Boris Johnson was on his way to a dangerous meeting. It was a Wednesday afternoon and he had just finished Prime Minister’s Questions, which is normally the worst bit of any leader’s week. But as he walked back into Downing Street, Johnson gripped a memo from his advisers preparing him for an even worse encounter. They were worried that the man who wanted to meet him was going to try to get others out of the room so it was just the two of them. Do not let him do this, the note urged.

This briefing, photographed when Johnson inadvertently left it on view as he returned to Number 10 in May 2020, was about me. Titled ‘Meeting with Sir Graham Brady’, it read: ‘Following an exchange between you and Graham, he has asked for a catch-up. 

‘This is the first since December. It is important that at least the Chief [Whip] stays in the room – he will, as he has previously, seek to ensure that it is just the two of you.’

It went on to warn that ‘he will seek more regular meetings’, but insisted ‘don’t agree to anything’. The author was Ben Gascoigne, Johnson’s political secretary. 

This was one of many memos to five different Conservative prime ministers that warned about the apparent dangers of meeting me.

For almost the entire span of the 14 years that my party was recently in government, I was chairman of the 1922 Committee, which, depending on your perspective, is either a sinister parliamentary cabal or, more prosaically, the forum for Conservative MPs to make their voices heard and ensure their leader understands them. 

I was the one who watched their faces as the bad news hit them. I was the one who tried to persuade them not to pursue courses that I knew would tear the party apart – and the one who listened to their horror when they realised what they’d done. I understood their flaws, both from my dealings with them and from the way my colleagues would come to me with their complaints. And I was the one who announced – to pin-drop silence – the name of the next person who thought they would be up to the job of leading the Conservative Party.

I can’t say that when I took over as chairman I imagined Boris Johnson would get anywhere near Downing Street, let alone be warned not to meet me alone. By the point that he received that memo in 2020 I had dealt with two prime ministers and had arranged the replacement of one, too. I had seen them up close: sometimes with shoes off and their feet on the table in the case of David Cameron, at others clammy, tense or even tearful, like Theresa May. 

Being chairman of the 1922 Committee is meant to be a role that’s mostly performed in the shadows and one thing I always managed to keep from view was the number of letters of ‘no confidence’ I had in my office safe, even though this was a regular preoccupation of the Conservative Party and the press throughout my tenure. The letters were from Conservative MPs calling for a vote of no confidence in the party leader. If a certain threshold was reached – 15 per cent of the Conservative Party in the Commons – then a vote had to be held. I was the only person who knew how many letters there were at any one time, and who they were from.

When I was first elected chairman in 2010, I decided that the only way I could do the job was to give nothing away at all about how many letters there were, regardless of how febrile the political climate was, or how many of my colleagues were attempting their own estimates. And I stuck to that. For 14 years, I kept entirely quiet about my discussions with the country’s leaders too, even the most dramatic or absurd ones. I didn’t reveal how full or empty my office safe really was at key moments. In other words, I was the model of discretion. Until now…

How Rishi Sunak’s downfall played out

Politics is a rough business, and it is harsh that Rishi Sunak faced an election campaign seeking to blame him for ‘14 years of Tory chaos’. If Sunak deserves criticism for anything it is for excessive caution. With no more than two years or so to steady the ship before an election, it seemed it was always his strategy to win back trust for his calm, competent economic management before cutting taxes.

Some of us pushed Sunak and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to move more quickly, but we will never know whether that course of action would have paid political dividends. Rishi was complimentary about my judgment, but he sought it less often than his four predecessors had. 

The political risks I encouraged him to take – such as ending the ban on new grammar schools or piloting the Sutton Trust’s ‘Open Access’ scheme (in which school fees are means-tested) – were resisted. Nonetheless, I would observe that not only is Rishi Sunak decent and competent, he also has rather less ego than is normal for a senior politician. 

Attacks on Sunak for his wealth – suggesting it made him ‘out of touch’ – couldn’t have been more wrong. Those who have dealt with Rishi find him surprisingly normal. But maybe Rishi Sunak wasn’t enough of a politician: he made the mistake of being what people say they want, not what they actually vote for.

Reflecting on the five prime ministers with whom I have worked and the two before that, they have an odd mixture of qualities. Certainly, they are all driven by ambition and are all possessed of enormous and sometimes unjustified self-confidence. David Cameron, for example, thought he’d be ‘pretty good at [the top job]’.

Having been at the centre of the carousel which saw five leaders in eight years, people sometimes ask me whether the Conservative Party has become ‘ungovernable’. That certainly isn’t my experience. MPs think many times before calling for a confidence vote to be triggered. When the dam bursts, it has been in response to intense pressure and often considerable provocation: David Cameron chose to walk away. Theresa May went after losing her majority in an unnecessary election and then finding herself at the centre of an immovable Brexit logjam. Boris Johnson lost the trust of colleagues over Partygate and then his woeful handling of a sexual misconduct scandal. Liz Truss realised that her position had become untenable before there was even time to organise a confidence vote. Rishi Sunak went having failed to persuade the electorate that he was the change that they were looking for.

One problem with the system of using ‘letters’ to trigger a confidence vote is that the numbers must necessarily be kept confidential. In April 2024, the MP Simon Clarke briefed the press that ‘around 50’ letters of no-confidence in Rishi Sunak had been submitted. In fact, I had received nine. Most colleagues understood that, however frustrated they may have been, yet another change of leader would have made us look completely deranged.

I had, however, started to wonder whether Rishi was preparing for a summer election, even though I was advising him to go in October or November. My suspicions had first been raised in March when I was asked to fill in the necessary forms to go to the House of Lords Appointments Commission. Ten days later, a smattering of parliamentary knighthoods and damehoods were announced, and my suspicions intensified.

Then, a rumour started that if local election results were poor, Rishi would just walk away. I heard this from two different members of the lobby within a couple of hours. During a meeting with me soon after, leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt said: ‘I wouldn’t ask you… but if anything did happen.. if Rishi walked away after the local elections, I hope there is a plan for a calm transition?’

In my experience, when a vacancy arises there is normally a surfeit of candidates and I couldn’t see how such a transition would be assured. Then, in between votes on the Rwanda Bill, the former Home Office minister John Penrose asked me for my views on the Lascelles Principles: ‘If the PM asked His Majesty to grant a dissolution, do you think it could be stopped?’

I said that, so near to the end of the parliament, His Majesty would be bound to grant a dissolution. Penrose agreed. I assumed that he had been asked to sound me out on behalf of team Mordaunt.

‘Can we stop the prime minister from leading the Conservative Party to its destruction?’

The few months leading up to Sunak calling the election were marked by repeated scandals, by-elections and defections. The government had reached the point where it felt as though fortune was always against it – anything that could go either way would always go the wrong way. 

On May 22, I was on my way to the London Wine Fair at Olympia, as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Wine and Spirits (I know, tough work, but someone has to do it) when I received a call from Craig Williams, parliamentary private secretary to Sunak, asking whether I could take a call from the PM at 1pm. There was increasingly rampant speculation that an early election was about to be called. I started to wonder…

At 1pm Rishi rang. ‘Graham, I wanted you to know first, before I tell the Cabinet: I’ve seen the King and he has agreed to my request for a dissolution… I know that there is a case that we should wait until there has been more economic improvement but… I just think that the public isn’t going to engage with the arguments until they have to make a decision.’

He also told me that there would be a dissolution honours list and my peerage would be on that – so that it would be approved ‘while I am still prime minister’.

The fact that Rishi called an early election hardly suggested that he expected to turn around Labour’s lead during the campaign. There was clearly no point in repeating my argument that he should wait – the deed was done; His Majesty had already granted the requested dissolution of Parliament.

I sat with the Wine and Spirits Trade Association discussing their future programme of engagement, knowing that the events booked in Parliament for the next two months would all necessarily be cancelled. It was all coming to an end.

