Cleverly says Starmer has a ‘disconnect from actuality’ over housing asylum seekers
Howdy and welcome to the UK politics stay weblog.
Newly-appointed shadow housing secretary James Cleverly has criticised the prime minister for a “disconnect from actuality” in relation to housing asylum seekers.
The Tory MP and former dwelling secretary stated asylum resorts are being reopened and that extra asylum seekers are prone to be despatched to an lodging centre in his personal constituency of Braintree.
“The federal government has misplaced management,” he instructed LBC.
“And so as to add insult to harm, we noticed the prime minister on the Liaison Committee simply this week blithely saying, oh, there are many homes for asylum seekers, when there are individuals all around the nation struggling to get on the housing ladder, and that full disconnect from actuality, I feel, is driving a number of frustrations.
“There may be by no means an excuse for rioting, and I’ll make that completely clear, however the authorities actually is making a tough scenario considerably worse.”
He stated that individuals who stay near services housing asylum seekers are “sometimes nicely behaved” however that there are “agitators, each of the left and the precise, imposing themselves on native communities to attempt to play out a political agenda, and native persons are caught within the crossfire”.
The federal government needs to be seen to be “on the aspect of the individuals who play by the foundations, fairly than on the aspect of the individuals who abuse the system, soar the queue and attempt to exploit our hospitality,” he stated.
In different information:
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Angela Rayner urged the federal government to acknowledge individuals’s “actual considerations” and flagged excessive ranges of deprivation the place the worst riots erupted final summer season almost a yr on from the dysfunction. The deputy prime minister instructed Cupboard colleagues that immigration and growing time spent on-line are having a “profound affect on society”.
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Edward Argar has stepped down as shadow well being secretary, which he stated was on the recommendation of his docs after a “well being scare” earlier this summer season. He will likely be changed by Stuart Andrew, a former minister who has been shadow tradition minister.
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Kevin Hollinrake, who had been shadow housing and communities secretary, will change into get together chair. He takes over from Nigel Huddleston, who would be the new shadow tradition secretary.
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Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones has joined Reform UK, changing into the get together’s first Member of the Senedd (MS).
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The UK authorities borrowed greater than anticipated in June amid hypothesis the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, might want to increase taxes on the autumn price range to restore the general public funds. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed public sector web borrowing rose to £20.7bn, up by £6.6bn from the identical month a yr earlier to succeed in the second-highest June borrowing determine since month-to-month data started in 1993.
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Synthetic intelligence expertise will likely be trialled to evaluate disputed ages of asylum seekers who say they’re youngsters, the Residence Workplace has stated. Ministers hope to roll out facial age estimation for migrants arriving by small boats and lorries over 2026, topic to additional testing of the expertise to go forward this yr.
Key occasions
A document variety of law enforcement officials had been sacked from forces in England and Wales up to now yr, new figures present.
Newest Residence Workplace information reveals 426 officers had been dismissed or had their contracts terminated within the 12 months to March.
That is up 17% yr on yr from the earlier document of 365 and greater than double the quantity fired at first of the last decade, when 164 officers had been dismissed in 2019/20.
The most recent 12-month interval additionally noticed 4,806 officers voluntarily leaving policing: the second-highest quantity since data started in 2006 and down barely from the height of 5,151 in 2023/24.
The figures come as ministers have sought to tighten guidelines on requirements to enhance confidence in policing, whereas they’ve additionally confronted warnings from forces that funding falls brief to maintain its current workforce.
A complete of 146,442 full-time equal (FTE) law enforcement officials had been in put up on the finish of March 2025, down virtually 1% from 147,745 on the similar level final yr, which was the very best in fashionable instances.
Final month, plans for a mean 2.3% rise in police spending per yr confronted backlash from police leaders, who warned a projected £1.2 billion shortfall will proceed to develop and depart forces dealing with additional cuts.
Appearing nationwide chair of the Police Federation, Tiff Lynch, had stated:
We are going to lose 10,000 skilled officers a yr to resignation by the tip of this spending evaluate interval, pushed out by poor pay and unacceptable working circumstances.
Mark Sweney
The UK competitors watchdog has stated that it intends to take motion to open up Apple and Google’s cell platforms to extra competitors to learn shoppers, companies and app builders.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has designated the tech firms as having “strategic market standing” – as they maintain an efficient duopoly for entry on cell gadgets – and now intends to power Google and Apple to make adjustments to their cell platforms.
The regulator stated that it has revealed “roadmaps” for every of the tech companies and that it’s going to take a “proportionate, pro-innovation” strategy to “promote competitors in digital markets whereas defending UK shoppers and companies from unfair or dangerous practices”.
