Newslinks for Tuesday 8th July 2025

Starmer to push Macron for last-minute migrant return deal…

“Sir Keir Starmer will urge President Macron to agree a “one in, one out” migrant returns deal on Tuesday, despite warnings that announcing it before it is ready will lead to a surge in crossings. The prime minister is pressing for the deal as the centrepiece of a new agreement between Britain and France that the two leaders will sign at an Anglo-French summit on Thursday. The arrangement would allow Britain to return small boat migrants to France in exchange for accepting asylum seekers with a family connection in the UK.” – The Times

• Hand back our £771 million Mr Macron.. s’il vous plait: French President to face questions over his country’s failure to dent small boat crisis as he arrives in Britain – Daily Mail
• France will gain from stopping the boats – Leader, Daily Telegraph
• We may be old allies with France, but new threats abound – Leader, The Times
• Macron and the EU will never accept Starmer’s small boats plan – Suella Braverman, Daily Telegraph
• Farage ‘snubbed’ from meeting Emmanuel Macron – The Sun
• Migrant hotels tycoon donated thousands of pounds to senior Labour MP – Daily Mail

>Yesterday: Jonathan Thomas on Comment: Badenoch’s Lawfare Commission may yet prove a winning strategy on the ECHR

…King to tell Macron: ‘No borders’ between us

“The King will tell Emmanuel Macron there are “no borders” between Britain and France in their shared efforts to solve “complex threats”. King Charles will speak of the vital partnership between the two countries in the face of challenges “emanating from multiple directions”, faced together as “friends and allies”. He will make a speech at a state banquet on Tuesday night, ahead of a political summit between Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Macron later this week aimed at tackling the small boats crisis.” – Daily Telegraph

More SEND units to be in mainstream schools

“Ministers are looking at sweeping changes to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system that would remove the requirement for individual care plans for pupils. A plan to increase the number of places in SEND units at mainstream schools is expected to eventually phase out the need for individual education, health and care plans (EHCPs) over time. While officials believe that the reforms will remove the need for parents to go through the often onerous battle of securing EHCPs, individual care plans are likely to remain for those with the most complex needs.” – The i

• The special needs spending crisis threatening to bankrupt Britain’s councils – Daily Telegraph
• Whisper it, but ‘special educational needs’ is becoming an unaffordable racket – Annabel Denham, Daily Telegraph
• Children’s needs must be the priority as the system is redesigned – Leader, The Guardian
• Special needs situation is ‘lose, lose, lose’, says Keir Starmer – The Times
• Ministers face another rebellion – The Sun
• Ministers must ditch cruel plan to raid disabled kids’ support – Leader, The Sun

Reform UK 1) David Jones defects

“Former Conservative cabinet minister and MP David Jones has joined Reform UK. Jones, who stepped down as a Conservative MP ahead of last year’s election, said he had become “disillusioned” by his old party and that only Reform was “demonstrating the determination needed to tackle the country’s many problems”. The former Welsh Secretary added that he would not seek elected office for Reform but would “give the party my full support in the elections ahead”. He becomes the third former Tory MP to join Nigel Farage’s party in the last two weeks, following Ross Thomson and Anne Marie Morris.” – BBC

>Today:

• Lord Ashcroft on Comment: My Latest polling – Leaders’ grades for the year, Iran, Farage and non-doms and who regrets their 2024 vote?
• Antony Mullen on Local Government: Reform UK is not the answer for Sunderland

>Yesterday: Holly Whitbread on Comment: Reform is the bad boy of British politics – and it will end the way it always does

Reform UK 2) Party “unlikely” to introduce health insurance scheme in Wales

“Reform UK would be highly unlikely to introduce an insurance-based health system if they run the Welsh government after the Senedd election next May, BBC Wales has been told. It is understood the party has rejected the idea because of the tight timescale and potential legal difficulties. Party leader Nigel Farage called for a “fundamental rethink” to fix the Welsh NHS – including its funding model – during Reform’s Welsh conference last November, and has previously talked of looking at the system used in France.” – BBC

• New poll shows Reform UK leading in Wales – Daily Express

Reform UK 3) Vetting criteria for candidates loosened

“Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has introduced looser vetting criteria for all new candidates, even as it battles fresh controversy after one of its MPs suspended himself from the party amid an investigation into Covid loans. Reform introduced a new set of “common sense” candidate vetting standards on Monday, which are designed to be “more proportionate” and strike a better balance between party reputation and freedom of expression. An email sent to Reform members on Friday, and seen by the Financial Times, said: “We’re treating this as a blank slate. If you have previously failed vetting, you are strongly encouraged to reapply under the new standards . . . priority will be given to revetting.” A senior Reform figure confirmed changes to the vetting system for both local and parliamentary candidates was going ahead, in spite of a brewing scandal surrounding one of the rightwing populist party’s five MPs elected last year.” – Financial Times

Workplace misconduct and discrimination NDAs to be banned

“Employers will be banned from using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence victims of workplace sexual misconduct or discrimination, the government has said. An amendment to the Employment Rights Bill, which is expected to become law later this year, will void any confidentiality agreements seeking to prevent workers from speaking about allegations of harassment or discrimination. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said it was “time we stamped this practice out.” – BBC

Labour’s new Islamophobia definition “would suppress free speech”

