Newslinks for Friday 18th July 2025

Vast majority of Afghans on ‘kill list’ were bogus asylum seekers

“As few as one in 16 Afghans identified in a data breach had genuine claims for asylum, defence sources have said, raising fresh questions about how many bogus claimants might have slipped through the net. More than 100,000 people were trying to get to Britain in 2022 on the grounds that they had fought alongside or helped British forces, or were related to someone who had, before the Allied withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Multiple sources have told The Telegraph that the “vast majority” of them had no right to come to the UK because they had no connection to the Armed Forces.” – Daily Telegraph

• British spies and special forces exposed in Afghan data leak – Daily Telegraph
• Spies and SAS personnel among 100-plus Britons included in Afghan data leak – Guardian
• MI6 operatives and special forces named in Afghan database leak – FT
• WhatsApp message urges Afghans to sue Britain – Daily Telegraph
• Lawyers seek to use ECHR to force UK into accepting thousands more Afghans – Daily Telegraph

Comment

• This data omnishambles is merely the high water mark of MoD ineptitude – Sherelle Jacobs, Daily Telegraph
• The key task is keeping our secret services operational – Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, Daily Telegraph
• The British public will never forgive the elites for this monstrous betrayal – Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph

Labour refuses to rule out more gags on MPs and press

“Downing Street has refused to rule out seeking super-injunctions in the future despite anger over the Afghan data leak cover-up. As more details of the controversy emerged on Thursday, free speech campaigners said the use of the courts to prevent the public from knowing about the security breach and subsequent secret asylum scheme should never be repeated. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has ordered an urgent review of the actions of successive governments in keeping him and MPs in the dark about the covert programme to bring up to 24,000 Afghans to the UK at a potential cost of £7bn.” – Daily Telegraph

Starmer rushes through votes for 16-year-olds to fight Reform threat

“Sir Keir Starmer has accelerated plans to lower the voting age to 16 in all UK elections after a surge in the popularity of Reform UK. Downing Street has unveiled the proposals despite the change not having been planned for Labour’s first parliamentary session. Under the reforms, 1.5 million 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote at the next general election and potentially in council elections before then. Decades of election data suggests young voters tend to lean to the Left. At last year’s general election, about twice as many young voters backed Left-wing parties as Right-wing ones.” – Daily Telegraph

• The seats that Labour’s teenage voters will steal from Reform – Daily Telegraph
• ‘Britain is doomed to a Left-wing government for the foreseeable future’ – Daily Telegraph
• Voting age to be lowered to 16 – FT
• Labour ruse to lower voting age to 16 triggers claims of shameless election-rigging – The Sun
• Starmer warned ‘rigged voting’ will backfire – Daily Express

Comment

• Votes for 16-year-olds won’t improve politics – Editorial, Daily Telegraph
• Labour’s votes to kids plan is a naked attempt to twist democracy – Editorial, The Sun
• I’m 16, and I shouldn’t be given the vote – Annabel Hogan, Daily Telegraph
• What happens when 16-year-olds get the vote? Other countries are already seeing the benefits – Christine Huebner, Guardian

>Today:

• ToryDiary: Our survey: Badenoch makes a comeback, but Jenrick holds commanding lead

Britain forced to pay EU under Starmer’s Brexit reset

“Britain will be made to pay into the European Union’s budget as the price for Sir Keir Starmer’s reset deal. New EU documents demand financial contributions to the bodies that manage food standards and the carbon market rules that Britain will have to follow. However, the documents state that Britain will be blocked from making any changes or amendments to the rules, making the UK an EU rule-taker. The documents say: “The United Kingdom should contribute financially to supporting the relevant costs associated with the Union’s work in these policy areas.” – Daily Telegraph

• Starmer’s reset deal means we’ll pay millions to the EU all over again – Daily Mail
• Starmer ‘very concerned’ over Germany’s role in migrant crossings – Daily Telegraph
• Merz-Starmer: a ‘new era’ for defence, small boats and trade – The Times

