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Peter Walker

@peterwalker99.bsky.social

653 Following82.1k Followers

Guardian senior political correspondent. New book, Stress tested, out now: https://tinyurl.com/mhn82a7m
Email: [email protected] Secure email if needed: [email protected]

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@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 12, 2026, 11:06 AM

2. Ukrainian and Hong Kongers would only ever be in the UK on a temporary basis. Would be interesting to learn how and when Reform think Hong Kong might become safe for dissidents to return to.

Protect the status of Ukrainians and BNOs, ensuring they only return once safe to do so.
@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 12, 2026, 11:04 AM

Two things which stand out from the full Reform policy document on ending asylum. 1. It would be a hostile environment on steroids. There would be migration checks everywhere. This would, inevitably, be vast numbers of other people caught up in it.

Embedding immigration enforcement throughout the state
A Reform UK Government will direct every organ of the British state, both local and national,
to make it impossible to live in Britain illegally. This will involve several large policy shifts,
and many smaller changes. Overall, we expect it to produce a major increase in voluntary
departures.
Currently, Immigration Enforcement capacity is extremely weak. Just 12,791 illegal-working
visits were conducted in 2025.36 By contrast, there were 350,000 food hygiene visits,37 51,020
non-domestic fire safety audits,38 and 13,200 HSE workplace inspections.39 There were tens
of thousands more across trading standards, environmental health, housing and licensing
inspections.
Currently, these visits do not include an immigration check. But this could be easily incorporated.
Immigration checks do not require highly technical qualifications, and the officials that conduct
these visits should be trained to also conduct a basic migration check. This would increase
Immigration Enforcement capacity by a factor of at least 10, and up to 40.
These checks would feed data back to Deportation Command and the Migrant Identification
Centre, increasing their ability to identify illegal migrants, leading to a large increase in
voluntary and enforced departures. Revenue shared with local governments generated via
fines on those employing illegal workers will encourage local cooperation, which in turn will
generate more data for Deportation Command.
@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 12, 2026, 7:21 AM

It's another policy which feels most likely to appeal solely to the 20% or so Reform core vote, and also to harden other voters' resolve to vote however is needed to keep out a Reform government - as do many of their recent announcements.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 12, 2026, 7:12 AM

Confirmation that a Reform UK government would mean Ice-style mass roundups and deportations. In fact, in one way the Reform plan would go further than Trump, in retrospectively stripping rights from people granted asylum as long as five years ago and tracking them down for removal.

 Farage pledges to shut down asylum system

Reform to declare a ‘national security emergency’ and deport 90,000 migrants immediately Nigel Farage has pledged to impose a five-year ban on migrants being granted asylum and to deport 90,000 applicants immediately.

In his most stringent border policy to date, the Reform UK leader will declare a “national security emergency” and announce a suspension of all asylum tribunals, legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes.

The policy, which Mr Farage will announce on Monday, would mean tens of thousands of applicants would be immediately deported and any refugees granted asylum in the last five years would have their cases reviewed by the Home Office.
@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 9, 2026, 2:43 PM

A "printing error", you say?

ory spokesman gets in touch:

“Obviously our slight printing error is much, much worse than the £500 billion that net zero is costing the economy.

"Britain going bankrupt is a trifling matter, as long as we all have heat pumps and EV chargers."
Quote
Sebastian Kraemer
@sebkraemer
·
2h
Tories overstate net zero cost by nearly £500bn in apparent spreadsheet error
https://theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/09/tories-overstate-net-zero-cost-500bn-spreadsheet-error?CMP=share_btn_url
@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 9, 2026, 2:43 PM

A "slight printing error", apparently.

ory spokesman gets in touch:

“Obviously our slight printing error is much, much worse than the £500 billion that net zero is costing the economy.

"Britain going bankrupt is a trifling matter, as long as we all have heat pumps and EV chargers."
Quote
Sebastian Kraemer
@sebkraemer
·
2h
Tories overstate net zero cost by nearly £500bn in apparent spreadsheet error
https://theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/09/tories-overstate-net-zero-cost-500bn-spreadsheet-error?CMP=share_btn_url
@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 9, 2026, 6:08 AM

The document said a 2020 Climate Change Committee report said net zero would cost £957bn, rather than £487bn. CCC spokesperson: “We don’t recognise this number. The committee has previously offered to meet with Ms Badenoch and talk her through our advice. That offer is, of course, still open.”

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 9, 2026, 6:07 AM

NEW: Kemi Badenoch’s flagship party conference policy document, The Right Way, overestimated the cost of net zero by nearly £500bn, seemingly after someone accidentally double-counted figures on a spreadsheet.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.comTories overstate net zero cost by nearly £500bn in apparent spreadsheet errorExclusive: Badenoch’s flagship conference policy document cites £957bn estimate, twice the total in climate advisers’ data
98
@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 8:32 PM

Very good piece by @guardianheather.bsky.social on why Kemi Badenoch’s idea of exempting family homes from inheritance tax makes no economic sense for a variety of reasons.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:44 AM

This is, as it happens, something which will be appealing in the Home Counties seats the Tories lost to the Lib Dems in 2024. But it's hard to say how much this is deliberate strategy, and how much because Badenoch just hates inheritance tax.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:43 AM

Yes, inheritance tax is curiously unpopular. But this is essentially a giveaway for someone in, say, Twickenham (average property price c.£750,000) and not, say, Darlington (about £180,000).

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:41 AM

The speech's big policy announcement is an end to inheritance tax being levied on primary residences. It is greeted with whoops in the hall – but it's another tax cut focused on the wealthy, and in this case on London and the south-east.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:36 AM

20 mins on, this is now an even longer and more rambling speech, still with only one notable section.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:17 AM

So far, this is a long and quite rambling pudding of a conference speech, with one, brief good section, where she attacked Reform for indulging racism.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:15 AM

It's a legal letter typed all in capitals.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 11:10 AM

A much better part of the speech - the best section yet – sees Badenoch give a concerted kicking to the idea, as indulged by some Reform MPs, that people from minority ethnic backgrounds can't be English. Certainly doesn't sound like a pact between the parties is imminent.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:47 AM

If anyone thinks this is an unfair summation, read the Telegraph obituary, which is - in its own quiet way – utterly brutal.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:45 AM

Long tribute from Kemi Badenoch in her conference speech to Jeffrey Archer, complete with round of applause. The world is a "less colourful" place without him, she says, which is one way to describe a serial fraudster, fantasist and liar who wrecked several lives in the process.

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 8:51 AM

“I miss him like I would miss an abscess in my molar.” Lovely @lexytopping.bsky.social piece about how Robert Jenrick was the man everyone at Tory conference seemed to enjoy hating.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

@peterwalker99.bsky.socialOct 6, 2026, 12:15 PM

Win in the sense of winning more seats than he predecessors. Doubling the number of seats in 2016 is an achievement.

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