Brexit isolated us, now is the time for closer relations with the EU. Graham Leadbitter: "A false hope deal (Brexit) that has left us far away from our European friends, desperately clinging to a US administration who doesn't care about our national interests."

🇪🇺 Macron: "I mean the crazy things is that we can be put in a situation to use the anti-coercion mechanism for the very first time vis-a-vis the US if they put additional tariffs." "Can you imagine that? This is crazy, but this is a consequence of just unpredictability and useless aggressivity."

It's time for closer ties with Europe. "If Greenland marks the end of the world looking to the US for leadership, it has also become the moment for Europe (...) to lift their heads out of the sand." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/20/donald-trump-greenland-world-plan-leadership

🚨BREAKING FROM MACRON🚨 "Competition from the USA, through trade agreements that openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe" "Combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable. Even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty."

Not a good sign when you can’t distinguish between what the US President says and what Russia's Foreign Minister says... "Russia's Lavrov says Greenland is not a 'natural part' of Denmark" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-lavrov-says-greenland-is-not-a-natural-part-denmark-2026-01-20/

👀 https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/25779597.powys-ms-kicked-conservatives-reform-talks/

Ursula von der Leyen responds to Trump's threats against Greenland: "Additional tariffs are a mistake." "We consider the US not just our allies, but our friends. And plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape."

This must be the FINAL warning sign to turn away from Trump's America. For our security, we need closer relations with the EU. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0lx7j1lrwro

"As President Donald Trump marks a year in office, the world watches on in disbelief," writes Evie Aspinall, Director of the British Foreign Policy Group. How will foreign policy change in the next three years? https://bestforbritain.substack.com/p/a-year-of-trump-tariffs-transactionalism

Morning all...

A reminder that Rosindell claimed more than £125,000 in second home expenses for a flat in London, while designating his childhood home 17 miles away - where his mother lived - as his main address. https://news.sky.com/story/conservative-mp-andrew-rosindell-defects-to-reform-uk-13496013

⚠️ "Either we will witness societal collapse, or we will radically change the way we organise our societies. Kemp also detects economic inequality as a crucial factor in predicting societal collapse." https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/jan/19/davos-rich-global-threat-economic-inequality-wealth

🔄 In fairness to Laila Cunningham, it must be confusing having to simultaneously attack the Tories record while welcoming them into your party every other day...

Over the last few months, we have been compiling a tracker of all the defections from the Conservatives to Reform UK. Here's what the defections tell us about Nigel Farage's party. https://bestforbritain.substack.com/p/the-young-turqs-tracking-the-tory

The actual President of the United States...nothing more than a petulant child. "I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace"

A good time to repost this after another defection...

Utterly mad. Just when you thought Trump couldn't get any more delusional. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/19/europe/putin-board-of-peace-gaza-trump-intl

Lachlan Macrae, of Calais Food Collective said his group had found water containers stabbed, or with soap poured in to render the water undrinkable. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/19/theyre-emboldened-british-far-right-activists-step-up-harassment-of-asylum-seekers-in-northern-france

🇪🇺 Closer alignment with the EU will protect jobs, deepen strategic defensive capability, and help both parties stand up to the Trump White House... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/18/trump-greenland-britain-europe

🚨 "The EU needs Britain’s arms industry. And Britain needs the EU economic and security blanket." 📉 "By 2025 UK GDP per capita was 6–8 per cent lower than it would have been without Brexit." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-starmer-tariffs-greenland-uk-nato-eu-b2902930.html

🇬🇧🇪🇺 With the US once again threatening the UK with tariffs over the situation in Greenland it is an important time to remember that deeper alignment with the EU will offset the damage to both the UK the EU from such tariffs. https://www.bestforbritain.org/growth_report

🚨Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain: "There is a way for our Government to protect us and our neighbours in Europe - by extending the beneficial alignment being pursued for agri-food and electricity to all industrial and service sectors" https://www.bestforbritain.org/protect_brits_from_tariffs

⚠️ Starmer: "In today's world, geopolitics is not something that happens somewhere else." "It shapes the cost of energy, the price of food, the security of jobs, and the stability that families rely on to plan their lives. "When war drives up fuel prices, it's households who feel it first."

🚨BREAKING 🚨 PM: "That is why I said the use of tariffs against allies is completely wrong." "Nor is it helpful to frame efforts to strengthen Greenland's security as a justification for economic pressure." "Such measures hurt British workers, British businesses and the British economy."

🇬🇱 "For a while, Greenland has been a warning sign to the rest of the world as to what to expect with the climate crisis" ⚠️ "Unfortunately Greenland is now becoming a warning sign for what is happening in the world order." https://bit.ly/49r7CWp

A week is an awfully long time in politics...

