Newslinks for Monday 25th August 2025

Reform UK promises to allow fracking

“Trapped in underground rocks, a potential energy resource has eluded generations of British politicians. It’s called shale gas and the method of getting it out of the ground, known as fracking, has proved politically difficult. Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, has been banned many times by different prime ministers since 2011 over concerns about earthquakes and environmental impacts. And yet despite this, Reform UK – which is leading in national opinion polls – believe it’s worth going after the gas again. “We’ve got potentially hundreds of billions of energy treasure in the form of shale gas,” Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader and energy spokesperson, says.” – BBC

• The main political parties will be forced to dance to Nigel Farage’s tune – Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
• Ed Miliband is gambling on turbines as wind slows down – Kathryn Porter, Daily Telegraph
• The net zero drive is worrying the markets – John Redwood, Daily Telegraph
• Cut electricity bills by scrapping green levies, say Labour MPs – The i

Asylum 1) Cooper plans overhaul of appeals system

“The government is planning an overhaul of the asylum appeals system as it tries to cut the number of migrants staying in hotels while they await a ruling. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was taking practical steps to end unacceptable delays, with a new body, staffed by independent adjudicators, to be established. The government has been under increasing pressure to reduce its reliance on asylum hotels, with demonstrations held across the UK over the weekend being the latest in a series of protests over the policy.” – BBC

• Tinkering cannot fix Britain’s asylum problem – Leader, Daily Telegraph
• It’s too little too late and shows yet again the PM is stuck in his small legalistic worldview on migration – Dr Alan Mendoza, Daily Mail

Asylum 2) Failed claimants staying in Britain for up to a year

“Failed asylum seekers and foreign offenders are being left in Britain for up to a year because their governments are dragging their feet over travel papers, a Home Office file reveals. The official guide, published by the department, shows deportations are crippled by delays from overseas embassies. Egypt, Guinea and Burkina Faso are among the worst offenders — taking six to 12 months to issue the documents needed to put its citizens on a plane home. By contrast, Italy, Belgium and Sri Lanka can turn the paperwork around in less than two weeks, while India averages one month.” – The Sun

• Migrant hotels told to house foreign criminals – Daily Telegraph
• Epping Forest District Council “could have refused owners of The Bell Hotel permission to house asylum seekers more than two years ago” – The i

Asylum 3) Seven in ten say Keir Starmer is handling it badly

“Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls from Labour grandees and ministers to take a more radical approach to the small boats crisis amid mounting public concern about the government’s handling of the issue. A YouGov poll for The Times found that 71 per cent of voters believe that the prime minister is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56 per cent of Labour voters. Nearly four in ten voters (37 per cent) said that immigration and asylum was the most important issue facing the country, compared with 25 per cent who said it was the economy and 7 per cent health.” – The Times

• MPs voice alarm at rise in online abuse over immigration debate – The Guardian
• Farage would prioritise British citizens over foreigners – The Times
• Banned Tommy Robinson supporter organises asylum hotel protest – The Times
• Labour’s desperate attempt to overhaul the asylum system is just another way of gaslighting us – Matt Goodwin, The Sun
• Epping shows that local politics still matters – Libby Purves, The Times

>Yesterday:

• Video: Vickers defends Badenoch – ‘How many other leaders have we seen down there in Epping?’
• Video: ‘I don’t think that she’s a Nelson Mandela’ – Atkinson on Connolly

Holden calls for ban on playing music out loud on public transport

“Playing music out loud on public transport should be banned, the Tories have said. The Conservatives have proposed using on-the-spot fines to crack down on passengers blaring music or videos from their phones on buses and trains. Tory MPs will suggest amendments to the Government’s Railways Bill to ensure every rail operator has a legal duty to enforce rules against anti-social behaviour. Current railway bylaws prevent passengers from “singing or using any instrument, article or equipment for the production or reproduction of sound” if it annoys others. The Conservatives have argued that these regulations should be implemented more strictly, with fines being issued to those not abiding by the rules…Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, said: “Taking public transport shouldn’t mean having to endure somebody else’s choice of crap music blasted through a speaker at full blast.” – Daily Telegraph

>Today: Richard Holden on Comment: We all have a right to expect that people can’t ruin your bus or train journey

Rayner challenged over third home “hypocrisy”

“Angela Rayner’s allies have been forced to issue a defence of her decision to buy an £800,000 seafront home after accusations of hypocrisy. Sources close to the Deputy Prime Minister insisted that she needed the three-bedroom flat in Hove as a base while working in London. They said she was paying the correct amount of council tax on the flat in the East Sussex resort – her third home, alongside a constituency house and a grace-and-favour London property. It is understood Ms Rayner will not be renting out the Hove property or listing it as a holiday let, meaning it will probably be empty for more than half the year…James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, said “glaring questions” over the Deputy Prime Minister’s property arrangements were left unanswered.” – Daily Telegraph

