HMRC has issued new letters to the Treasury Committee this month updating it on two major errors

HMRC has issued apology letters this month outlining updates on two significant errors that have affected large numbers of UK taxpayers. The letters, sent in September to Dame Meg Hillier, Chair of the Treasury Committee, detail how the UK’s tax-collecting authority made serious mistakes in two key areas, and address the matter of payments or repayments for those affected.

John-Paul Marks, First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive at HMRC, sent the letters ahead of a committee hearing this week. In the first letter, he provided an update on errors relating to an HMRC child benefit compliance exercise.

It emerged in March this year that HMRC had relied on flawed Home Office travel records to conclude that thousands of parents who had travelled abroad for holidays or work were fraudsters, resulting in child benefit payments being halted for 23,800 families late last year.

It was subsequently discovered that the Home Office had failed to log their return journeys and, in certain cases, had incorrectly recorded individuals as having left the country despite never having boarded their booked flights, the Guardian reported.

Around 13,800 households were later found to have had their benefits wrongly suspended. The final “success rate” of the scheme — revealed as 40% on 13 March by Mr Marks to the Treasury Committee — laid bare the scale of the blunder.

In his latest letter updating the committee on the failings of that exercise, which can be viewed here, he said: “HMRC has a responsibility to use data effectively to protect public money and tackle error and fraud in the benefits system. However, that must be done in a way that is fair, carefully controlled and with proper safeguards for customers. I agree with the NAO’s [National Audit Office’s] findings that errors were made in the initial use of the data and intend to implement all of the recommendations they have set out.

“The NAO report recognised that the activity identified significant levels of non-compliance and helped prevent incorrect Child Benefit payments. It also highlighted shortcomings in HMRC’s implementation of the expanded exercise and the impact this had on some of our customers.

“The report acknowledged that HMRC responded within 2-4 weeks to make changes to the intervention process following problems emerging in the first rollout. Where HMRC confirmed customers as still eligible for Child Benefit, we apologised for the disruption caused and reinstated awards, with payments backdated to ensure that they received their full entitlement.”

He went on to state that HMRC has moved this compliance exercise from ‘hypercare’ – meaning extra attention is paid to it – back into a controlled business-as-usual process.

State pension HMRC errors explained

In the second letter – which can be seen here – he addressed the committee chair on a historical error in the taxable State Pension figures used in certain tax calculations. An incorrect State Pension figure was used in PAYE end-of-year reconciliations and this fed through into Self Assessment pre-population information and Simple Assessment calculations.

HMRC said when admitting the issue in July that this had resulted in a difference between the correct State Pension figure for tax purposes and the figure actually used in the calculation. In his letter this month, he said: “Since my previous letter, HMRC has made progress addressing the issue, firstly fixing forward to ensure these errors do not occur again, and secondly on correcting recent years for customers in future.

“On 25 August, HMRC implemented the change needed to ensure that future annual reconciliations for PAYE and Simple Assessment customers use the correct State Pension figures. These customers account for the substantial majority of those affected. We also expect to correct the pre-populated figures for Self Assessment customers who have not yet submitted their 2025–26 returns during September. We will correct the position for those that have already filed their 2025-26 return soon after.

“This should resolve the problem for 2025-26 and prevent it recurring in future, and we will monitor this carefully and can provide a further update if helpful. Looking backwards, we will identify affected customers and correct their tax positions for recent years, without requiring them to make a claim.

“This proactive exercise will cover the tax years from 2020–21, the maximum period for which the available data enables us to identify and correct cases reliably and efficiently. As a result, we estimate that approximately 3.2 million customers will receive tax repayments totalling around £19.3 million.

“Repayments will be made through PAYE coding adjustments, credits to Self Assessment accounts or, where necessary, other payment methods such as payable orders. We expect to complete the majority of corrections and repayments during the 2026–27 financial year.

“If customers believe they were affected in earlier years and have the necessary evidence, they can ask HMRC to review their position. These requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. I am sorry that this error occurred and recognise the impact on affected customers. As set out in my earlier letter, we will also conclude an Internal Audit review, ensuring the lessons are identified and applied in future.”

You can contact HMRC here. The Treasury committee met this week. You can see the full hearing here.

Filmmaker Paul Berriff, now 80, described an “apocalyptic scene” as buildings and vehicles burned around him after two passenger planes were flown into New York’s World Trade Center by Islamist extremists.

