Helena Horton is a Guardian reporter.

Count Binface, the leading opponent to Nigel Farage in the upcoming Clacton by-election, has seen thousands of donations pour in for his campaign.

The bin-hatted candidate, a comedian named Jon Harvey, has stood in many elections before including against Andy Burnham, Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson. He does not usually campaign in the election but turns up to the count to make a spectacle.

This time, it looks as if he will be campaigning in earnest and has launched a Ko-Fi donation page, asking people to donate £3 at a time.

On it, he wrote:

Unlike some politicians with their £5million war chests (and ITV detective series back-catalogues), I’m an entirely independent space warrior. I donated all profits from my London mayor campaign to charity, but I’d love to be able to keep fighting the intergalactic fight. Any amount of support is hugely appreciated. I’ve got lots of plans for future endeavours. Watch this hyperspace!

He launched the page yesterday evening and has received 5,122 donations, so has raised over £15,000 so far. Not quite £5m, but maybe enough to print out some leaflets.

Reform UK has said that it will move the writ for the Clacton byelection tomorrow. A spokesperson said:

Reform UK will move the writ tomorrow morning, and we are proposing a byelection on 6 August.

Andy Burnham has suggested that he won’t have succeeded as PM unless he has been able to make “a clear majority” of people feel optimistic about the future.

In a video on social media, giving his response to a question about his definition of success, he says:

My definition of success is a clear majority of the people, more than right now, feeling hopeful about the future.

I think we’ve lived through a decade where life has just got that bit harder year on year, and consequently people feel a little pessimistic about their prospects.

So if we could change that, and make more people feel hopeful about the future, that would be a really great thing.

In time, Burnham may regard this as a hostage to fortune. Different pollsters try to measure whether people feel hopeful about the future in different ways, using slightly different questions. But they all produce broadly similar results. While it might be quite easy to get “more [people] than right now” feeling optimistic, Britain is a long way off “a clear majority” of people feeling positive about the future.

Ipsos is one company that tracks this. Its figures show there have only been two brief periods this decade (just after the Brexit deadlock ended, and as the worst of the Covid crisis was ending) when a plurality of people did think the country was heading in the right direction.

Nigel Farage is no longer MP for Clacton. His resignation has been accepted, meaning the process of organising the byelection (in which he will stand) can begin.

The Treasury has announced this in the traditional way (which makes the news unintelligble to most people – see 10.54am). In a press release headlined “Manor of Northstead”, it says:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed Nigel Paul Farage to be Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

Sadly, Farage does not get to live in the Manor of Northstead, which does not exist. He will have to make do with the five other houses that he and his partner own.

Donald Trump did not raise concerns over UK defence spending with Keir Starmer at the Nato summit, the prime minister has said. The Press Association reports:

There was “great unity” at the gathering in Turkey, Starmer insisted, despite the US president’s ongoing criticism of the alliance.

Ahead of Wednesday’s session of the North Atlantic Council, Trump said he would “relate my problems” at the meeting, again insisting that Greenland – which belongs to Nato ally Denmark – should be part of the US.

He complained again about defence spending, saying he was “very upset” with Nato, and criticised the UK for refusing permission for the US to use British bases to launch strikes against Iran at the beginning of the war.

Defence spending was a key issue at the summit, with Nato general secretary Mark Rutte calling on allies to present “credible” plans for reaching the target of spending 5% of GDP on defence by 2035 agreed at The Hague last year.

At home, Starmer has been accused of arriving at the summit “empty-handed” after last week’s defence investment plan did not set out a clear path to reaching the Nato target, and there had been concerns Trump could confront him over the issue.

But the outgoing prime minister said the American leader had not raised it.

Starmer told reporters travelling with him to Ankara: “Let me just share with you the closing words of President Trump, because as Mark Rutte closed the meeting, he turned back to Donald Trump, who thanked everybody there for the spirit of the meeting and the unity of the meeting.

“Mark Rutte thanked us particularly for the Dip further investment, and I had no discussion with Donald Trump in which he made any issue with me in relation to the defence spending for the United Kingdom.”

The Ministry of Justice has issued a news release about the conditional pardon for Ruth Ellis. (See 12.48pm.) It says:

The application for a pardon was brought by four of Ruth Ellis’s grandchildren. The application presented that her responsibility was profoundly shaped by domestic abuse, trauma and circumstances that were never properly recognised at her trial.

