Matt Dathan

Will the UK-France migrant deal stop the boats? The Story · Episode

Will the UK-France migrant returns deal stop the boats?

Latest podcast from TheStory by @thetimes.com:

open.spotify.com/episode/4W7X...

Excl: Some of the UK's most prominent lawyers have warned Starmer that his pledge to recognise Palestine breaks international law

Lord Pannick, who represented the government against claims the Rwanda scheme breached international law, is among 40 peers who have written to the AG t.co/2naeSnZhhA

Young Europeans may be allowed to stay in UK for longer than a year A minister has opened the door for a reciprocal youth mobility scheme that could add to net migration figures despite concerns from the Home Office

Excl: Europeans to be allowed to move to the UK for more than a year under EU youth mobility scheme: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

New: 1,194 migrants crossed the Channel in 18 boats yesterday, the Home Office has said.

That's the highest daily figure so far this year and takes the total number to 14,811, the highest ever record in the first five months of a year and 42% higher than this time last year.

The French authorities prevented just 184 of the roughly 1,400 migrants who attempted crossing the Channel yesterday: www.premar-manche.gouv.fr/communiques-...

Migrant return hubs ‘could let Russian spies into Europe’ MI6 has raised concerns about Keir Starmer’s proposals to send failed asylum seekers to the Balkans

EXCL: Keir Starmer is pressing ahead with migrant 'return hubs' in the Balkans despite MI6 warning they could be hijacked by Russian spies: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

UK to ask Kosovo to take migrants as part of ‘return hubs’ plan The president of the Balkan nation has signalled that it would be open to hosting one of Britain’s ‘migration hubs’ but talks have not yet started

Excl: Britain to ask Kosovo to take rejected asylum seekers as part of Keir Starmer's new plan for 'return hubs': www.thetimes.com/article/206a...

How would chemical castration policy work — and could it ever go ahead? The government is said to be considering mandatory drug treatment to suppress libido for some sex offenders, but critics say it violates medical ethics

Why mandatory chemical castration will never happen in the UK and how it was used by the government as a cynical dead cat strategy to distract from hugely unpopular measures to release killers and rapists:
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Shabana Mahmood: release offenders early or face collapse of justice system The justice secretary issued a stark warning that, without reforms to sentencing, Britain’s prisons will reach capacity

Excl: Britain faces "horrible reality” of releasing prisoners early as part of long-term fix to the prisons crisis, Shabana Mahmood admits.

Full and frank interview with @thetimes.com as she prepares to announce major shakeup of sentencing laws on Thursday:

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

40,000 criminals to be tagged in sentencing law overhaul Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has secured £700m to pay for monitoring devices

Excl: 40,000 criminals will be electronically monitored at any one time as part of a mass expansion of tagging technology to be at the heart of sentencing reforms

Shabana Mahmood has secured £700m from Treasury to quadruple the number of criminals tagged
www.thetimes.com/article/b63c...

How do you measure migrant costs? The question the OBR can’t answer Net migration boosts the books, but experts say key long-term costs are missing from official forecasts

Why the OBR isn't fully accounting for the impact of immigration on the public finances, according to the Home Office, immigration experts and the Prime Minister's chief of staff:

www.thetimes.com/article/b69a...

Other lines:
- PM's aides have set an informal net migration target of 200k by next election.

- Immigration White Paper will also set out plans to restrict judges' interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR (family rights).

- Law change will also restrict what counts as a 'family connection'

Excl: The Home Office fears that long-term immigration will be higher than expected and believes the government is overstating the benefits of migration:

www.thetimes.com/article/0a9b...

Excl: All migrants will have to learn a higher standard of English under plans to ensure they integrate into society.

The Immigration White Paper will also restrict employers' ability to hire foreign workers if they don't train up domestic workers:

www.thetimes.com/article/a46c...

Cost of housing asylum seekers triples as small boat crossings rise The bill is expected to be £15.3 billion over ten years, as the price of accommodation, especially hotels, increases

The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels and other temporary accommodation has ballooned to three times as much as the Home Office originally estimated - to £15.3 billion, according to the National Audit Office: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Excl: The Home Office will restrict work and study visa applications from nationalities including Pakistanis, Nigerians and Sri Lankans who are most likely to overstay and claim asylum.

