Fears Climate Change Committee’s advice not to allow carryover from last carbon budget will be ignored
Ministers are considering plans to weaken the UK’s carbon-cutting plans by allowing the unused portion of the last carbon budget to be carried over to the next period.
This would go against the strong recommendation of the government’s statutory climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee.
Continue reading...Government sources had indicated flights would begin in July, but order shows first could happen on 24 June
Rishi Sunak’s deportation flights to Rwanda, the cornerstone of the government’s immigration policy, could begin as early as 24 June, court papers seen by the Guardian show.
Government sources had indicated that the first flights carrying asylum seekers would take off in July, but a court order released on Friday has disclosed that the government now says flights could take off in late June.
Continue reading...Hunters reportedly find five Rwandan men in mangroves on Saibai Island, a known crocodile habitat
As the UK government continues its push to forcibly remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, a group of Rwandan nationals has claimed asylum in Australia after arriving by boat on a remote island.
The five men arrived in Australia by an unconventional route, reportedly flying into the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to be granted visas on arrival, before travelling thousands of kilometres east to Indonesia’s Papua province, where they crossed the land border it shares with Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Continue reading...Labour leader to promise to divert £75m to fund specialist force against smugglers using counter-terror powers
Keir Starmer will promise to rip up the government’s Rwanda scheme and divert £75m to fund hundreds of new specialist officers to tackle people-smuggling with new counter-terror powers.
At a speech on Friday in Dover – the home of Natalie Elphicke, who defected to Labour this week after criticising Tory failures on border security – the Labour leader will call the government’s plan “an insult to anyone’s intelligence” and say “the gangs that run this sick trade are not easily fooled”.
Create a new post of border security commander to oversee the unit, working across Europe and with multiple agencies on enforcement and intelligence.
Recruit hundreds of additional special investigators, intelligence agents and cross-border police officers.
Expand stop and search powers for use against those suspected of people-smuggling.
Use Serious Crime Prevention Orders, enforced on terrorists pre-conviction, to shut off the bank accounts and internet access of suspected smugglers.
Extend seizure warrant powers normally reserved for terrorism to include organised immigration crime.
Continue reading...Plans for head of border security with access to home secretary will not satisfy all critics of Labour’s immigration policies
Keir Starmer’s border plans, announced after a giddy week of political triumphs, attempt to address some of the deep structural problems within the Home Office.
Paid for with £75m from the existing budget for the Rwanda scheme, the plans echo recommendations handed to Priti Patel two years ago: employ a single border security head who is given direct access to the home secretary.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says British weapons position different to US, but UK does not support Rafah invasion without civilian protection plan
David Cameron has said the UK will not be withholding arms sales to Israel, saying its position is not comparable with that of the US, which has paused the delivery of a weapons shipment, since the UK is not a large state-to-state arms supplier to Israel.
The foreign secretary added that the UK did not support a large-scale invasion of Rafah unless it saw a plan that protects civilians, a position the UK has repeated for the past month.
Continue reading...Tees Valley mayor hailed by PM after re-election says route to Tory electoral recovery is ‘getting narrower by the day’
Having seen a fuller version of what Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, said on BBC Radio Tees this morning, I have beefed up the post at 10.16am and changed the headline. Houchen did says Rishi Sunak ultimately had to take the blame for the state of “chaos” the Tory party is in.
Victoria Prentis, the attorney general, told the Commons that Britain continues to view its arms sales to Israel as legal a day after US president Joe Biden warned he would pause the delivery of bombs because they had been previously used to kill Palestinian civilians.
I can say that the foreign secretary has reviewed the most recent advice from the IHL cell, and that has informed his decision that there isn’t a clear risk that the items exported from the UK might be used to commit or to facilitate a serious violation of IHL. That leaves our position on export licences unchanged, but that position is kept under review.
Continue reading...Move intended to boost standards and attract recruits from private sector criticised as ‘tinkering’ by FDA union
Senior civil servants are to have their pay linked to their performance in a move criticised as divisive by a leading union.
John Glen, the Cabinet Office minister, announced the trial of performance-related pay for some senior civil servants to come in by the summer, which he said would improve standards.
Continue reading...Former foreign secretary to call for next government to seek much closer ties with bloc on foreign policy and defence issues
David Miliband will on Wednesday urge British ministers to forge closer links with the EU and condemn the “absurd” lack of cooperation between London and Brussels on foreign and defence issues.
The former foreign secretary will give a speech at the Irish embassy in London in which he will criticise the Conservatives for their attitude towards the EU and call on the next government to seek much closer ties.
