A report by the Public Accounts Committee of MPs has blasted the government for failing to say what the asylum system is “trying to achieve, or how success would be judged.” Despite all the talk…
The asylum system was found to cost the Home Office and MoJ around £4.9 billion in 2024-25 (including £2.7 billion on accommodation), with claims hitting 100,600 in the year to December 2025. More than double the 2019 figure…
The government announced an “entirely new asylum model” in November 2025, aiming to cut spending by £1 billion a year by 2028-29 with a new Home Office asylum group and cross-government board. The committee found no explanation of how these will work in practice or what the system is collectively trying to achieve…
MPs said that poor and fragmented data remains a massive barrier because there is no single reliable view of cases, basic figures like absconder numbers are unavailable, and some staff still work off individual spreadsheets despite the move to the “Atlas” system.
Appeal hearings are now taking around 60 weeks. 41% of a January 2023 sample viewed by the PAC remained in limbo…
The promised 10-year accommodation strategy is still unpublished. The Home Office also admitted it does not count everyone out of the country, so cannot say with certainty how many failed asylum seekers remain. Going about as well as expected…
David Lammy has said the question of replacing Starmer is not coming up in Makerfield among voters. All the Starmer loyalists are still pretending this is a regular by-election…
Lammy told Times Radio he was in the constituency:
“Of course I support Andy Burnham to become the Member of Parliament for Makerfield. He’s running against Reform, a candidate that’s got vile views and admits to being sexist. And I was up there campaigning for him. I hope to be up there again in a few days’ time. Of course I want Andy Burnham to win…
Keir Starmer has been absolutely clear. He got a mandate from the British people two years ago to be the prime minister. There can only be one prime minister. He has my full support and loyalty. I happen to believe loyalty is a very good attribute to have in politics. And I will be supporting him until he no longer wants to continue to lead the Labour Party. And he’s absolutely determined to see out his mandate.”
There is little photographic evidence of all these Cabinet ministers going up to Makerfield because Team Burnham thinks they are unhelpful. Lammy is reflecting the Starmer loyalist reality in his comments there – hinting at the reality that Starmer will likely stand down if challenged by Burnham…
Burnham finally said on Question Time last night: “I think Wes Streeting seems to have launched a leadership contest, so if that is running, I would seek to join it.” Can’t ignore the contest forever…
Nigel Farage is breaking a semi-silence in the aftermath of Henry Nowak’s murder. He spoke to Sky News Australia this afternoon…
Among other things he said of the BBC and their subsequent apology: “What they were saying was Nigel’s urging the white working class to go out and set fire to things; that’s what they tried to do.” ‘White cold rage’…
He accused mainstream politicians of attacking him instead of addressing the problems: “Any riots that go on, they want to blame the whole thing on me rather than dealing with the absolute cause of the problem… it’s the same playbook happening again and again and again … the British public are getting angrier and angrier that nothing is being done.” Farage said it was the same with Southport…
Kemi Badenoch – who has attacked Farage’s response to the murder – met Nowak’s family this morning and said:
“They have asked that we work across political parties and religions to rebuild trust in the police. That trust has been broken because of what happened, and I agree with them on that… We must also be prepared to examine, carefully and seriously, religious practices or exemptions that permit the carrying of dangerous weapons in public, and other activities that are not conducive to the public good. We also need to examine where the law needs to change.”
Starmer is due to meet them as well…
Speaking on the Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast, which she still appears on, co-host Harriet Harman said:
“Well, I’m just a bit suspicious about disappearing messages because the question is in my mind, ‘why do you put disappearing messages on?’ And I find it very odd if I’m wanting to track back a conversation I’ve had with somebody and the messages have all gone and I can’t remember what I said, let alone what they said because they’ve disappeared the message.
And why would you disappear the message unless you’ve got something to hide? I think if you are doing messages because you’re a government minister, you should be accountable for those and those ought to be available to be put in the public domain, to be in the public records, to be subject to freedom of information…
if I had my way, they would not have disappearing messages that would not be allowed if you were going to communicate with other colleagues in government about government business then you should have proper messages and they should not be disappearing.“
Harman was brought into Downing Street with a new top adviser job last month along with Gordon Brown to stabilise Starmer’s government after the locals. Starmer himself was confirmed this week to have disappearing WhatsApp messages enabled…
The new chairman of Ofcom has suggested that the internet/broadcast regulator could take a much tougher approach against GB News. Two-tier regulation…
Former Channel 4 chairman Ian Cheshire was yesterday formally appointed as new chairman the regulator. He spoke to the Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee of MPs late last month about GB News. Asked whether he had seen The New World’s campaign against the channel, Cheshire said Rusbridger had been in contact with him…
He added that the regulator takes a programme by programme approach as opposed to looking at channels as a whole, but said he was“very open to being challenged about that, and I’m intending to meet up with Alan [Rusbridger] in due course.”
Worryingly, when asked about whether he agreed with the current Ofcom framework for allowing politicians to present programmes, Cheshire said: “It is literally the second question in my induction plan… it is very high on the list.” Activists and anti-GB News rags like The New World have been pushing that agenda hard…
Cheshire’s predecessor Lord Grade said those same activists are “embarrassed by the fact that there is a news organisation that has a different news agenda to them, that speaks to the agenda of the majority.“ And that it now beats Sky News and BBC News on the regular…
The Labour Party is pushing ahead with its digital communications strategy by opening a “political content creator” programme for over-18s. The point is to train Labour fans to get better at “creating engaging short-form videos to support the party’s online presence”…
Called the “For You Project” – named after TikTok’s algorithm page – the programme “includes a fully supported training programme where you can learn to make content that cuts through.” In support of the party…
Labour boasts its “creators have now hit over 2 million views on TikTok, with individual videos pulling hundreds of thousands of views, and we want to help you do the same.” It adds:
“Through this project you’ll learn from Labour’s digital team about video campaigning, content strategy, and communications, and join a select group of Labour volunteers working on the front line of messaging… We’re looking for people who want to get on camera and build their own brand, though if you’re more into clipping and editing, there’s a place for that too. You don’t need any experience, just enthusiasm, opinions, and a willingness to give it a go.”
What do aspiring Labour influencers get?
Applications close next Thursday. Questions involved include: “Please share a link to a political video posted on social media you found interesting, and explain why,” and “share a TikTok or short-form video you’ve made, political or otherwise. Engagement doesn’t matter, we want to see your style.” Hurry now…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”