Cooper suggests asylum seekers being moved out of hotels could be housed in warehouses instead
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has suggested that warehouses could be used to house some of the asylum seekers currently being put up in hotels.
The government has repeatedly said it wants to stop the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of this parliament, but ministers have not given details of what replacement housing might be used.
In an interview with LBC this morning, asked what alternative accommodation might be used, Cooper said:
I think it’s a mix of things. First of all, you actually have to shrink the whole asylum system. So we actually need to have fewer people in the asylum system in the first place, fewer people needing accommodation. That has to be at the core of this. It’s been allowed to expand in a way that is out of control.
And then, yes, we do also want to see alternative sites, more appropriate sites, including looking at military and industrial sites as well.
Asked what she meant by “industrial sites”, Cooper said the Home Office would provide further details in due course. When the presenter, Nick Ferrari, pressed her repeatedy to say if this could mean asylum seekers being housed in warehouses, Cooper eventually replied:
That’s one of the things that’s been looked at. But we will provide updates when we’ve got the practical plans.
Cooper also said she did not want to announce measures before she knew if she could deliver them because that was “what the previous government did”.
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Polanski says it’s ‘no-brainer that we need to be nationalising public industries’
Q: And would you nationalise other industries, including banks?
On nationalisation, Polanski said Labour were terrified of nationalising water companies. That was a problem.
Steel was an “obvious” candidate for nationalisation, he said. He accused Labour of being unwilling to work with steel workers on a just transition to net zero.
He ended saying it was “a no-brainer than we need to be nationalising public industries”.
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Polanski says Starmer’s politics ‘despicable’, and says he can’t imagine Greens working with him in hung parliament
Q: [From Jim Pickard from the Financial Times] Would you rule out working with Keir Starmer in a hung parliament?
Polanski said it would be “wild” to rule out working with anyone on his first day. But he went on:
In Keir Starmer we’ve seen someone who got elected on the coattails of Jeremy Corbyn, who made lots of promises to protect communities, to bring about a leftwing change in this country, to stand up for some of the poorest communities.
And what we’ve had in Keir Starmer is despicable in terms of the politics. It is someone who has sold those communities out. He’s not just sold his party out, and the people who voted for him. The people I’m more concerned about are the people that are suffering in this country every day, who are worried about the future of this country, who see Nigel Farage give – and let’s call it what it is – a racist press conference, and not just not condemn it, but implicitly nod to it.
So I can’t imagine any scenario where I would want to work with Keir Starmer.
And I think in a scenario where we were in a hung parliament and we got that many seats, I think it would be odd that, if that many people had stopped voting Labour and switched to Green, to then work with Keir Starmer.
So I think you can clearly hear from my answer how I feel about that. But maybe he’s going to have a brain transfusion in the next couple of months.
Zack Polanski at his press conference. Photograph: BBC NewsShare
Q: How can you take on Nigel Farage when your policy on immigration is so different?
Polanski said Farage wants to stop the boats, and he does too. “We could stop the boats today with safe and legal routes,” he said.
He said the country needs immigration.
And it needs to recognise that people coming to the UK pay more in tax than they take out of the country, he said.
Polanski also said the Greens should not sell out patriotism to Nigel Farage. Patriots do not sell out their country, he said.
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Q: [Banseka Kayembe from Naked Politics] How will you unite the Green on trans rights, an issue on which the Greens seem divided?
Polanski said he did not accept the Greens are divided. The Greens are united on human rights, and trans rights are human rights, he said.
He cited approvingly a US quote, saying: if you agree with me on nine out of 12 things, let’s work together, and if you agree with me on 12 out of 12 things, you need to see a psychiatrist.
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Updated at 07.26 EDT
Polanski praises Jeremy Corbyn, saying he’s doing ‘strong, principled work’ with his Gaza inquiry
Q: [From the Guardian’s Peter Walker] Are you concerned that being explicitly leftwing might deter supporters in rural constituencies?
Polanski says he does not accept there is a difference of that type between rural and urban voters.
As an example, he cites policies on housing – which can appeal in the countryside and in cities, he says.
And he says farmers are also victims of a power imbalance when they sell their produce to supermarkets.
He also says being willing to talk to Jeremy Corbyn does not mean that he is a Corbynite.
Parties can work together without being allies, he says.
And he praises the work that Corbyn is doing with his Gaza inquiry. He says he spoke to Corbyn yesterday.
What I see is a politician who is doing strong, principled work that aligns with the things I care about and the party cares about. And I think that’s a different and new kind of politics, and I think that’s a politics that’s really going to excite this country.
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Q: [From Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe from ITV News] What will you be doing to grab the public’s attention like Nigel Farage?
Polanski says Farage has more TikTok followers than all other MPs combined.
He says he is not shy about using social media himself.
But it is not just about him, he says. He says other Greens have important things to say.
He says storytelling is also important. It is not enough just to give voters facts. They need a powerful, emotional story too, he says.
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Updated at 07.05 EDT
Polanski says he would like Greens to win at least 30 seats at next election
Q: [From Sophie Huskisson from the Daily Mirror] How many seats do you hope to win at the next election?
