James Cleverly's voice breaks as he tells MPs of ‘painful' death of best friend in assisted dying bill debate
The former minister's voice broke as he revealed that his closest friend 'painfully' passed away earlier this year from esophageal cancer, sharing that he spent the final weeks of his life with him.
Cleverly, one of the leading opponents of the Bill, told the Commons that he 'comes at this not from a position of faith, nor from a position of ignorance' but is instead concerned over the practicalities of the Bill.
He told his fellow MPs that whilst he wants to 'alleviate suffering', he does not believe the Bill is a good enough piece of legislation to pass.
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The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Government ‘admits 49 Afghan data breaches in four years'
The Ministry of Defence has admitted there have been dozens more data breaches relating to Afghan relocation cases than publicly known, according to a report. A Freedom of Information request by the BBC revealed there had been 49 data breaches in the past four years, including four already known to the public. Seven breaches were serious enough to be reported to the UK's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), three of which had not been made public, the broadcaster reported. Those three included one in 2021 and two in 2022, the same year a major leak prompted the Government to obtain an unprecedented superinjunction barring journalists from reporting it. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) did not provide any details of the nature of each breach. Adnan Malik, of Barings Law, which represents 1,500 affected people, said: 'This represents a deeply alarming data failure and the recent 49 Ministry of Defence breaches make clear that the Afghan case was not an isolated error but part of a wider and troubling pattern of negligence.' Last month, a High Court judge lifted the gagging order relating to the major breach, which saw the details of 18,714 applicants for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme released in 2022. When the breach was discovered more than a year later in August 2023, the MoD were granted an unprecedented gagging order amid fears the Taliban could target would-be refugees for reprisals. It also saw the establishment of a secret £850 million scheme, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), to bring thousands of those affected to the UK. Arap was responsible for relocating Afghan nationals who had worked for or with the UK Government and were therefore at risk of reprisals once the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. An MOD spokesperson said: 'We take data security extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring that any incidents are dealt with properly, and that we follow our legal duties. 'All incidents that meet the threshold under UK data protection laws are referred to the Information Commissioner's Office and any lesser incidents are examined internally to ensure lessons are learned.' The ICO said it continues to engage with the MoD and 'can be assured that they have made the required improvements'.
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘Hypocritical' Badenoch calls for Tory councils to launch legal challenges against asylum hotels
Kemi Badenoch has been branded a 'hypocrite' for calling for Conservative councils to challenge the use of so-called asylum hotels in their local areas. The Tory leader said in a letter on Wednesday that she was 'encouraging' councils to 'take the same steps' as Epping Forest District Council 'if your legal advice supports it'. But the move has been criticised as 'desperate and hypocritical nonsense', given the Conservative's own record with asylum hotels. At the peak of their use in the summer of 2023 under the Conservative government, there were more than 400 asylum hotels in use. Figures on those staying in hotels date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023, when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels. The Essex council secured a temporary injunction from the High Court on Tuesday, blocking the use of Epping's Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds. Speaking on Thursday morning, shadow home secretary Chris Philp admitted there 'should not have been 56,000 people in hotels' under the conservatives, but echoed Ms Badenoch's call for councils to take legal action. Mr Philp said: 'Kemi's letter yesterday said she would support and encourage conservative councils to follow what conservative-led Epping started in fighting the use of asylum hotels, where there is a legal basis to challenge them. 'What the Epping case has demonstrated is at least some of these asylum hotels the government are using aren't being done so in accordance with the law. We're encouraging and supporting conservative councils to do what Epping has done in standing up for their local communities.' Mr Philp said he had written to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, to ask that people being moved out of the Bell Hotel are not put in another hotel or housed in multiple occupation (HMOs). School standards minister Cat McKinnell said she would not be able to comment on the specifics on where people being housed in hotels would be moved to. The government is facing the prospect that more councils across the country could also launch legal action to restrict the use of the hotels. These include Labour-run Tamworth and Wirral councils, Tory-run Broxbourne and East Lindsey councils and Reform's Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire councils. When asked whether she would support Labour-run councils in doing so, Ms McKinnell said it 'wasn't her place' to comment on what 'would be a legal process' and said: 'I think it's important the government works really closely with local authorities to manage these circumstances within local communities. 'We recognise the legitimate concerns and the efforts that local authorities are making to make sure the situation under their locality is appropriate.' A Labour spokesperson said Mrs Badenoch's letter was a 'pathetic stunt' and 'desperate and hypocritical nonsense from the architects of the broken asylum system', saying there were now '20,000 fewer asylum seekers in hotels than at their peak under the Tories'. The Bell Hotel in Epping had previously been used as asylum accommodation briefly in 2020 and then between 2022 and 2024, also under the previous Conservative government. According to new Home Office data from Thursday morning, the number of asylum seekers in hotels has dropped slightly from 32,345 in March this year, to 32,059 in June 2025. However, figures from the last 12 months during Labour's first year in power show that the figure has increased from 29,585 compared to 32,059 this year - a rise of 8 per cent.
