Yvette Cooper reveals plans for 'Orwellian' ID scheme in desperate bid to curb surging illegal migration

Labour on collision course with Nato over slumping defence spending - 'We already make a huge contribution!'

Labour could be on collision course with Nato over defence spending after the alliance was reported to be pushing for a 3.5 per cent commitment from all its members.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte is said to be asking allies to commit to spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on the military, with a further 1.5 per cent on defence-related measures.

But with Labour's Strategic Defence Review confirming that Britain will be spending 3 per cent on the Armed Forces, the Defence Secretary has been forced to defend the UK's record.

"Britain already makes a huge contribution to Nato," John Healey said. "We've published a defence review that has Nato at its heart and I'm announcing today the new spending in this Parliament, £4billion, doubling the amount that we'll put into drones.

"We'll make a bigger contribution to Nato through that and £1billion over this Parliament to develop laser weapons - the first European nation in Nato to have laser weapons on our destroyers and then with our land forces.

"This is Britain leading in Nato, contributing more to Nato, just as we do, for instance, with our nuclear deterrent - the only country with a nuclear deterrent that commits it in full to other Nato nations."

But when asked whether he would be prepared to raise taxes to fund defence, he said: "We will deliver the spending commitments that we've made. I've got no doubt we can do that in the next Parliament.

"We're already raising defence spending by £5billion this year and now it will go up to 2.5 per cent of GDP in just two years' time. Britain's never spent to that level for 15 years.

"This is a biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War. The important thing is how we spend it."

'As long as it takes!' Reform UK lays out timeframe for Kent Council 'Doge audit'

Reform UK has pledged that its "Doge" audit of Kent County Council will last "as long as it takes" after a team arrived at the local authority on Monday.

A party spokesman said: "We're crunching numbers and producing recommendations, and those recommendations will then go to the leadership team at Kent County Council - so the council leader and the cabinet - to make an informed decision on whether some cut-backs can be made, or whether some action can be taken.

"From what I've heard it was a very productive meeting yesterday, the council were very co-operative and the team got what they needed.

"Now, it's just a case of waiting for those recommendations to be made.

"This is the first one we've done... Obviously it's the first one that's ever been done really in this manner so it will take as long as it takes... We're hoping it won't take too long."

"After this is done we will hopefully have a better indication of the kind of time frames for future councils as well," the spokesman added.

Home Secretary calls on France to take urgent action as criminal gangs 'take hold' across Britain's borders

Yvette Cooper has called on France to commit to urgent action and take back illegal migrants under a new Dublin scheme-style agreement in an attack on criminal gangs "taking hold" across the UK's borders.

"An entire criminal industry has taken hold along our borders," Cooper told the Home Affairs Committee.

She added: "Nobody should be making these dangerous boat crossings - they do undermine border security, they put lives at risk.

"It was completely unacceptable the numbers that we saw on Saturday - but also the continuing nature of the problem."

Cooper said the Government would like to see a replacement of the Dublin scheme - and added that she was keen for France to "implement that law change as rapidly as possible".

The so-called Dublin scheme means that the first EU member state in which an asylum seeker enters is responsible for their case.

Yvette Cooper admits Labour 'needs to END asylum hotels'

Yvette Cooper has vowed that Labour must "end asylum hotels altogether" in another bombastic Home Affairs Committee attack on the Tories.

Cooper blamed inherited contracts from the Tory Government for the crisis, and said Labour was keeping them under review.

"I am concerned about the level of money that has gone into these contracts and the scale of the backlog we have inherited," she said.

"We need to end asylum hotels altogether."

Cooper said the Government had rolled out tighter conditions on contracts, which has seen in the scrapping of the contract with Stay Belvedere Hotels.

Home Secretary unleashes extraordinary attacks on Tory 'free market migration experiment'

More now from the Home Secretary's Home Affairs Committee grilling.

Yvette Cooper has laid into the Tories' "free market" migration "experiment" in a brutal attack on the so-called "Boriswave" migration surge to MPs.

"I think this really was a sort of free market experiment in which effectively employers were encouraged to recruit from abroad - including being given a 20 per cent discount on the wages they were able to pay for people who they recruited form abroad," Cooper blasted.

The Home Secretary also said Labour was against international students bringing dependents.

"We need to have global talent and we need to make sure we have the right approach for those high potential individuals," she added. "But we should not have the care work being recruited from abroad."

As Yvette Cooper confirms Labour is pushing for 'digital ID'... REVEALED: How Keir Starmer's MPs met with Tony Blair to write up 'Orwellian' scheme

Yvette Cooper's confirmation of plans for a Tony Blair-style digital ID scheme comes a few months after scores of Labour MPs met the former Prime Minister for a "breakfast meeting".

In late January, some 40 "rising star" backbenchers met the ex-PM at his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute.

That was one of a number of small meetings - which were "more than just a think tank lobbying MPs on policy", people familiar with them told Politico.

Blair also appeared to be "building a network", they said, shaping broader Labour politics and keeping an eye on "talent" of the future.

He has long called for the imposition of a digital ID system - and to this day, his think tank still does.

Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf issue scathing verdicts on bizarre Lincolnshire 'bridge to nowhere'

Reform UK's Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf have issued their verdicts on a bizarre "bridge to nowhere" which was not finished by a "wasteful" council.

Lincolnshire County Council failed to finish the planned Spalding Western Relief Road as part of a wider plan to ease traffic on the A16 - and now, the road leads to a dead end.

This afternoon, party chairman Yusuf said: "It's funny the political establishment is seething about Reform's Doge agenda by screaming: 'There's no money being wasted!'.

