Arrest made during protest outside Canary Wharf hotel housing asylum seekers
A mixture of men wearing face masks and families with children waved flags and listened to speeches outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf.
Protesters jeered at people going in and out of the hotel, and officers were forced to step in after flares were let off in the crowd, the Metropolitan Police said.
A man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed.
Onlookers chanted 'shame' towards the police as he was carried away.
Tourists, shoppers and guests at a nearby hotel stopped to take pictures of the demonstration.
A spokesperson for the Met said: 'At one point, officers intervened after flares were let off in the crowd. Several people were searched. No further flares were found.
'One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed. He was taken into custody.
'Officers remain in the area to provide reassurance to local residents and businesses, to ensure that any further protest takes place peacefully, and to respond to any incidents.'
It is the latest in a series of demonstrations over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
On Saturday, the force made nine arrests after rival groups gathered outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, north London.
A protest and counter-protest also took place outside the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle and four people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Northumbria Police said.
Scotland Yard said plans were in place to 'respond to any protest activity in the vicinity of other hotels in London being used to accommodate asylum seekers'.
Elsewhere, Essex Police placed a number of restrictions on a planned protest in Epping on Sunday evening.
The force ordered that the demonstration should finish by 8.30pm and must take place in designated areas outside the Bell Hotel, which has been the focus of a series of protests over the last few weeks.
Police have also placed requirements on the removal of face coverings until 3am on Monday and have the power to direct anyone committing or suspected of committing anti-social behaviour to leave the area until 8am on Monday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Rhyl Journal
18 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
First migrants detained under ‘one in, one out' deal as PM vows to secure border
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government was prepared to defend itself against legal challenges if migrants seek to avoid being sent back across the English Channel. The migrants detained were among those who risked the Channel crossing on Wednesday, the day the pilot scheme began operating. The first small boat migrants have been detained under our landmark UK-France returns deal. This is what happens next 👇 — Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) August 7, 2025 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results. 'If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back. When I say I will stop at nothing to secure our borders, I mean it.' The pilot scheme was set up as part of a deal announced by the Prime Minister and French president Mr Macron during his state visit to the UK in July. UK officials aim to make referrals for returns to France within three days of a migrant's arrival by small boat while French authorities will respond within 14 days. This is in exchange for an approved asylum seeker in France to be brought to the UK under a safe route. No figures have been confirmed for how many migrants will be sent back, although reports from France have suggested it could be around 50 a week, a small fraction of the numbers making the crossing in small boats. The Home Secretary said: 'The pilot has now begun, so the first migrants who have arrived on the small boats are now in detention. We will then swiftly make the referrals to France and that process will now start to be able to return people to France. 'It's the beginning of the pilot and it will build as well over time, but we're also clear that France is a safe country, so we will robustly defend against any legal challenge that people try. 'We do expect for people to start being returned in a matter of weeks.' The Home Office is expected to launch a campaign in the coming days to make migrants in northern France and elsewhere aware of the new treaty. Ms Cooper added: 'Criminal gangs have spent seven years embedding themselves along our border and it will take time to unravel them, but these detentions are an important step towards undermining their business model and unravelling the false promises they make.' The Home Secretary has acknowledged the accord is not a 'silver bullet' to stop small boat crossings, which are running at record levels so far in 2025. But the Government hopes it will be a turning point as migrants will be sent back across the Channel for the first time. The process for asylum seekers to come to the UK under the 'one in, one out' pilot scheme has also been launched, with adults and families in France able to express an interest in coming to the UK through an online platform set up by the Home Office. They will have to meet suitability criteria, a standard visa application process and security checks. If accepted, they would be given three months in the UK to claim asylum or apply for a visa, and would be subject to the same rules for all asylum seekers not allowed to work, study or have access to benefits. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said just a 'token handful' of migrants had been detained and suggested the pilot scheme would fail. He said: 'Keir Starmer's promise last year to 'smash the gangs' has turned out to be nothing more than a gimmick that didn't work, and this is just the same. 'They are detaining a token handful of arrivals and in return we accept unvetted migrants from France. The whole thing is riddled with loopholes, opt-outs and legal escape routes that will make removals near-impossible.'
