A summary of today's developments
A man has been arrested after a car was driven into the gates outside Downing Street at around 4.20pm on Thursday, police said.
No one was injured. The Metropolitan police said armed officers arrested a man on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving after the car struck the gates blocking the entrance to the street, where it joins Whitehall. A section of Whitehall was cordoned off after the incident.
Police said the man was taken into custody and the incident was being dealt with by local officers in Westminster and was not being treated as terror-related.
Rishi Sunak was inside the Downing Street complex, which includes the flats for the prime minister and chancellor, as well as a network of offices that connect to other government buildings. He left soon afterwards.
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Witness Krish Kandiah, who was delivering a petition at Downing street when a car crashed into the gates, told Sky News that there was an “almighty smash at the front gate”.
He said: “Immediately we saw police scramble and armed officers responded swiftly. They shouted at the man to get out.
“He was wrestled out of the car and put down on the ground and handcuffed.”
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The PM and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, were in Downing Street at the time of the crash, the BBC reported. Sunak left for a scheduled visit.
Downing Street incident not currently being treated as terror-related - Met
The Metropolitan police have released an updated statement.
“A small cordon remains in place outside Downing Street after a car collided with the gates earlier this afternoon.
“The incident is being dealt with by local officers in Westminster and isn’t currently being treated as terror-related.”
#UPDATE | A small cordon remains in place outside Downing Street after a car collided with the gates earlier this afternoon.
— MPS Westminster (@MPSWestminster) May 25, 2023
The incident is being dealt with by local officers in Westminster and isn't currently being treated as terror-related.
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Witness Simon Parry, 44, said: “I heard a bang and looked up and saw loads of police with taser guns shouting at the man.
“A lot of police vehicles came very quickly and were very quick to evacuate the area.”
Parry said the driver had his “face to the floor” as he was being arrested.
He said the man appeared to slow down before he reached the gates of Downing Street, having driven out from the other side of the road.
“There were sniffer dogs and a bomb squad.”
Asked to describe the mood in the immediate aftermath, Parry said: “We saw people that were in a panic running away and we saw people who were excited.”
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Police have opened the cordon that was restricting access for the area of Whitehall outside Downing Street where a car hit the Downing Street gates.
Dozens of members of the public filed out as armed officers kept watch near the crashed vehicle.
Sunak in Downing Street at the time of the crash
Rishi Sunak was in Downing Street at the time the car crashed into the front gates, the PA news agency understands.
The prime minister, who had been due to leave No 10, departed after the crash.
Here are some more pictures form Downing Street.
That is all from me for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is now taking over.
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Police inquiry into car crashing into Downing Street not counter-terrorism operation
Given the sensitivity of the location, there has been speculation about the reasons for the car crashing into the gates of Downing Street.
Currently Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command are not leading the investigation into the car ploughing into the Downing Street gate.
The Met’s inquiries continue.
A man was arrested for dangerous driving and criminal damage with regular police leading the investigation, at this stage.
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Here is video from Downing Street.
This is from the Sun’s Noa Hoffman.
Police saying street will be “reopened shortly” they ask the public to walk “as you would on a normal day”
— Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) May 25, 2023
According to the BBC’s Nick Eardley, Rishi Sunak was in No 10 at the time of the crash, but has now left. Eardley says he was told not to read too much into that because Sunak was due to leave anyway. (See 5.16pm.)
This is from George Grylls at the Times. He says a police convoy left Downing Street by the back entrance very soon after the car crashed into the gate at the front.
Armoured cars seen leaving back of Number 10 moments ago after car crashes into Downing Street gate. pic.twitter.com/EAKVu0xwoQ
— George Grylls (@georgegrylls) May 25, 2023
We have not had confirmation that Rishi Sunak was in the building when car happened. Downing Street is very heavily protected. Even if a car were to get through the gates, there is another set of bollards further up the street well before the door (and not just normal car park bollards, but ones that would stop a tank). But Sunak has protection officers with him at all time, and it is their job to keep him safe.
Here is another picture of the scene, from the Sun’s Harry Cole.
Fresh image provided to @thesun of the scene at Downing Street in aftermath of car driven into gate... https://t.co/SiienaKkoL https://t.co/gpH0vQmoWA pic.twitter.com/9t2wRXQPHd
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) May 25, 2023
Large sections of Whitehall have been closed to the public and vehicles, with pedestrians being turned away from the main thoroughfare around Downing Street in central London, PA Media reports. There is a significant police presence in the area.
Man arrested after car crashes into Downing Street gates - Met
This is from the Metropolitan police’s City of Westminster branch.
#UPDATE | At around 16:20hrs a car collided with the gates of Downing Street on Whitehall.
— MPS Westminster (@MPSWestminster) May 25, 2023
Armed officers arrested a man at the scene on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving.
There are no reports of any injuries.
Enquiries are ongoing.
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Man arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving after car crashes into Downing Street gates
A snap from PA Media:
Armed officers arrested a man on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving after a car collided with the gates of Downing Street, the Metropolitan police said.
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Here is another picture of the incident on social media. It has been taken from a roof overlooking Whitehall, from near where MPs have their offices.
