Burnley mayoral role and town hall 'must be saved'
A retiring mayor has urged councillors to do everything they can to retain their borough's civic identity following the reorganisation of local authorities.
Councillor Shah Hussain told Burnley Council's annual meeting it was "vital" that the role of mayor and the town hall were retained following any Lancashire devolution deal.
In his farewell address, he said the last 12 months had been full of "joy", topped off by the Burnley FC's promotion to the Premier League.
But he warned that "amongst the celebrations and community spirit, reorganisation looms".
In March, Burnley Council officially opposed any devolution plan which would see the creation of a new, Blackburn-based, all-purpose council for east Lancashire.
Ministers had ordered Lancashire's authorities to draw up an "interim plan" which will see a radical reduction in the number of councils in the area.
All 15 Lancashire council leaders put their names to a letter setting out their initial thoughts but they noted that no proposal had majority support.
Shah told councillors: "There are whispers about devolution, combined authorities, and unitary councils.
"And with these discussions come questions about our identity, about the future of roles like this one, and about this very chamber we gather in today.
"Let me say this clearly: The role of Mayor matters. It is not a relic.
"It is a symbol of service, of unity, of civic pride."
He said the mayor was the "living, breathing thread that connects institutions to individuals", a role that "sees, celebrates, and supports".
Shah added: "It must not be allowed to fade away in the name of bureaucratic efficiency."
Burnley Town Hall must also be preserved, he said, "not as a museum, but as a living institution".
He said public money had been spent on safeguarding it "for future generations" because of its value was "not just in bricks and mortar, but in heritage and heart".
Shah added: "Our town is not perfect - no place is. But it is proud, principled, resilient, and brimming with potential."
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Leaders fail to agree councils reorganisation plan
Town's council opposes merger with neighbour
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How benefits fraud exploded – and milking the system went mainstream
Sara Morris, a 50-year-old from Stone, Staffordshire, is not the first middle-aged jogger to showcase their exploits on social media. In posts on Facebook, the mother-of-three – and member of the Stone Master Marathoners – advertised her exertions in scores of running events, including 5k and 10k races. The difference for Morris was that rather than just showing off, her posts betrayed her as a benefits cheat. In 2005 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but in 2020 she exaggerated the extent of her condition to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP). She claimed that she could not stand at her cooker or get out of the bath, and that she was so anxious she ended up in tears when she went to the pharmacy to collect her medication. She did not mention long-distance running. At Stoke Crown Court last July, Morris was sentenced to eight months in prison for dishonestly making a false statement to obtain a benefit, having been overpaid £20,528.83 between October 20 2020 and April 25 2023. Between May 2019 and December 2022, an investigation found that she competed in 73 races. She accepted that her benefit application 'crossed over into the realms of dishonesty'. She served nine weeks. Last week, in a proceeds of crime hearing, in the same court Judge Graeme Smith ordered Morris to repay £22,386.02 within 28 days or serve nine months in prison in default. Morris's case is so blatant as to verge on the comic. But Keir Starmer will not laugh at the timing of the hearing, in a week when he has faced calls for higher spending and warnings of lower growth. On Monday, the Prime Minister revealed the results of Lord Robertson's Strategic Defence Review, which included a pledge to build up to 12 new attack submarines and increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of national income. He had barely finished the announcement when it was reported that Nato would oblige him to commit to increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035. On Thursday US defence secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for five per cent. Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted that the UK economic growth would slump to a measly one per cent next year, hit by uncertainty over Donald Trump's tariffs regime and higher-than-expected inflation. Even if Starmer manages to reform the welfare system, as he has promised – and his handbrake U-turn on winter fuel payments suggest this will be easier said than done – it appears inevitable he will have to put up taxes, too. It's never a popular decision, and especially not when there is a perception among the vast majority that criminals and scammers are fleecing honest taxpayers. And that perception is borne out by the statistics: benefit fraud has remained stubbornly high since the pandemic, while convictions for the crime have fallen. Telegraph analysis of Ministry of Justice data shows that the number of people sentenced for key benefit fraud-related offences has plummeted from 4,154 to 685 since 2017. Such is public concern that Britons overestimate the true extent of benefit fraud. 