Starmer ‘loses control’ as close to 1,200 migrants cross Channel in single day
“Sir Keir Starmer was on Saturday accused of losing control of Britain’s borders after close to 1,200 small boat migrants crossed the Channel in a single day. The Coastguard was forced to call on fishing boats to assist a yacht and kayaks in trouble as Border Force vessels and lifeboats were overloaded rescuing migrants. Saturday’s arrival numbers take the total so far this year to more than 14,600 – up more than 30 per cent on the same point last year and the highest numbers for the first five months in a year since small boats started crossing in 2018. The 1,000-plus arrivals on Saturday is the highest number of people to cross the Channel in a single day so far this year”. – Sunday Telegraph
- Labour accused of ‘losing control’ after record day of migrant crossings – Sunday Times
- Farage warns Britain ‘in peril’ after over 1,000 migrants cross Channel in one day – Sunday Express
Comment
Britain to be ‘war-ready’ with £1.5bn for new bomb factories
“Britain will move to a constant state of readiness for war by building six new bomb factories, the Defence Secretary will announce this week. John Healey will on Monday unveil plans to spend £1.5 billion on massively ramping up Britain’s production of artillery shells and explosives. He will also commit to buying 7,000 long-range weapons after military bosses warned that the UK no longer has an effective fighting force. The announcement will be made as ministers publish a Strategic Defence Review which will set out the future of the Army, Navy and Air Force. At least six weapons factories will be built across the country with the capacity to massively ramp up production should a conflict break out.” – Sunday Telegraph
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Badenoch: With hounded police and pampered criminals, Britain is upside down
“Our country is being taken for a ride and the public are sick to the back teeth of it. In April, Hashem Abedi, one of the men responsible for the Manchester Arena bombing, attacked prison guards with hot oil and a stabbing attack that seriously injured three officers. Abedi was also granted more than £1,200 in taxpayers’ cash to launch an equal rights case in prison. Prison officers do invaluable work protecting the public and deserve better protection. Yet those who do the right thing and put their lives on the line for us often get hounded and harassed.” – Sunday Telegraph
Hannan: The Conservatives are not yet finished, but they can no longer delay their next reinvention
“Listen! Can you hear the death rattle of the world’s oldest political party? Of the five most recent opinion polls, one has the Conservatives on 19 per cent, one on 17 and three on 16. It is starting to look as if the Tories might, in Dominic Cummings’s curious Durham/Palo Alto idiolect, “have crossed the event horizon”. Political expiry comes suddenly. France’s Gaullists had been the leading party on the Right for half a century when they were displaced by Marine Le Pen. At the last election, they won just eight per cent of the seats. What if the scales are tipping? What if first-past-the-post, for so long a Conservative prop, has become the party’s doom? How might Kemi Badenoch avoid extinction? Hoping that Nigel Farage implodes is not a strategy.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Johnson handed huge comeback boost in major new poll – Sunday Express
- The SNP stronghold that could fall to Reform – and help Farage win over Scotland – Sunday Telegraph
- Plaid Crymru and Reform vie for gains in Labour stronghold – FT
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Calls for Lord Hermer to quit over role in Connolly prosecution
“Lord Hermer is facing fresh calls to quit after personally signing off on the prosecution of Lucy Connolly. Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to stirring up racial hatred in the wake of the Southport killings last year. Her social media post was widely condemned, but the scale of her punishment has proved to be highly divisive and prompted calls from senior politicians for her release. Lord Hermer, the Government’s chief lawyer, approved the 42-year-old’s prosecution despite having the constitutional power to prevent it, his office confirmed. It comes after he was forced to apologise over comparing calls for the UK to leave the ECHR to the rise of Nazism on Friday.” – Sunday Telegraph
Arm prison guards to crack down on Islamist inmates, say Tories
“Specialist prison officers should have access to firearms in jails to combat the rising threat from Islamist gangs and violent criminals, Robert Jenrick has said. The shadow justice secretary has proposed that secure armouries to hold lethal weapons should be introduced at high-security prisons, claiming: “Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control.” His proposed moves, which mirror similar measures in US jails, would also involve specialist teams of officers in category A prisons being armed with Tasers, stun grenades and baton rounds. Mr Jenrick said the proposals were recommended in a rapid review he commissioned from Prof Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who advised the previous Conservative government on extremism in jails.” – Sunday Telegraph
Comment
Tory peer proposed delay on heated tobacco ban after Morris visit
“A Conservative peer proposed delaying the UK’s proposed ban on heated tobacco, weeks after a leading cigarette company paid for him to visit its research facility in Switzerland. The tobacco and vapes bill would gradually raise the age at which consumers can buy cigarettes and other tobacco products, making the UK the first major economy to chart a course towards phasing out tobacco altogether. But the timetable for heated tobacco could be disrupted after Lord Vaizey put forward an amendment that would require more research to be done into the “potential” harms that such products can cause relative to cigarettes. Vaizey’s proposal came six weeks after he was a guest of Philip Morris International (PMI), whose IQOS product is the world-leading heated tobacco brand”. – Observer
Labour plots ‘family bathtime tax’ on water bills
“Labour has opened the door to “progressive” water bills that would force those with larger family homes and gardens to pay more. Ministers have said they support utilities companies trialling new tariffs that charge the heaviest users of water a higher rate. Some firms are also pushing for a move to a seasonal pricing system, which would mean it costs more to use water in the summer than the winter. Combined, the changes would disproportionately hit the bills of families with children and of households with gardens and swimming pools. The Tories said the “punitive” plans would hit young parents hardest, accusing Labour of allowing a “tax on bathtime” and “waging war on family homes”. – Sunday Telegraph
Other political news
- Former cabinet minister Zahawi pulls out of ‘British bid’ for The Telegraph – Sunday Telegraph
- Reform starts accepting donations in crypto currency – FT
- Labour MP in undeclared relationship with boss of trade union she lobbied for in Parliament – Mail on Sunday
- Poland goes to the polls in second round of close-fought presidential election – Observer
- British boxing great lines up fight to become Reform Mayor of London – Sun on Sunday
