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Jurors in Plymouth state court spent more than 38 hours in deliberations over the charges against the 36-year-old mom, which came on the heels of a weeks-long trial that directed national attention to maternal mental health issues that can occur postpartum.

After the jury returned without a verdict for the third time, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial but was intercepted by a last-minute request from Clancy’s lead defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, who requested one hour to petition for an emergency stay to seek relief from a superior court judge.

That emergency filing with the Massachusetts supreme judicial court asked a single justice to order Sullivan to further question the juror as the juror is “biased” and, per jury notes, unwilling to follow the court’s instructions on reasonable doubt.

“Intervention is necessary in this case to avoid an avoidable mistrial of a case that is so time and labor intensive and that has captured so much public attention,” the filing reads, which also noted that the court has “abdicated its responsibility to ensure the integrity of the jury”.

The filing is also asking that the juror be barred from further deliberations if Sullivan determines that they can not follow the instructions issued by the court.

“A mistrial at this point is entirely avoidable, but only if the court does its job,” the filing says.

The filing was discussed with the justice, Massachusetts supreme court justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt, during a Zoom hearing that was open to the public for viewing. Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague summarized what happened with the jury and their repeated notes indicating a deadlock before defense attorney Dana Goldblatt argued that the supreme judicial couty has the discretion to order the trial court to make the inquiry of the juror. Wendlandt then said she would take the matter under advisement.

Clancy, a former neonatal and delivery nurse, had been accused of strangling her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, in the family’s Duxbury home in January 2023.

Prosecutors argued in opening statements that Clancy had “coldly and efficiently executed” her children, doing so with “no hesitation, with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty” after she “drew her husband out of the house, their father, so that she had the opportunity and the time to carry out these murders”.

But Clancy’s defense team argued she was “suffering from psychosis” when she killed her children and allegedly attempted suicide by jumping from an upper window in her home, which left her partially paralyzed. Reddington told jurors that Clancy suffered from postpartum depression after giving birth to her third child, Callan, and been prescribed a cocktail of medications.

“This is a young woman who, with her husband, tried very hard to get the help she needed,” he said.

Clancy has not denied that she had killed her children but her not guilty plea was predicated on a lack of criminal responsibility because, as her defense team said, she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, which included auditory hallucinations that commanded her to harm her children, and undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

Under Massachusetts law, the defendant must have “retained the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness or criminality of their conduct and to conform their conduct to the requirements of the law” in order to be found guilty.

Throughout the trial, jurors heard from Clancy’s former husband Patrick Clancy, her mother and aunt, and an array of psychologists and treating physicians. The court heard that Clancy had been prescribed 13 different medications for anxiety and sleep, which the defense said may have exacerbated her symptoms of depression.

Clancy had checked herself into psychiatric clinic in the weeks before the killings. Later, on 24 January 2023, she had sent her then husband out for food and to collect pharmacy medications. In that time, police say she strangled their children with exercise bands. Her ability to orchestrate a window of time to carry out the killings, prosecutors argued, was evidence of premeditation.

Before resting his case last week, Reddington called forensic psychiatrist Dr Phillip Resnick to testify that Clancy had “severe depression” and a history of anxiety, which increased after the birth of her children to the point that she “felt she couldn’t function”.

“At the time of the crime on Jan 24, 2023, Ms Clancy was frankly psychotic,” Resnick said. “She was clearly psychotic on that day.”

After the potential declaration of Clancy’s mistrial, prosecutors have the option of trying her again.

Clancy’s criminal trial will be followed by a civil claim brought by both Lindsay and Patrick Clancy against her medical and mental healthcare providers. The former couple claim the providers committed medical malpractice by failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her severe postpartum psychiatric condition. %!s()

The job market is tipping in favor of blue-collar and service workers over white-collar fields.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' new jobs report showed August was a promising time to be a job seeker. The US added 162,000 jobs, about three times the expected gain of 55,000. Growth was widely distributed across sectors, and only two major industries lost jobs, both of which were white-collar fields.

