Martin Loftus

@CllrPaulwells @TeresaWarn1 None deserved 😂

@1959lofty @TeresaWarn1 I struggle to have sympathy.

Anyone would think Tim does not understand the party he has joined.

Energy bills are rising again. Labour will blame Iran, but you’re paying more because of Ed Miliband’s net zero taxes and refusal to drill our own oil and gas. Our Cheap Power Plan would cut bills by 20% by scrapping the green taxes, scrapping VAT and drilling in the North Sea.

I think @Arron_banks you might need to look up the difference between deficit and debt. Which rather speaks to my point...

@Helen_Whately @TinalSeymour @LiamHalligan One of the aims of welfare should be to return those capable of working to work. If life on benefits is too comfortable the incentive to work is lost and that is a recipe for disaster.

If we don’t control welfare, it won’t be there for the people who really need it. We have to bring down the benefits bill and get people working. That’s the only way. Great to chat to @LiamHalligan about welfare reform (and other things) ⬇️

🚨 Caller George in Dundee brands Nicola Sturgeon "devious and a liar". "I believe Nicola that she saw nothing... the reason being she was the only woman in Scotland that couldn't see Isla Bryson had a penis." @JuliaHB1

REFORM - IT NEVER ADDS UP. Reform’s latest gimmick has been ripped apart by tax experts and economists. Reform claim that ‘tax-free overtime’ would cost £5bn. It’s actually been costed at almost triple that - because it would be open to abuse on an industrial scale👇🏻 🧵 (1/9)

This is the chef's kiss of Reform policy ideas. The perfect example of public appeal vs retarded policy. Which is really what Reform is all about. There are so many ways this would will be abused or backfire so I will list them all. 1. I said last night, company directors/owners will suddenly be earning 60 hours weeks every week (but not really). 2. Employee collusion - Business convert salaried roles to lower rate hourly pay, but pays fake "overtime". The employee gets more take home pay but the employer's payroll costs reduce. 3. Diversion - Many jobs don't pay overtime. Teachers for example. If they did, we'd be bankrupt. Why go into teaching on £35k a year when you could earn that on less hours with overtime elsewhere? Efficiently run company don't have overtime opportunities at all, making them less attractive than those that do. 4. Unfair advantage - Let's say your a small landscaping company employing 5 guys by gaming the system above. You have an unfair advantage over the bigger company playing by the rules. Jobs will be lost as smaller, less scrupulous companies gain advantage over those that play by the rules. 5. It shrinks the job market - Offering overtime becomes a recruitment advantage. In which case employing 5 people to do a job with overtime is better than employing 6 with none. 6. It can shrink productivity - It's now in your interest to stretch your workload over more hours or game the system. Which means more hours worked for the same production. 7. If you think the answer is that there will be increased compliance enforcement and auditing from an already overwhelmed HMRC when Reform want to cut the civil service I'm afraid you're mistaken.

@WiltsAnnabelle @PolitlcsUK @Telegraph Donations?

@PolitlcsUK @Telegraph Funded via….?

🚨 NEW: Nigel Farage has pledged to scrap income tax on overtime above 40 hours a week for anyone earning under £75,000 [@Telegraph]

Excl - Alan Milburn reveals his report finds govt spends TWENTY FIVE times as much on benefits for young people as helping them find work - tells us it’s ‘shameful’

Nigel Farage has cancelled both of the Press events that were scheduled for today in Makerfield. He is refusing to have any interaction with the media, in particular any TV.

I have been sickened all day by the news of three boys who lured two schoolgirls, raped them, and filmed it on their phones while they laughed and egged each other on. When they finally stood before a judge this week, they were handed “rehabilitation orders” and walked out without serving a single day behind bars. Not in prison, not in custody or a young offender institution. The judge said, “None of you need to go to prison”. What message does that send to rapists? The crime could hardly be graver, yet the punishment was no punishment at all. It’s the collapse of consequences and the rot runs right through the justice system. And this is only going to get worse because Labour are choosing to go soft on criminals: ❌ They have abolished short prison sentences. ❌ They have let tens of thousands of criminals out early. ❌ And now they want to raise the age of criminal responsibility, so that even MORE young offenders escape any consequence at all. My position is common sense👇 PRISON WORKS. ✅It punishes those who do wrong, it keeps dangerous people off our streets and away from our children. ✅It tells every victim that the law is on their side. A country that forgets this is a country where schoolgirls are raped and filmed for sport, and the boys who did it get to go home. Conservatives stand against it and our policies on sentencing and prison are the ones that will deliver a stronger country.

@alexburghart Liam Byrne had better get his pen ready 😉

This only ends one way

The Council says it **can't** find the money (a tiny amount) to protect the site of the nationally significant Minerva Shrine in #Chester. We'll do it differently. If we take control of the Council next May, we will immediately introduce a fund so this doesn't happen again.

Even more significant, I've now learned that you could only be a registered overseas voter for 15 years (I thought you could renew) Harborne started donating in 2001. So either his early donations were illegal, or more likely, his later ones (unless he re-registered, but that seems unlikely.

@SlyForTheRight Farage struggles to deal with scrutiny which is why I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he stands down before the next GE as the level of scrutiny of a PM would be far too much for him.

🚨 FARAGE PRESSED ON QUESTIONS IN MAKERFIELD 🚨 A Channel 4 reporter approached Nigel Farage in Makerfield asking about the £5M scandal and whether this would cost Reform UK votes in the by-election. He did not respond and left the scene quickly, with his security team shoving her to the side. No answers given. No clarification offered. Voters deserve transparency and accountability.

And so it begins. The rinsing of St.Helens residents by £52k a pop, for political assistants due to their newly appointed councillors having zero experience. Reform are exactly who we said they are, our taxes are now paying for a bunch of con men who can’t do the job!

@sandieshoes @Startinglifeag1 Reducing the price of admission to theme parks assumes families had the cash to go in the first place. Rather than these gimmicks, reducing the cost of energy and ever increasing food inflation would have been far better.

Rachel Reeves is all over the media spinning her new ‘Great British Summer Savings’ scheme. Free bus rides! Slashing VAT! Cut-price cinema tickets! It sounds lovely on paper, but let's have a basic reality check - nothing this government does is ever ‘free’ The £100 million being used to bankroll ‘free’ bus travel for August doesn't grow on a tree in Downing Street. It’s funded by us.🤨

That’s exactly why the old guard got voted out - they stopped listening. But political parties have to evolve, and Badenoch has completely cleared out the old net-zero obsession. She has already made it clear that the few remaining MPs from the old guard will not even be allowed to stand at the next election unless they fully commit to her new vision for the party . It's easy for Reform to shout from the sidelines when they don't have to actually pass legislation. Badenoch is offering a concrete, realistic plan to rip up the red tape that previous leaders were too afraid to touch. If you like her policies, she’s the only one with a realistic path to actually delivering them in government.

@LoftusSteve The same should be considered in other local elections. Cllrs have significant powers over maintenance of roads & pathways, over SEND provision, local planning and much much more. To have an administration with little or no experience of local government could be disastrous.

If you vote for a Reform Government you will get this but 100x worse. You will get 100+ people in Government that have absolutely no idea how anything works. Some of you may think that's a good idea, but it's not.