Byline Times Audio Articles

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

I was in a car with charity workers somewhere between Calais and Dunkirk. We were on our way to a women's centre: a small sports pavilion that offers women in the camps a chance to shower, do their hair, put on make-up, have a gossip, a brief moment of normality in a hostile place.

My companions were chatting in French, which I struggled to follow. So, when they exclaimed, "Huit." I had to ask, "Eight what?".

Pregnant women, they said.

My heart sank. I asked whether they would cross in the small boats. They told me the women hope so. It is safer to cross before the babies are born. Some, though, are forced to take babes in arms.

At the centre we met women from all over the world. I spoke with another Rachel (Raheli), a physics teacher from Afghanistan, fleeing the Taliban with her daughter, a midwife. She squeezed my hand tightly as she described the fear of the journey. Another woman spoke of her longing to return to Eritrea, to work and support her family back home. There were two mothers with babies already born.

EXCLUSIVE

Nigel Farage-Backed 'Raise the Colours' Campaign Pivots to Racially Abusing Migrants and Harassing Aid Workers on French Beaches

Far-right activists were seen stabbing dinghies and releasing dogs to intimidate migrants and aid workers

Nicola Kelly and Olly Haynes

Women on the move. Pregnancies shaped by danger and displacement. A search for safety in a world that insists there is "no room". Standing there, listening, it struck me that this is, at its heart, a Christmas story.

Migration and asylum are not modern anomalies. They are as old as humanity itself. Yet we have allowed our politics to strip them of their humanity, turning people into numbers, threats, slogans.

These women in Calais are in crisis, but they are not a crisis. Each is a person. And how we treat them tells us everything about the kind of country we are choosing to be.

Our Government has poured £476m into making the border as hostile as possible: aggressive policing, tents ripped away, water stations destroyed, and the horrific use of military-grade tear gas on children as young as two months old. Still, people cross, only now they do so more dangerously, with greater suffering.

Humanitarian organisations, including those working with Calais Appeal, do everything they can to counter this violence with scant resources. Their work is lifesaving.

As 2025 draws to a close, it is impossible not to reflect on how sharply our political language has hardened. Cruelty has been rebranded as "toughness". Indifference as "pragmatism". Moral abdication as "realism". That showing basic humanity to pregnant women living in appalling conditions is now considered "radical" should alarm us all.

Too often, policies are justified not by whether they work, but by whether they sound punitive enough to satisfy an increasingly volatile media ecosystem. People seeking safety are framed as a problem to be managed, rather than lives to be protected.

That is also why earlier this year, I opposed the policy of housing people seeking asylum in army camps.

The 'Pink Ladies' Laundering Anti-Migrant Views Into the Mainstream

An anti-migrant movement backed by Reform and Conservative politicians and regularly invited onto news channels is funded by a far-right group and has platformed a Neo-Nazi activist

Nicola Kelly

I believe in dignity. Placing traumatised people, including pregnant women, children and survivors of torture, in isolated, militarised settings without proper support is neither humane nor effective. It entrenches fear, worsens mental health, and makes integration harder, not easier.

Worse still, this cruelty is profitable. Clearsprings and just two other providers have made a combined £383m from Home Office asylum contracts, while delivering what has been described as "miserable" conditions. How did we end up paying c...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

The 'Raise the Colours' flag-raising campaign, which claims to be a "grassroots" campaign for "unity" and has drawn the support of mainstream political parties and widespread coverage in the British media, has pivoted to stabbing through dinghies and harassing and racially abusing migrants and aid workers in the camps of Northern France, an investigation for Byline Times has found.

The campaign, which coordinated the raising of British and English flags across the country, was praised by Reform leader Nigel Farage as "extraordinary", suggesting in the Sun newspaper that it was a "patriotic… grassroots movement driven by ordinary people".

However, charities working in the camps of Calais and Dunkirk report that the anti-migrant, vigilante group, whose members include Danny Thomas, who was jailed for two years for an attempted kidnap, have made five visits to Calais since the beginning of November, where they have been filmed racially abusing migrants, calling them "criminals" and "invaders" and harassing aid workers.

Lachlan Macrae from Calais Food Collective said: "They [Raise the Colours activists] came up and asked me if I was ashamed of myself, and said they would 'report my face' to the British government. They're unpredictable; we don't know what they will do, but there is a clear criminal intent. We have filmed them damaging equipment and stealing lifejackets, which will have dangerous consequences."