Under modern law, it is possible that Ruth Ellis could have argued the partial defences of loss of control or diminished responsibility applied to her – defences that might have reduced her conviction from murder to manslaughter, and which could have been considered by a jury had the case been heard today.

As the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, Ruth Ellis’s sentence is an exceptional case – and replacing it with one of life imprisonment takes into account the historic injustice of the death penalty in this particular instance. The government hopes today’s decision brings a measure of peace to her family.

Lee Anderson, the Reform UK chief whip, gave an interview to GB News earlier today during which he said Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, had not yet approved Nigel Farage’s resignation.

Reeves has now confirmed that she will go ahead and accept the resignation. She is ignoring the Liberal Democrats, who want her to become the first chancellor since 1842 to block the process. (See 10.54am.)

In a post on social media, Reeves says:

I will accept Nigel Farage’s request to be appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better.

But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him.

As chancellor, Reeves has not been famous for her sense of humour. This tweet implies we’ve been missing out.

A host of transactions involving Reform UK’s most senior figures and donations to the party caused bankers to report potential money-laundering concerns to the National Crime Agency, a Guardian investigation has found. Anna Isaac has the story.

More than 400,000 households – in which there are around 1.5 million children – are likely to see an increase in their benefits as a result of the two-child limit being scrapped, the Press Association is reporting. PA says:

The policy – which had restricted child tax credit and universal credit (UC) to the first two children in most households – was officially axed on 6 April.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her November budget that the policy would be ditched – after months of pressure from Labour backbenchers.

Data published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) today stated 436,780 households in Britain are expected to see an increase in their UC following the removal of the two-child limit.

There are 1,544,900 children living in those households, the department said.

Universal credit is a payment to help with living costs and is available for people in work who are on low incomes, and those who are out of work or cannot work.

The DWP data, which covers England, Scotland and Wales, also shows almost six in 10 (58%) households affected by the policy are in work.

The government has estimated that removing the two-child limit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of 2029/30.

Ruth Ellis’s grandchildren Laura Enston and Stephen Beard were in the gallery during PMQs to hear David Lammy announce that Ellis is getting a conditional pardon.

Afterwards Enston said in a statement:

Today, justice has finally been done for our grandmother, Ruth Ellis – the last woman to be hanged in England in 1955.

This pardon does not undo what happened 71 years ago.

It does not restore the lives that were broken – the children left behind, the years lost.

But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should not have been executed, that the justice system failed her.

That acknowledgment matters profoundly to our family.

Ruth was a victim of sustained and brutal abuse.

Her children, our mother and uncle, never recovered.

My uncle took his own life, my mother’s trauma left her unable to be the parent we needed.

The shadow of Ruth’s execution has fallen across two generations.

We have carried shame that was never ours to bear.

Pam Cox (Lab) said Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be executed in this country. She was hanged in 1955.

She said the case was “a haunting reminder of a time when our justice system ignored the realities of domestic abuse and control”.

She said Ellis’s relatives have been campaigning for a posthumous pardon.

They showed the importance of the need to free women “from devasting cycles of abuse.

In response, Lammy had an announcement to make.

I have the honour to say that His Majesty the King has accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon – the last woman to be hanged.

While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise a profound injust in this exceptional case.

Lammy said he hoped this would bring some closure to members of Ellis’s family watching in the gallery.

Cooper asks for an assurance that the security services will be fully covered by the Hillsborough law.

Lammy says he will arrange a briefing for Cooper on the bill. He says it will be back in the Commons “in the coming days”.

(The bill has been held up because the government has not yet reached agreement with campaigners over the extent to which the bill will fully apply to the security services.)

Daisy Cooper, the deputy Lib Dem leader, asks if the government will stop Nigel Farage resigning until the inquiry into him is over. She jokes about how he used to take the view “leave means leave”. And he asks if the government will back a “Clacton clause” (presumably when the writ for the byelection is moved) saying the inquiry into Farage can continue while he is out of parliament.

Lammy says Farage has serious questions to answer. Labour won’t be part of the byelection “circus”, he says. He suggest the byelection will be a two-horse race between Farage and Count Binface.

He does not address the two direct questions Cooper asked.

UPDATE: Cooper said:

[Farage] used to say leave means leave, but it seems his latest stunt is to leave this place just so that he can return as a fully fledged member after not just one referendum on his behaviour, but possibly two.

