Reform

An alternative approach is to ensure that everyone who is eligible, based on their needs, should get state-funded personal care that is free at the point of use.

This would be provided free regardless of an individual’s means and whether it was received by an elderly person in their own house or a residential care home.

Scotland has implemented such a system.

However, it’s important to note that personal care takes in things like helping frail elderly people wash and dress and go to the toilet.

But it does not include accommodation, food and everyday living costs which are subject to means testing.

The Health Foundation think tank estimates that implementing a Scottish-style system in England would cost £7.5bn a year by 2036.

Like Scotland, Japan and Germany have systems which base entitlement to personal social care mainly on people’s care needs rather than their ability to pay.

Japan and Germany though have a mandatory long-term care insurance system which is funded through contributions from workers and employers.

Both countries also do not usually cover the full cost of personal care so individuals are responsible for some of the expenses.

Abuja, Nigeria – Africa’s long-running campaign for permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council is back in focus at the 81st UN General Assembly, with leaders renewing calls to reform a body whose five permanent members have remained unchanged since 1945.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used his final address to the General Assembly on Tuesday to renew his call for Security Council reform, saying it must become more representative and better reflect today’s geopolitical realities.

Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima, delivering President Bola Tinubu’s national statement, called for at least two permanent seats for Africa, with veto powers for as long as the veto exists, as well as five non-permanent seats for the continent.

Ghana’s President John Mahama made a similar appeal: “Security Council reform is not a favour to Africa; it is an imperative for the legitimacy, credibility and survival of the United Nations”.

The renewed calls highlight the scale of Africa’s demand. But translating them into an agreement that changes the Council’s structure remains a far more difficult task.

A reform process that has stalled

The Security Council has 15 members: five permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, and 10 members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

The five permanent members hold veto power, allowing any one of them to block a substantive Council resolution.

No African country has a permanent seat.

Yet Africa remains central to much of the Council’s work. In 2025, the Council adopted 44 resolutions, including 24 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which covers measures such as sanctions and authorisations for the use of force.

Eighteen of those 24 Chapter VII resolutions concerned Africa.

For Professor Ibrahim Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister and former Nigerian permanent representative to the UN, the issue is not simply one of geography.

“The status quo is not really interested in change,” he told Al Jazeera. “In the appointment of the Secretary-General, you cannot be a candidate unless each of the five permanent members agrees. Therefore, we have the privilege of the unelected P5, which they don’t want to relinquish.”

Gambari said Africa’s absence was difficult to justify given the continent’s size and the amount of Security Council business involving it.

“In the case of Africa, we have a whole continent that has the largest single bloc, yet has no permanent seat on the Security Council,” he said.

The General Assembly launched the intergovernmental negotiations process on Security Council reform in 2008. The talks cover the Council’s size, membership categories, regional representation and the veto, and have continued through successive General Assembly sessions without agreement on the core questions.

Changing the Council’s permanent membership would also require an amendment to the UN Charter. Under Article 108, that requires approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of UN members, including all five permanent members.

That gives the existing permanent members a formal role in any change to the system that grants them permanent membership and veto power.

Nigeria wants a permanent seat

Which African countries would eventually occupy any new permanent seats is another unresolved issue.

Nigeria has consistently presented itself as a country prepared to take on such a role. At this year’s General Assembly, the country renewed its call for at least two permanent African seats with all the rights and responsibilities of permanent membership, including the veto for as long as it exists.

Dr Fola Aina, a political scientist and international security expert at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, told Al Jazeera the issue also carried particular significance for Nigeria.

“Securing this position would essentially elevate Nigeria’s global diplomatic influence, give Africa a continuous voice in international security decisions and grant Nigeria the power to consolidate its position as a regional hegemon and middle power,” he said.

“The timing of Nigeria’s push is particularly strategic given the current age of strategic competition.”