The CMA stated that it’s going to, within the first occasion, concentrate on areas such because the tech firms’ app shops – which have been criticised by builders – to make sure a “honest and clear” app evaluate course of, in addition to ensuring that smartphone customers can “steer” away from app shops to make purchases.
Different areas of focus embrace addressing restrictions Apple imposes on digital wallets to make sure that competing monetary expertise firms can compete.
The UK competitors watchdog announced its investigations into Apple and Google’s cell platforms in January. The CMA investigation was launched days after the appointment of Doug Gurr, the previous nation supervisor of Amazon UK, as its new chair.
The federal government, which has pushed for a shake-up of regulation to assist kickstart UK development, was compelled to disclaim it was “in the pocket of big tech” after the appointment.
The defence secretary has signed an settlement paving the best way for the export of Storm fighter jets to Turkey.
John Healey and Turkish counterpart Yasar Guler signed a memorandum of understanding on the Worldwide Defence Business Honest in Istanbul.
It comes after the German authorities reportedly cleared the trail for the supply of 40 Storm Eurofighter jets to Turkey.
“Immediately’s settlement is an enormous step in direction of Turkiye shopping for UK Storm fighter jets,” Mr Healey stated.
“It reveals this authorities’s dedication to safe new defence offers, constructing on {our relationships} overseas to ship for British working individuals.
“Equipping Turkiye with Typhoons would strengthen Nato’s collective defence, and increase each our nations’ industrial bases by securing 1000’s of expert jobs throughout the UK for years to come back.”
Greater than a 3rd of every plane will likely be manufactured within the UK, with closing meeting happening on the BAE Techniques website in Lancashire.
Sally Weale
The kids’s author Michael Rosen, one-time political strategist Alastair Campbell and former training secretaries Charles Clarke and Estelle Morris have urged the prime minister to honour his pre-election pledge to embed talking expertise in England’s faculties.
They’re amongst 60 signatories to an open letter to Keir Starmer, calling on him to determine oracy as a core a part of Labour’s revised nationwide curriculum and make it the fourth ‘R’ in training, alongside studying, writing and arithmetic.
Supporters had been delighted when Labour announced in 2023 that educating oracy – usually outlined as creating talent in utilizing spoken language – could be a central a part of Labour’s instructional priorities if it gained the subsequent election.
Nevertheless, campaigners say it was not talked about within the interim report of the federal government’s curriculum and evaluation evaluate earlier this yr, resulting in fears oracy might have slipped down the tutorial agenda. The total report is due later this yr.
The letter, organised by Voice 21, the UK’s main oracy training charity, stated: “Two years in the past you pledged that below your Labour authorities, each baby could be supported to develop important oracy expertise – as a part of the mission to make sure all younger persons are ready for work and prepared for all times.
“We urge you to show that promise into lasting change. In a world formed by fast advances in synthetic intelligence, deepening social divides and protracted inequality, the talents of talking, listening and communication have by no means been extra urgently wanted.”
Tory chief Kemi Badenoch performed down the potential affect of the federal government’s efforts to crack down on migrants working illegally as supply riders.
She stated: “I feel it’s barely scratching the floor of the issue. The true drawback is that Keir Starmer has didn’t cease the boats.
“He stated he was going to smash the gangs. Nothing like that has occurred. The issue is getting worse.
“Crossings are up nicely over 40% since Labour got here into into authorities. He must cope with that.
“He had a third-country deterrent, which was the Rwanda plan. He determined to scrap it simply because it was getting going. He must convey that plan again, proper now he doesn’t have one.”
Reform councillors criticised after voting to spend £150,000 on political advisers
Ben Quinn
Reform UK councillors have been accused of hypocrisy after voting to spend £150,000 on hiring political advisers at a county council regardless of pledging to chop waste and lower your expenses.
The plans had been put ahead by Reform councillor George Finch, a 19-year-old who was narrowly elected because the chief of Warwickshire county council throughout a gathering on Tuesday, which was picketed by protesters.
The protest got here after a row over an try by Finch, as interim chief, to have a Pleasure flag faraway from council headquarters earlier than the tip of Pleasure month. The chief govt refused the request, telling him she was accountable for such selections.
Nevertheless, there was recent controversy throughout a gathering of the council, considered one of a number of the place Reform grew to become the biggest get together within the latest native elections, because it narrowly pushed by way of plans to rent political advisers however misplaced a separate vote regarding the local weather disaster.