'We find that the public estimate that about 24 per cent of the entire welfare budget is being fraudulently claimed, whereas the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate 2.2 per cent of benefit expenditure is 'over paid',' says Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos. Yet in a department as large as the DWP, even a small percentage can mean a huge loss. In its report last year, the DWP reported a top-line figure that 2.8 per cent of its £268 billion total benefits outlay (which includes around £160 billion on pensions, less susceptible to fraud), or £7.4 billion, was lost to fraud. This year fraud was down to 2.2 per cent, or £6.5 billion – a sum that has more than doubled since 2020 – with a further £1.9 billion on claimant error and £1 billion official error. If fraud was its own block of spending, it would be not far from how much the government spends on the entire legal system (£8.6 billion), and more than higher education (£7.2 billion), foreign aid (£7.2 billion) and potholes (£7 billion). It would be enough to buy you a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier with change for 11 F-35s to put on it. A 1p cut in income tax would cost just £6.4 billion. There were 7.5 million people on Universal Credit in January 2025, up from 6.4 million people on Universal Credit in January 2024. The most recent data show that there were 39,000 new 'starts' – people receiving benefit – per week in that month from 47,000 claims, implying an acceptance rate of 83 per cent. High profile fraud cases, even if they represent a minority of claimants, are infuriating for the rule-abiding public and toxic for government. Sara Morris's was not the only recent case to make headlines. Last May, three women and two men from a Bulgarian crime gang were jailed for between three and eight years each for a £50 million benefits fraud, the biggest in British history, which involved thousands of fraudulent claims. Sentencing Gyunesh Ali, one of the gang members, Judge David Aaronberg said Ali had committed fraud 'on an industrial scale'. In December, Halton council announced it would have to write off more than £240,000 of unpaid welfare fraud debt owed by Christina Pomfrey, a Runcorn grandmother, after her death. Pomfrey had received more than £1 million in benefits over a 15-year period, having lied that her MS had left her blind and in need of a wheelchair, before she was arrested. In 2020 she was sentenced to three years and eight months, after what the judge called 'staggering' dishonesty and 'determined benefit fraud on a substantial scale'. In October 2023, Hossein Ali Najafi, 57, who was born in Iran, was sentenced to 29 months in prison for falsely claiming £349,000 in benefits, using two identities and 26 bank accounts. 'Fraudsters like Hossein Ali Najafi abuse the benefits system, which exists to support people who are in genuine need,' said Maqsood Khan, senior crown prosecutor of Mersey Cheshire Fraud Unit. And so on and on. Benefit fraud has rocketed in recent times. A State of the Nation report commissioned by David Cameron's government in 2010 estimated the total fraud to be £1 billion. In 2011/12, the DWP estimated that fraud was worth 0.7 per cent of the total budget. (The government's counting method changed after 2018.) The figures rocketed up during the pandemic, particularly in Universal Credit. According to the National Audit Office's analysis of the DWP data, the Universal Credit overpayments due to fraud and error went from £700 million in 2018-2019 to £1.7 billion the following year and a whopping £5.5 billion the year by 2020-2021. Last year's record figure for Universal Credit fraud was £6.5 billion. Fraud in other areas, such as housing benefit, meanwhile, remained stable or fell over the same period. State pension fraud is extremely low, with less than 0.1 per cent overpaid due to fraud or error. The fraud rate in Universal Credit amounts to around 10 per cent of the overall Universal Credit spending; bearing in mind this only registers the fraud that has been caught, the true figure may be higher still. That's not counting the men and women – perhaps following tips gleaned from a 'sickfluencer' – who are gaming the system but technically within the letter of it. It has been argued that one factor in the shocking rise in Universal Credit fraud has been the move away from in-person assessments to remote ones, often conducted over the phone. Last year Peter Schofield, the DWP permanent secretary, blamed the 'underlying growth of fraud in the economy' for the increase. Reporting on the 2024 figures, the National Audit Office's Gareth Davies said it was clear the DWP 'no longer expects Universal Credit fraud and error to return to the levels seen before the significant increase during the Covid-19 pandemic'. A DWP spokesperson told The Telegraph: 'We are bringing forward the biggest fraud crackdown in a generation, as part of wider plans that will save £9.6 billion by 2030. 