Home Office to accept calls for inquiry into asylum seeker centre, say sources

Ministers said to have dropped opposition to inquiry into alleged assaults and mistreatment of people at Manston centre

The Home Office is to concede to demands for a statutory inquiry into alleged assaults and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.

The move comes after the government spent a year fighting off demands in the courts for an independent figure to investigate chaos, which led to claims of violence, drug dealing and filthy conditions at the Kent camp.

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Rishi Sunak claims putting reducing inflation ahead of tax cuts Thatcherite and ‘deeply Conservative’ – UK politics live

Prime minister says ‘the best tax cut we can give is to cut inflation’ after Michael Gove says taxes should be cut before general election

The BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is starting. As well as Rishi Sunak, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is also being interviewed.

Q: Do you still think we’ve had enough of experts?

Economic forecasting was invented to make astrology look respectable.

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Senior Tories attack illegal migration bill as Lords amendments overturned

Theresa May and Tim Loughton among more than a dozen backbench Tories criticising bill

Rishi Sunak’s immigration bill was heavily criticised by senior Conservative MPs as the government overturned amendments made by the House of Lords.

Theresa May and Tim Loughton were among more than a dozen backbench Tories seeking further changes to the illegal migration bill, which the prime minister says is crucial to stopping small boats from crossing the Channel.

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Dame Priti and Sir ‘party Marty’: the allies and aides in Johnson’s honours list

Ex-PM also awards knighthood to Jacob Rees-Mogg and OBE to head of parliament’s hair salon

Priti Patel, who was home secretary in Johnson’s cabinet and widely seen as a fierce ally of the former prime minister, has been made a dame commander.

Keen Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg has received a knighthood alongside Michael Fabricant who often went on the airwaves to defend Johnson during Partygate.

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Boris Johnson’s disciples gathered to sing the old hymns. But are they a real threat to Sunak?

Familiar faces on the Tory right met in Bournemouth to pour scorn on the government. And they can certainly make the PM’s life harder

• Read more: Tory anarchy breaks out as revolt looms on Brexit laws

It was billed as the launch of a campaign to hand more power to Tory members. It was not, its organisers repeatedly insisted, a group aiming to reinstall Boris Johnson as party leader – or cause trouble for Rishi Sunak. It was about “taking back control” of the Conservative party for the grassroots.

Yet as the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) met for its inaugural gathering in a sunny Bournemouth on Saturday, it was less than 15 minutes after Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns had belted out the national anthem that Johnson’s name was first uttered on stage.

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Priti Patel to blame local election losses on Tory leadership in speech

Witham MP expected to attack ‘those in power’ for sidelining party’s grassroots at conference of pro-Boris Johnson group

Priti Patel will attack the Conservative party leadership, blaming heavy local election losses on “those in power and control”, in a speech on Saturday.

The former home secretary is expected to accuse the Tory leadership of having “done a better job at damaging our party” over the past year than Keir Starmer’s Labour party or leftwing campaign groups.

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Tories hail Greek migration policies as an example. Instead, they should serve as a warning

Experience in eastern Mediterranean proves deterrence and harsh conditions do little to discourage refugees

Prominent Conservatives openly view Greece’s self-described “strict but fair” migration policies as a model to emulate. The former home secretary Priti Patel told MPs last week that “we would not be in this current situation” had she been allowed to replicate “Greek-style reception centres”.

British interest in the Greek model dates back to May 2021, when the former immigration minister Chris Philp made an “urgent” – as internal documents seen by the Guardian called it – trip to Greece. This was followed by an official visit by Patel in August 2021, who toured a newly constructed Greek camp, went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard and spoke of working “closely with Greek partners” on migration.

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Revealed: child refugees will be detained or deported under small boats plan

Senior Tories condemn ‘sickening’ plans which would allow unaccompanied minors to be held, in U-turn on past legislation

Rishi Sunak’s plan to reduce small boat crossings will effectively reverse a ban on child detention implemented under David Cameron and open the door to an expansion of the practice, the Observer understands.

With a potential Tory rebellion already brewing over the proposals, it has emerged that the Illegal Migration bill will allow the detention of families with children and even allows the deportation of unaccompanied children if it is deemed to be safe in their country of origin.

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Rishi Sunak to meet King Charles on Tuesday morning before taking over as PM and says UK faces ‘profound economic challenge’ – as it happened

Rishi Sunak to meet monarch after Liz Truss chairs her final cabinet meeting at 9am

I’m Helen Sullivan, with for the next while. If you have questions or see news we may have missed, you can get in touch on Twitter here.

We’re expected to hear from Nadhim Zahawi, who made a dizzying U-turn from supporting Johnson to supporting Sunak yesterday, on Sky News at 07.05 this morning.

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Home Office U-turn over deportation of Albanian asylum seekers

Letter undermines Priti Patel’s claim that Albanians arriving with ‘spurious’ claims could be removed quickly

The Home Office has conceded that it does not have the right to fast-track the deportation of Albanian asylum seekers after their arrival in the UK, in an abrupt policy U-turn.

Priti Patel, the former home secretary, signed a deal with the Albanian government in August to return those who arrive illegally. She claimed it meant the UK could quickly return asylum seekers who arrived in the UK and made “spurious” claims.

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How red flags were brushed aside to push through Rwanda deal

Documents disclosed to high court case show repeated warnings about asylum processing plan

Until the then home secretary Priti Patel and Rwanda’s foreign minister, Vincent Biruta, sat together at a table in Kigali on 14 April and signed a deal to send asylum seekers to the east African country, few thought the agreement would actually happen.

