Babak Belurs

Selasa, 05 Maret 2024

Lords pass five amendments to Rwanda bill in heavy defeat for Rishi Sunak - The Guardian

Rishi Sunak has suffered his heaviest defeat in the House of Lords after the archbishop of Canterbury and former Conservative ministers joined forces with the opposition to force through five amendments to the Rwandan deportation bill.

The string of government setbacks, most passed by unusually large margins of about 100 votes, means the legislation, which aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers on a one-way flight to Kigali, will have to go back to the Commons.

The prime minister has previously warned the unelected chamber against frustrating the “will of the people” by hampering the passage of his safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, which has been approved by MPs.

Sunak has made “stopping the boats” a key pledge of his leadership. However, he has been hit by several setbacks including the bill being challenged in the courts. Last week, official auditors said it will cost £1.8m to send each of 300 migrants to Rwanda.

The draft legislation and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled deportation scheme after the supreme court ruled the plan was unlawful.

As well as compelling judges to regard the east African country as safe, it would give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions. It has been warned that the legislation is “fundamentally incompatible” with the UK’s human rights obligations and would flout international law.

But Downing Street has said the government remains committed to sending flights to Rwanda “in the spring”.

In all, peers backed five changes to the bill on Monday night, including ensuring it complied with the rule of law and that parliament cannot declare Rwanda to be safe until the treaty with its promised safeguards is fully implemented.

The Lords also supported a move that would allow the presumption the country is a secure haven to be challenged in the courts.

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury

Among those to vote against the government were the Most Rev Justin Welby and Conservative grandees Ken Clarke, Lord Deben and Viscount Hailsham, who have all previously held Cabinet positions.

The size of the defeats raise the prospect of an extended tussle between the Commons and Lords during “ping-pong”, in which legislation is batted between the two houses until agreement is reached.

The barrister and independent crossbencher David Anderson said the provision in the bill requiring Rwanda to be treated as safe “takes us for fools”.

Proposing an amendment that would allow the presumption to be challenged in the courts, Lord Anderson added: “If Rwanda is safe as the government would have us declare, it has nothing to fear from such scrutiny.

“Yet we are invited to adopt a fiction, to wrap it in the cloak of parliamentary sovereignty and to grant it permanent immunity from challenge. To tell an untruth and call it truth. Why would we go along with that?”

Welby said international human rights law had developed following the horrors committed by Nazi Germany, to act as a “fallback” and “stop” on governments. “We are not in any situation remotely like that, let’s be clear,” the archbishop added.

“The government is not doing something on the scale of what we saw at that stage, but the government is challenging the right of international law to constrain our actions.

Lord Clarke, the former chancellor, said he hoped there would be a legal challenge to the bill if it was passed. “I cannot recall a precedent in my time where a government of any complexion have produced a bill which asserts a matter of fact – facts to be fact,” he said.

Later, responding to concerns about the mental health support asylum seekers would receive in Rwanda, the Home Office minister Andrew Sharpe said: “It would be far in the best interests, mental health interests of those seeking asylum, and who are victims, to seek asylum in the first safe country they came to.”

The government faces the threat of further defeats on Wednesday when the bill is again before the Lords.

The UK and France are planning to establish a new customs partnership designed to disrupt the supply chain of small boats in the Channel.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, hosted a meeting in Brussels on Monday of the Calais Group of northern European countries. They plan to disrupt the supply chain of boat parts including engines and building materials.

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2024-03-05 02:31:00Z
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Wetherby: Teen girl restrained and stripped twice by male prison staff, inspectors say - BBC

By Callum May

BBC News

A vulnerable girl in a young offenders institution twice had her clothes removed under restraint by an all-male team of prison officers, a report says.

The inmate had been stripped to stop her using her clothes to harm herself at Wetherby Young Offender Institution.

The incident emerged in a report highly critical of the facility, which houses some of the UK's most complex children.

Its author Charlie Taylor said care for vulnerable young people - especially girls - was "not good enough".

The chief inspector of prisons told the BBC it costs nearly £250,000 a year to keep a child at Wetherby, adding: "With outcomes like this, there has to be a real question over whether this is working."