The September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington killed 2,977 people, and Northallerton-born Paul considers himself lucky to be alive.

Paul, then 55, was in New York with a UK team filming a TV series about animal-cops in September 2001.

He was at the office at 8.45am on September 11, 2001, when he heard an aeroplane had hit the World Trade Center, initially assuming it was a light aircraft.

Speaking to The Press ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Paul said his “news instinct kicked in” and he drove to the scene with his camera crew after the first plane hit.

“On the way down, we began to see the two towers,” he said. “Both of them were on fire; the second plane had just gone in — so we knew then it wasn’t a light aircraft.”

Paul started filming as he watched firefighters run into the towers over a period of around 25 minutes.

“None of us knew it was likely to collapse at all,” he said.

Paul remembered hearing a “loud explosion”. “And I swung my camera around just to see the top of the South Tower beginning to peel away. It was like a massive umbrella just fanning out.

“Firefighters started shouting, ‘Run, run, run’, but I stood there with my sound recordist looking through the small view finder on my camera as half a million tons of concrete was hurdling towards me.

“I stood there for a couple of seconds. That’s quite a long time, but the buildings at the time were some of the highest in the world so it was taking time for all the debris to descend.”

• Read next: ‘Utter dismay’ – ex-York firefighter on arriving at Ground Zero after 9/11 attack

After another two seconds, Paul told his sound recordist to run, and they fled as debris continued to “hurtle down” towards them.

“As I was running I kept the camera running — it was over my shoulder still filming — I couldn’t see what was going on, but I could hear it,” he said. “It was just like an avalanche but not of snow, just concrete and everything else hurtling towards us.”

After 10 seconds of running, “all I remember was my camera leaving my right hand in slow motion. Then everything goes black.”

The Twin Towers in New York after the attack on September 11, 2001 (Image: Paul Berriff)

Paul was knocked unconscious for about 35 minutes when the debris hit him.

“I was lying there when the North Tower came down on top of me as well,” he said. “The next thing I remember — and I thought it was a matter of seconds, obviously it was a lot longer — I gained consciousness and everything was just black — blacker than the blackest night.

“I couldn’t see a thing. My eyes were full of all this gunge, my mouth, my nose, my ears — it was just like a cement paste.

“I could hardly breathe — I was hot and sweaty. The ground around me was on fire, stuff around me was burning — I could hear things still falling, but I couldn’t see anything.”

Paul Berriff at Ground Zero in September 2001 (Image: Paul Berriff)

Paul crawled until he felt the side of a car, then another.

He followed the parked cars which he believed led to the Hudson River.

“I suddenly thought, I don’t think I’m going to make this,” he said. “That was the first time in my career that I thought, this is it.

“Because I couldn’t breathe at all — I was gasping and gasping and trying to get this gunge out of my ears, my eyes, nose, mouth — it was everywhere. And everything I touched was burning hot.”

‘I must have been the first alive person right in the epicentre of it all’

Paul continued to crawl — still hearing things crashing and falling around him — until he got to the third car, when the visibility started to clear to around 20 yards away.

He saw an empty ambulance with its red light flashing, then followed the cars down the street.

After another five seconds of crawling, he stood up and said “everything was just deathly silent”.

“The building to my right was on fire from the ground floor to the top — all 24 stories,” Paul recalled. “All the fire trucks in front of me were on fire, and ambulances and police cars.

“And in the distance, I could see bits of the building embedded in the road.

“… I must have been the first alive person right in the epicentre of it all. I couldn’t see anybody else — it was just me.”

Paul returned to his apartment near the Twin Towers and reunited with his uninjured crew.

Paul then realised he had a “gash” on his head and was taken by paramedics to hospital on Staten Island.

“All of us that escaped that day thought it was great,” Paul said. “We’d all escaped death as thousands of others and first responders died around us.”

‘Something like that shows how fragile we all are’

Only about six of the 28 firefighters who had been with Paul at the base of the towers survived, as described in an earlier account.

Paul thought the cut on his head was his only injury. About five years ago, he learned that first responders and others who were in the area had developed coughs and illnesses linked to breathing in Ground Zero dust.

A routine hospital visit about three years ago revealed problems with Paul’s lungs.

Tests revealed he had pulmonary fibrosis — a rare, incurable condition in which the lungs become scarred, making it harder to breathe — which Paul said was caused by inhaling the dust on September 11, 2001.