Returning to Parliament, I chaired the ’22 Executive, where we discussed the swirling rumours of an early election. Most colleagues thought it was madness to face the enemy machine guns from choice while their poll lead was so high. I tried my hardest to give nothing away until reports reached us that there was to be a statement by the PM outside Number 10.

Members of the Executive huddled, watching the statement from ‘Drowning Street’. On a small and distant screen, it looked at first like Rishi was wearing a very shiny suit – surely he wouldn’t be standing outside in a downpour? The words of Louis XV came to mind: ‘Après moi, le déluge.’

The action was now elsewhere. When the thinly attended meeting got back under way, I invited questions. Dame Andrea Leadsom rose to her feet with a question for me, drawing an envelope from her pocket and waving it in the air as though proclaiming peace for our time. She asked, in an astonishing intervention: ‘If enough of us submit letters to you calling for a vote of no confidence – can we stop the prime minister from leading the Conservative Party to its destruction?’

I replied: ‘Technically, I believe it would be possible to trigger a confidence vote, but given that His Majesty has already consented to the prime minister’s request for dissolution, the general election would still take place on July 4. This might not be seen as the most auspicious way for colleagues who are seeking re-election to commence their campaign.’

A rumour spread that Rishi had called the election because I had told him that he was about to face a confidence vote. I had given no such indication. 

As we headed off towards the smoke of battle, there were 10 letters sitting in my safe.

Extracted from Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers, by Sir Graham Brady, is out on 26 September (£25, Ithaka Press); books.telegraph.co.uk  

Read the next extract published later today at 9.30pm: Sir Graham Brady: ‘Boris spat “Backbench MPs have been contemptible. They’ve been spineless chickens–t”’

Grant Shapps has accused Sir Keir Starmer of “playing into Putin’s hands” by delaying an announcement on whether Ukraine can fire British-made missiles into Russia.

The former defence secretary said the Prime Minister should give the green light now, rather than waiting for US approval.

Sir Ben Wallace, another former defence secretary, said the “tug of war” over the use of the missiles would embolden Vladimir Putin.

Sir Keir flew to Washington and held intensive talks with Joe Biden on Friday to discuss pleas from Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, over permission to use the Storm Shadow missiles. 

There was no announcement on the missiles afterwards, but the Prime Minister suggested an answer could come at the UN General Assembly later this month. 

Mr Shapps said: “Starmer’s hesitation to support Ukraine while waiting for US approval risks emboldening Putin and seriously undermines Kyiv’s chances of victory.

“This is a moment for decisive leadership, not cautious delay. We need to act now to provide president Zelensky with the support he desperately needs to turn the tide. Anything less only plays into Putin’s hands.”

Sir Ben told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the wrangling over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in Russia would benefit Putin.

“I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again, another tug of war around another capability,” he said.

The row over whether Western missiles can be used to strike targets across Ukraine’s border follows similar delays over decisions on supplying tanks and fighter jets.

“All of that delay, all of that tug of war favours Russia and allows Putin to insert, in the delay, threats and new red lines and efforts to divide and rule in the international community,” he said.

Sir Ben added that Putin was “a bully, and for a bully to succeed all he needs to do is intimidate people, all he needs to do is get people to pause and… that’s how he gets us to change our behaviour”.

On Thursday, Putin said that permitting Western-made missiles to strike Russia would mean that Nato is engaged in the “war” with Russia.

Mr Biden is reportedly holding back on supplying US-made Atacms missiles, the country’s equivalent to the Storm Shadow, for fear of escalating the war.

But he is understood to be willing to approve the use of US intelligence and targeting systems to accompany the Storm Shadow, which is jointly produced by Britain, France and Italy.

Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, pressured the UK and the US to allow the use of the missiles.

Speaking after a meeting with Mr Zelensky in Kyiv, he said it was “vital” that the West authorised the use of long-range missiles so Ukraine can “defend itself properly by stopping the appalling Russian attacks with glide bombs and now Iranian missiles”.

“It is obvious that they should be able to use Storm Shadow, Scalp and Atacms as fast as possible against targets in Russia itself,” he said. “Every day that goes by means more pointless and tragic loss of Ukrainian lives.”

Putin said allowing long-range strikes “would mean that Nato countries, the United States, and European countries are at war with Russia… if this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us”.

Earlier this week, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary of the UK, and Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, announced further financial support for Ukraine, including a £600 million package from the UK and 717 million dollars (£550 million) from the US to meet immediate humanitarian, energy and stabilisation needs.

Tax rises affecting pensioners are not a punishment for voting Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Speaking on a trip to Washington to visit Joe Biden, the US president, the Prime Minister again refused to rule out plans to end the single person’s discount on council tax.

Such a move has been described as the “widow’s tax” because it will affect millions of elderly people.

It comes after Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor said she would remove the winter fuel allowance from all elderly people except those on pension credit.

Sir Keir was asked whether tax rises were a “punishment beating” for the fact that many pensioners voted Brexit and few vote Labour. He replied: “No, absolutely not.”

The single person’s discount knocks 25 per cent off the council tax bill of a person living alone, reflecting the fact that they use fewer council services.

The Prime Minister went on to talk about Budget plans but did not rule out removing the single person’s discount.

“Let’s just try to quash this now,” he said. “The Budget is on Oct 30. “So between now and then you are all going to ask me questions, as you did before the election – will you rule out X, Y, Z?

“And knowing that I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do, you will then write a story saying ‘refused to rule out X, Y, Z’.

“I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do. That does not mean that I’m ruling in anything that you might be putting to me, it simply means, like every prime minister, we’re not going to reveal what’s in the Budget before we get to it. We did this in the election all the way through.”

Sir Keir was then asked why he had ruled out other potential Budget measures, such as taking free bus passes from pensioners and, asked why he would not rule out the single person’s discount, he said: “We’ve got to look at everything in the round.”

Rachel Reeves has warned of tough decisions in the Budget to help fill a £22 billion black hole that she says was left by the Tories.

Dame Prue Leith has been “sexed up” to walk the runway in a latex dress for avant-garde eco-designers Vin + Omi.

The Bake Off judge, 84, appeared in the duo’s 20th anniversary show, Moxie, in Kensington as part of London Fashion Week wearing a black latex dress with red stitching and matching evening gloves.

Speaking before the show, Omi told The Telegraph: “You’re going to see Prue Leith like you’ve never seen her before, not in your wildest dreams.

“Even her husband doesn’t know what she’s wearing, he’s going to be shocked but he’s going to love it. We’re gonna sex her up.”

He added that Dame Prue, a close friend of the pair, is “game for anything”.

“Every piece that walks down the catwalk is like a manifesto… and Prue will be wearing one of our manifestos. We designed it specially for her… she’s such a rockstar.”

The designers, famed for their sustainable and inventive garments, have worked with King Charles on a number of occasions to use waste materials from his various estates and fashion them into clothing.

They currently have an exhibition running at Sandringham titled “From Royal Gardens to Fashion’s Future”.

“Our pinch-me moment will always be our work with the King,” Omi said. He added: “I think it’s something that you just never imagine happening.

“It’s like a wild dream… like when people say you never get to climb Mount Everest… but I think to have the support and working with the King, I think that’s more adventurous than climbing Mount Everest.”

The designers held a private audience with the monarch in April, ahead of the opening of their exhibition, where they reminisced about forging garments out of his property’s nettles and an invasive weed called butterbur.

Omi said: “Then we took some selfies and… it was nice, it was the three of us and it felt special. It didn’t feel like we were with the King, we felt like we were with a collaborator with the same vision.”

Anti-war theme

Friday’s fashion show showcased the last 20 years of the designers’ collections and included an anti-war political theme throughout.

Models carried signs that read: “stop the war”, “no war”, “resist”, “love always wins” and even “anti-war milfs”.

