 to 2018. He was a general and vascular surgeon who served in several war theatres, including the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. If Colonel Rew means that no surgeon was practising surgery at the time of his being surgeon-general, it would have been very unusual for that to be possible owing to the heavy administrative workload in the post.

Dr Sean Bennett

Ret'd GP and former RN medical officer, Newton Ferrers, Devon

Fridges cyberhack

Sir, Computer hackers have caused millions of pounds of damage in food stores across Europe by turning up freezer temperatures ("Fridge hack hits UK's organic food", Nov 4). This surely raises a question about driverless vehicles. Such vehicles rely on satellite-based geopositioning systems and highly integrated digital networks. If blackmailers or hostile states were able to hack these systems they could cause many lives to be lost in road accidents. The mere claim that they had done so and were prepared to cause such deaths would give them huge leverage. We are told that self-driving vehicles are inevitable. Can we be sure they are safe? Michael Jacobs Emeritus professor of political

Emeritus professor of political economy, University of Sheffield

Penny from Heaven

Sir, My grandfather, a Church of Scotland minister, recounted a disconcerting tactic that limited the length of his sermon (letters, Oct 28, 29 & 31). A parishioner, sitting in the front pew, would line up his offering coins and, after five minutes, would remove one as each minute passed, replacing it in his pocket.

David Jeffrey

David Jeffrey

West Malvern, Worcs

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Daily Universal Register

UK: The monetary policy committee meets to set the rate of interest; Guy Fawkes Night. Belgium: Nato meets to discuss Ukraine.

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