\n<\/p>\n
Good morning. When Jimmy Carter was US president, he gave a famous address in 1979 saying the country was suffering a crisis of confidence. It became known as the malaise speech, and now it is widely regarded as a mistake, because it was unduly pessimistic and because, in the presidential election the following year, voters turned to the much more upbeat Ronald Reagaan.<\/p>\n
Yesterday Wes Streeting<\/strong>, the health secretary, had his own Jimmy Carter moment on Sky News, saying Britons are in despair. He said:<\/p>\n I am battling cultural challenges in the NHS too, whether that\u2019s people abdicating responsibility, not listening to patients, covering things up when things go wrong.<\/p>\n And all of those things undermine public trust and confidence, not just in the NHS, but in the ability of government, by which I mean any government, to be able to effect change.<\/p>\n And there is a deep disillusionment in this country at the moment, and I would say a growing sense of despair, about whether anyone is capable of turning this country around.<\/p>\n Streeting also said that he was an optimist, and that he could see \u201cgreen shoots of recovery\u201d, but it is the \u201cgrowing sense of despair\u201d line that has stuck.<\/p>\n And today Westminster is full of news that goes some way to reinforcing Streeting\u2019s point. This morning the media are debating a report saying asylum hotels have been a disaster, and this afternoon there will be a statement in the Commons about a farcical prisoner release. We\u2019ve also got a press conference from Reform UK (a party that thrives by fomenting despair), and then towards the end of the day a select commitee about a botched spy prosecution that also implies the British state has a default failure setting.<\/p>\n Here is Diane Taylor<\/strong>\u2019s story about the report on asylum hotels.<\/p>\n And here is the full report from the home affairs select committee.<\/p>\n Steve Reed<\/strong>, the housing secretary, was defending the government on the airwaves this morning. He pointed out that the contracts criticised by the committee were signed by the last government. And he insisted that the government would get all asylum seekers out of hotels, by using purpose-built accommodation on sites like ex military bases instead. He told the Today programme the tovernment was looking at \u201cmodular\u201d forms of building to ensure sites could go up quickly.<\/p>\n You can use modular forms of building. That means it can go up much faster than would normally be the case, and there are planning processes that we can use in these circumstances to make sure that the planning system itself isn\u2019t delayed.<\/p>\n I\u2019m expecting announcements to come on that within weeks, so we just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n It would be foolish to come on your show and announce things where the detail hasn\u2019t been fully worked out, because you\u2019d pick holes in it, quite rightly so.<\/p>\n So we want to get it right, but the intention is to get those former military bases is one example of it, where we could use big sites and get people on there and end the use of hotels entirely. That\u2019s where we want to get to.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning:<\/em> Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is in Saudi Arabia where she is speaking at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh.<\/p>\n 11.30am:<\/em> Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n Morning:<\/em> Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Essex.<\/p>\n Afternoon:<\/em> Keir Starmer arrives in Turkey, where he is holding talks with the president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, mostly about an order for Typhoon fighter jets from the UK.<\/p>\n 2pm:<\/em> Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.<\/p>\n 2.30pm:<\/em> Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n After 3.30pm:<\/em> David Lammy, the justice secretary and deputy PM, gives a statement to MPs on the accidental release of the Epping sex offender, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu.<\/p>\n 4.30pm:<\/em> Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, gives evidence to the joint committee on the national security strategy about the collapse of the China spy case, alongside Tom Little KC, lead counsel in the case. At 5.30pm Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, and Sir Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, give evidence.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.39 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 Labour MPs have been invited to \u201cdrop-in sessions\u201d with Keir Starmer\u2019s parliamentary private secretaries to raise any concerns they have, Kevin Schofield<\/strong> from Huffpost UK reports.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer\u2019s 3 parliamentary aides, Abena Oppong-Asare, Catherine Fookes, and Jon Pearce, are to hold twice weekly \u201cdrop-in sessions\u201d in the PM\u2019s Commons office for MPs to raise any concerns they may have. News was relayed to Labour MPs in a message this morning.<\/p>\n Starmer needs to improve relations with Labour MPs. Following the collapse in Labour support in the Caerphilly byelection last week, there is increasing chatter about the prospect of a leadership challenge at some point. Even though it is technically much harder for MPs to remove a Labour leader than a Tory leader, Kitty Donaldson <\/strong>and Eleanor Langford<\/strong> in the i say that some Labour MPs are \u201cdiscussing whether to trigger a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer in a matter of weeks, citing growing concern over the party\u2019s direction and its handling of the economy\u201d. They say:<\/p>\n A senior Labour source told The i Paper <\/em>there was \u201ca cohort in the Parliamentary Labour party (PLP) who think moving against Keir [Starmer] after the budget is feasible rather than waiting until after May\u201d to stem the losses to the party\u2019s election machine in the local elections.