Appears somebody has driven into the gates of Downing Street pic.twitter.com/jp5pVyrfYj
— Matthew (@TorbsTalks) May 25, 2023
From the Sun’s Noa Hoffman
Police currently searching the boot of this car pic.twitter.com/eBXqEXK2VC
— Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) May 25, 2023
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This is from Reuters:
A car has collided with the front gates of Downing Street, where Rishi Sunak’s office is based, London police said on Thursday.
Police said there were no injuries and one person had been arrested.
Television pictures showed cordons in place along Whitehall, a main road running past Downing Street where several government departments are based.
Updated
This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.
BREAK: Car gone into the gates of Downing Steet... https://t.co/SiienaKkoL
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) May 25, 2023
pic - @thesun pic.twitter.com/qQ8EAIg2a5
According to the BBC, one person has been arrested.
Car crashes into gates of Downing Street
According to the BBC, a car has crashed into the gates of Downing Street. This is from the BBC’s David Wallace Lockhart.
Incident near Downing Street. Police have cordoned off Whitehall pic.twitter.com/JJkhrjNIGw
— David Wallace Lockhart (@BBCDavidWL) May 25, 2023
Stormont won't get extra cash from UK government until power sharing restored, NI secretary Chris Heaton-Harris suggests
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has said power sharing needs to resume at Stormont before the UK government starts discussing a financial package for the region.
He was speaking to reporters after Northern Ireland’s party leaders met with the head of the Northern Ireland civil service, Jayne Brady, where there was talk that upwards of £1bn was needed to relieve pressure on Northern Irish public services.
Asked if the government would provide investment on that scale as part of a move to restore power sharing, Heaton-Harris replied:
I honestly don’t know the answer to that question.
Firstly I think we want to see the executive up and running and actually have a proper plan for government before we started talking much at all, but I am very pleased to hear that the parties are talking about the future and not looking at the past, because we need to move forward now.
Northern Ireland needs the executive up and running, decisions need to be taken by the locally elected decision-makers and so I really do welcome the fact that – I’ve seen it behind the scenes myself over a period of weeks and months – that parties can work together in a positive way to move this thing forward and so I take it as a good sign, a good start.
He added:
I’m not the chancellor of the exchequer, I’m the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, and I will do everything I can to get the executive back up and running but let’s take it step by step.
Power sharing has been suspended for more than a year because the DUP is boycotting Stormont as a protest against the Northern Ireland protocol.
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RSPCA says it's 'frustrated and disappointed' by government dropping kept animals bill
The RSPCA has said it is “frustrated and disappointed” by the government’s decision to drop the kept animals bill. (See 3.24pm.) Emma Slawinski, the director of policy at the charity, said in a statement:
We have been waiting for almost two years for the kept animals bill to improve the lives of billions of animals and now it’s effectively been scrapped. While politicians dither, animals suffer.
We are frustrated and disappointed that, despite overwhelming public support, the government has delayed and delayed and has now broken up the bill, leading to yet more uncertainty and lost time.
The secretary of state [Thérèse Coffey] has said that she wants to proceed separately with elements of the bill like ending live exports of animals for fattening and slaughter and clamping down on puppy smuggling but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
We want to see urgent legislative progress on everything that was in the bill, including a ban on the import of dogs with cropped ears.
With a general election likely next year, it is imperative that ministers honour all their manifesto commitments for animals before that happens.
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Labour says the decision to drop the kept animals bill (see 3.24pm) means the government can no longer gets its own legislation through parliament. In a statement Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, said:
Today’s announcement that the government has pulled the plug on the kept animals bill is further proof that you can’t trust the Tories to deliver on animal welfare. [It also] demonstrates that it has lost the ability to get its own legislation through parliament.
Labour is the party of animal welfare and we have long called for the kept animals bill to be brought back to the house at the earliest opportunity.
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Sunak accused of breaking promise after government drops kept animals bill
Rishi Sunak has been accused of breaking his word after dropping the government’s animal welfare legislation.
The PM promised Conservative colleagues during the leadership election that he would bring the kept animals bill, a key plank of the 2019 manifesto, into law. The legislation was to ban live exports of farm animals as well as clamping down on puppy smuggling and dog theft.
However, in the Commons this afternoon the environment minister, Mark Spencer, confirmed the legislation would be scrapped. He said that was happening because Labour was determined to widen the scope of the bill “far beyond the original commitments in the manifesto”.
Some Tories feared the bill could have been used to argue for curbs on hunting and farming.
Spencer claimed that the government remained committed to the animal welfare commitments in the 2019 manifesto and that they would be introduced individually during the remainder of this parliament, but not in the kept animals bill.
He also announced a new animal sentience committee, which will begin its work next month, and a consultation on higher fines for animal abuse and neglect.
The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (Cawf) made up of influential Tory patrons including Carrie Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith, has criticised the decision. Lorraine Platt, co-founder of the group, said:
Cawf is disappointed by the statement delivered today. We believe this represents a missed opportunity to further enhance the welfare and protection of animals across the United Kingdom. The kept animals bill is strongly supported by MPs, NGOs, charities, and the public alike. Its provisions which include ending live animal exports for fattening and slaughter, and tackling puppy smuggling, resonate with the public’s priorities and deliver critical Conservative manifesto commitments.