The duo do not make clothes to sell, but rather to reflect their eco-innovation, as well as their social and educational work.

“We tend to call ourselves ideologists rather than fashion designers, and we like our work to be argued and debated,” Omi said.

“The first thing we panned out in our manifesto 25 years ago was we will always run the business on empathy, not just for people, but for the environment.”

The show included an appearance by Josie Stevens, former Playboy model, who flew to attend from the US.

Omi said: “We’ve got a Playboy covergirl to Prue Leith from Bake Off!”

President Biden told a British reporter “you be quiet” after the journalist asked a question before a key meeting with Sir Keir Starmer.

Mr Biden and the British Prime Minister both made statements to reporters at the start of the meeting.

One Sky News reporter, James Matthews, tried to ask a question about what the President thought of Putin’s threat of war.

Mr Biden snapped back: “You be quiet, I’m going to speak, OK?

“You gotta be quiet, I’m going to make a statement.”

Mr Biden and Sir Keir then made statements about the issues that would be discussed at the meeting: Ukraine and Gaza.

The Sky News reporter then asked his question again.

This time, the President replied: “I don’t think much of Vladimir Putin.”

Mr Putin said on Thursday that it would be an act of war if the West allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles in Russia.

Sir Keir and Mr Biden had a short one to one meeting in the Oval Office before a longer meeting with aides in the Blue Room, where the confrontation with the reporter took place.

Alongside the Prime Minister was David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary.

Sir Keir’s chief of staff, Sue Gray was also there, along with Dame Karen Pierce, UK ambassador to the US.

The Prince of Wales made a private visit to a helicopter base, just days after revealing he would love to make a return to the skies.

Prince William, 42, surprised staff when he turned up at the official opening of the new Airbus Helicopters headquarters at Oxford Airport on Friday.

His low-key appearance was not announced in advance and Kensington Palace said he was there in a private capacity. It is understood that he was invited by Airbus because of his connection with London Air Ambulance, of which he is patron.

Dressed down in a blue jumper, the Prince chatted informally with staff and was seen studying the tail rotor of a new H160 helicopter.

He was also shown around a newly delivered Airbus H135, bound for London Air Ambulance, which was on display in the hangar and of particular personal interest.

The helicopter is an updated version of the model the Prince flew during his two years as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance between March 2015 until July 2017.

The visit came as it emerged that Prince George looks set to follow in his father’s footsteps, having taken his first flying lesson.

Watched by his parents earlier this month, the 11 year-old flew in a single-engine Piper PA-28 with dual controls – an aircraft specifically designed for flight training – at the White Waltham Airfield near Maidenhead, Berks.

The Prince of Wales is believed to have flown to the new £50 million Airbus HQ from Windsor by helicopter, and slipped into the facility with no fanfare.

He appeared to enjoy talking shop with Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus, as well as a handful of engineers – with the base largely operating as a servicing and maintenance facility for helicopters flown by the emergency services.

On a visit to the Wales Air Ambulance headquarters In Llanelli, South Wales, he said: “I’d love to fly again, I could volunteer for a weekend to make a comeback.”

The heir to the throne chatted with the pilots and crew of the £8.5 million Airbus H145S chopper, which he is still qualified to fly, revealing that there were plans in the pipeline for him to fly with the team from its base in Cardiff Bay.

The Prince completed an intensive four-month flying course at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire in April 2008, receiving his wings from his father.

He faced criticism that month after he was allowed to practise landing a Chinook helicopter in a field behind the Middleton family home in Bucklebury, Berks, and also fly himself and his brother, Prince Harry, to a stag do on the Isle of Wight.

The Ministry of Defence defended the move, insisting that the flights formed part of his training.

The Prince, known as Flt Lt Wales. went on to complete a one-year advanced helicopter training course at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, before training as a search and rescue helicopter pilot at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales.

He qualified in September 2010 and immediately began operational service as co-pilot of a Sea King Mk3 helicopter, working as part of a four-person crew.

His active service ended three years later, having conducted 156 search and rescue operations and helped rescue 149 people.

The Prince has made no secret of how much he relished his time flying helicopters, both with the air ambulance and the RAF, and has maintained a close interest in the industry.

In 2016, he said: “It’s rewarding when I come here to do this job and I really look forward to coming here every day, whether it’s at 5.30am or going to bed at two in the morning.

“The shift work is still exciting and challenging for its variety more than anything and the fact that I love working in a team.

“And that’s something that my other job doesn’t necessarily do. You’re more out there on your own a little bit.”

Russian accusations that six British diplomats engaged in “spying and sabotage” in Moscow are “completely baseless”, the Foreign Office has said.

The Russian FSB security service said on Friday it had expelled the group after it obtained documents showing that a Foreign Office department was overseeing the “escalation of the political and military situation”, including plans for the strategic defeat of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.

Responding to the Kremlin move, the Foreign Office said: “The accusations made today by the FSB against our staff are completely baseless.

“The Russian authorities revoked the diplomatic accreditation of six UK diplomats in Russia last month, following action taken by the UK government in response to Russian state-directed activity across Europe and in the UK.”

It added: “We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests.”

The diplomats were expelled after Russian counter-intelligence officers became “tired” of chasing them around Moscow as they engaged in “classic British espionage”, an FSB employee told state-controlled news channel Rossiya-24.

Tactics reportedly included making rapid changes of public transport and “sitting for several hours on benches in the freezing cold” as they waited to meet members from banned groups.

Their spouses were allegedly deployed as spies, while young children were used to “cover up” their spying activity, the officer added. “Basically, one cannot speak of any diplomatic etiquette,” the FSB officer told the news channel.

‘Signs of spying and sabotage’

The move comes after Vladimir Putin warned Britain and the United States they would be “at war” with Russia if they gave Ukraine permission to use Western long-range missiles to strike targets across the border.

“Thus, the facts revealed give grounds to consider the activities of British diplomats sent to Moscow by the directorate as threatening the security of the Russian Federation,” the FSB said in a statement.

“In this connection, on the basis of documents provided by the Federal Security Service of Russia and as a response to the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in cooperation with the agencies concerned, has terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow in whose actions signs of spying and sabotage were found,” it said.

Pro-Kremlin propagandists published details on Friday of what they claimed was a UK Foreign Office department used to “wage a hybrid war with Russia”.

Its channel on the Telegram messaging app said they were involved in the dissemination of pro-Western information throughout Russia, where the media is mostly controlled by Putin’s Kremlin.

‘The English did not take our hints… so we decided to expel them’

“The English did not take our hints about the need to stop this practice (of carrying out intelligence activities inside Russia), so we decided to expel these six to begin with,” an FSB employee told the Rossiya-24 state TV channel.

The FSB threatened to expel other British diplomats if they were found to be involved in the alleged activities.

Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesman, told the Tass news agency that the British embassy in Moscow had gone beyond diplomatic convention.

Britain has previously expelled Russian diplomats it has accused of being involved in spying and espionage.

Maxim Elovik, its former defence attache in the country, was thrown out as part of sanctions introduced by James Cleverly, the former Home Secretary, to crack down on “malign” Russian activity in Britain and Europe.

The United Arab Emirates has used Russia’s notorious Wagner mercenary group to ship arms to rebels in Sudan’s civil war, experts and a paramilitary group say.

The Kremlin-funded military contractor used the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) to smuggle weapons to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), fighting against the Sudanese army.

Rebels fighting the CAR government told an investigation by SourceMaterial that they had captured Wagner-escorted consignments of weapons supplied by the UAE and destined for the RSF.

Shipments continued until at least April 2024, the rebels said, with diplomatic sources believing they have now tailed off as Moscow has tilted away from the RSF and towards the Sudanese armed forces (SAF).

As many as 150,000 people have been killed in Sudan and more than 10 million people have fled their homes since the simmering rivalry between the army and RSF last year erupted into war.