Leisure and hospitality accounted for about 40% of job growth after the sector lost jobs in June and July. The industry has pretty much been flipping between gains and losses in 2026, and it typically has high churn. Employment in government bounced back after July's drop, driven by local government education.

"There's some seasonality happening in those two sectors as well, so don't want to read too much into that, I would say, but still good to see it on the upside," said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research in North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab.

Construction employment has been on the rise. ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bachaud said this demand could be due to both a need for more residential housing and the data center boom.

"There's a big push in demand for jobs from everything from construction to pipe welders to electricians," she said. "People who are building and powering these facilities are in strong demand across the country."

Healthcare and social assistance have been a driver of the job market and will likely continue to be a job-growth engine, as the US will need more workers to care for the aging population and replace healthcare retirees. The two sectors together added 28,400 jobs in August, or about 18% of the overall gain.

It's rare to see job growth in information and financial activities these days. The information sector, which includes large parts of the tech and media industries, climbed to about 3.1 million total employees in late 2022 and has since tumbled. Employment in this sector was about 12% below that peak this past August.

"A lot of that has to do with the ways that AI is showing up in the market," Bachaud said. "We're seeing some response from, specifically in the information sector, in terms of slowing down employment."

Not all white-collar sectors are losing jobs. Employment in professional and business services was up 0.7% from a year ago. Bachaud said that this sector employs a lot of tech workers, like the information sector, and has "increased demand for jobs as AI is really shifting around what types of jobs are going to be most in demand and is really more than anything changing the tasks within jobs."

Ullrich said that, despite the positive gains and robust overall growth, this doesn't offer much solace to job seekers, since the hiring rate is comparable to the early 2010s, and there's not a lot of churn as people hold tight to their jobs and layoffs remain low.

Have you made a career pivot, had to dip into savings or make another life change during unemployment, or been job searching for a long time? Reach out to this reporter to share what your experience in the job market has been like at [email protected].

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Madison Hoff

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Madison Hoff is a reporter on Business Insider’s economy team. She covers the labor market, inflation, spending, and other data. In addition to covering new estimates and trends, her workforce reporting includes career pivots, job searching, and side hustles.She also covers downsizing, particularly people selling their houses to pursue RV living. She has also reported on how much teachers spend out of pocket and what it’s like being a caregiver.Her stories often cover the state of the economy, what experts are saying, and how people are navigating the workplace or their careers.Previously, she was a junior reporter and data editorial fellow on the Strategy team.

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“Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” the network said in a statement Thursday. 

However, Bartiromo has now retained attorney Bryan Freedman, who recently repped Justin Baldoni in his high-profile case against Blake Lively, as well as journalists Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo after their dramatic exits from CNN as well as Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox and Megyn Kelly’s exit from NBC. Bartiromo’s attorney denies that she was fired and further claims that she is “still employed by Fox.” Freedman suggests they may pursue the matter in court. 

“For many years, Maria Bartiromo hosted three number-one-rated television shows on Fox channels. She has been, without question,  one of the hardest-working journalists throughout her award-winning career,” Freedman said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false. Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth,” Freedman continued.

It is not entirely clear what argument the attorney plans to make, though TV contracts are typically “pay to play,” meaning that talent is meant to get paid through the length of the deal, regardless of whether they are still used on-air. In previous high-profile exits, talent will negotiate a settlement with the channel, giving them less cash but allowing them to pursue opportunities elsewhere. In other cases, talent continue to take pay through the remainder of their deals.

A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Freedman is known for negotiating high profile exits for his journalist clients. Cuomo filed a $125 million arbitration claim against CNN after being fired by the network for giving advice to his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The case has not yet been resolved. Lemon is said to have agreed to a multi-million settlement deal after parting ways with the network in 2023.

Lemon launched a show on X and later YouTube, and said at the time that his deal with CNN continued to pay him out, as the digital programs were not determined to be competitive. Other deals may be more stringent however, especially with many anchors and journalists leaving legacy media for digital platforms.

