Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill passes third reading in Commons

Flagship policy passes committee stage after tense lead-up in which Tory divisions came to the fore

Rishi Sunak has survived a damaging row over his flagship Rwanda bill after a Conservative rebellion melted away and dozens of rightwing MPs balked at further undermining the prime minister’s authority.

After a crucial 11th hour meeting of more than 45 Tory rebels, the group’s leaders concluded that defeating the bill by voting alongside Labour during an election year could risk collapsing the government.

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UK urges west to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine’s economy

Foreign secretary says there are legal, moral and political justifications for using assets of $350bn

Britain is ramping up pressure on western governments to use $350bn (£275bn) of frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine’s war-shattered economy, with David Cameron insisting there were legal, moral and political justifications for action.

The foreign secretary said the countries that were backing Ukraine had economies that when combined were 25 times the size of Russia and it was important to make that firepower count.

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Rwanda bill vote: Tory rebels have not shown amendments are legally robust, No 10 says – live

Sunak’s press secretary says Downing Street not shown legal basis for rebel amendments, despite this being offered and asked for

Rishi Sunak starts with the usual spiel about his engagements, and how he has got meetings with colleagues.

Rishi Sunak is taking PMQs in 10 minutes.

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Social media built narrative that Christopher Kapessa’s death was racist killing, say police

Suggestions that 13-year-old was pushed into river by schoolmate led to online comparisons with Stephen Lawrence murder

A senior police officer has raised concerns that a “narrative” was built up suggesting the death of a black boy allegedly pushed into a Welsh river by a schoolmate was a racist killing.

Det Ch Insp Matt Powell, who led the police investigation into 13-year-old Christopher Kapessa’s death, said comparisons to Stephen Lawrence’s murder on social media led to tensions rising in the community and meant the suspect had to be given protection.

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Two-year-old boy died of starvation curled up next to dead father

Lincolnshire council launches review after death of Bronson Battersby, who was subject to children’s services checks

A two-year-old boy was left alone to die of starvation curled up next to the body of his father, who had suffered a fatal heart attack, his family has revealed.

Bronson Battersby was found dead on 9 January, alongside his 60-year-old father, Kenneth, at their home in Skegness, Lincolnshire – 14 days after they were last seen.

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Chris Packham given bodyguard for BBC Winterwatch after ‘threats’

TV presenter says he reported most recent threats ‘to harm you and your family’ to police

Chris Packham has been given a bodyguard while filming the latest series of BBC’s Winterwatch after “specific threats” were made against him.

The presenter has faced persistent abuse in recent years, including in 2011 an arson attack on his home.

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Sexual harassment has shifted away from the office to work trips, MPs told

In wake of #MeToo, sexism in the City has become more ‘underhand and pernicious’, women tell inquiry

The social change sparked by the #MeToo movement has not translated to the UK’s financial sector, with sexual harassment merely shifting outside the office to conferences and work trips, MPs have heard.

A summary of private hearings held as part of the Treasury committee’s sexism in the City inquiry showed that, while a small number of women said workplaces had become more inclusive in recent years, the majority felt the Square Mile was still an “old boys’ club” with misconduct and misogyny widespread.

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Uniqlo sues Shein over ‘imitation’ banana-shaped ‘it’ bag

Petition demands online retailer stop immediate sale of bags and compensation for damages incurred

Uniqlo is suing the Chinese online retailer Shein over the sale of items it claims copy its popular banana-shaped ‘it’ bag, the “round mini”.

The petition demands that Shein immediately stops the sale of “the imitation products” and pays compensation for damages incurred as a result of their sale. It was filed last month in the Tokyo district court against the fast-growing business’s parent groups Roadget and Fashion Choice, as well as Shein Japan.

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Rwanda president: efforts to implement asylum plan cannot ‘drag on’

Paul Kagame also says he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped

Rwanda’s president has said there are limits to how long attempts to implement an asylum deal with Britain can “drag on”, indicating he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped.

Paul Kagame’s comments on Wednesday came before Rishi Sunak faced a potentially leadership-ending rebellion by Conservative MPs threatening to vote down his Rwanda deportation bill on Wednesday night.

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UK curator of African film to receive Bafta award

June Givanni founded London archive documenting Pan-African cinema over 40 years

A pioneering curator, writer and programmer of African film is to receive Bafta’s outstanding British contribution to cinema award.

June Givanni is the founder of a London archive that has amassed more than 10,000 items – including films, ephemera, manuscripts, audio, photography and posters – documenting Pan-African cinema over 40 years.

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Wednesday briefing: The days that could decide how Rishi Sunak is remembered

In today’s newsletter: The controversial Rwanda bill is back in the Commons – what happens next could shape the party’s future

Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition

Good morning. It’s been another miserable week for Rishi Sunak, and it’s only Wednesday. The fulcrum of his despair is today’s vote on the third reading of the government’s Rwanda deportation bill, which is meant to be a populist, lawyer-thwarting solution to the nightmare of the government’s policy on Channel crossings – but has come under serious threat from exactly the hardliners it was supposed to appease.

Yesterday, two Conservative deputy chairs, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, resigned from their jobs in order to vote for amendments to the bill alongside 58 of their peers. The government still looks likely to prevail later in the key vote today – but the row has dragged the Conservative party’s current self-loathing into the open once again. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Spectator’s political editor, Katy Balls, about the latest iteration of the Tory identity crisis, and what it tells us about the fight for the party’s future. Here are the headlines.

Post Office | Fujitsu, the technology company that built the flawed Horizon IT system at the heart of the Post Office scandal, has admitted for the first time that it should contribute to financial redress for victims. Fujitsu’s European boss, Paul Patterson, said there was a “moral obligation for the company to contribute”.