The 'Pink Ladies' Laundering Anti-Migrant Views Into the Mainstream

An anti-migrant movement backed by Reform and Conservative politicians and regularly invited onto news channels is funded by a far-right group and has platformed a Neo-Nazi activist

Nicola Kelly

Raise the Colour's website states that it is a "grassroots movement for unity and patriotism" which is "determined to show their pride by flying the flag from one neighbourhood to the next ."

The movement has drawn the support of leading politicians, including Farage and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who wrote in the Daily Mail that the campaign should be "welcomed" and described attempts to take down their flags as "shameful".

However, evidence sent to Byline Times shows far right supporters of the campaign in France releasing dogs to intimidate migrants and aid workers. Earlier this year Calais Food Collective say a dog attack on one of their staff members making meals for people in the migrant camps, left them hospitalised

The group has already caught the attention of the French police.

Danny Thomas and two other members of Raise the Colours say they were arrested and had their passports seized by the French authorities two weeks ago. They were later released without charge.

Raise the Colour's mission, codenamed 'Operation Overlord', is funded by supporter donations with over 5,500 people on their Facebook page claiming that they are willing to travel to France to "stop the boats". The group says that donations are used for stab-proof vests, torches, cameras, drones and radios.

Activists from Utopia 56 have seen Thomas and his Raise the Colours associates on the beaches around Gravelines, close to Dunkirk. "Last month, eight of them arrived in the camp during the daytime waving a huge flag," said a spokesperson for the charity. "They went around asking people if they were planning to cross and told them they didn't want them in their country."

"They came up to our volunteers on the beach," another source from Utopia 56 said. "We told them to stay in the van, don't interact and film them. They are so aggressive, we fear they could become physically violent if things don't go their way."

Activists said that Raise the Colours members have also been seen waking up migrants at a bus stop in Dunkirk, attempting to take a man's bag and becoming verbally abusive when the person refused to give it to them. The source added that Ut...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

The announcement that Keir Starmer's Government is launching a review of "foreign financial interference" in British politics didn't make much of a splash in today's paper, but it may turn out to have been one of the most significant political for moments in this Parliament.

For years the Labour party has been under pressure to take the issues of foreign interference, and dark money in our politics, more seriously.

However, a nervousness inside Downing Street about being seen to question the Brexit result, as well as a resistance to take any steps that might also harm Labour's own funding streams, has meant that little so far has been done.

Even after reports spread last year that the far-right US billionaire Elon Musk was considering bankrolling Reform UK, via his UK companies, Downing Street hesitated to do anything about it.

That now finally appears to be changing. Labour sources who are close to Number 10 say that the conviction of Reform's former Welsh leader for taking pro-Russian bribes, and the record breaking £9 million Reform donation from a Thailand-based crypto investor have combined to "galvanise" Starmer into taking action.

Crypto Investor Donates £9 Million to Reform UK as Nigel Farage Plugs His Company and Tells Industry 'I Am Your Champion'

The Reform leader recently used media interviews to back Christopher Harborne's company while promising to cut taxes and regulations on crypto firms

Adam Bienkov

The realisation, as one Labour MP put it to Byline Times, that foreign financial interference could pose both an "existential threat to democracy" and an "existential threat to their jobs" has finally spurred Number 10 into action.

The review, which will be led by the Former Permanent Secretary at the Brexit department, Philip Rycroft, is just the first step in what is likely to see the Government taking significant action to close at least some of the glaring loopholes allowing foreign interference in our politics.

As things stand it is remarkably easy, and cheap, for hostile foreign actors to interfere in our politics. As a recent sting operation by Democracy for Sale exposed, it only takes a little bit of money and a little bit of access to gain real influence over our politics.

Unlike in the corporate world, where there are strictly-enforced protocols against corruption, there are only a few very weak guardrails preventing malicious actors gaining influence.

One good example of this is the All Party Parliamentary Group system, whereby foreign governments are effectively able to buy significant influence among elected parliamentarians for relatively small amounts of money. By hosting events inside Parliament and paying for MPs to visit their host countries, foreign governments and corporations can buy huge amounts of access with very little scrutiny.

Similar access is also gained through the world of opaquely funded think tanks, which have become a hugely prominent force inside Westminster and at party conferences, despite there being little obligation on these groups to disclose where their funding ultimately comes from.

