Politics live: Reform treasury spokesperson Jenrick to call net-zero a ‘distraction’ as Farage unveils top team

Robert Jenrick will outline Reform’s plans for the Bank of England and the OBR in his first major trip as Treasury spokesman.

The ‘shadow chancellor of the Exchequer’ will label net zero efforts a ‘distraction’ and say the OBR is exaggerating the benefits of low-skilled immigration.

He will promise not to abolish the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), promising instead to “reform” and say the Bank will remain independent if he comes in 11th.

Ed Davey criticized the Reform leader for not including a health or foreign affairs spokesman at the opening of his shadow cabinet.

In a post on social media, the Liberal Democrat leader said: “It’s no surprise that Farage hasn’t bothered to announce a health spokesman – his entire team is made up of NHS-bashing politicians.

“They also forgot about the State Department spokesman, but I guess they will still take orders directly from the Trump White House.”

With more young people gaining the right to vote and youth unemployment reaching its worst level in a decade, Sean O’Grady Looks at what the latest dismal figures could mean for Keir Starmer’s government

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress has said Nigel Farage and Reform want to legalize discrimination after the party announced plans to repeal the Equality Act.

Paul Nowak said the offers were “just the beginning” of Farage’s plans for staff.

She said the repeal of the Equality Act “means your boss can treat you badly because you’re a woman, black, gay, pregnant or disabled and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Basically, if you don’t look like Nigel Farage or me, you might be in trouble.”

Announcing the plans, Suella Braverman said: “We will repeal the Equality Act because we will work to build a country defined by meritocracy not tokenism, personal responsibility not victimization, excellence not mediocrity, and unity not division.”

Former minister Laura Farris said Robert Jenrick was more capable than Suella Braverman and said she was not surprised Ms Braverman was “turned into an underage child”.

Laura Farris, who previously served in government with both of them, told Sky News she was “not surprised” that Mr Jenrick had found a better job than Ms Braverman.

“Rob Jenrick is more talented than Suella,” he said.

“He’s smarter and he’s harder-working and that’s just a fact… It’s not a secret in the whole House of Commons.”

Ms. Farris said she believed Ms. Braverman would be “very low impact because she always is when she is anywhere near any position and she will just say shocking things.”

Mr Jenrick was appointed Treasury spokesman, while Ms Braverman was put in charge of education, skills and equalities.

There are certainly people on Reform who think Jenrick’s plan to join the party is to take over the leadership should something happen to Farage, but the man at the top wasn’t in the business of naming his successor today. If he were the victim of that famous public transport accident, he would say, “Reform has its own brand, Reform has its own identity.”

He was trying to explain that the party was no longer a one-man group, but a professional team preparing to take on the responsibilities of the government. But almost everything about today’s news conference contradicted that impression.

Read John Rentoul’s column:

The Greens are pushing local plumber Hannah Spencer in a bid to appeal to disheartened Labor voters in the historically safe seat, while former academic Matt Goodwin, who has been criticized for his comments on race and gender, is also on Reform UK’s ballot.

Meanwhile, local councilor Angeliki Stogia is struggling to defend Labour’s 13,000-strong majority after the party controversially blocked the candidacy of Manchester’s popular mayor Andy Burnham.

In other regions, nine more candidates from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and others will compete in the February 26 election.

Political correspondent Athena Stavrou tells you who the candidates are.

The government has abandoned plans to postpone local elections for dozens of councils in May after seeking legal advice against the move.

A total of 30 of the 63 councils able to apply for deferral were expected to continue deferring.

The assemblies whose elections had to be postponed were:

• Adur District Council
• Basildon Borough Council
• Blackburn with Darwen Council
• Burnley Borough Council
• Cannock Chase District Council
• Cheltenham District Council
• Chorley District Council
• City of Lincoln Council
• Crawley Borough Council
• East Sussex County Council
• Exeter City Council
• Harlow District Council
• Hastings District Council
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Ipswich Borough Council
• Norfolk County Council
• Norwich City Council
• Pendle District Council
• Peterborough City Council
• Preston City Council
• Redditch District Council
• Rugby County Council
• Stevenage District Council
• Suffolk County Council
• Tamworth District Council
• Thurrock Council
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
• West Lancashire County Council
• West Sussex County Council
• Worthing District Council