Iran | Iran has launched airstrikes on Pakistan territory, apparently aimed at a Sunni militant group, in the latest sign of a wave of violence rolling across the Middle East and beyond. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said two children were killed, and summoned Tehran’s senior diplomat in Islamabad to protest against the “unprovoked violation of its airspace”.

France | Emmanuel Macron wants to regulate French children’s screen time, test compulsory school uniform, and is not against all primary schoolchildren having to learn the national anthem, he has told a press conference. Macron’s promise of a “common sense” France comes as he tries to limit the potential gains of the far right in upcoming European elections.

Austria | Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who raped and incarcerated his daughter in a purpose-built prison beneath his home for 24 years, is applying for release from jail, according to his lawyer. Fritzl, 88, could be moved to a nursing home if his appeal is successful.

Guinness World Records | Bobi the Portuguese mastiff, who had comfortably clinched the title of the oldest dog ever when he died in October at the apparent age of 31, is having the distinction reviewed after doubts were raised about his lifespan. Pictures purportedly of the same dog in 1999 appear to show him with different-coloured paws.

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The Houthis and the Red Sea crisis – podcast

Attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebel group in Yemen have been met with airstrikes from the UK and US. Patrick Wintour reports

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and Israel’s military response in Gaza, there has been an effort by western leaders led by the US to avoid the conflict spreading to the wider region. That attempt looks increasingly tenuous now. US and UK airstrikes have targeted the Houthi rebel group in Yemen after a series of attacks by the group on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

As Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, tells Michael Safi, the Houthis say they are targeting Israeli-linked ships in an attempt to force a ceasefire. In doing so they are are positioning themselves as the foremost champions of Palestinians in the region. In reality, they have struck shipping interests beyond Israel and ignored warnings from the US to desist. Now, with Washington promising further strikes if necessary, the threat of a wider regional escalation is growing and with it the danger of a far more deadly conflict.

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Top judge says it is not for government to decide if judges available for Rwanda asylum appeals – UK politics live

Lady Carr, most senior judge in England and Wales, says she will decide if judges are allocated to asylum appeals hearings in apparent rebuke to No 10

More than 60 Tory MPs have signed at least one of the various rebel amendments to the Rwanda bill tabled by hardliners. But very few of them have said publicly that, if the amendments are not passed, they will definitely vote against the bill at third reading. Suella Braverman and Miriam Cates are among the diehards in this category. But Simon Clarke, in his ConservativeHome, only says, that, if the bill is not changed, he will not vote for the bill at third reading, implying he would abstain.

In an interview with Sky News, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who has tabled the rebel amendments attracting most support, said he was “prepared” to vote against the bill at third reading. He said:

I am prepared to vote against the bill … because this bill doesn’t work, and I do believe that a better bill is possible.

So the government has a choice. It can either accept my amendments … or it can bring back a new and improved bill, and it could do that within a matter of days because we know the shape of that bill.

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Chief justice criticises plans to recruit 150 judges to deal with asylum cases

Most senior judge in England and Wales says government plans draw ‘matters of judicial responsibility into the political arena’

The most senior judge in England and Wales has criticised plans to recruit and train 150 judges to help implement Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation policy.

The lady chief justice, Dame Sue Carr, said decisions on how judges were deployed should be “exclusively a matter for the judiciary”, adding that plans outlined by the government drew “matters of judicial responsibility into the political arena”.

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Seven Aldabra giant tortoises found dead in woodland near Exeter

Police appeal for witnesses after tortoises’ bodies discovered last week in Devon

The bodies of seven giant tortoises have been discovered in a forest in Devon, triggering a police investigation.

The Aldabra giant tortoises, one of the largest tortoise species in the world, were found dead the National Trust’s Ashclyst Forest, and Devon and Cornwall police are appealing for witnesses.

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Davos day one: Volodymyr Zelenskiy rallies support for Ukraine after ‘upbeat’ meeting with CEOs – business live

Rolling coverage of the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has met business chiefs at a session for “CEOs for Ukraine”, here at the World Economic Forum, before his speech this afternoon.

He was seated alongside Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, who will also address WEF today:

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BT scraps above-inflation price rises for mobile and broadband customers

UK’s mobile and broadband firms were accused of ‘greedflation’ last year by the Guardian

BT has become the first major telecoms company to scrap controversial above-inflation price rises for mobile and broadband customers – but not before pushing through a final increase this year.

The owner of mobile operator EE has moved to address the pressure on consumers from rising household costs during the cost of living crisis, after telecoms companies were criticised for increasing bills.

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Tories on edge of precipice as Sunak grapples with Rwanda bill rebellion

PM will recall how Tory anger toppled May, Johnson and Truss as he seeks solution to party fractures

Rishi Sunak was the most junior of ministers when Theresa May faced her worst Brexit ructions, but as he battles Commons votes, endless amendments and mutinous Conservative factions, the prime minister might have some retrospective sympathy for his predecessor-but-two.

The parallels do not end there. With Brexit largely viewed as completed, Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill has become emblematic of what many Tory MPs see as the party’s main ideological battleground: migration, and most specifically, small boats.

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UK man with Hitler picture in home used sticker campaign to stir racial hatred, court told

Sam Melia, 33, accused of running far-right network Hundred-Handers from Pudsey in Leeds

The alleged leader of a white nationalist organisation displayed a picture of Adolf Hitler and Third Reich posters in his home, a court has heard.

Sam Melia is accused of running the far-right network Hundred-Handers from his home in Pudsey, Leeds, and faces two public order charges: ​​stirring up racial hatred by publishing written material and intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence.

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