Doctors gave him five years to live, but Paul said he was “still holding on”. “My consultant sees me on a six-month or yearly basis and says I’m doing alright at the moment. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

Paul Berriff now (Image: Paul Berriff)

US health officials said illnesses linked to dust and smoke from the towers’ collapse had claimed more lives than the nearly 3,000 killed in the attacks.

“It had taken 20 years for it to manifest itself,” Paul said. “Virtually everybody I know that was there that day — and others living in the area that were first responders — have all got these terminal illnesses.

“… It just shows you — we all escape our day but there’s a big sting in the tail of it all.”

But ultimately, Paul said he was “lucky that day” in September 2001.

The experience, he said, “brings it home to you that you’ve got to live every day as you find it and enjoy every day and every single minute. Because you just don’t know what’s coming either from above or behind you.”

“It has changed me,” he added. “I enjoy life and appreciate life every day now because I think something like that shows how fragile we all are: we walk a thin tightrope.”

The distressing sight was spotted by a member of the public out walking on Thursday morning.

A headless marine mammal, believed to be a seal pup, has washed up on Girvan beach.

Ayrshire Live can reveal that the distressing sight was spotted by a member of the public out walking on Thursday morning.

It’s understood that the gruesome find was discovered near the entrance to Stair Park.

Members of the public, particularly dog walkers, are being advised to stay away from the pup’s body.

One man said on social media: “Dead baby seal without a head on the beach, it’s very upsetting so avoid. It’s near the Stair Park entrance. I am currently reporting this to Scottish Marine Animal stranding.”

Another said: “My dogs were very interested in this a few days ago. A headless seal pup.”

One woman added: “That’s horrific.”

A spokesperson for the University of Glasgow-based Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, said: “We are already aware of this and have this logged in our database.”

A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council confirmed that members of their grounds maintenance will remove the dead seal today (Friday, September 11).

The new Christmas Penguin bar is inspired by the popular McVitie’s Penguin biscuit.

Made of creamy milk chocolate, the seasonal snack features a chocolate cream centre and crunchy Penguin biscuit pieces.

New Christmas Penguin bar launches at UK supermarkets

The Christmas Penguin bar is available at Morrisons for £1 but is on special offer for just 70p until December 24 when ordered online.

The launch has sparked excitement among fans, with one shopper simply commenting: “Need!”

Another said: “These look good!

“Like [malteser] reindeer but [with] biscuit pieces in.”

McVitie’s Penguin bars are now labelled as “chocolate flavour” rather than “chocolate,” due to a reduction in cocoa content.

The change was made by parent company Pladis in response to rising chocolate costs linked to climate pressures.

The festive Penguin forms part of McVitie’s largest-ever Christmas range, which includes three further Christmas treats that the biscuit brand unveiled earlier this year.

These include the Tasties Festive Selection, a box of 33 biscuits in nine varieties, and the Victoria Classic Selection, a luxury assortment of nine different biscuits.

McVitie’s has also brought back its Gingerbread Flavour Milk Chocolate Digestives for a third year, offering a seasonal twist on the classic Digestive.

Rare Cadbury chocolate bar returns to UK supermarkets

In other festive food news, a fan-favourite Cadbury bar has also returned to supermarkets for the Christmas season.

The Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Mint Crisp, a limited-edition favourite in the months leading up to Christmas, combines classic Dairy Milk chocolate with crispy mint pieces.

It’s now available in supermarkets once again, with Tesco selling the 350g bar for £5 or £4.50 with a Clubcard.

Morrisons is offering it for £6, or £4.75 with a MoreCard, while Ocado and Iceland are both selling it for £5.

Fans have welcomed its return, with one calling it their “fave of all time.”

Another said: “It’s a shame it’s not sold all year round but I think my waistband would be sorry if it was.”

The Winter Mint Crisp is part of Cadbury’s wider Christmas range, which also includes festive favourites like Dairy Milk Buttons Smash Baubles.

What is your favourite festive chocolate? Let us know in the comments.

Zack Polanski has been chosen to challenge Labour for Sir Keir Starmer‘s former Commons seat. 

The populist Green leader was unveiled as the party’s candidate for the October 8 Holborn and St Pancras by-election this morning.

He was picked ahead of local councillor Hamza Chowdhury, who ran against him  with a blast at ‘famous’ candidates being parachuted in to fight for seats and then disappearing.

