NewsBeat
Victims let down 'time and time again', domestic abuse commissioner warns after damning report
Victims of domestic abuse are being failed by a criminal justice system that is not up to the job, a damning report by the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales has said.
Closing all of Parliament’s bars could lead to greater security risks for MPs, the leader of the House of Commons has suggested.
Lucy Powell said she was open to “having a debate” on the future of drinking venues on the Parliamentary estate after one bar was temporarily closed for a security review linked to an alleged drink-spiking incident.
But she argued that MPs and staff would visit venues outside Parliament’s secure zone if bars, restaurants, hair salons and other facilities were shut down.
She told BBC Radio 5Live’s Matt Chorley said “there is no point spending the millions of pounds” on security if staff were encouraged to leave the estate.
Parliament’s most famous pub, the Strangers’ Bar, is currently shut while police investigate a report a woman had her drink spiked on 7 January.
Powell said she was in favour of reopening Strangers following a review of its security arrangements.
“We definitely need to look at this and make sure we have the measures in place so that people are not in the situation where they think they have been spiked or showing the effects of being spiked,” Powell said.
She said she was open to having a public debate “on whether there should be any bars on the estate at all”.
But not all of the sprawling eight-acre (32,000 sq-m) Palace of Westminster is a workplace, she told Matt Chorley, and there were several venues serving alcohol for MPs and their guests.
She said she did not “get the sense that there’s a groundswell” of support for closing these down.
In the evening members of staff and others who “might want a drink” are “not at work at that point,” she argued.
She said they would MPs be less well protected attending venues “where they have not got the security protection”, she added.
“They have not got police around” and would also not be covered by the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) – which investigates allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying by parliamentary staff.
The ICGS has previously argued parliament’s bars and associated culture of drinking fuels inappropriate behaviour in Westminster.
Parliament had increased security “with good reason” because “there are a lot of people trying to attack MPs and attack Parliament” she said.
“That is why we provide services on the estate.
“There is no point spending the millions of pounds we spend keeping everyone secure and on this estate – if we then actually just encourage people to pop off to go and get their hair cut or have lunch with a journalist off the estate.”
Politics
Number of Britons who believe migration is too high reaches greatest level on record as Starmer told to ‘get a grip’ on crisis
The amount of Britons who think migration to the UK is too high has reached record levels, a damning new poll has found.
Analysis by pollsters at YouGov has revealed that 71 per cent of Britons now think too many people are arriving in the UK – the highest percentage since its records began in July 2019.
The data also shows that 63 per cent of Labour voters now think immigration is too high – also the largest percentage on record.
And voters for Sir Keir Starmer’s party appear not to be alone. The groups which have voiced fears at record levels include 25-64-year-olds, men, women, Conservative voters, Remain voters, and Britons from every region of the UK except Scotland and the North of England – which still poll at 68 and 69 per cent, respectively.
71 per cent of Britons now believe immigration is too high
YOUGOV
The only group which didn’t show majority support for the view that migration is too high was 18-24-year-olds, at 44 per cent.
The data has sparked calls for Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to act – led by Migration Watch UK chairman Alp Mehmet.
He told GB News: “Public concern about immigration is longstanding, and has now reverted to the levels we saw before the electorate were fooled into believing it was going to be controlled and reduced.
“We warned that was never going to happen with the ridiculously lax immigration system introduced after Brexit.
MORE ON BRITAIN’S MIGRATION CHAOS:
‘Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper would do well to regard this poll as another red flag and get a grip,’ Alp Mehmet warned
PA
“We also warned that failure to control immigration and reduce immigration would further erode trust in politicians and our political system.
“It gives me no satisfaction to say we were right.
“Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper would do well to regard this poll as another red flag and get a grip of both legal and illegal immigration.”
Migration under the former Conservative Government has been the subject of attacks from Starmer himself – he has accused the Tories of running “a one-nation experiment in open borders” and has claimed cutting migration “will only be done with a serious plan”.
Migration under the former Conservative Government has been the subject of attacks from Starmer himself
PA
Setting out his five ‘milestones’ in Labour’s “Plan for Change” at the end of November, Starmer warned: “This happened by design, not accident.
“Policies were reformed deliberately to liberalise immigration.