Continue reading...Natalie Elphicke said she was defecting to Labour due to ‘broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic government’
PMQs starts in just over 20 minutes, and today there will be particular interest in the mood on the Conservative benches. Rishi Sunak has actively embraced the theory that the local election results show Labour is not on course to win an overall majority, but this is based on a projection that has been widely dismissed as unrealistic.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
It’s an issue of humanity and I think you’ve got to show equivalence. I condemn unequivocally the actions of Hamas on Oct 7; those 134 hostages must be released. At the same time I condemn unequivocally the actions of the IDF and Netanyahu; 34,000 people have perished including 14,000 children.
It’s utterly wrong and an insult to those victims to equate the brutality of Hamas to the legitimate military measures that Israel is taking in defence of its people and nation.
Continue reading...Dover MP, who claimed her now former husband’s seat in 2019, has been criticised in the past by Labour
Natalie Elphicke, who has become Labour’s newest MP after her shock defection from the Conservatives, has a track record that places her firmly on the right of British politics.
A lawyer who specialised in housing policy, she succeeded her now former husband – the disgraced former Tory Charlie Elphicke – as the MP for Dover. He was convicted and jailed for sexual assault in 2020.
Continue reading...Activists call move ‘absurd’, as Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of President Museveni, is accused of torture and abusing critics
Senior British government officials have congratulated the newly appointed head of the Ugandan army, a man accused of torture, in a move that has been called “absurd” and “disappointing”.
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s new chief of defence forces and son of President Yoweri Museveni, received a congratulatory letter from Britain’s most senior military officer, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, at a meeting with the British high commissioner, Kate Airey, and the British defence attache.
Continue reading...Home secretary announces closure of Russian diplomatic premises after pattern of ‘malign activity’ in Britain and Europe
Russia’s defence attache is an “undeclared military intelligence officer” who will be expelled from the UK amid an escalation of sanctions, the home secretary has said.
James Cleverly also announced on Wednesday the removal of diplomatic status for several Russian-owned premises and told MPs the moves followed a pattern of “malign activity” across Britain and Europe.
Continue reading...Exclusive: MP apologised for saying on eve of Holocaust Memorial Day that Gaza should be remembered as a genocide
Kate Osamor has had the Labour whip restored after an internal investigation was conducted into her comments on Holocaust Memorial Day.
The MP for Edmonton apologised for sending her local party members a message saying Gaza should be remembered as a genocide on the eve of the memorial day.
Continue reading...Treasury committee says ‘debanking’ and use of personal guarantees for loans is putting small businesses at risk
Unfair banking practices and “damaging” financial regulators are harming small businesses and putting innovation and growth at risk, parliament’s Treasury committee has warned.
A report from the committee’s inquiry into access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) said a lack of supportive policies were compounding problems for firms that had survived a “torrid” five years, which included the global pandemic and energy crisis.
“Confidence amongst SMEs in accessing finance has fallen and acceptance rates for business credit has lowered significantly,” the report said.
Continue reading...Payroll data at risk includes names, bank details and addresses of current and former force members, government sources suggest
An estimated 270,000 payroll records belonging to nearly all members of Britain’s armed forces have been exposed to Chinese hackers in a breach at a third-party contractor that was discovered a few days ago.
The data at risk includes names and bank details for full-time military personnel, part-time reservists, including at least one MP, and veterans who left after January 2018. It was managed by a private contractor, SSCL.
Continue reading...Mothin Ali has not been suspended from city council despite proclaiming ‘Allahu Akbar’ and other remarks causing offence
A Green party councillor at the centre of an antisemitism row has apologised “for the upset caused” by his remarks but hit back at “Islamophobic” attacks against him.
The Green party has launched an investigation into Mothin Ali, who was elected to Leeds city council last week, but has declined to suspend him.
Continue reading...Charities fear ‘increasing risks of destitution and exploitation’ of refugees as they go into hiding
The Home Office is dealing with growing fallout from the high-profile round-ups of asylum seekers it wants to send to Rwanda, as some have gone into hiding while others have fled across the border to Ireland.
Officials began rounding up asylum seekers to detain them for the Rwanda scheme a week ago, with at least one now on hunger strike and another threatening suicide.
Continue reading...Shadow chancellor will highlight Labour’s plans to boost economy and say Conservatives are ‘out of touch’
Rachel Reeves will draw the economic battle lines for the next general election on Tuesday, challenging the government’s claims that the economy is turning a corner when millions are still struggling with the cost of living.
The shadow chancellor will accuse Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt of “gaslighting” the public with over-optimistic statements about the UK economy that are “out of touch” with most people’s lives.
Continue reading...Swinney may be only candidate after withdrawal of Graeme McCormick
Labour has marked the anniversary of the Conservatives re-entering government at the 2010 election by launching a what the opposition have called “Conflix” website [geddit?] that mockingly tells the story of “14 years of Tory chaos”
The party’s chair, Anneliese Dodds, was challenged about the site on Sky News this morning and whether the party was relying on “stunts” rather than policy proposals. She insisted that the “detail of policy” was there, in the form of initiatives like GB Energy.
Continue reading...