<\/p>\n Share<\/span>Activists from the Green New Deal Rising staging a protest outside the Treasury this morning, where they were urging Rachel Reeves to tax the super-rich<\/span> Photograph: Tolga Akmen\/EPAShare<\/p>\n The Guardian would like to hear from parents who have had to live in temporary accommodation with children. There is more about the call-out here, including a form where you can submit a response.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n But the Commons home affairs committee<\/strong>\u2019s report is also critical of some aspects of what the Home Office has been doing on asylum hotels since Labour took power. Here are some of the points it makes about Labour\u2019s record on this issue.<\/p>\n The committee expresses concerns about the government\u2019s plan to move asylum seekers out of hotels and place them in \u201clarge sites\u201d instead, such as former military bases.<\/strong> (See 9.23am.) It says:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The [Home Office] is considering the use of large sites in its approach to asylum accommodation, having previously said it would move away from their use. In principle, large sites can provide suitable temporary accommodation. However, they have generally proved more costly to deliver than hotel accommodation and will not enable the department to drive down costs in the same way as expanding dispersal accommodation. If the department chooses to pursue large sites, it needs to fully understand and accept this trade off. It must learn the lessons from its previous mistakes in rushing to deliver short-term solutions that later unravel.<\/p>\n The government has committed to reducing the cost of the asylum system and ending the use of hotels by 2029. This is a stated Government priority, but making promises to appeal to popular sentiment without setting out a clear and fully articulated plan for securing alternative accommodation risks under-delivery and consequently undermining public trust still further. The Home Office has failed to share a clear strategy for the long-term delivery of asylum accommodation.<\/p>\n The number of asylum seekers in hotels is currently significantly lower than during the peak of hotel use\u201432,059 people as of June 2025, compared to 56,042 in September 2023\u2014although the number of asylum seekers accommodated in hotels was 8% higher in June 2025 compared to June 2024.<\/p>\n It says it is \u201cextremely disappointing\u201d that the Home Office abandoned a pilot programme giving refugees 56 days to find alternative accommodation if they have to leave Home Office housing (like a hotel) because their asylum application has been accepted. <\/strong>The Home Office has reverted to 28 days\u2019 notice, even though the 56 days\u2019s notice system was said to reduce the number or refugees finding themselves homeless. It says:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Given the high level of support we received for the 56 day move on period in the evidence we received, this decision is extremely disappointing.<\/p>\n Last week the Home Office lost a court case over this policy.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.59 EDT<\/p>\n The Commons home affairs committee<\/strong> has a Labour majority (like all Commons select committees) but it is chaired by a former Tory culture secretary, Karen Bradley. Party loyalty has not stopped her producing a report that is quite damning about the record of the last government.<\/p>\n Here are extracts from the report\u2019s summary commenting on the Conservatives\u2019 record.<\/p>\n Over the past six years, the Home Office has presided over an increasingly expensive asylum accommodation system. The expected cost of the Home Office\u2019s asylum accommodation contracts for the ten years between 2019\u201329 has more than tripled, from \u00a34.5bn to \u00a315.3bn. External factors \u2013 the Covid-19 pandemic and the dramatic increase in small boat arrivals \u2013 and decisions by the previous government \u2013 such as pausing asylum decision-making while it pursued the Rwanda scheme \u2013 have meant that the Home Office has had to accommodate a growing number of people for longer periods of time. At the end of 2018 around 47,500 asylum seekers were accommodated by the Home Office. As of June 2025, the Home Office was responsible for accommodating around 103,000 people \u2026<\/p>\n We heard powerful evidence that during the 2019\u20132024 parliament the Home Office focused on pursuing high-risk, poorly planned policy solutions. Failures of leadership at a senior level, shifting priorities, and political and operational pressure for quick results meant that the department was incapable of getting a grip on the situation, and allowed costs to spiral.<\/p>\n The Home Office has become heavily reliant on the costly use of hotels for asylum accommodation \u2013 which are unpopular with local communities and largely unsuitable for accommodating asylum seekers. It has used large scale contracts with private providers to deliver asylum accommodation, but these contracts have provided few levers to control costs and ensure that providers are delivering the accommodation required. The Home Office seems to have neglected the day-to-day management of these contracts, failing to protect value for money for the taxpayer. Two accommodation providers owe millions to the Home Office in excess profits, but the Home Office only appears to have started the process for recouping these profits in 2024 and has yet to reclaim these profits from providers. This money should be supporting the delivery of public services, not sitting in the bank accounts of private businesses.<\/p>\n The Home Office has undoubtedly been operating in an extremely challenging environment, but its chaotic response has demonstrated that it has not been up to the challenge.