Both sides are accused of atrocities. The conflict has set off one of the planet’s worst humanitarian crises and triggered the world’s first formal declaration of famine in seven years.

United Nations investigators this week accused the RSF of “horrific” ethnically-driven assaults against non-Arab Sudanese in the Darfur region.

The UAE, traditionally one of Britain’s closest allies in the Gulf, has long-standing dealings with the RSF and has repeatedly been accused of ferrying weapons to them. It strongly denies all involvement – though UN experts have called previous accusations “credible”.

The Emirati government declined to comment on the latest allegations.

Russia has also emerged as a key participant as the war has become a tangled global battlefield, waged by competing opportunistic powers. Moscow has been playing both sides of the bloodshed, analysts say, in hopes that it will be rewarded with access to gold mines and a strategic Red Sea port.

Wagner mercenaries are heavily involved in the neighbouring CAR, bolstering the government against opposition rebels – and have used the country as a conduit for weapons bound for the RSF.

A rebel leader said Wagner forces – now rebranded Africa Corps after the failed uprising by Yevgeny Prighozin – had been ferrying arms across the border crossing at Um Dafog into South Darfur.

Abdu Buda, a spokesman for the Coalition of Patriots for Change, said the paramilitary group had intercepted two shipments, the most recent in April, and also captured Russian Wagner mercenaries. He said two were dead and two still in captivity.

He said: “These shipments were transported by Wagner mercenaries who are fighting against our forces, controlling the gold and diamond mining area and backing the government in Bangui.”

“We arrested fighters from the Russian mercenaries of Wagner during the battles between us and the CAR government forces… We arrested with them weapons coming from UAE to CAR through Uganda.”

“During the investigation with the Wagner captives they told us that they have coordination with UAE and the CAR government to send the weapons to RSF.”

Wagner’s smuggling route passes through Bangui, the capital, to Birao near the Sudanese border, said Nathalia Dukhan, a Central Africa specialist at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

“Local sources mentioned planes, which they believe were Emirati, arriving in Bangui at night with military equipment,” she said.

“Wagner collected the shipments, transported them via helicopters and military aeroplanes to Birao, and then transferred them to the RSF in Sudan.”

Diplomatic sources said supplies to the RSF appeared to have slowed earlier this year, after Kremlin relations with the Sudanese army warmed.

Wagner and the UAE had already worked together closely elsewhere in Africa, notably in Libya.

‘Strategic alignment of interest’

Andreas Krieg, a King’s College London academic who studies the conflict, said: “The story of Wagner in the African continent starts in the UAE, they gave them the seed funding to found their base in Libya.

“There is a strategic alignment of interest between Russia and UAE because oppose political Islam and civil society more generally.”

The CAR shipments have been just part of an arsenal of UAE weapons being transferred to the RSF, the Sudanese military alleges.

“The rebel militia has committed violations and atrocities with unlimited support from the UAE,” according to a leaked 78-page dossier of allegations, compiled by Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, Sudan’s permanent representative to the UN.

His letter to the Security Council, dated March 28, lists 43 flights from the UAE and to an airport in Chad on the Sudanese border between July 2023 and March 2024. Many of the flights were allegedly carrying cargoes of weapons.

The letter includes photos, allegedly taken at Amdjarass airport in Chad, one of which shows a crate of Kalashnikovs rifles offloaded from a UAE plane.

Mohamed Abushahab, the UAE’s ambassador to the UN, this week told the Security Council that Sudan’s claims it was supplying the RSF were “a cynical attempt to deflect attention from the failings of the Sudanese Armed Forces”.

Russia, like the UAE, has been heavily involved in Sudan since long before the current war.

In 2017, Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s then president, signed deals in Moscow, agreeing for Russia to set up a naval base in Port Sudan and granting concessions on gold mining to Wagner front companies.

Jonas Horner, former Horn of Africa senior analyst for Crisis Group, said: “By having Wagner/Africa Corps retain ties with the RSF and the Kremlin provide support to SAF, Russia has been able to fudge this parallel support.

“Equally, short on friends internationally, neither of the belligerents in Sudan felt able to alienate Moscow by cutting ties.”

While the RSF has made gains in much of the country, the army appears difficult to dislodge from the north east coast, leaving it still crucial to Moscow’s dreams of a naval base.

Mr Horner said: “I would surmise that for Russia, the equation has become that SAF on the Red Sea are looking fairly comfortable in their defence of that north eastern corner of the country, aided by the delivery of Iranian weaponry.

“That may become the sovereign corner of Sudan as we know it under a SAF-controlled government, regardless of their control of the rest of the country, making close relations with SAF the shortest route for Moscow to procure a Red Sea base.”

Vladimir Putin was clear when asked about the prospect of British-made Storm Shadows striking Russia. 

“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” the Russian president told state television. “It would mean that Nato countries are at war with Russia.”

His remarks came as Joe Biden was reported to be on the verge of lifting restrictions on the use of US targeting systems needed to fire Storm Shadows. 

If Mr Putin’s warning needed any interpretation, the Kremlin-friendly Kommersant newspaper spelled it out in a headline: “Vladimir Putin draws his red line.”

Wording of this kind frequently appears to send chills down the spines of Western policy-makers. Putin, we are reminded, possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons and a growing propensity for sabotage inside Europe. 

Washington, in particular, fears escalation. Even as Mr Biden was due to allow Storm Shadow strikes inside Russia, he was reportedly resisting pressure to allow the US equivalent missile, the ATACMS, to be used for the same purpose. 

It is not the first time that Britain has led the way in terms of driving through the donation of new weapons to Kyiv. 

It took Ben Wallace, former defence secretary, to agree to sending Challenger 2 tanks before Washington agreed to sending its own Abrams war machines to Kyiv.

Sources also claimed Mr Wallace’s hopes of becoming Nato secretary general were scuppered by the White House because he moved without US permission to announce Storm Shadow and F-16 donations to Ukraine. 

The Biden administration eventually agreed on each of those capability donations, but not after expressing fears they could trigger an escalation of the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.

A Western official told The Telegraph that threats from the Kremlin about the prospect of a war between Russia and Nato are overstated.

That is because European governments mostly feel that Putin himself believes he is already engaged in a major conflict, perhaps on the same scale as those fought between 1914 and 1945.

One source said the Russian president is not interested in escalating the conflict upwards towards a nuclear war but has visions of what was described as a “horizontal escalation”.

This includes hybrid attacks, such as hiring agents to burn down commercial properties linked to Ukrainian support or attacking railway infrastructure carrying military aid east to Kyiv. 

“It’s not just nuclear escalation we have to be mindful of,” one official told The Telegraph. 

“This is Putin’s way of bringing the war to the West, much like Ukraine has done so by invading [the Russian region of] Kursk.”

Analysts have noticed that Putin’s red lines are often crossed – and without much in the way of retaliation. 

In his address to announce the start of his “special military operation”, the Russian president said there would be “consequences greater than you have faced in history” if the West joined the war.

This was seen as a clear reference to the select group of Nato allies already arming Ukraine to push back against the incoming invasion. 

Similar threats were made when Britain was considering sending Storm Shadows, a long-range air-launched cruise missile with a range of about 190 miles as a donation option.

Even smaller less tactical weapons, such as US-made Himars rocket launchers, main battle tanks and F-16 fighter jets were met with similar reactions from Moscow. 

“If Nato countries continue to provide weapons that allow strikes deep into Russian territory, they risk a major escalation that could involve Nato directly,” Putin said in February of this year.

To date, there has been no direct conflict between any of Nato’s 32 allies and Moscow. 

Justin Crump, chief executive of the strategic intelligence company Sibylline, said Putin resorts to these kinds of threats as a last resort to prevent better weapons systems being provided to Ukraine.

While Himars, tanks and long-range missiles have not proved to be game-changing assets, Moscow’s forces in Ukraine have often struggled to adapt to the new capabilities being introduced to the battlefield.

