UK Politics

Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at Zarah Sultana after she accused him of “capitulating” over antisemitism when he was Labour leader as tensions at the top of their new left-wing party grow.The Islington MP said it was “not really necessary” for Ms Sultana, with whom he is currently co-leading the as-yet-unnamed party, to “bring all that up”. It came after Ms Sultana used an interview with the New Left Review to say Mr Corbyn as Labour leader “capitulated to the IHRA definition of antisemitism”.The Coventry MP also said Mr Corbyn alienated voters by “triangulating” on Brexit and that Labour under his leadership was “frightened and far too conciliatory”.Zarah Sultana hit out at Jeremy Corbyn’s time as Labour leader More

Labour has failed to tell a “coherent story” about the change it has delivered since last year’s general election, Wes Streeting has admitted. The health secretary said Sir Keir Starmer’s party has had “a whole number of achievements” since coming to power last July, but has not done enough to convince voters it is changing the country for the better. With Nigel Farage’s Reform UK surging, and Sir Keir’s approval ratings hitting record lows, Mr Streeting said positives such as falling NHS waiting lists have not yet cut through with voters. Wes Streeting said Labour has not told a ‘coherent enough story’ about its achievements so far More

A crackdown on child benefit claimants who have moved abroad will save taxpayers £350m in the next five years, the government has said. A Cabinet Office team will track the travel data of benefit claimants and target those who have left the country and are no longer entitled to payments. It comes after a pilot of the scheme saw 15 investigators strip payments from 2,600 claimants who had left Britain but were still receiving child benefit. Georgia Gould warned those wrongly claiming benefits ‘your time is up’ More

The dilemma of how to house asylum seekers in Britain got more challenging for the government after a landmark court ruling this week motivated opponents to fight hotels used as accommodation.Politicians on the right capitalized on a temporary injunction that blocked housing asylum seekers in a hotel in Epping, on the outskirts of London, to encourage other communities to also go to court. The issue is at the heart of a heated public debate over how to control unauthorized immigration that has bedeviled countries across the West as an influx of migrants seeking a better life as they flee war-torn countries, poverty, regions wracked by climate change or political persecution.In the U.K., the debate has focused on the arrival of migrants crossing the English Channel in overloaded boats run by smugglers and escalating tensions over housing thousands of asylum seekers at government expense around the country. Here’s a look at the issue: The hotels The government is legally obligated to house asylum seekers. Using hotels to do so had been a marginal issue until 2020, when the number of asylum seekers increased sharply and the then-Conservative government had to find new ways to house them.There have been more than 27,000 unauthorized arrivals so far this year, nearly 50% higher than at the same point last year and ahead of the number at this time of year in 2022, when a record 45,755 came ashore. The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels stood at just over 32,000 at the end of June, according to Home Office figures released Thursday. That figure was up 8% from about 29,500 a year earlier but far below the peak of more than 56,000 in September 2023.A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001. In May, the National Audit Office said those temporarily living in hotels accounted for 35% of all people in asylum accommodation. The Epping case Anti-migrant protesters and counter-protesters gathered for weeks outside the Bell Hotel in Epping after news that a hotel resident tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and was charged with sexual assault. The man has denied the accusation and is due to stand trial later this month.Epping Forest District Council sought a temporary injunction to shut down the hotel because of “unprecedented levels of protest and disruption,” which had led to several arrests. The High Court decision in favor of the council has the potential to spread elsewhere and government ministers are scrambling to work out what they can do if other councils manage to win similar rulings.However, the Epping decision was based on planning laws, which may not apply elsewhere. The politics Many politicians, such as Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage, have sought to link many of the problems the country faces, such as health and housing, with migrant arrivals.Others, including the government, argue that the likes of Farage are whipping up the issue for political gain and that there are no easy answers to an issue affecting many European countries.The leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, urged Tory councils all over the country to launch legal challenges similar to that of Epping if their legal advice allowed. The ruling Labour Party dismissed her appeal as “desperate and hypocritical nonsense,” but several Labour-led councils have also suggested they, too, could mount legal action against asylum hotels in their areas.The worry is that the tensions could explode into the sort of violence that ravaged many towns and cities in England last summer in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and several wounded. Government options The government’s first priority is to sharply decrease the number of dangerous channel crossings. Having ditched the Conservative administration’s plan to send migrants who arrived by unauthorized means to Rwanda, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would disrupt the gangs profiting off migrant trafficking.The government is also looking to speed up processing asylum claims and hoping a deal with France to send migrants who cross the channel back back to France will succeed as a deterrent for others.Whether those plans succeed or not, however, the issue of what to do with the tens of thousands of asylum seekers in the country remains.Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said the government is looking for contingency options.The government scrapped the use of a barge to house migrants off the south coast earlier this year and plans to end housing at military barracks in Kent next month. But a former air base in Essex is expected to add more beds for men seeking asylum. The easiest option would most likely house asylum seekers in the private sector, but that risks compounding problems in the rental market in a country where housebuilding has been low for years.___Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this story. More

Rachel Reeves has been warned that cutting the tax-free amount people can withdraw from their pension pots would be self-defeating and “hit responsible savers who have diligently put money aside”.The chancellor will look at proposals by civil servants that could raise around £2bn by lowering the limit on how much people are allowed to take out of their pension without paying tax.Currently, pensioners can take out a quarter of their pension pot tax-free, with a cap of £268,000. Lowering the level could bring in billions of pounds of additional tax revenue each year as the Treasury grapples with a black hole of as much as £50bn.Rachel Reeves could consider cutting the tax-free pension lump sum allowance More

