Dear John,

This week has seen a cabinet minister come out fighting against Nigel Farage promising to rip up Britain’s progress on better EU relations; a new poll revealed an overwhelming majority of Brits back a youth mobility deal; and the French government is at risk of collapse, again.

It’s also been a busy week at Best for Britain HQ, where we responded to Reform UK’s immigration press conference. We’re also working hard ahead of the launch of our new project, coming to an app near you very soon… 

For a breakdown of the headlines, and more on that mysterious launch, here is your Weekend Wire. 

Extra! Extra! Read all about it...

Yes, that’s right. We are joining the party and launching the brand new Best for Britain Substack. 

Following  the knockout success of this very newsletter (hello, all 100,000 of you), The Best for Britain Wire will be launching next week with a special offer for all our wonderful existing subscribers. 

Wire we doing it?

In these difficult times, with  a media landscape funded by division and fuelled by rage bait, you’ve told us you are hungry for more thought-provoking insights, expert analysis and punchy commentary, that adds light rather than heat to the issues defining UK and international politics. Well, get ready because The Best for Britain Wire will bring you just that with the latest from some of the UK’s leading political thinkers and commentators.

Stay tuned next week for more! Now, on to the news…

It's all about EU...

It’s all about EU, baby. Cabinet Office and EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds this week set out his (greengrocers) stall on plans to get a deal agreed with the EU on food and drink within the next 18 months.

The government wants to ensure a permanent deal on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) is done and dusted by 2027. There are further negotiations with the EU expected later this year.

It came as polling from More in Common (MiC) revealed that 71% of voters think the UK economy has worsened since 2016. Yikes. Our focus groups carried out by MiC also found some 77% of Brits said the cost of living has got worse since the UK left the EU.

Announcing the SPS plans at a Spectator event alongside Michael Gove (yes, that Gove), Thomas-Symonds also landed blows on Nigel Farage who he accused of wanting to “see Britain fail” and that he was promising “more red tape, mountains of paperwork, and a bureaucratic burden”, after the Reform UK leader pledged to undo Britain’s progress on better EU relations.

Farage wrote in the Telegraph that the current SPS arrangements agreed at the May EU summit, which stopped border checks and fees on some fruit and veg, would place us “back into the orbit of Brussels” and vowed: “A Reform government would undo all of this with legislation.”

Best for Britain’s Naomi Smith was front row for the announcement. She rightly warned: 

“Farage, the chief architect of Brexit, is threatening all UK businesses and consumers with the sequel nobody wants. By promising to tear up progress made in clearing up his mess, he is promising more uncertainty, more red tape and higher prices - just another reason he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Downing Street.”

Read her thoughts in full.

'Authoritarian playbook'

Farage held yet another press conference this week unveiling the grim details of Reform UK’s plans for mass deportations, should the party form a government. We won’t give him the oxygen of further publicity here, but - if you missed the full sideshow - here’s the Guardian’s explainer on the moral and economic costs of pursuing such a policy, their analysis of the “well-funded Farage barrage” and Rafael Behr’s column on “Farage’s Brexit sequel”.

Our CEO Naomi Smith was among the many progressive voices - from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, human rights barrister Adam Wagner and Freedom from Torture’s Kolbassia Haoussou, to condemn the announcement. She said:

“Stoking fears over immigration as a way to remove our most basic rights is right out of the authoritarian playbook and has been used by Donald Trump to deploy masked men on the streets of the US who are abducting and imprisoning American citizens without trial. 

“We cannot allow the same to happen here. Rights to fair trial, free elections and freedom of expression are all protected by the Human Rights Act and ECHR, and are not something we can trust Nigel Farage to rewrite.”

You can read more about our work at Best for Britain countering the rise of the radical right on our website and of course, help fund this with a monthly, or one-off, donation. Thank you for your continued support.

Nazis not welcome

Our friends at Hope Not Hate revealed this week that there are plans for the largest neo-Nazi music festival in ten years in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, next weekend. One of the organisers, they reported, is linked to the infamous Blood and Honour group sanctioned by the government for extreme right-wing terrorism.

Hope Not Hate is urging people to write to the Home Office to demand they stop the hate-fest going ahead. They say: “We have stopped gigs like this before. With enough pressure, we can stop this one too.”

You can take action to support this urgent campaign too - and tell Nazis they’re not welcome.

Killing in Kyiv

The UK foreign office summoned the Russian ambassador to the UK after Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight into Thursday killed more than a dozen people, including four children, and damaged buildings including the EU Delegation and British Council - its first combined drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “sabotaging” hopes of peace amid the US-led efforts to negotiate the end to the conflict and called for the “bloodshed” to end, while foreign secretary David Lammy urged: “The killing and destruction must stop.”

