How Labour ended up taking on the Boriswave
Sir Keir Starmer, remarkably, has launched an immigration crackdown. Britain risks becoming an 'island of strangers' after the Tory 'one-nation experiment in open borders', he said on Monday. A Home Office white paper has introduced several measures which will supposedly bring the sky-high numbers down.
Most interestingly, the government will extend the required qualification period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) – which grants migrants access to the welfare state and the ability to bring dependents – from five years residency in the UK to ten. On Wednesday it confirmed that this would apply retroactively. Which means that should this go through – there will be a public consultation – it can be expected to prevent the post-2021 migration surge known as the 'Boriswave' from automatically being granted permanent settlement in the next few years.
This is a hugely welcome and sensible move: if the Boriswave was a mistake, as it is widely agreed to be, there is no reason we should let it become permanent.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
an hour ago
- Metro
Here's why Keir Starmer thinks technology will actually make us 'more human'
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The UK must 'push past' the debate over whether AI will take people's jobs, Keir Starmer has said, as he argued the tech is making us more human. Businesses and industries across the country have been transformed by the technology, which can summarise vast documents and generate text or images in a matter of seconds. While workers and unions have expressed concerns over the impact of the sweeping change, the Prime Minister has embraced it. In a speech at London Tech Week this morning, Sir Keir recalled being 'really struck' by the impact AI is having on the war in Ukraine and pushing for it to be 'hardwired' into the recent Strategic Defence Review. He said: 'I've set the challenge to all of my teams: show me how they can use AI — not just in the output of government, not just in partnership with yourselves and others in the delivery of services — but also in the very way we do government.' As an example, he spoke about a social worker he met in Downing Street who told him AI is 'slashing her paperwork and her caseload'. Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sign up here. The PM said: 'She could use AI and tech to help with the parts that could be done more quickly. And from that, I've always said: AI and tech make us more human. 'It may sound like an odd thing to say, but it's true—and we need to say it. 'Because some people out there are sceptical. They worry about AI taking their jobs. But I know from audiences like this, this debate has been had many times. We need to push past it.' AI is expected to form a central part of the spending review on Wednesday, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves will outline plans for government budgets over the next few years. Departments will be encouraged to use the tech to slash costs and speed up work. More Trending But it has also played a role behind the scenes of the review. In January, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said a tool nicknamed 'HMT GPT' was being used to summarise spending bids from different departments. Following a speech on AI from the Prime Minister that same month, Unite the Union general secretary Sharon Graham called for 'proper protections from AI's pitfalls'. She said: 'The introduction of AI in the workplace must be something that happens with workers and not to workers. 'Government, employers, and unions all need to be working together to avoid the potential dangers of workplace AI.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The 'Gate to Hell' has been open for 50 years but is finally burning out MORE: The real reason behind 'Stop Hiring Humans' ads appearing on the Tube MORE: Three men appear in court accused of arson attacks on properties linked to Keir Starmer
ITV News
2 hours ago
- ITV News
Nato chief to call on UK to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence
Life comes at you fast in Downing Street. It's only a week since the Prime Minister was dodging questions about when he would increase defence spending to 3% of GDP. Today the Nato Secretary General is in town to tell Keir Starmer that actually Britain ought to spend 3.5% by 2035. Its expected the PM will agree with the target. And we are talking big sums here. That extra 0.5% is worth north of £17bn. Put a different way our defence budget of around £60bn would have to rise to more like £100bn to meet the 3.5% which is the new Nato target. Thats an NHS scale amount of money. And it inevitably means spending cuts elsewhere or tax rises or both. There are two reasons for this. The first is Vladimir Putin, the second is Donald Trump. Putin has shown he is ready and willing to attack his European neighbours. Trump has suggested he is less willing to come to the rescue. Today it is Ukraine, tomorrow it could be Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. That's where we come in. Those three Baltic states are all Nato members. If they are attacked we would be obliged to defend them, we would be at war with Russia; that's the Nato deal. Mark Rutte wants Nato to be big enough, tough enough and determined enough to deter Putin, to make it not worth his while to test the alliance. But Nato's 2035 target is, of course, ten years away. Many defence analysts think that it will only take Putin a couple of years after ending the Ukraine war to reconstitute his armed forces. So here's the key question; are we in a Cold War moment when the threat in Europe will not materialise, or a pre-1939 moment when it will?