Asked about Freedman’s tactics, his clients refer to his aggression, as well as a sense of equity. “When Freedman believes that he has a client who’s been wronged, it’s not just about relative equities,” Carlson told THR in 2024. “The media business is uglier than most things, and in a very ugly world, he has a very uncommon sense of honor. There’s something beautiful about that. That’s what makes him stand out.”

Indeed, Freedman is seen is intensely loyal to his clients.

Kelly said that she met Freedman when he took her deposition in a lawsuit involving her former agent, but that they hit it off.

“When the shit hit the fan with NBC, he was brought into my life as an option, and when everyone else had abandoned me, Bryan was on the phone and said, ‘just so you know, I don’t give an F what anyone says about me, I’ve got you,” Kelly recalled on her SiriusXM show. %!s()

Starring Ryan Reynolds as a U.S. Navy pilot rescued by an ex-KGB agent (Kenneth Branagh) after his spy plane gets shot down over Russia in the waning days of the Cold War, “Mayday” marks the fourth film directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and it’s a smart, inventive, well-directed action comedy. Bereft of theatrical distribution, it seems slightly doomed to be relegated to the “streaming content” trash heap, even as it shows the kind of filmmaking personality that should be showcased on the biggest screen possible.

Reynolds plays Troy Kelly, a man cut in the mold of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, but with a more altruistic streak: When he breaks the rules, it’s to help a fellow pilot land safely on the aircraft carrier from which they’ve been dispatched. Cultivating such a persona benefits him after he gets shot down over Russia while piloting a spy plane, landing in the arms of Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a retired ex-KGB operative who’s obsessed with America (complete with a “Top Gun” poster on the wall of his rustic cabin).

Stranded more than 2,000 miles from the nearest international border, Troy quickly discovers that there’s only a slim chance of being rescued, especially with a warmongering KGB agent named Alexander Volkov (Marcin Dorociński) looking to apprehend him. Consequently, Nikolai promises to usher Troy to safe haven in exchange for asylum in the U.S. for himself and his estranged daughter Anna (Maria Bakalova). The catch is that Troy was operating as part of a secret mission, so it will be an uphill battle to get U.S. leaders to acknowledge his existence at all, much less rescue him. But with Volkov and his literal army of minions hot on his heels, Troy is forced to forge a tenuous partnership with Nikolai in the hopes that they can get to safety at the American consulate in Moscow before being captured or killed.

Notwithstanding its preponderance of shots that would be quite literally impossible to film practically (the camera swoops underneath the tires of an SR-71 Blackbird as its taxis, for example), the thing that’s most impressive about “Mayday” is just how cinematic it looks. Outside of a movie starring Tom Cruise, the likelihood seems low that a production could, say, obtain a decommissioned spy plane and let Ryan Reynolds fly it on camera, yet the dogfights and aerial maneuvring look incredibly convincing. Moreover, Daley and Goldstein, working with cinematographer Barry Peterson (who shot the duo’s previous film, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”), make the action not just thrilling but beautiful, with real atmospheric weight for the aircraft as they trace their paths across breathtaking vistas.

Politically, the film maintains a divide between the United States and Russia that’s about as complex as the classic action-movie trope “we’re not so different, you and I,” and its intended lessons focus more on empathy and not judging a book by its cover than 1980s international relations. That serves its two stars well, forcing Reynolds to restrain his natural impulse to be a wiseacre while Branagh dials back the snarling accents he used as Russian oligarchs in “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” and “Tenet.”

As Troy, Reynolds is as clean-cut and hunky as one of the Bruce Weber models that inspired Tony Scott on “Top Gun,” dedicated and true to his fellow pilots and his cancer-stricken veteran father Harold (David Morse). (He’s the opposite, in other words, of his “Deadpool” character, in both delivery and disposition.) The 65-year-old Branagh, meanwhile, seems determined to prove his mettle against his younger counterparts, participating (as much as his stunt double will let him) in a series of fight sequences that reflect the ingenuity of contemporary stunt coordinators as he leaves every adversary nursing their wounds on the floor afterward.

