Middle East 1) US warns Israel it won’t join any retaliatory strikes on Iran
“The White House has warned Israel that the US will not participate in any retaliatory strikes on Iran, senior administration officials have said. Over 300 drones and missiles were fired at Israel overnight, which Iran said was in response to a 1st April strike on its consulate in Syria. Almost all weapons were shot down by Israeli, US and allied forces before they reached their targets. Officials said Joe Biden urged Israel to consider its response “carefully”. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, a senior administration official said that Mr Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “think very carefully and strategically” about how his forces replied to the unprecedented action, the first direct attack by Iran on the country.” – BBC
- RAF shot down Iranian drones heading for Israel, Sunak confirms – The Guardian
- Braverman urges the West to stand firm – Daily Express
- Oil prices lower – BBC
>Yesterday:
- Video: If the Israelis respond to Iran’s attack, will we support them? “I can’t provide a running commentary,” Atkins replies.
- Video: Hamas attack on Israel has “taken the focus away from Ukraine” – Duncan Smith
Middle East 2) Policy Exchange calls for M15 to counter Iranian subversion in the UK
“Iran is ‘stirring the pot of religious prejudice’ by stoking protests outside schools and on the streets of the UK, a new report has warned British intelligence services. The paper by the think tank Policy Exchange says MI5 must reinstate ‘counter-subversion operations’ to deal with the threat posed by Tehran. It highlighted a series of protests condemning apparent instances of blasphemy, linking them to the alleged influence of the Islamic Republic regime on British Muslims. Two of the cases it discussed were the 2021 Batley Grammar School protests and the demonstrations over The Lady Of Heaven film in 2022, which Policy Exchange said ‘serve as an indication that de facto blasphemy codes can be enforced on the streets if protesters commit to doing so’.” – Daily Mail
Middle East 3) Timothy: We must stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb
“Last year Tehran increased production of highly enriched uranium at up to sixty per cent purity, far higher than the 3.67 per cent maximum set out in the JCPOA, far more than is necessary for civilian power, and close to the level needed for nuclear weapons…The Government was right to deploy the RAF against Iranian drones and missiles, but Britain’s growing criticism of Israel has made it harder for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis to hold their lines. We need to better support our allies in the region, not by entering another Middle Eastern war ourselves, but by enforcing sanctions ruthlessly, and backing Israeli or American action to prevent Tehran from acquiring the bomb.” – Nick Timothy, Daily Telegraph
Middle East 4) Pollard: Appeasement has catastrophic consequences
“When Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement in 1938, Hitler felt empowered to invade Poland. When Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, the West stood back and watched – galvanising him to launch an all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And now Israel has been attacked on its own soil once again after Biden undid Trump’s good work in standing up to the mad mullahs. The world is growing too dangerous for us to keep repeating this mistake.” – Stephen Pollard, Daily Mail
Other comment
- America has just reminded us there is only one world superpower – Richard Dannatt, Daily Telegraph
- The geopolitical cards have just been reshuffled – Roger Boyes, The Times
- Do what you must, Israel, after this appalling attack. Just don’t lose your allies – not least Saudi Arabia and Jordan – in the process – Andrew Neil, Daily Mail
- Israel must beware all-out war with Iran – Leader, Daily Mail
- It is high time to proscribe the vicious IRGC – Phil Rosenberg, Daily Express
- Iran has just exposed how impotent it really is – Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph
- Israel’s unwavering bravery against Iranian terror shames Biden – David Christopher Kaufman, Daily Telegraph
- Can US and allies stop slide into all-out war? – Jeremy Bowen, BBC
- After Iran’s attack on Israel, the world must act: this is a crisis that threatens us all – Simon Tisdall, The Guardian
- Let us pray that there is no major escalation – Leader, The Sun
- Tehran’s mayhem cannot be tolerated – Leader, Daily Telegraph
- Gangsters in Tehran – Leader, The Times
UK plans to replicate Rwanda deal with other countries
“Britain has entered talks to replicate the Rwanda migrant deportation scheme with Armenia, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica and Botswana, according to leaked documents that reveal the government’s extensive search for another third-country deal. Several South American countries including Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil and Colombia have also been approached but were viewed as less likely to be interested in what the government describes as a “third-country asylum processing deal”. – The Times
- Charities plan legal challenges to removals as law set to pass – BBC
- Rwanda scheme ‘could cost UK nearly £5bn in first five years’ for 30,000 migrants – Daily Telegraph
- Deportation flights expected to take off ‘within weeks’ – The Sun
>Today: Alexander Bowen on Comment: How ‘welfare chauvinism’ and ‘homo-nativism’ are uniting European populists and social democrats