Himars were credited with Ukraine’s major counter-offensives in the previously occupied territories of Kherson and Kharkiv.

Storm Shadow, and more lately ATACMS, have significantly weakened the Kremlin’s grip on Crimea, the peninsula illegally occupied by Moscow in 2014.

“Russian discussion of red lines is nothing new,” Mr Crump said. We have been here repeatedly since the start of the conflict. The Kremlin’s rhetoric is to slow down Western support, undermine the cohesion of our collective leadership and turn the populations against backing Ukraine.”

He added: “The UK is particularly singled out in Russian threats as it has often taken a leading role in the supply of capabilities, blazing a trail for others to follow, as may well happen today.”

Mr Crump said there were clear examples where Putin, or his acolytes, had threatened reprisals, but failed to act on ultimatums.

These include a significant Storm Shadow strike on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. The attack, which was said to have killed many senior personnel, was met by nothing that represented a genuine escalation aimed at Nato, or Britain and France, who supplied the weapons and know-how to carry out the strike. 

Even the permission to use Storm Shadows may not be seen quite so seriously inside the Kremlin as Putin makes out. The long delay between the suggestion they could be used inside Russian territory and the actual green light has allowed Russia to move many key assets – such as jets used to fire the damaging glide-bombs against Ukrainian troops – out of range. 

Many analysts believe it is not in Putin’s interest to make good on his threats against the West. His forces are already stretched in Ukraine. If he could, Putin would settle for a formal peace agreement that would let him keep the territories Russia has already seized – something that may become possible if Donald Trump, for example, enters the White House. 

Waiting to see who wins the US election in November would appear the wiser strategic choice at this point, compared to launching direct strikes, say, against a weapons depot in Poland and thus invoking Nato’s Article 5. 

This “red line”, in other words, may not be so red after all. 

Rachel Reeves has insisted “tough” tax rises and public service cuts are vital if Britain is to rival Germany and the US.

The Chancellor said such moves would help to bring stability back to the economy and boost productivity.

Treasury analysis has found since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took power in 2010, productivity growth in the UK has been half the rate in Germany and the US.

Britain’s productivity gap with these countries means that GDP per capita in the UK is now £8,000 lower compared with Germany and £9,000 compared with the United States in today’s prices.

The analysis also found productivity growth since 2010 was less than a third of growth in the decade prior to the financial crisis.

If productivity growth had remained at the previous rate of 2.1 per cent, then GDP per capita would be £12,600 higher in today’s prices.

Ms Reeves said that her administration’s tough decisions would help close the gap.

“Growing the economy is this Government’s number one priority for a reason: it’s about more pounds in people’s pockets, public services that are properly funded and business that can thrive,” she said.

“The previous government failed on economic growth. We had 14 years of stagnation that left working people worse off.

“I am determined that we begin turning this around. That starts by bringing stability back to our economy and getting a grip of the public finances, including taking tough action to repair the £22 billion black hole we were left by the previous government.

“Because by delivering that stability, we can give businesses the confidence to invest in the UK. Earlier this week, I welcomed the £8 billion investment from Amazon Web Services that will support more than 14,000 jobs in the UK. This is only the beginning.

“We are taking the tough decisions now to fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.”

The Chancellor claims that the Conservatives left a £22 billion black hole of unfunded spending commitments.

She has warned that public services and benefits will have to be cut, and has started by scrapping the winter fuel allowance for most pensioners.

Ms Reeves has also said some taxes will have to go up, with those with the broadest shoulders paying more.

However, the Conservatives say there is no £22 billion black hole and that Labour had always planned on tax increases and spending cuts.

The Treasury analysis shows that weak productivity growth over the past 14 years of Tory rule has led to depressed living standards.

GDP has grown by only 1.8 per cent since 2019, up to the most recent published quarter (the second quarter of 2024), and this has been mostly accounted for by population increases.

Over the same period, GDP per capita has fallen. In 2023, GDP per capita fell by 0.7 per cent compared with the year before, meaning, on average, people were worse off in 2023 than they were the year before.

Officials in Georgia have released the audio and records of emergency 911 calls received in the moments after a deadly high school shooting in which a police officer is heard to say: “Active shooter!”

In one clip, the dispatcher repeats the words back to the officer. Another officer this time is heard to reply: “Correct. We have an active shooter at Apalachee High School.”

Later in the audio, an officer is heard a little out of breath, as he says a suspect is in custody and he tells the dispatcher: “Roll EMS”.

She tells the officer that emergency medical services have been dispatched to the school, located 50 miles east of Atlanta.

Two students and two teachers were killed in the incident on Sept 4, and a 14-year-old pupil, Colt Gray, has been charged with four counts of murder.

The teenager’s father, Colin Gray, was also arrested and charged with several offences, including second-degree murder, after officials learned he had given his son the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the incident as a gift.

In another emergency call, a father calls the dispatcher about her daughter, the school psychologist, who is hiding in a trailer with students but cannot lock the door.

“My daughter just called, she’s in a trailer,” the father said. “She’s trying to hide behind a desk with the kid that she has in there with her… but she’s upset because she can’t get the door locked.”

In another emergency call made public on Friday, a person tells the dispatcher her daughter has just called from the school.

“My daughter calling me crying. Somebody go ‘boom, boom, boom, boom’,” the caller tells the dispatcher.

The dispatcher replies: “Ma’am we have officers out there, OK?”

The woman says: “Oh yes, please at Apalachee High School.”

Some of the calls were picked up by neighbouring Gwinnett County dispatchers given the high call volume.

“Barrow County 911, what is your emergency,” the dispatcher says.

The Gwinnett dispatcher says: “Hey, Barrow, this is Gwinnett, we have a caller on the line who said he got a call from his girlfriend advising of an active shooter at Apalachee High School.” 

The dispatcher from Barrow says: “I have units on the scene there, I cannot confirm or deny what is going on there.” 

The teenager is to be tried as an adult. However, officials have said he will not be eligible for the death penalty if found guilty.

The teenager’s mother, Marcee Gray, had called the school before the shooting began and asked administrators to check on her son after he texted her saying: “I’m sorry, mom.”

A Labour-run local authority has banned non-vegan food and drink in meetings.

Nottingham city council announced this week that it will only serve plant-based food and drink at internal meetings from the end of September.

The council’s decision followed lobbying by Plant-Based Councils, an offshoot of Animal Rising – the animal rights protest group, which is itself an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion.

The activist group claims councils have a “duty” to “lead the way in normalising” plant-based food, which it says is “necessary” to “tackle the climate emergency”.

Nottingham city council’s decision means cow’s milk will no longer be served with tea and coffee, and biscuits made using milk, butter or chocolate will not be offered.

Cllr Andrew Rule, an independent opposition councillor, said that the decision had been “steamrollered through” and councillors had not been given the chance to vote on the matter.

“It is not something I support, I have to say,” he said. “I think it goes against freedom of choice, if I’m honest.

“I’ve never been particularly agreeable with people forcing their viewpoint on others and not offering a choice.

“I’ve seen no formal consultative documents in relation to it and there’s been no vote at full council. It very much appears to have been steamrollered through.”

Activists had claimed that failing to ban food and drink from internal meetings would make it harder for the authority to meet its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2028.

In a written question calling on the council to impose the change, Ruby Mucenieks, a supporter of Plant-Based Councils, said: “The science is clear that meat and dairy are major contributors to the climate and ecological emergencies.”

‘Absolutely the wrong approach’

Mo Metcalf-Fisher, the director of external policy for the Countryside Alliance, criticised the move as “absolutely the wrong approach”.

“Nottingham city council should be sourcing its produce from local farmers and growers, not siding with animal rights fanatics,” he said.

“This attempt at grandstanding represents an attack on freedom of choice and the custodians of our countryside who work incredibly hard to produce sustainable food for the nation, while protecting and enhancing our countryside.

