Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Minister points to ‘sexist’ practice of country relying on women to provide services so government did not have to
Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got “fat” from the free labour of women for decades.
The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls said the country has relied on women providing charity, adding it was a “fundamentally sexist” practice that meant the government was less willing to provide the service itself.
Continue reading...Singer of hits such as Houdini, One Kiss and Training Season was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents
Singer Dua Lipa has said she is “feeling grateful” after being awarded citizenship of Kosovo by the country’s president.
The 29-year-old was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents, Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa, and moved to the country’s capital of Pristina aged 11, when her family returned after Kosovo gained its independence in 2008, before moving back to London aged 15.
Continue reading...Chancellor admits voter frustration as government faces renewed calls from Labour politicians for a wealth tax
Labour does not “deserve” to win the next election if it does not change the country, Rachel Reeves has said, as she acknowledged some voters were disappointed with the party’s record since entering government.
The chancellor said she understood the unhappiness felt by some voters towards a government that has U-turned on winter fuel allowance and welfare policies in recent months.
Continue reading...Chancellor admits voter frustration as government faces renewed calls from Labour politicians for a wealth tax
Labour does not “deserve” to win the next election if it does not change the country, Rachel Reeves has said, as she acknowledged some voters were disappointed with the party’s record since entering government.
The chancellor said she understood the unhappiness felt by some voters towards a government that has U-turned on winter fuel allowance and welfare policies in recent months.
Continue reading...Chancellor admits voter frustration as government faces renewed calls from Labour politicians for a wealth tax
Labour does not “deserve” to win the next election if it does not change the country, Rachel Reeves has said, as she acknowledged some voters were disappointed with the party’s record since entering government.
The chancellor said she understood the unhappiness felt by some voters towards a government that has U-turned on winter fuel allowance and welfare policies in recent months.
Continue reading...Anti-racism campaigners outnumber those opposing hotel being used as Home Office accommodation
Anti-racism demonstrators turned out in large numbers on Saturday outside a London hotel where asylum seekers are being housed to counter-protest against those opposed to it being used as Home Office accommodation.
Both groups of protesters gathered near the Thistle City Barbican hotel in Islington, north London.
Continue reading...Defending industry over consumers sends ‘really bad message’, says Treasury committee member Bobby Dean
Rachel Reeves’ efforts to intervene in the supreme court case on the car finance scandal were “unprecedented and disgraceful” and send a “really bad message” to consumers that the government is willing to defend wrongdoing by banks, Treasury committee member and Lib Dem MP Bobby Dean has said.
While the supreme court largely sided with finance companies on Friday – helping lenders avoid a £44bn compensation bill – Dean said the chancellor had gone too far to show she was on the side of business.
Continue reading...Defending industry over consumers sends ‘really bad message’, says Treasury committee member Bobby Dean
Rachel Reeves’ efforts to intervene in the supreme court case on the car finance scandal were “unprecedented and disgraceful” and send a “really bad message” to consumers that the government is willing to defend wrongdoing by banks, Treasury committee member and Lib Dem MP Bobby Dean has said.
While the supreme court largely sided with finance companies on Friday – helping lenders avoid a £44bn compensation bill – Dean said the chancellor had gone too far to show she was on the side of business.
Continue reading...Rights bodies say new law and proscription of direct action group create risk of censorship of Gaza-related content
The Online Safety Act together with the proscription of Palestine Action could result in platforms censoring Palestinian-related content, human rights organisations have warned.
Open Rights Group, Index on Censorship and others have written to Ofcom calling on it to provide clear guidance to platforms on distinguishing lawful expression from content deemed to be in support of terrorism.
Continue reading...DHSC rejected as ‘unusable’ PPE supplied by company linked to Lord Chadlington, which later went bust
They were the lucrative deals that epitomised the “VIP lane” set up by Boris Johnson’s government during the Covid pandemic, which gave priority for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to people with political connections.
Peter Gummer, a former PR boss who has been Tory peer Lord Chadlington since 1996, had smooth access at his fingertips. The erstwhile adviser to John Major has “close personal friendships with many senior Conservative party politicians”, he has said, and as president of the Witney constituency association in the Cotswolds is “close friends” with its most notable MP: David Cameron.
Continue reading...Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Data reveals ‘invisible crisis’ with millions yet to have first specialist appointment or diagnostic test
Almost half of the 6 million people needing treatment from the NHS in England have had no further care at all since joining a hospital waiting list, new data reveals.
Previously unseen NHS England figures show that 2.99 million of the 6.23 million patients (48%) awaiting care have not had either their first appointment with a specialist or a diagnostic test since being referred by a GP.
Continue reading...Jon Ruben charged with three counts of wilful ill treatment of a child after illnesses at camp in Stathern
A 76-year-old man has been charged after a number of children became unwell at a summer camp in Leicestershire.
Jon Ruben, of Ruddington, Nottingham, has been charged with three counts of wilful ill treatment of a child. The charges relate to three children at the rural camp in the village of Stathern, Leicestershire police said on Friday.
Continue reading...Conservative party leader, who grew up in Nigeria and US, says she has not renewed her Nigerian passport in decades
Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer considers herself Nigerian and does not possess a Nigerian passport.
The Conservative party leader, who was born in London, but grew up in Nigeria and the US and did not return to the UK until she was 16, said she had not renewed her Nigerian passport in two decades.
Continue reading...Yellow weather warning for wind in Scotland, Northern Ireland, north Wales and north of England from 6am
Storm Floris is forecast to bring unseasonably strong winds to the UK on Monday, the Met Office has said.
The strongest winds are expected during the afternoon and night across Scotland, with gusts of up to 85mph possible on exposed coasts and hills.
Continue reading...Minister says programme will help ensure Whitehall has ‘broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country’
A new civil service internship scheme will be open only to working-class students as part of a drive to make Whitehall better reflect the country, the government has said.
The programme will give students from lower-income backgrounds the chance to apply for paid government placements. The definition of working class will be based on what jobs were held by their parents when the applicant was 14 and replaces an existing programme open to all.
Continue reading...Bishop of Fulham says sorry for offence caused when he told singers to leave for making ‘terrible racket’
A bishop who went on stage in a dressing gown and shut down a choir for making a “terrible racket” has apologised for the “distress and offence” he caused.
Last Friday, Jonathan Baker, the bishop of Fulham, told a room of about 360 people, including the City Academy Voices choir, to leave St Andrew church in Holborn, central London, as they neared the end of their special summer concert.
Continue reading...Elon Musk’s social media platform says lawmakers made a ‘conscientious decision’ to increase censorship
Elon Musk’s X platform has said the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) is at risk of “seriously infringing” free speech as a row deepens over measures for protecting children from harmful content.
The social media company said the act’s “laudable” intentions were being overshadowed by its aggressive implementation by the communications watchdog, Ofcom.
Continue reading...