Mr Polanski, who has said he will commute to Holborn from his home in trendy east London if he wins, will take on Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali in a vote triggered by former prime minister Sir Keir’s departure from Parliament. 

The seat has been held by Labour since it was created in 1983, but the Greens are confident they have a real chance of taking it.

Coming on stage after a speech by Green MP Hannah Spencer he admitted he was already close to tears, and went on to say: ‘We have the momentum and we can win.’

He also said he hoped his win would push Andy Burnham’s Labour government further to the left.

Mr Polanski will take on Labour’s Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali in a vote triggered by former prime minister Sir Keir’s departure from Parliament

‘We know that if there’s just another Labor MP that adds to Andy Burnham’s majority, he will see that as evidence that he’s completely on the right track and tinkering around the edges is what people are calling for,’ he said.

‘You can give Andy Burnham a chance and vote Green in this election, because ultimately by sending a Green MP to Parliament who will work with him constructively to challenge him on the gaps in his plans, to push him in the direction, and to keep the pressure on in the way that we already have done, we will have a better government, we’ll have a better country, and for the people of Holborn and St Pancras, it follows that they will have a better life.’

He also shared his solidarity with Ms Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee born in Somalia, after ‘despicable’ criticism of her background by Reform’s Zia Yusuf on X.

‘Every single day during this election, I will stand with any candidate who is facing abusive attacks and at the same time put forward Green Party policies that are going to make life easier for everyone in this country and in this constituency,’ he told reporters.

Ms Spencer said local party members ‘overwhelmingly’ chose London Assembly member Mr Polanski over Mr Chowdhury for the nomination. 

The by-election will provide an early test of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s popularity with the public.

The Greens are likely to pose the greatest threat to Labour in the contest, but there is also much at stake for Mr Polanski’s party.

Support for the Greens surged in his first year as leader but the party’s national polling has dipped since Mr Burnham replaced Sir Keir in Downing Street.

Mr Polanski, a London Assembly member, has previously said he was ‘excited’ by the prospect of winning the seat and entering the Commons.

He dismissed suggestions from rival Mr Chowdhury that the constituency did not need ‘another MP who arrives during an election campaign’ then ‘disappears once the votes are counted’.

MP Hannah Spencer (second from right) said local party members ‘overwhelmingly’ chose London Assembly member Mr Polanski over Mr Chowdhury for the nomination

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‘I think the local party already knows that doesn’t describe me at all. It’s a place that I know very, very well,’ Mr Polanski said on Wednesday.

‘I’m excited for this campaign because I think the Green Party and I have a real story to tell and I’m confident, but not complacent, I’ll be out there campaigning for every vote, that it’s a message that will resonate with people in Holborn and St Pancras.’

Ms Abdi-Wali, who has led Camden Council since May this year and been a councillor for Camden Square since 2022, will seek to retain the seat for Labour.

Mr Burnham visited the constituency on Thursday to support Ms Abdi-Wali on her first day of campaigning, she said in an X post.

Only two Labour MPs have ever represented Holborn and St Pancras: former health secretary Frank Dobson, from 1983 to 2015, then Sir Keir.

At the most recent general election in 2024, Sir Keir held the seat with 48.9 per cent of the vote, ahead of independent candidate Andrew Feinstein in second place on 18.9 per cent and the Greens in third on 10.4 per cent.

The Conservatives came fourth on 7.2 per cent, Reform finished fifth on 6.1 per cent and the Liberal Democrats were sixth on 5.8 per cent.

The popularity of the independent and Green candidates at the 2024 contest, finishing second and third respectively, may have been partly down to former Labour voters protesting against Sir Keir’s refusal to take a stronger position on Israel’s actions in Gaza in the war with Hamas.

The Green Party also made gains in the May local elections in the London Borough of Camden, the local authority that covers the constituency.

Government chief whip Anneliese Midgley moved the writ in the House of Commons on Monday, officially triggering the by-election.

Sir Keir revealed his plans to leave Parliament earlier this month, saying he felt it was the ‘right time’ to step down and focus on new work on international affairs.

MP Liam Conlon  Labour’s by-election political lead, said: ‘Only Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali is rooted in this community and has a proven track record of delivering for Camden. She has spent 20 years volunteering across this area, and taken action to improve housing and support for young families as council leader.

‘Labour will run a positive campaign that brings people together and gives them hope. We look forward to joining hundreds of campaigners on the doorsteps to get Sagal elected as the progressive local voice that Holborn and St Pancras deserves.’

