UK's Starmer to convene cabinet meeting, most likely to discuss Gaza
The Financial Times, which initially reported the story, said ministers, currently in a summer recess until September 1, would reconvene to discuss Gaza.
Starmer's office did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The recall comes after Starmer said on Friday the British government would recognise a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal, disappointing many in his Labour Party who want him to follow France in taking swifter action.
President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognise a Palestinian state, a plan that drew strong condemnation from Israel and the United States, after similar moves from Spain, Norway and Ireland last year.
More than 220 members of parliament in the UK, mostly Labour members representing about a third of the House of Commons, wrote to Starmer on Friday urging him to recognise a Palestinian state.
Successive British governments have said they will formally recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, without setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.
Starmer's approach has been complicated by the arrival in Scotland on Friday of U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom he has built warm relations. In foreign policy terms, Britain has rarely diverged from the United States.
Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
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The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump envoys praise ‘incredible' aid efforts during Gaza visit after UN says nearly 1,400 Palestinians killed seeking food
Two top US officials visited aid distribution sites in Gaza on Friday, hailing the work of a controversial agency delivering food, after the UN said hundreds of Palestinians have died while seeking help. Ambassador Mike Huckabee joined Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff for a visit to an aid site in Rafah run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which took control of aid distribution in May. The pair are the first high-profile US officials to visit the enclave, which has been in the grip of a hunger crisis in recent weeks, since the war began. Mr Witkoff said the visit was part of a bid to put together a new US-backed aid plan for the war-shattered territory. Mr Witkoff said the purpose of the visit was to give Mr Trump 'a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza'. 'We received briefings from @IDF and spoke to folks on the ground,' Mr Huckabee said on X following the visit. 'GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!' he added, echoing claims by the agency. But experts say that controversial distribution methods have contributed to hundreds of Palestinian deaths since the GHF took control of aid in May. At least 1,373 have been killed while seeking aid, including 859 near GHF sites, mostly by the Israeli military, the UN's humanitarian agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday. Gaza's health ministry said 91 had died in the past day alone. The UN says GHF aid distribution methods are inherently dangerous and violate humanitarian neutrality principles. In a report issued Friday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said GHF was at the heart of a "flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths." The GHF contends that nobody has been killed at its distribution points and says it does a better job of protecting aid deliveries from looting than the UN. It has yet to respond to the Human Rights Watch report directly but in a statement on Friday marking the 100 million meals the GHF says it has delivered since May, it said: 'GHF remains the only reliable food aid system in Gaza, delivering millions of meals each day to aid seekers. 'Meanwhile, new data shows nearly 90% of aid trucks for the UN and other humanitarian groups are being looted by military age men, with many civilians being injured and trampled.' The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Hours after the visit by Mr Witkoff and Mr Huckabee, Palestinian medics reported Israeli forces had shot dead three Gazans near a GHF site on the enclave's southern edge. It is unclear whether these deaths were at the same location visited by US officials. The Israeli military said it was still looking into the incident, in which soldiers had fired warning shots at what it described as a "gathering of suspects" approaching its troops, hundreds of meters from the aid site. GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay said: "President [Donald] Trump understands the stakes in Gaza and that feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority.' During a visit to Scotland earlier this week, Mr Trump announced a new aid plan which would involve the US setting up foot centres in Gaza - but he is yet to reveal any details about the plan. Starvation in Gaza remains significant, and the chief of Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Friday the UN 'has 6,000 trucks loaded with aid stuck outside Gaza waiting for the green light to enter', two days after he described the crisis as an 'entirely man-made famine'. On Friday, the Israeli military said that 200 trucks of aid were distributed by the UN and other organizations on Thursday, with hundreds more waiting to be picked up from the border crossings inside Gaza. Israel says Hamas and the UN are to blame for the failure of food to get to desperate Palestinians in Gaza. Germany made its first airdrops into Gaza on Friday, following in the footsteps of Jordan, the UAE and France. Mr Lazzarini said the airdrops are 'highly costly, insufficient and inefficient', adding that the 'only way to respond to the famine is to flood Gaza with assistance'. In addition to the three shot near a GHF site, medics said at least 12 other Palestinians were killed in air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the deaths. The war, which began after Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel in October 2023, has now killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Has Labour made any progress at all on irregular migration?