“Labour’s plan to introduce an official definition of Islamophobia would hand a ‘significant new weapon’ to a Muslim group which aims to influence media reporting of the religion, a new report has warned. A study by the think-tank Policy Exchange accused the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) of making repeated, ill-conceived complaints about the way Islam is covered in the media. It concluded the organisation, which is part of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), “should not be engaged with or taken at face value by journalists, regulators or anyone else.” – Daily Mail

• Activist group wants to stifle discussion of Islamism – Andrew Gilligan, The Times

Trump revives tariffs threat

“Donald Trump has revived his threat to hit major trading partners with steep “reciprocal” tariffs even as he granted a three-week reprieve for countries to negotiate trade deals with the US. The president on Monday sent letters to Japan and South Korea, both among the US’s biggest trading counterparts, saying the country would impose 25 per cent levies beginning on August 1. South Africa would be hit with 30 per cent tariffs, Trump said, while also announcing big levies on 11 other countries.” – Financial Times

Osborne was on No 10 list to be UK ambassador to US

“George Osborne was on Downing Street’s shortlist to be the next UK ambassador to Washington, it has been claimed, despite the former Conservative chancellor being reviled by many in the Labour party and wider political left. In the new edition of his biography on Keir Starmer, the writer Tom Baldwin suggests the prime minister’s senior aides “invested considerable effort” in unsuccessfully pushing Osborne’s application. Sources confirmed to the Guardian that the former Tory politician was approached about the role.” – The Guardian

Six ‘out of control’ NHS quangos will be abolished or overhauled

“Six NHS safety quangos will be abolished or overhauled after a review found that healthcare regulators were failing to prevent thousands of avoidable deaths each year. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, announced that he would streamline patient safety watchdogs, warning that “a labyrinth of healthcare regulation has been left to spiral out of control”. A review published on Monday by Dr Penny Dash, the chairwoman of NHS England, found that there had been very few improvements in patient safety over the past decade despite £60 million being spent each year.” – The Times

Other political news

• Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize – Daily Telegraph
• Drugs smuggling ‘destabilising’ prisons, watchdog says – BBC
• Trump says US will send Ukraine more arms – Financial Times
• Postmasters await compensation report, but findings on blame months away – BBC
• When will Khan get a grip of Wimbledon Tube chaos? – Daily Mail
• Labour MPs hit out at party’s plans for Mitie-sponsored drinks soirée – Financial Times
• Catholic MP warns of ‘witch hunt’ over assisted dying bill – The Times
• Children in England ‘living in almost Dickensian levels of poverty’, says Children’s commissioner – The Guardian
• Wales’ tourism tax plans set for go-ahead – BBC
• Thieves and drug users could avoid criminal records in new plans – The Times
• Prisons’ chief inspector seeks more power for governors unable to even ‘buy a washing machine’ – Financial Times
• Labour anti-Islam definition ‘will be new weapon for hardline groups’ – Daily Mail
• Billionaire Labour backer John Caudwell ‘nervous’ about Starmer – The Guardian
• HMRC issues 600,000 fines to people who owe no tax – Daily Telegraph
• Bereavement leave to be extended to miscarriages before 24 weeks – BBC
• Fired Russian minister ‘kills himself’ – Daily Telegraph

Neil: France shows the folly of a wealth tax

“I’ve spent a lot of time in France over the years and seen the insidious effects of the wealth tax close up. At first, even wealthy folk thought they could get round it. When that proved false, they became mired in its complexities. Finally, they just upped sticks and left, often for the French-speaking parts of Switzerland just across the border. Some even chose London in the days when UK taxes were regarded as reasonable. In the decade after the year 2000, an incredible 40,000 millionaires left France, costing the French exchequer £6billion a year in lost revenue…The cost of collection was enormous…France lost out not just on tax revenues but growth-boosting, job-creating business investment…In the end, a newly-elected President Macron scrapped the wealth tax in 2018 and replaced it with a simpler, more modest tax based on property values. Few even on the Left mourned its passing.” – Andrew Neil, Daily Mail

• No 10 and Treasury refuse to rule out wealth tax – The Times
• Business chiefs warn Labour against ‘anti-growth’ wealth tax – Daily Telegraph
• The failed idea that refuses to die – Leader, Daily Telegraph

Hague: Good leaders need a sense of direction

“As a young speechwriter, I watched Geoffrey Howe as chancellor work with Margaret Thatcher — a partnership that was sustained for many years because they had complementary skills: the chancellor made detailed economic decisions but with a sharp eye for politics, while the prime minister maintained a sense of political purpose but with enough interest in economics to spot potential mistakes. Sir Keir Starmer’s current problems over Rachel Reeves are not because of any lack of willingness to be a team but because their combination is not producing an equivalent sense of direction, along with sure-footed decisions.” – William Hague, The Times

News in brief

• The City regulator’s mission creep – Fred de Fossard, The Critic
• The far Left is building a vile, effective coalition – Harry Phibbs, CapX
•  Is Labour prepared to alienate SEND parents? – Cristina Odone, The Spectator
• Only NHS drones can defeat Britain’s Nimbys – Tom Jones, Unherd
• Brighton Council Leader reports The Spectator to the police – Will Jones, Daily Sceptic

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