UN experts have warned the UK government that its treatment of unaccompanied asylum seeker children is increasing the risk they could be trafficked and is breaching international law.
A statement from the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) expressed concern about the fate of the missing children and urged the UK government to do more to protect them.
“The UK government appears to be failing to abide by its core obligations under international human rights law to ensure the best interests of the child, without discrimination, and to prevent trafficking of children,” the experts said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The statement, from Siobhán Mullally, special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Felipe González Morales, special rapporteur on human rights of migrants, and Tomoya Obokata, special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, called on the government to end the practice of placing these children in hotels.
“We are deeply concerned at reports that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are going missing and are at high risk of being trafficked within the UK,” the UN experts said.
Read the full report here.
Updated
The US president, Joe Biden, has been “very excited” about visiting the island of Ireland for “quite some time”, a White House spokesperson has said.
At a White House press briefing, the national security council co-ordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, outlined the president’s itinerary during his four-day trip, starting on Tuesday, PA reports.
Kirby said the US president would be greeted by te UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, when he arrived in Belfast and they would hold a bilateral meeting on Wednesday.
Biden will then head to Ulster University to speak about the “tremendous progress” since the signing of the Good Friday agreement 25 years ago.
The spokesperson said:
It will underscore the readiness of the United States to preserve those gains and support Northern Ireland’s vast economic potential to the benefit of all communities.
After his speech at Ulster University, Biden will travel to County Louth, where his great-grandfather James Finegan was born.
Biden will tour Carlingford Castle on Wednesday before spending the night in Dublin.
Kirby said Biden will then meet the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, on Thursday and take part in a tree-planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell at the president’s official residence, Aras an Uachtarain.
“Following that ceremony, he will meet again with the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, whom the president just hosted here for St Patrick’s Day,” he said.
Kirby added:
In both meetings, the president will discuss our close co-operation on the full range of shared global challenges.
He will then address a joint session of Irish parliament about US-Irish co-operation to advance democracy, peace, security and prosperity.”
Biden will attend a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle on Thursday.
On Friday he will travel to County Mayo for the culmination of the trip.
He will tour the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock and visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit.
He will then speak at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina.
Kirby said the president’s great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to the cathedral in 1827.
He said:
Those bricks were used to construct and support the great cathedral and help Edward afford to buy tickets for himself and for his family to sail to America decades later in 1851.
The president is very much looking forward to that trip and to celebrating the deep historic ties that our two countries and our two people continue to share.
As well as the shared deep history between the United States and Ireland, today one in 10 Americans claim Irish ancestry and Irish Americans are proudly represented in every facet of American life.”
Asked about recent violence in Northern Ireland, Kirby said the president was grateful for the work that Northern Ireland’s security forces have done and “continue to do to protect all communities”.
“He’s again very much looking forward to going to Belfast,” he said.
“As for security concerns, you know we don’t ever talk about security requirements of protecting the president but the president is more than comfortable making this trip and he’s very excited to do it,” he added.
Asked about timing the visit while Northern Ireland’s institutions were suspended, Mr Kirby reiterated that the trip was timed for the anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.
“An agreement that the president has a personal connection to and obviously is very, very proud to see this has really changed lives and livelihoods in Northern Ireland.”
Updated
The SNP is “working very hard” to get new auditors in place, party leader and Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf said – as he revealed the accountancy firm that had been doing the job had resigned “round about October” of last year, PA News reports.
It emerged last week that accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael was no longer handling the SNP accounts – with this coming just days after former party chief executive Peter Murrell was arrested and questioned by police probing the party’s finances.
However, Yousaf insisted he did not think that Murrell, who is also Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, should have his membership suspended while the Police Scotland investigation continues.
Last week, Murrell was questioned by Police Scotland as part of its investigation into the whereabouts of about £600,000 donated to the party which had been earmarked for Scottish independence campaigning.
Murrell was later released without charge “pending further investigation”, the force said.
Yousaf, who became SNP leader just over two weeks ago, was pressed on whether Murrell should have his membership suspended while the probe was continuing.
Yousaf said it was “undoubtedly serious” that the former chief executive had been interviewed under caution, but added:
“I tend to work on the premise that somebody is innocent until proven guilty.”
He said the situtation was “difficult” and “a challenge”.
He said:
It has got the potential to damage the party, we know that.”
