Markus Andrews

A minister has admitted that the government has so far failed to tackle the small boats crisis, as the number of people who have crossed the Channel since Labour took power looks set to surpass 50,000. Education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said the number of people coming to the UK after making the dangerous crossing is “a problem that, up to this point, we haven’t managed to tackle” – but insisted that it was the fault of the previous government.“The last government enabled this hideous criminal activity to really get its roots across Europe”, she said, adding that there is now “really important action being taken to tackle it.” It comes as the government ramps up its efforts to bring down migration amid growing public anger over the issue, announcing on Friday that the new “one in, one out” returns deal with France was up and running. The Home Office has also expanded its “deport now, appeal later” scheme, which sees foreign criminals deported before their appeals have been heard.Jacqui Smith More

Kemi Badenoch appeared to suggest the setting up of migrant “camps” when speaking about possible alternatives to using hotels to house asylum seekers. As she met members of the community in Epping, Essex, the Conservative Party leader said: “We’ve got to turn things around very quickly. We cannot use rules from 1995, or 2005, or even 2015 for 2025.“Our world is changing very quickly, and we need to adapt to it.”Speaking on a visit to Epping, Mrs Badenoch said: “Is it possible for us to set up camps and police that, rather than bringing all of this hassle into communities?” More

Keir Starmer is facing an angry backlash over the arrest of hundreds of people during a protest over Palestine Action on Saturday, with a Labour peer warning it could serve to inflame community tensions even further. Shami Chakrabarti told The Independent that the “proscription of Palestine Action is in danger of becoming a mistake of poll tax proportions” – a policy introduced by Margaret Thatcher that was so unpopular it triggered civil disobedience and riots. Meanwhile, veteran backbencher Diane Abbott said the government is in danger of making itself look “both draconian and foolish” after it emerged that more than half of those held were over 60. And former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain described the mass arrests as “madness”, as he said that Palestine Action was not “equivalent to real terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or Islamic State why I voted against its ban”.Protesters sat on the grass in Parliament Square during Saturday’s demonstration (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Keir Starmer has warned that Vladamir Putin cannot be trusted “as far as you could throw him” and that any peace deal must not be imposed on Ukraine.As Donald Trump prepares to meet the Russian leader in Alaska on Friday, Downing Street said the UK would stand with Kyiv until there was a “just” peace.It came after the UK and European nations rallied in support of Ukraine at the weekend as a defiant Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the US president’s suggestion that a deal to end the war may involve giving up land to Russia. ( More

Rachel Reeves has been dealt a fresh blow on the economy as company hiring plans fall to a “record low” following her national insurance contributions (NIC) hike. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said just 57 per cent of private sector employers plan to recruit staff in the next three months, down from 65 per cent last autumn, as they battle rising costs.The influential monthly report by accountants KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Federation (REC) also showed a “further steep decline” in permanent worker appointments last month, with recruiters blaming weak confidence in the economy and higher payroll costs. Anna Leach, the chief economist at the Institute of Directors, warned the trend “could undermine the UK’s weak growth outlook further, hitting both living standards and tax revenues”.Rachel Reeves has suffered another economic blow More

The education sector is facing disaster, a union boss has warned, after a new survey showed that one in 10 teachers could leave the profession in the next two years. A survey of 1,800 teachers found that 9 per cent say they are “very likely” to quit in the next 24 months, with over a third (37 per cent) saying their workload is overwhelming or unsustainable. With 468,258 teachers in England, this would amount to around 42,000 leaving the profession – a figure that dwarfs the 6,500 Labour has promised to hire, funded by charging VAT on private school fees. School teachers are under increasing pressure More

Labour has said it is returning more than £40,000 donated by a convicted criminal who the party had already expelled as a member.The donations came from businessman Abdul Sattar Shere-Mohammod, 55, known as Shere Sattar, who was convicted of actual bodily harm in 2022 and thrown out of Labour later that year. The money includes £10,300 given to the central party last June, a figure that is just below the threshold to be disclosed to the elections watchdog, the Electoral Commission.The revelations raise questions about Labour’s procedures for accepting political donations, an issue which hit the headlines following reports earlier this year that Elon Musk planned to give Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party $100m (£74m). In its manifesto at the last election, Sir Keir Starmer’s party pledged to “protect democracy by strengthening the rules around donations to political parties”. As well as the money given to the party, £15,000 was donated by Mohammod to, in part, support the re-election of Portsmouth MP Stephen Morgan, the early education minister. The party said Mr Morgan was not aware of his conviction.His local party should have declared these, but Labour has blamed an “administrative error” that it said was being rectified.Stephen Morgan, the early education minister More

Rachel Reeves has urged the public to be patient with Labour on the economy, saying that the change they voted for in last summer’s election was “never going to happen overnight”.The chancellor insisted she was “impatient” to deliver and said ministers had made a start on turning things around, but there was “lots more to do” as she blamed the last Tory government for the nation’s financial problems. Her comments come just days after the Bank of England warned the public of months of sharp price rises ahead, driven by higher food costs. Reeves says the changes were ‘never going to happen overnight’ More