“This decision presents challenging questions for the wider Labour Party and I hope the government distances itself from this appalling move against our livestock farming community.”

Cllr Sam Lux, the local authority’s executive member for carbon reduction, leisure and culture, told a full council meeting that non-vegan food and drink would be banned because of “the high-carbon impact of meat and dairy products”.

“Our internal catering budget these days is actually really small given the financial constraints that we are faced with,” she said. “So it’s largely just teas and coffees and light refreshments.

“But I am really happy to say that after discussing with officers at the end of last week, I can confirm now that from Monday 30 September, we will only have plant-based internal catering.

“So this will include plant-based milks, biscuits and other foods, and we will also plan a week of promotion of dairy milk alternatives in October for staff to try plant-based milk in their drinks from the coffee bar at Loxley [House, one of the council’s offices], substituting for all drinks unless specifically requested otherwise.

“This obviously is to encourage our employees to try these alternatives and to actually increase their uptake.”

In July, Calderdale council in West Yorkshire committed to introduce completely plant-based catering and Dacorum borough council in Hertfordshire pledged to introduce vegetarian internal catering by next year.

Nottingham city council was approached for comment.

The National Trust has come under fire for hosting an art installation that has been compared to a “big pile of poo”.

The artwork on display at Grade I-listed Tyntesfield House in Somerset features coils of dead organic matter “winding their way around the house”.

Called ‘‘The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past’’, the pieces are made of furniture legs, wool and horsehair, with artist Nicola Turner saying she was inspired by the house’s huge collection of more than 70,000 objects.

“I have been fascinated by seeing the broken items previously owned by the Gibbs Family and in-store at Tyntesfield,” she told the BBC.

“The glimpses beneath the tears in the fabric. The stuffing breaking free. The bowels of the furniture, the layers of materials.”

The National Trust said the artwork is a chance for visitors to “experience something different”.

However, the exhibition has been met with ridicule online, with several people comparing a piece located in a fireplace to a mound of excrement.

One social media commenter said: ‘‘What’s that in the fireplace? It looks like a big pile of poo.’‘

Another said: ‘‘Can’t quite believe it, it’s appalling, whose idea was this?!

‘‘It just looks like poo with legs. I’m not normally critical of art but this is really daft.’‘

Someone else compared the sculpture to a heap of fertiliser, saying: ‘‘Goodness! Anyone would think that Tyntesfield was built on exploiting guano.”

The Victorian-era country house was previously owned by English businessman William Gibbs, whose fortune came from guano.

Another commenter questioned what the artwork has to do with the National Trust and raised concerns that it may put off tourists.

They said: ‘‘I think this exhibition is absolutely disgusting.

‘‘I cannot see what this has to do with the National Trust, Tyntesfield, the Gibbs family or, indeed, anything.

‘‘Why spoil a heritage site with this? I have American visitors coming shortly and this venue is now crossed off the list.

‘‘If it has to be installed, why not put it in a separate building somewhere for people who enjoy this kind of ‘art’.

‘‘Parents are being given warnings that their children might be upset by it…. is this what we want?’‘

Other commentators were more positive about the exhibition, describing it as thought-provoking and “visually stunning”.

One person said: ‘‘It adds something to a staid Victorian environment that provokes thought and is visually stunning.

‘‘I can understand that it is not to everybody’s taste, but people are apparently unwilling to share the Tyntesfield environment with more open-minded visitors.

‘‘It is not permanently damaging anything, but temporarily opening a window on some different perspectives.”

The National Trust said: ‘‘Throughout the house, Turner has created a series of evocative installations made from organic materials, such as wool and horsehair.

‘‘‘These materials hold traces of memory, exploring ways of listening to past, present and future, inviting us to reflect on Tyntesfield’s history.

‘‘As well as some of our grand public rooms, like the Library and Main Hall, you’ll see spaces not normally open to the public, including bedrooms and storerooms.

‘‘The wool and horsehair installations draw influence from the house, weaving around and cascading from objects in Tyntesfield’s historic collection, like furniture, books and ceramics.”

The exhibition is open to visitors until Nov 3, with entry included in the standard admission fee.

The Liberal Democrats will sing “B—–ks to Brexit” at their annual party conference in a sweary version of a Mary Poppins song.

Activists have rewritten Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from the 1964 Disney film as “B—–ks bloody bugger knackers f—–g c—- to Brexit”.

The song is set to be performed at the party’s infamous Glee Club event, which features political parodies of popular songs, on the final night of their four-day gathering in Brighton.

The conference began with Sir Ed Davey, the party leader, arriving on Saturday afternoon on a jet ski, the latest in his “action man” stunts seen this year.

Lyrics to the Mary Poppins song now include: “It’s ‘B—–ks bloody bugger knackers f—–g c—- to Brexit’, we’ll leave them in no doubt that we’re the party that rejects it.

“When you swear like dockers, you know everyone respects it: ‘B—–ks bloody bugger knackers f—–g c—- to Brexit’.”

Nigel Farage, the Reform leader and the MP for Clacton, said of the song: “For a party that tries to pretend they’re nice all the time, they strike me as being rather vulgar.”

The Liberal Democrats have refused to rule out eventually rejoining the European Union and stood on a vow to cancel Brexit at the 2019 election, when they fell to 11 MPs.

While rejoining the bloc is no longer one of the party’s top political priorities, it has nonetheless pledged to rejoin the single market as part of a four-stage plan for closer ties.

On Saturday, the Liberal Democrats called on Sir Keir Starmer to negotiate a youth mobility scheme with the European Union, something the Government says there are “no plans” for.

They claimed it was a “common sense move” to expand a programme that is currently in place for countries including Australia and Japan to all 27 EU member states.

The anti-Brexit song goes on to reference Liberal Democrat policies including the abolition of the House of Lords and the legalisation of cannabis, joking “we swear about those too”.

Members and MPs will sing: “We’ll sack the motherf—— Lords, smoke legal goddamn grass, and you can take first-past-the-post and shove it up your a—.”

It is one of 111 songs in the 33rd edition of the Liberator Song Book, which has been drawn up by the party activists behind the satirical Liberator magazine.

Their other compositions include a pastiche of Cliff Richard’s Congratulations about the 72 Liberal Democrat MPs elected to the Commons in July, a record for the party.

Its chorus is: “Congratulations and celebrations, the Liberal Democrats have 72 MPs, congratulations and jubilations, we want the world to know we’re happy as can be!”

The lyrics go on to reference Liberal Democrat gains from the Conservatives in the Blue Wall, traditional Tory heartland seats including Stratford-upon-Avon and Surrey Heath.

The Beatles’ Let It Be will once again be sung as “Lettuce Liz”, a reference to Liz Truss being outlasted by a live feed of a leafy vegetable as she was ousted as prime minister.

On Saturday afternoon, Sir Ed Davey arrived at the conference on a jet ski.

The leader of what is now Britain’s third-largest political party waved to camera crews and waiting journalists before he eventually reached dry land in the Sussex seaside town.

It is the latest in a series of high-profile stunts by Sir Ed after he enjoyed a water obstacle course, cycled down a steep hill and repeatedly fell into a lake during the election campaign.

At the general election in July, there were 57 more seats where the Liberal Democrats were within 10,000 votes of victory.

They were also just under 118,000 votes, or a 3.3 per cent vote share, away from becoming the official opposition, with most prospective target seats at future polls currently Tory-held.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday afternoon, Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat chief whip, teased Sir Keir over his hair appearing more grey since entering No 10.

Asked to score Sir Keir’s performance out of 10, Ms Chamberlain said: “I’m not sure I want to give him a score out of 10… All I would say is he’s gone quite grey, hasn’t he?

“I said that last night, I said I’ve got 72 MPs to whip – and I did get the hair dye out last weekend.”