Yousaf also said the party had the opportunity to rebuild under his leadership and with a new chief executive, with the first minister saying: “I think there’s an opportunity to refresh to rebuild, and we’ve got to do that.”
He insisted that appointing new auditors was currently one of the “major priorities” for the party after it emerged last week that Johnston Carmichael had resigned as auditors.
Yousaf said the party was “quickly looking to secure another auditor”, adding: “We’re working very hard to do that.”
He added the SNP was still hoping to have its accounts prepared in time for these to be submitted to watchdogs at the Electoral Commission in July, although he accepted this was “problematic”.
He stated: “We’re going to try to work to the premise that we can get them ready by July. It will be a challenging task.”
Updated
Here are some images coming to us over the wires.
Updated
People Before Profit said its TDs will not attend the Dáil for a speech by the US president, Joe Biden, this week.
The four TDs – Richard Boyd Barret, Brid Smith, Gino Kenny and Paul Murphy – will protest against the visit, and the party is urging supporters to attend a protest gathering against Mr Biden’s visit on Wednesday at the General Post Office, PA News reports.
In a statement, the party said:
People Before Profit will not be welcoming the US president, Joe Biden.
In his visit to Ireland, Joe Biden will present himself as a ‘man of peace’ whose country helped broker the Belfast Agreement. But while Biden talks of peace in Ireland, he is the commander-in-chief of a military machine that he describes as ‘the arsenal of democracy’.
He presents himself as the ‘leader of the free world’, opposing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
People Before Profit condemns Russia’s invasion and we have given support to the Russian anti-war movement. We support the right of Ukrainian to resist an illegal and cruel invasion.
But that does not align us with Nato or Biden because they practise the most outrageous double standards.
Updated
Summary
That’s all for today from me, as Joe Biden is due to land in Belfast in a few hours’ time to kick off a four-day visit to the island of Ireland.
Here’s a roundup of today’s news.
Rishi Sunak will meet Biden off the plane at about 9.30pm on Tuesday. The US president will then travel to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday, visiting Carlingford, where his great-grandfather once lived.
Downing Street has denied that Rishi Sunak’s meetings with Biden this week are “low-key”. Asked about the White House reportedly scaling back their interaction from a bilateral event to a less formal coffee meeting, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters: “The prime minister will meet with President Biden to discuss areas of mutual interest.”
Sunak’s spokesperson said he had not given up on getting the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) back into power sharing. He is not meeting Northern Irish political leaders during his visit. The DUP withdrew from Northern Ireland’s assembly in February last year, and has not sat since the elections in May of the same year, in unhappiness about post-Brexit trading arrangements.
The Labour party launched another advert in its controversial campaign, based on the cost of living but also attacking Sunak. It is based on the story from a year ago that Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, benefited from non-domiciled tax status, which meant she avoided tax from overseas earnings.
Covid-19 is now no longer one of the leading causes of death in England and Wales, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to new figures.
The UK economy is expected to shrink this year and will be at the back of the leading G7 countries at a time when a fresh outbreak of financial upheaval threatens the slowing global recovery, the International Monetary Fund has predicted.
The SNP leader, Humza Yousaf, has revealed that the party’s auditors quit last October. Yousaf said he was unaware the party had been without auditors until he attended his first NEC meeting as leader following his election at the end of last month.
Dominic Raab could face proceedings for contempt of court after high court judges ruled he acted unlawfully by stopping prison and probation staff in England and Wales from recommending whether a prisoner was fit for release or transfer to open conditions.
The blog will be back tomorrow as Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland continues and he speaks to an audience at Ulster University’s newly opened Belfast campus. Thank you for following along while I’ve sat in for Andrew over the last few days.
Updated
Government plans to deal with the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland should be on the agenda when Rishi Sunak meets Joe Biden, Amnesty International has said.
The organisation has called on the prime minister to scrap its Northern Ireland Troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill, stating that it erodes the Good Friday agreement.
The legislation proposes offering immunity for people accused of crimes during the Troubles as long as they cooperate with a new truth recovery body.
It would also would stop future court processes or inquests.
Along with Amnesty International, victims’ groups have expressed opposition to the bill.
Several protests have taken place over the last several weeks, with victims’ families carrying banners and placards demanding truth and justice for loved ones.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will meet the US president, Joe Biden, during the latter’s visit to Northern Ireland.
Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International UK’s Northern Ireland deputy director, said the Troubles bill must be on the agenda.