Inmates at Wetherby are between 15 and 18 and almost half have been in the care system during their lives. Some are beginning very long or life sentences.

There are seven girls imprisoned in England and Wales. When Wetherby was inspected in late 2023, three were held there - a small fraction of the institution's 165 inmates.

Wetherby saw almost 900 incidents of self-harm in the space of a year - the highest of any prison in England and Wales - and more than half were accounted for by the three girls.

The report found the "extremely high" levels of self-harm had led to "very high" levels of use of force and assaults on staff.

It singled out the treatment of one particular girl who was using her clothes to make ligatures and was twice pinned down and forcibly stripped by male prison staff.

Female staff did not attend the searches because they had been assaulted earlier in their shift.

Mr Taylor said the girl's "predictable" pattern of self-harm meant there was no excuse not to have female staff on hand, adding: "The fact it happened twice is completely unacceptable."

He painted a damning picture of how girls are managed by the prison system, particularly at Wetherby, after warning in his report there is no "coherent plan" about how they should be held.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Girls only ended up housed at Wetherby because of the closure of failing institutions elsewhere.

"Most end up in secure children's homes but the most needy, who these homes can't accommodate, end up in the most unsuitable conditions - at Wetherby."

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.

The Wetherby report found children held there spent too much time locked in their cells, received a poor standard of teaching and were subjected to a high rate of "pain-inducing restraint techniques".

Twenty four children were strip-searched over 12 months - half of which were carried out forcibly.

Pain-inducing techniques were used nine times over 12 months and not a single incident was deemed appropriate by an independent review panel.

Inspectors reviewed randomly selected bodycam footage and identified an incident where a child had been injured while being restrained and senior leaders had not been told, the report revealed.

Mr Taylor credited the governor with making Wetherby more stable in recent years and most children there described having a good relationship with staff.

However, the report concluded its safety score had to be downgraded, particularly because of its care for girls.

It described the insistence from leaders at Wetherby that they lack sufficient frontline managers to make progress on some key issues as "scarcely credible" given it had 91 members of staff in senior positions.

Mr Taylor told the BBC young offender institutions are too "top heavy", with high numbers of middle-managers and"frontline officers on the ground... leaving because of high levels of violence".

He said "there is no doubt these are difficult places to work" and called for "real thinking" on how to reduce violence in order to make youth justice more stable and sustainable.

The report has prompted calls for reform of youth justice in England and Wales.

Andrea Coomber, of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "It is virtually impossible to imagine the damage caused to the girl who, made to live in a prison designed for boys, became so distressed to the point of wanting to harm herself and was then forcibly stripped by a group of men not once but twice.

"It is appalling that the state's care for vulnerable children could sink to such depths."

Campbell Robb, chief executive of the charity Nacro, said: "A group of men forcibly stripping a distressed young girl, hurting and locking away children in cold cells is not how any child should be treated in a civilised society, whatever they have done in the past.

"The government must act immediately to improve the lives of these children and to lay out a comprehensive improvement plan across all of these institutions."

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said custody should be the last resort for children who commit crime and the number of girls in youth custody had decreased since 2015.

"This small number of girls have exceptionally complex needs and require specialised support, which is why HMYOI Wetherby is providing additional training to staff on self-harm and increasing opportunities for meaningful activity, education and personal development," she said.

"Restraint is only used on children in rare circumstances when there is no alternative to prevent serious harm to the child, other children or staff."

Sworn in

Earlier, Mr Galloway had struck a defensive note as he arrived at Westminster, saying: "I've always loved the building - the people in it not quite so much."

Mirroring that view, Conservative minister Bim Afolami told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "We're going to have to endure him and that is really the fault of the Labour party."

Mr Galloway was sworn in by the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle before business got under way in the House of Commons.

He was escorted by the Father of the House Peter Bottomley and Neale Hanvey, the Westminster Leader of the Alba Party.

Mr Galloway won a clear victory in Thursday's by-election, which had seen Labour withdraw support for candidate Azhar Ali over remarks widely alleged to be antisemitic.

Mainstream parties were beaten into third place after a chaotic campaign, sparked by the death of Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd, with independent and local businessman Dave Tully taking second place.

