At least six MPs to submit letter of no confidence, says Andrea Jenkyns, who has already submitted her own
Rishi Sunak is facing a fresh backlash from rightwing Conservative MPs who are pushing for emergency legislation to overrule the supreme court’s decision on the UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan.
At least six MPs will submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister, according to Andrea Jenkyns, a rebel backbencher who has already submitted her own.
Continue reading...A victory for the immigration and asylum policy on Wednesday will come with headaches, but a defeat could split the Conservative party
Wednesday marks a potentially pivotal moment in the government’s fortunes when the supreme court rules whether its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful.
The decision could have significant implications not just for immigration and asylum policy, but also for the future direction of Rishi Sunak’s government, and the Conservative party more widely. Here is what could follow from a government win or loss.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: A complicated legal battle over whether the UK government plan to send thousands of migrants to Rwanda could cause a fundamental shift in how asylum seekers are treated
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Good morning. Five supreme court judges are this week deciding whether the UK government plan to deport tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda should go ahead.
The decision of the UK’s highest court will be life-changing for more than 24,000 asylum seekers issued with letters warning them that they are being considered for forcible removal. It will also either make home secretary Suella Braverman’s “dream” come true or poleaxe a key part of Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats”.
Israel | The leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany and Italy have released a joint statement expressing “steadfast and united support” for the state of Israel and “unequivocal condemnation” of Hamas. Earlier, Israel declared a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, food and power supplies.
Environment | The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m (£13m) an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate.
Transport | A list of transport projects to be funded using HS2 money, which included schemes that had already been built or were swiftly deleted, was intended only to be “illustrative”, the prime minister has said.
Labour | A new Labour government would give all towns and cities in England new powers and funding to boost local economies, Keir Starmer will announce, in the biggest expansion of devolution since Labour was last in power.
Scotland | A hoard of coins linked to a Highland chief – which may have been stashed away as he tried in vain to escape the Glen Coe massacre – has been discovered underneath a fireplace.
Continue reading...Unison says decision affects other types of employee payments and is ‘victory for underpaid workers’
Many UK workers could be entitled to thousands of pounds “unfairly” deducted from their pay after a supreme court decision, according to unions.
The judgment relates to a long-running row about holiday pay but Unison, which participated in the case, said the ruling affected all other types of payment to employees and called it a “victory for underpaid workers”.
Continue reading...Judges reject legal challenge to UK-EU trade arrangements by group of unionist leaders
The Northern Ireland protocol is lawful, the supreme court has ruled, rejecting a legal challenge to the Brexit arrangements by a group of unionist leaders including the former first ministers the late David Trimble and Arlene Foster.
Five law lords presiding in the highest court in the UK unanimously dismissed the appeal on all three grounds including the claims that the Brexit trading arrangements breached the 1800 Act of Union and the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Continue reading...The chancellor is facing questions at the Commons Treasury committee
Reed says the Scotland Act gives the Scottish parliament limited powers. It cannot legislate on reserved matters. Those include fundamental matters, including the union of the UK.
If legislation related to the union, or the UK parliament, the Scottish parliament would have no power to enact it.
Continue reading...Nicola Sturgeon says ‘Scottish democracy will not be denied’ after court blocks route to referendum
The Scottish parliament cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval, the UK supreme court has ruled, in a unanimous judgment likely to anger Scottish nationalists who say the country’s future is for Scottish voters to decide.
The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said immediately after the ruling: “Scottish democracy will not be denied.”
Continue reading...All four nations would have interest in referendum so Westminster has authority, UK government lawyer tells supreme court
Judges sitting in the UK’s highest court have been told Westminster is the ultimate authority on Scotland’s future because Scottish independence is of “critical importance” to the future of the UK.
Sir James Eadie KC, a senior lawyer acting for the UK government, said the union between Scotland and England was “the constitutional foundation of the modern British state”, and mattered to everyone in the UK.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Labour leader hoping to put party on war footing ahead of next election
In the supreme court Dorothy Bain KC, the lord advocate, the Scottish government’s most senior law officer, is now setting out her case.
Here is the 50-page submission to the court setting our her case that was released in July.
Despite the political context of this reference, the questions the court has to decide are limited to technical questions of law. The court will decide them by applying legal principles.
The court will require time after the hearing to prepare its judgement. The hearing is the tip of the iceberg. We also have more than 8000 pages of written material to consider.
Therefore, as usual, is likely to be some months before we get our judgement.
Continue reading...UK’s highest court asked to allow Scottish parliament to resolve ‘festering issue’ without Westminster approval
The UK’s highest court has been told the question of Scotland’s independence is a “live and significant one”, and has been urged to authorise a fresh referendum next year.
Dorothy Bain KC, the lord advocate and Scotland’s top law officer, told the supreme court on Tuesday morning that Scottish voters had consistently elected MPs and MSPs who backed independence.
Continue reading...As Graham Mansfield is found not guilty of murder for killing his terminally ill wife, Dyanne, we look at key assisted-dying debates
Graham Mansfield was found not guilty of murder after cutting his wife’s throat “in an act of love” before trying to kill himself, after a judge accepted the couple had made a suicide pact.
It took just 90 minutes for a jury to clear Mansfield, 73, from Hale in Greater Manchester, of the charge after he gave an emotional testimony of how he had killed his wife, Dyanne, because she was in such pain with terminal cancer.