“Biden and Sunak’s meeting is a key moment to acknowledge the Good Friday agreement’s achievements, but we cannot ignore the reality of UK government actions that recklessly undermine it,” she said.
“It rings entirely hollow that the prime minister is celebrating the agreement whilst simultaneously pursuing a legislative agenda that erodes the rights commitments central to it.”
Updated
Dominic Raab could face proceedings for contempt of court after high court judges ruled he acted unlawfully by stopping prison and probation staff in England and Wales from recommending whether a prisoner was fit for release or transfer to open conditions.
The justice secretary made the change to the Parole Board rules last year, claiming they would ensure there would be one “overarching” Ministry of Justice (MoJ) recommendation and avoid conflicting views.
However, the amendment, which was criticised by unions, was successfully challenged at the high court by two prisoners, Adrian Bailey and Perry Morris, with Lady Justice Macur and Mr Justice Chamberlain finding that it was unlawful.
The two judges also said refusing to answer a question posed by the Parole Board as to whether a prisoner was suitable for release or transfer to open conditions could amount to contempt of court. They further raised the prospect that Raab could be guilty of contempt of court if he was deemed to have instructed witnesses not to answer.
Updated
Biden says keeping Good Friday and Windsor agreements in place are trip's priority
Joe Biden has said that making sure the “Irish accords and Windsor agreement” are applied is his main objective for his visit to Belfast.
Speaking to reporters before taking off for Northern Ireland, he was asked what his top priority for the visit was.
He said: “Make sure the Irish accords and Windsor agreements stay in place. Keep the peace and that’s the main thing. It looks like we’re going to keep our fingers crossed.”
SNP leader admits party's auditors quit in October
In a further indication of the internal chaos engulfing the Scottish National party, the new first minister, Humza Yousaf, has revealed that the party’s auditors quit last October.
Yousaf said he was unaware the party had been without auditors when he attended his first NEC meeting as leader following his election at the end of last month.
It had been withheld from the candidates vying to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader and raises even more questions about the financial state of the party after the arrest last week of the former chief executive Peter Murrell.
Yousaf admitted to reporters at a government event in Edinburgh that the situation was “problematic” and that putting another auditing firm in place was a “major priority”.
Murrell, who is also married to Sturgeon, was arrested by police investigating what happened to about £600,000 of donations to a campaign fund for a second independence referendum, and was later released without charge pending further investigation.
Kate Forbes, who was Yousaf’s very close rival for the leadership, did not know about the auditing situation either, according to Michelle Thompson, the MSP who managed her campaign.
Last week it was reported that accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael had resigned after reviewing its client portfolio, but it was not clear when this took place.
Updated
The town of Ballina in County Mayo will never have witnessed anything like the visit of Joe Biden, a relative of the US president has told PA Media.
Joe Blewitt, a third cousin of Biden, said there was a “great buzz” in the area ahead of the president’s arrival. Preparations are well under way for the event on Friday, which will be the culmination of Biden’s trip to the island of Ireland.
Biden is to give a public address at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina. His great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to the cathedral in 1827, which helped him to afford to buy tickets for himself and his family to sail to the US decades later in 1851.
Blewitt was helping with final preparations on Tuesday.
He said: “We are building the stage at the moment.
“I am very excited, there is a great buzz all around the town. It has just been crazy.
“The town will never have known anything like it, it is just great.”
Ballina is twinned with Scranton in Pennsylvania in the US, Biden’s home town.
Updated
Some positive polling news for Labour as it shows the highest level of support in nearly five months for the public believing the party would properly address the cost of living crisis.
A survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed that 42% believe the party would “be taking the right measures to address the cost of living crisis” if it was in government.
It’s a six point lead over those who think they would not be doing the right thing to address it.
However the rest of the fieldwork shows a mixed picture – a greater margin believe that the government is already taking the right measures – 59% and overall polling shows Labour with the narrowest lead with the company since Rishi Sunak became PM – Keir Starmer’s party are only 14 points ahead on 44%.
Highest % to answer 'yes' since 27 November (42%).
— Redfield & Wilton Strategies (@RedfieldWilton) April 11, 2023
Do Britons believe a UK Government led by the Labour Party would currently be taking the right measures to address the cost-of-living crisis? (9 April)
Yes 42% (+2)
No 36% (–)
Don't know 22% (-2)
Changes +/- 2 April pic.twitter.com/kAeQiKAsKJ
Updated
The UK economy is expected to shrink this year and will be at the back of the leading G7 countries at a time when a fresh outbreak of financial upheaval threatens the slowing global recovery, the International Monetary Fund has predicted.