Nigeria is not alone in seeking a permanent role. Egypt and South Africa have also pursued permanent representation, while other African states have expressed interest.

The African Union, however, has not selected specific countries to occupy the proposed seats. Its common position calls for at least two permanent African seats and five non-permanent seats on an expanded Council, with the AU determining which countries should represent the continent.

The veto question

Even if agreement could be reached on who should represent Africa, another obstacle would remain: the veto.

The African Union’s Ezulwini Consensus calls for any permanent African members to have the same rights and privileges as the existing permanent members, including veto power for as long as the veto remains part of the Council’s system.

African governments have therefore argued that adding permanent seats without equivalent powers would not fully address the imbalance they are seeking to correct.

That leaves two separate questions: whether the Council should expand and what powers any new permanent members would receive.

A question of influence

Gambari argues that Africa’s absence also affects the Council’s day-to-day work.

“All these peacekeeping missions in Africa are based on the mandate of the Security Council,” he said.

“The P5 assign themselves the role of penholders, which hardly allows elected non-permanent African countries to initiate draft resolutions affecting their region.”

He said the imbalance was also visible in the way Security Council missions operate on the continent.

“Even Security Council missions to Africa are not led by Africans nowadays. How can the parties in dispute have confidence in such a team?” he said.

“Even for the Security Council’s continued relevance, it has to be reformed so that Africa can have representatives in the permanent seat category.”

For Favour Aniezi, a Nigerian creative and youth advocate, the issue is also about who has influence over decisions affecting the continent.

“Beyond representation, Africa’s absence from the permanent seats of the UN Security Council is a question of whose voice gets to shape decisions that affect the continent,” she told Al Jazeera.

“As a young Nigerian woman, I think it matters that Africa is not only present when global institutions discuss our challenges but has a meaningful role in deciding how those challenges are addressed. We should not simply be represented at the table, Africa should have a voice with the weight to influence what happens at it.”

For now, the core questions remain unresolved: how many new permanent members there should be, which African countries would take the seats, whether they would receive veto power and whether the existing permanent members would accept the changes.

“As long as they keep sticking to this anachronistic formula, reforms will be hard to attain,” Gambari said.

Harborne has already donated millions to Reform and Farage, who is currently under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over whether he should have declared a £5m cash gift from Harborne ahead of the 2024 election.

Farage has argued that he was under no obligation to register the “purely private” gift, as it was unrelated to his parliamentary or political activities.

The party is also facing scrutiny over its finances after a broadcast by Channel 4 News last week showed two senior Reform aides apparently suggesting a way around electoral law to secure foreign party donations.

The Metropolitan Police has said it is investigating, while the party denies any wrongdoing.

The force is also looking into donations given to the party by Fiona Cottrell, mother of longstanding Farage ally George Cottrell, as well as a company controlled by its deputy leader Richard Tice.

Harborne wrote on Saturday that he had “already accumulated enough wealth for the rest of my life”, while Reform was a “start-up party” that lacked “the benefit of hundreds of years of patronage”.

“A start-up party needs more money than can be provided by membership fees alone, to build and sustain itself and be ready for government,” he said.

Harborne and Delo’s donations mark the largest sums received by a UK political party since they had to begin declaring them in 2001.

Delo, who also announced his donation in a Telegraph op-ed, said he was giving the money away because he wanted a “fair fight and a level playing field”. He said in April he was moving back to Britain from Hong Kong.

Addressing the recent scrutiny of Reform’s finances, he said: “My conclusion from Reform’s recent troubles is that they should spend less time trying to raise funds to compete on equal terms and more time preparing for government.”

Last year, he was given an unconditional pardon by US President Donald Trump over a breach of anti-money laundering laws at his crypto trading platform, BitMEX, to which he had pleaded guilty in 2022.

There are currently no restrictions on the amount of money UK-based donors can give to political parties.

However, the Labour government has introduced a £100,000 cap on donations from British citizens living overseas, and plans to introduce a similar one for those who have recently returned to the UK.

