Wandsworth Council, which last week announced half-price e-bike rentals for asylum seekers, has been using funds from schemes intended to be used only to house Ukrainian and Afghan refugees to give freebies to asylum seekers. Are you surprised…
The council’s ‘Sanctuary Strategy’ runs from this financial year to 2026/27 and support’s the council’s work to hand out funds to asylum seekers and groups interacting with them. To that end it stated in its plan documents:
“The council has created a £1.7 million fund to support the delivery of the actions contained in this strategy, drawing on funding it receives from a range of sources to support refugees and asylum seekers including funding from the Homes for Ukraine scheme, the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, and European Social Fund.”
Council releases say the plan was “created in collaboration with refugees, asylum seekers and local groups.” As part of the Asylum Freebiegate series Guido can reveal the fund hands out grants to groups who apply for it in order for them to supply freebies. Here are some examples of approved grants:
This is on top of direct council offerings from the funds including half-price weddings, gym and swim schemes, a fishing permits, and courses offered by Putney School of Art and Design. The council has also hired “two dedicated refugee and resettlement roles within the corporate policy team who have responsibility for coordinating activity across the council.” Gravy train…
The strategy also promises to this year “review Council Tax discount entitlements for refugees, asylum seekers and those hosting refugees or asylum seekers under the community sponsorship model.” Council tax benefits for asylum seekers and the landlords who agree to host them at the expense of private renters…
Just last month Wandsworth announced it was handing out more taxpayer-funded grants including for the “Children’s Books in Wandsworth Libraries” to “build a collection of books and resources on themes of migration and refugee experiences to help young people understand sanctuary and migration.” A key aim of the ‘sanctuary’ plan is to “continue to embed sanctuary seekers and celebrate their history and stories in arts and culture programmes.” It’s not stopping…
Funding intended for Ukrainians was not ringfenced when it was distributed by DHLUC, nor were councils required to report on what it was actually being spent on until last year. Wandsworth is not the only one…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”