Opposition councillors accused Reform of reneging on guarantees to voters over the political advisers, who could be publicly funded for it and the opposite two largest events, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Kemi Badenoch blamed Labour for the strains on social cohesion highlighted by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
The Conservative chief stated: “I’m stunned it’s taken her this lengthy to truly perceive what’s going on.” Talking in north-west London she stated Hillingdon Council had a £17 million deficit as a result of it has had asylum seekers “dumped on their doorstep”.
“Yvette Cooper is waving issues by way of. Rachel Reeves is just not offering the cash. I’m not stunned. Angela Rayner is saying the social material is fraying, however she must do one thing about it.”
She stated she was not fearful about additional riots on the streets this summer season however “we have to be very, very vigilant”.
At Tuesday’s Cupboard assembly Rayner urged colleagues to acknowledge individuals’s “actual considerations”, mentioning that immigration and growing time spent on-line are having a “profound affect on society”.
She additionally cited financial insecurity, the fast tempo of deindustrialisation and declining belief in establishments as she gave an replace on her work on social cohesion and a coming plan for neighbourhoods.
Kemi Badenoch has insisted she and her new shadow housing secretary James Cleverly are on the identical web page in relation to web zero and the European Conference on Human Rights (ECHR).
The Conservative chief was requested by broadcasters whether or not Cleverly was signed as much as her place on each.
Badenoch replied: “James and I’ve all the time had the identical place on the ECHR, and that’s that if we have to depart, then we should always depart, however it’s not a silver bullet.
“That’s the reason we’ve got a fee on this very situation, which will likely be reporting at get together convention.
“So I wouldn’t convey somebody into the shadow cupboard in the event that they didn’t agree with me.”
Indian prime minister makes UK state go to to signal landmark commerce deal
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is visiting London to signal a landmark free trade agreement between his nation and the UK, a pact considered as a political and financial prize amid world commerce tensions unleashed by the US president, Donald Trump.
For Britain, keen to attain a post-Brexit win, the deal is its most economically important commerce settlement since leaving the EU. For India, it marks its first main free commerce pact outdoors Asia. For each, analysts say, the settlement indicators a long-term financial partnership.
“The UK and India, in some ways we’ve got complementarities. Now we have had a historic relationship. It’s good to have a deeper commerce relationship,” stated Indian economist Sanjaya Baru.
Throughout Modi’s two-day state go to beginning on Wednesday, his fourth to the UK as prime minister, he’ll maintain “wide-ranging” talks along with his counterpart, Keir Starmer, on commerce, defence, technological cooperation and safety, and also will pay a courtesy name on King Charles, based on an Indian authorities assertion.
Dan Sabbagh
Campaigners have referred to as for Keir Starmer to inform parliament whether or not US nuclear weapons have returned to British soil after a particular US air power transport flight was noticed touchdown at RAF Lakenheath on Friday morning.
The Marketing campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a number of other specialists imagine that it’s extremely possible that numerous US B61-12 gravity bombs had been delivered to a US air power squadron final week, the primary US nuclear deployment within the UK since 2008.
Tom Unterrainer, the chair of CND, stated it was “fully inappropriate” for the general public to search out out about “a serious escalation in nuclear hazard” through the assessments of navy specialists and referred to as for the prime minister to replace MPs.
The pinnacle of the marketing campaign group stated the prime minister “should make a public assertion about this main change in Britain’s safety preparations and permit for a clear and democratic debate” on the problem.
Affirmation of any deployment of nuclear weapons by Starmer or the defence secretary, John Healey, is just not anticipated, nonetheless. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence stated: “It stays a long-standing UK and Nato coverage to neither verify nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”
Michael Savage
One among tv’s most outstanding administrators has accused the tradition secretary, Lisa Nandy, of trying to “bully the BBC” over its protection of Gaza, following her repeated assaults on its director common, Tim Davie.
Peter Kosminsky, the author and director of the BBC drama Wolf Corridor, claimed the federal government was performing like a “tinpot dictatorship” in heaping political stress on Davie.
In a letter to Nandy, seen by the Guardian, Kosminsky cited the “ignominious historical past” of political interference within the BBC. He evoked the demise of Dr David Kelly, the federal government weapons professional, who died in 2003 shortly after being revealed because the supply for a BBC story stating the federal government “in all probability knew” a declare about Iraq’s weapons capabilities was not true.
“Might I respectfully recommend that you just cease attempting to bully the BBC, the nation’s main public service broadcaster, over its protection of the struggle in Gaza,” wrote Kosminsky, who made a docu drama about Kelly’s demise in 2005.