• Her own Department had warned against “negative impact” of second home ownership – Daily Mail
• Second homes are bad. Unless you’re Angela Rayner, of course – Leader, Daily Telegraph
• Property empire of an avowed socialist – Leader, Daily Mail
• It’s not a good look as the Labour government demonises landlords and second home owners – Matthew Lynn, Daily Telegraph
• Arise Three Pads Rayner, the hypocritical housing secretary who makes John Prescott’s tastes seem modest! – Stephen Glover, Daily Mail

Criminals could be banned from pubs and sports matches

“People convicted of crimes in England and Wales could find themselves barred from going to pubs and sport matches as part of changes to sentencing rules. Courts imposing community sentences would have the power to hand out driving and travel bans under legislation expected to be introduced next month. The sentencing bill is likely to also include plans to restrict the use of short prison sentences to ease overcrowding, as well as introduce a scheme to release some well-behaved inmates early. This legislation will implement many of the recommendations made by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke in his independent sentencing review published in May.” – BBC

• Prisons to run out of space by March unless they release inmates early – Daily Telegraph
• Labour to abolish most short prison sentences in England and Wales – The Guardian

Starmer faces battle over hereditary peers

“Sir Keir Starmer is braced for a pitched battle with the House of Lords when parliament returns from its summer break, as the Conservatives mount a last-ditch bid to save Britain’s ancient caste of hereditary peers. A total of 91 hereditary peers, some tracing their ancestry back to the Norman Conquest, are still able to shape the laws of the land, but they are set to be ejected from the upper house under legislation brought in by Starmer’s Labour government. By far the largest number of blue-blooded peers — 44 in total — sit on the Tory benches and the opposition party has managed to amend the hereditary peers bill to allow the aristocrats to continue sitting as life peers until they retire or die.” – Financial Times

Children in care ‘still being failed’ on gender ID

“Councils are still failing to protect children in care from gender ideology, according to a report backed by a former Labour education secretary and an ex-Ofsted chief. Children in care were vastly over-represented in referrals to the now-closed Gender Identity Development Service, according to a report by Policy Exchange, the right-wing think tank. The report said children under the age of ten were being supported to socially transition in care, often without appropriate safeguarding. It further claimed councils had paid thousands of pounds to activist organisations to run training sessions on gender identity.” – The Times

Other political news

• Cancer patients shun crisis-hit NHS to go private – Daily Telegraph
• HMRC gets more than 100 complaints a day amid backlogs – The Times
• Wes Streeting criticises ‘shortsighted’ drug firms for rejecting pricing offer – The Guardian
• Sinn Féin decision on Irish presidential race to be made in September – BBC
• London councils seek to repurpose closed down schools for Send pupils – Financial Times
• Trump threatens to deploy troops to Baltimore to ‘clean up’ crime – BBC
• Almost 800 shoplifting offences go unsolved each day – Daily Telegraph
• Labour warned against Post Office cuts due to fears over impact on pensioners – Daily Express
• Most farmers fear for survival and won’t vote Labour, poll finds – The Times
• Bus drivers threaten strikes over stress and pay – Daily Telegraph

Stanley: Voters are impatient with Badenoch’s delays

“It cannot help that so much time has been spent telling the voters what isn’t possible – you can’t raise welfare, you can’t nationalise steel – while the positive offer of what the Tories would do instead has been sent out for review. The goal is to contrast with Liz Truss who, allegedly, governed on the hoof. The effect is to appear unprincipled, because if you want to leave the ECHR, you say “sod it, let’s leave the ECHR”, rather than wait to see whether Lord Dinglesprat of Pudsey rules that it is practical. By relying so heavily on process Kemi has thus aligned herself with the “computer says no” tone of the ruling class, an ethic that seems to make it impossible to deport a rapist or build a home on an abandoned plague pit because a thousand procedures must be exhausted first.” – Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph

>Today:

• ToryDiary: A desire to fix things, to repair that which is broken, or being broken, has to be our way forward
• Will Calverley on Local Government: Offering real Conservatism is the way to win

News in brief

• Meloni is winning her war on left-wing squats – Nicholas Farrell, The Spectator
• Who is the Green Party for? – Megan Kenyon, New Statesman
• The Soros-funded organisation providing scripts to activists – Charlotte Gill, Daily Sceptic
• What did the Tory wets expect? – Niall Gooch, The Critic
• The Lucy Connolly scandal reveals the folly of policing hatred – Tom Slater, Spiked Online

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