Exclusive: Women for Refugee Women says it is in touch with first woman considered for removal
A woman in immigration detention has been targeted for removal to Rwanda, a UK refugee charity has said.
Women for Refugee Women said it was in touch with a survivor of trafficking who was recently issued with a notice of intent that she was being considered for removal to Rwanda.
Continue reading...West’s response to effects of Covid and Ukraine war condemned as shortsighted ‘collective failure’ to invest in future human capital
The international community would be “playing with fire” if it failed to help Africa recover from Covid and the impact of the Ukraine war, the International Monetary Fund’s director for the continent has said.
Failure to invest and support the continent was shortsighted and detrimental to the global economy, as half of the new entrants into the global workforce over the next decade would come from sub-Saharan Africa, Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the IMF’s Africa department, told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Five ‘areas of search’ in the Celtic Sea could be developed and offered to businesses by 2023
Floating windfarms could be built off the coasts of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire after the Queen’s property manager identified a clutch of sites in the Celtic Sea that could host them.
The crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, has published five “areas of search” that will be narrowed into development plots to host wind power generation.
Continue reading...Political parties cannot be trusted to deal with misbehaviour by their own MPs, claim general secretaries
Parliament must act to stop the “seemingly endless” allegations of sexual misconduct by MPs as political parties cannot be trusted to make it a safe place to work, two leading unions have warned.
As No 10 admitted Boris Johnson had known about allegations against Chris Pincher before making him deputy chief whip, the FDA and Prospect said politicians were time and again failing to “deal properly with sexual misconduct by one of their own”.
Continue reading...Labour leader says he will rebuild trust with EU and get ‘a better deal for the British people’
Keir Starmer has thrown Labour back into the Brexit debate by ruling out any return to the single market or customs union, but arguing he could remove trade and travel barriers as prime minister because the EU would trust him.
In a speech on Monday evening that ended Labour’s habitual silence on the subject since the referendum, Starmer pledged to tackle what he called a “fatberg of red tape and bureaucracy” caused by Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Continue reading...Parliamentary staffers and Tory MPs say allegations of sexual misconduct were not acted on by whips
Boris Johnson is facing a backlash over the promotion of his ally Chris Pincher, as a group of Conservative parliamentary staffers accused the prime minister of a “failure to act on warnings” of sexual misconduct by his MPs.
As new claims emerged about Pincher, who resigned as deputy chief whip over allegations that he groped two men in a London club, No 10 continued to insist that Johnson was unaware of any “specific” warnings until last week.
Continue reading...Labour MP wants inquiries into potential sexual misconduct to be possible before a specific victim comes forward
Sexual misconduct allegations about MPs should be investigated without always needing a victim to formally come forward, Jess Phillips, the Labour MP and victims advocate, has said.
Phillips, a shadow Home Office minister, said it was not right that Boris Johnson used the lack of a formal complaint against Chris Pincher as an “excuse” for the Conservative party not to have looked into widespread rumours about his conduct.
Continue reading...Exclusive: shadow health secretary says service in England would be brought in over several parliaments
Labour will aim to bring in a national care service in England with just as much ambition as the 1945 government that brought in the NHS, the shadow health secretary has said, launching a review of how it would work.
In an interview with the Guardian, Wes Streeting said he had asked the Fabian Society to look at how the service would be funded and structured, with a view to bringing it in over the course of several parliaments.
Continue reading...Flight could take off within weeks and before court has ruled on whether scheme is lawful
The Home Office is planning a second flight to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which could take off before the courts have ruled on whether the scheme is lawful, the Guardian has learned.
It is understood that a second flight could take off in a matter of weeks despite the fact that the full high court hearing to examine the government’s Rwanda plans does not begin until 19 July.
Continue reading...‘Disastrous’ attempt to intervene over Pincher may intensify backbench calls for prime minister to go
The former Tory whip who has been suspended as an MP for allegedly groping two male colleagues said on Saturday he was seeking “professional medical support” for his problems as the latest Tory sex scandal spelt yet more trouble for Boris Johnson.
Chris Pincher, who has been referred to the independent complaints and grievance scheme in relation to incidents at the Carlton Club in central London on Wednesday evening, said he was “truly sorry” and that he hoped be back serving his constituents again “as soon as possible.”