The checks and balances are only slightly better when it comes to the direct funding of our politics. Under current rules, only British citizens and entities can donate to a political party. Yet in reality this rule can be easily bypassed by funnelling money through a UK company, as Musk was reportedly considering. These restrictions were even further loosened under the last Conservative government, which allowed people who had been living abroad for more than 15 years to continue donating to UK political parties. The political funding watchdog, the Electoral Commission, an already fairly toothless body, was further enfeebled under the last Govenrment.

However, it has been the onset of crypto donations that poses perhaps the most significant new threat to o...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Nigel Farage's record-beating election war chest is being bankrolled by a donor whose fortune is entangled with a major video platform which has hosted Russian state broadcasters supporting Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and an influence operation hatched by Russian intelligence.

Christopher Harborne - the Thailand-based billionaire who has given Reform UK £9 million in cash, making him Britain's single largest political donor - is already known as a cryptocurrency investor and long-time Farage backer. He is also a major shareholder in the stablecoin company Tether and the British defence firm QinetiQ, which supplies the Ministry of Defence and allied militaries.

What has not been scrutinised until now is how Harborne's stake in Tether ties his profits to Rumble: a "free speech" video platform that refused to ban Russian state media after the invasion, and has since hosted a Kremlin-backed influence operation exposed by the US Department of Justice.

Byline Times has examined company filings, market disclosures and previous reporting to map the investment chain running from Tether into Rumble. The picture that emerges is of a donor whose financial interests straddle Britain's defence interests and a platform projecting Russian state propaganda.

The £9 Million Man

In early December, Electoral Commission data confirmed that Harborne had donated £9 million to Reform UK - the largest single political donation in recent British history, eclipsing recent gifts to the Conservative and Labour parties.

Harborne is no stranger to Farage's projects. Based on Thailand where he is known under his Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, he previously bankrolled the Brexit Party with nearly £10 million and also wrote substantial cheques to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson.

Behind that largesse sits a sprawling portfolio. As well as aviation fuel, technology ventures and property, Harborne holds a substantial stake in Tether - the company behind the world's largest "stablecoin", a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar.

According to multiple reports drawing on leaked corporate documents, he acquired around a 12% share in Tether's parent group in the mid-2010s, making him one of its largest private investors. Harborne is not understood to be in any way involved in Tether's management or operations

Tether has itself been scrutinised by regulators and law enforcement agencies for the way its tokens have been used in money laundering, sanctions evasion and other illicit finance, including schemes said to benefit Russia's war economy - although there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Harborne.

The World Upside Down: How a Top Official at Trump's FBI Laundered Far-Right Disinformation

The United States' entire security apparatus is now being used to spread far-right propaganda rather than tackle genuine threats, reports Caroline Orr Bueno

Caroline Orr Bueno

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Rumble began life in 2013 as an obscure video-sharing site. For most of the decade it barely registered outside niche online communities. Then came the 2020 US election.

As Donald Trump and senior Republicans railed against "censorship" by Silicon Valley, thousands of MAGA influencers, far-right commentators and pro-Trump media outlets decamped en masse to a platform that promised them something YouTube would not: a home with no gatekeepers.

In 2021, billionaire Peter Thiel and JD Vance's Narya Capital poured money into that promise, hailing Rumble as the backbone of a "parallel tech ecosystem" for the American right.

Then, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine - and Rumble made a decision that set it apart from nearly every major platform in the democratic world.

As the EU, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter moved to block RT and Sputnik, Rumble refused. The company announced it would only act if a court forced its hand.

When Franc...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

In the past week a top official at Trump's FBI helped to launder a right-wing disinformation narrative, claiming at a congressional hearing that the antifascist movement known as "antifa" is the biggest domestic terrorism threat in the United States.

Michael Glasheen, the director of operations in the FBI's National Security Branch, told lawmakers that antifa is the agency's "primary concern" and "the most immediate violent threat that we're facing." However, when questioned, Glasheen was unable to provide any evidence to back up his claim and could not answer lawmakers' inquiries when they pressed for more information.

To those who study extremism and disinformation, what happened was immediately clear: the FBI, under Donald Trump's renewed political influence, is now publicly endorsing a narrative born not out of genuine threat assessments but from right-wing propaganda.