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'Reform and Tories want to ban burkhas but don't give a damn about Muslim women'
At the end of last week, Zia Yusuf, the millionaire 'patriotic Muslim' chairman of Reform, left the party with this goodbye email: '11 months ago I became chairman of Reform… I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office'. This came after Sarah Pochin, a new Reform MP, urged the PM to ban the burka, 'in the name of public safety'. Yusuf thought it was a 'dumb' intervention and flounced off. Now he is back in the fold, being flattered and coddled by Nigel Farage and his motley lot. Nige actually looked grey with shock when he first commented on the unexpected resignation. Now the perma smile is back. Now Kemi Badenoch, a hungry political scavenger, has picked up the burka theme. She wants bosses to be able to ban burkas. Lots of votes in that, she calculates, as her party sinks. Neither Reform nor the Tories give a damn about us Muslim females. They just want to incite hatred. Anti-Muslim bones are thrown and are grabbed by ISLAMOPHOBES. The burka is used, as it was by the ghastly Boris Johnson, as a code to incite fear of an enemy within. Muslims make up only 6.7% of the UK's population, but you would not know that from the hysteria they/we generate in the media and politics. Farage previously accused Muslims of wanting to take over the UK and, last May, told the nation that Muslims do 'not subscribe to British values'. As defined by him. So Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood, Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi, Olympian Sir Mo Farah, polymath Adil Ray, actor Riz Ahmed, TV chef Nadiya Hussain, broadcaster Mishal Husain, etc, are aliens living among us. Me too. Dangerous rubbish. And they know it. Yusuf, the born again Reform chairman, manifestly does. That said, the burka is not a brown and white issue. Modernist Muslims like me have, for many years, expressed dismay and opposition to all forms of veiling. I even wrote a book, Refusing the Veil, some years ago, outlining its history, exposing fake claims about what the holy texts say and revealing the long history of resistance to it. There are only five fundamental obligations in Islam. Veiling is not on the list. Aisha bint Talha, a granddaughter of Abu Bakr, head of Sunni Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, refused to cover herself: 'Since God has put upon me the stamp of beauty, it is my wish that the public should view that beauty… No one can force me to do anything.' Egyptian, Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan women, through the centuries, have done what she did. And keep on challenging the practice today. I also am forthright about grooming circles of men of Pakistani heritage and their white victims. As a feminist Muslim, I feel I must continue to do that. However, as an anti-racist leftie, I must take on vicious politicians who are going after people of my faith. The genuine anxieties and problems experienced by citizens across the Western world are being exploited by the far right to whip up xenophobia against migrants and Muslims. Reform tries to project itself as inclusive – Yusuf was a useful mascot – but this does not bear scrutiny. Farage, like Trump, has savaged equality policies because they 'disadvantage' white people. A year ago, a Channel 4 investigation recorded Reform canvassers making explicitly Islamophobic and racist comments. The Great Leader has posed with far-right activists who show off their swastikas. With more voters flocking to his party and unending media sycophancy, Farage seems unstoppable. Yusuf is back on the mission to make him PM. He may succeed. Then Reform's messiah will dump on the common people. Those who pick on minorities should not be trusted. Ever. Muslims will have to battle against these xenophobes as well as misogyny within our families and communities. And for British democracy, hard times are coming. I read excerpts of Sarah Vine's new book, How Not to Be a Political Wife with, first, amusement, then annoyance. The stridently anti-EU Daily Mail columnist and ex-Mrs Michael Gove was once in the top Tory girl gang led by Samantha Cameron. The great Brexit swindle broke them up. Vine was devastated – no more holidays together, no cheery dinners, no children's sleepovers. Her marriage, she claims, crashed too. I feel her pain. Sort of. But there is no concern that the country fell apart and will never recover. Her lot live in a bubble of privilege and vanity. That's why the voters kicked them out. No lessons have been learnt.
