UK government lawyers tell asylum seekers they can return to Sri Lanka or be removed to undisclosed country
Tamil refugees seeking asylum from the British-claimed Chagos Islands face being forcibly removed to a third country under Rwanda-style plans drawn up by the UK government.
Government lawyers have told the asylum seekers that if they cannot be returned to Sri Lanka they will instead be removed to another undisclosed country.
Continue reading...Latest updates: James Heappey, defence minister, also claims that Truss deserves credit for admitting she made mistake
Liam Fox, the Tory former international trade secretary, told Sky News this morning that Liz Truss’s future would partly depend on whether the financial markets settle down following the latest mini-budget U-turns. He said:
We can all read the polls and I don’t need to tell you what the atmosphere is like at Westminster. People will be weighing up what the prime minister said last night - that she had made mistakes, that she learned from those, and that the measures that Jeremy Hunt had put in place seemed to be providing the necessary economic stability in the markets.
If the markets don’t believe that a Conservative government is able to manage public finances sensibly then that government has had it.
Continue reading...Founder of online shopping group cements control as Japanese firm offloads its holding at £450m loss
THG shares have jumped on the news that Japan’s SoftBank will sell its stake in the troubled British online shopping group to its co-founder Matthew Moulding and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
The move has cemented Moulding’s control of THG, formerly known as The Hut Group, which owns a range of internet health and beauty retailers, and ended speculation about SoftBank’s disastrous investment.
Continue reading...Chinese recruitment ‘to understand the capabilities of our air force’ of concern, says James Heappey
Ministers want to change the law to prevent former RAF pilots from training the Chinese military, amid reports at least 30 British personnel are believed to have taken advantage of “very generous” recruitment packages offered by the superpower.
It emerged overnight that British defence intelligence is to issue a rare “threat alert”, warning that China’s military is trying to recruit serving and former RAF jet pilots to help train its own air force.
Continue reading...Footage shows figure believed to be Zheng Xiyuan kicking down poster and pulling pro-democracy protester’s hair
One of China’s most senior diplomats in the UK was involved in the violence against pro-democracy protesters at the Manchester consulate, a British MP has said.
Alicia Kearns, a Conservative MP, told the House of Commons that Beijing’s consul general in Manchester, Zheng Xiyuan, was seen “ripping down posters” before a Hong Kong campaigner was attacked on Sunday.
Continue reading...Publisher who founded Virago Press began as a campaigning outsider who introduced UK readers to authors including Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood
Carmen Callil, the publisher and writer who championed female writers and transformed the canon of English literature, has died of leukemia in London on Monday aged 84. The news was confirmed by her agent.
Callil began as a campaigning outsider, founding the feminist imprint Virago Press, where she published contemporary bestsellers including Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou and Angela Carter. She challenged the male-dominated canon of English literature by bringing back into print a list of modern classics by authors including Antonia White, Willa Cather and Rebecca West, eventually becoming a pillar of the literary establishment. She was made a dame in 2017, served as a member of the Booker prize committee and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Continue reading...Company warns that next 12 months will be tougher, with economy likely to go into recession
The UK housebuilder Bellway has said demand for houses has moderated since the summer and it expects the number of sales to be roughly flat over the next year against a backdrop of rising interest rates and a deteriorating economy.
The company completed a record 11,198 homes in the year to 31 July, up 10.5% on the previous year, as a booming housing market drove £3.5bn of revenues, up 13% and also a record.
Continue reading...UK defence minister says government still plans to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030
The UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, has suggested he would resign if the prime minister did not fulfil her leadership promise to raise defence spending, after the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said no department would be immune to cuts.
Hunt said the full reversal of Liz Truss’s economic plans meant “decisions of eye-watering difficulty”, and suggested nothing was off the table, including defence and health spending and the pensions triple-lock.
Continue reading...Closure of major road bridge linking Essex and Kent causes fresh rush-hour delays
Just Stop Oil protesters remain on top of the M25 Dartford Crossing, threatening another day of commuter chaos.
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge linking Essex and Kent was closed after it was scaled by two climbers from the group, whose demands include that the government “halts all new oil and gas licences and consents”.
Continue reading...Former and serving pilots told not to disclose sensitive information, in attempt to ‘mitigate risk’ of schemes
British defence intelligence is to issue a rare “threat alert”, warning that China’s military is trying to recruit serving and former RAF jet pilots to help train its own air force with generous recruitment packages.
Officials expressed “concern and disapproval” of these schemes because they posed “a threat to UK and western interests”. Although they are not explicitly banning pilots from providing training, they aim to take steps to “manage the risk”.
Continue reading...Judges described the Sri Lankan author’s second novel as a ‘rollercoaster journey through life and death’ and praised its audacity and ambition
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Booker prize for fiction. The judges praised the “ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques”.