Dorociński manages to elevate his KGB heavy to something smarter and more nuanced than, well, an ‘80s movie cliché, while Bakalova demonstrates once again that she can command the screen even in a small role. But the film’s transition from a Cold War version of “Misery” (with Branagh as the American military superfan and Reynolds as his unwitting object of adoration) to a bigger-budget “Stripes” (complete with a 40-ton missile transport barreling through the streets of Moscow) proves surprisingly smooth. Daley and Goldstein have great instincts for when to go big, and when not to; despite all the pyrotechnics of many sequences, one of the best involves a hiding place in a wine room, a Russian official, the unexpected arrival of the official’s family and a mistress who does not want to be discovered any more than Troy and Nikolai do.

As is often the case with Apple TV projects, its soundtrack is stacked with incredibly popular songs that you might not have heard in a film before (including about half of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” album). But that all feels like glossy window-dressing for a film that, while unlikely to change the face of cinema as we know it, doesn’t deserve to become just another “watch now” option that will get forgotten in a streaming service’s cavernous library. Entertaining as any of the blockbusters currently in theaters, it’s a compliment to call “Mayday” a latter-day “Top Gun” riff, because it satisfyingly meets the needs of that film’s core audience — delivering a buddy comedy, a road movie and an international adventure, with surprising heart. It’s not “Maverick,” but it carves a memorably individual path all the same. %!s()

• Farage insisted Reform UK had not broken any laws – but he admitted aides had said things they “perhaps should not have been said” and conceded he was “not happy” about this. He said:

double quotation markThe party has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that whatsoever.

However, it is a clear case of entrapment, and they worked at it for a very, very long time, and they got a couple of our contractors to say things that perhaps should not have been said.

And as a result of that, you know, they have been removed this morning. And yeah, you know, I’m not happy about it.

• He rejected the claim that the footage of him discussing a £500,000 donation with fake father-and-son donors (see 9am) showed that he was aware of a plan to circumvent electoral law. He said:

double quotation markIf you listen to what I said, I said, is this all above board? Is this all legal? I’ve been told it was a global family office based in London. And by the way, I was in the middle of a Clacton by-election. I turned up to see people. I knew nothing about them whatsoever. I meet people all the time.

• He claimed the three polls featured in the investigation were not commissioned by Reform UK. He said:

double quotation markWhilst the poll benefited Reform, it wasn’t commissioned by Reform.

It had nothing to do with Reform. It was an independent third party that did it. So that’s nothing. That’s nothing. Polls are funded by overseas people every single week. Every single week.

In fact, the report contains footage clearly suggesting the polls were carried out at at the behest of Reform UK.

• He suggested Labour and the Tories had a worse record on donations because they in effect sold peerages. He said:

double quotation markThe Labour Party and the Conservative Party have been selling peerages for years in return for political donations. Political donations leading to big government contracts.

In the world of political funding, all sorts of things have been done over decades that are wrong.

• He said the party had suspended two aides because their remarks “don’t look good”. He said:

double quotation markI promise you, the polling is not even an issue. Nothing. The party has not done anything wrong, but entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve taken the action we have.

Key events

• 32m ago

  What former CPS elections law chief says about legal implications of Reform UK investigation

• 52m ago

  What journalists and commentators are saying about Reform UK undercover investigation allegations

• 1h ago

  Farage opens Reform UK conference proceedings with tribute to Ann Widdecombe

• 1h ago

  Greens condemn Reform UK for inviting Jordan Bardella from far-right French RN to address conference

• 2h ago

  Anderson refuses to defend Zia Yusuf over racist tweet about Labour candidate

• 2h ago

  Danny Kruger suggests Reform UK aides suspended over investigation could return - despite Anderson saying they won't