'Thanks to our efforts we have reduced fraud by around £800 million – with over £400 million of savings in Universal Credit alone in the last year. We are absolutely clear we will not tolerate any waste as we protect taxpayer's money.' Joe Shalam, the policy director of the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank, who previously worked at the DWP, believes that there has been a cultural shift in recent years towards seeking out benefits. 'The rise in benefit fraud is analogous to the rise in shoplifting,' he says. 'A population-level change driven by wider economic forces, like inflation and the cost of living. Such casual lawbreaking was highlighted last week when Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and putative successor to Kemi Badenoch as Conservative leader, released a widely-shared film in which he confronted some of the passengers on the Tube, thought to be as many as one in 25 of the total, who push through the barriers without paying. But there is a cultural dimension to it as well. The welfare system has an implicit or assumed sense that everyone who is 'entitled' will not necessarily apply for it. We're seeing a cultural shift where people are much more likely to say 'my neighbour is receiving X, why am I not?' says Shalam. 'There are some cultural and economic factors that make it harder to get back to a pre-pandemic norm.' In March, for example, it was reported that the Motability scheme, which provides taxpayer-funded cars to those claiming PIP benefits, had signed up 815,000 people last year, an increase of more than 170,000 in a year. Claimants can apply for a new model every three years. The Motability fleet is the biggest in Europe, valued at more than £14 billion. On social media, there are accounts dedicated to showing their followers how they can secure a car for themselves, too. All of which can corrode faith in government, says James Frayne, a veteran political strategist. 'Since the late 2000s, when everyone had to tighten their belts, there has been increasing exasperation that some people are wrongly living off the fat of the land by claiming benefits they aren't due,' he says. 'While people get angry at cases of systematic criminal fraud, they can get just as angry at individuals they think just can't be bothered to work. It all adds up to this sense that nobody seems to be able to govern Britain properly. Inevitably, the anger at those milking or ripping off the system rebounds towards politicians.' Soon after winning the general election last year, Keir Starmer announced that cracking down on benefit fraud would be a priority for his government. In his speech to the Labour Party conference in September, he said that new legislation, following a policy mooted by the Conservatives, would let investigators 'root out' fraud with similar powers of 'search and seizure' to those enjoyed by HMRC. This would compel banks to hand over financial information about their customers where there was reasonable suspicion of benefit fraud. The plan was designed to save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over five years and free up more money for public services. Another proposal, announced in January, was to strip benefit fraudsters of their driving licences. Starmer's reforms have met with resistance. Neil Duncan-Jordan, who was elected the Labour MP for Poole last year, has proposed amendments to the bill that would ensure only those suspected of fraud would be surveilled. Writing in The Guardian, Duncan accused Starmer of 'resurrecting Tory proposals for mass spying on people who receive state support' and that under the proposed legislation 'welfare recipients would be treated as suspects, simply because they need support from the state'. The vast sums of money lost to benefit fraud are also an incentive for a government to crack down on it, to free up money for other projects. Recent comparative international studies are thin on the ground, but Britain might learn from Finland, a high-trust society with a relatively simple benefits system and high rates of digitisation, where fraud rates amount to less than half a percentage point of the total paid. According to the latest report by Kela, the Finnish welfare institution, there were 1,104 suspected cases of benefit 'misuse' in 2024, amounting to €7.2 million (£6 million); the number of cases has been stable over the past five years. In the UK, failing a cultural reversion away from seeking out every benefit you might be entitled to, Shalam believes technology might improve efficiency. 'Analysing and assessing all the information about people's claims and their condition takes a huge volume of human resource,' he says. 