There were nine donations of £1m or more to political parties in 2025. The largest was £9m given to Reform UK by Harborne.

Labour had five donations of £1m or more – totalling nearly £10m – and the Conservatives had three of £1m each.

Labour said Reform and Farage still had “serious questions” to answer about their finances.

Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said Reform were “drowning” in “sleaze and scandal”,.

She added: “It’s time Farage and Reform came clean with the public, fully co-operated with the ongoing police investigations and prove they’re not just in it for themselves.”

Rachel Millward, deputy leader of the Green Party, told BBC News it wanted a cap on donations from individuals of £500,000.

She said the donations to Reform were “absolutely staggering amounts”, adding: “What I am very frustrated about is the influence of extreme wealth and the super rich. What I want to see is people in politics representing the needs of their communities and ordinary people.”

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart called for the government to introduce emergency legislation to cap donations.

She said: “These are eye-watering amounts of money. This is real emergency for our democracy. It presents a very clear and present threat.”

Duncan Hames, Director of Policy and Programmes at campaigning charity Transparency International UK, said: “This is a watershed moment, with two billionaires pledging £72m to one political party in less than 48 hours.

“This situation is now completely out of control, and makes an irrefutable case for government to bring forward an annual cap on political donations, and fast.”

LONDON: British police said Wednesday that they have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that anti-immigration party Reform UK broke rules barring foreign donations.

Last week, Channel 4 broadcast an undercover investigation in which two senior Reform UK officials appeared to discuss ways money from an American financier could be channeled through his U.K.-based son to get around the rules.

U.K. electoral law says parties can only accept donations from British voters or U.K.-registered businesses.

The Metropolitan Police said that after the broadcast, the force “received a number of reports relating to donations and polling involving a political party.

“Detectives have assessed the information provided and determined that there are potential offenses requiring investigation,” it said.

Reform UK said it “denies any wrongdoing and will fully cooperate with the investigation.”

The party suspended Dan Jukes, a longtime adviser to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and party policy chief James Orr, after the documentary was aired. But Farage denied that there was any breach of electoral law.

The program showed two men purporting to be a U.S. financier and his U.K.-based son discussing with Jukes, in the presence of Farage, how 500,000 pounds ($675,000) could be donated to the party through the son. The “son” was actually a reporter from investigative group Verbatim, and the “father” an actor.

In separate footage, Orr, a Cambridge University theologian, appeared to discuss getting the U.S. donor to pay for opinion polls commissioned by Reform UK.

In a speech to the party’s conference on Friday, Farage insisted Reform UK hadn’t broken any rules or accepted “dodgy money.” He accused “foreign-funded hard-left activists” of being behind what he called “entrapment.” Verbatim is an offshoot of the Center for Climate Reporting, a nonprofit investigative group that says it’s funded by grants and donations.

Reform UK was facing questions about its funding even before the broadcast. Farage is being investigated by Parliament’s standards watchdog over an undeclared 5 million-pound ($6.7 million) gift he received from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire in 2024.

Police said Wednesday that the potential offenses raised by the TV program “are similar in nature to matters already under investigation by the Met’s Special Enquiry Team relating to donations made to the same political party. As a result, these matters will form part of that ongoing investigation.”

Founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party to push for a hard break from the European Union, Reform UK has grown rapidly in membership and support since changing its name in 2021 and honing its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message.

Though it holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, it has often led opinion polls and was the big winner in local elections in May, a result that helped spur a panicky Labour Party to replace then-leader Keir Starmer with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

In July, Farage quit his House of Commons seat in protest of the parliamentary standards investigation, saying he would run for reelection and let voters be his judge. He easily won the August election, which was dismissed as a stunt by his critics and boycotted by all the other main parties.