Streeting says 40 new hospitals promised by Tories by 2030 only exist in Boris Johnson's imagination
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told MPs that the 40 “new” hospitals promised by the Conservatives in their 2019 manifesto only exist in Boris Johnson’s imagination.
He was responding to a statement from Steve Barclay, the health secretary, on the programme. Barclay insisted that the government remained committed to 40 new hospitals. But he announced a change to what was originally planned, saying that five hospital renovation projects are being added to the programme because their current buildings all contain large amounts of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), which deteriorates quickly.
As a result, eight projects that were originally due for completion before the end of the decade will not be now finished until after 2030, Barclay said. He claimed the “40 new hospitals” commitment still applied because three mental health hospital projects were now also being included.
The term “new” hospitals has regularly been condemned as misleading because the government has told officials to use this word to cover extensions and refurbishments, and not just genuine new buildings.
Responding to Barclay, Streeting told MPs:
I genuinely expected that [Barclay] would come to the house today and be upfront about the fact that whatever promises [Boris Johnson] made in 2019, the pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 is simply not going to happen.
It was a straightforward commitment: 40 new hospitals. Except since then we have become familiar with the idea that they weren’t new ... In fact, since that general election we’ve had more new health secretaries than we’ve had new hospitals.
Referring to the fact that Steve Barclay is on his second stint as health secretary, Streeting went on: “Like the ‘new’ hospitals, some of them aren’t even new.”
Streeting said a goverment memo showed that “fix-ups and paint jobs” were included in the list of new hospitals. He said that only 10 of the projects have received planning permission, and that, with 33 of them, building work has not even started.
Streeting said he did not see how it would be possible in practice to build 40 new hospitals by 2030. He went on:
Isn’t it time that the health secretary came clean with the house and came clean with the public and admitted that the only place that these 40 new hospitals by 2030 exist is in the former prime minister’s imagination? And in fact what we have heard today is a plan on paper but one that will never see reality in practice?
The five new hospitals being added to the programme because of RAAC problems are: Airedale in West Yorkshire, Queen Elizabeth King’s Lynn in Norfolk, Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire, Mid Cheshire Leighton in Cheshire and Frimley Park in Surrey.
The three mental health hospital projects being added to the programme are in Surrey and Derbyshire, and on the Mersey.
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Government appoints commissioners to run Woking council after it racks up debt heading for £2.4bn
The government has appointed a trio of external commissioners to, in effect, take control of a Surrey council that has built up debts expected to reach £2.4bn – 100 times its annual net income – following heavy spending on commercial property.
The current total debt of Woking borough council, which spends £14m a year and has an annual net income of £24m, is £1.9bn, a total which is forecast to hit nearly £2.4bn by 2024/5, a written statement from Lee Rowley, the junior levelling up minister said.
The council, described by Rowley as “the most indebted council in England compared to its financial size”, risks insolvency following a surge in debt interest costs on its investments including a shopping centre, residential tower blocks and a 23-storey Hilton hotel.
Following a government-commissioned review into the council, Rowley said the three people who carried out the review, all experts on local government, had been made commissioners with wide-ranging powers, including financial and commercial decision-making, and restructuring the authority.
The council, which was Conservative run when the investments were made, but now has Liberal Democrat leadership, said it welcomed the move as the “challenges are so significant that the council and its officers cannot deal with these on its own”.
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Humza Yousaf welcomes 'historic' admission from chief constable that Police Scotland institutionally racist
Iain Livingstone, the chief constable of Police Scotland, said the force was institutionally racist and discriminatory at a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority this morning.
Although these remarks attracted most attention, Livingstone also addressed questions about the handling of the investigation into the SNP’s finances at the same board meeting.
Livingstone said he would “fiercely resist” any political interference in the investigation, after allegations that the inquiry was taking too long and that police and prosecutors were favouring the SNP in their timing of inquiry developments. He said:
I have previously asserted and will reassert today that I would fiercely resist any attempt to bring political pressure to my decision making or upon any police operation. Decisions are and will be based on public safety and the rule of law - not politics or any constitutional position.
At first minister’s questions, Humza Yousaf responded to Livingstone’s remarks about institutional racism, sexism and misogyny, describing them as “monumental and historic”.
He also recalled his own experiences being stopped and searched by police as a young man, and adding it was “so important we now see action”.
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'Early indications' suggest net migration has peaked, says thinktank
The Migration Observatory, a migration thinktank based at Oxford University, has published a good analysis of today’s immigration figures. It says there are “early indications” that the numbers have started to go down. Here is an extract.
New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show net migration at unusually high levels in 606,000 in 2022, with some are early indications that the numbers may have started the downwards trend after peaking in the year to September …
Net migration is defined as the number of people immigrating minus the number of people emigrating. Today’s data, which are based on a provisional experimental methodology, suggest that the UK saw long-term immigration of 1.2 million and emigration of 557,000 in 2022.
The ONS figures suggest that net migration peaked at 637,000 in the year ending September 2022, before falling to 606,000 in the year ending December 2022.
