Checks on illegal migrants eased
“Labour is watering down border laws designed to block illegal migrants from obtaining citizenship and to force them to submit to scientific age checks. The Home Office is repealing rules introduced by the Tories that meant that small boat arrivals could almost never become UK citizens. It is also revoking legislation which gave ministers the power to treat asylum seekers who refused to undergo scientific age checks as adults. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the move was a “total capitulation to people smugglers” and would “make the UK the soft touch of Europe”. Government sources argued the Tories had made “such a mess” of introducing the powers that they had never even been used since they were passed.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Britain voted Brexit to control immigration. This power has been wasted. – Guy Dampier, Sunday Telegraph
- Labour’s Border Security Bill makes Britain a soft touch – Leader, Sunday Telegraph
- Sham lawyers with no qualifications who dole out phoney immigration advice will be targeted – The Sun on Sunday
- We will make Britain’s borders stronger – Yvette Cooper, The Sun on Sunday
- Labour’s slavish devotion to ECHR proves they will never fully clampdown on migration – Leader, The Sun on Sunday
Labour MPs press Starmer to “drill baby drill” in the North Sea
“Sir Keir Starmer has been told by senior Labour politicians to “drill baby drill” and give the green light to two North Sea Oil fields blocked by the courts. Ed Miliband withdrew government legal support for the court battle over the Rosebank and Jackdraw projects. But the PM is facing massive pressure to step in and get the projects going if he is serious about economic growth. One senior minister said of the row: “I say – drill baby drill.” The Sun on Sunday understands Chancellor Rachel Reeves backs drilling. Scottish Labour politicians are also pleading with No10 to get drilling – warning that further delay risks costing thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds.” – The Sun on Sunday
AI-generated child sex abuse images to be made illegal
“Four new laws will tackle the threat of child sexual abuse images generated by artificial intelligence (AI), the government has announced. The Home Office says that, to better protect children, the UK will be the first country in the world to make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM), with a punishment of up to five years in prison. Possessing AI paeodophile manuals will also be made illegal, and offenders will get up to three years in prison. These manuals teach people how to use AI to sexually abuse young people.” – BBC
Trade 1) Davey urges Starmer to rejoin EU customs union
“Sir Keir Starmer should “fire the starting gun” on creating a new UK-EU customs union at a meeting with European leaders in Brussels on Monday, the Liberal Democrats have said. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said such a move was a “no-brainer” for the prime minister, and would put “rocket boosters” on the UK economy and “strengthen our hand” with US President Donald Trump.” – BBC
- Starmer should end UK’s ‘cycle of hesitation’ with EU, says Neil Kinnock – The Observer
- Britain and the EU want a big deal, fast. How far will it go? – Tim Shipman, Sunday Times
- The EU is failing. What post-Brexit Britain needs is the energy of America and the discipline of Singapore – Ross Clark, Mail on Sunday
Trade 2) Trump imposes tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico
“US President Donald Trump has announced sweeping new tariffs on all goods imported from America’s three largest trading partners, China, Mexico and Canada. Trump said the US would impose tariffs beginning on Tuesday of 25% on Canada and Mexico, and 10% on China. Canadian energy faces a lower 10% tariff. He had threatened to impose the import taxes if the three countries did not address his concerns about illegal immigration and drug trafficking.” – BBC
- Trump’s new tariffs might be his first mistake – Sam Ashworth-Hayes, Sunday Telegraph
- Free trade is on the back foot but there are deals to be done – Leader, Sunday Times
- Trump will risk trade war, says Pompeo – Sunday Times
- Has Starmer struck a murky deal with the Chinese to let them build a £750million mega-embassy MI5 says is a security risk? – Mail on Sunday
- Imagine China’s threat if it were a democracy – Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
Trade 3) Badenoch warns of consequences from the US of “cosying up” to EU
“Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that “cosying up” to the European Union risks dragging Britain into a damaging tariff war with Donald Trump. Kemi Badenoch urged him to resist growing demands from EU leaders for closer economic alignment and said he should seek a trade deal with the US instead. Her intervention came ahead of the Prime Minister visiting Brussels on Monday to become the first UK leader to attend an EU summit since Brexit.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Starmer will ‘take the knee’ to the EU – Richard Holden MP, Sunday Express
- Trump only respects those who take a stand – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday
Labour faces investigation over EU funding
“Labour is facing a potential investigation over “indirect funding” from the EU while it was in opposition. The Electoral Commission, which regulates party financing in the UK, has said it is looking into a donation to an affiliated Labour organisation as a “potential regulatory concern”. It relates to a donation from the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), a branch of the Party of European Socialists, to the Labour-linked Fabian Society. Last week, the EU sanctioned the FEPS for making the £30,000 donation in 2023, calling it “indirect funding of the UK Labour Party”. On Monday, the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations, levied a £30,000 fine against the FEPS for the breach.” – Sunday Telegraph
Starmer was criticised for “not driving the train” and “being an HR Manager”
“Keir acts like an HR manager, not a leader. What’s the point of circling the wagons if you can’t last?” McSweeney and his acolytes saw themselves as insurgents within the Labour Party. As long as Starmer’s private office was functional, they could control the party’s politics themselves — without interference from small-minded Westminster villagers. They knew that Starmer’s real life — his true self — was not the work they shared with him. Their political project was predicated on this unpolitical leader doing as he was told. In his weaker moments, even McSweeney would confide to friends that he knew neither what Starmer thought, nor whose advice he had taken. Occasionally they even spoke of their leader as if he were a useful idiot. Said one, referring to the driverless Docklands Light Railway that wound its way through east London: “Keir’s not driving the train. He thinks he’s driving the train, but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR.” – Excerpt from Get In by Patrick Maguire & Gabriel Pogrund, Sunday Times
- Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and the race to succeed Starmer – Sunday Times
- The actress who secretly helped Keir Starmer find his voice – Sunday Times
Labour “plans to switch attack to Reform UK”
“Labour are turning their firepower on Nigel Farage rather than the Tories under new battle plans. It comes as every major poll shows that Reform is ahead of the Conservative Party for the first time. Labour Together – a leading think-tank with very close ties to No10 – is being turned into a machine to take on Reform. It will work with Downing Street to launch coordinated attacks on Mr Farage and help Labour MPs campaign to keep their seats…Parking his tanks on Labour lawns, Mr Farage went to the heart of the party’s Red Wall on Saturday night to address crowds in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland. Large queues snaked outside the venue as locals in County Durham waited to watch Mr Farage speak.” – The Sun on Sunday
- Reform UK can win scores of Labour seats in England and Wales, says study – The Observer
- Inside the Mayfair club where Reform plotted to take on ‘the establishment’ – The Observer
- Farage celebrates opinion poll leads – Sunday Express
- Tory leader Kemi Badenoch dismisses Reform UK as ‘protest party’ – The Sun on Sunday
Probe launched into Tulip Siddiq
“Britain’s FBI is probing disgraced ex-City minister Tulip Siddiq after travelling to Dhaka for a secret summit with Bangladeshi anti-corruption investigators, the Mail on Sunday can reveal. Detectives from the National Crime Agency were told at last month’s meeting that Bangladeshi authorities have amassed new evidence against the Labour MP as they investigate her over a controversial nuclear power plant deal. The revelation raises the prospect of the British authorities looking into Ms Siddiq’s bank accounts, email records and even summoning her for interview.” – Mail on Sunday
Other political news
- Fresh doubts are raised over conviction of ‘killer’ nurse Lucy Letby – as unearthed papers show she was off duty for third of cases – Mail on Sunday
- No cash for struggling universities, Welsh Government says – BBC
- Khan drops ‘he/him’ pronouns from social media profile – Sunday Telegraph
- Streeting’s “arrogant” attack on The Queen’s osteoporosis charity – Mail on Sunday
- UK betting giants under fire for ads targeting at-risk gamblers – The Observer
- China saw Prince Andrew as a ‘valuable channel’ – Sunday Times
- Cut tax breaks on cash Isas to push public into riskier shares, City firms tell Reeves – Mail on Sunday
- Tax on UK incinerators may push councils to send more waste to landfill – The Observer
Colvile: 34 years and counting to build a reservoir
“Since about 1991, Thames Water has been trying to protect London from drought by building a new reservoir near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The sexily named South East Strategic Reservoir Option (Sesro) would be the largest of the new Reeveservoirs, holding 150 million cubic metres of water. So why hasn’t it happened? Well, the local council — Vale of White Horse — has 38 councillors: 32 Lib Dems, four Greens and two former Lib Dems who left because the Lib Dems weren’t Lib Dem enough. They are not, it’s fair to say, fans of Sesro. So they have appointed one of their number, Andy Cooke, as their “water champion”. To champion the idea that there shouldn’t be any water.” – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times
- From bat tunnels to the Ulez, 20 barmy eco rules and groups that have held Britain’s growth back for years – The Sun on Sunday
Hannan: Human rights lawyers are thwarting growth
“Who is to blame? Is it Rachel Reeves, who is testing to destruction the theory that, if you take money from productive people to give to unproductive people, you end up with fewer of the former and more of the latter? Or is it Ed Miliband who, in pursuit of pre-industrial carbon emissions, seems quite prepared to return to pre-industrial poverty levels? Both deserve their share of censure. But there is a third culprit, less well known to the public, namely Lord Hermer, a former colleague of Sir Keir Starmer’s who, after a career representing Britain’s bitterest enemies in court – Mau Mau insurgents, Irish republicans, Islamists and others – is using his role as Attorney General to ensure that elected ministers do what they are told by lawyers…The default setting of our legal establishment is anti-growth. Or, more precisely, it is safetyist, pro-DEI and eco-obsessive, which amounts to the same thing. As long as we are governed by human rights lawyers, prosperity will elude us.” – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph
- Reeves’s Heathrow expansion plans leave Labour’s green agenda grounded – The Observer
- Root for Reeves. Labour’s green faction would cut growth to net zero – Sam Bowman, Ben Southwood and Samuel Hughes, Sunday Times
Duncan Smith: Ukraine is losing the war
“Ukraine simply cannot compete. For every round that they fire, Russia fires at least four back. While visiting an assault brigade, I could see how short of the required equipment they were. As an ex-soldier who left the Army some 40 years ago, I was astonished to spot a 1970s British Army Ferret armoured scout car. So desperate have the brigade become that they are tracking down and buying old ex-military equipment, modifying it and sending it into battle. Echoing in my mind was Winston Churchill’s moving demand to US President Franklin Roosevelt: ‘Give us the tools and we will finish the job.’ Now it is Ukraine begging us for tools.” – Iain Duncan Smith, Mail on Sunday
News in brief
- Let’s put experts in their place – Henry Hill, The Critic
- Kendall’s benefits crusade could make or break Labour’s fortunes – Ross Clark, The Spectator
- Our economy is tied down by pointless regulation – Maxwell Marlow, CapX
- Is the horror of child transitioning finally coming to an end? – Andrew Doyle, Spiked
- Will Syria’s new rulers choose democracy or theocracy? – Patrick Hess, Unherd
- The UN and Trump’s America are on a collision course – Harry Phibbs, CapX