In fact, Glasheen's statement can be traced directly to a years-long disinformation campaign - one cultivated by Trump officials and Republican lawmakers, as well as right-wing media - that has aggressively portrayed "antifa" as a nationwide organised terror network despite the lack of any real evidence supporting such an assertion.

The claims made by Glasheen offer a striking reminder of how the dominant disinformation narrative surrounding antifa continues to infiltrate and distort US national security priorities by legitimising far-right extremist propaganda while suppressing and even criminalising legitimate dissent.

Glasheen's testimony echoes previous statements made by Trump and his allies, who for years have coordinated with right-wing outlets like Fox News and a long list of pro-Trump social media influencers to launder and propagate a false narrative aimed at portraying antifa as a leading terrorist threat in the US, even though the evidence flatly contradicts this.

Nigel Farage's Russian Influence Advent Calendar

Byline Times has compiled a festive offering of the prize moments when the Reform leader has gifted the political agenda to Vladimir Putin and Russia

Byline Times Team

Distorting Reality

The facts are clear: right-wing extremists are by far the greatest domestic terror threat facing the US, and it's been this way for quite some time. Over the past decade, right-wing extremists were responsible for 76% of all extremist-related killings, compared to 4% attributable to left-wing extremists.

Going even further back, in an analysis of 900 politically motivated attacks and plots in the US since 1994, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found just one deadly attack attributable to antifascists - and the single fatality was the perpetrator himself. During the same time period, right-wing extremists carried out attacks that left 329 people dead. In multiple recent years, including 2022 and 2024, right-wing extremists were responsible for every single recorded extremist murder in the country.

Looking at those statistics, it's pretty clear where the threat is coming from - and it's not antifa. But that clarity has been muddied in recent years thanks to a coordinated and persistent disinformation campaign propagated by the Trump administration, right-wing media, far-right social media influencers, and even Russia. This disinformation campaign dates back to at least 2016 and has accelerated significantly since then.

Over the years, antifa has been falsely blamed for starting wildfires, busing in violent protesters, looting, making bomb threats towards politicians, coordinating nationwide riots, carrying out mass shootings, and more. On repeated occasions, conspiracy theories about antifa have even duped law enforcement agencies, resulting in everything from unnecessary shutdowns of major highways and panic among the public, to armed vigilantes showing up to defend their towns from a threat th...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Talks about negotiations over Ukraine have now become a daily fixture in the public sphere - not only among experts, but also in the media and in official statements. Dozens of analysts discuss diplomatic moves by Russia, the United States, Ukraine, and European leaders every day, closely tracking new meetings between special envoys, official drafts of peace plans, and the responses to them.

At the same time, frustration has been voiced repeatedly in the White House over the length and complexity of the negotiating process. Donald Trump himself has stated that the endless discussions are exhausting him. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian side has delivered to Washington its response and proposals regarding the latest draft peace plan developed jointly with European leaders. In Moscow, that response was evaluated instantly - even before it had been read. Vladimir Putin's foreign policy aide and one of Moscow's chief negotiators, Yuri Ushakov, commented that he was confident the document would contain no constructive proposals.

However, before even discussing the substance of a possible end to the war, it is essential to state a simple but uncomfortable reality upfront: Vladimir Putin is not negotiating in order to end the war. For him, negotiations have become a tool to lock in the results of his aggression, buy time, and restore a degree of international legitimacy - without abandoning his core objectives.

EXCLUSIVE

Trump Envoy Has Financial Ties With Former Adviser to Putin's 'Money Man' Now Leading Kremlin Peace Talks

Steve Witkoff's real-estate empire is bankrolled by a former adviser to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund and a key architect of Moscow's Ukraine negotiations

Philip Haworth

There is another equally simple reality that must be acknowledged: from the Kremlin's perspective, negotiations are not a search for compromise, but a literal continuation of the war by other means, with diplomacy embedded directly into the military backdrop.

Not long ago, Vladimir Putin openly admitted that he is satisfied with the current state of affairs - referring to the war and all the consequences associated with it. I see no reason to doubt his sincerity here. The American administration appears increasingly willing to pursue compromises with the Kremlin in the hope of halting active hostilities in Ukraine.

This became even clearer after the publication of a leaked recording of conversations between Trump's representative, Steve Witkoff, and Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov. That recording offered a more explicit picture of Washington's current approach to the process - one in which the U.S. representative appears prepared to accept virtually any compromise with the Kremlin in order to reach some form of outcome.