The previous figure of 504,000, published last year for the year ending June 2022, has been revised up, also to 606,000, due to changes in the methods ONS uses to calculate the figures. In other words, ONS estimates that net migration did not increase between the two periods (the year ending June and the year ending December). Most of the upwards revision to the previous figure (just over 70,000) resulted from the decision to include asylum seekers in the figures for the first time since new methods were introduced post-pandemic. The rest of the increase resulted from technical methods and data changes.
The briefing also says net migration figures have levelled off because more people are leaving the UK.
ONS noted in its statistical release that the numbers have “levelled off” in recent quarters. The main reason that net migration did not increase between the year ending June 2022 and the year ending December is an uptick in emigration, particularly of international students. As the Migration Observatory has previously anticipated, the growing number of international students who have come to the UK since 2021 – most of whom are expected to leave within a few years – means that emigration levels are expected to increase between now and 2025. This is already visible in the data for 2022, with 153,000 former students emigrating long term—up from 61,000 in 2021.
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Number of visas issued to dependants of students doubled over past year, reaching almost 150,000, figures show
One driver of immigration is people coming to study in the UK. But it is the family members who join these students whom home secretary Suella Braverman has targeted in new curbs announced earlier this week.
Around a third of the 1.2 million people counted by the ONS in this morning’s long-term immigration figures for 2022 are students or their families.
Simultaneously released Home Office figures show that the number of visas issued to students’ dependants doubled in the year to the end of March 2023, from 72,000 to almost 150,000.
The number of total student visas – included dependants - issued went up from 465,000 to 627,000 in the same period.
Close to half of study-dependent visas were granted to Nigerian people (45%), and more than a quarter (28%) went to Indian nationals. Pakistan was the third nationality with the highest number of visas to families of overseas students granted (7%).
The figures come after Braverman, the home secretary, announced on Tuesday that overseas students will no longer be able to bring their family with them, with the exception of those on research programmes (such as PhD students or research-led masters courses).
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Sunak should revive Tory leadership campaign pledge to consider 'fundamental' reform of Home Office, thinktank says
Rishi Sunak has been encourage to revive a plan he floated during the Tory leadership contest last summer and consider “fundamental” reform of the way the Home Office operates. The Institute for Government thinktank has published a report saying the the Home Office is “beset by myriad cultural and institutional problems” and that Sunak should consider the case for breaking it up.
Explaining the problem, the report says:
The morale of its civil servants is consistently among the weakest of Whitehall departments. Over the past year this has spilled into the open with leaked opposition to ministers’ controversial asylum policies – with the ‘Paddington posters’ furore of 2022. The Windrush scandal exposed serious problems with the Home Office’s decision making, laying bare its inability to take a compassionate approach and its failure to understand the human impact of its policies, particularly on the grounds of race. Five years on, the Home Office’s fortress mentality persists.
As an example of the problems, the IfG report says the Home Office is in charge of immigration policy, even though this is an area where a cross-government approach is needed.
Some, including the Treasury and Department for Business and Trade, view migration as a ‘positive’ policy lever that can provide skills, secure workforces in key sectors, and promote the UK’s reputation abroad. Others, such as DLUHC and DWP – and devolved and local government – have key roles in the immigration system and support community cohesion and integration. By contrast the Home Office is incentivised to control the system and, usually, to limit as far as plausible the numbers of migrants arriving in the UK.
It is understandable the Home Office’s focus is on controlling numbers. Being able to control the number of people arriving in the UK is seen as a key aspect of its security remit. But the economic levers of migration are an inescapable part of the policy puzzle in response to the slow growth and workforce pressures the UK faces – especially after Brexit and the end of free movement. Deciding how to operate those levers requires the Home Office (and Number 10) to work with, and balance the sometimes competing interests of, other departments.
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Patients in England to be encouraged to choose hospitals where operations can be carried out more quickly, Barclay says
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is making a Commons statement on plans announced today to encourage patients in England to get their operations done in hospitals where they can be treated most quickly. In a news release about the plan, the Department of Health and Social Care says:
A letter issued by the NHS today to local areas will require patients to be offered choice when clinically appropriate.
After speaking with their GP, patients will be able to view information for up to five healthcare providers - filtered by distance, waiting times and quality of care. They will then be able to make a choice about where they go for treatment using the NHS App or website, based on their own circumstances.
Currently just one in 10 patients exercise their right to choose but research shows that giving patients choice can cut up to three months off their waiting time by selecting a different hospital in the same region.
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No 10 defends Sunak's plan to cut asylum applications backlog after Jenrick said this could increase 'pull factor'
Downing Street has defended the plan to cut the backlog for processing asylum applications, despite Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, telling MPs that this could encourage refugees to come to the UK. (See 11.03am and 11.43am.) Here are some of the key points from this morning’s lobby briefing.
No 10 said clearing the backlog was “the right approach”, despite what Jenrick said. The PM’s spokesperson said:
What we are focusing on is reducing the numbers, tackling that backlog is the right approach.
