Increased number of people arriving in UK in more overcrowded vessels shows Rwanda plan not working, say campaigners
People-smugglers have dropped their prices and are cramming more people than ever before into already overloaded, flimsy boats, the Guardian has learned.
This week 696 asylum seekers crossed the Channel from France to the UK in one day, the Ministry of Defence said.
Continue reading...Tory leadership candidate is praised as an earnest workaholic, but critics say politically he has a glass jaw and is naive
“Let me tell you a story,” Rishi Sunak says in his soft-voiced campaign launch video, highlighting his status as the grandson of hard-grafting Indian immigrants.
If he wins the race for No 10, the 42-year-old would be the first person of colour to be the UK prime minister, and the first practising Hindu, in a historic break with the past. Yet, in other ways, his story is as establishment as it comes: private school, PPE at Oxford, the City, the Tory party.
Continue reading...Labour’s request is latest PM contender has faced with regards to management of family’s fortune
Labour is calling on Rishi Sunak to be more transparent about his finances after the prime ministerial candidate declined to answer questions about the source of hundreds of thousands of pounds he loaned to a company that he jointly owned with his wife.
The move is the latest request for the former chancellor to explain details about how he has managed his family’s fortune, which is said to total £730m and has led to him being routinely referred to as the UK’s richest MP.
Continue reading...British nationals living in country are unable to access healthcare, change jobs or travel in and out
British nationals living in Portugal are unable to access healthcare, change jobs, or travel in and out of the country as its ministers have not issued them with post-Brexit residency cards, it has emerged.
The UK government has raised the issue at ministerial level and urged Portugal to implement fully the withdrawal agreement and protect the rights of the 34,500 Britons who made the country their home before Brexit.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president and British and US ambassadors criticise report that says soldiers should not be based in empty schools
A report by Amnesty International accusing the Ukrainian army of endangering civilians has drawn criticism from western diplomats, including the British and US ambassadors to Ukraine, as the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, attacked its findings.
The report accused the Ukrainian military of putting civilians at risk by positioning themselves in residential areas, saying that soldiers should not be basing themselves in empty schools or repurposing civilian buildings in urban areas as it meant the Russians would target them and civilians would be caught up in the crossfire.
But critics say the report was poorly researched and put together. They argue that the report ignores Ukraine’s wartime realities and draws moral equivalence between Russia, the aggressor, and Ukraine, the victim.
Continue reading...Video shows former chancellor telling Tunbridge Wells residents he tried to divert funds from ‘deprived urban areas’ to them
The former housing secretary Robert Jenrick has said the government’s “overwhelming priority” should be inflation.
Jenrick, who is backing Rishi Sunak in the leadership race, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The dashboard is flashing red on the British economy and we shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that all is going to be fine.
I think it’s very clear this morning that our overwhelming priority must be inflation. That’s what many people have been saying for a long time. It’s what Rishi Sunak has been saying throughout this leadership contest and tax cuts, unfunded tax cuts, in the immediate - always attractive though that might be to those of us who want to reduce the burden of taxation - seem less relevant in these circumstances.
The reality is we’re facing a recession if we carry on with our business-as-usual policies. People are struggling – whether it’s to pay food bills or fuel bills – that’s why it’s very important we reverse the national insurance increase, we have a temporary moratorium on the green energy levy to help people with their fuel bills.
The most important thing is getting the economy going so we avoid a recession and the business-as-usual policies aren’t working, we need to do more, and that’s why I am determined to reform the economy and keep taxes low.
I know it’s going to be a tough winter, I want to do all I can to make sure we’re releasing the reserves in the North Sea of gas, I want to get on with things like fracking in areas that support it, and I also want to make sure that we’re moving ahead with nuclear power and more renewables.
Of course, it will take time but the best time to start is today in moving that forward, as well as giving people all the help we can by keeping their taxes low and getting the economy going.
Continue reading...Woodley, 18, was stabbed to death in Sunderland group attack but parents deny boys who kicked him are murderers
The mother of one of 10 boys sentenced for the joint-enterprise murder of Jack Woodley has said she is “devastated” as her son had “not murdered anyone”.
A judge handed out 10 life sentences ranging from eight to 17 years at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday morning for the murder of 18-year-old Woodley, who died a day after an unprovoked attack by the group of boys in Houghton-le-Spring, Sunderland, last October.
Continue reading...Labour’s Rachel Reeves says Conservatives are ‘playing blame game’ for UK’s economic problems
Liz Truss has been accused of being “deeply irresponsible” for threatening to tinker with the Bank of England’s mandate on the brink of a recession.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, attacked the Tory leadership frontrunner after Truss and her allies repeatedly questioned the performance of the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, and said she would review the institution’s remit.
Continue reading...Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledges consensus is near-impossible after public criticism over declaration against gay sex
The archbishop of Canterbury has acknowledged the near-impossibility of a divided global Anglican church reaching a consensus on issues of sexuality, after he faced sharp criticism for affirming a 1998 declaration that gay sex is a sin.