Rhys Whittock has a special reason for wanting the Duke of Sussex back

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A Cardiff-born estate agent says he is very happy that Prince Harry is back in the UK because it means he is likely to get more work. Rhys Whittock started working as a Duke of Sussex lookalike when Harry and Meghan announced their engagement in 2017, and he describes it as ‘the best job in the world’.

But he feared it was the end when Harry and Meghan moved to the USA. Rhys told Heart Bingo: “Initially I thought, ‘Oh, this is an amazing job, and it’s all going to finish.’ But when Harry started doing deals with Netflix, Spotify, and that Oprah Winfrey interview, I got bookings.

“I had to do reenactment shots for a TV show and Prince Harry’s book ‘Spare’ kept me incredibly busy. There were a few things that did make work go quiet, mainly because Harry did leave the UK. Then COVID hit, and that really killed events completely for a couple of years.

“The other thing that was really detrimental to being busy was the passing of the Queen. She was the most popular royal for people outside of the UK, and everyone really looked up to her.”

Rhys now looks forward to being busier again. He said: “I think the announcement caught everyone by surprise. I am very pleased to hear that they’re back.

“It is now believable that you could bump into them at an event. I think they obviously want to keep their privacy pretty tight, but I’m sure we’re going to see Harry going to events and enquiries for me have been coming in. Personally, I think it’s been quite clear that he really loved growing up in the UK.

“He loves his country, and there are multiple reasons why I think he came back. He is keen for his family to grow up here, and he seems to want to reconcile with everyone, but it was always going to be tricky with an ocean between you.”

The Duke of Sussex’s first “public engagements” since his return to the UK have been announced, with Harry set to lead a run of charity events this month. Harry will attend the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards and the launch of the Invictus education programme INSPIRE, as well as taking part in one of his favourite annual occasions, the WellChild Awards.

Harry and Meghan stepped away from the working monarchy six years ago in search of personal and financial freedom in the US. Two weeks ago, they moved back, having enrolled their children Archie and Lili in British schools, with Meghan rumoured to be returning to acting again.

In January 2020, the duke and duchess had announced they intended to step back as “senior” members of the royal family, become financially independent, still support Queen Elizabeth II, but split their time between the UK and North America. But the late Queen ruled at the Sandringham Summit, which was convened to resolve the Megxit crisis, that the couple could not be half in and half out – with the King recently asserting the agreement still stands.

Rhys desvribed his parents as Royal fans, adding: “My mum was quite a big fan of the royals. I think she saw the late Queen one day when she visited Cardiff. My dad actually went to the same university as Charles when he was Prince of Wales. Charles was a year or two above him, but he was there at the same time as my dad in Aberystwyth. But he never bumped into him in person.”

Rhys said his time as a lookalike has been ‘up and down’, adding: “I started working as a lookalike the day after Harry and Meghan announced their engagement back in November 2017. People kept stopping me on the street and making comments to me over the years about my resemblance to him.

“Back in 2011, I sent my photo off to an agency, but at the time nobody got back to me. Harry wasn’t in the media as much, and there wasn’t as much demand. So when they got engaged, one of the agencies actually kept my name on file, and they emailed me the next day.

“When they got married in that summer of 2018, it was just super busy. I did a PR stunt for easyJet, a PR stunt for Hot Tub Company where we ended up on BBC Breakfast News, and I also appeared on This Morning. It’s such a varied job. I was even doing advertising for a wedding cake for Morrison’s.”

And while his parents had Royal encountersm Rhys is still waiting for his. He said: “Hopefully one day it would be great to see Harry and meet him in person. I’m aware that he looks at all the media published about him, so I’m sure he’s come across me a little bit. Hopefully he takes it in good nature.”

Rhys explained how he has trabsformed himself into the Prince. He said: “I used YouTube a lot. Also, because of his autobiography Spare, he recorded an audiobook. You’ve got his actual voice to listen to for hours and hours. So, I studied it and practised the speed he speaks at and his tone. His voice is very Etonian and quite deep, so it’s quite different to mine in a way. I’ve got a little bit of a Welsh accent, so I have to try and hide that.

“Initially, you could actually hire military outfits out from a store. My friend then suggested it’d be a really good idea to get the suit myself, so she really helped me to source all of the finer details. The one I have; it’s an actual ex-soldier’s suit. It’s got his name inside. So we built it up to match everything, including replica medals. That was a few £100 to do the proper job and make it as authentic as possible. It’s very thick and heavy to wear as well.”