Obviously it is only one part of it and obviously shouldn’t be seen in isolation. So that alongside with our Rwanda partnership, further efforts bilaterally with the French and jointly with the EU, and obviously we’re building on that with the Frontex work we’re starting to put in place now will have a cumulative impact.
The spokesperson said Rishi Sunak was confident that the backlog would come down, despite figures out today showing it getting bigger. (See 10.05am.) The spokesperson said the government was taking steps to address the problem, but said it would take time for these policies to have an effect. He said:
Obviously some of these approaches do take time to bed in.
We are making some progress on specific areas. We’ve doubled the number of caseworkers. The Home Office stats show asylum decisions are up – 35% increase in decisions year-on-year. We’re seeing a 20% decrease in the asylum grant rate for Albanians, for example. And we’re seeing some success with our partnership with Albania.
But obviously there are more to do and we are confident that things like doubling the number of caseworkers will start to have an impact.
Here are the figures from a Home Office report today showing just 1% of applications from the year ending March 2023 have been processed.
Sunak has said he is committed to getting rid of what is described as the legacy backlog, the 92,601 claims made before the Nationality and Borders Act came into force in June 2022, by the end of this year.
The spokesperson declined calls to issue an apology on behalf of Sunak for immigration numbers going up, in a breach of the Tory 2019 manifesto promise. Asked if Sunak would apologise, the spokesperson replied:
We are working to bring those numbers down. We’ve set out a significant package to do that just this week as well as all the work that goes alongside stopping the boats.
It’s also important to understand what sits beneath some of those numbers, 114,000 Ukrainians coming over for example, 52,000 British nationals from Hong Kong. We think that is something the public can be rightly proud of.
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There has been a fall in the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats in the first quarter of 2023, compared with the same period last year, according to Home Office figures released today.
The statistics show that almost 3,800 people were detected crossing the Channel on small boats during the first quarter of this year, a decrease of 16% compared with the first quarter of 2022.
The majority, but not all, of these people will eventually be included in the ONS immigration figures as only those who claim asylum are included: 90% of small boat arrivals (around 40,000) claimed asylum either directly or indirectly, as a dependant.
The Home Office data also shows that between January and March 2023, there were more than 800 detentions of people who were believed to have evaded border control, down by a third a year before.
Another 740 arrived in the UK via air routes without adequate documentation or using fraudulent documentation, a 30% decrease compared with the number recorded during the first quarter of 2022.
The vast majority of the people who arrived via small boats claim asylum but the illegal migration bill - which is being examined in the House of Lords - proposes that those who arrive in the UK without permission will not be able to claim asylum. Instead, they will be detained and sent to either their home nations or a third country, such as Rwanda.
Stopping small boats crossing is one of the five key priorities of Rishi Sunak’s government but this proposed legislation has been already criticised by campaigners, political leaders, the UK representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
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Tory pledge to build 40 ‘new’ England hospitals likely to be delayed until after 2030
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is to signal a major delay to one of the headline promises in the last Conservative manifesto by suggesting the delivery of 40 new hospitals in England is likely to be pushed back until after 2030, Aubrey Allegretti and Denis Campbell report.
We will be getting a full Commons statement on this from Barclay later.
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Labour MPs challenge Jenrick's commitment to clearing asylum backlog as he says faster system will increase 'pull factor'
In a statement to MPs in December, Rishi Sunak said that he wanted asylum application claims to be processed “in days or weeks, not months or years” and that he wanted “to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions” by the end of 2023. So when Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, told MPs that cutting the backlog could increase the number of people coming to the UK (see 11.03am), it sounded like he was veering off script.
Sometimes ministers mess up when they say something that is untrue. But there is another category of gaffe that involves saying something that is true, but that is politically inconvenient, and that is what Jenrick was doing.
At least three Labour MPs subsequently challenged Jenrick over what he had said. At first he tried to backtrack, but he did confirm that he thought clearing the asylum application claim backlog could make Britain a more attractive destination for asylum seekers.
Karin Smyth was the first MP to pick up on what Jenrick said. Asking him to clarify what he had said, she pointed out that his argument implied that the government might want to keep the backlog intentionally high, with thousands of asylum seekers stuck in hotels awaiting a decision. She said:
The Home Office’s inability to progress applications, resulting in many people living in hotels, means that the holding pattern will remain for some time, and that that may be, in fact, a deliberate policy. As the minister said, if they were progressed, there would be more.
Jenrick claimed that Smyth was misrepresenting what he had said, and that he was only referring to Labour’s plan to speed up the processing of claims, which he said would not cut the number of people crossing the Channel illegally.
But when Karen Buck asked again if, in the light of what he said, the government did want to reduce the backlog, Jenrick again restated his argument.
He said that the government was doubling the number of staff dealing with applications, and that it remained confident it would clear the “legacy backlog” by the end of this year. He went on:
The point that I was making is that, the faster the process, the more pull factor there is to the United Kingdom. That is not a reason to maintain an inefficient process. But what we do need to have is a process where deterrence is suffused through every element, or else we will never break the business model of the people smugglers.
When Andrew Slaughter challenged him a third time, and asked him whether the government wanted the backlog to go down or go up, Jenrick again said he was just criticising Labour’s policy.