Stressing the growing risks of a hard landing for developed countries, the Washington-based body singled out the UK and the euro area as being particularly affected by rising energy costs and higher inflation.
The IMF slightly revised up its estimate of UK growth this year from the -0.6% pencilled in three months ago but still expected the economy to contract by 0.3%.
Updated
Dozens of police officers and secret service vehicles descended on Belfast on Tuesday morning in a major security operation before the visit of the US president, Joe Biden.
Bedford Street was closed to traffic, along with several side streets surrounding the Grand Central Hotel, PA news reports. The street remained open to pedestrians as dozens of police and a number of armoured vehicles filled the area. Biden is due to visit the university’s new building on Wednesday before heading to the Republic of Ireland.
Anne Tennyson, from Belfast, welcomed the visit, despite the extensive security measures. She told PA news:
I think it’s great, it’s great to see him coming here. It’s fantastic. Belfast has cleaned itself up and prepared for it and it’s looking great…
Tennyson added:
He’s obviously a diplomat so I would like that he would use his diplomatic influence to get them coming together for the betterment of Northern Ireland.
Dorothy Wardlaw, who was visiting Belfast from Scotland, told PA news the increased police presence in the city was ridiculous. “I really think it’s just a waste of money, terrible,” she said.
Updated
On a visit to Brighton as part of Labour’s local election campaign, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has defended the advertising campaign.
She told PA Media: “I’m not going to make any apology for highlighting the dire record of this Conservative government and this Conservative prime minister.
“Whether it’s the criminal justice system, our health service, the cost-of-living pressures that people are under – this is a result of 13 years of Conservative failure.
“And as an opposition party, we’ve got to highlight that and put forward our alternative.”
She repeated the party’s pledge to help more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder.
Updated
There’s some anonymous quotes in a New Statesman article [paywall] by Rachel Wearmouth on Labour’s advertising campaign.
It gives an insight into both schools of thoughts on the adverts in the party, which have produced criticism and defiance within the party.
One source said: “It’s mission accomplished. We’ve dominated the news agenda and started a serious conversation about the Tories’ appalling record on crime.”
For those shadow cabinet members who are unhappy with the adverts, they are relatively powerless, the New Statesman article says – as the campaign team led by Morgan McSweeney – who first worked with Labour ahead of the 1997 election – has won a battle against more wary policy advisers.
However, some dissenting views are summed up by this quote: “[Labour strategists] will be happy because it’s created the row and made them look like Lynton Crosby,” said one adviser.
“But it won’t work because we won’t win from the gutter – our biggest problem is not failing to attack Rishi, it’s lacking a positive alternative vision – and because dredging up past records won’t end well for Keir. The Tories will go to town with his DPP record.”
Updated
Covid-19 is now no longer one of the leading causes of death in England and Wales, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to new figures.
It was the top cause of death in 2020 (responsible for 12.1% of all deaths) and 2021 (11.5%) but this dropped sharply in 2022 to 3.9% – putting it at sixth.
According to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause of death in England and Wales in 2022, with 65,976 deaths registered. Making up the rest of the top five was ischaemic heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes and aneurysms and trachea, bronchus and lung cancer.
Sarah Caul, the ONS’s head of mortality analysis, said the figures represent a “significant change” in the leading causes of death since the beginning of the pandemic. “For the third year in a row, we’ve seen more males than females dying, a reversal of the trend since the 1980s,” she added.
Updated
Another snippet from the lobby briefing, as Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said he had not given up on getting the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) back into power sharing.
He is not meeting Northern Irish political leaders during his visit to the country. The DUP withdrew from Northern Ireland’s assembly in February last year, and has not sat since the elections in May of the same year, in unhappiness about post-Brexit trading arrangements.
His spokesman said: “It’s the secretary of state for Northern Ireland’s priority to get the executive up and running and he has had extensive engagement with the Northern Ireland political parties, as has the prime minister, over recent months.
“You’ll be aware that he met with leaders over the past few months with regards specifically to the Windsor framework.
“Our continued hope is that we can get Stormont back up and running as quickly as possible.”
Updated
No 10 says Sunak-Biden meetings are not 'low-key'
Downing Street has denied that Rishi Sunak’s meetings with the US president Joe Biden this week are “low-key”.