Rachel Reeves is spending the summer grappling with the various options at her disposal to fill a £50bn hole in the public finances. The chancellor will be presented in the coming weeks with a range of potential tax hikes to help her balance the books within her self-imposed fiscal rules.To restore an almost £10bn buffer in the current forecasts, she must raise a total of £51.1bn, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) think tank has warned. And, having promised last October’s Budget was a one-off with no more major tax hikes on the way, Ms Reeves faces the fury of voters, business chiefs and investors if she goes back on her word.Ministers have already squeezed significant savings out of their departments in cuts that were unveiled at June’s spending review, limiting the chancellor’s room for manoeuvre and raising the prospect of tax hikes.Rachel Reeves has a multi-billion pound hole in the public finances to fill More

Kemi Badenoch has been branded a “hypocrite” for calling for Conservative councils to challenge the use of so-called asylum hotels in their local areas.The Tory leader said in a letter on Wednesday that she was “encouraging” councils to “take the same steps” as Epping Forest District Council “if your legal advice supports it”.But the move has been criticised as “desperate and hypocritical nonsense”, given the Conservative’s own record with asylum hotels.At the peak of their use in the summer of 2023 under the Conservative government, there were more than 400 asylum hotels in use.Figures on those staying in hotels date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023, when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels.A Labour spokesperson said Mrs Badenoch’s letter was a “pathetic stunt” and “desperate and hypocritical nonsense from the architects of the broken asylum system” More

Chris Philp challenged over why he didn’t encourage councils to take legal action over asylum hotels when Tories were in powerThe number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has risen by 8 per cent under Labour compared to the same point last year, Home Office data shows. However, figures from the last three months show that the figure has gone down very slightly from 32,345 in March this year, to 32,059 in June 2025. With numbers falling in recent months, government spending on asylum in the UK also stood at £4.76 billion in 2024/25, down 12 per cent from a record £5.38 billion in 2023/24.It comes as Labour-run councils are among those considering legal challenges against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, as the government scrambles to draw up a contingency plan. Carol Dean, leader of Labour-controlled Tamworth Council, said her authority had previously decided against legal action but was now “carefully assessing” what the decision might mean for the area, adding it was a “potentially important legal precedent”.Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called on Tory local councils to take inspiration from the Epping legal ruling to launch challenges of their own. The opposition leader said Epping Forest District Council had achieved “a victory for local people”, while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also called for his party’s councils to launch their own legal challenges. As Epping case could bring migrant hotel use to an end – where else can asylum seekers go?Epping Forest District Council won an interim injunction to stop asylum seekers being hosted at The Bell Hotel, saying it had become a “feeding ground for unrest.”The judgement requires all migrants currently housed in the hotel – around 140 men as of last month – to leave by 4pm on 12 September.Read the full article here:Holly Evans21 August 2025 15:36Labour MP condemns arson attack on building after speculation on social media Labour MP Oliver Ryan has condemned recent attacks on his constituents “for the colour of their skin” and an arson attack on a building that was falsely believed to be repurposed for asylum seekers. The Burnley MP said: “Last night in Gannow, a building 100 metres from Whittlefield Primary was set on fire after online speculation and a Reform councillor said it was being converted into a HMO site, implying completely falsely that this is being used to house illegal migrants. It isn’t even applying to be a HMO but supported social housing.”He continued: “I want to be clear despite Reform councillors praying for one and whipping up as much as they can, we don’t have any asylum hotels in the Burnley constituency. “What we do have however, quite shamefully, is families and individuals being attacked in our area. British families and British individuals for the colour of their skin. I’ve been contacted by many of them, windows being put in on houses where people are assuming asylum seekers live.”Holly Evans21 August 2025 15:14What the UK’s migration numbers really showIt follows a High Court ruling on Tuesday that banned the use of The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, for asylum seekers after lawyers argued it had become a “feeding ground for unrest” following a string of violent protests at the site.As Labour braces for a fresh round of legal action from revolting councils seeking similar bans in their areas, new Home Office figures reveal that the number of people claiming asylum in the past year soared to a record 111,000, while small boats continue to cross the Channel at increasing rates.Read the full analysis from our data correspondent Alicja Hagopian here: Holly Evans21 August 2025 14:47Asylum seekers have right to privacy in their homes, council saysAsylum seekers have a human right to privacy in their homes, the City of York council has said as right-wing politicians call for protests outside of migrant hotels.Reform MP Richard Tice yesterday urged local residents to protest outside asylum hotels. Now Labour-led City of York council have said that allocation of asylum accommodation is up to central government, adding: “Asylum seekers also have a human right to privacy in their home and we wouldn’t release details relating to this, including whether any hotels are being used in our area.“We are not progressing with any legal action relating to hotel accommodation.” Holly Bancroft21 August 2025 14:30 What options does the Home Office have now?Last month, amid protests outside the Bell Hotel and more migrants crossing the Channel, an extra 400 spaces were being prepared to house male asylum seekers at RAF Wethersfield in Essex.The former military site, which has a usual capacity of 800 beds, is expected to house more adult men on a short-term basis.The Labour Government scrapped the large site of the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, earlier this year, while Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, is also due to end housing asylum seekers and be returned to the Ministry of Defence in September.Holly Evans21 August 2025 14:23Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation, known as contingency accommodation, if they are awaiting assessment of their claim or have had a claim approved and there is not enough longer-term accommodation available.The Home Office provides accommodation to asylum seekers who have no other way of supporting themselves on a “no choice” basis, so they cannot choose where they live.When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to accommodation such as hotels and large sites, like former military bases.In May, the National Audit Office said those temporarily living in hotels accounted for 35 per cent of all people in asylum accommodation.Men pictured walking into The Bell Hotel, which has been housing asylum seekers More