\n<\/p>\n
Migrants who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel have been detained under the new \u201cone in, one out\u201d deal, PA Media reports. PA says:<\/p>\n
The first detentions came as people arrived in Dover on Wednesday, the first day the pilot scheme came into force.<\/p>\n
Pictures showed the migrants wearing life jackets disembarking from Border Force boats.<\/p>\n
The Home Office said detentions began for those who arrived on Wednesday afternoon and they will be held in immigration removal centres until they are returned to France.<\/p>\n
Home secretary Yvette Cooper<\/strong> said: \u201cYesterday, under the terms of this groundbreaking new treaty, the first group of people to cross the Channel were detained after their arrival at Western Jet Foil and will now be held in detention until they can be returned to France.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sends a message to every migrant currently thinking of paying organised crime gangs to go to the UK that they will be risking their lives and throwing away their money if they get into a small boat.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Migrants being brought in to the Border Force compound in Dover from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel yesterday.<\/span> Photograph: Gareth Fuller\/PAShare<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.02 EDT<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n <\/span>Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The Conservative party is now calling for the resignation of Rushanara Ali, the homelessness minister, after she told tenants in a house she owns they would have to move, and then increased the rent by \u00a3700 a month when it was relet after they had moved out. Ali says she wanted to sell the house, and only relisted it for rental when she could not find a buyer, but she has been accused of hypocrisy because the government is legislating to stop landlords who evict tenants on the grounds they want to sell from then swiftly re-letting.<\/p>\n In a post on social media, Kevin Hollinrake<\/strong>, the Tory chair, said:<\/p>\n This is staggering hypocrisy from Rushanara Ali.<\/p>\n It is totally unacceptable for the Government minister in charge of Labour\u2019s new renters laws and homelessness to have turfed out her own tenants in order to hike the rent (by over 20%)<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry, but she must resign.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ali said: \u201cRushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Weaver<\/strong> has the full story here.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n JD Vance, the US vice president, will start his summer holiday in the UK by staying with David Lammy, the foreign secretary, at Chevening, Lammy\u2019s grace-and-favour country home, the Telegraph reports.<\/p>\n In his story, Rob Crilly<\/strong> says Vance and his family will arrive on Friday and that, as well as staying with Lammy, they will visit Hampton Court before heading for the Cotswolds, where they are spending most of their break.<\/p>\n Lammy knew Vance before he became vice president and he descibes him as a friend. Speaking about the relationship to the BBC last year, he said:<\/p>\n We share a similar working-class background with addiction issues in our family. We\u2019ve written books on that. We\u2019ve talked about that. And we\u2019re both Christians, so I think I can find common ground with JD Vance.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n The Conservative party<\/strong> is also calling today for all asylum seekers caught working illegally to be automatically disqualified from having their claim accepted. In a news release, the party says:<\/p>\n The Conservatives are setting out new proposals that would mean asylum seeker caught illegally working should have their claim rejected automatically and face immediate deportation, either to their country of origin or to a safe third country.<\/p>\n The scale of this failure was laid bare when Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, exposed this issue after a visit to a taxpayer-funded asylum hotel in June and found it operating as a delivery hub. Illegal working was taking place in plain sight, security guards did nothing, and the platforms continued to profit from this racket despite previous Home Office agreements.<\/p>\n Chris Philp MP also wrote to Deliveroo, Just Eat, Uber Eats, and the home secretary calling for an immediate crackdown on illegal working by asylum seekers. His demands included urgent enforcement against any company failing to uphold immigration law, the removal of all illegal workers from delivery platforms, and action to stop illegal working from Home Office-run asylum accommodation.