Asked about the White House reportedly scaling back their interaction from a bilateral event to a less formal coffee meeting, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters: “The prime minister will meet with President Biden to discuss areas of mutual interest.”
Asked why the plans appeared low-key, he replied: “I wouldn’t characterise it as that. As I’ve said the prime minister will see him tonight, he will see him again tomorrow.
“You’ve seen the president’s actions during his time demonstrate that we have a close relationship. His first visit outside of North America was to the UK, where he met both the queen and the Prince of Wales.
“We continue to have an incredibly positive working relationships with the president and the US government.”
Updated
Meanwhile, Stephen Bush at the Financial Times [paywall] has a similar view to Michael Dugher (see 11:21) in that a furore about an advertising campaign often precedes that party succeeding at the ballot box.
In an Inside Politics article this morning, he said: “Throughout my time covering elections, a pattern has emerged: a political party or referendum campaign reveals a new line of attack, a poster or a criticism. Westminster goes on and on about how excessive it is, then the party in question wins.
“I suspect a similar pattern is going to hold with regards to the Labour party’s attacks on Rishi Sunak this week and the looming local elections next month. Some more thoughts on that, on political campaigning and some of Labour’s vulnerabilities in today’s note.”
He draws parallels between the Labour adverts attacking Sunak and those by the Conservative party putting Gordon Brown at the centre of their posters, and the Vote Leave adverts about the NHS and Turkey joining the EU that triggered outrage in 2016.
Bush adds: “Labour’s attempt to link Sunak personally to the sentencing of convicted offenders ‘under the Tories’ has caused no small amount of internal angst and disapproval within Keir Starmer’s party. Yet it has yielded Labour’s most unequivocally positive front page from the Daily Mail that I can remember and an op-ed in the same paper by Starmer. He essentially hits all the beats that the Labour leadership want to hit: Labour is tough on crime and the Conservatives are weak, Sunak (who was elected as an MP in 2015) is personally culpable for the past 13 years, etc.”
Updated
An interesting view on the Labour ads from the former MP turned gambling lobbyist Michael Dugher, who used to work for Gordon Brown in the last years of the last Labour government.
In a series of tweets Dugher, who stood down from his Barnsley East seat in 2017, has set out why he thinks they are necessary for the party in opposition trying to get into power.
A thread on the Labour attack ads as someone who used to run the Lab operation: 1. All parties have an attack operation, so let’s not pretend they don’t. Holding opponents to account on policy - robustly - is part of the democratic process. It’s not for shrinking violets.
— Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) April 11, 2023
He argues – “as someone who used to run the [Labour] operation” – that the party knows it is opening itself up to retaliation attacks.
4. Sorry but this stuff works. Oppositions in particular have to ‘controversialise’ to cut through. Everyone is talking about the Lab ads. Simply doing a speech or press releasing stats criticising the Govt on sentencing won’t get you more than a few pars in the Guardian & Mirror
— Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) April 11, 2023
6. This is very strategic by Lab. As well as landing blows on the Govt, they are trying to address perceived strategic weaknesses that they are soft on crime + their leadership is weak & part of an out-of-touch Liberal metropolitan (“new”) elite. Harder to accuse Lab of this now.
— Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) April 11, 2023
7. Lastly a question: Are Lab surrendering the moral high ground? It’s delusional (& vain) to think voters believe Lab has some sort of moral high ground. If you want to help people/deliver change, you have to win. So the real question for Labour is: how much do they want to win?
— Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) April 11, 2023
Updated
As the row over Labour’s social media advertising campaign runs into its sixth day, the party has launched another, roughly on the cost of living – but also attacking Rishi Sunak.
Tuesday’s offering is based on the story from a year ago that Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, benefited from non-domiciled tax status, which meant she avoided tax from overseas earnings.
It says: “Do you think it’s right to raise taxes for working people when your family benefitted from a tax loophole?”
In the advert Labour then pivots to the Conservative party raising taxes in office and how the public has the highest tax burden in 70 years, without closing the “non-dom tax loophole”.
It goes on to say that Labour would freeze council tax, with paying for it through a windfall tax on oil and gas companies
A Labour government would freeze council tax this year, paid for by a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 11, 2023
And we’d scrap the Tories’ non-dom tax loophole. pic.twitter.com/tBkNAhKPtA
In the morning broadcast round, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, told Sky News: “This week, we’re focusing on the economy, the cost of living, mortgages, council tax, people’s ability to pay their bills, and so on. These are legitimate areas for public debate.”