Mr Galloway has previously been an MP for Labour until 2003. He then sat in the Commons as an independent and Respect Party MP for three constituencies between 2003 and 2015.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Galloway only won in Rochdale because Labour withdrew support from its own candidate about a fortnight before polling day.

Sir Keir apologised to voters for the decision, which forced Labour to effectively withdraw from the race due to electoral law, the but said it was "the right decision".

Mr Galloway has long campaigned for causes in the Middle East and the first words of his victory speech in Rochdale were "Keir Starmer: This is for Gaza".

Following his win, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it was "extremely concerned" by Mr Galloway's victory, accusing him of having an "atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community", including calling for Bradford, when he was an MP there, to be declared an "Israel-free zone".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was "very concerned" at reports of intimidation during what he labelled "one of the most divisive campaigns we've seen in recent times".

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2024-03-05 05:44:36Z
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Senin, 04 Maret 2024

Sarah Everard: BBC documentary recalls police learning killer was Met officer - BBC

By Andre Rhoden-Paul

BBC News

The detective who led the Sarah Everard murder inquiry has told the BBC about the moment she found out killer Wayne Couzens was a police officer.

Ms Everard, 33, was abducted, raped and murdered by serving Metropolitan Police officer Couzens as she walked home in London in 2021.

Det Ch Insp Katherine Goodwin tells of the "shock" of telling her boss "you're not going to believe this".

She made the comments in a new BBC documentary that will air on Tuesday.

It is being shown days after the third anniversary of Ms Everard's death.

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The detective recounted how officers had traced a name linked to a car seen in CCTV footage. The footage showed a man standing with Ms Everard next to a vehicle where she had been walking.

It is the first time Det Ch Insp Goodwin has spoken on camera about the case.

She said: "At that time, Wayne Couzens was a name that meant nothing to any of us. So immediately we start researching the name, also the phone number and the address that had been given when he'd hired the car."

Detectives then found out he was suspected of indecent exposure. Det Ch Insp Goodwin sent a team to Couzens' house in Kent to question him and, while officers were en route, a detective ran into her office, shut the door, and told her "you need to hear this".

A researcher on the phone revealed Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

Det Ch Insp Goodwin told the documentary: "I knew that I had to tell my boss and I can just remember the shock of having to just sit on the floor of the office and say to her, 'You're not going to believe this, that he's a police officer'.

"And then the same questions went through her head as went through my head: 'Are you sure?'."

Former Met detective Nick Harvey was on his way to question Couzens at his house when he discovered the suspect was an officer.

'It just went silent'

He said: "The gravity of the whole situation then became incredibly clear. You know, the moment I told the team, it just went silent."

Knocking on Couzens' front door and showing his warrant card, Mr Harvey said the killer "just went grey".

"Just... all the colour just ran out of his face," he said.

The murder of Ms Everard, a marketing assistant abducted by Couzens as she walked home in south London on 3 March 2021, put a spotlight on violence against women and girls.

Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life term in prison and will never be released.

Last week, an inquiry chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini said Couzens should never have been given his job as a police officer and chances to stop the sexual predator were repeatedly ignored and missed.

Lady Elish said "without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight."

Viewers in the UK can watch Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice on BBC One, 21:00GMT, Tuesday 5 March, and on iPlayer here after broadcast.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

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2024-03-04 11:23:26Z
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Why you will see a flotilla of lifeboats on River Mersey today - Liverpool Echo

For 200 years, tireless volunteers at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have braved the coasts of the UK and Ireland, saving the lives of thousands of people.

The RNLI celebrates its landmark 200th birthday today, March 4, with a flotilla of lifeboats sailing side-by-side along the River Mersey between 11.20am and 12.20pm paying tribute to volunteers past and present. Lifeboats Hoylake, West Kirby, New Brighton, and Lytham in Lancashire will rendezvous to recreate a 25-year-old picture of the lifesavers in front of Liverpool's distinctive skyline.

Since the charity was founded in 1824, RNLI volunteer crews in the North West have launched 16,004 times, saving 4,316 lives, while its lifeguards – who joined the service in 2001 – have responded to 9,762 incidents, saving 40 lives.