“The final time Labour was in energy, it picked a public battle with the BBC over an editorial matter. It didn’t finish nicely for both get together and a person – David Kelly – tragically died.
“I’ve been a Labour supporter for many of my life. It provides me no pleasure to observe this authorities behaving like a tinpot dictatorship, attempting to pressurise a broadcaster for which it holds the purse strings. You’re the present custodians of the 100-year custom of public service broadcasting on this nation. This isn’t the best way to discharge that obligation.”
Residence Workplace minister Seema Malhotra stated new measures to share details about asylum lodge areas with meals supply firms to deal with suspected hotspots of unlawful working will “enhance the velocity” of deporting unlawful staff.
She instructed BBC Radio 4’s Immediately programme: “If I take one instance of the place we did an unlawful working raid simply a few months in the past – 4 individuals who had been discovered to be working illegally, of these, three had been deported inside a month.
“That is linked with the work we’re doing to enhance the best way that we’re coping with asylum backlogs, enhance the velocity with which we’re deporting those that haven’t any proper to be within the UK – over 35,000 since final July.”
Newly-appointed shadow housing secretary James Cleverly stated he understands “the need to protest” when requested about demonstrations outdoors resorts believed to be housing asylum seekers.
There have been a sequence of protests outdoors the Bell Resort in Epping, Essex, since an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault.
Requested if he has sympathy for individuals protesting outdoors asylum resorts, the Tory MP instructed BBC Radio 4’s Immediately programme: “I perceive the need to protest.
“There may be by no means any excuse for rioting and we’re seeing that agitators, each on the left and the precise, are descending upon these communities to attempt to stir issues up and there’s by no means an excuse for that, however I do perceive why native persons are pissed off.
“Once I was dwelling secretary, as a authorities we had been closing the usage of asylum resorts. I, as dwelling secretary, lower web migration in half, nonetheless too excessive, however I lower it in half.
“The Labour authorities thought it was going to be straightforward and what we at the moment are seeing is a whole collapse of border management; we noticed the worst first half of the yr in relation to small boats arrivals on document; they’re opening up asylum resorts; they’re growing the usage of asylum lodging across the nation, and persons are indignant they usually’re pissed off.”
He added: “I by no means stated it began below Labour, however it has demonstrably bought worse after they thought it was going to be straightforward.”
Dover asylum protests pose hazard to small boat arrivals, charities say
Diane Taylor
Charities have warned of the growing hazard to asylum seekers posed by far-right protesters after small boat arrivals had been moved from their normal touchdown place in Dover to additional alongside the coast to keep away from clashes.
The Guardian understands that Residence Workplace officers obtained intelligence that a few of these taking part in what was billed the Nice British Nationwide Protest in Dover on Saturday afternoon might have been planning to focus on Kent Consumption Unit, the place small boat arrivals are initially processed after being escorted to shore in Dover by the Border Power.
A flag of the white supremacist get together Patriotic Various, led by the previous BNP official Mark Collett, was photographed on the march.
A complete of 153 individuals who arrived in three dinghies on Saturday had been “landed” in Ramsgate and processed at Manston, the location the place small boat arrivals are often taken to after going by way of KIU.
It’s extremely uncommon for small boats to be landed at Ramsgate, and the change is believed to have been to keep away from potential clashes with protesters.
Small boats had been beforehand “landed” in Ramsgate in 2022 owing to the P&O Ferries disaster. Western Jet Foil, one other processing website, was targeted by the intense rightwing terrorist Andrew Leak in 2022, who threw two or three incendiary gadgets on the website earlier than killing himself.
The Residence Workplace determination to divert small boat arrivals to keep away from clashes with the far proper comes as tensions mount between asylum seekers and anti-migration protesters at resorts.
James Cleverly has stated Angela Rayner’s remark about social cohesion “rings a bit hole” due to her participation in Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests.
The deputy prime minister stated in a Cupboard assembly on Tuesday that immigration, time spent on-line and financial insecurity had been having a “profound affect on society”.
The shadow housing secretary instructed Sky Information: “I feel she makes an excellent level, and I feel she’s echoed issues that Conservatives have stated for some time. I feel it rings a bit hole when she was one of many those that took the knee in the course of the BLM protest.
“She, the Labour get together, the prime minister, have jumped on each bandwagon that’s come alongside, they usually have spent a lot time seeming to be on the aspect of the individuals who don’t play by the foundations, who soar the queue, who abuse the system.
“And now that they’re in authorities, she is saying, ‘Oh, nicely, I feel you realize, society is fracturing’, seemingly blind to the position the Labour get together have performed in driving wedges between communities.”