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.34 EDT<\/p>\n The first phase of Awaab\u2019s law, which promises to protect tenants from dangerous social housing conditions, comes into force in England on Monday, in memory of a two-year-old boy who died after exposure to mould in his home, Chris Osuh<\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Freedom from Torture<\/strong>, a charity that works with asylum seekers, is concerned about the idea that refugees might be removed from hotels and placed in barrack-style accommodation instead. (See 9.23am.) In a response to the Home Office report, Sile Reynolds, its head of asylum advocacy, said:<\/p>\n Everyday Freedom from Torture therapists see first-hand the devastating impact that hotels, military sites and shared bedrooms have on people who came to this country seeking safety. Living in fear, without privacy, stability, or access to proper healthcare, strips people of their dignity and undermines their recovery.<\/p>\n The Ggvernment now has a crucial opportunity to once and for all transform our asylum accommodation system so that it is safe, dignified and based in our communities. They can act now to relieve pressure on hotels by making better quality and faster asylum decisions, including swiftly granting status to people from countries where they are almost always recognised as refugees like Syria and Sudan.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n The average person saw \u201cno meaningful improvement in their life\u201d over Labour\u2019s first year in power, a survey of thousands of Britons has suggested. In its report on the findings of a survey by Carnegie UK<\/strong>, a wellbeing charity, PA Media says:<\/p>\n An annual \u201cLife in the UK\u201d survey of 7,000 people carried out by charity Carnegie<\/em> UK found stagnating wellbeing and persistent economic hardship for millions since 2023.<\/p>\n Sarah Davidson, the charity\u2019s chief executive, said the survey \u201cshows that between May 2024 and May 2025, the average person in the UK saw no meaningful improvement in their life\u201d.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cPublic services and systems are barely working for too many households, and our research shows that poorer people, larger families and people in social housing are still getting left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n Davidson acknowledged that there were \u201csome emerging signs of hope\u201d, with people finding it more affordable to heat their homes and \u201cslight improvements\u201d in mental and physical health.<\/p>\n But she warned that these improvements were not evenly distributed, with older, wealthier homeowners reporting much higher wellbeing than younger, poorer people in less secure housing.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cUnderlying all these results is the inescapable fact that significant and damaging inequalities persist across all parts of the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n The Life in the UK survey asked a range of questions on economic, social, environmental and democratic topics to come up with an overall \u201cwellbeing score\u201d out of 100.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s survey reported an overall wellbeing score of 62, one point higher than last year and the same score as 2023.<\/p>\n These findings help to corroborate (at least a bit) what Wes Streeting was going on about yesterday. (See 9.23am.)<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n The Green party has called for the Home Office to be broken up in the light of today\u2019s report about asylum hotels. It has put out this statement from Rachel Millward<\/strong>, the party\u2019s co-deputy leader.<\/p>\n \u2018Failed, chaotic and expensive\u2019 \u2013 these are the words used by today\u2019s report to describe the government\u2019s asylum accommodation system, but they apply just as fittingly to the Home Office as a whole which has spent decades wasting taxpayer money in a destructive pursuit of the most hostile migration system possible.<\/p>\n This is just one in a litany of reports which lays bare the Home Office\u2019s dysfunction \u2013 in this case, allowing private companies to make obscene profits while vulnerable people are put at risk and community tensions are ratcheted up to breaking point.<\/p>\n If we are to have a functional and fair migration system, the Home Office must be broken up so that migration can be dealt with by a department designed to make the system work, not simply project a hardline stance to the public no matter the cost to the taxpayer or the impact on migrants.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Prisons are expected to begin enhanced checks before inmates are released after a man who sexually assaulted a young girl was mistakenly freed from jail, Kevin Rawlinson<\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n In the Daily Telegraph, Charles Hymas<\/strong> says prison governors are not happy about being asked to carry out enhanced checks on people being released as a matter of routine. In his story he reports:<\/p>\n Governors warned it would add to the workloads of already-overstretched staff and questioned whether it would solve a problem that has yet to be identified by any investigation. The new checks could take as long as 45 minutes per prisoner, one source said.<\/p>\n One senior governor said: \u201cI understand the government is very eager to prevent this from happening again, but there\u2019s an investigation which has only just been commissioned.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil that\u2019s under way, the prison service won\u2019t know what went wrong or whether the proposed checks are what are needed to prevent it happening again.