UK

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer has claimed that Britain can learn lessons from Italy on how to reduce migration, after far-right premier Giorgia Meloni’s administration saw small boat arrivals fall by more than 60 per cent this year.Ahead of a visit to Rome, the prime minister hailed Italy’s “dramatic” drop in unregulated migration and expressed interest in Ms Meloni’s proposed asylum processing scheme in Albania, just months after scrapping the Tories’ controversial Rwanda scheme.Claiming his talks with Ms Meloni marked a return to “British pragmatism”, Sir Keir also praised Italy’s “upstream work” in north Africa, saying: “I have always made the argument that preventing people leaving their country in the first place is far better than trying to deal with those that have arrived.”Reducing the number of perilous small boat crossings across the Channel is a political priority for Sir Keir’s government, which has announced its intentions to “smash” people-smuggling gangs but has stopped short of opening safe alternative routes for asylum-seekers to travel to Britain to have their claims heard.The prime minister is now looking to Italy’s example, where the country’s interior ministry reported a 62 per cent fall in migrant arrivals on Italian coasts over the first seven months of 2024. Frontex, the EU’s border force, has calculated a 64 per cent fall in the number of people arriving from North Africa to Italy and Malta.More than 1,000 people arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel over the weekend, as eight people died trying to make the journey More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentA Liberal Democrat councillor has revealed that she was diagnosed with PTSD because of Brexit, speaking movingly of the “profound impact” it has had on her life.Antonia Harrison, who represents the party in Havant, near Portsmouth, said “something died in me… I just gave up” after Britain left the European Union.Speaking at the party’s autumn conference in Brighton, Ms Harrison told The Independent: “I have not been in Sudan fighting in a war, but it has had a profound impact on me. I am European to my core, and my identity has been ripped out.Antonia Harrison said she is European before she is English More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentThe Liberal Democrats have appeared to demand that a sacked candidate must prove the divinity of Jesus Christ in court over his claims that he was deselected because of his Christian faith.Award-winning former BBC journalist David Campanale is suing the Lib Dems after he was ejected as the party’s candidate for Sutton and Cheam in south London.He claims that he was unfairly deselected because of his traditional Christian beliefs. The case has raised serious concerns over the place of Christians in the party.Former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams condemned the Lib Dems over the Campanale case and claimed that it is now “impossible” for orthodox Christians, Muslims or Jews to stand for the party. David Campanale is suing the Lib Dems More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer has said he is “very worried” after another apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life.The prime minister said he was “deeply troubled” by the events in the US and that violence had no part in politics. On a trip to Rome he said: “I was very worried by the news about this attempt”. Prime minister Keir Starmer said he was ‘very worried by the news’ of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentKeir Starmer has been reported to Parliament’s standards watchdog after a controversial Labour donor paid for his wife’s clothes.The Conservatives have called for an investigation into Sir Keir’s alleged failure to declare donations from Lord Waheed Alli.The row centres on clothing for his wife Lady Victoria Starmer from Lord Alli, who has given more than £500,000 to Labour over the last 20 years.The gifts were not initially included in the official register of MPs’ interests.Victoria at Betfred St Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentWatch as Sir Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni share plans for tackling illegal migration at a news conference in Rome on Monday, 16 September.The prime minister has said he is “very interested” in Italy’s strategies to reduce irregular migration.Sir Keir is visiting the Italian capital as he continues his attempts to reset relations with the UK’s nearest neighbours, with migration expected to be at the top of the agenda.The “dramatic reductions” in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Italy is something the government wants to understand, the PM added.Sir Keir has indicated he is open to pursuing an arrangement similar to Italy’s migration deal with Albania, whereby asylum seekers will be held in the Balkan state while their claims are processed.On Monday morning, home secretary Yvette Cooper also confirmed the government is looking to Italian-style migration policies in several areas, including a deal with Albania and a “major returns” scheme.“There are four different things that the Italians are doing that we’re interested in,” Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast.“The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime. That’s the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.” More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentWatch as Sir Keir Starmer meets with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, in Rome on Monday 16 September.The pair are expected to discuss migrant boat crossings, with Sir Keir “interested” in learning about Italy’s scheme to send migrants rescued at sea to Albania to process their asylum claims.Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, on Monday morning also confirmed the government is looking to Italian-style migration policies in a number of areas, including a deal with Albania and a “major returns” scheme.“There are four different things that the Italians are doing that we’re interested in,” Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast.“The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime. That’s the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.“The second thing they’re doing is they’re working with other countries upstream to prevent people leaving North Africa in the first place…working with Tunisia, we think we should be part of those international co-operations as well.“The third thing they’re doing is major returns. So they’re speeding up returns for those who don’t have a right to be there. We’ve been doing that through the summer as well, so we’ve had a substantial increase in returns for people who don’t have a right to be in the UK, because the rules need to be respected and enforced.“The fourth thing they’re doing is the Albania programme, but that hasn’t started yet, so we’ll need to see what that does. It’s very different from the Rwanda partnership that the UK government had, and we’ll have to see how that plays out.” More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentYvette Cooper has defended an Italian deal which will let the country process some asylum claims offshore in Albania, describing it as “very, very different” from Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan.The home secretary said the arrangement is not comparable to the previous government’s plans to deport some migrants to the east African nation, stressing that the Albanian scheme involves processing.Under the Conservatives’ scheme, which Labour scrapped immediately after the general election, asylum seekers would have been permanently deported to Rwanda.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Italian scheme is not similar to the previous UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan More