5 h. ago Cooper defends live facial recognition expansion amid privacy row

The Home Secretary said ‘safeguards and protections’ would govern use of the cameras.

Politics

7 h. ago More migrants arrested under new returns deal with France, confirms Home Secretary

Yvette Cooper said that the first referrals for people who came to Britain in small boats to be sent back across the English Channel have already been made

Economics

3 d. ago Campaigners criticise UK plans to reveal suspects’ ethnicity and migration status

Yvette Cooper wants guidance to change after row over claims police ‘covered up’ status of two men on charges relating to an alleged rapeAnti-racism campaigners have criticised proposals to allow police to reveal the ethnicity and migration status of suspects, after a row triggered by claims police “covered up” the backgrounds of two men charged in connection to the alleged rape of a child.The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, this week told the BBC she hoped the Law Commission would “accelerate” a review of contempt of court and that “guidance needs to change” about information released when a trial is pending. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago First people detained under ‘one in, one out’ deal before being sent back to France – UK politics live

Home secretary says the move ‘sends a message to every migrant currently thinking of paying organised crime gangs to go to the UK’Keir Starmer has also issued a statement about the detention of small boat arrivals (see 9.58am) on his social media feed. He says:We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results.If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back.The transfers to immigration removal centres are under way as we speak, so we won’t provide operational details at this point that criminal gangs can simply use and exploit.But no-one should be in any doubt: anyone who arrives from now on is eligible for immediate detention and return.The pilot has now begun, so the first migrants who have arrived on the small boats are now in detention. We will then swiftly make the referrals to France and that process will now start to be able to return people to France.It’s the beginning of the pil...

Politics

6 d. ago First people to be returned to France under UK’s ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal

People detained after arriving in small boat expected to be returned within three weeks, says Home OfficePeople who arrived in the UK on a small boat have been detained under Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal for the first time and are expected to be returned to France within three weeks, the Home Office has said.Detentions began on Wednesday lunchtime, with those identified in the Channel boat being held in immigration removal centres pending their removal. Continue reading...

Economics

6 d. ago First small boat migrants detained for return to France under new deal

Detentions began for those who arrived on a small boat on Wednesday - with those being held expected to be sent back within a fortnight

Economics

7 d. ago Labour's migrant returns deal with France descends into farce as Cabinet minister appears to contradict terms of treaty

Labour's migrant returns deal with France has descended into farce as a minister appeared to contradict the terms of a new treaty.

Politics

7 d. ago Police chief calls for urgent guidance for forces after cover

Warwickshire’s police and crime commissioner has written to the Home Secretary asking for revised guidance as soon as possible.

Events

7 d. ago ‘Worrying’ levels of screen time means young people losing confidence to socialise in person, minister warns – UK politics live

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says ‘majority of young people spend all, or almost all, of their free time alone in their bedrooms, online’Rachel Reeves will need to raise taxes to close a government spending gap that is on course to reach more than £40bn after a slowdown in economic growth and higher-than-expected inflation, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a thinktank. Phillip Inman has the story.Good morning. Keir Starmer is out on a visit today and he will be doing broadcast interviews. It may be the only time we hear from him this week, and there is no shortage of topics that journalists will want to ask him about. By the end of the day we may get new, or newish, lines on Gaza, the “one in, one out” returns deal with France, tax rises and the black hole in the government’s finances (priced at more than £40bn, according to a report from a well-respected thinktank today), Ukraine, the case for and against disclosing suspects’ immigration ...

Politics

7 d. ago Confusion over whether migrants can use human rights ‘loophole’ to avoid return to France

The treaty contains a clause that says in order for people to be returned to France, the UK must confirm they do not have an ‘outstanding human rights claim’

Events

7 d. ago Small boat migrants who lodge human rights claims will DODGE removal to France under Labour's new scheme

Small boat migrants who lodge human rights claims in Britain - or claim to be under 18 - will evade being returned to France under massive loopholes in Labour's new deal.

Events

8 d. ago The Guardian view on asylum myths: when truth loses, scapegoating takes over Britain’s migrant debate | Editorial

Labour’s cautious fixes for immigration and asylum policy face a toxic public mood shaped by fear, falsehoods and far-right provocationIn politics, numbers rarely speak for themselves. They must be framed and interpreted. They are often weaponised. In Britain’s increasingly toxic debate over asylum and migration, the question isn’t just how many asylum seekers arrive on small boats. It’s what those numbers are made to represent – and why polls suggest a large proportion of the public now believes things that are simply untrue.Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has staked her political credibility on restoring a sense of grip over the asylum system: reducing the backlog by processing cases, accelerating returns of those with no legal claim to stay and launching an as yet small-scale “one in, one out” returns deal with France. In balancing operational realism with symbolic reassurance, Ms Cooper walks a knife-edge between policy and perception. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Voices: ‘One in, one out’ is a realistic plan to deal with migration – let’s give it a chance

Home secretary Yvette Cooper’s plan to tackle irregular migrants crossing the Channel is only a pilot programme to test the mechanics of a much larger scheme that could, one day, return all small-boat arrivals – and silence Nigel Farage for good, says John Rentoul

Economics

8 d. ago Home Secretary Yvette Cooper refuses to say how many Channel migrants will be returned to France under new 'one in one out' deal because it 'could help smuggling gangs'

Migrants who arrive by small boat from tomorrow could face being selected for the scheme and placed in detention instead of being sent to taxpayer-funded hotels.

Events

8 d. ago Good Morning Britain host abruptly exits as Yvette Cooper appears on ITV show

Kate Garraway was forced to interview Home Secretary Yvette Cooper alone on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday as her co-host made an abrupt exit

Culture

8 d. ago Home Secretary calls for more transparency from police over suspects

Yvette Cooper said guidance was already being reviewed about how the police release information about people arrested over crimes.

Society

8 d. ago France treaty to return Channel migrants is not ‘silver bullet’, Cooper says

The Home Secretary has refused to put a figure on the number of migrants the Government hopes to exchange with France for legal asylum seekers.

Events

8 d. ago Small boat migrants will be detained for return to France 'in a matter of days'

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has revealed that people who arrive in small boats will start being detained 'in a matter of days' - and will be taken into custody 'immediately on arrival'

Events

9 d. ago Voices: Will Labour’s new migrant controls stop the boats or encourage Nigel Farage?

As home secretary Yvette Cooper announces £100m to pay for more border officers and new surveillance technology, among a raft of key measures, Sean O'Grady admits that there is no silver bullet to stopping illegal immigration – and that slow, unshowy progress risks playing into Reform UK’s hands

Events

9 d. ago Labour is 'tinkering around the edges' with its £100m plans to crackdown on small boat migrant crossings, Tories warn

The Home Office has announced measures to get tough on smuggling gangs, despite more than 25,000 illegal arrivals so far this year - but the Tories branded them 'a series of gimmicks'.

Events