Rumours had swirled for months about the controversial plans but nothing had come of previous Home Office ideas, both confirmed and unconfirmed, to halt the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats, including wave machines in the Channel and a policy to turn around dinghies.

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Nadine Dorries joins Patel in quitting cabinet after Truss named next PM

Culture secretary offered chance to stay in role but reportedly said, ‘Now is the right time to leave cabinet’

Nadine Dorries has joined Priti Patel in quitting the cabinet hours after Liz Truss won the Conservative leadership contest.

The culture secretary was offered the chance to stay in the role, according to the Mail Plus, who first reported the story. The website quoted a friend as saying: “[Dorries] has decided now is the right time to leave cabinet.”

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Tory leadership: Nadine Dorries steps down and returns to backbenches – as it happened

Latest updates: culture secretary will not serve in Truss’s cabinet and is expected to receive peerage from Boris Johnson

Philip Hammond, who was chancellor when Theresa May was prime minister, has joined Rupert Harrison, another Tory Treasury alumnus (see 10.02am), in criticising the Truss camp this morning for disparaging Treasury orthodoxy. Hammond told Times Radio:

When I hear people talking about Treasury orthodoxy, I do worry that what they might sometimes be talking about are economic facts of life. And yes, the Treasury will ensure that politicians, however senior, are confronted with the realities of the economic facts of life. “Yes, Minister, you may wish to do this. But you need to understand that the consequences will be as follows.” And we can’t legislate to change the laws of economics, unfortunately. And I think Liz Truss understands that very well.

Obviously, I worked very closely with her. She was chief secretary to the Treasury when I was chancellor, she understands the laws of economics as well as anybody does. And it’s essential that the political solutions that a government crafts, go with the grain of the laws of economics, because if you try and confront the laws of economics, you will come unstuck.

I think it is right and unavoidable that the government needs to provide support to people dealing with these huge energy bills as a short term solution, but we have to be clear, and I think [Truss] will be clear, that this can only be government support to deal with the immediate emergency energy prices being sky high, largely because of the war in Ukraine.

At the same time we’ve got to be honest about the fact that energy bills in the future are going to be higher than they were, traditionally, as we move to ensure energy self sufficiency, and to decarbonise our economies. That has always been the case; decarbonisation doesn’t come free.

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UK ministers ignored evidence Rwanda violated human rights, court told

African country went back on list of destinations for ‘migration partnership’ after civil servants had ruled it out, judges hear

The UK’s plan to deport people seeking asylum to Rwanda has been challenged in the high court, with claims that ministers deliberately ignored evidence that the east African country had violated human rights, including the right to live free from torture.

Rwanda was put back on to a list of potential destinations for a “migration partnership” after previously being ruled out by civil servants, the court was told.

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Priti Patel meets Albanian police over fast-track removal plan

Home Office aims to crack down on people from ‘safe and prosperous country’ arriving via Channel

Plans to fast-track the removal of Albanian nationals entering the UK via small boat crossings have moved closer after Priti Patel met Albanian police.

Monday’s meeting was part of two days of talks on the sharing of forensics and biometrics to clamp down on anyone entering who has a criminal record in Albania, the Home Office said.

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UK asylum seeker deal leaves Rwanda hostel residents homeless

Survivors of Rwandan genocide were told to vacate hostel two days after Priti Patel signed £120m deal

Former residents of a hostel in Rwanda who were forced to leave under a controversial deal to house asylum seekers flown from the UK say they have been left homeless and destitute while the property remains unused.

The men, all of whom are survivors of the Rwandan genocide, had lived in Hope Hostel in Kigali for up to eight years. But they were told to vacate two days after Priti Patel, the British home secretary, signed a £120m agreement to send refugees arriving in the UK by small boats to the east African country.

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Truss and Sunak face Tory hustings after both say Covid lockdown went too far – as it happened

Latest updates: Tory leadership frontrunner reacts to Sunak comments, saying school closures went too far; pair meet Tory members in Norwich

Lee Cain, who was director of communications in Downing Street during the early phase of the Covid crisis, says Rishi Sunak’s comments about the lockdown policy (see 9.22am and 9.47am) are “simply wrong”.

But Sunak is not saying lockdown should not have happened, as Cain suggests. He is just saying that it was implemented too rigidly, and perhaps for too long, and that more consideration should have been given to the downsides.

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Babies among people who crossed Channel in small boats in last 24 hours

Pause in crossings recorded between Friday and Sunday as almost 5,000 made journey to Dover in August

Babies and young children are among some of the people who have crossed the Channel in small boats to the UK in the last 24 hours after a three-day hiatus in arrivals.

Arriving in Dover by dinghy and other vessels, large numbers of people made the treacherous journey to the Kent coast after a pause in crossings was recorded between Friday and Sunday. Piles of life vests were pictured at the arrival scene at the dockside.

Almost 5,000 people have made the journey so far in August and more than 21,300 people have arrived in the UK by small boats in 2022, according to provisional government figures.

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Priti Patel urges Meta to give up on end-to-end encryption plans

UK home secretary hits out at Facebook’s owner over move that could hinder child abuse investigations

Priti Patel has hit out at Facebook’s plans to encrypt direct messages, even as the company is facing criticism in the US for failing to protect the privacy of women seeking abortions.

The UK home secretary has urged Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as WhatsApp, to give up on its intentions to apply “end-to-end encryption” to direct messages sent from Messenger and Instagram.

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Liz Truss cabinet predictions: who could be in and who would lose out?

Analysis: Kwasi Kwarteng and Thérèse Coffey could be among the big winners if Truss becomes PM

Liz Truss has three weeks before she is likely to walk through No 10’s black door as prime minister, facing a difficult in-tray. Here we take a look at how senior roles could shape up.

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