In Merseyside alone, RNLI crews have launched 4,312 times and saved 1,743 lives. At Lancashire’s four stations there have been 8,345 launches and 1,889 lives saved, while Cumbria lifeboats have launched 3,117 times and saved 684 lives.

In total across the UK and Ireland, 146,452 lives have been saved by the RNLI – an average of two lives saved every day for 200 years.

RNLI Chief Executive, Mark Dowie, said: "It has been an honour and a privilege to be at the helm of the RNLI for the past five years, and to see the charity reach its bicentenary. For a charity to have survived 200 years based on the time and commitment of volunteers, and the sheer generosity of the public donating to fund it, is truly remarkable. It is through the courage and dedication of its incredible people that the RNLI has survived the tests of time, including tragic losses, funding challenges, two World Wars and, more recently, a global pandemic."

Founded in a London tavern on March 4 1824 following an appeal from Sir William Hillary, who lived on the Isle of Man and witnessed many shipwrecks, the RNLI has seen monumental changes over the years, from early oar-powered vessels to today's high-power, custom-built lifeboats. Once equipped with rudimentary cork lifejackets, volunteers now wear a full protective kit

Today, the RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations around the UK and Ireland, including four on the River Thames, and has seasonal lifeguards on over 240 beaches. The RNLI’s only lifeguarded beach that is patrolled year-round is Crosby.

A Service of Thanksgiving to mark 200 years of the RNLI will take place at Westminster Abbey today at 11.30am. At the same time, the flotilla will set off into River Mersey, where people on the opposite banks of Liverpool will be able to see the passing lifeboats.

Jo Partner, RNLI head of region in Wales, the West and the Isle of Man said: "I am thrilled we’re able to make the bicentenary of the RNLI in such a unique way here in the North West. The flotilla really will be quite a spectacle and will serve as a reminder not only of the courage and commitment of all those who have been part of the RNLI family for over the past two centuries, but also those who have given so generously to keeping our service afloat.

"Today we celebrate a world-class lifesaving service and I’m immensely grateful to all those involved with the charity – our volunteers, supporters and staff. We hope this impressive flotilla will inspire future generations of lifesavers and supporters who will take the RNLI into its next century and beyond."

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2024-03-04 04:30:00Z
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'Last chance saloon': UK finance minister expected to pledge pre-election tax cuts - CNBC

British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said earlier this month the U.K. would not enter a recession this year.

Hannah Mckay | Reuters

LONDON — Economists expect U.K. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt to use a small fiscal windfall to deliver a modest package of tax cuts at his Spring Budget on Wednesday.

Heading into what will likely be the Conservative government's last fiscal event before the country's upcoming General Election, Hunt is under pressure to offer a sweetener to voters as his party trails the main opposition Labour Party by more than 20 points across all national polls.

But he must also navigate the constraints of fragile public finances and a stagnant economy that recently entered a modest technical recession.

On the upside, inflation has fallen faster than anticipated and market expectations for interest rates are well below where they were going into Hunt's Autumn Statement in November.

The Treasury pre-announced plans over the weekend to deliver up to £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) worth of benefits by boosting public sector productivity, including releasing police time for more frontline work.

The Independent Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that returning to levels of pre-pandemic productivity could save the Treasury up to £20 billion per year.

Hunt will also announce £360 million in funding to boost research and development (R&D) and manufacturing projects across the life sciences, automotive and aerospace sectors, the Treasury said Monday.

However, the big questions over tax cuts remain heading into Wednesday's statement.

Increased fiscal headroom

"On balance, we think Chancellor Hunt's fiscal headroom will have likely increased – but only marginally, and nowhere close to what he had in the Autumn Statement (owing largely to the fall in expected debt costs)," Deutsche Bank Senior Economist Sanjay Raja said in a research note Thursday.

The German lender estimates that the government's fiscal headroom will have grown from around £13 billion to around £18.5 billion, and that tax cuts are "very likely" the first port of call. Raja suggested the finance minister will err on the side of caution in loosening fiscal policy, favoring supply side support over boosting demand.

"Supply side measures are more likely in our view, particularly with the Bank of England more amenable to loosening monetary policy," Raja said.