Rajeev Syal
Len McCluskey, the previous head of Unite, accepted non-public jet flights and soccer tickets organized by the corporate constructing a multimillion pound lodge for the union, based on an inside file.
The Flanagan Group, which is run by mates of McCluskey, overcharged Unite by at the least £30m for the Birmingham lodge and convention centre challenge, the interim report said.
It additionally discovered that McCluskey “overruled” recommendation from workers and the union’s attorneys in signing the development contract with the Flanagan Group.
Unite’s report stated the flights and tickets had been “persistently organised and paid for by” the corporate and there was “no indication” that McCluskey later reimbursed them.
He denied he had overruled workers or attorneys. The Flanagan Group didn’t reply to requests from the BBC and the Guardian for remark.
McCluskey, who was Unite’s common secretary between 2010 and 2021, was a key participant within the labour motion and the main monetary backer of Jeremy Corbyn when Corbyn was Labour chief.
In the meantime, James Cleverly has stated he won’t shadow Angela Rayner in her position as deputy prime minister.
He instructed ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
I’m the shadow housing secretary. In opposition, buildings are completely different and necessities are completely different.
And when it comes to deputy prime minister, I feel that’s a job title, fairly than a job – an excuse to have an much more bloated Civil Service hierarchy on the centre of Westminster.
And I feel that could be a reflection on how Angela Rayner has very efficiently outmanoeuvred Keir Starmer at each flip, and has gathered authority and energy on the coronary heart of presidency.
And I don’t, I don’t really feel the necessity to shadow that cumbersome forms.
My job is about highlighting her failure and the Labour authorities’s failure to ship on their promise to the British individuals, which is to construct properties that British individuals can stay in.
He referred to as Rayner “formidable” and stated he seems to be ahead to “sparring along with her”.
Cleverly says Starmer has a ‘disconnect from actuality’ over housing asylum seekers
Howdy and welcome to the UK politics stay weblog.
Newly-appointed shadow housing secretary James Cleverly has criticised the prime minister for a “disconnect from actuality” in relation to housing asylum seekers.
The Tory MP and former dwelling secretary stated asylum resorts are being reopened and that extra asylum seekers are prone to be despatched to an lodging centre in his personal constituency of Braintree.
“The federal government has misplaced management,” he instructed LBC.
“And so as to add insult to harm, we noticed the prime minister on the Liaison Committee simply this week blithely saying, oh, there are many homes for asylum seekers, when there are individuals all around the nation struggling to get on the housing ladder, and that full disconnect from actuality, I feel, is driving a number of frustrations.
“There may be by no means an excuse for rioting, and I’ll make that completely clear, however the authorities actually is making a tough scenario considerably worse.”
He stated that individuals who stay near services housing asylum seekers are “sometimes nicely behaved” however that there are “agitators, each of the left and the precise, imposing themselves on native communities to attempt to play out a political agenda, and native persons are caught within the crossfire”.
The federal government needs to be seen to be “on the aspect of the individuals who play by the foundations, fairly than on the aspect of the individuals who abuse the system, soar the queue and attempt to exploit our hospitality,” he stated.
In different information:
-
Angela Rayner urged the federal government to acknowledge individuals’s “actual considerations” and flagged excessive ranges of deprivation the place the worst riots erupted final summer season almost a yr on from the dysfunction. The deputy prime minister instructed Cupboard colleagues that immigration and growing time spent on-line are having a “profound affect on society”.
-
Edward Argar has stepped down as shadow well being secretary, which he stated was on the recommendation of his docs after a “well being scare” earlier this summer season. He will likely be changed by Stuart Andrew, a former minister who has been shadow tradition minister.
-
Kevin Hollinrake, who had been shadow housing and communities secretary, will change into get together chair. He takes over from Nigel Huddleston, who would be the new shadow tradition secretary.
-
Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones has joined Reform UK, changing into the get together’s first Member of the Senedd (MS).
-
The UK authorities borrowed greater than anticipated in June amid hypothesis the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, might want to increase taxes on the autumn price range to restore the general public funds. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed public sector web borrowing rose to £20.7bn, up by £6.6bn from the identical month a yr earlier to succeed in the second-highest June borrowing determine since month-to-month data started in 1993.
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Synthetic intelligence expertise will likely be trialled to evaluate disputed ages of asylum seekers who say they’re youngsters, the Residence Workplace has stated. Ministers hope to roll out facial age estimation for migrants arriving by small boats and lorries over 2026, topic to additional testing of the expertise to go forward this yr.