And today, against the backdrop of the bombardment of Ukrainian cities, missile and drone strikes on both sides of the front line, and bloody battles for populated areas, we hear less about any concrete progress and more about the fact that the parties continue contacts, working meetings, and diplomatic consultations. These are then presented as "results of negotiations" in and of themselves - even though they are not.

So What Does Putin Actually Want?

Putin's primary objective is the recognition of a new status quo - which can be described as his minimum plan. This does not necessarily imply the formal, legal recognition of the occupied territories. The Kremlin likely understands all too well how toxic such recognition would be for Western governments. What matters far more is de facto acceptance of a frozen front line and the transfer of the remaining part of Donetsk region under Russian control without armed resistance.

Any ceasefire that locks in the current situation works in Russia's favor. It allows Moscow to consolidate control over occupied territories, restore logistics, ...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Members of the Trump administration are guilty of making the same mistake as backers of Brexit in the UK, in assuming other people share their own prejudices about the European Union. This perception bias has led the administration to conclude that Europeans are yearning to be "free" from the "shackles" of the EU, and that the US has a crucial role to play in achieving this.

In its recent National Security Strategy, the administration blames what it calls Europe's decline on the supposedly malign "activities" of the European Union, which it accuses of undermining political liberty and sovereignty, and imposing stifling over-regulation. It hints at its desire to break the bloc apart, in order to restore European nations' "individual character and history."

According to the defense analysis organization, Defense One, this aspiration is made even more explicit in a longer unpublished version of the NSS which it claims to have seen, which lists Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland as countries the US should "work more with…with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union]"

However, recent opinion polls confirm that across the EU, a majority of people still have a broadly positive view towards it, even in countries like those above targeted by the US.

An opinion poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in September revealed that among the nine member countries surveyed, seven-in-ten or more in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, and over half in Spain, Italy, Poland, France and Hungary, have a favourable view of the EU. The only country where views were more negative than negative was Greece.

Nigel Farage Accepts Another £135,000 From Gold Bullion Firm for Just 12 Hours Work

The Reform UK leader has pocketed £415,500 so far this year to act as the company's "Brand Ambassador"

Russell Scott

The same poll revealed that even in countries outside the EU many held a broadly positive attitude towards the bloc. In Canada, Nigeria, South Korea and Australia, roughly three-quarters had a favorable opinion of the EU. Six-in-ten or more agreed in five other nonmember countries, including the United Kingdom, and even the United States itself.

Views were more finely balanced in Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Turkey and South Africa.

A similar poll conducted EU-wide earlier this year by the EU's in-house surveyor, Eurobarometer, revealed that over 74% of respondents think that their country benefits from EU membership - the best result ever recorded since this question was first asked in 1983. Figures ranged from a staggering 92% in Malta, over 90% in Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark, to the lowest percentage in Bulgaria, at a still solid 61%.

In the same survey, 89% said they believed that more unity was crucial to tackle global challenges, with 75% or more citizens agreeing with this in every Member State.

Another poll conducted by the same organization this year found that over 70% of respondents in the 20 euro member states also believed that the euro was a good thing both for the EU and for their own country.

In a third poll, a majority of correspondents in nearly every EU member state supported further EU enlargement, with Ukraine the most favoured country for accession, provided it can meet the membership criteria.

Amongst those more sceptical about enlargement, concerns included uncontrolled migration (40%), corruption, organized crime, terrorism (39%) and the cost to European taxpayers (37%).

This suggests that the US administration may be onto something, when it highlights concerns in its NSS about Europe's stagnating economy, migration policies, and loss of self-confidence. But, just as Brexit was never the right solution to the UK's genuine domestic problems in 2016, when the Brexit referendum took place, so, breaking apart the EU would not resolve Europe's current ills.

Emp...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Nigel Farage has accepted another £135,000 from a firm selling gold bullion, for working just four hours per week over a three month period.

The latest register of interests published by the House of Parliament shows that the Reform UK leader continues to earn huge sums of money from second jobs outside his role as the MP for Clacton.

Farage, who acts as the companies "Brand Ambassador" is pocketing an eye-watering £11,250 per hour to push "tax-free gold".