“Brexit was used for that purpose… to turn Britain into a one-nation experiment in open borders. Global Britain – remember that slogan… That is what they meant.”
While the Home Office’s line is the same – Seema Malhotra, Minister for Migration and Citizenship, said: “Net migration quadrupled in the past five years and we have been clear that we will get the numbers down and restore order to our broken immigration system as part of our Plan for Change.”
A series of videos show the moment a car carrying a family in the occupied West Bank came under attack during an Israeli raid into the city of Jenin yesterday.
NewsBeat
Prince Harry will celebrate his settlement – but it’s unlikely to be the end of his personal crusade | UK News
It was going to take something dramatic to encourage Prince Harry to settle.
That was abundantly clear in everything he’s said in the run up to this trial, and not purely from a personal point of view.
As one of the last men standing, the Duke of Sussex felt it was his responsibility to bring justice and accountability for the thousands of people he feels had also been maliciously targeted and tormented by The Sun and the News Of The World. He felt he was their last hope.
The apology from News Group Newspapers (NGN) is far reaching. Reading it, you get the impression Harry and his legal team made the publisher’s lawyers work hard to get it over the line.
Being in court on Tuesday, as both sides asked for more time for negotiations, that certainly seemed the case.
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Prince Harry’s big settlement explained
The apology for unlawful activities at The Sun, albeit, they say, by private investigators and not journalists, is something we have never heard before.
The apology to Princess Diana is particularly unexpected. It gets to the heart of one of the overriding reasons Harry refused to give in: his anger at what he perceives these publications did to him, his mother and his wider family.
It has stopped him having his moment in court. He was pencilled in to give evidence and be cross examined for three days.
Inevitably it will be a relief in some ways for other members of his family – who knows what may have come out in court?
Harry has plenty to celebrate. File pic: Reuters
Harry said his father called taking on the tabloids a suicide mission and we know Prince William accepted a settlement from NGN.
You wonder if despite their differences, they will acknowledge that his perseverance paid off.
We now wait to see if this has brought him some sense of peace. But this was an apology for past wrongdoings.
We know Harry still has significant issues with how he feels he is treated by the press now, and he’s spoken of feeling that he and Meghan have faced intimidation from the papers, because of his decision to pursue them in the courts.
Read more:
What happens next after the settlement?
What the Royals have been up to
This will be a moment to celebrate, both with the extent of the apology and a chance to publicly shout for further investigations.
But knowing the man Harry is, and his conviction to do what he thinks is morally right, it is unlikely to be the end of what has always been the most personal of crusades.
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Britain is set to be battered by winds of up to 90mph from Storm Eowyn as the Met Office warned of a danger to life in parts of the country over the next few days.
Very strong winds are forecast to strike the north of England, south of Scotland and North Wales.
The forecaster issued an amber warning of wind from 6am to 9pm on Friday across the north of England, south of Scotland and North Wales.
There is also a yellow warning of wind for the north of Scotland, Northern Ireland, the south of England and the midlands.
“Storm Eowyn is expected to bring very strong winds and widespread disruption on Friday,” a Met Office spokesperson said.
“There is a chance that damage to buildings and homes could occur, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down.
“Injuries and danger to life could occur from flying debris, as well as large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties.”
Meteorologists said the strongest winds of up to 90mph were likely to be found along the more exposed coastal areas, while gusts are expected inland of between 60mph and 70mph.
The change to conditions is being caused by a powerful jet stream pushing low pressure across the Atlantic and towards the UK, following a recent cold spell over North America.
The forecaster advised securing loose items outside homes, including bins, garden furniture, trampolines and sheds, and gathering torches and batteries in case of any power cut.
Those travelling in this “disruptive spell of weather” are urged to be cautious, as road, rail, airports and ferries are likely to be affected.
Another area of low pressure could bring further wet and very windy weather across the UK by Sunday.
There is the potential for further weather warnings over the weekend and throughout next week, the Met Office added.
Meanwhile, the entire island of Ireland will be under weather warnings due to Storm Eowyn.
The Republic of Ireland’s forecasting agency issued a nationwide Status Orange wind warning for between 2am and 5pm on Friday.
