Reform will jail directors of companies employing illegal workers for up to five years, says Yusuf – UK politics live

Key events

NHS must prepare for annual summer heat pressures, says Cooper

Jessica Elgot

The NHS has been warned to prepare for potential annual summer crises caused by extreme heat with the same pressures as winter, as heatwaves caused by the climate crisis become routine in the UK.

The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, said NHS staff were feeling A&E pressures that would normally be expected only during flu season – and said the government would use major investment in NHS infrastructure to tackle the health service’s resilience to high summer temperatures.

Doctors and other medical professionals have warned of the impact that repeated heatwaves are having on the NHS in England, including advice from the Royal College of GPs to cancel surgeries in extreme weather. Radiotherapy machines and MRI scanners have failed in hot weather, wards have overheated and cooling units serving hospitals have broken down.

England is on track to record its highest number of heat-related deaths this summer, with an estimated 2,877 people dying in the May and June heatwaves.

Summers are likely to become increasingly hot in the future, with temperatures topping 40C likely to become more frequent instead of being outliers as the climate crisis takes further hold.

Share

If company’s refuse to pay the fines or are unable to, they could face dissolution, says Yusuf.

It would equate to the same as not paying taxes to HMRC, he says.

Share

Asked what extra checks businesses of all sizes would have to take, Yusuf says Reform would bring about a big reduction in red tape for small and medium sized businesses.

Sky News asks Yusuf if he uses Deliveroo, one of the company’s that would be targeted by the prospective law. He says that is “not relevant”.

Share

Updated at 12.44 CEST

GB News poses the first question of the Q&A, asking Yusuf how Reform plans to put multinational firm directors in prison when nobody has been jailed over the Post Office scandal, the financial crisis or Grenfell.

Yusuf says “the catastrophic failures of the Tory and Labour governments” should not give people cause to doubt what Reform would do in power.

He says they would allow agencies to keep the cost of the fines they bring in to help fund the scheme.

Share

A Reform government will introduce national licensing for vape shops, which Zia Yusuf says will see a decrease of 70% in the businesses on British high streets.

“We will also end financial disincentive,” he says. Reform will establish a central prosecution fund for local authorities to pursue businesses employing illegal workers.

Yusuf says that young people are the “biggest victims” of illegal workers.

Share

Reform will jail directors of companies employing illegal workers for up to five years, says Yusuf

Yusuf says executives of companies which employ illegal workers will face up to five years in prison.

A Reform government will also impose “crippling financial consequences” on firms – 10% of their global turnover, he says.

Yusuf says:

double quotation markCorporate CEOs have been making a fortune by hiring illegal workers and undermining British youngsters.

Reform will jail them and stop illegal working for good – we will stand up for British workers.

Under Reform UK, Britain will no longer be a soft touch.

We will establish the toughest penalties anywhere in the world to end illegal working and stand up for British workers.

Share

Updated at 12.21 CEST

Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf is now speaking at a media conference in Westminster, as the party announces plans to fine firms and jail bosses who employ illegal workers.

You can follow along via the video at the top of the blog, or stay tuned for any news lines…

Share

Ed Miliband hits Russia with package of new sanctions

Foreign secretary Ed Miliband has announced a package of new sanctions against Russia.

Among the 19 targets sanctioned are six Russian banks, six newly acquired shadow fleet tankers and four Russian companies importing tantalum and niobium – rare metals critical for producing military kit, the Foreign Office said.

It comes after Miliband held talks with Marco Rubio at the US State Department, which he described as “very productive”.

Miliband said:

double quotation markToday’s new sanctions demonstrate the UK’s unwavering commitment to supporting Ukraine and bearing down on those propping up the Kremlin’s aggression.

Ukraine’s fight is our fight. Those that threaten Ukraine’s freedom and democracy are a threat to Britain’s security at home.

That’s why we will continue stepping up the pressure on Russia until a just and lasting peace has been reached.

Share

Has the UK government’s strategy on small boat crossings been effective?

Diane Taylor

The headline figures show that small boats crossing the Channel are down by 43% compared with January to mid-July 2025 – from 21,690 last year to 12,469 over the same period this year.

Since Andy Burnham came to power on 20 July, however, there has been a small increase on the same period last year. Between 20 July and 2 August 2025 1,962 people crossed the Channel in small boats. Over the same period this year more than 2,000 have crossed.

Burnham visited Dover’s joint command room on Sunday where small boat movements across the Channel are tracked using surveillance drones. He said the government would be “relentless” in stopping the boats and would “bring back that control”.

Have ministers finally cracked a political problem that has dogged successive prime ministers for almost a decade and will Burnham’s pledges be fulfilled?

Share

Badenoch rules out pact with ‘woke’ Reform UK

Kemi Badenoch described Reform UK as “woke” as she again ruled out a deal with Nigel Farage’s party.

The Conservative leader told the Political Currency podcast she would make no pact with Reform either before or after the next election.

Asked why she would not support an agreement, she said she did not want the public to be “confused about what this Conservative party stands for”.

She said:

double quotation markReform are a woke party, and I know a lot of people don’t understand, the word woke is used to mean many things, a lot of people assume it’s a left-wing thing.

But when I talk about woke, I talk about people who, it’s all grievance, it’s victim narratives, people are doing this to us, oppressor narratives, this is the oppressor class.

On the left it’s whites are the oppressors or men are the oppressors, on the right it’s the establishment are the oppressors, look at what they’re doing to us.

It’s all moaning and whingeing and not proper solutions. It’s about power dynamics and how to get power, not actually solutions and how to fix things.

Describing a deal as a “non-starter”, she said:

double quotation markI don’t see how I could possibly have people like that in some form of coalition.

Share

Restore Britain’s Rupert Lowe declines to say whether King is a ‘white Briton’

Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe has declined to say, when asked, whether he thinks the King is a “white Briton”.

It comes after Lowe said “white Britons will become a minority by 2063” in a video in which he offered to work with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

The BBC’s Nick Robinson asked Lowe about the issue on the Today programme on Thursday, noting that the forecast he referred to defines a white Briton as someone whose parents were both born in the UK.

Robinson told the Restore Britain leader that “because Prince Philip was born in Greece, King Charles is not, under your definition, treated as a white Briton”.

Lowe said: “Well, many people have different interpretations of that, Nick. I mean, we can split hairs.”

Robinson interjected: “We’re not splitting hairs, do you think the monarch of this country is a white Briton?”

Lowe said:

double quotation markThe experience of what we’re talking about is quite clear and I think most British people, if you speak to them, would agree.

And that is why Restore Britain’s membership is growing very fast and your listeners are dropping equally fast, because you don’t reflect actually what’s happening. You try and whitewash all the things that are happening.

Share

Polanski says people of colour ‘sometimes held by higher standards’

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has defended a black university professor who resigned amid a plagiarism row, saying that people of colour can “be held by higher standards” in society.

Professor Jason Arday quit his high-profile role at the University of Cambridge on Wednesday after it launched an investigation into his “academic qualifications and honorary appointments”.

The professor of sociology of education, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, said in his open resignation letter that the “only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away”.

His decision to step down comes after a series of media reports, including a story in the Daily Telegraph, alleging he plagiarised his PhD thesis and other research.

Speaking as Arday’s resignation was announced, Polanski sought to defend his decision to sign a letter which criticised the “sustained and malicious attacks” on the academic’s integrity.

Asked on LBC about the decision to put his name to it, Polanski said:

double quotation markI think the whole affair sounds pretty sad. Again, I think it would be good, actually, if the [university] investigation still was carried out, because I think it would be good to know the truth.

And ultimately, I think these things should be about fair process and transparency rather than trial by media.

He added:

double quotation mark[The university] had already done, I think, two investigations and found there was no problem here or that the allegations were unfounded, and so [the letter] was about essentially saying that people of colour, particularly in society, can sometimes be held by higher standards.

Share

Tories should ‘think again’ over Bonehill-Paine’s adviser appointment, says Cooper

Health secretary Yvette Cooper has urged the Conservatives to “think again” after Kemi Badenoch appointed a former antisemite as a party adviser.

It came after Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who had been selected by the Tories to contest a council election next year, withdrew his candidacy.

Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, Cooper said:

double quotation markI have to say I’m a bit shocked by this decision. I don’t understand it at all. And I’ve listened to Luciana Berger talk about the way she had felt with this man who was targeting her, even talking about giving Nazi salutes. I mean, just really disturbing.

This is obviously somebody who should not be in in public life. I think that every party has to take this very seriously.

We’ve seen antisemitism on the rise in our country, and we have to have zero tolerance for any kind of antisemitism, and also just demonstrate that zero tolerance across the country as well. I really hope the Conservatives think again on this.

Share

Reform plan to fine firms and jail bosses who employ illegal workers

Hello and welcome to the UK politics live blog.

Reform UK says it will fine firms 10% of their global revenues and imprison bosses who employ illegal migrant workers under the party’s latest plans to bring down immigration.

Employers would be held responsible even if they were unaware of the worker’s immigration status, Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf will announce in a speech later today, with the policy being dubbed the ‘Deliveroo law’.

In a statement to the Daily Express, Yusuf said:

double quotation markUnder a Reform government, Britain will have the harshest penalties in the world for employing illegal migrants.

Bosses of companies employing illegal migrants will be sent to prison, and their companies fined 10% of their global revenues.

There are companies whose entire business model is based on profiting from illegal working.

Under current legislation, businesses employing someone who does not have the right to work without carrying out the correct checks face fines of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker.

Reform’s announcement comes after a government crackdown on illegal working in the delivery sector. The Home Office announced in July it had arrested 10 Evri workers who were on immigration bail, subject to strict conditions, while further inquiries took place.

Figures published in January showed visits and arrests linked to illegal working had reached their highest levels since current records began in 2019. Some 12,791 visits took place in 2025, up 57% from 8,122 in the previous year, to businesses including nail bars, car washes, barbers and takeaway shops.

A Home Office spokesperson told the Press Association:

double quotation markIllegal working undermines honest business, exploits vulnerable individuals and fuels organised immigration crime.

We are already closing the loopholes that allow illegal migrants to work in the UK by extending right to work checks to the gig economy and delivery sector.

Employers who break the law face severe consequences, including fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, business closures, licence revocations and prison sentences of up to five years.

In other developments:

Jewish leaders have turned down a meeting with a former antisemitic internet troll as Kemi Badenoch defended his selection as a Conservative council candidate. The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) have declined an offer from the Conservatives to meet Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who has been selected to fight the Crewkerne South ward in Somerset next May.

But they said they would meet with the Conservatives to “discuss their decision-making process” and urge them to drop Mr Bonehill-Paine as a candidate. Bonehill-Paine was jailed in 2016 after he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment of Labour peer Baroness Luciana Berger, who is Jewish.

Ministers continued to defend the release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers as part of the government’s early prisoner release scheme, despite a potential legal challenge from the Police Federation. Justice minister Jake Richards acknowledged the “unimaginable pain” of the deceased officer’s family but said “difficult decisions” must be made because law and order could “collapse” without a functioning prison system.

The government is not “actively” considering an inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein’s UK activities, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson has confirmed. They said that while the department was “reviewing what is possible” and would “look at all options to support victims”, a public inquiry was “not being actively considered”.

Share