Addressing more than 650 bishops from around the world at the once-a-decade Lambeth conference, Justin Welby said: “We are not at liberty to choose who are our brothers and sisters … We should seek with passion the visible unity of the church. But that is very difficult, for so often it will lead to criticism in our society.”
Continue reading...Martin Sargeant, former operations manager at the diocese of London, is accused of fraud and money laundering
A former Church of England official charged with defrauding a charity of more than £5m has been accused of clocking up more flights than Alan Whicker, the late globetrotting broadcaster.
Martin Sargeant, 52, who was operations manager for the diocese of London from 2008 until August 2019, when he retired, and clerk of the City church grants committee, is accused of defrauding the charitable trust of about £5.2m over 10 years.
Continue reading...Owners prioritise multimillion-pound shareholder dividends over paying decent wages, says union
Dockers at Felixstowe are planning eight days of strike action over pay that could cause serious disruption to the UK’s largest container port.
Nearly 1,900 workers plan to stop work for more than a week at the Hong Kong-owned port, starting on Sunday 21 August and ending on Monday 29 August, according to the union Unite. The workers voted 92% in favour of strike action last week.
Continue reading...Police name four Vietnamese nationals who died in Greater Manchester in May
A 21-year-old man who arrived in Britain only eight months ago is believed to be among four Vietnamese nationals who died in a mill fire in Greater Manchester in May.
Greater Manchester police (GMP) have released the identities of the four men for the first time after the remains of three victims were recovered from the building in Oldham.
Continue reading...Lawyers had requested that 12-year-old be moved from Royal London hospital to spend his last moments in private
A ruling on whether 12-year-old Archie Battersbee can be moved from hospital to a hospice to die is expected at the high court on Friday morning.
Lawyers for the boy’s family took part in an hours-long legal hearing on Thursday, with the court in London sitting until late in the evening.
Continue reading...Tory leadership rivals disagree on how to turn economy around and avoid predicted downturn in Sky news debate
Liz Truss has claimed her tax cut plans could avert the looming recession, after the Bank of England forecast 13% inflation and a downturn lasting more than a year.
In a televised leadership interview, the foreign secretary was challenged about gloomy projections made by the Bank on Thursday, as it increased interest rates by 0.5 percentage points.
Continue reading...Tory hopefuls face questions from party members and are interviewed by Kay Burley as interest rates go up sharply. This blog is now closed.
The NHS has been “absent” from the Conservative leadership contest, the former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said at a time when “staff shortages and morale have never been worse” in the health service.
Hunt, who is backing Sunak in the race, warned that “after energy bills the biggest issue facing the new prime minister will be a looming winter crisis”.
If the NHS continues this spiral of decline with ambulances, A&Es & GP surgeries all in serious crisis, we’ll see avoidable deaths mount up this winter. Staff know there’s no silver bullet, but they need to know there’s a plan.
Make flexible working automatic across the NHS so we don’t drive staff with young families to become locums or agency nurses, which is often the only way they can juggle work and home life.
Continue reading...Labour leader was late in declaring eight interests but watchdog called breaches ‘minor and/or inadvertent’
Keir Starmer has been found to have breached the MPs’ code of conduct by failing to register on time eight interests, including gifts from football teams and the sale of a plot of land.
An inquiry into the Labour leader was opened in June by the parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, relating to claims about late declaration of earnings and gifts, benefits or hospitality from UK sources.
Continue reading...Base rate raised by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%, as Bank says inflation will hit 13% in October
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has left Britain on course for a recession lasting more than a year and inflation above 13%, the Bank of England has warned as it raised interest rates for a sixth successive time.
Threadneedle Street said it had no choice but to increase borrowing costs by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%, blaming Russia for cost of living pressures not seen in more than four decades and a 5% drop in living standards straddling this year and next – the biggest since records began in the 1960s.
Continue reading...Octogenarian and child of five among adopted children or parents applying for unrestricted access to early years data
An 81-year-old, adopted as a child, and a 74-year-old mother who gave up her baby for adoption, are among 900 people who have registered to trace their parents or children after landmark legislation was passed in Ireland.
The public response to the new laws, which came into force on 1 July, is opening decades-old wounds for children and parents who were separated at birth, some sent to the UK or the US, during the past 100 years.
Continue reading...Michael Gunning calls for event to push for change after a ‘petrifying’ visit to his home country, Jamaica
The former Team GB swimmer Michael Gunning has called on the Commonwealth Games to do more to help improve LGBTQ+ rights in member countries as he talked of his “petrifying” experience visiting his home country, Jamaica, for the first time since he came out as gay.
Gunning, who retired from swimming earlier this year to help promote equality in sport, said the event could do more on the global stage to push the issue.
Continue reading...Author of Lords report says government’s approach ‘feels like setting off on a marathon with your shoelaces tied together’
Britain’s plan to become a “science and technology superpower” is so lacking in focus and so full of new organisational structures that the country risks becoming a “bureaucracy superpower” instead, an influential crossbench peer has said.
Prof John Krebs, the co-author of a Lords report on the government’s global ambitions for science and technology, said despite laudable rhetoric, there was no clear strategy as to how the “superpower” ambition might be realised, and reasons to doubt it would succeed.
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