Faster processing of asylum applications might make the UK a more attractive destination if it meant that people crossing the Channel on small boats did not have to worry about spending a year or more stuck in a hotel unable to work waiting for their claim to be processed.
The government believes that would not happen if faster processing just meant people being put on a flight to Rwanda more quickly (which is what Jenrick was referring to when he mentioned “deterrence”). But it is far from certain that the courts will ever allow these flights to happen, at least in large numbers.
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Asked if the government is happy about the number of issued work visas having doubled since the pandemic, Jenrick says the government wants employers to hire British workers where they can. There are a large number of people who have left the workforce, he says. He says the government wants them back.
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Jenrick claims processing asylum seekers' claims more quickly could lead to more people coming to UK
Clive Efford (Lab) asks why the government has performed so badly in terms of dealing with the backlog of asylum claims.
Jenrick says the government is still committed to clearing the backlog this year.
But he says Labour is wrong to claim that dealing with the backlog will cut the number of people coming to the country. He says:
It is not correct, however, to suggest that if you can process illegal migrants’ claims faster, that that will reduce the number of people coming into the country. In all likelihood, it will lead to an increase.
(This is a remarkable claim. Jenrick seems to be saying that the PM’s policy will make the situation worse.)
Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem) says Jenrick is making a good case for wage inflation. (See 10.49am.) He wonders what they think of this in the Treasury.
He says the government is adding fishing to the shortage occupation list for work visas. But he says that this will not help the fishing industry because of the rules requiring people to speak English.
Jenrick defends the English language requirements. People coming to work here should be able to speak English, he says. He says the standard required is low. And he says this is necessary for health and safety on fishing boats.
Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) asks what impact the measures announced this week on reducing the number of student dependants coming to the UK will have?
Jenrick says he thinks they will have a “considerable” impact, but he does not give a figure.
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Immigration minister Robert Jenrick says he can see case for raising salary thresholds for work visas
Sir Edward Leigh (Con) says some in the Treasury think immigration is good for the economy. But that is bad for productivity. He says it would be better if people were only allowed into to the UK to work if they earn the median UK salary of £33,000.
Jenrick says he has a lot of sympathy with this argument. In some instances, high levels of migration push down wages, he says.
He says the government has created a points-based immigration system, with salary thresholds. If further changes are needed, the government will act.
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Stuart C McDonald, the SNP’s immigration spokesperson, starts his contribution by saying thank you to immigrants who come to the UK to work.
He asks if Jenrick accepts that immigration needs are different in different parts of the country.
Jenrick says he was not expecting a question saying net migration was too low. But that seems to be the SNP position, he says.
He says the government does not back having separate immigration systems for different parts of the UK.
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Jenrick is responding to Cooper.
He says no one will believe that Labour wants to reduce immigration.
When Keir Starmer was standing for the Labour leadership, he backed free movement, he says. And he says that Starmer once said Britain’s immigration laws were racist.
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Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, who tabled the urgent question, is responding to Robert Jenrick.
She asks why Suella Braverman is not in the Commons to answer the UQ herself. She jokes that she might be in the Home Office doing another private course.
She says Labour would recruit more doctors and nurses from within the UK, using money from the abolition of non-dom status, to reduce the need for staff to be hired from abroad.
And she asks why the government will not back Labour’s plan to get rid of the 20% wage discount for foreign workers.
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Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, says net migration is far too high.
But he says it has been flatlining since last summer.
He says a “large part’” of the reason why figures are now exceptionally high is that the government has been taking refugees from Ukraine and Hong Kong. He defends these schemes, saying they have public support.
But the government is committed to bringing net migration figures down, he says.
He says the government expects it to fall to pre-pandemic levels in the medium term.
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Labour says immigration figures show government has 'no plan and no grip'
We are about to get an urgent question on the immigration figures from Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary. She has just released this statement, which will probably give a flavour of what she will say to MPs.
These extraordinary figures, including doubling the number of work visas since the pandemic, show the Conservatives have no plan and no grip on immigration. Ministers have completely failed to tackle skills shortages, especially in health and social care, or to get people back into work after Covid.
Net migration should come down and we expect it to do so. Support we have rightly given to Ukrainians and Hong Kongers has unusually affected the figures this year. But that can’t disguise the fact that the Conservatives’ chaotic approach means that work visas are up 119%, net migration is more than twice the level ministers were aiming for, and the asylum backlog is at a record high despite Rishi Sunak promising to clear it this year.
Labour will put skills and fairness at the heart of the immigration system – tackling skills shortages and ending the unfair wage discount so employers recruiting from overseas have to pay the going rate. Immigration makes an important contribution to Britain so it needs to be properly managed and controlled so the system is fair.
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Sunak tells ITV's This Morning that being PM is hard - but that he likes Jilly Cooper novels because 'you need escapism'
Q: People want to know about you a little. How do your daughters deal with reading about you in the papers?
Sunak says his children are 10 and 12, and don’t really follow the news. That is good, he says. He says he has been in politics for the last few years, so they are used to that. But fundamentally he is dad. They are more interested in things like playing Top Trumps.
Q: Is it really true you like Jilly Cooper books?