Polanksi says there is a diffence between the number he wants to win and the number they will win.
But he says he would like the party to win “at least 30 MPs at the next general election, if not more”.
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Polanski says policies he supports deemed radical and leftwing are popular with voters
Q: [From Tamara Cohen from Sky] Why do you think radical left politics can have a mass appeal when that did not work for Jeremy Corbyn? And can you work with him?
Polanski says he does not accept that ideas like nationalising water companeis, taxing multi-millionaires and billionaires and protecting nature are radical. These policies are popular, he says.
On working with Corbyn, he says it is too soon to know what will happen to the new party proposed by the former Labour leader.
But he says he agrees with John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, about the country needing, not an electoral coalition now, but an intellectual coaltion.
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Polanski’s Q&A with journalists
After his victory speech, Polanski had a Q&A with journalists.
Q: Why do you think your approach will be better than the one that brought the Greens record election results?
Polanski said he saw it as his role to facilitate the enthusiasm that people have for Green politics.
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Polanski praises migrants as ‘very much backbone of this country’, saying Greens must defend marginalised groups
In his victory speech Polanski also said that this evening he would be attending a United Voices of the World event. It is a migrant union, and Polanski said this as “a total show of intent, of what this party is”.
He went on:
We listen to the poorest communities, whether they’re migrant communities, disabled communities, the trans community, working class communities, whoever needs us to have their back, we will be there.
We will be there to amplify their voices, to listen to the most marginalised and minority communities, to speak with them, not for them, and challenge truth to power, to take on power and wealth in this country, and we absolutely recognise that migrants are very much the backbone of this country.
Our country has problematic history that we also need to come to terms with, but also we have a beautiful history, a beautiful present and a beautiful future of what we are when communities come together.
So let’s have a very clear Green party message. Our communities will always stand together.
Zack Polanski after the election result was announced. Photograph: James Manning/PAShare
New Green party leader Zack Polanski tells Labour ‘we’re here to replace you’, not just ‘be disappointed by you’
In his victory speech Polanski said this was the Green party’s time.
People in this country are exhausted. They are tired. They are sick of working long hours and never feeling secure.
They see water companies pumping sewage into our waters and charging extra for privilege, and they see how broken the old two-party system is, and we know this political space has been ripe for charlatans like Nigel Farage for millionaires who are pretending to serve working class communities but are actually backed by the same billionaires who are destroying our democracies, our communities and our planet.
So it is an absolute moral responsibility in this moment for the Green party to step up with the bold politics. I know that we have to say to people that we can and we will lower your bills, we will nationalise the water companies. We will hold this Labour government to account.
Because when we look at Keir Starmer and what this government have been doing, whether it’s the two-child benefit cap, the disability cuts, the genocide in Gaza, my message to Labour is very clear. We are not here to be disappointed by you. We are not here to be concerned by you. We’re here to replace you.
Zack Polanski giving his victory speech after being elected new Green party leader Photograph: BBC NewsShare
Updated at 06.56 EDT
Mothin Ali and Richard Millward have been elected co-deputy leaders, the Green party has announced.
The Green party has a rule that if there is a single leader, there must be two co-deputy leaders. (And vice versa – if there are two co-leaders, there is only one deputy.)
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Updated at 06.35 EDT
Polanski pays tribute to his opponents.
He says one of the reasons he was able to run a radical campaign was because of the work done by Adrian Ramsay, the outgoing co-leader. He says he is “standing on the shoulders of giants, people like Adrian and people who have been around the party for a long time, who have been building and growing this party as deputy leader, as co-leader, now as the MP for Waveney Valley”.
Referring to Ellie Chowns, who was running with Ramsay to be co-leader, Polanski says one of the times he is proudest to be a Green is when he sees her standing up to the foreign secretary in the Commons.
He thanks Carla Denyer, the outgoing co-leader, for all the work she has done. And he praises Siân Berry, the other one of the party’s four MPs. She was a member of the London assembly before she was elected to parliament and he says in the London assembly he jokes about his predecessor being demoted to the Commons.
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Updated at 06.40 EDT
Polanski is speaking now. He thanks every person who voted for him, and say he promises “to work every single day to deliver environmental, social, racial and economic justice”.
He goes on:
And for those of you who didn’t vote for me, this is a democracy. We don’t have to agree on everything. We just have to have common cause, and I give the same commitment to you. I will work every single day to grow this party. So thank you very much.
He thanks people who worked on his campaign, and he thanks his partner Richie, saying he falls “in love with you more every single day”.
And he welcomes all the new members who have joined the party during the campaign.
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Zack Polanski wins Green party leadership contest by landslide
Zack Polanksi has won the Green party leadership – by a landslide.
He got 20,411 votes.
Adrian Ramsay, one of the previous co-leaders, and Ellie Chowns, running alongside him to be co-leader, received just 3,705 votes. They are both MPs, unlike Polanski, who is a member of the London assembly.
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Updated at 06.18 EDT
Green membership has reached record level, at 68,500, Lamb says
Lamb says Green party membership is now at a record level – 68,500.
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