T he number of people crossing the English Channel to claim asylum in small boats has reached a record high. More than ever – some 25,000 – have made the journey since the beginning of the year, and, if this continues, we will see the highest annual total since records began in 2018. A year ago, Labour pledged to 'smash the gangs' and to 'turn the page and restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly'. There has been some progress, but it's fair to say that many feel impatient. Is it really that many? Yes and no. The 25,000 or so who've arrived on the south coast so far this year mean that the number is up by 51 per cent on this point in 2024 (16,842) and 73 per cent higher than at the same point in 2023 (14,732). So the country is well on course to exceed the figure of 37,000 who arrived by these irregular means last year, and the 46,000 in 2021, the prior record. On the other hand, it is far lower than the number of migrants arriving on a visa, entirely lawfully – some 431,000 net (938,000 gross, both figures including students) – and has to be set in the context of the UK's total population of 69 million. The number of irregular migrants last year was equal to the population of Guildford. On balance, it is still the case that migration of all kinds into the UK has been running at historically high levels for some years. Why so high? In terms of the big picture, on total migration, it is simply that the UK suffers from chronic labour and skills shortages – there aren't sufficient young people to replace retirees, so that means there are not enough workers. In addition, there are not enough with the right skills and in locations where demand is high, while those who do have the skills required are not always willing to do the jobs that are available at current wage rates. In the case of asylum seekers, the recent run of calm weather has certainly pushed the flows higher, and there is no shortage of civil wars and collapsing societies that are pushing them towards the UK. The stories about the Afghan refugees that made headlines in July are an extreme example of a wider phenomenon. There are lots of perfectly genuine refugees, in other words, as well as those who just want a better life. Has the government smashed the gangs? Evidently not, and certainly not to the extent required to stop the boats, but the authorities have been given the 'counterterrorism-style powers' and resources that Keir Starmer promised them. At best, it will take time. What about the returns policy? The one-in, one-out deal with France would reduce irregular migration, but it would have no net impact on the overall numbers. It's also relatively small – initially 50 a week, as opposed to the 898 who arrived last Wednesday alone. What happened to 'safe and secure routes'? This idea was quietly dropped by Labour in the months before the election because it wouldn't actually get the numbers down, which is what it's all supposed to be about. Clearing the backlog? Again, it will take time. There were a large number of unprocessed asylum seekers who were due to be deported to Rwanda and were being kept in limbo in hotels, and the number still arriving is such that it's like trying to empty a bath while the taps are running. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, says she has taken on more people to process claims, and some have been returned, either by force (8,590 in the year to March) or voluntarily (26,388 in the same period). International obligations and domestic law, as well as humanitarian considerations, require that all claims be assessed, and again, it will necessarily take time if so many have been left unchecked for so long. Even summary deportation is problematic, and this can also take time if the country of origin refuses entry and there are no third countries available to accept someone. Why don't we use the Royal Navy to tow them back to France? It's not what the navy is for, but also the risk to life is great, and the number of small boats would make the task impossible. British warships or Border Force vessels cannot enter French sovereign waters without permission, and the French government would retaliate. The Royal Australian Navy did take migrants into international waters, but this isn't applicable in the narrow English Channel, so that's not practical either. Why use hotels? Simply because there's nowhere else to put them, and accommodating them in tents in fields, as suggested by the Reform mayor of Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, would cause even more problems. Hotels are unpopular for understandable reasons, but so is paying to rent private houses, especially as homes of multiple occupation, or using much-needed social housing. Cooper has also promised to end the use of hotels, with the one in Epping that's been the subject of protests now an 'urgent priority'. What do the public think? Concern about immigration of all kinds has been growing, and when the small-boat figures go up, or when there are high-profile incidents involving migrant hotels, as now, the salience of the issue trends to increase in the opinion polls. The most obvious sign of dissatisfaction is the rise in support for Reform UK, even though its solutions – leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, 'sending them back to France', 'turning them back' or sending them to some unnamed third country – haven't necessarily been fully thought through. Indeed, they could make matters worse by encouraging the small boats to make undetected landings rather than surrendering to Border Force and making a claim. This increases the likelihood that these refugees would then end up in the hands of gang masters in the illegal economy, and living in slums, adding to crime. And if the boats were ever stopped, there are other routes, such as overstaying a visa. After all, the small boats only became the preferred method after the Channel authorities made the ports and lorries secure, and then the pandemic – plus Brexit – also made smuggling in vehicles, previously a popular tactic, almost impossible. What no party fully admits is that irregular migration is such an intractable problem that if it were as easy to solve it as is so often claimed, it would by now be a thing of the past. The solution would probably involve using every possible policy lever tried so far, and also introducing identity cards to prevent illegal working – a far bigger 'pull factor' than the welfare system. Another idea would be to allow the immigrants to relieve Britain's labour shortage, which includes unskilled work, thus boosting economic growth and tax revenues. Why not?
BBC News
10 minutes ago
- BBC News
Report has major concerns over Jersey States finances
A committee has raised "major concerns" about States finances, including an overspend of £30.7m by the health department in Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has released its report on the States Annual Reports and Accounts 2024 (ARA), outlining concerns over transparency in public spending, fiscal sustainability and departmental overspending in chair, Deputy Inna Gardiner, said the the total external borrowings for the States Group at 31 December 2024 was £1.14b, compared to 2013 when it owed added: "It is crucial that robust financial controls are put in place to ensure spending across government, but particularly in health, is controlled." In its latest report, PAC looked at how ministers were using taxpayers money, with Gardiner stating there was "rising expenditure, falling reserves, and weakening financial discipline".She said public spending exceeded public income, with the difference being covered through in-year budget transfers, use of reserves, and delayed report found the States of Jersey group held no external borrowings in 2013, but the levels of external borrowings had since risen."The total external borrowings for the States Group at 31 December 2024 was £1.14b, representing a material long-term liability that places added pressure on future public finances," the report said."Our findings raise serious concerns regarding whether the government can maintain our current spending, taxation, and borrowing habits and policies over the long term without incurring unsustainable debt or/and reducing essential services."The need for strategic planning and fiscal discipline has never been greater." The committee made 20 recommendations including the development of a more accessible and interactive version of accounts to aid public said the government should publish, in time for the debate of the 2026 budget, a 10 year revenue and expenditure outlook focusing on potential changes to the island's demographics, as well as flagging forecast overspends to the assembly when they are above 2%.