Will the deputy prime minister join us in urging the chancellor to delay [Farage’s] resignation until the investigation is complete, so the good people of Clacton have all the facts before they cast their votes, and failing that will he support our Clacton clause so that even once the honourable member ceases to be an MP, the investigation can continue?

And Lammy replied:

Well, everyone can see that the Reform leader is just trying to distract from the fact that he’s up to his neck in sleaze, he’s got serious questions to answer and he can’t run away from them. Labour is not going to be part of this circus.

I hear it’s the people versus the establishment, the city trader, Putin-admiring, professional politician who’s pals with crypto billionaires versus Count Binface.

There have been unqualified joke candidates in the past, let’s see what the people of Clacton decide.

Cleverly says Lammy is a “good man” and he must know this policy is wrong.

If he won’t change course, will he at least guarantee that not one rapist or paedophile will be released early this year.

Lammy says Cleverly has not said what the Tories would do. They released 10,000 prisoners early “on the sly”. There was no impact assessment.

He says mitigating factors are in place.

UPDATE: Cleverly said:

If he will not change course, will he at least make this guarantee that not one rapist or paedophile will be released early later on this year?

And Lammy said:

He has not proposed what they would do if they were in office.

We’ve invested £700m in probation. We are rolling out the largest programme of tagging in our history. We are forcing offenders to stay boxed in certain areas rather than where victims are …

We are implementing income reduction orders, and we are expanding chemical castration for sex offenders. None of it happened when they were in power.

David Lammy is taking PMQs on behalf of Keir Starmer, who is at the Nato summit. He is up against James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary who is now shadow housing secretary. He is standing in for Kemi Badenoch.

As James Heale from the Spectator reports, both are possible candidates for London mayor in 2028

James Cleverly is up against David Lammy at DPMQs today. A preview of the next London mayoral race…?

Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary who is now Reform UK’s education spokesperson, has been heckled at the Local Government Association after claiming councils make children ashamed to be British.

These are from my colleague Peter Walker who is there.

Suella Braverman is currently being heckled - and laughed at - at the LGA conference for accusing councils of making children “ashamed to be British”. She is also being applauded by Reform councillors in the room. Some people walking out.

Some calls of “Rubbish!” and “You make me ashamed to be British!” plus a counter-heckle from the Reform section about “soy lattes”. Quite different from the usually genteel world of local govt gatherings.

Braverman ends by calling on local government organisations to “work together”, which is met with a couple of hollow laughs. But she gets a standing ovation from the Reform councillors - of whom there are quite a few.

Count Binface could do better than expected. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, was on Sky News this morning and, without quite endorsing him, she suggested she would be happy to see him beat Nigel Farage.

Asked who Conservative supporters in Clacton should vote for, given that her party is not putting up a candidate, Badenoch replied:

The people of Clacton, and the Conservatives in particular, are very sensible. They will do what they know to be right. It’s not for me to be getting involved in that.

Let’s see what kind of campaign Count Binface runs and who the establishment really is.

If it’s the people versus the establishment, I think Nigel Farage might be looking like the establishment and Count Binface maybe the people.

The whole thing is a farce.

Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.

Zack Polanski has called for more devolution of powers to an ultra-local level as a way to combat populism and extremism, using a speech at the annual gathering of council bigwigs to argue that too many voters currently felt disconnected from people who govern the country.

Polanski, the leader of the Greens in England and Wales, is among a series of speakers at the Local Government Association conference in Bournemouth, with others today including James Murray, the health secretary, and Suella Braverman, the former Conservative MP who has defected to Reform.

In his speech, Polanski said those at the conference had “chosen to work at the touchpoint where democracy meets the reality of people’s lives”, saying councils still had a massive impact on people’s lives despite outsourcing and slashed budgets.

Saying the Greens championed an idea called subsidiarity – “that decisions should be taken at the closest practical level to the people affected” – Polanski said that after he attended last weekend’s Pride march in London with his boyfriend, he had been shocked by online abuse.

While he said this did not represent the views of many Britons, such toxicity was fuelled “when people feel like politics is being done to them rather than with them”, he said.

Claiming this was something councils can help reverse, he went on:

I don’t believe that single-handedly will tackle homophobia, racism or indeed any hate crime. But I do strongly believe that returning power back to people’s hands is a huge part of the role we should all be playing as elected public servants – and it’s how we build trust again.

YouGov has published new polling about Nigel Farage this morning.

One finding is that only 12% of people think Farage has been honest about his financial affairs. According to the poll, 60% of people think he has not been honest about them.