• 2h ago

  Reform UK says it would declare 'national emergency' on day one in power, not letting judges or officials 'get in our way'

• 3h ago

  Farage aide Dan Jukes says he has stepped back from politics 'to clear my name' after undercover exposé

• 3h ago

  UK ministers hit back at Argentinian Falklands claim and insist islands remain British

• 4h ago

  Farage admits conversations filmed undercover 'don't look good', and says he's 'not happy'

• 4h ago

  Tice accuses 'far-left, eco-zealot radicals' behind Reform UK donations investigation of 'entrapment'

• 4h ago

  Farage says Reform UK has 'broken no laws' and not taken any 'dodgy money' in response to undercover investigation

• 5h ago

  Anderson says Farage won't quit over undercover report into donations, and 'country needs him'

• 5h ago

  Two aides suspended over donations allegations have 'no chance of coming back', says Reform UK's chair Lee Anderson

• 5h ago

  Farage personally has 'serious questions to answer' over alleged Reform UK plot to evade electoral law, Ed Davey says

• 5h ago

  Labour asks Met police to launch criminal inquiry into Reform UK donations, as two party aides involved step down

There is laughter in the room as Jordan Bardella describes the historical relationship between France and its neighbour as “turbulent”, which is somewhat the understatement. He describes, however, “a true friendship” between the two peoples at the most decisive moment of history, which draws warm applause.

Jordan Bardella is up next at the Reform UK conference. He has been the president of the far-right the National Rally (RN) since 2022. He has started trying to win the room over with a tribute to Ann Widdecombe. He describes the audience as “the beating heart of the British people. A people of patriots. A people who love freedom. A people proud of their history. And a people who have decided to take their destiny back into their own hands.”

“What a victory it was,” he says of the Clacton byelection. “The establishment had more or less lined up behind a candidate with a bin on his head”. He suggests Nigel Farage took out the rubbish. The audience has maybe not warmed quite so much to this bit.

Zia Yusuf has gone a little bit Trump-ist here, promising “more change in 100 days than from any previous government in British history”, and everything he is promising is going to be the biggest in history. He is promising to deport every foreign national without a right to stay, every foreign national in prison, and end early prison releases. “If their home countries refuse to take them we will send them to serve their sentences in countries like El Salvador,” he says.

“We will rebuild our economy, re-arm our military, and ensure that Britain can compete in this era of hard power” he says. He says the fate of the country is down to Reform UK.

At the Reform UK conference, Zia Yusuf has attacked Kemi Badenoch as a “con artist”, and also repeated his attack on former defence secretary Ben Wallace over the resettlement of Afghan nationals to the UK. Yusuf previously described Wallace as a “traitor”, and said a Reform UK government would hold an inquiry into the resettlement scheme. He has described the Times and the Telegraph as “client Tory media”. He has then called for applause for the late Ann Widdecombe, who was killed in her home in July.

Zia Yusuf, in the wake of the murder of Henry Nowak, has promised that Reform UK would end the right of Sikhs to carry ceremonial knifes – the kirpan. Sikhs were explicitly provided a statutory defence to carry a kirpan in public in the UK in 1988.

Zia Yusuf is up next, described in the introduction as the nemesis of the “left-wing blob”. I may have put a bit of weight on recently, but I am trying not to take that personally.

A montage of soundbites about immigration and small boats follows, and then Yusuf asks the audience if they are “excited”.

He said he entered politics with the aim of making Nigel Farage prime minister. He said it was met by jeers from the media and political establishment. “It is not a fantasy, it is within our grasp,” he insists.

“We now live in a broken country” he says. He is promising that Farage’s first action will be to order the navy to repel small boats, that people on the boats will be detained by marines, and that anybody who reached the UK’s shores would be returned to the shores they departed from. There is no indication in his speech on how Reform UK expects the French government to cooperate or react to this plan.