🚨 An important but deeply troubling read. "This narrative shift has been stark. It has emboldened the far right to exploit people’s concerns" "I never thought I would see a hotel housing asylum seekers set on fire or hear from refugees who had been beaten up in the street" https://bit.ly/3LQ7KWj

🗣️ Nigel Farage on Robert Jenrick: "Don't forget. This is Robert Generic. This is Robert the Remainer." 😬 "This is Robert 'that don't stand particularly for anything at all'. Who suddenly appears to be on this Damascene conversion." A painfully awkward laugh from Jenrick.

🫠 "We're obviously impartial" Whoops-a-daisy! A Freudian slip?

⚠️ "Jenrick spent most of last year establishing how comfortable he was around the tropes of the far right" ❌ "Whether that’s immigrants posing a threat to women or Birmingham not having enough white people in it. He will fit in fine with Reform, as he would with the BNP." https://bit.ly/4jM3uUk

🐦‍⬛ Magpie-in-chief https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/maria-corina-machado-trump-peace-prize-ldrt2fjl9

Will the real true patriots please stand up... @bjennings90.bsky.social on Jenrick becoming the latest of the washed up Tory brigade in Reform UK.

🇵🇹Tomorrow Portugal goes to the polls. In an all too familiar tale, the far-right are once again leading the charge. The presidency wields some key powers, including in some circumstances to dissolve parliament, to call a snap parliamentary election, and to veto legislation. https://reut.rs/45Y5EdI

ICYMI: Over 100 Tories have now defected to Reform UK. ❓ Are there any from your council or constituency? Find out using our tracker... 🗳️ Vote for Reform UK and get the worst of the Tories. https://www.bestforbritain.org/tory_reformuk_defection_tracker

🇷🇺 "MEPs of UKIP opposed a resolution in 2008 condemning Putin’s invasion of Georgia. Farage also opposed a resolution in 2011 which criticised the conduct of elections in Russia that were widely regarded as rigged." Farage has always had a soft touch to Putin. https://econ.st/3Nm9yXA

🇬🇧 🇪🇺 For UK–EU trade, customs-related delays are one of the biggest hidden costs. 🚛 A delayed truck ties up equipment, drivers, and warehouse space. Over time, these inefficiencies affect pricing, service levels, and customer confidence. https://bit.ly/4sQpAJB

⚠️Farage in 2022: "It is a complete insult to voters for MPs to have the arrogance to think that it's them they voted for. You, the voters are just useful to them once every few years." ❓Jenrick in 2026: "I don't intend to call a by-election. I believe my constituents knew that I stood up for them."

The worst rendition of Love Actually in history? 🏹 Superb from @mortenmorland.bsky.social

🇭🇺 Nothing like an endorsement from Marine Le Pen or Alice Weidel to prove a point of your unsuitability to lead... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/16/rightwing-leaders-endorse-viktor-orban-video-election

"I don't think Nigel is the bloke that you want to have running your kids schools or running your local hospital or trust, your savings, your pension, your small business too." I couldn't agree more Robert...

Robert Jenrick just last year: "Nigel Farage can't even run a 5-a-side team, so he's not going to be able to run a country." "They're not a serious party... they are not the answer." The wonders of opportunism... 📸 Photo credit: PA Images/Jordan Pettitt

Good morning all!

The likes of Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch back ICE-style raids. What’s happening in the US shows why this should never become a reality in Britain. https://news.sky.com/story/minneapolis-clashes-in-us-city-after-second-ice-shooting-in-space-of-week-13494453

Our new Tory to Reform UK Defection Tracker is even more relevant after the chaos that was today... https://www.bestforbritain.org/tory_reformuk_defection_tracker

Brilliant questions. 🚨 "And finally, to Nigel, isn't it embarrassing that last year you said that Robert Jenrick is a fraud?"

Good question 🎯 "Mr. Farage, you say you're a new reforming force in politics. How can you claim that if - by your own definition - you're bringing in so many people that cause the mess you're trying to clear up?" Vote for Reform UK and get the very worst of the Tories...

This hasn’t aged well...

Anyone surprised? Robert Jenrick defects to Reform UK. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/15/robert-jenrick-defects-to-reform-uk-after-conservative-party-suspension

Brexit failed, and Farage was one of its key architects. "In a sane world, Farage would not be able to show his face in parliament or in a TV studio without being reminded of two things. His adult life was devoted to a cause that his compatriots now regard as a mistake." https://on.ft.com/4pEaXpC

Your reminder that the Tories want a £1.6bn ICE-style force on British streets. "The US I grew up in was built on the rule of law. Now my Indian-born dad is scared ICE will take him from his American care home." https://bit.ly/4k0OXV7