A Lib Dem source said: “The Liberator songbook is written by volunteers known for using colourful language to mock the party’s previous policies.

“We’d have thought Nigel Farage would be the first to defend people’s hard-won right to sing a tongue-in-cheek song with a pint in their hand.”

The Liberal Democrats were contacted for comment.

Widows face a council tax rise five times higher than they endured last year if the single-person discount is scrapped.

For the average person in England, council tax jumped by £106 last year, but for single people it could go up by £549 next, according to analysis.

This is because those living alone could lose the 25 per cent discount, which is currently deducted from their bills – a move that has been labelled the “widows’ tax”.

The discount reflects the fact that single-occupier houses use fewer council services than families and couples.

The Government has repeatedly refused to rule out an end to the single-person’s discount – even though the scrapping of other perks, such as free bus passes for the elderly, have been ruled out.

The move would be controversial because it would affect three million pensioners and would cost them more than losing the winter fuel allowance, another unpopular measure announced by the Chancellor.

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer denied that any such tax increases on pensioners would be a “punishment beating” for Brexit.

The analysis, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA), found that scrapping the discount would raise £5.4 billion in the UK, £1.9 billion of which will be taken from single pensioners.

This is much higher than the £1.5 billion that the winter fuel allowance cut is expected to raise.

It also shows that tens of thousands of pensioners face a “widow’s tax” of more than £600 a year.

This is because they live in areas with the highest rates of council tax in the country.

Top of the list was Rutland, where council tax rates for band D are £2,543 – meaning the value of the discount is £636.

In all, there are 20 English councils where the bills for single people would soar by more than £600. Rutland is followed by Nottingham (£632), and Dorset and Lewes, which are both on £626.

In Birmingham, England’s largest local authority, more than 174,000 would be affected, while in Leeds there would be 137,000.

The analysis shows that in England there are just over three million pensioners who live alone and therefore benefit from the single-person’s discount.

There are just over four million single occupants of other ages who qualify for the discount.

In addition, there are 1.6 million single parents with dependent children, who also qualify for relief. Scrapping the discount on this group would raise £983 million.

A spokesman for the TPA said: “The Prime Minister has refused to rule out removing the single-person council tax discount, though other cuts were ruled out.

“While such a change would constitute a simplification of the tax system, it would further increase the tax burden, which is already set to reach an 80-year high by 2028-29.”

Sir Keir was asked on the trip to the US last week whether the single-person discount plan was a “punishment beating” for pensioners considering the fact that many of them voted Brexit and few vote Labour.

He replied: “No, absolutely not.”

The Prime Minister went on to talk about Budget plans but did not rule out removing the single-person’s discount.

“Let’s just try to quash this now,” he said. “The Budget is on Oct 30.

“I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do.

“That does not mean that I’m ruling in anything that you might be putting to me, it simply means, like every Prime Minister, we’re not going to reveal what’s in the Budget before we get to it.”

Sir Keir was then confronted over why he had ruled out other potential Budget measures, such as taking free bus passes from the elderly.

Asked why he would not rule out single-person’s discount, he said: “We’ve got to look at everything in the round.”

The billionaire mother of Laura Tomlinson is facing a £200,000 lawsuit after an aspiring dressage rider was kicked in the face by a horse.

George Day is suing Ursula Bechtolsheimer, claiming he was forced to give up a burgeoning career after suffering serious facial injuries and a traumatic brain injury as a result of the accident on March 5 2021.

Mrs Bechtolsheimer, 72, is the only daughter of German retail tycoon Karl-Heinz Kipp, who died in 2017, and the mother of Tomlinson, 39, the London 2012 Olympic gold medallist whose wedding to Mark Tomlinson, the polo player, in 2013, was celebrated by guests including the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke of Sussex.

Mrs Bechtolsheimer runs a horse breeding stable with her husband at Eastington House in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, where Mr Day says he was working at the time of his injury. He says he was hand-grazing a young horse called D’arcy, who had been injured and was on box rest, High Court documents show.

The horse grazed for a short while before suddenly raising his head, and kicking out, hitting him in the face, and causing him to lose consciousness, documents state. He was taken to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon with extensive facial injuries, including a shattered nose, fractured facial bones, eye sockets, and cheek bone, and then underwent surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Since the accident he claims he has suffered from neurological symptoms from his mild traumatic brain injury including fatigue, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision, reduced sensation in his face, blurry vision, tinnitus, and finds eating tough foods difficult.

He says he tried to return to Mrs Bechtolsheimer’s yard after the accident, but could not manage the work, and had become uncomfortable with horses. Now he is no longer able to ride professionally and cannot continue his equestrianism career, the court will hear.

Mr Day, 31, who competed at a high level in dressage competitions, is claiming more than £200,000 in compensation for his injuries. He says his Olympic dreams have been shattered and has been left with few other job prospects.

Mrs Bechtolsheimer, who helped train Carl Hester, the dressage Olympic gold medallist, during his early career, has admitted some liability for the accident, but wants Mr Day to prove his injuries.

She also wants him to prove his claims that he was a highly skilled rider, who had competed up to the Prix St George level, was riding professionally at the time of the accident, and that his proposed career path would have included the possibility of competing at Grand Prix dressage and beyond.

In her legal defence, the billionaire said his claim that he would have had a successful career as a professional rider, but for the accident, is fanciful, and that he would not have worked as a professional rider for her but as a groom.

A spokesman for the Bechtolsheimer yard said: “Mrs Bechtolsheimer and her team extend their sincere sympathies to George for the injuries he suffered, and wish him all the best for his treatment and recovery.

“The matter is in the hands of the insurance company for the purpose of determining the amount of damages that he is to receive. Liability has been admitted not on the basis that the accident was caused by negligence but by virtue of the fact that the Animals Act 1971 imposes strict liability in circumstances such as those in which George sustained his injuries.

“Neither Mrs Bechtolsheimer nor her daughter were involved with the management of the yard at the time of the accident.”

Mr Day’s claim was issued by Katie Moult of Irwin Mitchell. The defence was filed by Julian Dexter of Keoghs.

Last year, more than 500 people were allowed to keep £20,000 or more in benefits that were wrongly paid to them, The Telegraph reveals.

Within this group, £17.5 million in benefits were paid out in error and written off by administrators – amounting to an average of £30,674 per person.

Although most of the overpayments were triggered by innocent paperwork errors, there were 75 cases where claimants were fraudulently allowed to keep a total of £2.3 million they were not entitled to.

The 569 write-off cases were revealed following a freedom of information request from The Telegraph to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

Overall, the department wrote off last year a total of £329 million in benefits that had been paid out by mistake and another £6 million that had been pocketed by fraudsters.

The DWP also provided details on the cases of the biggest outstanding debts that it is still chasing down, which includes one person who now owes £547,000 in overpaid benefits.

This person, who pocketed the cash through a mixture of fraud and paperwork errors, has been asked to pay back the debt at the rate of £130 per month – meaning it will take them 350 years to completely settle the debt.

Another person swindled the DWP out of £491,000 in benefits they were not entitled to, and they were now trying to track them down to start a repayment programme.

In a separate case, the DWP was involved in a probate dispute with the relatives of a person who fraudulently claimed £343,000 in benefits before they died.

The report comes after a gang of five Bulgarians living in Britain were sentenced for defrauding the British taxpayer of £50 million in Universal Credit payments earlier this year in the country’s biggest-ever benefit fraud.

‘Complete failure’

Joanna Marchong, the investigations campaign manager of TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers will view this as a complete failure from the Department of Work and Pensions.

“Writing off these overpayments, even after errors have been identified, is not just an act of laziness, but a costly one at that. DWP negligence is directly hitting the pockets of hard-working taxpayers, costing them millions.

“The government needs to be diligent in ensuring that only those who qualify and truly need benefit payments receive them and that they receive the correct amount.”

