Sunak 1) The Prime Minister is ‘to force Rwanda bill through’ after ‘ping-pong’
“The first migrants due to be sent to Rwanda are expected to be notified this week as Rishi Sunak forces a law through parliament. MPs are likely to strip out amendments inserted by the House of Lords, but it is anticipated that peers will reinsert similar changes in a battle of wills that is likely to go on until the early hours of Tuesday. Sunak said last week that the bill must get through on Monday, saying that he was prepared to “sit there and vote until it’s done”, accusing Labour of blocking the measure. Last week the Lords inserted two amendments to Sunak’s bill which would make deportations dependent on an independent assessment that Rwanda is safe and exempted Afghans who worked with British forces from being sent there.” – The Times
- He will hold a Downing Street press conference ‘today’ – Daily Express
- He urges Lors to accept ‘will of the people’ and vote for his Rwanda bill – The I
- He is ‘pressed to end’ Rwanda impasse by exempting Afghan service veterans – The Financial Times
- Foreign Office ‘tried to scupper’ Rwanda deportations, leaked papers show – The Daily Telegraph
- Troops ‘could be forced’ to help fly refugees to Rwanda under deportation plan – The I
- ‘It’s not Barbieland’: Rwanda prepares to host asylum seekers sent from UK – The Financial Times
- Blockers in the Lords must now drop their insincere objections and pass the Rwanda bill today – Dominic Lawson, The Daily Mail
- Rwanda vote shows dire need for House of Lords reform – Trevor Phillips, The Times
- Labour will stop the small boats – Yvette Cooper, The Daily Telegraph
- Labour’s repeated blockages against Rwanda bill are betrayal of the British public – James Daly, Daily Express
>Today:
Sunak 2) He says Met chief has questions to answer over ‘appalling’ treatment of Jewish man
“Rishi Sunak has refused to offer his backing to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and said he has questions to answer after one of his officers threatened to arrest an ‘openly Jewish’ man for walking in central London during a pro-Palestine protest. Sir Mark Rowley’s position is under mounting scrutiny in the wake of the incident, which occurred during pro-Palestine protests last week. The Prime Minister said the threat to arrest anti-Semitism campaigner Gideon Falter was “appalling”, in his first comment on the incident. It came after Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister, said the Met had shown “disrespect” to the Jewish community, while minister Claire Coutinho also declined to offer government backing for the embattled head of Scotland Yard.” – The Daily Telegraph
- Met Police treatment of Jewish man at protest ‘indefensible’, says government adviser – The Times
- Officers call for more robust policing at pro-Palestine protests – The Daily Telegraph
- New poll reveals loss of trust in police – The Times
- Police have a duty to defend Jewish rights – Editorial, The Daily Mail
- The criminal justice system is on its knees: confidence in the police is at a new low and courts and prisons are overflowing – Editorial, The Times
>Yesterday:
Menzies to step down at general election and quits party
“Mark Menzies will step down at the general election expected later this year after the Conservative party said the MP’s conduct fell “below the standards” expected of him following allegations he misused campaign funds. The MP for Fylde in Lancashire said on Sunday he would not stand for re-election and announced he was resigning from the Tory party after being suspended last week pending an investigation into the claims. Menzies has been accused of fraudulently using thousands of pounds in donations for medical bills and other personal expenses, according to The Times, which reported that the Conservative party had been aware of allegations against the MP for more than three months.” – The Financial Times
- A Times investigation revealed allegations that the Flyde MP has demanded thousands of pounds from an elderly activist to pay ‘bad people’ – The Times
Ministers ‘face new pay clash’ with public sector workers before autumn election
“The Government faces a fresh pre-election clash with the unions over public sector pay as ministers are set to defy calls to restore wages back to their pre-pandemic levels. The salaries of at least 2.5 million workers including nurses, teachers and civil servants will be set in the next three months. Whitehall insiders expect the Government to offer an increase of around 4 per cent in most cases, i has been told. That would be higher than the current rate of consumer price inflation, which stands at 3.2 per cent and is generally expected to fall further. But it would lag behind the 6 per cent rate of wage growth in the private sector and would not make up for the real-terms cut in pay that many workers have suffered since inflation began to spike in the wake of the pandemic.” – The I
- Public will be able to use NHS algorithm to sign off sick – The Times
- The idea of free will is dead. Long live the NHS – Tim Stanley, The Daily Telegraph
Nick Timothy: Britain needs hard choices, not the cushy ‘consensus’ of mistaken elites
“Today, we have a broad consensus based on two strands of liberalism…Many of our politicians – and civil servants, advisers and commentators – came to political maturity when the political consensus was unassailable. So their instinct is to stay within narrow ideological boundaries, to anticipate and accommodate the positions of their opponents and critics, to avoid taking positions that question received wisdom or disturb polite elite opinion. This is why so many of them – across all parties – remain prisoners of the consensus even as it crumbles. But we are no longer in an age of accommodation and agreement, but an age of hard choices. We need leaders to be brave enough to take them.” – The Daily Telegraph
Tories must stop ‘posturing’ if they are to win UK election, Street warns