At the Reform UK conference Lee Anderson has claimed that Nigel Farage’s re-election in his wholly self-inflicted byelection was an example of the electorate “sticking two fingers” up to the political establishment.

Having wheeled out an anecdote about his days as a miner, he has “joked” that sitting in parliament next to George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn during a debate on Gaza made him yearn for the mines. He also has a swipe at Diane Abbott.

He has said that “the only man who can save this country is Nigel Farage and we have to take one step behind him”.

“I want my country back and I want to be stood in front of the people’s army when we get to Number 10 and say a massive thank you to all of you”. He finishes by describing the audience as the “conscience” and “saviours” of the country.

• This is Martin Belam here with you for the next hour or so

What former CPS elections law chief says about legal implications of Reform UK investigation

Andrew Sparrow

Nick Vamos used to be head of special crime at the Crown Prosecution Service, which meant he was in charge of all prosecutions for electoral offences. He is now a partner at the law firm Peters & Peters. He has issued this statement about the legal implications of the undercover investigation into Reform UK.

double quotation markUK electoral law can be fiendishly complicated but, on this issue at least, the rules are very clear. Only UK-registered voters, companies or other similar entities are permitted to make donations to political parties. A donation can include incurring expenses on behalf of a party, as is alleged to have happened here.

The criminal net is cast very wide: it is against the law for anyone knowingly to do any act in furtherance of an arrangement likely to facilitate an impermissible donation. This would include engaging in discussions to solicit or encourage an impermissible donation, provided the person knew that was what was being proposed.

It is also an offence to mislead a political party about the source of a donation, so the perpetrators of the sting, whatever their intentions, may themselves have broken the law. Each offence carries a maximum sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment.

It is very common for allegations of electoral offences to be reported to the police, especially by political rivals looking to score points. But the police should disregard the motives behind any report and focus on the conduct itself. They are not obliged to investigate every allegation, but will assess the evidence to determine whether a full investigation is justified.

That is all from me for today. Martin Belam is taking over now.

Lee Anderson, the Reform UK chair, is speaking now. Within the first few minutes, he is slagging off Sadiq Khan, suggesting the Labour mayor of London did not deserve his knighthood or his seat in the House of Lords.

And he recalls that he lost the Tory whip for what he described as “constructive criticism” of Khan.

He says he was told to apologise. He replied ‘I will never apologise to that man’, he says.

This goes down well with the audience. Anderson does not mention the fact that what he calls “constructive criticism” was condemned elsewhere described as “Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist”.

Next up, Anderson is attacking David Lammy.

double quotation markIf anybody wants the number of a senior Washington official, get in touch with Lammy because he’s your man. To think he was our deputy prime minister! I’d love to see his telephone contact list. I bet he’s got Elvis’s number in there somewhere.

It is not hard to see why people regard this party as racist.

Finally, Anderson gets round to criticising some white opponents too – Angela Rayner and Peter Mandelson.

What journalists and commentators are saying about Reform UK undercover investigation allegations

Here is some comment from journalists on the significance of the investigation into Reform UK.

Tim Shipman, the Spectator’s political editor, says in a long article this morning that the “stench of incompetence” is deadly in politics. Here is an extract.

double quotation mark[Nigel] Farage should also be cognisant that the mood in the bars around Birmingham last night was utterly mutinous. Those who are putting themselves forward as Reform candidates confided their despair. ‘We are giving up our businesses and putting family lives on hold to fight for Reform and this is going on behind the scenes,’ one said …

The overwhelming reaction in my WhatsApp groups from operatives in the other main parties was incredulity at the recklessness of it all. ‘If this is how they talk to people they don’t know, imagine what they are saying to people they trust,’ observed one former Downing Street Tory …

So why did they do it? It is the experience of everyone I have ever known near the summit of politics that political operations take their character and operating logic from the person at the apex of the triangle. Leaders set culture. The worrying thing for Farage admirers is that if [Dan] Jukes and [James] Orr behaved like this it is because they believed it to be okay by the boss. Both boasted on camera of their closeness to the leader. In the meeting at the pub with the fake donor, Farage seemed both au fait with how the money would be transferred to Reform, and grateful for it.