'There's a lot of potential in AI to crack down on fraud and make sure the system is going to those who need it most.' Ultimately the people most angry about benefit fraud are those working on the front lines, says Amber Rudd, who was secretary of state for work and pensions from 2018-2019. 'The people who mind most about [fraud] are the people who work in the job centres,' she says. 'They find it really upsetting and frustrating. They are trying to help other people. When I went round the job centres it was the first thing they wanted to talk about. Fraud takes many different forms. The abusive form, forcing single mothers to go in and apply, then there are the multiple frauds where someone has a system. 'It's like the bank robber who says he robs banks because 'that's where the money is'. There's money being handed out; there is inevitably going to be fraud. I thought at the time we could do better with technology trying to weed it out. But it's going to be a constant battle.' In attempting to mitigate Sara Morris's sentence, her lawyer Paul Cliff conceded that her application to the DWP 'did not give the full picture,' but that 'running was one of the ways she tried to manage her MS'. 'She lost her home because of financial problems,' he also said. 'And was struggling to keep her head above water financially.' As he tries to placate an increasingly angry electorate while balancing Britain's precarious books, Keir Starmer may sympathise with her. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
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Those actions were in response to President Donald Trump's issuance of a proclamation this week declaring that the school's foreign students would not be allowed into the country. Harvard has been a leader in resisting — through multiple lawsuits — the Trump administration as it attempts to cut billions of dollars from the university in addition to research funding. In one of the cuts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was due to 'continued failure to address anti-Semitic harassment and race discrimination.' 'In the Trump Administration, discrimination will not be tolerated on campus. Federal funds must support institutions that protect all students,' the department said. Hastings said she has had some embarrassment about going to Harvard as an elite institution. 'Elite universities, by their very definition, suggest exclusion,' she said, adding that she had a privileged upbringing. 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One is the cancellation of affinity graduations — which was something he enjoyed when he graduated from Harvard. 'Whatever criticisms I can offer to Harvard are fairly similar to what I offer to our society in terms of how we embrace diversity and equity in general,' he said. Adebo pointed to the university not backing former president Claudine Gay, who stepped down in early 2024 after about six months on the job, and defending her against the attacks claiming that she had plagiarized scholarly work. 'That seems to me to be a very short leash for anybody in leadership. Frankly, regardless of the missteps. Especially since she was fully vetted before being hired for the role,' he said. Read more: What a monk, a librarian and a dentist have to do with Harvard's fight with Trump To the alum who is not a U.S. citizen, the debate about the future of higher education, funding between public and private higher education and research funding are all 'welcomed.' There are valid critiques about the 'historical injustices' of who is allowed into an institution like Harvard and who isn't — even if the university has been working to address those issues, the alum said. However, the efforts to dismantle Harvard and higher education by the federal government go beyond what is necessary into something that is dangerous, the alum said. As the senior grant manager at Mass General Brigham, a Harvard affiliate, Mary Anne Fox, said she has seen firsthand the attempts at dismantling her alma mater — and the consequences of that. It has been a 'shock' as the attacks against Harvard have emanated into research which won't just hurt the institution but the international research infrastructure, she said. She said she came today to show her support for the institution. 'Now I'm really proud to be from Harvard,' she said. 'I didn't know people hated Harvard so much in the country,' she said. Fox prominently wore a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by people in the Middle East that has taken on a greater symbol of resistance in the United States in support of Palestinians. She said she wore it on that day because many students at Harvard can't — and there is little the university can do against her in response. 'What are they going to do? Suck the degree back out of my head?' she said. Peter Coccoluto, joined by his wife, said he came on Friday to Harvard for his 70th reunion in part due to the actions taken toward the university. 'I feel we are being besieged by an ignorant man who also has the bad quality of seeking revenge on anyone who crosses his path,' Coccoluto said. 