Continue reading...Party denies ‘gender-critical’ group’s claims that refusal of a conference stand was a ‘political judgment’
A Labour frontbencher is among a group of MPs and peers calling on the party to reconsider its decision not to hand a presence at its conference to a group campaigning for sex-based rights.
A debate continues to rage within Labour over what approach the party should take on gender issues. Boris Johnson also sought to inflame the issue by suggesting that Labour leader Keir Starmer “struggled to define what a woman was”.
Continue reading...Trusts reveal only five wholly new hospitals planned, as Labour says the scheme ‘exists only in PM’s imagination’
The government’s official spending watchdog is to launch an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s claim that 40 new hospitals will be built by 2030, as concerns grow in Whitehall that the pledge is unaffordable and has been greatly oversold to the public.
In a move that could prove hugely embarrassing for the prime minister, the independent National Audit Office (NAO) has decided to conduct a “value for money review” into the entire scheme, which was a cornerstone of the Conservative party’s 2019 general election manifesto.
Continue reading...Tory party and PM face mounting pressure over scandal as former deputy chief whip says he respects decision to suspend him
Chris Pincher has said he is seeking professional help following claims that he drunkenly groped two men.
The former deputy chief whip, who resigned following the allegations, said he respected the prime minister’s decision to suspend the whip and would “cooperate fully” with an inquiry into his behaviour.
Continue reading...Falling passenger numbers, rising costs and the forthcoming end of emergency government funding blamed for services being reduced or terminated
At least 135 bus routes across England have been lined up for cutbacks or closures this summer as councils and bus operators grapple with falling passenger numbers, staff shortages and funding constraints.
Changes to services include reduced frequency, fewer stops and some routes being cancelled. Among the proposed cuts, some of which have already been implemented, are 16 routes in London, 25 in Liverpool and about 40 across the north-east.
Continue reading...Analysis: longer mortgages would unlock the bind many renters find themselves in but could be expensive
A 50-year home loan might sound depressing to some, but perhaps not if the alternative is never being able to buy a property. Long-term fixed-rate mortgages are an emerging financial product that should in theory allow first-time buyers who are currently priced out of the market to get on the housing ladder.
By spreading the repayments over longer – the average for mortgages taken out this year is 29 years – buyers should be able to borrow up to eight times their income, rather than the current average of 3.2 times, say potential providers. The loans would be backed by borrowing from pension funds and insurance companies rather than against less stable consumer deposits, to satisfy the Bank of England’s prudential requirement.
Continue reading...Cautious welcome for idea to tackle housing crisis but experts warn of risks to those inheriting
Downing Street is exploring the idea of trying to tackle the housing crisis with ultra-long mortgages of up to 50 years that could pass between generations, allowing more people to build up equity rather than pay rent.
Mortgage experts said the idea could bring some benefits but flagged problems, including the potential to saddle children with debt, and the fact it would not tackle the fundamental issue of housing supply.
Continue reading...Insiders boggle at ‘tone deaf’ response from PM and his team over Chris Pincher’s position as scandals keep coming
Boris Johnson has spent much of his nearly three-year premiership determined not to bow to political pressure.
Despite being a former journalist who knows the damage that days of bad headlines can do – particularly from normally friendly newspapers – the prime minister has repeatedly dug in and refused to fire colleagues.
Continue reading...Latest updates: former deputy chief whip suspended from party. This live blog is closed.
This is an interesting thread from Keiran Pedley, pollster for Ipsos UK, on the Conservatives’ and Labour’s party image:
This from Insider’s Cat Neilan on one Tory MP’s hot take on the Pincher story:
Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip after reports he drunkenly groped two men at a private club
Pressure is mounting on the Conservative party to withdraw the whip from Chris Pincher after allegations he groped two men on a drunken night out.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper said that removing the whip from the former Conservative deputy whip needed to be the “first step that takes place” but did not call for him to resign as an MP.
Continue reading...Party figures understood to have urged leader to rein in acolytes after candidates from left excluded from longlists
Keir Starmer’s allies have rejected claims he is acting to block “anyone to the left of Tony Blair” from standing for the party at the next general election, as his project of reshaping Labour moves to its next stage: parliamentary selections.
Since the swing of more than 12% to Labour in last week’s Wakefield byelection raised the possibility of an outright majority for Starmer at the next general election, the focus on the party’s next wave of MPs has intensified.
Continue reading...