Rhy’s job has taken him arround the world. He said: “I flew 12 hours to Macau, China for a billionaire’s 75th birthday party. The other lookalikes for Prince William and the late Queen Elizabeth II also came along, so all three of us were in business class at Heathrow Airport about to fly to China. We had a lot of comments from the cabin crew.

“He was one of the richest men in Malaysia and very much a big fan of everything British, so they had tribute acts of Adele and Elton John there as well. They also created a replica set of Buckingham Palace, including the gates and the concrete pillars made from actual metal and stone. The birthday cake was a royal carriage. I was there for 48 hours for a one-hour appearance.”

Rhys said he will now wait and see what happens next, adding: “Obviously now Harry’s a man in his forties, just like myself. I think lookalikes come in and out of fashion a little bit. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens over the next few months.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna has compared former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to the Stormont Executive, accusing both of having “no real sense of purpose” and saying it was difficult to understand what either administration was trying to achieve.

Speaking ahead of the SDLP’s party conference this weekend, Hanna delivered a striking assessment of the Westminster government, where her party has historically maintained close links with Labour while fiercely guarding its political independence.

While she described the arrival of Andy Burnham as Prime Minister as “refreshing”, she was careful to stress that the SDLP would not simply fall into line behind the new Labour administration.

“We have been all of our lives, and so are the Labour Party, a member of the Party of European Socialists. So we’re a sister party in that regard.

“We are very much our own people, our own politicians, and Colm [Eastwood] and I in Westminster, and all of us vote how we see fit, and the benefits for the people that we represent.

“We’ve never taken any other party’s whip, so just to be clear about that. But yeah, we do have, we do have common cause with people on the centre left, around the world.

“Clearly, and we weren’t shy about saying it, we voted against Keir Starmer’s government on many occasions; we, without fear or favour, address the policies.”

Claire Hanna then delivered one of the most pointed assessments of Starmer’s time in office, drawing a direct comparison between Westminster and Stormont.

“That was a disappointing government in terms of how it presented politics and how it got things done, and I actually see a lot of parallels between Starmer’s government and the Executive, there was just no real sense of purpose, you know, it’s hard to understand what they believed, what they were trying to achieve, because it wasn’t coming through in how they communicated and what they actually delivered.

“So look, Andy Burnham has been refreshing. I mean, just this week, we had quite a substantial, I mean, a genuinely substantial announcement on, for example, the approach to the catastrophic situation in Palestine in terms of settler terrorism in the West Bank, but that sort of step change hopefully is the shape of things to come.

“But we’re also very clear that no UK Prime Minister is going to do the things that need to be done here. That’s our job.

“We’re not waiting for him to do the work on a new Ireland, for example, which is why his clumsy remarks about it being off the table, and people kind of lost their minds about it here, as if they expected the Prime Minister from England to come over and tell us that he was gonna break up the union and don’t worry, it was all in hand.”

For Hanna, the question of a future united Ireland is therefore no longer something which can be treated as a distant constitutional possibility.

She believes the political parties and governments on both sides of the border need to begin doing the practical work of preparing for it now, regardless of when or whether a border poll is ultimately held.

Her comments came after Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he intended to raise the issue with the Prime Minister, including the criteria the Secretary of State could use when deciding whether a border poll should be held.

“I think the fact that Micheál Martin has said that is a really clear indication of the energy of this conversation and the trajectory, and we have worked very intensively with his party, with government parties, and opposition parties to just deepen their understanding that a new Ireland can’t just be a rhetorical thing.

“It has to be planned for and stepped through. So I think that was a very significant change in position from the Taoiseach, which hasn’t come out of nowhere, shall we say.

“I think it is appropriate to clarify [the criteria], and we will be doing some work in Westminster in the autumn and after that. I think all of us here in democratic Ireland, more broadly, should be shaping those criteria.

“Again, it’s another if it’s not, let’s hear what London thinks should be the criteria. We would want that to be widely consulted because there will be a panel of indicators.”

Hanna said the SDLP’s argument was not simply that a united Ireland should happen, but that the process leading towards constitutional change needed to be carefully planned and capable of taking account of people who do not currently support it.

She pointed to an SDLP event at the MAC in Belfast earlier this year and the party’s “Success by Design” document as examples of its attempt to move the debate away from slogans and towards detailed policy.