The UK Met Office has issued a yellow wind warning for Northern Ireland due to Storm Eowyn.
Politics
Labour told to ‘hang their heads in shame’ as Lee Anderson lashes out over Axel Rudakubana ‘cover-up’
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has accused Labour politicians of orchestrating a “cover-up” over the Southport attack, saying they should “hang their heads in shame”.
Speaking on GB News, Anderson claimed the public had suspected terror links from the start, while politicians at Westminster denied them.
He praised Nigel Farage for demanding immediate answers about the case last summer.
The MP suggested the riots in the North West could have been “nipped in the bud” if authorities had been more forthcoming with information.
Lee Anderson blasted politicians in a furious rant
GB NEWS
“The great British public deserve to know the truth and there has been a cover-up,” Anderson told GB News viewers.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday admitted he had “withheld” information about Axel Rudakubana’s terrorist links but denied being part of a cover-up.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls in the Southport knife attack in July 2024PASpeaking at an emergency press conference, he acknowledged being “kept up to date with the facts” by police and prosecutors.
The Prime Minister insisted revealing crucial details about the killer’s fascination with terrorism could have prejudiced his trial.
“It was not my personal decision to withhold this information. That is the law of the land and it is in place to protect the integrity of the system,” Starmer said.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper backed this position, saying ministers could not ignore legal advice about contempt of court.
Lee Anderson spoke on GB News
GB NEWS
The Crime Reporters Association (CRA) has complained to the Director of Public Prosecutions about the Crown Prosecution Service attempting to “gag” Merseyside Police.
The CRA said officers were instructed to “stay silent” about the case as riots broke out last summer.
According to the association, the CPS tried to prevent officers from revealing details about Rudakubana’s background, which might have prevented false rumours fuelling unrest.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the failure to be transparent created a vacuum where dangerous misinformation took hold online.
“There could have been more openness and transparency … without prejudicing the trial,” Philp said.
Anderson drew direct comparisons to previous terror incidents, claiming there was a double standard in how information was handled.
“Jo Cox we had that instant and PC Palmer. These were all incidents that were stated as terror-related within 24 hours and it didn’t influence proceedings,” he told GB News.
The Reform UK MP accused Westminster politicians of hypocrisy in their approach to the Southport case.
His comments came as Starmer warned that Britain now faces new threats from “loners and misfits” radicalised by online violence, different from traditional organised terrorist groups.
Police say a 28-year-old man from Afghanistan has been arrested suspected of carrying out the attack.
With Democrats poised to deliver an early immigration victory to President Donald Trump, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus split over how to approach the issue in a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning.
Some discussed using Democrats’ limited political leverage under unified GOP rule: Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) floated conditioning Democratic support for a debt-limit increase on protections for Dreamers — undocumented migrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), meanwhile, debated how to respond to hard-line Republican-led immigration bills — such as the Laken Riley Act, which has attracted Democratic support and is poised to pass Congress Wednesday. Two people familiar with the meeting were granted anonymity to describe the private conversations.
Ocasio-Cortez emphasized the need for her party to develop a winning strategy and better messaging to respond to the Republican bills and prevent swing-district lawmakers from having to break party ranks.
But Sanchez, who leads the caucus’ political arm, said progressive members’ messaging efforts weren’t working and said that Democrats were at risk of losing the larger battle over immigration policy as a result.
It was the latest manifestation of an intense debate that has racked Democrats since the 2024 elections, where many blamed immigration and border issues for swinging the presidential and congressional results to Republicans.
The Laken Riley Act was only the first of numerous tough-on-immigration bills that Republicans are likely to bring to the House floor. Dozens of Democrats have broken ranks so far, much to the dismay of many Hispanic Caucus members who are watching the party move to the center on its issue — including, they fear, its leaders.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stopped by the Hispanic Caucus meeting, the people familiar said.
Coming out of the broader House Democratic Caucus meeting earlier in the morning, Jeffries said Democrats were “unified in the position that we want to secure the border and fix our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive manner.”
Hispanic Caucus chair Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) called the meeting an “informative discussion” about members’ positions and said, “we all agree that the situation at the border needs to be stronger but that we also recognize that Dreamers, farmworkers and families must be protected.”
“We are all united on this,” he said, adding that included Jeffries.