The Guardian
19 minutes ago
- The Guardian
New Trump tariffs come into force against dozens of countries
Good morning. Dozens of countries have been hit with higher taxes on their exports to the US after Donald Trump's latest wave of tariffs came into effect on Thursday morning. The levies announced by the White House a week ago came into force at a minute past midnight Washington time on Thursday, shortly after Trump claimed on social media that the tariffs would send billions of dollars into US government coffers. The rates, which range from 41% for war-torn Syria to 10% for the UK, are being levied in addition to the usual tariffs applying to US imports. Since last week's announcement, governments around the world have been scrambling to try to make deals to avert tariffs they fear could scare off investors and lead to job losses. Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, said it expected its operating profits to drop by 16% in its financial year to March 2026 due to the levies. Has anyone been spared from double tariffs? The EU is the only trading partner whose baseline rate – fixed at 15% after a deal – will include previous tariffs. Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine war as early as next week, White House officials have said, although senior aides warned that significant 'impediments' remained to securing a ceasefire. Asked late on Wednesday when he would meet the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, the US president told reporters at the White House: 'There's a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.' But he added that there was no specific advancement leading to talk of a meeting. The New York Times and CNN, citing sources familiar with the plan, reported that Trump planned to meet Putin as soon as next week. Trump reportedly then wants a three-way meeting with the Russian leader and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. When did the US and Russian leadership last meet? In June 2021, in a Geneva meeting between the then president, Joe Biden, and Putin. More than 1,500 civilians may have been killed in an attack on Sudan's largest refugee camp in April, in what would be the second-biggest war crime of the country's devastating civil war. A Guardian investigation into the 72-hour attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on North Darfur's Zamzam camp discovered repeated testimonies of mass executions and abductions. Hundreds of civilians remain unaccounted for in the attack. The war between the Arab-led RSF and the Sudanese military, which has been raging since April 2023, has been characterised by repeated atrocities. How has the number been arrived at? A committee created to investigate the death toll has so far counted more than 1,500 killed in the attack, in which it was previously believed that 400 non-Arab civilians had been killed. The former Superman actor Dean Cain has said he has enlisted to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in support of Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration. JD Vance's team raised the water level of a lake in Ohio to accommodate the vice-president's recent boating vacation with his family, the Guardian can reveal. US police have charged a British man with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law after he allegedly tried to drown her in a swimming pool in Florida. Israel's bombardment of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with just 1.5% of farmland that is accessible and able to be cultivated, figures from the UN show. This has fallen from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), indicating that Israel has continued to target Palestinian croplands since it began its total blockade in early March, while Gaza is now on the brink of a 'full-scale famine', the FAO director general said. From Silicon Valley billionaires to posters on Reddit's r/collapse forum, survivalism, or prepping, is undeniably having a moment. The term 'survivalist' goes back to a 1975 novel by the same name – but authors have been telling the stories of those who persist against the odds for centuries. 'The difference between a survivor and a survivalist is that one is a temporary condition and the other a permanent identity,' writes Dorian Lynskey as he charts their depiction in culture. In January, scientists traced the route charted by Carsten Borchgrevink's Southern Cross, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Discovery and Capt Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition between 1898 and 1913. Aiming to measure how global heating is affecting the marine life in the world's southernmost waters, their findings contained a mix of 'sweet and sour', the lead oceanographer said. While they recorded 'crazy levels' of wildlife, including 150 whales, in the world's only area largely untouched by plastic pollution and the fishing industry, planetary heating means waters are increasingly acidic. As a result, the sea urchins they collected were fragile and crumbled easily – a worrying indication for marine life. Leroy Carter was happily surprised to get the news that he had been selected for the All Blacks squad to play in Argentina in the opening rounds of the Rugby Championship. But soon after, he made a less-than-ideal discovery: his dog had eaten his passport. Luckily, he seems to have sorted out an emergency one and kept a cool head: 'I thought it would happen to me, something like that, so no point getting stressed about it.' First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you're not already signed up, subscribe now. If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@
The Sun
19 minutes ago
- The Sun
Workers could see wages shrink by £320 due to Labour's stealth tax rises – check how your pay could be affected
EMPLOYEES could see their wages shrink by £320 due to Labour's stealth tax rises. The government recently said it will not commit to lifting the freeze on income tax thresholds or national insurance (NI) in the next Budget - a move that would force millions of Brits into paying a higher rate of tax. 1 Workers would be pushed into higher tax brackets as their wages rise with inflation - a concept known as fiscal drag. The tax thresholds were frozen under the Tories, and are set to be lifted in April 2028. It has now emerged that people could see their wages fall by £320 under if the freeze is extended by Labour. According to wealth manager Quilter, if the freeze is extended by two years, a worker earning £30,000 could end up paying an extra £106 in income tax and national insurance in 2028-29 and an extra £214 in 2029-30. Someone earning £60,000 would pay an extra £317 in 2028-29 and an extra £643 the following tax year. Meanwhile, someone on £150,000 would pay an extra £354 in 2028-29 and an extra £718 the following tax year. The freeze to income tax brackets means almost 2.9 million more people will pay the basic rate of income tax - which is 20% on earnings between £12,571 to £50,270 - in 2025-26 compared to 2021-22. Over 2.6 million more will pay the higher rate - which is 40% on income from £50,271 to £125,140. If Rachel Reeves does decide to extend the freeze on income tax brackets in her autumn Budget, it will mark yet another Labour U-turn. The Chancellor previously ruled this out in last year's Budget, saying extending the policy would "hurt working people". Millions of workers to get pay rise as Rachel Reeves reveals income tax changes But economists believe Ms Reeves will be forced to renege on her promise, as she struggles to fill a £5billion black hole in the public finances. The Chancellor also needs to find an extra £1.5billion to pay for winter fuel following another U-turn by her party. TaxPayers' Alliance head John O'Connell told the Telegraph: 'This is the sad but inevitable result of successive governments' assortment of anti-affluence tax policies, which penalise aspiration and success. 'The UK is now trapped in a doom loop with the Chancellor desperately scrabbling around for more cash to fill the fiscal black hole and increasingly finding her only option is to come after the middle classes. 'Rachel Reeves needs to now show some humility and reverse the policies that have done so much to drive away high earners.' The prime minister last month refused to commit to lifting the income tax freeze in 2028. He only pledged not to increase National Insurance, income tax, or VAT. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the stealth tax, saying it would hit "struggling pensioners" who would be dragged into paying income tax for the first time ever. A Tory Party spokesman said at the time: 'The PM wouldn't repeat the promise his Chancellor made in the autumn to lift the freeze on income tax thresholds. "He also refused to rule out a retirement tax and wealth taxes. "The only reasonable conclusion is that a toxic cocktail of Labour tax rises are coming in the autumn budget.'