NEW YORK: The UN closed the books on the 80th session of the General Assembly on Tuesday and opened the 81st in a single day of ceremony, amid warnings from its outgoing and incoming leadership that the world body must reform itself or face erosion.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was addressing the assembly for what he noted was his final time as UN chief, painted a bleak picture of the present moment in the world: wars that carry a risk of nuclear escalation; worsening climate chaos; advances in artificial intelligence without adequate governance; and human suffering that is intensifying even as aid funding has been slashed.

“Geopolitical mistrust and suspicion continue to block the effective solutions we need — and erode people’s faith in the possibilities of global cooperation,” Guterres said.

Still, he told delegates, he has “enormous hope,” pointing in particular to the UN’s Pact for the Future and the UN80 reform initiative as “a blueprint for action, solutions and bold reforms.”

The UN80 Initiative is a reform drive launched by Guterres in March last year, the organization’s 80th anniversary. It aims to overhaul overlapping structures and outdated mandates that officials say have rendered the UN slow and bureaucratic.

The departing president of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, described the initiative as unfinished business that she and her successor, Khalilur Rahman, were carrying into the 81st session.

Baerbock described the 80th session one that had found itself at “a crossroads” over whether a handful of states could effectively impose a veto on the General Assembly’s consensus. Member states, she said, had answered by refusing “to allow compromise to become compromising,” by pushing through 317 resolutions, holding 116 plenary meetings and opening a new chapter on AI governance, despite the challenges and only a few processes concluding through consensus.

“Not a single day, not a single country would be better off without the United Nations,” Baerbock told the assembly as she rejected the argument that the body had become irrelevant.

She credited Guterres with forcing the question of reform onto the agenda through the UN80 Initiative, including cuts to mandates and a merger of the UN System Staff College, which provides personnel and partners with the knowledge, skills and tools to act collaboratively and effectively, with UN Institute for Training and Research.

“If we are not capable of freeing this organization from overlapping structures and mandates, as well as a heavy bureaucratic mentality, it will erode over time,” she warned, describing the upcoming selection of a new secretary-general, a process she formally handed over to her successor, as “the credibility test of this institution for this decade.”

Rahman was then sworn in. He is from Bangladesh and told reporters he intended to run an open, media-engaged presidency built around the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation.”

During his formal address to the assembly he lamented that the UN “has often fallen short of the expectations placed upon us,” citing in particular a “widening trust deficit” that member states must work to close through the delivery of results, not rhetoric.

“Trust cannot simply be requested, it must be earned,” he added.

Rahman outlined six priorities for the coming 12-month session: peacekeeping-driven conflict prevention; acceleration of the Sustainable Development Goals, with just four years left to achieve them and only 36 percent of targets on track; climate adaptation ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP31, in November, and a high-level meeting this month on rising sea levels; human rights, including the anniversaries of the Durban Declaration to combat racism and other forms of discrimination and intolerance, and the Declaration on the Right to Development, an issue he described as personal, given that Bangladesh hosts more than a million displaced Rohingya; inclusive governance of AI; and institutional solvency, as he appealed to member states to pay their assessed dues “in full, on time and without conditions.”

Rahman also inherits oversight of the selection process for the next secretary-general, under Article 97 of the UN Charter, to replace Guterres, whose term ends on Dec. 31. He pledged to run it “fairly, inclusively and transparently,” alongside the Security Council.

He said he had built his office to reflect the opening words of the Charter — “We the peoples,” not “We the states” — and noted that women make up 60 percent of his cabinet.

Guterres closed the day with a separate, more somber commemoration: a wreath-laying ceremony for Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary-general of the UN, who was killed in the course of his duties, along with 15 others, in plane crash on Sept. 18, 1961.

Citing a new report from investigator Mohammed Chande Othman, Guterres renewed his appeal for undisclosed records relating to the crash in what is now Zambia, and said he would soon send recommendations to the General Assembly.

He also noted that UN personnel had been killed “in record numbers” over the past three years and added: “Their sacrifice reminds us of all the women and men who have lost their lives while serving the United Nations.”