Democratic lawmakers have broadly emphasized to leadership in the wake of the election there needs to be a cohesive message from the party on immigration. But the particulars of that has been tricky, with Republicans eager to put them on the spot by holding votes on bills that would, for instance, require the detention of many migrants accused of crimes.
Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) was among those calling for a more forceful response to the GOP legislation.
“I think we need to stand firm, as we’ve done on other causes in the Democratic caucus,” he said. “While we firm up a position on immigration policy in general as we plan forward, it’s important to push back on efforts like this, because if not, then you cede the ground to all kinds of other falsehoods that are to come.”
Some other lawmakers, however, said there had to be some recognition of political reality.
“I think each member has to have a response based on what’s in the best interest of their district,” said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.). And he took a longer view of their response to Trump: “It’s not a sprint, it’s a two-year marathon.”
2025 is Britain’s last chance to avoid a long-term migration catastrophe of Boris Johnson’s making, a leading think tank has warned.
Back in March 2021, Boris Johnson’s Home Secretary Priti Patel introduced the “New Plan for Immigration” to the Commons.
A few months later, the Office for National Statistics announced that 332,000 non-EU migrants had arrived in Britain between June 2020 and June of that year.
A few years later, 1,034,000 non-EU migrants arrived in Britain over the same June-to-June period. A more than 200 per cent increase.
Damning data shows a sharp spike in non-EU migration immediately after Johnson and Patel’s ‘new plan’
UK GOVERNMENT
Patel had hailed what she called a “significant overhaul of our asylum system”. It was “new, comprehensive, fair, but firm”.
She had promised “new rules to stop unscrupulous people posing as children”, a beefed-up Border Force, and “rapid removals” of “those with no right to be here in the UK”.
With Brexit having been delivered, and EU free movement no longer foisted upon the UK, Westminster could now look further afield. At the time, that was Hong Kong, as dissidents to Xi Jinping’s regime found themselves unexpectedly crushed under China’s boot in the former British dependent territory.
Leaving the EU would let Britain be “immigration liberals”, wrote James Forsythe, future Political Secretary to future Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with Hongkongers in mind.
He had written that the issue on the minds of many Brexit-backers “was control, not immigration levels, per se”.
READ MORE ON BRITAIN’S MIGRATION CHAOS:
Leaving the EU would let Britain be ‘immigration liberals’, wrote James Forsythe
GETTY/THE TIMES
Then, in May 2022 – and midway through an unprecedented surge in arrivals from outside the EU – the Johnson Government’s interpretation of the Australian ‘points-based system’ was accused of having “significantly weakened control” over Britain’s borders.
Those numbers would keep climbing until 2024, the ONS says, and they’re now expected to drop.
That surge has been branded by some as the “Boriswave” – a term which found its origins on social media, and has since made its way to think tanks and political parties alike. On December 29, Reform UK officially adopted the term in a scathing attack on Johnson’s non-European migration surge.
Proponents of the term will argue Johnson and his Government directly oversaw – and allowed the conditions for – millions of non-EU nationals to come to Britain.
And now, with Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) open to most of those who arrived via the Work or Family visa route after five years, Britain faces a “ticking clock“.
That’s the warning of Sam Bidwell, of the Adam Smith Institute, who calls for an immediate reform of ILR rules to “limit the long-term harms of the so-called ‘Boriswave’”, which will start being handed ILR for life from early 2026.
The surge in non-EU migration has been branded by some as the ‘Boriswave’
PA
That will give the “Boriswave” the right to taxpayer-funded state benefits, the ability to use the NHS free-of-charge, and the chance to bring in family members – a “cascade of dependents”, as Bidwell put it.
Britain’s system “was not designed to cope with long-term settlement at such scale and pace,” he warns.
Even if Labour manages to deliver 1.5 million new homes between now and 2029, the scale of the non-EU migration wave is such that that tally could be wiped out entirely.
If such a large amount of people are, in fact, here to stay, the consequences could be dire.
Bidwell himself butted heads with ex-Spectator editor Fraser Nelson just days ago after the latter penned an article in The Telegraph headlined: “Britain’s integration miracle is a beacon of hope amid instability.”
