Home Office pressed on EU citizens removed while awaiting approval to stay

Watchdog seeks clarity on legal right to go on holiday or visit family abroad after applicants denied re-entry at UK border

Hopes have been raised for EU citizens who have faced being removed from the UK post-Brexit even while they wait on their applications to stay, after a statutory body wrote to the Home Office demanding clarity on their legal right to go on holiday or visit family abroad.

The move comes after a number of cases came to light involving the removal of EU citizens when they returned to the UK after a visit abroad.

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Markets and farm shops among targets of organised crime gangs, say experts

Smoked salmon, artisan cheese and fine wine among food and drink lost by European outlets

Small food producers are increasingly being targeted by organised crime gangs and rogue industry insiders looking to exploit national and global supply chain challenges , according to food crime experts.

The warning comes after several food businesses in the UK and continental Europe revealed how they had lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in scams where thieves apparently posed as legitimate buyers.

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Post-Brexit border scheme to simplify trade put on pause again

Single Trade Window designed to reduce friction on imports and exports will be halted until at least 2026 amid cost fears

A key part of the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy has been put on pause for more than a year amid government concerns over the cost of implementing the scheme.

The introduction of the Single Trade Window (STW), which is designed to reduce friction for traders moving goods in and out of Britain, had already been delayed from late October to January next year, but will now be halted until at least 2026.

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Johnson’s Brexit left ‘wholly negative legacy’ across Ireland, says new SDLP leader

Claire Hanna lambasts arrogance of former PM and ‘stinking status quo’ in Stormont that has stifled ambition

Boris Johnson left a “wholly negative legacy” for the island of Ireland but difficulties in Northern Ireland also stem from a “stinking status quo” that has stifled ambition and drive for change, the new leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party has said.

Weeks after taking over from Colum Eastwood, Claire Hanna, spoke about her plans to revive the SDLP, pull Northern Ireland out of past mindsets and fight for new partnerships with Dublin on health and other public services.

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Imported Christmas trees cost more thanks to post-Brexit checks

Nearly all are deemed ‘high-risk’ and so will need customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Christmas trees make the journey into the UK to take pride of place in living rooms across the country.

But the the cross-border operation faces a new hurdle this year. Plants coming from the EU will be subject to post-Brexit border checks that importers are warning will increase costs for sellers, and probably push up prices for consumers.

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EU citizen who applied for pre-settled status is to be deported from Scotland

Greek Cypriot Costa Koushiappis to be removed from UK even though his application is pending with Home Office

An EU citizen caught up in a Home Office backlog of applications for post-Brexit residency status is to be deported by Border Force officials in Scotland.

Costa Koushiappis, 39, who is Greek Cypriot, has been told to show up at Edinburgh airport at 7am on Friday to be forcibly put on a flight to Amsterdam just weeks after he received an email from the Home Office to say it could take a further 24 months to process his application for status.

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Scheme to boost French school trips to Britain ‘at risk’ under new UK entry rules

Trade body for France’s travel industry reportedly writes to UK home secretary over concerns for programme’s future

A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK.

New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the then UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

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Brexit has put £370m a year on price of power from EU since 2021, experts say

Trade body Energy UK also estimates total energy cost of leaving bloc could reach £10bn by end of decade

Brexit has added up to £370m a year to the price of power supplies from Europe, according to industry representatives who calculate that the total energy costs of leaving the EU could amount to £10bn by the end of the decade.

Energy UK, the sector’s trade body, has called on Keir Starmer to negotiate a closer trading relationship with the bloc as part of the “reset” he is seeking with Brussels.

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Talks on UK rejoining EU could start in 10 years’ time, says Peter Mandelson

Labour peer says in meantime it is essential to try to reduce damage of Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson

Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.

Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.

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One Nation Tory group refuses to back Badenoch or Jenrick in party leadership race – UK politics live

TRG says both candidates have ‘used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from … the values we cherish and uphold’

Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.

Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:

The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.

Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.

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Starmer visit to Brussels could lead to overhaul of Brexit deal

Prime minister hopes to use talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week to prepare for a reset in the spring

Keir Starmer will use a meeting with the European Commission president this week to pave the way for a springtime overhaul of Britain’s Brexit deal, amid warnings that closer ties will be essential in his government’s desperate search for growth.

The prime minister will meet Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday. However, it comes with home secretary Yvette Cooper still vehemently opposed to an agreement that would allow young people to move more freely between Europe and the UK – a measure that EU diplomats regard as key to unlocking more serious talks in the spring.

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New relationship with EU possible but will not be easy, Keir Starmer says

PM hopes to work more closely on defence, borders and trade with EU as he sets meeting with von der Leyen

Keir Starmer has said a new relationship with the European Union will not be easy “but is possible” before a meeting with Ursula von der Leyen next week, as he set out defence, borders and trade as areas where he hopes for improvement.

The prime minister spoke of his hopes for a reset and did not rule out accepting an EU proposal for greater youth mobility – including easier travel, study and work for under 30s.