An assisted-dying law would imply it was something everyone elderly, seriously ill or disabled “ought” to consider.
No safeguard could ensure decisions are truly voluntary.
Society should instead ensure palliative care is available to all.
A doctor’s role is not to deliberately bring about a patient’s death.
Palliative care can’t relieve all pain and distress.
Physician-assisted dying is legal for more than 150 million people around the world, with eligibility criteria, safeguards and regulation in place.
End-of-life practices are legal in the UK. The same safeguards could be used in assisted-dying legislation.
The current law is not working, with UK citizens travelling to facilities such as Dignitas in Switzerland. But they need to be well enough to travel, meaning they often end their lives sooner than they would have wished.
Continue reading...Dorothy Bain QC releases her letter to the UK supreme court seeking its ruling on Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second referendum
Scotland’s lord advocate has confirmed she fears Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a fresh independence referendum may be unlawful.
Dorothy Bain QC has now released the letter she wrote to the UK supreme court last week seeking its ruling on whether Sturgeon has the legal powers to stage a referendum without the UK government’s authority.
Continue reading...Judges resign saying administration has ‘departed from values of political freedom and freedom of expression’
UK judges have withdrawn from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal, citing concerns that their continued participation would appear to endorse the current administration amid dwindling political liberties and freedom of expression in the Chinese territory.
Lord Reed, the president of the UK supreme court, the country’s highest court, said he and his colleague Lord Hodge had submitted their resignations as judges of the Hong Kong court of final appeal (HKCFA) with immediate effect.
Continue reading...Scottish first minister calls UK government decision ‘morally repugnant’ as bills were passed unanimously
Nicola Sturgeon has condemned the UK government’s decision to refer two bills passed by Holyrood unanimously to the supreme court as “morally repugnant” amid an outcry from MSPs.
The Scottish parliament passed the United Nations convention on the rights of the child bill and the European charter of local self-government bill in the weeks before it went into recess.
Continue reading...Readers respond to the supreme court decision that Begum will not have her citizenship restored
Every day it seems the Guardian serves up another reason for being ashamed to be British. On Friday, it was the case of Shamima Begum (Shamima Begum loses fight to restore UK citizenship after supreme court ruling, 26 February). It makes it particularly difficult that I’m tutoring someone who is hoping to take an A-level in British politics. All the books list human rights and explain how carefully protected they are in our system. Article 5 is supposed to protect the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention. Yet the supreme court is unable to protect Begum’s rights against a home secretary who is operating a policy based on pandering to public opinion in return for (hoped-for) votes.
We are told that legal protections are particularly important in difficult cases – that is, cases where an individual presents as unpleasant or undeserving. Begum was a teenager who took the extraordinary step of leaving her country to defend something she believed was deserving of her support. But even if she left with the firm intention of terrorising her fellow citizens, does this mean she should be deprived of her rights? It is a matter not of what Begum deserves but of what our national honour, and our constitution, deserve. This has been increasingly in doubt in recent years, with the government threatening to renege over the Northern Irish border agreement; not to mention the Chagos Islands and our participation in rendering citizens to be tortured during the “war on terror”.
Jeremy Cushing
Exeter
Decision means drivers will be entitled to basic rights such as paid holidays, say lawyers
The UK supreme court has dismissed Uber’s appeal against a landmark employment tribunal ruling that its drivers should be classed as workers with access to the minimum wage and paid holidays.
Six justices handed down a unanimous decision backing the October 2016 employment tribunal ruling that could affect millions of workers in the gig economy.
Continue reading...Ogale and Bille villagers say Shell oil operations have caused severe pollution including to their drinking water
Two Nigerian communities can bring their legal claims for a cleanup and for compensation against the oil company Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary in an English court, supreme court judges have said.
In what lawyers said was a “watershed moment” for the accountability of multinational companies, on Friday the court overturned a decision by the court of appeal, and ruled that the cases against Shell could proceed.
Continue reading...Supreme court upholds order against Zamira Hajiyeva, who spent £1m a year at Harrods
A woman who spent £1m a year at Harrods will be forced to give up her £15m home unless she reveals the source of her fortune following the UK’s first McMafia-style “dirty money” investigation.
Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of a former boss of the Azerbaijani state bank jailed for fraud, has lost her final appeal against a court order forcing her to reveal how she came by so much money.
Continue reading...Officials told then home secretary that withdrawing Isis recruit’s citizenship would not hurt community relations, supreme court hears
Home Office officials declared “public sentiment is overwhelmingly hostile” to Shamima Begum and argued removing her British citizenship would not affect community relations when they advised Sajid Javid to act against her last year.
The then home secretary was formally advised that “the general feeling” was that the young woman, who travelled from east London to live under Isis in Syria aged 15, had “made her decision and must now live with it”.
Continue reading...‘We don’t know who won the presidential race yet,’ said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as he defended Trump’s threat to challenge election results in the supreme court, a statement that drew wide criticism.
McConnell on Wednesday said Trump should not be criticised for threatening to bring in his lawyers, adding the Biden campaign would do the same.
‘In a close election you can anticipate in some of these states you are going to end up in court, (it’s) the American way,’ McConnell said during a news conference in Louisville, Kentucky
Continue reading...