Nelson had argued that Britishness – part of which the “Boriswave” could soon comprise – is “a set of values that anyone can adopt”.
But under Johnson and Patel’s “new plan”, the UK has imported millions of people who, as Bidwell says, are “less culturally compatible” than the EU migrants who came before.
He points to damning statistics on integration, like how 52 per cent of British Muslims would support making it illegal to depict the Prophet Mohammed, or how Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the UK are less employed and take up more social housing than national averages.
Bidwell also casts off “oft-cited figures about Indian high-earners” as a “misrepresentative statistical fudge” directly due to the “Boriswave”.
Thanks to the recent influx of Indian nationals (240,000 in the last year alone, according to the ONS), the median Indian (aged 22-40) now earns less than the national average.
The difficulty of integration may not be so obvious to “the Westminster bubble”, as Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe pointed out on social media.
For them, “integration means cheap labour and exotic food”, but “out in proper Britain, integration has largely not worked”, he says.
“On such a vast scale, it has been an undeniable failure.”
Bidwell’s ILR plans were written before the reemergence of Britain’s grooming gangs scandal – which has thrust mass migration into the spotlight once again.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick warned that some of those who have migrated to the UK in recent years have “backward, frankly medieval attitudes to women” – adding that “we have to be very careful about who is coming into this country”.
‘Integration has largely not worked… it has been an undeniable failure,’ Rupert Lowe has warned
GETTY
But Jenrick was Rishi Sunak’s Immigration Minister for more than a year – and oversaw part of the “Boriswave”.
The Tory leadership runner-up shifted from campaigning for Remain in 2016 to his new role as a migration hardliner – which one former Minister blamed on his stint in the Home Office.
Before that, “he was seen as sensible, pragmatic and fairly centrist,” a former Minister told the i last summer.
“He was very good as the Communities Secretary, but he seems to have been radicalised by his time in the Home Office,” they added.
That’s the same Home Office which Sam Bidwell has previously accused of falling victim to “performative empathy“.
Jenrick has been vocal on mass immigration post-leadership bid – sparking fury from ex-Johnson adviser Samuel Kasumu, who claimed to the BBC that he could be “the most divisive person in our political history” and “has the potential to incite hatred in ways that I have never seen”.
But he issued a stark warning last November. “Some parts of our country are unrecognisable from 30 years ago,” Jenrick said.
And, of course, there’s the fiscal impact too.
Robert Jenrick was ‘radicalised by his time in the Home Office’, one former Minister told the i
PA
“According to figures produced by the OBR, the average ‘low-wage migrant worker’ will cost the British taxpayer £465,000 by the time they reach 81 years of age,” Bidwell’s policy recommendation warns.
“According to analysis conducted by Karl Williams, from the Centre for Policy Studies, just 5 per cent of all visas in 2022-23 were given to high-skilled migrants who are likely to be net contributors,” he adds.
Pockets of social media aside, Johnson has largely evaded criticism for overseeing the introduction of so many fiscally harmful and culturally “incompatible” migrants to Britain.
Asked why, Bidwell told GB News: “He still carries a lot of capital with a certain sort of Brexit voter… because he was the face of Vote Leave.
“He has managed to escape scrutiny because many of those voters – particularly older voters in that cohort – will see him as the man who got Brexit done.”
Johnson has escaped scrutiny because voters ‘see him as the man who got Brexit done’
PA
The former PM now “enjoys a kind of comfortable martyrdom” despite the “Boriswave” because “one might argue that he was arguing for an anti-immigration cause”, he added.
Integrating the “wave” will be “a lengthy and difficult process”, Bidwell says.
The solution? Triple the ILR threshold to 15 years.
Britain should put safeguards in place to ensure that “high-quality, compatible” migrants from countries such as the US, Australia, and Canada continue coming to Britain.
And if Labour doesn’t have the mettle, a future Government could one day revoke ILR status from existing holders by amending Section 76 of the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act 2002.
Such a move would doubtless prove unpalatable to the current Government, despite its promises to stem the flow of migration – and even then, only illegal migration.
As Bidwell says, “it seems unlikely” that Labour would do such a thing.
“However”, he adds, “this fact alone does not mean that the British people need to live with the mistakes of the past few years for decades to come”.
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