Truss: How I was undermined by the OBR
“When I returned to the UK, a new front had opened up in our battle with the economic Establishment. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) took its revenge for being sidelined over the mini budget, sending an email to the Chancellor warning of a £72billion gap in the public finances. This was immediately leaked to sympathetic journalists. The culture of leaking and negative briefing was now out of control and, frankly, appalling. Here was a supposedly ‘independent’ public body apparently engaging in a deliberate abuse of market-sensitive information in order to undermine confidence in the Government. I was furious at their behaviour and still am. I believed the numbers in the OBR’s analysis were wrong, and so it has since proved. In March 2023, the OBR announced that it had overstated its estimate by a staggering £28.4billion.” – Liz Truss, Adapted from Ten Years To Save The West, Daily Mail
- Truss says Boris Johnson knew Gove was a serial leaker – The Times
Cooper defends Rayner over house row
“A shadow cabinet minister has defended Angela Rayner, as the row over her living arrangements before she was an MP continues. Yvette Cooper said Labour’s deputy leader was keen to “set out all of the facts” as a police inquiry gets going. It comes after it emerged a former aide told police Ms Rayner lived with her husband, at a time when she was registered as living elsewhere.” – BBC
- BBC blasted as Rayner interview ‘editing’ row erupts after Labour ‘raised concerns’ – Daily Express
- Starmer’s enslavement to every passing socialist fad deserves close scrutiny, so does Labour’s manipulation of truth – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
- I won’t take part in Rayner investigation, says Andy Burnham – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: Video: “I think these are very different circumstances” – Cooper defends Rayner over charges of hypocrisy
Clarke warns smoking ban will be difficult to enforce
“Former health secretary Lord Clarke has warned Rishi Sunak that his flagship smoking ban could be difficult to enforce. Speaking on the eve of this week’s crunch vote on the legislation in the Commons, the former chancellor and home secretary said he was not going to vote against the legislation and the motives to end smoking were “admirable”. But he forecast there could be difficulties as the ban on buying cigarettes moved up the generations. “You will get to a stage where if you are 42 years of age, you will be able to buy them but someone aged 41 will not be allowed to,” Lord Clarke told The Telegraph.” – Daily Telegraph
- Tobacco firms lobbying MPs to derail smoking phase-out, charity warns – The Guardian
- Next UK government will face biggest challenge since WW2, warns Clarke – Financial Times
>Yesterday: Video: “Protecting children is a very conservative value” – Health Secretary defends the smoking ban
Khan is blasted for spending millions to hire pen-pushers while crime in London soars
“Sadiq Khan has been blasted for taking millions more pounds from his policing budget to hire more pen-pushers while failing to cut violent crime. New figures show the number of back-office staff working on finance, research and local projects has almost doubled on the Labour mayor’s watch. Just before he came to power in 2016, there were 113 members of staff in the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), costing taxpayers £7.8m a year. But new figures seen by the Mail reveal that by the end of March 2023, the payroll had gone up to 205 employees – at a cost of £17.5m.” – Daily Mail
- Sadiq Khan pledges to eliminate rough sleeping in London ‘once and for all’ – The Guardian
>Today: Chris Nelson on Local Government: Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour in Gloucestershire
Other political news
- SNP ‘propaganda’ papers cost up to £11 for each person who reads them – Daily Telegraph
- More than 2,000 NHS buildings in England older than NHS, figures show – The Guardian
- Universal Credit must change to tackle long-term sickness, report says – BBC
- New police vetting system aims to avoid repeat of Couzens failures – The Times
- RAC urges ministers to scrap all smart motorways over poor safety record – Daily Telegraph
- UK rethinks AI legislation as alarm grows over potential risks – Financial Times
Cates: Social media contributed to transgender scandal
“There are now growing calls for children to be protected from social media. I have no doubt that if kids are cut off from ‘trans influencers’, groomers and TikTok videos glorifying double mastectomies, the gender trend will wane. But the real scandal of the last 15 years is that adults – including politicians, doctors and teachers – have reinforced the dangerous and scientifically absurd idea that some people are ‘born in the wrong body’. It’s as if respected professionals told children that anorexia was not a mental health problem but an identity to be celebrated, and that those who disagreed are bigots who want to ‘erase’ thin people.” – Miriam Cates, Daily Express
- Will the transgender conversion Bill be the final straw for Humza Yousaf? – Brian Monteith, The Scotsman
News in brief
- What Iran’s failed attack says about Israel – Fraser Nelson, The Spectator
- Israel can prevent a regional war – Jasmine El-Gamal, New Statesman
- Doubting the new Ireland – Michael Duggan, The Critic
- Honour-based violence has soared in Britain – Bella Wallersteiner, CapX
- Why Vietnam admires capitalism – Rainer Zitelmann, The Article
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