Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, said that he did not have “preconceived opinion” about which conditions would be affected
RACHEL ADAMS FOR THE TIMES
Millions of people on disability benefits face “the biggest welfare reforms in a generation” under which those with depression and anxiety could lose cash payments.
Sickness benefit payments should cease for “many, many people” with the conditions, ministers will argue, instead proposing “meaningful support” such as talking therapies and social care packages.
Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, said the welfare system should not be paying people to deal with the ordinary difficulties of life. He is preparing to publish plans that would overhaul benefits paid to millions of people and are likely to stop regular payments for a variety of mental health problems and other conditions.
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A diplomatic row has erupted between the UK government and Ireland after Rishi Sunak’s administration warned any bid by the Republic to return asylum seekers to Britain would be rejected.
Mr Sunak on Saturday said that claims the Rwanda plan is responsible for an influx of migrants into Ireland show its deterrent effect is working.
Irish premier Simon Harris hit back on Sunday, saying Ireland would not “provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges” and asking his justice minister to bring forward emergency legislation to allow asylum seekers to be sent back to the UK.
A government source has now said any attempts to return the asylum seekers to Britain would amount to a grave double standard given that the UK is not allowed to send migrants who cross the English Channel back to France.
“We won’t accept any asylum returns from the European Union via Ireland until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France,” the source said. “We are fully focused on operationalising our Rwanda scheme and will continue working with the French to stop the boats from crossing the Channel.”
Irish premier Simon Harris says Ireland won’t ‘provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges’ (Brian Lawless/PA)
The taoiseach said earlier this week that Mr Sunak’s plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda has caused an uptick in the number of asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic.
In response, a spokesperson for Mr Harris said the Irish PM asked his justice minister, Helen McEntee, “to bring proposals to cabinet next week to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”.
Ms McEntee said she would be meeting with British home secretary James Cleverly on Monday to raise these issues.
The Conservatives’ plan to send asylum seekers to the east African nation received a fresh boost on Thursday after the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act was signed into law, which ensures the practice of sending migrants to Rwanda is legally sound.
Mr Sunak later claimed the first flights to Rwanda would take off within 10 to 12 weeks, more than two years after the bill was originally proposed by former prime minister Boris Johnson in April 2022.
Deputy Irish premier Micheal Martin subsequently claimed there had been an influx of asylum seekers crossing into Ireland across the land border with Northern Ireland because people were “fearful” of being deported to Rwanda.
He said asylum seekers were seeking “to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda”.
A Downing Street spokesperson disputed these claims, saying it was “too early to jump to specific conclusions about the act”, referring to the Safety of Rwanda Act.
But Mr Sunak later claimed the alleged influx of migrants into Ireland was evidence that the Rwanda plan was working as a deterrent to migrants.
“What it shows, I think, is that the deterrent is already having an impact because people are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
“If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay, they’re much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
"OMG." That's what one SNP politician said to me when they realised First Minister Humza Yousaf had binned a planned public event on Friday morning, fuelling the guessing game about whether or not he'll quit.
In fact, when he popped up in his home city of Dundee in the "busy politician" outfit of hard hat and high-vis vest, he said he wouldn't quit - while also seeming to admit, rather astonishingly, that he had made a horlicks of his breakup with coalition partners the Greens.
"I've heard they're upset, I've heard their anger," he said. "And I can honestly say that was not the intention."
His old SNP leadership rival, Ash Regan, member of Alex Salmond's Alba Party, is likely to hold the casting vote when MSPs decide his future. It's not impossible that she backs him - for a political price. Yousaf might keep his job if he gets her vote, but a deal with Alba might mean he loses control of certain policies.
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There are no guarantees - and the chances of him being able to get the Greens back on side seem, right now, slim to none.
"It's hard to see him making it to next Thursday," one SNP insider said. "And if he did, it would all fall apart in a few weeks when on every vote, he is stuck between paying a high price to the Greens or selling his soul to Alex Salmond."
A second man has died after taking an "unusually strong batch" of heroin in North Devon, police have said.
The first man died as a result of taking the Class A drug on Friday and a second man, who had been admitted to hospital earlier, died on Saturday night.
Devon and Cornwall Police said his death is believed to be as a result of taking the same batch, which is thought to be a "form of heroin combined with another substance" which causes "more serious effects" than regular supplies.
A total of 10 people, including the man who died, have been treated in hospital. Two are still being treated.
Two men and two women arrested on suspicion of being involved in the supply of a controlled substance have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
What was "locally thought to be an unusual batch of heroin" circulating in Westward Ho!, Bideford and Barnstaple became known to officers and partner agencies at 5pm on Friday, police said.
A major incident was declared, before being stood down on Saturday morning.
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"We believe the substance found on Friday has been contained," said Detective Superintendent Ben Davies.
He added: "While we believe there is no threat to the wider community, we continue to investigate the circumstances of the now two deaths as a result of taking this substance.
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"We are continuing to carry out tests in order to ascertain what the substance is, but suspect it is a form of heroin combined with another substance which users will find causes more serious effects than heroin which they might usually use."
Health workers are working with local drug users to "safeguard them as much as possible", he said.
Users are urged to "exercise extreme caution", he added.
"Advice remains that if you feel you are suffering an adverse reaction or are in the company of someone in need of urgent medical attention, call 999 for appropriate care and help."
Humza Yousaf, and his SNP-led Scottish government, face no confidence votes
Scotland's first minister is ruling out an electoral pact with Alex Salmond's Alba party, BBC News has been told.
Mr Salmond suggested Alba could support Humza Yousaf in a confidence vote if the SNP co-operated to maximise the number of pro-independence parliamentarians.
A source close to Mr Yousaf said the SNP leader would not agree to such a deal at Westminster or Holyrood.
"An electoral pact with Alba is a fantasy," said the source.
"We're not particularly bothered by that," Mr Salmond told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Instead, he urged the first minister to consider other proposals by Alba, such as refocusing on independence, and on issues such as education, health, housing and the economy and to "move away from the culture wars."
But the SNP MP for Glasgow South, Stewart McDonald, said a deal with Mr Salmond "would go down like a bucket of cold sick with voters and be met with horror in European capitals" because the former first minister used to host a show on a TV channel funded by Vladimir Putin's Russia.
The current first minister is fighting for his political future after ejecting the Scottish Greens from his government.
He faces confidence votes in his government and his leadership, which could come as soon as Wednesday.
The SNP has 63 seats in the Scottish Parliament while the opposition parties have 65, meaning Mr Yousaf would be defeated if the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, and the sole Alba MSP, Ash Regan, all voted against him.
There is no constitutional requirement for Mr Yousaf to resign if he loses a personal confidence vote but the political pressure to do so would almost certainly be irresistible.
Alex Salmond would like an electoral pact that would see a single pro-independence candidate stand for election
If the government loses, MSPs would have 28 days to agree by majority on a new first minister, or automatically trigger a Scottish parliamentary election.
At present, the next Holyrood election is due in 2026 while a Westminster general election is expected this year.
The Scottish Green Party continue to insist that they "have no confidence in Mr Yousaf," and will vote against him after co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie were dismissed as ministers in the SNP-led government.
On Friday, at a hastily-arranged event in Dundee to announce extra funding for affordable housing, the first minister told me he understood why the Greens were so angry but insisted he had not "meant to upset them."
The event was supposed to be the first in a series of policy announcements designed to reset Mr Yousaf's administration in an attempt to stay in office.
A second policy announcement was expected on Sunday but BBC News has been told that this will not now happen, an indication that his survival strategy is already in danger of being blown off course.
Ash Regan was a candidate in the SNP leadership election and later defected to Alex Salmond's Alba party
An alternative approach for Mr Yousaf than reaching out to the Greens would be to secure the vote of Ms Regan, who defected to Alba last year, seven months after being defeated in the SNP leadership contest.
Her support would be enough for him to carry on thanks to the casting vote of the presiding officer which, by convention, would be for the status quo.
Ms Regan has set out a series of demands in return for her support including changes to gender policy, a sharper focus on Scottish independence and government intervention to preserve the future of the Grangemouth refinery on the Firth of Forth.
Earlier, the Sunday Times reported that Mr Salmond, who led the SNP government in Edinburgh from 2007 to 2014, favoured reviving a proposed Alba strategy which would see a single pro-independence candidate stand in each Scottish constituency.
The former first minister had told the newspaper that the idea "could be revived in part," for the general election "or there could be an understanding for the Scottish elections in two years' time."
On social media the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, Pete Wishart, was scornful, writing: "There is simply no way the SNP could ever give any concession to the unelectable Alba Party.
"For good reason they have never won an election to anything and if we were to even think of entertaining them they would quickly bring us down to their level."
'Humiliating and embarrassing'
The source close to Mr Yousaf agreed, saying of the idea: "Don't be ridiculous. I mean what are we supposed to do, stand down our sitting MPs?"
An Alba Party source has since told BBC News that Mr Salmond's point about the proposed pact was that there was "a menu of independence options" which might be acceptable to Ms Regan.
The source said other options included taking forward an Alba proposal to try to force a second referendum or holding "an independence convention" in the summer.
The first minister has written to the other Holyrood party leaders to seek "common ground".
He hopes to hold separate meetings at his official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, to discuss how they can "contribute constructively."
The Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who lodged the motion of no confidence in Mr Yousaf, said: "This is a humiliating and embarrassing letter, in which Humza Yousaf is begging to be allowed to keep his job."
Speaking on Friday, the leader of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar, said he was more than happy to engage with other parties, although he added "it is clear that Humza Yousaf is out of time".
The Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told Laura Kuenssberg the SNP had "failed Scotland" and his party's Holyrood leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, was rejecting Mr Yousaf's offer of a meeting.
"We're not going to go into those talks. We want a Scottish parliamentary election," said Sir Ed.
A little bit earlier we heard from former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who quit in December last year over the government's Rwanda bill. He said at the time he didn't believe it was strong enough.
Now, his focus is on legal immigration.
He says the numbers of people coming to the country are "so great" that they are putting "immense pressure" on houses, services and community cohesion, and immigration isn't making the country any richer.
"The only way to end this is to set a cap," he says but doesn't give a number.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he says migration should be capped at the "tens of thousands" to restore trust.
Home Office minister Chris Philp was also asked about the government's plans for migration earlier in the programme.
Philp has said the government are "taking measures" to "reduce legal migration by about 300,000 a year".
This is the moment that Patrick Harvie sealed his party’s fate and set in motion a chain of events that would see the Greens kicked out of government and Humza Yousaf fighting for his job.
The Sunday Mail can reveal that just hours after the car crash BBC interview where he trashed Dr Hilary Cass’ report into gender identity services, Alba MSP Ash Regan’s vote of no confidence in Harvie was destabilising the First Minister’s position.
Humza Yousaf discovered she had backing from a number of SNP backbenchers and with Westminster leader Stephen Flynn heading to Edinburgh for urgent talks, he was forced to act to save his political life.
A senior SNP source said: “Harvie is clearly raging at what he believes has been a betrayal of his party by Yousaf but the truth is that he did this to himself with his completely unacceptable comments on the Cass report.
“Ash Regan’s motion of no confidence was going to get significant support including from a sizable rebellion of SNP MSPs, it was going to lead to a vote in parliament and Humza’s position if he continued to support Harvie and the Greens deal would have become untenable.
“The FM had absolutely no choice but to take steps to end the Bute House agreement, it was just a matter of how he did it.
“By sacking the Greens in the most humiliating manner possible he has clearly enraged Harvie so much that he now wants to destroy the First Minister at all costs.
“A smarter strategy could have been to put the Bute House Agreement to an SNP vote in the same way that the Greens were preparing to vote on it, but one way or another it was dead in the water.”
Humza Yousaf confirmed he had terminated the Bute House Agreement.
Yousaf was relaxing with his family last Sunday having faced one of the most difficult weeks since becoming Scotland’s First Minister.
The former chief executive of his party, Peter Murrell, had been arrested and charged with embezzling party funds; he was forced to admit his government had hugely over-promised on climate targets; and his junior government partners were planning a vote on the future of their landmark powersharing agreement.
At a meeting of the SNP’s ruling body on the Saturday he told senior figures he wanted to keep the Bute House Agreement and did not want to give SNP members a vote on the deal.
A source at that meeting said: “A number of us wanted to put it to a vote of our own membership. Humza said ‘No, I’m not considering that, I’m fully committed to the Greens and asking the question would open us up to criticism and make it a story.’
“He was really in support of the cooperation agreement which is why this was all the more baffling for everyone.”
MSP Ash Regan could hold a vote crucial to Mr Yousaf’s future (Image: PA)
But less than 24 hours after Yousaf’s assurances to colleagues, Harvie refused to back world leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass’s report where she found there was remarkably weak evidence to support puberty treatment for children. He told the Sunday Show, the report had “clearly been politicised” and suggested that there was “far too many criticisms of the report to be able to say” that he agreed with its findings.
Women’s rights campaigner Regan, the sole MSP in the Alex Salmond’s Alba party, had resigned from SNP frontbench last year over the Gender Recognition Reform bill and Self ID. She accused Harvie of “siding with ideology over evidence” by refusing to accept the report’s recommendations which urged extreme caution over puberty blocking drugs for gender questioning children.
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The MSP tabled a motion of no confidence in Harvie the following day. On Tuesday Yousaf was praising the Green agreement as “worth its weight in gold” but by Wednesday it became clear that SNP rebels were lining up to back their former colleague.
While Harvie and his Green colleagues were joking around in the Holyrood canteen, Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, was on his way to Edinburgh for crunch talks.
Stephen Flynn, SNP Westminster leader.
Flynn’s intervention, along with input from Yousaf’s chief special advisor Colin McAllister, was instrumental in convincing the FM to tear up the Bute House Agreement and take ruthless measures against Harvie and co-leader Lorna Slater.
Another SNP source said: “Flynn came into Holyrood for a coffee on Wednesday afternoon, which is what played a big part in the way Humza handled the Greens by marching them in to Bute House on Thursday morning.
“Flynn was no fan of the agreement and he made that very clear. He wanted shot of it because he thought it was seriously harming the SNP’s election chances at Westminster.
“He wants more investment in oil and gas and also wants action on the A96 - both of which the Greens are against.”
Yet Flynn’s intervention has sparked another rift in the party.
One SNP MSP said “Stephen Flynn’s involvement has also left quite a few of us with little time for the Westminster group.
“Look at it this way, Humza attacks Labour for taking orders from Westminster when he’s just done the exact same thing. It’s hypocritical and weak.”
A group meeting on Thursday night of SNP MSPs was described by one attendee as “not in the top 10 worst meetings we’ve had”.
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While not all 63 MSPs turned up, those that did are in shock or concerned about Yousaf’s decisions.
Nicola Sturgeon’s ex sidekick and senior Nationalist John Swinney was trying to bring people together while Yousaf tried to convince his party the change in direction was a positive one.
While the First Minister might just survive this week’s vote of no confidence it now looks as though divisions in the party are running deep, many believe his days in Bute House are now numbered.