But there is a bit more support for Farage over his decision to call a byelection. While 43% of people oppose the decision either strongly (32%) or somewhat (11%), 24% support it either strongly (11%) or somewhat (13%).

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, has been giving interviews this morning. On the Today programme, he said the main parties were engaged in an “extraordinary” level of coordination in deciding not to put up candidates against Nigel Farage in the Clacton byelection.

He claimed there was a simple reason why they were not contesting the byelection.

The reason why they are choosing not to field a candidate is very simple; having screamed for a byelection at the top of their lungs for weeks now, having been given one, they are running scared.

In fact, the other parties have not been calling for a byelection; they have just been saying the parliamentary inquiry should be allowed to run its course. (That inquiry could eventually lead to a byelection, but only if the Commons were to suspend Farage for 10 days or more on the basis of a finding that he broke the rules.)

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has restated his call for the government to stop Nigel Farage resigning as an MP.

In an interview on the Today programme, Davey said:

I don’t think there should be a byelection until the investigation [into claims that Farage broke parliamentary rules by not declaring the £5m donation from Christopher Harborne] has completed. The people of Clacton deserve to know whether their MP has broken the rules in a very, very serious way.

No government has tried to stop an MP resigning from parliament for almost 200 years. But, because of the procedure used when an MP resigns, in theory it could be done. Davey said in this case ministers should block the resignation.

He said:

If you want to resign as an MP, you actually have to apply to the government to have an appointment to an office. And the chancellor actually decides whether to appoint you. Now, normally that has happened.

However, there is a precedent going back to 1842 where the chancellor has didn’t appoint someone to one of these positions [steward of the Chiltern Hundreds]. And if that appointment is not made, then Mr Farage can’t resign and the investigation will continue.

In posts on his social media feed, Matthew England, a researcher for the Hansard Society, says no government has stopped an MP applying for the Chiltern Hundreds since the 1840s.

Good morning. In a surprise announcement, yesterday Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said he would resign from the Commons so that he could fight a byelection in the hope of being re-elected as MP for Clacton. He thought a resounding win would somehow invalidate the parliamentary inquiry into claims that he broke parliamentary rules by not disclosing a £5m donation (and potentially other donations too). But within hours all the main parties had said they would not be contesting the byelection, and it may be that Farage’s only notable opponent is Count Binface.

The Telegraph, a paper that is normally supportive towards Farage (although that seems to be changing a bit – perhaps because new owners have taken control?), sums up the situation well with its splash headline.

If that will be unwelcome at Reform UK HQ, then they will be even less happy about the Guardian’s splash. In her exclusive Anna Isaac says:

The £5m gift to Nigel Farage by a cryptocurrency billionaire was reported to the National Crime Agency by bankers who were concerned it may have been laundered money, the Guardian can reveal.

The disclosure will put further pressure on the Reform UK leader, who is awaiting a decision by the standards commissioner over whether his failure to declare the money breached parliamentary rules.

Farage was given a deadline of 1pm on Tuesday to respond to the Guardian about this article. He gave a video address at 2pm announcing he would force a byelection in his seat of Clacton-on-Sea.

Responding to the Guardian’s story, Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, said:

This is an astonishing and deeply serious allegation. The circumstances surrounding Nigel Farage’s secret £5m ‘gift’ absolutely stink.

Farage is engulfed in a major sleaze scandal and his attempts to distract won’t wash with the public. He’s desperately flailing and can’t get his story straight, and working people will conclude he’s just in it for himself.

The Reform leader must finally come clean. He should publicly commit to cooperating with the National Crime Agency, fess up to the parliamentary watchdog over his finances - and face the consequences.

And this is from Lisa Smart, the Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson.

The wheels are completely coming off the Farage bandwagon. His stunt today is a desperate last ditch attempt from a man who knows the game is up. It seems we may have only scratched the surface on what is to come. We cannot play into this vanity project.

All parties should refuse to stand in this by-election, so we can swiftly get back to letting the parliamentary authorities finish their probe on his increasingly dodgy financial dealings. The people of Clacton, and the whole country, deserve the facts.

There are plenty of other developments in this story, and today I will mostly be focusing on them in the blog.

But there is other news too. Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, speaks at the Local Government Association conference. Other speakers are Suella Braverman, the Reform UK education spokesperson, and James Murray, the health secretary.

Noon: David Lammy, the deputy PM, takes PMQs.

And Keir Starmer is at the Nato summit in Turkey.

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