The Sun
6 minutes ago
- The Sun
Tory councillor's wife Lucy Connolly is freed after jail term for racist tweet over Southport attack
A TORY councillor's wife who was jailed for posting a racist tweet after the Southport attack has been released from prison. Lucy Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in prison in October after being found guilty of inciting racial hatred after she made the post on X just hours following the murders in Southport. 3 3 3 Today, however, Connolly - the wife of Tory councillor Raymond Connolly - has walked free from HMP Peterborough after serving less than half her sentence. A prison source said she was driven from HMP Peterborough in a taxi this morning. Connolly's sentencing had been slammed as "two-tier justice" and was called "cruelly long and disproportionate sentence" by Raymond. After pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing "threatening or abusive" written material on X, she was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in October last year. Her tweet - which was deleted three-and-a-half hours after it was posted - said: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the ba***rds for all I care... if that makes me racist so be it." She had made the post the same day three children were murdered by Axel Rudakubana in Southport. Connolly had tried to appeal her sentence in May but the Court of Appeal dismissed the case. Following this, husband Ray said he was 'heartbroken', adding: 'My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy'. He also called the decision to throw the bid out "shocking and unfair" and claimed his wife was the victim of "two-tier justice". The councillor said: "The 284 days of separation have been very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl. Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport. "She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours. That did not mean Lucy was a 'far right thug' as Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed. "My wife Lucy is a good person and not a racist. As a childminder she took care of small children of African and Asian heritage; they loved Lucy as she loved them. "My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy. "Lucy got more time in jail for one tweet than some paedophiles and domestic abusers get. "I think the system wanted to make an example of Lucy so other people would be scared to say things about immigration. This is not the British way." The Free Speech Union - which funded Connolly's appeal bid - said it did not dispute that the tweet was "offensive" but said it was "deeply disappointed" in the dismissal of the appeal. It added: "Two-and-a-half years for a single tweet is grossly disproportionate and it should trouble anyone who believes the law must be applied evenly, without fear or favour." Connolly's case has also attracted international attention, with the US Department of State saying in May it was "monitoring" her situation. After she lost her appeal to reduce her sentence, a spokesman for the state department said: 'We can confirm that we are monitoring this matter. 'The United States supports freedom of expression at home and abroad, and remains concerned about infringements on freedom of expression.' Earlier this year, a teacher was sacked after calling Connolly's prison sentence "two-tier policing". Simon Pearson, 56, who taught English to foreign language students at Preston College in Lancashire, lost his job following an internal investigation after he posted about Connolly. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has faced accusations of hypocrisy for defending Connolly's "harsh" sentencing, after he himself previously suggested those who quickly deleted offensive social media statements should not necessarily face criminal action. Connolly's post was viewed 310,000 times in the three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it. While serving as director of public prosecutions, Starmer introduced guidance for prosecutors to consider a more lenient approach towards suspects who "swiftly" deleted social media posts and expressed "genuine remorse". The guidance urged prosecutors to consider four factors where 'a prosecution is unlikely to be both necessary and proportionate'. These included if 'swift and effective action has been taken by the suspect and/or others, for example service providers, to remove the communication in question or otherwise block access to it'. It also urged prosecutors to look at whether the communication was "intended for a wide audience" and if this audience "included the victim or target of the communication in question". In June, Reform U K's deputy leader Richard Tice claimed Connolly was being "mistreated" in prison. He said she had been handcuffed and stripped of her privileges by prison officers after visiting her at HMP Peterborough. Mr Tice told The Sun Connolly was a 'political prisoner' – and vowed to introduce 'Lucy's Law', to stop similar cases of overly harsh punishments if Reform came to power. Saying she was being "manhandled without provocation", he told The Sun: "Lucy has bruises on her wrists, five days on from being violently manhandled by a group of aggressive guards who forced her into a wing riddled with drugs and violent women. "Two prisoners have died there in the last 12 months. "She was supposed to be in the enhanced wing for good behaviour. Something very wrong has occurred."
