Government looking at other countries to process asylum seekers in, home secretary says
Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Ms Cooper said the government has been talking to Italy about its arrangements with Albania and with the EU Commission about other options.
Ms Cooper said she has been speaking to the Italian interior minister about their deal, which means asylum seekers wanting to settle in Italy will be processed in Albania.
Asked if she wants the same deal for the UK, following reports the government is looking at a deal with Albania, Ms Cooper said: "We will always look at what works.
"There has to be practical things that will work, not gimmicks."
She criticised the Conservative government's Rwanda deal, which was meant to see UK asylum seekers processed in Rwanda, for costing £700m but only saw four volunteers sent there.
Former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett has suggested the government should create bespoke agreements with designated "safe" countries to deport foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, as this would override any claims through the Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Asked about that, and whether the UK is talking to Albania or any other countries about an "Italian-style deal", Ms Cooper said: "We've talked to the Italian government about the arrangements that they have, and we've always said we'll look at what works.
"We're also talking to the EU Commission who are interested in different approaches around return hubs, that's the kind of thing that you're talking about.
"But our central focus is on the borders, the summit, the organised immigration crime summit and on tackling the criminal gangs."
3:00
The UK is hosting an "unprecedented" border security summit on Monday with interior ministers and law enforcement from more than 40 countries, Ms Cooper said.
She said the summit was necessary because illegal immigration is a "global problem".
"The criminal gang networks that end up with people arriving in the UK, stretch back through northern France, through Germany, across Europe, to places like the hills of Kurdistan or the money markets in Kabul," the home secretary said.
"So you need to tackle this as a global problem."
Ms Cooper added that the government has got new agreements with France and the French government has changed the rules so its police force will now "take action" in the Channel to prevent migrants crossing to the UK in small boats.
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to "smash the gangs", which Ms Cooper said can be seen through the 20% increase in migrant returns since Labour was voted in last summer, a 40% increase in illegal working raids and a 40% increase in arrests for illegal working.
The Home Office announced on Sunday that company bosses hiring in the gig economy could face up to five years in prison if they fail to check if their employees can legally work in the UK.
Ms Cooper told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: "Frankly, it is too easy at the moment for employers to take people on illegally through those contract mechanisms without those checks in place."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
5 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Comments sought from first minister ahead of Senedd elections
1 Have any informal talks opened with other parties? 2 If, as polls indicate, there may not be a majority will Labour / Plaid form a coalition as they had a partnership previously? 3 I read she speaks to Keir Starmer once a month and perhaps she could describe the priorities discussed going into the election so the voters can judge? 4 Hospital waiting lists increased and education should be a priority and was it really necessary to increase the Senedd to 96 members without a referendum? I think not with the cost. 5 Reference was made to free prescriptions, free buses and is there any evidence these may be under threat? 6 I believe the Welsh public are crying out for change come May and I would welcome your reader's views. Kevin Etheridge Blackwood
Spectator
5 minutes ago
- Spectator
The great British pub is not dead yet
My Oxfordshire taproom used to sing on Fridays: carpenters, teachers and office clerks, knackered from the week's graft, would elbow for pints in a natural democracy of nods and grins. The bar was a grand leveller – toff or tiler, all waited their turn and banter stitched the room together. Post-pandemic, that tune has gone quiet. Now, working from home has throttled the after-work scrum and business limps across midweek evenings. The pub trade has troubles, no question. Energy bills, up a fifth in a year, are choking profits. National Insurance hikes, the return of the full charge of VAT and rocketing business rates (some landlords face £20,000 a year) make pouring pints costly. A Birmingham mate, running a local, says his takings had dropped 15 per cent since 2023; punters, skint from inflation, are picking