The plans will be unveiled as part of Keir Starmer's Immigration White Paper:

www.thetimes.com/article/c6fe...

Keep jailing domestic abusers, says government adviser Dame Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner, fears the risk of community sentences as the government prepares radical prison reforms

Excl: Domestic abusers must be exempt from the government's sentencing reforms that will make greater use of alternatives to custody, its domestic abuse commissioner has said:
www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

More than 10,000 migrants have now arrived in the UK on small boats so far this year, the Home Office has confirmed.

It's the earliest in the year the 10,000 mark has been reached (it wasn't hit until May 24th last year)

And it's 44% higher than this time last year.

New data reveals that 16,231 prisoners were released from jail early between September 10-December 31st under Labour's emergency prisoner release scheme.

The standard determinate 40% scheme (SDS40) releases prisoners after serving just 40% of their sentence.

Prevent scheme ‘fails to tackle terrorism funded by organised crime’ A leading criminologist hopes an investigate of the link will improve early intervention strategies

Excl: The Prevent programme is failing to tackle the link between terrorism and organised crime, says leading criminologist awarded funding to investigate the link:
www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

HMP Iceland: the jail with its own supermarket As part of a scheme to encourage good behaviour, inmates can browse aisles within the walls of a prison near Wolverhampton

Excl: The first supermarket to open inside a prison:

www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

Incels ‘need dating coaches to reintegrate into society’ Sessions could help men to disengage from misogynistic ideologies and teach them to build healthy relationships, Andrew Thomas believes

Excl: Incels should be offered dating coaches, says world-leading expert on the misogynistic subculture:

www.thetimes.com/article/8dda...

Excl: The UNHCR has endorsed Labour’s plan to deport failed asylum seekers to 'return hubs' in third countries.

This is a significant development because it was the UNHCR which ultimately collapsed the Rwanda scheme:
www.thetimes.com/article/ae4c...

‘Prison officers need stab-proof vests before one of us is murdered’ The brutal attack on three officers in HMP Frankland has revealed how has exposed the violent and challenging conditions faced by staff in Britain’s highest security jails

Inside Frankland prison a week on from the brutal attack by Hashem Abedi on three prison guards: www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

*this year

The Home Office has confirmed that yesterday saw a record daily number of migrants arrive in small boats.

705 in 12 dinghies.

It takes the total for this year to 8,888 in 159 boats (highest on record and 42% higher than this time last year).

Bomber’s brother Hashem Abedi given spork after prison attack The Manchester Arena terrorist has been returned to Belmarsh after allegedly attacking guards at a separation centre with boiling cooking oil

Excl: Further outbreaks of unrest in prisons yesterday as specialist officers trained to deal with riots were sent in to HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire.

A prisoner had been taken hostage and inmates had got on the roof and climbed up netting on the wings:

www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

Make young knife crime offenders do national service, says panel A group of citizen representatives found that this approach would be seen as a more effective deterrent than prison

Excl: Young knife crime offenders should be forced to do national service, says 'citizens panel' held by @PRTuk to assess the public's attitudes to sentencing.

It also found that the public wants to see offenders punished with more visible community orders:
www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

Starmer blueprint to cut immigration delayed The prime minister’s promised white paper will now come after Easter as the cabinet tries to iron out its differences and businesses reel from Trump’s tariffs

Excl: Immigration white paper delayed until after Easter due to lack of agreement across cabinet and to appease businesses already reeling from US tariffs.

The paper will lay out Labour's plans to reduce net migration, which stood at 728,000 last year:

www.thetimes.com/article/1f6c...

A fifth of migrants crossing Channel on small boats are Eritreans A price drop by smugglers and the threat of war with Ethiopia draw record numbers from the poor African country

EXCL: Eritreans are by far the largest nationality crossing the Channel in small boats this year with more than 1,200 arriving so far:

Cheaper prices by smugglers are attracting increasingly poorer migrants to make the journey:
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...