<\/p>\n The following month, the home secretary announced a measly agreement between delivery companies and the Home Office to share information on the location of asylum hotels. It does nothing to punish offenders or close loopholes, such as account sharing, and therefore, did absolutely nothing to tackle this problem.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s failure to enforce the law is creating a pull factor for illegal immigration, leading to record crossings, a collapsing border, and a booming black market in taxpayer-subsidised gig economy jobs.<\/p>\n The alternative view is that asylum seekers should be allowed to work in the UK while their claim is being considered. It is one of the arguments that the journalist Nicola Kelly<\/strong> makes in her excellent book Anywhere But Here: How Britain\u2019s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All. She says:<\/p>\n By allowing asylum seekers to volunteer and use the skills they have \u2013 and loosening, or ideally lifting, the ban on the right to work \u2013 research shows that the government could save \u00a31bn over a 10-year period. Germany and France allow asylum seekers to work after six months; Sweden after just one day. The US, too, gives people permission to work while their claims are being processed. We could do the same. There is a net benefit to the economy from immigration.<\/p>\n Kelly\u2019s book is well worth reading. It explains in detail how the asylum system in the UK does, or rather doesn\u2019t, work, but it\u2019s a book about people, not policy, with vivid, compassionate, first-hand reporting, and a strong narrative pull. I found it powerful and revealing. Emine Saner<\/strong> wrote about it in much more detail in an interview with Kelly we published earlier this year.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n The Bank of England has cut interest rates for a fifth time in a year amid mounting concern about the strength of the economy, Richard Partington<\/strong> reports. The Bank\u2019s monetary policy committee voted by a majority to reduce its key base rate from 4.25% to 4%.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n The Conservatives say they are not impressed by the news that the first small boat migrants have been detained under the \u201cone in, one out\u201d deal with France. In a statement, Chris Philp<\/strong>, the shadow home secretary, said:<\/p>\n Keir Starmer\u2019s promise last year to \u2018smash the gangs\u2019 has turned out to be nothing more than a gimmick that didn\u2019t work, and this is just the same.<\/p>\n They are detaining a token handful of arrivals and in return we accept unvetted migrants from France. The whole thing is riddled with loopholes, opt-outs and legal escape routes that will make removals near-impossible.<\/p>\n One clause exempts anyone with a claim certified as \u2018clearly unfounded\u2019 pending court proceedings, creating a field day for human rights lawyers. Anyone claiming to be under 18 or making a modern slavery claim gets to avoid the scheme too.<\/p>\n 94% of illegal arrivals will still remain in the UK under this deal. How exactly is that supposed to deter anyone?<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Richard Adams<\/span><\/p>\n Richard Adams is the Guardian\u2019s eduction editor.<\/em><\/p>\n School attendance in England continued to slowly improve last year, according to new data published this morning by the Department for Education<\/strong> which claimed it was a \u201cdramatic improvement\u201d.<\/p>\n The figures for the autumn term of 2024-25 showed that absence rates in state secondary schools fell by half a percentage point to 7.7% compared with the year before, while primaries also showed a slight improvement to 5%. Persistent absences – the proportion of pupils who missed 10% or more of time in the classroom – also fell, from 19.5% in 2023-24 to 17.8% in 2024-25, and well below the 24% rates seen around 2022.<\/p>\n However all the indicators remain above the rates of absence seen before the Covid pandemic, while severe absence – pupils missing 50% or more – rose slightly to 2%, and remains at record levels, as do absences caused by unauthorised family holidays.<\/p>\n The DfE emphasised that 140,000 fewer pupils were persistently absent in autumn, including 45,000 children and young people from deprived backgrounds.<\/p>\nTories call for Rushanara Ali’s resignation over rent hike after tenants told they would have to move<\/h2>\n
JD Vance reportedly set to start family holiday in UK by staying with David Lammy at Chevening<\/h2>\n
Tories call for asylum seekers caught working to be automatically disqualified from having claim accepted<\/h2>\n
Bank of England cuts interest rate for fifth time in a year to 4%<\/h2>\n
DfE welcomes improvement in school absence figures for England, though problem still worse than pre-Covid<\/h2>\n