The scrappy, sod the rules, bugger the establishment vibe comes from him. This is another reminder of the timeless rule that every major politician’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. Farage’s insurgent image has put him in a place where he might win power but made his operation demonstrably less suitable to exercise it.

And Stephen Bush from the Financial Times makes a very similar argument in his Inside Politics column this morning.

double quotation markIndividually, these accusations [the ones about evading rules in the undercover investigation, and the Zia Yusuf racism claims – see 11.47am] are deeply damaging, but together they are even more so. In addition to the serious evidence that Channel 4 has uncovered, the manner in which Reform’s bigwigs conduct themselves in the video makes them look a bit ridiculous. A political party can survive being seen as mean or soft-hearted or a number of other things. But if it is seen as silly it cannot be a serious prospect for power.

Add that to the allegations of racism — something beyond the pale for many British voters — and the party is fishing in a small pool indeed. There are people who will vote for a ridiculous party. There is a smaller number who will vote for a party facing allegations of racism. But the number who will vote for a party that is both ridiculous and facing allegations of racism is smaller still. Ditto the number who will vote for a party that is ridiculous, facing allegations of racism and committed to the socially conservative agenda Reform has increasingly adopted (and to which the likes of Orr are firmly committed).

From the Daily Mail’s Andrew Neil

double quotation markI’ve watched this investigation carefully. It has Reform UK banged to rights in conspiring to accept illegal donations. Two of Nigel Farage’s most senior aides have already been shown the door.

From Robert Smith at the Financial Times

double quotation markOne thing that I love about the film is how it captures a very distinct social setting and milieu. Lunch at Rules. G&Ts at Mark’s. A champagne reception at Oswald’s.

Pints in a Shepherd Neame’s pub in Westminster. Discussion of Black Velvets over oysters by the sea.

From the Spectator’s Noa Hoffman

double quotation markSpeaking to senior Reform sources, they acknowledge that the ch4 documentary is obviously damaging beyond the conference walls but they are confident and optimistic Farage can bringing it back with his speech this afternoon. There is a feeling among Reform insiders that the people who come across the worst are generally unknown characters beyond Westminster and there’s a path through. Wishful thinking?

Meanwhile, inside the conference hall members don’t care at all and think the documentary is a stitch up. But that’s not who Reform needs to win over.

From the Critic’s Rob Hutton

double quotation markWith all respect to the BBC, the reason this story “matters” is not about whether it distracts from Reform’s conference. It “matters” because it is important our leaders are not conspiring to break the law.

Back to Zia Yusuf (see 11.47am), and Jason Groves from the Mail says he has pulled out of a fringe event.

double quotation markReform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has pulled out of a Spectator fringe event following complaints of unfair coverage. His interview with Michael Gove was due to be one of the highlights of the conference fringe

Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, has said the undercover donations investigation shown on Channel 4 could bring down Nigel Farage.

In a statement, she said:

double quotation markEveryone knows that a fish rots from the head down. James Orr and Dan Jukes are nothing but tiddlers - this is the end for Farage.

What this exposes is the belief within Reform UK that the rules don’t apply to them, and that they are somehow untouchable and unaccountable, with a contemptuous assumption that everyone else can be taken for fools.

Farage opens Reform UK conference proceedings with tribute to Ann Widdecombe

At the Reform UK conference, the main proceedings in the hall are just starting.

Nigel Farage takes the stage and he says “someone is missing”. He is talking about Ann Widdecombe. He says he thought she was the best-known female politician in Britain since Margaret Thatcher.

He says, when she gave speeches, there was no way you could get to the end and not know what she meant. After politics, she went on Strictly Come Dancing, where she showed “her the ability to laugh at herself”. He says she was a tremendous asset to Reform UK, and “a trusted, loyal colleague”. She was loved by millions, he says. %!s()