Yes, says Sunak, Riders, Rivals, Polo – he likes them, he says.
Q: When did you last cry?
He says it was something to do with one of their children, a while back.
Q: What is your biggest regret?
Sunak takes a while to think.
He jokes about revealling that he likes Jilly Cooper books.
But they are good, he says. “You need to have escapism in your life”, he says.
Q: How does the reality of being PM compare with the expectations?
Sunak says he did not expect to get the job. But he though he could make a difference.
The job is hard, he says. He lists the issues he is facing. But he thinks he can make a difference.
Getting illegal immigration down will be hard. But he thinks he can deal with it, he says.
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Q: You are launching a new NHS app. What will it do? Bring waiting lists down?
Yes, says Sunak. He says he will give patients choice about where they get their treatment from.
(The Department of Health and Social Care has more details of this announcement here.)
He says people will be able to use the NHS app that people used during Covid to find the hospitals where they can get treated most quickly.
Later this year this will be extended to people already on waiting lists, he says.
He says he has “practically” eliminated the number of people waiting a year and a half for an operation. He says he wanted to stop waits that long by this spring. That is “just about done”, he says.
(Technically, though, he missed his target.)
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Sunak says he did not let Suella Braverman 'off the hook'
Sunak is now being asked about Suella Braverman.
He says: “I didn’t let her off the hook.”
Alison Hammond, the presenter, says it would have been good if Suella Braverman had done a group speed awareness course. That would have shown that the law applies to politicians, she says. She says she has done two – and people were taking selfies of her during them.
Sunak stresses that, in the end, Braverman did not do a private speed awareness course.
He defends how he handled the issue. He got the facts, and made a decison. He was dealing with it “professionally”, he says.
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Sunak says immigration numbers 'too high' - but rejects claim system 'out of control'
Rishi Sunak is being interviewed on ITV’s This Morning.
He says immigration levels are too high, but he rejects claims it is out of control. This is from the Daily Mirror’s Lizzy Buchan.
Rishi Sunak tells @thismorning on net migration: "The numbers are too high, it's as simple as that. And I want to bring them down."
— Lizzy Buchan (@LizzyBuchan) May 25, 2023
But he denies figures are "out of control"
Q: What is your target for bringing immigration down?
Sunak says he wants to bring immigration down. But he inherited a net immigration figure of around 500,000, he says.
Q: When will we see the first people being sent to Rwanda?
Sunak says he thinks people are supportive of the plan. It is not fair if people come here illegally, he claims. That is not fair on taxpayers, and not fair on the people who need help. The government wants to welcome vulnerable people; but it cannot if people are coming to the UK illegally, he says.
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The Home Office has also published data on asylum seekers this morning. Mark Easton, the BBC’s home affairs editor, says the figures show the backlog for unprocessed asylum claims is still going up – even though Rishi Sunak has committed to bring it down.
BREAKING: Despite Rishi Sunak's promise to eradicate much of the asylum backlog this year, the number waiting for an initial decision is UP to 172,758 from 166,261. The number waiting more than six months has increased by ~10,000 to 128,812. @ukhomeoffice
— Mark Easton (@BBCMarkEaston) May 25, 2023
He also says the figures show levels for deportations at a record low, outside the pandemic years.
The number of foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers removed in 2022 was 38,000, the LOWEST number on record apart from the pandemic years (2020-21). @ukhomeoffice
— Mark Easton (@BBCMarkEaston) May 25, 2023
At 10.30am there will be an urgent question in the Commons on the immigration figures. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has tabled the question. A Home Office minister will respond.
After that there are two Commons statements from Steve Barclay, the health secretary, on patient choice and then on new hospitals, and then Mark Spencer, the farming minister, will make a statement on animal welfare.
Here is my colleague Rajeev Syal’s story on today’s immigration figures.
At 606,000, the net migration figure for 2022 reported by the ONS this morning is still a record figure – or, more accurately a joint record figure – even though it is well below some of the predictions. Net migration in the 12 months to June 2022 was originally put at 504,000, although today the ONS has revised that figure upwards to 606,000. (See 9.37am.)
Commenting on the figures, Jay Lindop, director of the Centre for International Migration at the ONS:
The main drivers of the increase were people coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study and for humanitarian purposes, including those arriving from Ukraine and Hong Kong. For the first time since using our new methods to measure migration, we have also included asylum seekers in our estimates, with around 1 in 12 non-EU migrants coming via this route.
There are some signs that the underlying drivers behind these high levels of migration are changing. As lockdown restrictions were lifted in 2021, we saw a sharp increase in students arriving.
Recent data suggests that those arriving in 2021 are now leaving the country, with the overall share of non-EU immigration for students falling in 2022.
In contrast, those arriving on humanitarian routes increased over the 12 months. Evidence also suggests immigration has slowed in recent months, potentially demonstrating the temporary nature of these events.
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Here are two charts from the ONS report that give more details of the immigration figures.
This chart shows that arrivals from non-EU countries are driving the rise in immigration. (It just shows immigration figures – the headline figure is the net figure, the total number of immigrants minus the total number of people who emigrated).
