Markus Andrews

Labour government ‘moving forward with strongest team’ following Cabinet reshuffle after Rayner resignationThe new home secretary is expected to unveil plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks as Sir Keir Starmer seeks to harden his immigration policy amid rising numbers of crossings in the Channel.Shabana Mahmood is reportedly set to announce the use of Ministry of Defence sites to house people after a wave of protests outside migrant accommodation over the summer.The defence secretary John Healey confirmed to Sky News that he has placed military planners into the Home Office to scout out military facilities, after an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK by small boat over the course of Saturday. It comes after the prime minister continued his major reshuffle of his top team and junior ministers. The prime minister sacked Rachel Reeves’s sister from the Cabinet and farming minister Daniel Zeichner, while Jason Stockwood, who had a senior role at dating site Match.com, has been appointed to the Department of Business and Trade. It comes as his chief secretary Darren Jones denied that Labour were in crisis, and rebuffed Nigel Farage’s prediction that there would be a general election in 2027. Starmer moved quickly to appoint David Lammy deputy prime minister while Yvette Cooper has been moved from home secretary to take up a new role as foreign secretary, with justice secretary Shabana Mahmood replacing her at the Home Office.Asylum seekers could be “temporarily” moved to military sitesAsylum seekers could be temporarily moved to military sites after Sir Keir Starmer told his new-look Cabinet to “go up a gear” amid rising numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel.“I think you’ll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs of the whole of Government, not just the Home Office,” the Defence Secretary, John Healey, told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show.He said part of this would involve looking at moving asylum seekers into “temporary” accommodation on military sites, but did not confirm a date for when such transfers might take place.John Healey said asylum seekers could be temporarily moved to military sites More

Boris Johnson would not be welcomed into Reform UK, Nigel Farage has said, warning that his failures in government will not be forgiven. The Reform leader said the ex-prime minister joining his insurgent right-wing party “would not really work”, despite some of Mr Johnson’s most ardent supporters switching allegiance.“The Boris wave, millions of people being allowed into Britain, most of whom don’t even work and are costing us a fortune, that is something for which this audience will never, ever forgive him,” Mr Farage told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Nigel Farage said Boris Johnson joining Reform would not work More

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned Labour’s deputy leadership contest is a make or break moment for the government, with the party facing “the fight of its life” amid the rise of Reform. With Nigel Farage comfortably leading in the polls, Dame Emily Thornberry and Andy Burnham said the PM must listen more to his backbenchers to stop Reform UK from winning the next general election. Dame Emily said she was considering running for the deputy leadership after Angela Rayner was forced to resign over her failure to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on the purchase of a flat in Hove. Dame Emily Thornberry said she is considering standing for the deputy leadership More

Reform UK has been criticised for allowing a vaccine sceptic cardiologist to address its conference, where he claimed Covid vaccines may have caused the King and Princess of Wales’s cancer.Health secretary Wes Streeting said it was “irresponsible” of the party to allow Dr Assem Malhotra to speak from the stage in Birmingham, where he made a series of claims about the pharmaceutical industry, politicians and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday.Dr Malhotra, who described himself as a friend of controversial US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, said hundreds of studies showed the harms of mRNA vaccines and that they were interfering with genes.Dr Assem Malhotra made a series of claims about the pharmaceutical industry, politicians and the World Health Organisation at the Reform conference More

The government has announced a new education drive to ramp up defence training to a “wartime pace”.It is aiming to grow the UK’s skilled workforce through five new “technical excellence colleges” nationwide, along with targeted short courses and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) schemes for school students. A £182 million funding package will underpin the initiative, forming a central part of a new defence industrial strategy due to be unveiled on Monday.It will include:Regional STEM initiatives for “thousands” of school-age students over the next four years to pursue careers in defence.Targeted short courses for people already working in specific defence industries.Higher education investment to increase places on defence-related courses. A new apprenticeship and graduate clearing system.Five new defence technical excellence colleges, with applications to go live by the end of this year and with successful colleges to be launched in 2026.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the strategy would offer opportunities for young people and help veterans into employment.Defence Secretary John Healey visits RAF Akrotiri during a visit to Cyprus in 2024 More

Sir Keir Starmer has continued his major reshuffle following Angela Rayner’s resignation as housing secretary and deputy prime minister.The prime minister is seeking to relaunch his government as it lags behind Reform UK in the polls and struggles to deliver on key promises.Sir Keir moved Yvette Cooper from the Home Office to the Foreign Office on Friday in a major shake-up of his top team.But now he is reshuffling other key ministerial posts, including sweeping changes in the Home Office.Junior ministers and ministers of state have specific areas of responsibility in government departments. This differs from a cabinet minister who is in charge of a whole department and takes part in cabinet meetings. Sir Keir Starmer has continued his major reshuffle over the weekend More

Sir Keir Starmer has orchestrated a ministerial clearout of the Home Office after a failure to tackle illegal migration and rows over grooming gangs and policing badly damaged Labour in the polls.With panic rising over Reform’s 10-point lead in the polls and Nigel Farage continuing to capitalise on a failure to stop the small boats amid protests outside migrant hotels, Sir Keir appears to have lost patience with the highly vaunted team he installed in July last year.Former home secretary Yvette Cooper, who just weeks ago was laying out her vision for the future of the Home Office, has been appointed foreign secretary while several of her key ministers have been moved to different parts of government. Shabana Mahmood is the new home secretary More