The anti-immigration Reform UK party said two of its senior officials had stepped down on Friday, following allegations that they were secretly filmed appearing to discuss ways to circumvent UK electoral laws on foreign donations.

The far-right party, whose popularity has soared in the past two years, is already embroiled in several other funding scandals involving its leader Nigel Farage. On Friday, it announced an internal probe into the latest case, which was brought to light by a Channel 4 investigation.

Reform is currently holding its annual party conference in Birmingham, central England.

Here’s what we know about the foreign funding claims and how they could affect British politics.

What did the Channel 4 investigation show?

Channel 4, an independent broadcaster, aired footage of senior Reform officials Dan Jukes and James Orr meeting with undercover reporters who were posing as prospective Reform backers from the United States.

In one instance during the programme, which was broadcast on Thursday night, footage was shown of Jukes appearing to talk about a proposal for Reform to receive a 500,000-pound ($675,000) donation from one of the men, who was presenting himself as an American financier, through his son, who he said lives in the UK.

The “son” was actually another journalist from investigative group Verbatim, which recorded the exchange.

In separate footage, Orr appeared to discuss a plan for the US donor to fund opinion polls for Reform UK rather than donating the money directly.

He told the undercover reporter that “we just don’t have British-resident donors, British entities, that would support us”.

During the investigation, Verbatim reported that Reform officials arranged for the US donor to pay more than 30,000 pounds ($40,500) to fund three opinion polls, without disclosing the source of the funds.

Channel 4 said it had verified the findings from Verbatim, an offshoot of the Centre for Climate Reporting.

What are the UK’s rules against foreign funding for political parties?

Under UK electoral law, political parties may only accept donations from British voters or UK-registered businesses. Donations from individuals or organisations based overseas are strictly forbidden.

In a statement on Friday, a UK Electoral Commission spokesperson said political parties must report all “permissible donations” they accept exceeding 11,180 pounds ($15,120) and all “impermissible donations” exceeding 500 pounds ($676).

“Parties are responsible for ensuring their internal processes and controls are fit for purpose,” the spokesperson said. “Information about any potential attempt to evade the controls on donations is for the police to consider.”

How has Reform responded to the allegations?

Following the programme’s broadcast, Reform initially issued a statement denying any wrongdoing and claiming the allegations were a hoax.

In a later statement, however, the party said it was conducting an internal probe and that Orr and Jukes had stepped down pending its outcome.

Orr, the party’s policy head, said he had agreed to step down temporarily and would “cooperate fully” with the investigation.

Jukes, Farage’s long-term aide, denied any wrongdoing but said he had “stepped back from politics in order to clear my name”.

Farage accused the undercover journalists of “entrapment” and told broadcaster LBC, “they got a couple of our contractors to say things that perhaps should not have been said”.

“And as a result of that, you know, they have been removed this morning. And yeah, you know, I’m not happy about it,” Farage said.

“The party has broken no laws, the party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that whatsoever,” Farage insisted.

Will Reform face legal consequences?

It remains to be seen. The UK’s ruling Labour Party has written to the police asking them to investigate possible criminal offences.

The Metropolitan Police said it was aware of the allegations in the broadcast and would assess any information provided to them.

This does not amount to the formal launch of an investigation.

Why does this matter?

The latest donation scandal is another blow for Reform, which has seen its place as the UK’s most popular party slip in opinion polls in recent months.

Last year, polling by YouGov suggested that Reform had become the most popular political party, and would likely win a UK general election if one had been held then. At that point, Labour was trailing far behind in the polls – projected to win just 27.3 percent of parliamentary seats, compared with Reform’s 41.7 percent. The former ruling Conservative Party stood at just 7 percent.

But a poll this week by YouGov showed Reform now tied with the UK’s left-wing Labour Party with 23 percent support each. The Conservatives have caught up with 20 percent.

