Reform branded ‘threat to democracy’ over Farage plan to remove thousands of migrants with leave to be in UK – politics live

Nigel Farage says Reform UK would scrap the main route that migrants take to gain British citizenship

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

John Swinney has switched an experienced minister, Graeme Dey, back to his previous role as parliamentary business manager after Friday’s resignation by Jamie Hepburn following an altercation at Holyrood.

Davey claimed that the “two old parties, Labour and the Conservatives” were not capable of seeing off the threat posed by Reform UK. Referring in particular to Nigel Farage’s party, he told the Today programme:

I think the threat to our democracy, to things we hold dear, British values – decency, tolerance, respect for the rule of law – are being challenged in a way that I can’t remember before.

And when I hear some of the leaders of the Conservative party and, particularly, Reform, they seem to be borrowing from Trump’s America and some of the ideas they’re putting forward I think would take our country backwards.

He claimed the Lib Dems were the only party beating Reform in council byelections. He told Today:

Since May, I think we’ve had head to head fights with them [Reform, in local council byelections]. We’ve won three quarters of them. We’re the only party who’s not lost a seat to Reform. I’m determined the Lib Democrats are the answer to this threat to our country.

He repeatedly avoided questions about whether he would be willing to enter a coaltion with Labour after the election to stop Reform forming a government. In response to multiple questions about this on the Today programme, he said:

My moral responsibility as the leader of a party that has particular values is to speak up for those values and champion those values.

And at the moment, we’re the only party championing those values.

What I want to do is make sure we have as many Liberal Democrat seats and Liberal Democrat votes at the next election.

Davey said Elon Musk should be investigated to see if his company, X, has broken UK laws. In an interview yesterday Davey said Musk should be arrested over content he allows on X. In his on Today this morning interview, when asked to repeat that, Davey said Musk should be investigated by Ofcom. He said:

We think there is clear evidence that he and his company have broken the law.

When he took it [X] over, he got rid of teams who were there to protect our children, who were there to enforce the rules, and what’s happened on X, and I’m afraid it really is important people understand this, we’re seeing adverts for videos of child sexual abuse.

Davey claimed that the Lib Dem plans for higher taxes on banks would not lead to their customers paying more in bank charges. When this was put to him, he told Today:

They’ve got record profits. They’ve got profits that they never, ever thought they’d have because of the way that the monetary policy of the Bank (of England) is being reversed.

And lots of academics have looked at this and said absolutely, that’s outrageous that the banks are making such big profits.