“The Conservatives should eschew “posturing” in favour of delivery to have any chance of holding on to power at the general election, according to one of the party’s most high-profile regional mayors, who is facing his own battle to remain in office next month. Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, said his colleagues in Westminster should take lessons from the way he conducted his previous two successful election campaigns and spend less time on anti-green rhetoric. “It’s about getting stuff done,” he told the Financial Times. “It’s not about philosophy and posturing, it’s about getting delivery on the ground.”…Street’s race to secure a third term…on May 2 is being seen as a litmus test for Conservative fortunes at the forthcoming general election.” – The Financial Times
>Today:
- Julian Gallie in Comment: The mass desertion of working-age voters is an existential danger for the Tories
Jenrick: Future Tory government must be able to rip up Northern Ireland agreement
“Robert Jenrick has said a future Tory government must be ready to rip up the Northern Ireland deal with the EU to take full advantage of Brexit. The former immigration minister, who has been tipped as a future leadership contender, said “no self-respecting country” could stick with the agreement in its current form. Writing for The Telegraph alongside Lord Frost, the former Brexit negotiator, he said the UK could only prosper from leaving the EU “as one country”. His remarks will be seen as a direct challenge to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who sees the Windsor Framework deal as one of his main achievements in office. The agreement, struck last February, eased many burdensome border checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” – The Daily Telegraph
- Labour must ‘reset’ relationship with EU, says Blair – The Daily Telegraph
- Shadow Justice Secretary defends UK’s membership of ECHR – The Financial Times
- We must get Brexit back on track, or risk Labour unravelling our biggest achievement – David Frost and Robert Jenrick, The Daily Telegraph
- Labour would ruin all the progress we have made on farming post-Brexit – Steve Barclay, Daily Express
Extremists cry ‘Islamophobia’ to stifle free speech, says think tank, in report backed by Javid
“Extremists are exploiting the tag of Islamophobia to stifle free speech, says a report backed by Sajid Javid. The report, published on Monday by the think tank Policy Exchange, details how the term “Islamophobia” is being misused to silence debate about issues such as moves to ban terrorist sympathisers of Hamas. Examples cited since the Oct 7 attack by Hamas on Israel include branding as Islamophobic a challenge to an MP to agree that terrorists should attack fewer people and calls by Sir Keir Starmer for the release of hostages while visiting a mosque. In a foreword to the report, Mr Javid, a former home secretary, said a new definition of Islamophobia, put forward by a parliamentary group and backed by Labour, would undermine efforts to tackle hatred of Muslims…” – The Daily Telegraph
Starmer vows to ‘harness national pride’ to deliver new sports stars…
“Britain must harness its “national pride” to deliver the next generation of sports stars, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The Labour leader declared that “patriotism is a force for good” and paramount to getting children active as he vowed to level the playing field for aspiring young athletes. Speaking ahead of St George’s Day on Tuesday, he said sporting pride “runs deep in the nation’s psyche” and forms “a cornerstone of our national life”. But he said under the Tories children are being “locked out of emulating their heroes”, with “a widening access gap between state and private schools, girls and boys, and a damaging decline in PE hours”. It comes after Sir Keir said Labour must not flinch at flying the flag of St George.” – The Daily Telegraph
- He is due to tell his Shadow Cabinet that team games and national pride are a ‘force for good’ in England’s schools – The Times
- He asks Labour candidates to ‘fly the flag’ on St George’s Day – The Guardian
- One-in-eight Labour voters think the St George’s Cross is ‘racist and divisive’ – The Daily Mail
…as ‘neighbour insists’ Rayner lived next to her full-time
“A legal witness to the sale of Angela Rayner’s former council house in Stockport has insisted that the deputy Labour leader is lying about where she lived in the 2010s. Sylvia Hampson, 83, who gave a statement to police on Friday, told The Times that Rayner resided full-time at her former husband’s home rather than the property she owned a mile away. It emerged on Sunday that when selling her “principal” home on Vicarage Road in 2015, Rayner asked Hampson, who lived next door to her husband and three children on Lowndes Lane, to sign a key document. Hampson confirmed that her signature appeared alongside Rayner’s on the “transfer of whole registered title” (form TR1) which passed ownership of the property to a new buyer.” – The Times
- Mahmood insists Starmer was right to take Rayner at her word amid probe into property dealings – The Daily Mail
- Labour ‘did not tell police’ after learning of criminal allegations against ex-Chief Whip – The Sun
>Yesterday:
Scottish Government ‘could collapse’ as Greens may vote to quit coalition
“Humza Yousaf’s coalition government could collapse after the Scottish Greens’ co-leader admitted he did not know which way a members’ vote would go on their power-sharing deal with the SNP. Patrick Harvie, one of two Green ministers in the Scottish Government, said a vote next month on whether to end the coalition deal…was the “most important” decision in his party’s history. He pleaded with Scottish Green members that they would “achieve far more by staying in government” and warned: “My worry is that if we walked away at this point we would decelerate climate action.” Mr Harvie insisted he shared the fury of his rank-and-file about the Scottish Government’s decision last week to rip up its flagship target to cut the country’s greenhouse gases by 2030.” – The Daily Telegraph
News in Brief:
- Is there any way back for the Met Police? – Eliot Wilson, The Spectator
- The fatal flaw in Lammy’s progressive realism – Aris Rousinnos, UnHerd
- On conservative despair – Ben Cobley, The Critic
- Too big to live – Niall Ferguson, CapX
- Britain’s worklessness crisis is getting worse – Anoosh Chakelian, The New Statesman
- What will happen to politics after a Tory defeat? – Sam Freedman, Comment is Freed
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