Last year in total, the DWP said £7.4 billion was lost to fraud from the benefit budget and another £2.4 billion to errors made by either the claimant or officials.

The figures mean that every day almost £27 million in benefits is being paid out in error. The state attempts to recover the money in many cases but writes off some debts in cases where it decides there is no prospect of getting anything back.

A DWP spokesman said: “This government will not tolerate fraud or waste anywhere in public services, including in the social security system.

“We are determined to reduce fraud and error and are currently exploring all options on how best to achieve our goal.”

NHS nurses are being deployed to toilet train lockdown babies starting their first term of school this month, The Telegraph can reveal.

Specialist nurses are being drafted into schools and undergoing extra training sessions to meet a surge in demand for pandemic-related development issues.

It comes after a damning report out this week revealed that children born during the peak of the Covid pandemic would struggle at school for the next decade.

Tim Oates, the director of research at Cambridge University Press and Assessment and report author, said: “Staff in primary schools are reporting very serious problems of arrested language development, lack of toilet training, anxiety in being in social spaces, and depressed executive function.”

Children born in the first lockdown started primary school this month but experts say they have been failed by a “baby-blind spot” in the Covid recovery, which means record numbers are not toilet trained, have difficulty communicating and are not equipped to start school.

Local NHS services have had to deal with the fallout by putting on bedwetting workshops and giving parents and their children toilet training lessons at schools.

It is estimated that about one in four children starting school are not toilet trained.

Medway Community Healthcare, in Kent, said its “school nurses are delivering ‘healthy bladder and bowel’ workshops for parents in many local schools” this term, inviting those interested to speak to their child’s school.

In Walsall, the NHS has arranged bedwetting workshops for parents whose children are late to learn bladder control, and similar classes are being put on around the country, including in Batley and Birstall, Leeds, Warrington, Stockton-on-Tees, and various London boroughs.

Teachers are spending almost half of their teaching time addressing the issues of children who are not “school ready”, according to one survey, which has a knock-on impact on other children’s learning.

Charities have also been left to address the crisis. The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), a centre of excellence for specialist nurses called health visitors, which care for children from birth to age five, has had to put on extra workshops for NHS staff.

The extra classes are designed to better equip the nurses for the challenge facing Covid babies and are focused on children with toilet issues, who are fussy eaters, or have emotional or social development issues.

Baby blind spot

Its annual survey revealed half of health visitors were seeing an increase in child development problems.

Phillipa Bishop, the director of learning and the development at iHV, said: “The children who are starting school this autumn are the ‘Covid-babies’ who entered the world at the start of the pandemic and missed out on all the usual support services during their formative earliest years.

“Unlike school-age children, there was no Covid recovery plan for our youngest citizens whose needs have been repeatedly ignored by policymakers, despite numerous calls to address the ‘baby blind spot’.”

She said the “Spotlight Learn workshops” would help ensure teams identify and support families in areas “problematic for children entering school”.

Alison Morton, the chief executive at the iHV said it was “not a surprise” so many children had fallen behind.

“The travesty is that the current situation was both predictable and preventable. It is vital that the new government lives up to its promise to prioritise child health and this must include urgent action to address the needs of babies and young children.”

A survey by charity Kindred found that one in four new starters are not toilet trained, while two in five are unable to listen and respond to basic instructions or dress independently. Almost half cannot sit still.

Children starting school in nappies

A separate report by Speech and Language UK found one in five children was struggling with talking or understanding words.

Another charity, ERIC, which specialises in children’s bowel and bladder health, has this summer run an emergency campaign to get children toilet trained before they start school

Almost 3,000 families signed up to the Toilet Train programme over eight weeks, while the charity’s helpline saw a 35 per cent increase in calls in August, but this is just “a sticking plaster” the charity says.

Juliette Rayner, the ERIC chief executive, told The Telegraph that “potty training has been getting later with the average age between 3/3.5 years old”, which is a year later than it was 20 years ago.

She said there had been “a year-on-year increase in children starting school in nappies.” with various reasons, but that they had been exacerbated by Covid.

Ms Rayner said: “Not only were many parents working at home with small children, but they also lost access to their support networks – their peers, wider family members as well as no access to health visitors, playgroups, or family activities where talk would often turn to sharing experiences of potty training.

“Unfortunately, after Covid things didn’t go back to normal. It’s still difficult to get a GP appointment, there is a national shortage of health visitors, and the cost of living crisis has forced parents to work longer hours.”

A church is embroiled in a free speech row after sacking a vicar who ran an anti-woke YouTube channel.

Breakaway Anglican denomination, the Free Church of England (FCE), dismissed the Rev Brett Murphy last month after ruling that the “nature and tone” of videos he posted online had brought the church “into disrepute”.

The FCE took issue with the vicar using the term “witch” to refer to female priests.

The vicar, who opposes the ordination of women, has claimed the comments were “tongue in cheek and sarcastic” and that he has a right to free speech.

“It was not my intention to say all female clergy were witches, but to criticise militant feminism within the church,” he said.

But the ruling rejected this. “Your comments on the freedom of speech are noted, but there are proportionate limits to this right particularly when it comes to protecting the church’s reputation,” the ruling read.

The disciplinary hearing also upheld allegations that he failed “to follow reasonable instructions from your bishop” and failed to file the church’s accounts in a timely manner.

The church’s ruling, seen by The Telegraph, upheld one allegation of “inappropriate online activity”, finding that his YouTube channel did “not sit with the principles and values of the church”.

The Rev Murphy uses the channel to comment on news and developments in Christianity “from a conservative Christian standpoint”.

He is now appealing against the ruling, claiming the investigation was not carried out fairly.

He also claims he is being forced out by his bishop, the Rt Rev John Fenwick, describing the disciplinary proceedings against him as a “kangaroo court”.

But the bishop rejected the criticism, saying: “The personal nature of the attacks on me is entirely misplaced.”

Rev Murphy was cleared of wrongdoing last year by a Church of England tribunal after he referred to its first transgender archdeacon as a “bloke”.

Last year, the father of two left the Church of England to join the FCE along with the Rev Calvin Robinson, a political commentator.

He was made the vicar of Emmanuel, Morecambe, in July 2023 and under him the congregation grew in size from two worshippers to 50.

But after 13 months in the position, he was “sacked by email” on Aug 9 following a disciplinary hearing brought against him by the FCE.

“It has been one of the most traumatic experiences of our lives,” he told The Telegraph. “I think I’ve got pretty thick skin because I’ve been through a lot as a minister.

“Enduring a kangaroo court and the injustice of that was pretty unpleasant. The cold and callous disregard about caring for my pregnant wife and two children has been a concern to us.”

The Rev Murphy added: “I can’t help but feel like there have been daggers in my back.

“The FCE should have really been right on board [with the channel] because I was only proclaiming doctrines that were congruent with their own beliefs.”

Rev Murphy, who has received more than £140,000 in online donations since his sacking to fund the purchase of a home, is considering setting up a separate church with his congregation in Morecambe if the appeal against his dismissal fails.

The Rev Murphy has accused Dr Bob Stephen, the FCE’s general secretary, of being the “one person issuing the allegations, investigating and holding the hearing on his own, analysing the evidence and issuing the dismissal” at the hearing.

This appears to contradict both the FCE’s own rules, which say accusations against ministers should be judged by a panel of clergy and laity, and guidelines issued by Acas, the conciliation service, that “different people should carry out the investigation and disciplinary hearing” in misconduct cases.

Andrea Williams, the chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “The mark of a passionate vibrant Christian faith is the ability of a man to grow a church.

“Brett has done this, and his community love him. To remove him and his young family from the church and home is cruel.”

The Rt Rev Fenwick said: “I am unable to comment on the termination of Mr Murphy’s contract of employment, or the circumstances surrounding it, as the process has not yet been concluded and the Free Church of England, for its part, is observing the confidentiality that is expected in such matters.”