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Good morning. When Jimmy Carter was US president, he gave a famous address in 1979 saying the country was suffering a crisis of confidence. It became known as the malaise speech, and now it is widely regarded as a mistake, because it was unduly pessimistic and because, in the presidential election the following year, voters turned to the much more upbeat Ronald Reagaan.<\/p>\n Yesterday Wes Streeting<\/strong>, the health secretary, had his own Jimmy Carter moment on Sky News, saying Britons are in despair. He said:<\/p>\n I am battling cultural challenges in the NHS too, whether that\u2019s people abdicating responsibility, not listening to patients, covering things up when things go wrong.<\/p>\n And all of those things undermine public trust and confidence, not just in the NHS, but in the ability of government, by which I mean any government, to be able to effect change.<\/p>\n And there is a deep disillusionment in this country at the moment, and I would say a growing sense of despair, about whether anyone is capable of turning this country around.<\/p>\n Streeting also said that he was an optimist, and that he could see \u201cgreen shoots of recovery\u201d, but it is the \u201cgrowing sense of despair\u201d line that has stuck.<\/p>\n And today Westminster is full of news that goes some way to reinforcing Streeting\u2019s point. This morning the media are debating a report saying asylum hotels have been a disaster, and this afternoon there will be a statement in the Commons about a farcical prisoner release. We\u2019ve also got a press conference from Reform UK (a party that thrives by fomenting despair), and then towards the end of the day a select commitee about a botched spy prosecution that also implies the British state has a default failure setting.<\/p>\n Here is Diane Taylor<\/strong>\u2019s story about the report on asylum hotels.<\/p>\n And here is the full report from the home affairs select committee.<\/p>\n Steve Reed<\/strong>, the housing secretary, was defending the government on the airwaves this morning. He pointed out that the contracts criticised by the committee were signed by the last government. And he insisted that the government would get all asylum seekers out of hotels, by using purpose-built accommodation on sites like ex military bases instead. He told the Today programme the tovernment was looking at \u201cmodular\u201d forms of building to ensure sites could go up quickly.<\/p>\n You can use modular forms of building. That means it can go up much faster than would normally be the case, and there are planning processes that we can use in these circumstances to make sure that the planning system itself isn\u2019t delayed.<\/p>\n I\u2019m expecting announcements to come on that within weeks, so we just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n It would be foolish to come on your show and announce things where the detail hasn\u2019t been fully worked out, because you\u2019d pick holes in it, quite rightly so.<\/p>\n So we want to get it right, but the intention is to get those former military bases is one example of it, where we could use big sites and get people on there and end the use of hotels entirely. That\u2019s where we want to get to.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning:<\/em> Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is in Saudi Arabia where she is speaking at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh.<\/p>\n 11.30am:<\/em> Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n Morning:<\/em> Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Essex.<\/p>\n Afternoon:<\/em> Keir Starmer arrives in Turkey, where he is holding talks with the president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, mostly about an order for Typhoon fighter jets from the UK.<\/p>\n 2pm:<\/em> Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.<\/p>\n 2.30pm:<\/em> Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n After 3.30pm:<\/em> David Lammy, the justice secretary and deputy PM, gives a statement to MPs on the accidental release of the Epping sex offender, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu.<\/p>\n 4.30pm:<\/em> Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, gives evidence to the joint committee on the national security strategy about the collapse of the China spy case, alongside Tom Little KC, lead counsel in the case. At 5.30pm Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, and Sir Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, give evidence.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.39 EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Minister says government committed to getting all asylum seekers out of hotels after report says system ‘chaotic’ Good morning. When Jimmy Carter was US president, he gave a famous address in 1979 saying the country was suffering a crisis of confidence. It became known as the malaise speech, and now it is widely regarded as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2917,18037,558,2073,5276,132,1354,124,7470,5309,969],"class_list":{"0":"post-30838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-asylum","9":"tag-expects","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-hotels","12":"tag-insists","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-minister","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-progress","17":"tag-seekers","18":"tag-weeks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Labour’s decision to cut time refugees get to find alternative housing ‘extremely disappointing’, committee says<\/h2>\n
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What Commons home affairs committee said about Home Office’s ‘chaotic’ asylum hotels policy under Tories<\/h2>\n
Social landlords in England now forced to fix emergencies within 24 hours<\/h2>\n
Green party calls for Home Office to be broken up, saying seperate department should handle migration<\/h2>\n
England and Wales prison checks to be enhanced after inmate released in error<\/h2>\n
Minister says government committed to getting all asylum seekers out of hotels after report says system ‘chaotic’<\/h2>\n