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Germany and France call for Europe-wide deal with UK on migration

Letter sent to EU said Brexit had gravely affected ‘the coherence of policies’ on asylum and migration

Germany and France have called for a Europe-wide deal on migration and asylum with the UK government, to capitalise on Labour’s more “constructive” approach to EU-UK relations.

In a letter to the EU home affairs commissioner, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, and her former French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said Brexit had gravely affected “the coherence of migration policies”.

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EU plant exporters turning backs on UK over ‘painful’ border checks, says trade group

Trading relationships at ‘breaking point’ because of delays and costs, garden centres and nurseries warn

Exporters of plants and flowers from mainland Europe are turning their backs on supplying Britain as “painful” new Brexit border checks are putting some trading relationships at “breaking point”, garden centres and nurseries have warned.

The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents garden retailers and growers, said long-held links between British nurseries and EU suppliers were now being put under strain because of the delays and costs associated with the new border processes.

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UK must stop being naive over resetting relations with EU, thinktank says

European Centre for International Political Economy outlines a plan to bring the two sides closer

The UK must stop being “naive” about negotiations to reset relations with the EU and show more flexibility in its approach to Brussels, a trade policy thinktank has said.

As EU leaders question how much has changed in the UK despite the new government, the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) has outlined a plan to bring the two sides closer after a series of reports that the EU doubted Keir Starmer’s commitment to a reset.

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UK’s ‘not for EU’ meat and dairy labelling plan postponed indefinitely

Policy devised under Conservatives will be reviewed after warnings of chaos for producers and suppliers

Government plans to force food manufacturers to put “not for EU” labels on all meat and dairy products sold across Britain next month have been indefinitely postponed after warnings that the scheme could cause “chaos” for producers and suppliers.

The government will instead review the policy, which was devised under the Conservative administration. Legislation to implement the changes has yet to be brought in.

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Minister struggles to defend Keir Starmer over his record of accepting freebies – UK politics live

Angela Eagle, border security minister, says prime minister has to answer why he has accepted £76,000 worth of gifts since 2019 election

The number of migrants who have crossed the English Channel since Labour won the general election has passed 10,000, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. As PA Media reports, some 65 migrants were detected crossing the Channel on Monday, taking the cumulative number of arrivals since July 4 to 10,024. PA says:

The cumulative total for the year so far now stands at 23,598.

This is 1% lower than the equivalent figure at this point last year, which was 23,940, and 21% lower than the total at this stage in 2022, which was 29,783.

The home secretary announced the package of up to £75m, which redirects funds originally allocated to the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act. It will unlock sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities for the NCA to bolster UK border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs. The investment is designed to build on a pattern of successful upstream disruptions announced at an operational summit, attended by the prime minister, at the NCA headquarters last week.

They became climate dinosaurs, crashing offshore wind, blocking onshore wind, moving the goalposts on electric vehicle targets, doubling down on oil and gas, leaving British wildlife in crisis.

Our biodiversity declining at an unprecedented rate, our precious national parks in decline, our rivers, lakes and seas awash with toxic sewage, blind to the opportunities of the energy transition – a fossil fuel government in a renewable age.

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Teacher ‘sick with nerves’ over battle to remain in his Spanish home post-Brexit

Mark Saxby, 56, says he is in limbo because of Spanish authorities’ ‘petty’ concern about his medical insurance

A British teacher has told how he is “sick” with nerves about returning to his home in Spain amid a three-year battle to get post-Brexit residency after being denied it because he was missing one month’s medical insurance in the first year after the UK left the EU.

Mark Saxby, 56, said he felt “trapped” in a nightmarish limbo, unable to convince anyone that he had the right to live in Spain despite the EU-UK withdrawal agreement guaranteeing residency rights for those in the country before Brexit.

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Keir Starmer’s summit with European Commission chief delayed

Sources fear meeting with Ursula von der Leyen postponed due to Labour’s doubts about reinstating EU student exchange schemes

Keir Starmer’s anticipated summit with the president of the European Commission has been postponed over what some see as the British government’s caution about reinstating programmes such as the youth mobility and Erasmus university exchange schemes.

The prime minister was expected to meet Ursula von der Leyen in the first or second week of September, but sources have said a meeting may now not happen until the end of October at the earliest.

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UK music industry presses government to solve post-Brexit limits on touring

As documents reveal EU ‘not prepared’ to change, Keir Starmer is reminded of Labour’s manifesto pledge

Industry insiders have urged the UK government to find a solution to post-Brexit restrictions on live music touring, after EU documents suggested Brussels was “not prepared” to change regulations.

In Labour’s manifesto, Keir Starmer pledged to improve trade and investment relations with the EU to “help our touring artists” . Since Brexit, musicians touring the EU have faced barriers introduced in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). They can work up to 90 out of every 180 days, which causes problems for longer tours, musicians who work in multiple bands or orchestras, and crew required on site before and after performances.

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