Karunatilaka’s second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida comes more than a decade after his debut, Chinaman, which was published in 2011. The Booker-winning novel tells the story of the photographer of its title, who in 1990 wakes up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. With no idea who killed him, Maali has seven moons to contact the people he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos of civil war atrocities that will rock Sri Lanka.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mark Fullbrook said to have acted as Fathi Bashagha’s PR adviser, as officials were lobbied on foreign policy
Mark Fullbrook, the No 10 chief of staff, accompanied a controversial Libyan politician involved in an attempted military coup to a meeting in the Foreign Office to lobby officials on foreign policy, it has emerged, raising further questions over his influence.
Labour has said Fullbrook’s position as Liz Truss’s most senior official is “untenable” after it was revealed that he facilitated unofficial meetings in June with senior cabinet ministers for Fathi Bashagha, a Libyan politician. Bashagha, who is seeking international support as a rival prime minister, has links to the Russian Wagner Group and a military strongman in the east of the country.
Continue reading...Latest updates: chancellor to make statement after leader of Commons denied PM was hiding under a desk
Judging by what Conservative MPs have been telling journalists in private over the last few days, the consensus (but not unanimous) view among Tories seems to be that Liz Truss will have to be replaced as party leader before the next election. But very few MPs are saying that in public, and Sky’s Tom Larkin, who is running a spreadsheet of Tories calling for Truss’s resignation, has only got three names on it.
Damian Green, the former first secretary of state, was on the Today programme and you would expect him to be on the Larkin list. He is chair of the One Nation Conservatives caucus, the group most horrified by Truss’s experiment with hardline free market ideology. But he insisted that Truss did have the credibility to carry on as PM, despite the fact she is abandoning most of the key tax policies at the heart of her leadership campaign. He explained:
She is a pragmatist - she’s realised that the first budget didn’t work in spectacular fashion, so she’s now taken the sensible view that we will now try something else, and she’s appointed a very sensible chancellor in Jeremy Hunt.
I obviously don’t know what he’s going to say, but clearly what he’s going to do is already beginning to reassure the markets, and I hope will continue to do so afterwards.
Yes, because if she leads us into the next election, that will mean that the next two years have been a lot more successful than the past four weeks have been. That would not only be good for the Conservative party, that would be particularly good for the country as well, so I think everyone would welcome that.
Continue reading...Manchester United footballer is charged with attempted rape, assault and coercive and controlling behaviour
The Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood will spend more than a month in custody after a district judge denied him bail on charges of attempted rape and other offences.
The 21-year-old appeared at Manchester and Salford magistrates court on Monday charged with attempted rape, assault and “repeatedly engaging” in coercive and controlling behaviour.
Continue reading...Research finds participants’ recall of certain material decreased after being played audio while asleep
Playing sounds while you slumber might help to strengthen some memories while weakening others, research suggests, with experts noting the approach might one day help people living with traumatic recollections.
Previous work has shown that when a sound is played as a person learns an association between two words, the memory of that word association is boosted if the same sound is played while the individual sleeps.
Continue reading...Former member of Corbyn-loyal wing of party was target of tabloid stories during time in parliament
Labour has blocked the former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad from the longlist to fight the seat at the next election, a move which has sparked outrage among local campaigners.
Dent Coad, who was elected in 2017 in a shock victory over the Conservatives by just 20 votes, is the leader of the Labour group on the council, and lost her seat in 2019 to the Conservatives.
Continue reading...Sir Mark Rowley says humour cannot be ‘used as an excuse’ after Casey review highlights misogyny and racism
The Metropolitan police commissioner has issued direct orders to officers and staff, saying those who make jokes about violent attacks on women or who fail to stand up to hate speech should expect to be sacked.
Sir Mark Rowley issued the instructions, seen by the Guardian, after a review by Louise Casey found racists and misogynists had been left in the ranks of Britain’s biggest police force by a hugely flawed disciplinary system.
Continue reading...UK joins France in saying apparent drone supply for use in Ukraine leaves Iran in breach of 2015 JCPoA
Britain has joined France in viewing the Iranian supply of armed drones to Russia for devastating use in Ukraine as a breach of Iran’s obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal.
The joint view comes as EU foreign affairs ministers slapped human rights sanctions on the Iranian morality police over their handling of street protests and treatment of women.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary urged to take action after Hong Kong demonstrator punched and kicked in Manchester
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is facing demands to act against the Chinese government as police confirmed that a man was assaulted after being dragged into the grounds of the country’s consulate in Manchester.
Labour and senior Tories have called for the Chinese ambassador to explain what happened after footage appeared to show a pro-democracy demonstrator being beaten and kicked by several men. Police said the assailants had emerged from the consular building.
Continue reading...Trans MP says senior Tories sought ‘cheap political points’ and tells Liz Truss to resign for bringing them into government
Jamie Wallis, a Conservative MP who came out as transgender earlier this year, has accused fellow Tory MPs of exploiting and weaponising trans issues “in order to score cheap political points” during the recent leadership contest.
The MP for Bridgend in Wales, who has written a letter to Liz Truss calling on her to resign as prime minister, described the tactics used during the battle to succeed Boris Johnson as “extremely unpleasant”.
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