'I am here to support Harvard and to urge them to fight, fight, fight, because we fight not only for Harvard, but for all of the other free institutions of learning, higher learning,' he said. Casey Wenz stood outside the Harvard Yard on Friday morning with a finger brace holding up a wooden sign that read 'Harvard Thank You For Your Courage.' While she doesn't have an affiliation with the university, as a Cambridge resident, she said she wanted to show her gratitude to the university for 'standing up for themselves' and ultimately 'standing up for all of us.' She said she has friends who are international students and work at Harvard and that the federal government's actions against Harvard are hurting the country's economy. 'He's knee-capping innovation. And I think undoing that will take years — possibly decades,' she said. 'We might be losing a week or a month for every day that we lose in the research lab,' she said. What a monk, a librarian and a dentist have to do with Harvard's fight with Trump Judge blocks Trump admin from banning Harvard international students from entering US 'Singling out': Harvard president says Trump admin is retaliating against institution 'Government vendetta': Harvard fights back after Trump blocks its foreign students from US Funding cuts, lawsuits, foreign students: The latest on Trump's war with Harvard University Read the original article on MassLive.
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Deadly Russian bombardment of Ukraine further dampens hopes for peace
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Trump's comments were a remarkable detour from his often-stated appeals to stop the war and signaled he may be giving up on recent peace efforts. Ukrainian cities have come under regular bombardment since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 civilians, according to the United Nations. 'Russia doesn`t change its stripes,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The war has continued unabated even as a U.S.-led diplomatic push for a settlement has brought two rounds of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. The negotiations delivered no significant breakthroughs, however, and the sides remain far apart on their terms for an end to the fighting. Ukraine has offered an unconditional 30-day ceasefire and a meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock. But the Kremlin has effectively rejected a truce and hasn't budged from its demands. 'The Kremlin continues efforts to falsely portray Russia as willing to engage in good-faith negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, despite Russia's repeated refusal to offer any concessions,' the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Thursday. Further peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected in coming weeks, as is another exchange of prisoners of war. The attack involved 407 Russian drones and 44 ballistic and cruise missiles, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said. Ukrainian forces said they shot down about 30 of the cruise missiles and up to 200 of the drones. The Kyiv emergency workers were killed while responding to the strikes. 'They were working under fire to help people,' the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Russia's Defense Ministry said it aimed at Ukrainian military targets with 'long-range precision weapons' and successfully struck arms depots, drone factories and repair facilities, among other targets. 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The attack caused a blackout in some areas, and more than 2,000 households on Kyiv's eastern bank were without power, city officials said. Elsewhere, 10 people were injured by an aerial attack on the western city of Ternopil, regional governor Viacheslav Nehoda said. The strike damaged industrial and infrastructure facilities, left parts of the city without electricity, and disrupted water supplies. Russia also targeted the western Lviv and Khmelnytskyi regions, the northern Chernihiv region, and the central Poltava region, where at least three people were injured. In Russia, air defenses shot down 10 Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital early Friday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. As a precaution, flights at Moscow airports were temporarily suspended overnight Thursday into Friday and then again late Friday afternoon. Ukrainian drones also targeted three other regions of Russia, authorities said, damaging apartment buildings and industrial plants. Three people were injured, officials said. Russia's Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 174 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions early Friday. It added that three Ukrainian Neptune missiles were also shot down over the Black Sea. Ukraine struck airfields and other military targets in Russia, such as fuel storage tanks and transport hubs, the Ukrainian General Staff said. Also, a locomotive derailed early Friday in the Belgorod region after the track was blown up, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Russia has recently accused Ukraine of sabotaging the rail network.