"Therefore, tax cuts to national insurance contributions (NICs) and changes to child benefits are more likely to come in the Spring Budget (in contrast to earlier expectations of income tax cuts)."

A substantial cut to National Insurance was the highlight of Hunt's Autumn Statement, though economists were quick to point out that its benefit to payers would be more than erased by the effect of existing freezes on personal income tax thresholds — known as the "fiscal drag."

The U.K. National Insurance is a tax on workers' income and employers' profits to pay for state social security benefits, including the state pension.

Raja also suggested an extension of the government's existing freeze on fuel duty remains a possibility, and that some spending cuts will likely be used to partially offset a loosening of fiscal policy.

In total, Deutsche Bank expects Hunt to deliver net loosening of £15 billion over the coming fiscal year, dropping to around £12.5 billion in the medium-term.

"The outlook for the public finances remains precarious. Slight changes to the macroeconomic outlook could result in big shifts to the public finances. The Chancellor continues to walk a fine line between managing his fiscal rules now and rising austerity later," Raja said.

"To be sure, big questions on the public finances remain – including whether spending cuts, or limited rises in some areas, remain realistic to tackle the rising strain in public services, and the Government's own ambitions around net-zero, defence, and overseas development spending."

BNP Paribas economists expect a more modest package of tax cuts worth around £10 billion across the 2024/25 fiscal year, and projected that the government will start the year with a fiscal windfall of around £11 billion.

The French bank agreed that the reductions will be aimed at stimulating labor supply, with "little impact on inflation and thus the Bank of England."

"Our base case is that the government will spend GBP10bn of the near-term fiscal windfall and use the additional medium-term fiscal space to cut personal taxes," economists Matthew Swannell and Dani Stoilova said in a research note entitled "last-chance saloon."

They also expect the Treasury to postpone the March 2024 rise in fuel duty for another 12 months, at a cost of £3.7 billion a year, and to introduce a permanent 1 pence reduction in the basic rate of income tax at a cost of between £6 billion and £7.35 billion per year.

"The overall effect of this policy package would be to leave medium-term fiscal headroom roughly back where it started at GBP12.7bn," they added.

"With the Conservative party trailing in the opinion polls and the Budget possibly the last opportunity to loosen fiscal policy before a general election, we expect Chancellor Hunt to once again, at least, spend any additional fiscal space available to him."

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Sarah Everard: BBC documentary recalls police learning killer was Met officer - BBC

By Andre Rhoden-Paul

BBC News

The detective who led the Sarah Everard murder inquiry has told the BBC about the moment she found out killer Wayne Couzens was a police officer.

Ms Everard, 33, was abducted, raped and murdered by serving Metropolitan Police officer Couzens as she walked home in London in 2021.

It is the first time Katherine Goodwin has spoken on camera about the case.

"I can just remember the shock of having to... say to [my boss], 'You're not going to believe this'."

Det Ch Insp Goodwin made the comments in new BBC documentary Sarah Everard: The Search For Justice, which will air on Tuesday, days after the third anniversary of Ms Everard's death.

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The detective recounted how officers had traced a name linked to a car seen in CCTV footage. The footage showed a man standing with Ms Everard next to a vehicle where she had been walking.

A researcher on the phone revealed Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

"And then the same questions went through her head as went through my head: 'Are you sure?'."

Former Met detective Nick Harvey was on his way to question Couzens at his house when he discovered the suspect was an officer.

'It just went silent'

He said: "The gravity of the whole situation then became incredibly clear. You know, the moment I told the team, it just went silent."

Knocking on Couzens' front door and showing his warrant card, Mr Harvey said the killer "just went grey".

"Just... all the colour just ran out of his face," he said.

The murder of Ms Everard, a marketing assistant abducted by Couzens as she walked home in south London on 3 March 2021, put a spotlight on violence against women and girls.

Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life term in prison and will never be released.

Last week, an inquiry chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini said Couzens should never have been given his job as a police officer and chances to stop the sexual predator were repeatedly ignored and missed.

Lady Elish said "without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight."

Viewers in the UK can watch Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice on BBC One, 21:00GMT, Tuesday 5 March, and on iPlayer here after broadcast.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk