Front pages here.
Immigration
Express
The Prime Minister has used his G7 trip to Japan to weasel out of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto commitment to reduce net immigration from that year’s figure.
In 2019, net immigration stood at 226,000. Boris Johnson’s Conservative manifesto pledged: “Overall numbers will come down”.
Now Rishi Sunak has pledged to reduce net migration coming into Britain, but only from the level he inherited when becoming Prime Minister last year.
Rishi Sunak inherited net migration of 504,000, meaning by his own goals, net immigration could be twice that going into the next election than the last.
Next week the Home Office is expected to publish the figures for 2022, and experts have predicted they will show another leap in the numbers coming into the country.
Lord Frost has criticised Labour’s newest plan to relax trade barriers with the EU within 18 months of becoming Prime Minister, as part of the Labour leader’s plan to “recalibrate” post-Brexit relations.
Reports suggest next week’s figures will show the net influx into Britain standing between 700,000 and one million – the highest ever on record.
Mr Sunak refused to get drawn on speculation of what next week’s numbers will show, though defended last year’s record high by pointing out it included large numbers of Ukrainian refugees.
New visa schemes for people coming from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine made up just 138,000 of last year’s 504,000 figure, however.
The Prime Minister said he is “crystal clear” about wanting net migration to come down, admitting it is “too high”.
Sun
MOST foreign students will be banned from bringing family over to Britain in an immigration crackdown being announced this week.
But No10 has rejected calls by the Home Office to lift the salary threshold for foreign workers from £26,000 to £33,000 to bring down numbers.
It comes as official figures out this Thursday are expected to show that net migration has rocketed to 1 million.
A string of alarmed Tory MPs have broken cover to call for Rishi Sunak to get a grip on the rocketing numbers.
Scrambling to get ahead of the bad news, ministers are expected to announce the immigration clampdown on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The crackdown will see all masters students and many other post grads banned from bringing family over.
The ban will not apply to PHD students, whose courses usually last between 3 and 5 years and are very highly skilled.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her deputy Robert Jenrick also wanted to lift the salary threshold, but were overruled after kick back from the Treasury.
Currently, foreign workers have to meet a £26,000 salary threshold to move to Britain.
But the Home Office wanted to raise this to £33,000 – which is the average wage of a worker in Britain.
Express
The Prime Minister has been told to “get a grip on immigration” – which is seen as the “biggest single issue” facing the UK – by members of his own party.
The PM should stop Cabinet in-fighting over the issue devise a clear plan to control the numbers entering the UK, say Conservatives who are concerned that the next official figures to be published will show the net influx of people rise to between 700,000 and a million.
MPs fear failure to bring immigration figures down will be punished at the ballot box. And Even Tory moderates are calling for action to prevent young people on student visits bringing in family members, changes to the salary cap and a limit on the number of annual visas awarded.
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said the UK was “addicted to cheap labour” and needed to invest in technology to perform low-paid tasks such as picking and cleaning fruit. He said high net migration figures were contributing to the country’s housing crisis and the number must be brought down.
Independent
Conservative MPs have urged Rishi Sunak to “get a grip” of immigration by ending cabinet rows and coming up with a clear plan to control the overall number of people coming into the UK.
The calls come ahead of this week’s official figures which are expected to show net migration rising to between 700,000 and 1 million.
Right-wing MPs are warning the PM of the “unbearable strain” of record numbers – arguing the party will be punished at the ballot box next year if it fails to tackle the “biggest single issue” facing the nation.
Even Tory moderates told The Independent they would welcome a crackdown on some students bringing family members, changes to salary requirements and an overall annual cap on visa numbers.
Inflation
Mail
Inflation is set to fall below double digits for the first time since August last year – but rising food prices will continue to squeeze household budgets, experts warn.
Figures on Wednesday are expected to show the consumer price index rose by 8.3 per cent in the year to April.
This is down from 10.1 per cent in March.
It means prices are continuing to rise across the board, only more slowly.
It is good news for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has vowed to halve inflation by the end of the year as energy bills drop.
But economists are concerned that families will find it increasingly hard to pay for the supermarket shop.
The cost of groceries has risen significantly, hitting 19.1 per cent in March – a 45-year high.
Supermarket bosses have been accused of ‘greedflation’.
And research from the Institute of Grocery Distribution trade group suggests food inflation will stay ‘sticky’ above ten per cent for the rest of the year.
WFH
Sun
A MAJOR government department is spending £200,000 on desks and chairs so a new generation of civil servants can work from home.
The move involves the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Community, headed by Michael Gove.
It has said it wants to provide at least 32 workers a month with a desk and chair to work at home — for up to four years.
It said the pricey furniture “will predominately be used by new starters”.
Contract details just published show the department signed a deal in the spring to buy hundreds of 1m-long desks and ergonomic work chairs.
Workers will not even have to put up the table and chairs themselves as the contract will provide for full installation.
Government paperwork said: “We expect on average 32 deliveries a month. Depending on recruitment, this could be more.”
Labour Party
Guardian
Keir Starmer is being urged by shadow cabinet figures to replace tuition fees in England with a graduate tax, amid growing concern that the finances of universities are becoming unsustainable under the current system.
An injection of cash in the form of maintenance grants to the poorest students is also backed by some of the Labour leader’s top team as a way of ensuring students are not put off by the increasing living costs of attending university.
Starmer has been criticised by the left of the party after conceding that he would not meet the pledge, made during his leadership election victory in 2020, to abolish tuition fees.
He said that the country now finds itself in a “different financial situation”. However, the party is examining alternatives.
Some of his shadow cabinet team favour a graduate tax as a way of creating a fairer system that also raises enough money for the sector, which is becoming increasingly reliant on uncapped fees placed on overseas students.
“A graduate tax is what we should do,” said one shadow cabinet figure. “The problem at the moment is that students see it as debt. We’ve got to get rid of the idea that debt is hanging over them. But fees can’t be abolished – it’s a big chunk of money that we are going to need.”
The restoration of some form of maintenance grant would help ease the costs of attending university for poorer students, but Labour is waiting until closer to the general election before allocating funds to election pledges.
Telegraph
Labour would support the rollout of clean air zones akin to London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) if it is elected next year, new plans being considered by the party have shown.
An internal Labour document revealed that one of the key transport policies being looked at that could be part of next year’s manifesto was to support the principle of clean air zones in cities.
The plan stated that these would be supported only “if they were phased in carefully” and there was a “just transition” plan to accompany it.
The details were revealed in an 86-page draft policy handbook that was leaked to the Labour List last week and reveals a number of transport policies being considered by the party.
Clean air zones have sprung up in a number of Labour-led councils across the country, including Birmingham, Bristol and Bradford, with vehicles which do not meet emissions standards being charged to drive in certain zones.
ITV News
Sir Keir Starmer is to warn that the NHS is “not sustainable” unless there are health reforms that “fix the fundamentals” and go beyond extra investment. The Labour leader is due to give a speech in the east of England on Monday in which he will outline his vision for modernising the NHS and announce health-related performance targets if his party forms the next Downing Street administration. He is also set to detail new policies that he believes will help deliver on Labour’s commitment to “build an NHS fit for the future”, one of his so-called five missions for government. In his speech, the opposition leader is set to tell the public that it is “not serious” to suggest that the NHS’s current issues can be fixed solely with more money.
His shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has previously warned that the NHS must “reform or die” after setting out plans to use private sector capacity as a short-term fix. Sir Keir is expected to say: “The NHS is not sustainable unless we make serious, deep, long-term changes. “Some people will tell you this is purely a question of money – and money is part of it – but you can’t look at the problems now and tell me it’s just about money. That’s not serious.”
Independent
Sir Keir Starmer is set to warn that the NHS is unsustainable without deep and serious reforms that require more than just money.
The Labour leader is due to give a speech in the east of England on Monday in which he will outline his vision for modernising the NHS and announce health-related performance targets if his party wins the next election.
In the speech, Sir Keir will say he owes the NHS “everything” and that health service is “on the line” at the next general election.
He will insist the NHS’s problems are not just about cash as he says his party will have to “make it fit for the future”. Sir Keir will also warn that this winter’s ambulance crisis has created a “cruel lottery” in who lives and dies – something the NHS was created to prevent.
His shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has previously warned that the NHS must “reform or die” after setting out plans to use private sector capacity as a short-term fix.
NI elections
Mail
Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill has hailed a ‘momentous’ election result with the party set to become the largest in councils in Northern Ireland.
As the Northern Ireland local government elections count neared its conclusion on Saturday evening, the republican party had 138 elected councillors by 7pm, with gains achieved across the region.
It means Sinn Fein will have replicated its result from last year’s Northern Ireland Assembly election when it became the biggest party at Stormont.
Ms O’Neill used the latest election victory to repeat her call for the DUP to return to the powersharing institutions at Stormont.
The DUP currently has 117 council seats, the Alliance Party 63, the Ulster Unionists 52 and the SDLP 37, with 32 others.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted that his party had polled strongly but said unionism needed to learn lessons from the election.
Sinn Fein secured 30.9% of first preference votes, ahead of the DUP on 23.3%, 13.3% for Alliance, 10.9% for the Ulster Unionists and 8.7% for the SDLP.
The turnout for the election was 54%.
Express
Sinn Fein has emerged as the largest party in local government in Northern Ireland for the first time after making large gains in the council elections.
Vice president Michelle O’Neill described her party’s victory as “momentous” and said the result sent a message that Stormont should return. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson conceded unionism needed to learn lessons from the election but added that his party had polled strongly.
The election count crept into a third day with the last of 462 seats to be filled across 11 councils going to People Before Profit shortly after midnight on Sunday at Belfast City Hall. At the end of the count Sinn Fein emerged with 144 seats, an increase of 39 from the last council election in 2019.
ITV News
Sinn Féin is the largest party at council level in Northern Ireland.
It is the first time a nationalist party has come out as the largest in Northern Ireland at council level.
It follows last year’s Assembly election which also saw the party come out on top.
Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill hailed a “momentous” result.
As the count stretched into Saturday evening, the republican party had 137 elected councillors by 6.45pm, with gains achieved across the region.
The DUP has 117 council seats, the Alliance Party 62, the Ulster Unionists 52 and the SDLP 37, with 32 others.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted that his party had polled strongly.
BBC News
Sinn Féin is now the largest party in both local government and Stormont for the first time after making huge gains in council elections.
With all seats counted, the party has won 144, up from the 105 councillors returned in 2019.
Its vice-president Michelle O’Neill called for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of power sharing at Stormont.
The DUP has 122 seats, with the centre-ground Alliance Party in third place.
Stormont’s assembly and governing executive is not functioning because of the DUP’s protest against post-Brexit trading rules.
In last year’s assembly election, Sinn Féin became the largest party at Stormont.
Ms O’Neill described the council election result as “historic”.
She said Sinn Féin’s campaign, which has seen it make breakthroughs in areas such as Coleraine, Ballymena and Lisburn, was about “positive leadership, it was about a restoration of the executive, it was about making politics work”.
Eco-demonstration
Sun
ECO zealots are plotting to wreck the Derby and to bring “hell on earth”.
They want revenge for what they claim was heavy-handed policing before the Coronation.
We infiltrated a Zoom call last week in which 300 people from radical groups swapped plans.
Sources say Animal Rising plans to storm the Epsom Derby on June 3.
One protester said: “This call is about getting people angry and further engaged. But the proper aim is to cause chaos. It’s the biggest event in the racing calender after the Grand National.”
Police arrested 118 Animal Rising activists at April’s National.
Last year’s Derby Day was targeted by protesters.
English
Telegraph
Brussels is to force European Union train drivers to speak English under rules designed to foster closer ties between member states.
Rules to be announced this autumn under the EU’s “Train Drivers’ Directive” will mandate that a single common language is enforced.
Sources say that English is set to be selected, despite misgivings among some EU member states following Brexit.
The EU has been pushing for “a single European railway area” for a number of years to facilitate easier movement on the railways across the bloc.
But rules stipulate that train drivers must possess a minimum language proficiency in every country they operate.
Officials have instead sought to standardise the language used by train drivers across all member states.
AI
Mail
By 2030, Artificial Intelligence could be looking after our elderly, making films and teaching lessons — or it could have wiped out the human race.
These are the wildly different predictions from eight AI experts from the US and UK, who predict how the technology may change our lives within the next decade.
It comes amid growing calls for regulators to put the lid on the development of AI, amid fears that it could lead to waves of job losses and render us obsolete.
AI technology could become so good that it will start to generate entire films within a day, predicts New York-based writer of Apple TV Sci-fi series Silo Mr Howey.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, he said it was only a matter of time before AI tools were capable of making films.
‘Stop Brexit man’
Mail
A notorious activist whose noisy protests disrupt Westminster every week may finally be silenced.
The Home Office and Met Police are understood to be considering a range of approaches to stop Steve Bray, known as ‘Stop Brexit Man’, from using a sound system to blast music outside the Houses of Parliament and major Whitehall departments – for eight hours at a time.
Mr Bray torments MPs and civil servants with pop songs played at 90 decibels, which also often break into TV broadcasts.
One possible tactic to stop Mr Bray is a Community Protection Notice – a written warning followed by a £100 on-the-spot fine or prosecution if it is breached.
For this, Labour-run Westminster Council would have to work with authorities – and be persuaded Mr Bray’s activities are not a genuine political protest. His actions have so far been deemed by council staff to be protected by human rights law.
Express
The Home Office is reportedly looking at changing the law to silence the activist known as ‘Stop Brexit Man’ once and for all.
The infamously noisy protester blasts out loud music outside the Houses of Parliament for up to eight hours at a time. The activist – real name Steve Bray – has been using a sound system to torment MPs and civil servants with pop songs played at 90 decibels.
These often break into TV broadcasts, and have so infuriated politicians that Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson has called on Westminster Council to act.
Debbie……..by the way, personally I much prefer the News Review format on Independence Daily produced here, over and above what has been produced of late. I don’t read mainstream newspapers any longer and have not done so for about 5 years, and this format is more likely to generate comments from readers. I hope there will be more News Reviews looking to the future.
WFH should be changed to WTF. Absolutely no need for it ever again. A skivers charter. Why are we even creating a Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Community? Another quango to add the hundreds that have not been sent to the bonfire. So the terrorists have finally taken over in Ireland. Did they use the same voting machines as the US?
No Lisa. Just Catholic babies. Same as Islam. Nothing clever there.
Lisa………because it gives utter twerps like Michael Gove something to do. That is the only reason I can think of. Terms like ‘Levelling Up’ and ‘Build Back Better’ were dreamt up by another twerp namely Boris Johnson who thought these meaningless terms would be swallowed by the gullible out there who would vote vote for a turd if it had a blue rosette attached to it. Johnson will lose his seat at the next general election and Gove will have to be satisfied with sitting on the back benches for the rest of his political career, that is if his seat isn’t taken by the Liberal Democrats.
That utter idiot who used to wear a mid blue top hat and a blue cloak holding an EU flag who walked up and down Abingdon Street directly outside the House of Parliament shouting ‘Stop Brexit’ should have been dealt with years ago. He was a blasted nuisance to the protestors from the Leave side, but we knew he was protected by various members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and was able to park his car in an area where nobody else was permitted to park, and somehow was able to get away with blue murder. He cannot be dealt with under Breach of the Peace as that part of common law is intended to prevent an immediate use of violence, and he certainly was not violent. However he could have been arrested for Section 5 Public Order Act 1986 (Disorderly Conduct in a Public Place) and under certain parts of Noise Pollution legislation. He apparently lives in Wales somewhere, and at least during the anti Brexit protests during Teresa May’s time as prime minister, he was of working age and yet was outside Parliament doing his thing on a daily basis, which he still does by all accounts. He must done all this whilst drawing benefits, as there is no other explanation for it.
The results of the Northern Ireland council elections make me wonder what sort of moron votes for murdering terrorist, other than other terrorists
“Brexit Man” Surely he could be arrested for “Breach of the Peace” or similar but I expect too many in the HoC and HoL support him. Time for a truly patriotic British government.
English is already the international language of pilots and air traffic controllers. For trains that cross borders it would be consistent to mandate English as well. Picking one of the EU languages would be politically too hot. German? Turning the EU into greater Germany would not be popular. Italian? Requires a lot of hand gestures which are not practical when driving a train. Bulgarian? Looks like Russian, a no no these days, and diabolical to learn. French would be a good choice. Easy to learn at train driver level and already an official language of Interpol, NATO, UN etc, except it would put German noses (and a few others) out of joint. The choice to avoid English is obvious: Arabic! The EU is being overrun by Arab speakers from North Africa and the Middle East and so it is the obvious language of the future and avoids rewarding Brexit Britain or privileging one of the EU countries. It would unite countries from Greece to Sweden, Arabic already the fastest growing language in all of them. I’m surprised the EU has not thought of this.
The EU remains our enemy.
Jack Thomas…..agreed. As does this terrible excuse of a government led by clueless Sunak, that allows the European Union to cast its shadow over us by annexing part of our country with different customs rules over the rest of the nation. In addition to that Sunak appears powerless to act positively over the English Channel migrant crisis by withdrawing from ECHR, and continues to allow the EU and France in particular to lord it over us on Fishing and Territorial Rights, the list goes on. Put simply Sunak is well out of his depth and to me at least is afraid of his own shadow, and seems to be more concerned about the interests of our continental neighbours, over the citizens of his own country I thought Johnson was bad enough but this prime minister is proving to be just as just as bad but for different reasons. The Conservative Party is staring at political extinction in the face after the next general election, and nobody in their ranks seems to have the motivation or willpower to do anything about it. About the only thing he has achieved since becoming prime minister is turning on the Christmas lights in Downing Street, and even then was assisted by the Ukrainian First Lady. I would feel slightly better about the whole situation if I knew there was a viable alternative centre right party to vote for, but we don’t even have that as a fall back.
I totally agree Colin, I believe we must not vote for any LibLabCon candidate punish them all.
Well, I shall reply to my own post insofar as my last sentence above. This evening I came across an interview that was conducted on Spectator TV (no, I’ve never heard of it eitherO on that channel 3 days between the presenter (whose name I have forgotten, Fraser Nelson and Nigel Farage. The main thrust of that part of the programme was illegal immigration and the lack of progress by the government to curtail it, in addition to mainstream media not wanting to talk about it thinking quite wrongly that the British public were happy with mass immigration.
I have seen Fraser Nelson before on various programmes and he has an educated voice and is quite posh, but what his personal politics are I am not quite sure but he did come over rather wet on this particular interview in that he believed that the British public did not consider mass immigration to be an issue of note. Unsurprisingly Farage took the opposite view and was quite forthright in what he had to say. The conversation inevitably came round to political parties and quite rightly Farage stated that the Conservative Party had let the country down and their decisions on immigration had deliberately been engineered in support of continued mass immigration despite Brexit and the opportunities that it had presented.
Whilst Nelson quite rightly stated that Reform UK had performed very badly in the recent local elections achieving six council seats which they held already, Farage also admitted that there was not presently a viable alternative to vote for on the centre right, which came as a bit of a revelation to be honest. He went onto state that in his opinion sometime during the next two years another Nick Griffin mark 2 type of party would come about to take those votes. However he was a bit guarded with what he was saying and stated that there was a whole chunk of the electorate that was presently disenfranchised with politics especially the red wall type of voter that the Conservatives had prised away from Labour in 2019 who need to be catered for.
Farage went onto state that he hadn’t decided yet as to what he was going to do, but I sensed that he might have been hinting at the creation of a new party which in his words could be led by him or some other person. If that is the case, ne needs to get his skates on as time is running out. No time like the present to get a viable right of centre political party started that will be populist in nature……..
So one ‘person’ can make as much noise as ‘they’ like and civil servants say nothing can be done because of ‘theit’ ‘human rights’. At the same time we read ‘new’ civil servants who will be employed to work from home are to receive a new desk and chair to enab,e then to work ‘safely’ at home. Presumably said furniture will be a taxable benefit and that their home insurance will be changed from social and domestic use to that of business premises and that their cousins in local government will make sure that a change of use planning permission will be applied for before ‘their’ premeses can be used for business use.
WFH is wholly unacceptable. What a great opportunity for skivers!
More on skiving council employees:
https://mailchi.mp/508f81bb71cb/weekly-bulletin?