UK Politics

From being interviewed under caution as part of Operation Branchform, to leading a failed bid for Scottish independence, Nicola Sturgeon’s time in office – and the years after it – were far from ordinary. In her long-awaited memoir, Frankly, the former Scottish first minister details how it felt to have police raid the home she shared with her ex-husband Peter Murrell, as well as shedding light on her relationship with her predecessor Alex Salmond and the row over trans rights that dominated her final months in the job. Here, The Independent looks at the key takeaways from Ms Sturgeon’s explosive memoir. Nicola Sturgeon’s new book went on sale on Monday More

Kemi Badenoch has suggested placing asylum seekers currently housed in hotels into “camps”, as new Home Office figures reveal that almost 50,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Sir Keir Starmer took office.Speaking about immigration to members of the public in Epping, Essex on Monday (11 August), the leader of the opposition said: “We’ve got to turn things around very quickly. We cannot use rules from 1995, or 2005, or even 2015 for 2025.”She pondered: “Is it possible for us to set up camps and police that, rather than bringing all of this hassle into communities?”In recent weeks, protesters have gathered across Epping to oppose the decision to house asylum seekers in local hotels. More

The terror law that saw hundreds arrested for supporting Palestine Action is “not consistent with basic rights to free speech” and should be changed, a former Supreme court judge has warned. Writing for the Independent, Lord Sumption said the Terror Act’s definition of what amounts to support for a proscribed organisation is “far too wide”. He warned that one of the criteria – wearing, carrying or displaying something that supports the group – goes too far and should be rowed back to avoid the more than 500 people arrested at Saturday’s protest against the group’s ban under terror laws from being criminalised.Urging the government to amend the Act, he said, “merely indicating your support for a terrorist organisation without doing anything to assist or further its acts should not be a criminal offence”.Starmer is facing a furious backlash over the row More

Nicola Sturgeon says transgender rapists “probably forfeit the right to be the gender of their choice”, as she conceded she “should have been much more straightforward” on the issue of double rapist Isla Bryson’s gender.Reforms which would have allowed transgender people to self-identify as their preferred gender were passed by Holyrood in 2022 but were blocked by Westminster the following year.Afterwards, Bryson was sent to a women’s only jail after being convicted of raping two women, before being transferred to a male prison.In an interview with ITV News on Monday (11 August), the former SNP leader said that anyone who commits the “most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice” before going on to admit “that probably was not the best phrase to use”. More

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