The line of attack is interesting – particularly on council tax in the run up to the local elections.
There are none in London this year, but those in the capital will know that at election time, Tory campaigners usually contrast Labour town halls putting up council tax to Tories who typically have frozen it.
Updated
As Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland approaches, security has been stepped up with manhole covers near the president’s hotel in Belfast being lifted as part of checks.
When the president touches down tonight it will come less than 48 hours after police were attacked with petrol bombs in Derry on Easter Monday during a dissident protest linked to commemorating the Easter Rising of 1916.
Last night the police’s area commander for Derry City and Strabane, Ch Supt Nigel Goddard, called the attack “incredibly disheartening”. There were no injuries.
In a report carried by the Derry Journal, he said: “Shortly after the parade commenced, petrol bombs and other objects were thrown at one of our vehicles at the junction of Iniscarn Road and Linsfort Drive. This was a senseless and reckless attack on our officers who were in attendance in the area in order to comply with our legal duties.
“As participants at the parade made their way out of the City Cemetery, they removed their paramilitary uniforms under the cover of umbrellas and burnt them.
“Organisers of this parade communicated in advance their desire to have a respectful and dignified event, however, that is not what we witnessed today. There can be no place for this type of criminal activity. It is not wanted nor welcomed by the vast majority of people across the city.”
Updated
White House reveals Biden visit itinerary
The US president will be greeted by the prime minister when he touches down in Belfast tonight at 9.30pm with a bilateral meeting between the two leaders scheduled for Wednesday morning, the White House has confirmed.
The public aspect of his four day trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland will kick off with a speech at Ulster University at lunchtime on Wednesday “marking the tremendous progress” made since the 1998 Good Friday agreement.
An announcement on potential American investment is also expected.
“He’ll underscore the readiness of the United States’ to preserve those gains and support Northern Ireland’s vast economic potential to the benefit of all communities,” his national security council co-ordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, last night in Washington.
Manholes were being lifted in Belfast city centre in final security sweeps around the city centre hotel Biden will stay with 300 extra police drafted in to help the operation which one police officer last night said “is the same if he stayed two hours or two weeks”.
Biden will then fly to the Republic of Ireland for the main leg of his four-day visit to celebrate his and America’s ancestral ties with the country.
He is expected to fly to Dublin at about 2.30pm and then be flown in a helicopter to the border town of Carlingford where his great-grandfather James Finnegan was born to meet extended family and visit a 13th-century castle.
The president will then return to Dublin for an address to the Dáil making Biden the fourth US president to do so, following John F Kennedy’s appearance in 1963, Ronald Reagan’s in 1984 and Bill Clinton’s in 1995.
With his eye firmly on the Irish American vote, his spokesman noted: “Today one in 10 Americans claim Irish ancestry and Irish Americans are proudly represented in every facet of American life.”
Biden will be feted at a banquet in Dublin Castle on Thursday night before travelling to Mayo – a county that suffered huge depopulation through death and emigration during the Irish famine – with a visit to the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s Family History Research Unit followed by remarks outside St Muredach’s Cathedral on Friday in Ballina.
This connects him with his own family as his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to the church in 1827, says Kirby.
Updated
Good morning from London.
Joe Biden will arrive in Northern Ireland tonight to begin a four-day visit to the island of Ireland.
He will land in Belfast on Tuesday evening and arrive in the city to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.
Rishi Sunak will meet him off the plane, and the president will then meet Northern Irish politicians who are without a sitting assembly after Stormont was suspended in February 2022.
It is thought he will encourage them to reconvene the assembly, with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) currently refusing to return over a dispute about post-Brexit trading.
He will give a speech at Ulster university on Wednesday, before travelling to the Republic of Ireland where he will stay until Friday.
Meanwhile, the Times and Telegraph have reported overnight that Sunak will call a general election in autumn 2024, hoping to benefit from a projected fall in inflation and rise in wages.
The Times reported that ministers were being advised that the living wage should rise by 74p an hour to £11.16, and inflation could be as low as 2%.
Income tax could also be cut in the autumn statement, which would come into effect in April.
A four-day junior doctors’ strike begins today – and Kevin Rawlinson will bring updates here.
I’m sitting in for Andy Sparrow today. Comments are open below the line, or if you want to get in touch with me with any tips or information – my email is harry.taylor@guardian.co.uk or on Twitter where I’m @HarryTaylr.
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