This isn't the first time payment Farage has accepted from the Mayfair registered Gold merchants, Byline Times previously reported on two previous payments. £91,200 was paid to Farage in February 2025, which followed a a £189,300 payment from the same company in December 2024 - again for working a "maximum" of four hours per month, with some of the fee paying for some work "undertaken prior" to his election to Parliament.

In total the Reform UK leader has declared payments totalling £415,500 from Direct Bullion, a Mayfair-registered firm, which claims to be "the UK's No.1" Gold bullion dealer. The firm also had a large stand in a very prominent position inside Reform UK's recent party conference held in September and the Reform UK's logo has been affixed to the firm's website.

It comes on top of hundreds of thousands of pounds in payments for Farage's role as GB News presenter, revenue sharing payments from Elon Musk's X platform and earnings from his profile on the Cameo personalised video message platform.

The latest available accounts published on Companies House in October 2025 for DB London Ltd ,which trades under the name Direct Bullion shows the firm had just five employees as of 31 January 2025 and operates out of a shared office space in London, where over 100 other companies are also registered.

In June this year, DB London informed Companies House that the firm was now majority controlled by another company called Eleven Intl Ltd.

The registered address of Eleven Intl Ltd is in Ilford, and appears to be an accountancy company based above a supermarket. According to accounts filed in September 2025, Eleven Intl Ltd has no employees and only £96 cash in the bank as of 31 January 2025.

'If Nigel Farage's Racism Is Forgotten It Will Give Him Permission for Far Worse'

When someone tells you who they are, over and over again, it is wise to listen, argues Clive Lewis MP

Clive Lewis MP

In a recent interview with The Observer, Paul Withers the Co-founder of Bullion Direct said:

"I like Reform because I believe in what Nigel stands for. I worked bloody hard, and see a lot of what I worked hard for go to waste. The majority [of people are] seeing this - it's nationwide, and when I look at the proper alternatives, there's nothing there."

Withers told the paper that Farage was "a real goldbug" and "bringing the customers to us," claiming "It's done better than I ever anticipated."

Online customer reviews appear to support this claim, with some suggesting Farage's endorsement of Bullion Direct was the reason for them investing in gold. However, some customer reviews appear to be duplications despite being posted under different names and on different dates.

The Bullion Directory, which provides online reviews of Gold and Silver dealers in the UK currently lists Direct Bullion as the "top rated" seller in the country, however in some instances these reviews also appear to be duplicates. Two separate entries from April 2025 both use identical sentences to boast about their investments increasing by 50% in value and both repeat the same spelling mistakes.

Both Nigel Farage and Direct Bullion were approached for comment.

ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE

Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.

PAY ANNUALLY - £3...

Read our Digital & Print Editions

And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Up to a million people are still living in UK tower blocks covered in dangerous flammable cladding, some eight years after the Grenfell Tower fire, a damning report by peers reveals today.

The failure to resolve the issue, almost a decade on from the tragedy that killed 72 people in the tower block in West London, is partly blamed on failures by the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to speedily approve renovations.

The new agency was set up following the inquiry into the fire by Dame Judith Hackitt in 2018. However, instead of taking eight to twelve weeks to approve renovations to tower blocks, many cases take nine months and in one case 62 weeks -highlighted by lawyers Irwin Mitchell in written evidence to peers.

The Lords report also blames the building industry for the huge delays, saying there has been a shortage of newly trained skilled housing inspectors.

The peers say: "We heard consistent and repeated complaints that the BSR could take more than nine months to make decisions on whether construction projects should be allowed to go ahead, significantly longer than the statutory target of twelve weeks for these decisions.

"In many cases, this has delayed or disincentivised refurbishments, safety upgrades and the remediation of dangerous cladding in high-rise buildings, leaving residents in unsafe buildings for longer and increasing costs for leaseholders."

Keir Starmer's Government Is Funding 'Violence and Death' on the French Border, Say Human Rights Groups

Billions of pounds is being spent on anti-migrant measures which campaigners warn are contributing to dozens of deaths of vulnerable people seeking to come to the UK

Nicola Kelly

"Many applications are being rejected or delayed due to basic errors and applicants' inability to evidence how they are considering elements of fire and structural safety, which reflects poorly on the construction industry."

The campaign group Grenfell United told peers that up to one million flat dwellers are impacted by these delays and still living in unsafe conditions.

Labour Chair of the Industry and Regulators Committee, Baroness Taylor of Bolton said: "The tragic loss of 72 lives at the Grenfell Tower fire laid bare the urgent need to reform building safety regulation in England, particularly for high-rise buildings. The introduction of the Building Safety Regulator was a necessary and welcome step.

"However, the scale of the delays caused by the BSR has stretched far beyond the regulator's statutory timelines for building control decisions. This is unacceptable. We welcome that the Government and the BSR are now acting to try and make practical improvements, but this will not address the anxiety and frustration that residents and companies have experienced.

"It does not improve safety to delay vital remediation and refurbishments, nor to deter the delivery of new housing in high-rise buildings. We expect to see further action from the Government and the BSR to ensure that construction projects in high-rise buildings can be brought forward more quickly, without compromising on vital safety improvements."

The delays are bad news for the Government's plans to build 1.5 million homes by 2029, particularly in big cities where there are a large number of tower blocks.,

Peers were told The Greater London Authority's statistics on housing found that residential starts in London dropped from 48,745 new homes in 2022-23 to 27,543 in 2023-24. Residential starts in London fell further in 2024-25 to 21,026 - just 43% of the 2022-23 figure.

Some of the blame for these figures falls on the safety regulator.

Matt Voyce, Executive Director of Construction at Quintain, which is developing an 85-acre estate in Wembley Park, said that his experience of the BSR had been "challenging, frustrating and costly".

ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE

Receive th...

Advent Calendar

25 Times Nigel Farage Has Been a Gift to Vladimir Putin (chronological). Click a door to flip it.

1

2013

Byline Times: Farage lies about "meeting the Russian ambassador" Open story

2

31 Mar 2014

Guardian: relationship with Russian media comes under scrutiny Open story

3

1 May 2014

GQ (archived): Putin is the leader Farage most admires Open story

4

21 May 2014

HuffPost: Prince Charles Shouldn't Criticise Putin Open story

5

2014 (archived)

The EU provoked Russia's invasion of Ukraine Open story

6

16 Sep 2014

Farage sticks up for Putin in the EU Parliament Open story

7

Jun 2016

Politico: Obama "behaved disgracefully" by intervening in Brexit Open story

8

8 Sep 2016

Independent: RT offers Farage his own TV show Open story

9

1 Jun 2017

Politico: Farage calls Trump-Russia probe reports "fake news" Open story

10

1 Nov 2017

Newsweek: "Jews should concern Americans more than Russian influence…" Open story

11

12 Dec 2018

Byline Times: Farage's Lieutenant bribed by "Putin's man in Ukraine" Open story

12

12 Mar 2018

LBC: Farage on Salisbury/Novichok - UK "jumped the gun" Open story

13

6 May 2019

Guardian: Farage claims Russian intervention a "hoax" Open story

14

17 May 2019

Newsweek: Farage plays down Arron Banks' visits to the Russian Embassy Open story

15

10 Oct 2019

Guardian: Farage's MEPs vote against EU anti-Russian disinformation measures Open story

16

15 Feb 2022

Telegraph: "should not entertain NATO membership for Ukraine" Open story

17

24 Feb 2022

Independent: Russian invasion a consequence of EU/NATO "provoking" Putin Open story

18

21 Jun 2024

BBC: Farage says West "provoked" Ukraine war Open story

19

3 Jul 2024

Byline Times: Farage, bots and the 2024 election Open story

20

23 Mar 2025

Big Issue: Farage record on Ukraine Open story

21

March 2025

The Times: Zelensky should take Trump's minerals deal Open story

22

YouTube clip

TalkTV "Ukraine is corrupt" Open story

23

Oct 2025

Putin is a "bad dude" but Ukraine is corrupt Open story

24

16 Oct 2025

Bloomberg: It's still the fault of NATO and the EU Open story

25

Oct 2025

POLITICO Europe: "Putin is a very bad dude" Open story

Thanks to all our supporters who made suggestions for this. And those who, after it was published, suggested it should be called a Griftmas Card, with Russian oligarchs falling out of each window as they open.

Out of the Doom Loop

As well as bringing you the bad news, Byline Times is committed to bringing you the good, and looking for rays of hope in the New Year.

So subscribe for the new edition, hitting the doormats and shops next week.

Last Minute Christmas Gift

From Lady Mone, as told to Otto English*

*Lady Mone's opinions are her own, and are also in this case entirely fictional

Giftcards are 15% off with code: TISTHESEASON