Netflix and a supermarket Merlot over a bar stool. But another nail in the coffin of pub life as we knew it is now looming. Labour's Employment Rights Bill contains some daft proposed new rules which could force us to police 'third-party harassment' against our staff (think a punter's cheeky quip). This risks turning taprooms into courtrooms, censoring the laughter that makes them hum. Each closure, the real ale consumer organisation CAMRA warns, tears at the community's weave. Pubs aren't just boozers, they're schools where brickies, poets, old soldiers, students and all and sundry learn to share a chuckle and, most importantly, laugh at themselves. Meanwhile, health-mad Gen Z is swapping lager for Heineken 0.0, Guinness 0.0, Nosecco. Low- and no-alcohol sales are up a third, and the demand keeps growing. Supermarket wines, cheaper and better quality every year, tempt folk to sip at home – a bottle, after all, is cheaper than a round. Society has been infected with a puritan streak which prizes sobriety over revelry. The leisure pound is being split across the likes of escape rooms, yoga classes and virtual reality dens, all flashier lures than the pub's weathered oak. But don't mourn the British pub quite yet. There are signs of a resurgence. Yes, drinking has turned a little fussy for many, a world away from carefree pints. Punters book tables like they're at some swanky bistro, they chase curated nights, craft ale flights with daft tasting notes, small-batch gins with even dafter tonics: all of this Instagram-ready charm is hooking a new generation. Leading the charge is Guinness, its black-gold pints pulling in young punters like never before. Diageo's marketing played a blinder; campaigns like #GuinnessTime, full of moody filters, matey vibes, have made that creamy stout the drink for twenty-somethings craving something unique. Guinness sales jumped 20 per cent in 2024. Last Christmas's keg drought left landlords like me scrambling for supplies as Gen Z snapped selfies with their pints. But the fightback is just starting. Small, freehold, wet-led pubs are storming back, nailing the basics: quality beer, fair prices, real pubs serving the proper communities who are packing their bars. In Worle, Somerset, Glynn and Lindsey Smith, the couple running the Old Kings Head, have raised £21,000 for charities since 2019. Their bar is rammed with loyal regulars who'd rather die than drink elsewhere. In Lincoln, Jez Nash's Strait and Narrow smashed its Good Friday record, punters were three-deep by noon, supping craft beers, ciders, torrents of Guinness, free from pubco chains. David Bentley's Old Bowling Green in Derbyshire, a 15th-century gem, ditched its gastro guff for drinks-led trade, keeping pints cheap and profits plump. The micropub boom is a joy: since 2015, tiny boozers like the Two Pigs in Cheltenham pack 'em in with local ales, quirky stouts, and no-frills charm. The Star in Godalming, with Greene King's nano-brewery, pulls crowds with house-brewed ales, quiz nights, and a buzzing community vibe. These freehold pubs, cut loose from brewery ties, pick their stock. Guinness is a staple, they keep prices low and show punters love: a decent pint in a decent place and prices that don't make you feel robbed. Still, some things seem to be going for good: the bar queue, once a lively scrum of wit and patience, taught natural democracy, with everyone served regardless of colour, creed or class. Lockdown mucked it up. Youngsters, drilled in single-file order, stand stiff as boards; missing out on the banter that thickens skins and builds bonds. My nearest competitor grumbles constantly about twenty-somethings with no spark, no chat. The pub's old code, that a nod got you your pint but a jest won respect, wobbles under this primness. But there's fire yet. At the Civic Future Start Up Society Summit, a gathering of young entrepreneurs and innovators that I attended last month, I met twenty-somethings, bright as polished brass, brimming with rebel spirit. They drank, ate and argued with gusto about politics, religion and everything in between; they laughed at themselves and each other. They were charming, brilliant and clever. A tech genius in her twenties told me she'd take a shared stout over a TikTok reel any day; she craved the real stuff. These aren't the po-faced puritans you'd expect. I left feeling more hopeful about Britain's future than I had in a long time. Pubs face a scrap, but the path is clear. Rate reform, the £1 billion needed to save 1,000 local jobs, community grants like Devon's, could ease the pinch. Landlords like Jez and Glynn will lead the charge, keep it simple, keep it true. As I stack crates and scrub toilets, I raise a toast: the pub's not dead yet. It's teaching its lessons and providing a service still, not taking yourself too seriously, manners, sharing a space with strangers, and forcing us to interact with the real world. Do your bit, visit the local and let's keep the bar swinging.