And this chart shows why people are coming to the UK. Study is the biggest single reason for people getting a visa.
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Net migration for 2022 was 606,000, ONS says - less than forecast, but still 118,000 higher than in 2021
The ONS migration figures are out. They’re here.
Net migration last year was 606,000, the figures show.
That is well below expectations – 700,000 or more was the consensus view, with some reports saying it could be close to 1m – but this is still roughly three times as high as the figure the Tories were promising in their 2019 manifesto.
This is from the ONS news release.
Total long-term immigration was estimated at around 1.2 million in 2022, and emigration was 557,000, which means migration continues to add to the population with net migration at 606,000; most people arriving to the UK in 2022 were non-EU nationals (925,000), followed by EU (151,000) and British (88,000).
People coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study, and for humanitarian purposes, including unique events such as those arriving from Ukraine and Hong Kong, have contributed towards relatively high levels of immigration over the past 18 months; however, growth has slowed over recent quarters, potentially demonstrating the temporary nature of these impacts.
The composition of non-EU immigration changed in 2022, with 39% of people arriving for study related reasons, down from 47% in 2021; those arriving on humanitarian routes (including Ukrainian schemes) increased from 9% to 19% over the same period.
Evidence suggests that students typically stay for shorter periods than other migrants and that the majority leave at the end of their study; the latest data shows that those who arrived for study reasons in 2021 are now starting to leave, driving an increase in total emigration from 454,000 in 2021 to 557,000 in 2022.
Both a slowing of immigration and rising of emigration means that levels of net migration have levelled off in recent quarters; an estimated 606,000 more people arrived long-term to the UK than departed in YE December 2022, 118,000 higher than a year previously, but similar to levels in YE June 2022.
The improvement in methods means the previously published immigration estimate for YE June 2022 is revised upwards by 45,000 to 1,109,000, emigration downwards by negative 57,000 to 503,000, and net migration revised by 102,000 to 606,000.
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In his Today programme interview Sir John Hayes, the Tory former minister who chairs the Common Sense Group for rightwing government backbenchers, was asked what was wrong with high immigration, given that people were coming to the UK to do jobs that weren’t being done by British workers. He replied:
Well, it is certainly that the ease of paying workers from abroad displaces investment in domestic skills, including upskilling the existing workforce. But it also displaces investment in the modernisation of economy, and in better working practices. And the consequence is bound to inhibit productivity and damage competitiveness.
So you’re right that we should be training people, giving opportunities … and immigration doesn’t help with that. It displaces that kind of concentration.
But there’s a bigger point. You can have an economy that’s based on labour intensity, a very labour intensive economy, which is low skilled, and hope that somehow boosts growth as a whole.
But actually, what we want is a high tech, high skills economy. We want, wherever we can, to move to automation, towards modernisation, to have a more streamlined economy, because that’s the future. We’re not going to compete with China and other countries, India which have a high level of labour dependence.
This is similar to the analysis published by the Labour party yesterday, as it announced new plans intended to limit the number of work visas issued.
But when it was put to Hayes that there just were not enough Britons available to do these jobs, he suggested that people currently on sick leave, and disabled people, could fill many of the gaps. He said:
We’ve got 2.5 million people on long-term sick leave. We’ve got very many disabled people who said they want to work and can’t get jobs. We’ve got a lot of people who left the workforce during Covid, older people typically, who we need to get back into the workforce. So the argument there are no Britons for these jobs does not really stand up to the test of those figures.
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Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s immigration spokesperson, told LBC this morning that the figures today would show the government had lost control of immigration. He said:
[The figures] will say that they’ve lost control of the issue. They have failed to have a strategy in place for our local labour market, and as a result of that, employers are being forced to reach for overseas immigration.
We need a much more balanced approach, ensuring that we have the immigration we need, of course, but that there’s much more opportunity for skills, productivity training, workforce planning to get our economy firing on all cylinders again.
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Good morning. The Office for National Statistics will publish net migration figures for 2022 within the hour, and they are expected to show a record number of people arriving – around 700,000 or more, according to estimates. Because the Conservatives have been promising to reduce immigration levels since 2010, because people at the top of government championed Brexit, which was supposed to make it easier for the UK to control immigration numbers, and because the 2019 Tory manifesto implied annual net migration would be below 226,000 by the time of the next election, these numbers will be a big problem for Rishi Sunak.
On the Today programme this morning Sir John Hayes, who chairs the Common Sense Group of rightwing Tory MPs and is an ally of Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said an increase along the lines expected would not be acceptable. He said:
You can’t grow your population at 700,000 a year – where on earth are you going to house these people? We build about 180,000 new homes a year.
Of course more than a million have come because this is a net figure, if it does turn out to be 700,000.
You just can’t grow the population at that pace. The pressure it places on public services and housing … The whole government needs to work together to deal with unprecedented population growth, which just is not sustainable.
I will post more from his interview shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes net migration figures for 2022. At the same time, the Home Office is also publishing figures about asylum application and small boat Channel crossings.
10am: Rishi Sunak gives an interview to ITV’s This Morning.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12pm: Humza Yousaf takes first minister’s questions at Holyrood.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
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