Polls open in Clacton, as research shows Farage has spent more than £10,000 in byelection – UK politics live

The Reform UK leader resigned as the MP for Clacton at the start of July and forced a byelection Economic growth slowed in the second quarter of the year, as the disruption unleashed by the Iran war began to take its toll, official figures show. Heather Stewart has the story. Good morning. In the media, August is known as the “silly season”. With parliament not sitting and many people on holiday, there is less proper news than normal, which means the nonsense stories get (even) more attention than usual.

We are almost slap bang in the middle of the month, and today we’ve got a silly season classic in Clacton, where Nigel Farage, the Reform UK candidate, is fighting a byelection in which his main opponent is a joke candidate who dresses up as a dustbin. Continue reading...