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“There are bigger questions around the how, the why, and when. The SDLP will be making this case between now and the next election. Who do you trust to be around those negotiating tables? Who do you trust to protect the interests of not just those who, like us, believe in this right now, but the people who are sceptical, the people who maybe it isn’t their first choice constitutionally?

“Who do you trust to do that work with both governments and get them into the right place, and who do you trust to get into the detail and not just kind of rally the base, and I think for a lot of people that will be the SDLP.

“I think it’s really important to get into the details of the planning. Our event in the MAC in June, which was a pretty significant all-party event, but not just talking about this is what I want, you know, sort of getting into the real texture detail.

“We made sure that every single panel of the five on that day had people who don’t come from a traditional Irish nationalist background or instinct. We want all different views.

“We made it clear, because we had senior UK politicians, politics is changing now, so, you know, there’s no point, even people who don’t want to talk about change here, and there are the parties of the status quo who don’t want to make change, it’s coming, so you can either shape it or, or be a passenger in it.”

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Manchester City are looking ahead to the Manchester derby after beating Porto 2-0 in the Champions League

Jeremy Doku will miss the Manchester derby but Nico O’Reilly is ready to come back in to face Manchester United. The Manchester City homegrown star has shrugged off a back issue and is “100 per cent available” for one of the biggest games of the season.

Doku has not played since the Community Shield after feeling tightness in his calf in the first 45 minutes against Arsenal. The injury was not described as serious, yet it has been enough to keep him out of the first four matches of the season and he will not be available to face United either with coach Enzo Maresca saying that he “needs more days”.

O’Reilly pulled out of the Coventry match in the warm-up last week. Again, it was not said to be a major issue and he did not travel to Porto for the Champions League game, but is confirmed to be available for Sunday’s game.

City look to continue their perfect start to the season as they head to Old Trafford. Maresca has overseen three Premier League wins in his opening three games since taking over from Pep Guardiola and the Blues also won in Porto in the Champions League this week.

United won this fixture last season when Michael Carrick haD just taken over temporary charge of the club, replacing Ruben Amorim. Carrick has since become permanent manager but United only have four points from their opening three games and will be under pressure to get a positive result on Sunday.

Zack Polanski has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by election as he prepares to fight the crucial contest in the historically Labour seat.

The by election was triggered by the resignation of Sir Keir Starmer as an MP, after he was ousted by his party and replaced as prime minister by Andy Burnham.

Speaking as he was confirmed as the party’s candidate in the contest, which will take place next month, the Green Party leader said: “I am here to fight for you, because when I first moved to London 20 years ago, it was Camden I made my home, and I have lived and worked across Holborn and St Pancras for many of the years since.”

He declared the winner of a local party members’ vote after online hustings on Thursday night, after coming up against local councillor Hamza Chowdhury for the Green nomination.

Mr Chowdhury stated that Holborn and St Pancras does not need “another MP who arrives during an election campaign” and then “disappears once the votes are counted”.

The by-election will pose early test for Mr Burnham’s popularity with the public, with the Greens likely to pose the greatest threat to Labour in the contest.

Labour has held the Holborn and St Pancras seat continuously since it was created in 1983, but voters there have moved towards Green and independent candidates in recent years.

Only two Labour MPs have ever represented Holborn and St Pancras: former health secretary Frank Dobson, from 1983 to 2015, then Sir Keir.

But Green Party made gains in the May local elections in the London Borough of Camden, the local authority that covers the constituency.

The contest also poses a challenge for the Green Party leader himself as he takes on Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali, who has led Camden Council since May this year and been a councillor for Camden Square since 2022, at the October 8 contest.

Support for the Greens surged in his first year as leader but the party’s national polling has dipped since Mr Burnham replaced Sir Keir in Downing Street.

Mr Polanski, a London Assembly member, has previously said he was “excited” by the prospect of winning the seat and entering the Commons.

He dismissed suggestions from rival Mr Chowdhury that the constituency did not need “another MP who arrives during an election campaign” then “disappears once the votes are counted”.

“I think the local party already knows that doesn’t describe me at all. It’s a place that I know very, very well,” Mr Polanski said on Wednesday.

“I’m excited for this campaign because I think the Green Party and I have a real story to tell and I’m confident, but not complacent, I’ll be out there campaigning for every vote, that it’s a message that will resonate with people in Holborn and St Pancras.”

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