This is not the first funding scandal Reform has grappled with, either. In July, Farage dramatically stepped down as Member of Parliament for Clacton amid allegations, also revealed in the UK media, that convicted fraudster George Cottrell, 32, recruited and paid three staff to work on Farage’s social media before the 2024 general election and has continued to allow Farage to use a five-storey Georgian townhouse he rented near Buckingham Palace.

Farage ultimately re-won his seat in Clacton at a by-election but still faces the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry into undeclared funding of 5 million pounds ($6.7m) from Thailand-based billionaire and crypto investor Christopher Harborne, who paid for Farage’s personal security before he announced his candidacy in the 2024 general election. So far, Farage denies all wrongdoing.

This week, Farage told the BBC that the parliamentary inquiry was unfair. He said there was a “wilful attempt, and it’s gone on now for months, to say that everything to do with Reform, that every individual involved with Reform is somehow a crook”.

This is evidence of “the establishment in a very coordinated way fighting back”, he claimed.

However, Justin Fisher, professor of political science at Brunel University of London, told Al Jazeera Reform’s latest donation scandal would further hurt Farage’s standing both within and outside his party, and could cost Reform votes in the next elections.

“If this was an isolated incident, then Reform would probably be able to brush it off,” said Fisher. “But it comes on top of serious questions about a donation to Nigel Farage, and a donation to Reform which allegedly had overseas links. This all contributes to a narrative which Reform is having great difficulty avoiding.”

Resignations come after documentary alleges party arranged for overseas company to fund polling.

Two officials from Britain’s Reform UK have stepped down amid the latest in a series of funding scandals for the far-right political party.

Party officials James Orr and Dan Jukes announced on Friday that they would step down, following the broadcast of an investigative television documentary. The party, which has seen support slide amid numerous reports regarding infringement of party donation rules, said it would launch a probe into the latest allegations.

The undercover investigation by Channel 4 News alleged that the Reform UK officials breached political donation rules by arranging to have polling paid for by an overseas company.

In the documentary, Jukes is seen suggesting to an undercover reporter how to evade electoral law to make donations to the party from abroad.

Sitting at the table, Party leader Nigel Farage says all is “above board” as the reporter tells him that he has been in talks with Orr for some time.

The resignation of long-term Farage aide Jukes, and Reform’s head of policy Orr, comes on the eve of the party’s annual conference.

Farage – who has been dogged by questions over money received on a personal basis as well as by Reform in recent months – insisted on Friday in a radio interview that the party has “broken no laws”.

However, he added, “entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve [launched the party investigation]”.

A spokesperson for London’s Met Police said it was “aware of media reporting … involving political party donations and an alleged breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 relating to polling”.

The ruling Labour Party, as well as the opposition Liberal Democrats, said they had reported Reform to the police following the revelations, which the anti-immigration party initially dismissed as a “hoax”.

Farage sought to hit back by accusing other political parties of “selling peerages”.

“In the world of political funding, all sorts of things have been done over decades that are wrong,” he asserted. “We as a party have done nothing wrong. A couple of our contractors have said things that shouldn’t have been said.”

Amid the series of funding scandals to have hit Reform in recent months, the disclosure of an undeclared personal gift of 5 million pounds ($6.7m) to Farage by cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne has done the most damage so far.

Both criminal and parliamentary investigations into Harborne’s donations – he has also given Reform more than 25 million pounds ($33.6m) – are continuing.

Scrutiny is focused on Tether, Harborne’s cryptocurrency, which has been widely linked to drug cartels, fraud and human trafficking.

Amid the storm, Farage made international headlines by resigning his parliamentary seat to prompt a by-election, in which he cast himself as taking on “the establishment”.

With other major parties dismissing the move as a stunt and refusing to put up candidates, the populist leader won comfortably, although the nearly 10,000 votes achieved by his closest rival, “intergalactic space warrior” Count Binface, illustrated significant opposition.