Comment

• This is Starmer’s most unforgiveable Brexit betrayal to date – Iain Duncan Smith, Daily Telegraph
• Starmer’s grovelling to the EU is an embarrassment to us all – Editorial, Daily Telegraph

Home Office boss received £20K bonus as number of small boat spiralled

“The Home Office’s top civil servant received a £455,000 pay package including a £20,000 bonus as small boat arrivals spiralled. On top of his £200,000 annual salary, Sir Matthew Rycroft received a £50,000 ‘exit payment’ – of which £30,000 was tax-free – when he stepped down as permanent secretary at the end of March. The Home Office’s annual accounts – which set out sums in £5,000 brackets – showed the mandarin received a performance-related bonus payment of £20,000 to £25,000. It was significantly higher than his £5,000 to £10,000 bonus the previous year.” – Daily Mail

‘Russian spy offers sensitive information about Shapps to undercover British agents

“Howard Phillips, 65, is on trial accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service after he allegedly passed a USB stick containing information about Grant Shapps to British undercover police – who he believed were agents working for Russia. Phillips, of Harlow in Essex, denies the charge, claiming he had initially written to the Russian embassy to ‘expose Russian agents’ to help the Ukrainian war effort. Video shown to the jury at Winchester Crown Court today appears to show the moment Phillips greets the fake spies outside a Costa coffee shop in May 2024.” – Daily Mail

Frost: The awful truth about Labour? They’re continuity Sunak

“At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Keir Starmer told us “Mr Speaker, we’re only just getting started”. I fear so. It’s time to cower under the beds. For if this first year of Labour government is anything to go by, we have a grim prospect ahead. Let’s review the record. GDP per head is at the same level as mid-2022. It flatlined in Labour’s first six months, grew in the first quarter of this year only by pulling activity forward to avoid the April tax increases, and will no doubt shrink in the second. Nobody is getting better off – or if they are, it’s at someone else’s expense.” – Daily Telegraph

Labour suspends Abbott for repeating race comments

“Diane Abbott has been suspended as a Labour MP for “doubling down” on claims that Jews experience racism differently from black people. The veteran left-winger was placed under investigation by Labour to head off a fresh antisemitism row, making her the fifth MP to lose the whip in two days. It came after Abbott appeared unrepentant about past comments she made that saw her suspended from Labour for more than a year.” – The Times

• Abbott suspended for a second time – FT
• ‘Obvious Labour leadership wants me out’ – BBC News
• Abbott suspended by Labour – The Sun

Comment

• Starmer deserves praise for suspending Abbott – Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
• Labour’s control freakery: the party once tolerated dissent. Now it treats it as treason – Editorial, Guardian
• Starmer doesn’t yet have whip hand over his MPs – Patrick Maguire, The Times
• Bluster, bullying, suspensions – this is no way to run the Labour party – Polly Toynbee, Guardian

Far-right activists attack police after protest against hotel for asylum seekers

“Far-right supporters have attacked police as violence erupted following a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Essex. Hundreds of people had earlier staged a fresh demonstration outside the hotel in Epping that has become a flashpoint of anti-immigration protest, days after two security guards were seriously assaulted during a previous gathering. Local people, including women and children, were among those who gathered outside the hotel on Thursday and they were joined by far-right activists with loudspeakers and banners.” – Guardian

• Anti-migrant protest turns violent – Daily Mail
• Chaos erupts after migrant ‘assaulted’ girl – The Sun
• Asylum protest triggers police crackdown – Daily Express

Other political news

• Hospitality and retail jobs plummet since Reeves’s Budget – The Times

News in Brief

• The irony of the Afghan resettlement scandal – Patrick West, The Spectator
• The Afghan cover-up will haunt the UK – Patrick Cunliffe, UnHerd
• Britain’s fiscal fantasy is over – and time is running out – Damian Pudner, CapX
• Abbott v the Labour Party – Rachel Cunliffe, New Statesman
• Phillipson should smash her blank slate delusion – Niall Gooch, The Critic

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