Since US President Donald Trump met separately with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy two weeks ago, no direct trilateral peace negotiations or meeting have taken place, with Zelenskyy stating: “Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table.”

Bombs and boycotts

The United Nations (UN) has insisted there “needs to be justice” in Israel’s investigations into unlawful killings in Gaza, including what is known as the ‘double-tap’ bombing of Nasser hospital, which saw Israel strike the health facility twice, the second time reportedly as rescue crews arrived.

There were 20 people killed, including five journalists working for Reuters, Associated Press and Al Jazeera as well as independent reporters, and the site was the last functioning public hospital in southern Gaza, the Guardian reported. 

UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said that other Israeli investigations into “such killings… haven’t seen results or accountability measures yet”, adding: “We call for accountability and justice.”

In the UK, the Liberal Democrat leader has said he will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to end the war in Gaza. Sir Ed said he wanted to “send a message to both Donald Trump and Keir Starmer that they cannot close their eyes and wish this away”.

Bayroued time?

The French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is facing a sticky situation this week, ahead of a vote of confidence he called in a bid to shore up support for his austerity measures.

But the politician’s plans to lower the budget deficit, and save €44bn, face outcry from political rivals and the public, including fury over the proposed scrapping of two French public holidays.

Should he lose the vote - as is increasingly expected - on September 8, President Emmanuel Macron will be forced to replace him and choose his fifth PM in just over 600 days.  

But France will have to do better than that if they want to compete with the UK, after the Tories record in office saw us rattle through the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership, the rise and fall of Liz Truss and the installation of Rishi Sunak all within… ooh, 50 days!

Peer45s

The government has said it plans to remove peers who don’t contribute enough to the House of Lords - and confirmed it would move forward with a retirement age of 80 from the upper chamber.

Lords leader Angela Smith wrote in the Telegraph that a select committee would look at the next stages of reform, after the scrapping of hereditary peers, calling it “by no means the limit” of the government’s “reform ambitions”.

But in response, the Electoral Reform Society’s Mike Wright said: “These reforms in isolation would be woefully inadequate sticking-plaster solutions compared to the scale of the problems with the Lords.” He argued: “Merely trimming off a few members here and there would be like giving a haircut to a patient that needs major surgery.” 

Running Amoc

Scientists have discovered the collapse of an Atlantic current vital to maintaining a stable climate and food production is no longer considered a low-likelihood event.

Collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) must be avoided “at all costs”, experts have previously warned, as it could plunge Europe into extreme weather conditions, freezing cold winters and summer droughts, altering the climate in key food production areas for millions of people, and increase rising sea levels by 50cm.

However, models now indicate that a tipping point which makes the Amoc shutdown inevitable is likely to be passed within a few decades, although collapse may take another 50 to 100 years. If carbon emissions continue rising, 70% of the models resulted in collapse, while even in the case of low future emissions, 25% of the models saw the Amoc shutdown, the Guardian reported.

Brexit Corner

New polling has revealed an overwhelming majority - 76% - of Brits support the creation of a youth experience scheme with the European Union (EU).

YouGov research, commissioned by The Travel Association (ABTA), and Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBiT) found strong support for a deal enabling young Brits and EU citizens to work, live and study overseas among all voter types, including 61% of those who voted to Leave in 2016.

Tom Brufatto, director of policy at Best for Britain, said: 

“A deal on youth mobility would create new opportunities for young UK and EU citizens alike, as first proposed by the UK Trade and Business Commission in 2021, and, as Best for Britain’s polling found earlier this year, is favoured in every constituency in Great Britain. 

“The government must now use this welcome momentum to work at speed with the EU to finalise a deal so Brits can feel the economic benefits - no more time should be wasted.”

Cheerful News of the Week

We all know the perils of tech and device addiction. But one town - Toyoake, in Aichi, Japan - could take the unusual measure of passing an ordinance to restrict their residents' smartphone use to just two hours a day, amid concerns about sleep deprivation and a lack of family time.

The measure is non-binding, and there would be no consequences for anyone who exceeds the recommended limit, but some residents have already objected to the proposals.

Just two hours a day. What would you do with all that extra time?

Cringe Column 

We hope you enjoy the final weekend of summer before politics kicks into gear once again.

Next week marks the beginning of Second Hand September, the election of the Green Party’s new leader(s), and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visiting Starmer at Downing Street.

Have a good one.

Jessica Frank-Keyes

Senior Press Officer

Best for Britain