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Enjoy summer while you can – Rachel Reeves is already planning an autumn income tax rise
Not for the first time, nor the last, the cry goes up: who would be Rachel Reeves? Most inside the Westminster bubble are able to enjoy a summer break. But the chancellor and her Treasury colleagues face weeks of agonising as to what lies ahead. Come autumn, she must attend the Labour conference, make her set-piece speech and do rounds of interviews. There is the IMF gathering at which the world's other financiers opine and mark her homework to date. Then there is the Budget. What Reeves must confront is the knowledge that 'faster and further' economic growth is not yielding immediate dividends, if indeed it is happening at all; she will insist it is, but the figures say different. Meanwhile, the fiscal black hole she pointed to as not her fault is actually getting bigger and she can no longer seriously maintain this is entirely due to the Tories. Not after more than a year in office. A £25bn deficit could rise to near £50bn if the National Institute of Economic and Social Research is to be believed. Significantly, few apart from those in her own team have questioned this figure. Why? Because borrowing has climbed higher than expected and the promised kickstart has not materialised. Britain's economy is sluggish, inflation has not gone away and unemployment is a worry, and the fears are real even in sectors once relatively immune – in retail and hospitality, but also in graduate posts. When parents rise up because their sons and daughters cannot secure jobs, Reeves's headache will get a whole lot worse. A lethal combination of global economic uncertainty, investment decisions on hold, and the looming presence of AI, is having a severely detrimental effect. She has to plug the black hole, but how? In theory, there are three tools she can use, in any combination, but somehow Reeves must reach that £50bn number. In practice, one avenue is already closed; she cannot borrow any more. Neither, as she is Labour, can she slash public services; austerity was what a Tory predecessor did, it is not for her. So, there's only one remaining and that is to raise taxes. Reeves can increase a bit here and chip away there. That's all it will be: tinkering. It won't fill the divide. They all add up, but levies on the ill-health and wellbeing products of tobacco and alcohol (and get ready for the howls from beleaguered pub landlords) and gambling will not make anything like enough difference. She will steer clear of clobbering business; one hit was sufficient (National Insurance Contributions) and she cannot return for more, it would blow apart her growth agenda and send a terrible signal to potential international investors. A wealth tax, advocated by the left, may well be ruled out for the same reason. As will a windfall tax on banking profits that would antagonise a City that Labour went to great lengths to woo. No, it's down to VAT, employees' national insurance, and income tax. Labour has said it will never raise taxes on 'working people' but that is what these are. Reeves herself has said she won't but, realistically, does she have a choice? VAT is regressive; the rate does not increase the wealthier you are. That leaves employees' national insurance and income tax. National insurance is capped so in that sense it is also regressive. The fairest option and the most attractive in terms of how much it will raise, is income tax. It is simply understood, easily collected and applies right across the wealth spectrum; there are few ifs and buts with income tax. It is harder to avoid. But if ever there was a tax on working people, it is this one – billed as such on every payslip. In a strange way, that might make it more appealing. Any other duty is divisive, a section of society can claim with justification they have been singled out, they will be worse off than others. Income tax is definably progressive. But it is also the most direct, the biggest, state charge on a workers' earnings. Making it bigger leaves Reeves and the government open to charges of rank betrayal, of going back on a pledge often and loudly made. It's Labour punishing the workers, the working-class, its bedrock support. Light the touch paper and run. What is likely, therefore, is the almightiest of political spin operations as this unpalatable step – the one they said they would never take, that is guaranteed to inflame their supporters, that will inspire their opponents – is explained. It may be billed as a one-off, aimed at saving public services, not to be repeated, the solution to a national emergency. We will start to know for sure when the holiday season ends, the machine gears up again and the softening up begins for what is coming. Some may be lying on the beach on their towels; if Reeves is at home, with her head inside a towel, no one should be surprised.