"I present Exhibit A - Lincolnshire Council spent £30million of taxpayer cash on a literal bridge to nowhere. Now Reform is in charge there, and a reckoning is coming."

And deputy leader Tice added: "Reform will stop this waste by the Tories."

Corbynista MPs lead Defence Review pile-on against 'Trump's poodle' Keir Starmer

Corbynista MPs Diane Abbott and Zarah Sultana have launched a string of furious attacks at the Prime Minister in the wake of yesterday's Strategic Defence Review.

Abbott, in keeping with her previous online tirades, blasted: "Keir Starmer boasts about spending billions more on weapons factories, drones and submarines... But has no money to support the disabled."

She was echoed by Sultana, who spat: "The UK is Donald Trump's poodle. Always money for war, never for the poor," in response to reports that Britain will need to hike defence spending to 3.5 per cent to keep the US on side.

Downing Street concedes there is NO 'quick fix' for migrant crossings

Downing Street said there were "no quick fixes" to the problem of tackling migrant crossings as Labour said they wanted to break the link between favourable weather conditions and the number of channel crossings.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "The point is that we need to break the link between the level of crossings being reliant on the weather and that is why we need to work upstream with our partners to smash the people-smuggling gangs.

"It’s why the NCA is working with international partners to smash gangs, to take down the 600 boats and engines that they have done over the last few months that have resulted in the cost of boat and engine packages doubling.

"It’s why we have focused on ramping up returns with a 30,000 returns since the election. It’s why we’re focused on illegal working visits, going up by 40 per cent.

"Across the piece we’re working on all the measures that are needed to break the link and to smash the people-smuggling gangs who have established this trade."

Liberal Democrats demand Labour to put Thames Water into special administration after buyout falls through

Thames Water is "at the end of the road" and needs to be taken into special administration, according to the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat MP for Witney Charlie Maynard said: "The buyer for Thames Water has walked away. The company is now at the end of the road.

"The Government needs to bite the bullet, and put Thames Water into Special Administration, so its unsustainable debt can be written down and the interests of Thames Waters 16 million customers can be protected.

"While Thames Water is being allowed to keep piling up more and more debt, customers are paying the price in massive interest payments.

"This is totally unfair. The creditors who have heaped billions in debt onto the company should now pay to sort this mess out."

Yvette Cooper branded 'weak' over Labour's migration failings

Yvette Cooper has been branded "weak" after Labour suggested good weather was the driving factor behind high levels of channel migrant crossings.

It comes after new Home Office data suggested the number of days when conditions in the English Channel meant migrant crossings were considered likely from January to April was more than double the figure for the equivalent period in 2024.

There were 60 so-called "red" days between January 1 and April 30 this year, when factors such as wind speed, wave height and the likelihood of rain meant crossings were classed as "likely" or "highly likely." There were 27 red days in the same period last year.

In terms of raw numbers, 11,074 migrants arrived in the UK during these four months after crossing the Channel. This is compared to 7,567 crossings recorded.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour seems to think praying for bad weather is a good border security strategy. This is a weak Government, with no plan to end illegal immigrants crossing the channel."

Labour accused of 'watering down' sentences as Robert Jenrick issues scathing rant

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said Labour are "watering down" sentencing plans.

Jenrick told the Commons: “For the first time the Sentencing Council has published immigration sentencing guidelines.

"They water down sentences passed by Parliament and mean hundreds of illegal migrants every year will avoid the threshold of automatic deportation.

“Once again her officials were in the meeting and waved them through, and here I have the minutes to prove it.

"Has the Justice Secretary lost control of her department once again or is it the case, as the Defence Secretary (John Healey) said on Sunday, that this Government has just simply lost control of our borders?"

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood replied: "What this Government is doing is cleaning up the almighty mess left to us by the previous government, of which he was a member.

"He knows full well that I’ve already signalled an intention to review the powers of the Sentencing Council. We have an upcoming Sentencing Bill and I will take the action that he and his government never did in 14 long years.

"He’s suddenly found his voice; he didn’t have it for a decade or more."

John Healey: Labour will reverse 'decades' of cuts

Defence Secretary John Healey has pledged that the Government will reverse "decades" of military cuts by growing the British Army to at least 76,000 troops.

Speaking to GB News, Healey claimed this marks the first Government in "a generation" that is not looking to cut troop numbers further.

Healey claimed: "This review is the first for a generation that doesn't look to hollow out our armed forces further. Instead, it looks to build out the forces, grow the forces and grow jobs."

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Pollster likens Labour to US Democrats ahead of challenge to Reform

A top pollster has warned Labour to learn from the lessons of the Democrats in how the approach the threat from Reform UK and Nigel Farage.

Luke Tryl, of the More in Common think tank said: "⁠It’s true Farage has high negatives, but so does Starmer, after a term in office and an incumbency drag, a one-on-one fight might not be to his benefit.

"The Democrats thought this about Trump in 2016, and a little in 2024, that he was the easier opponent... Well, look how that worked out."

Keir Starmer says another Scottish independence referendum is not a 'priority'

Sir Keir Starmer has said another Scottish independence referendum is not a "priority" and he cannot imagine one taking place during his time as Prime Minister.

The Labour leader said First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney had not raised the issue with him during their recent talks.

Starmer said: “I think it’s really important to focus on the priorities that matter most.

"We got a big election win last year on the basis that we would stabilise the economy and ensure that on that foundation we build a stronger Scotland in a stronger United Kingdom, and that’s what I intend to do.”

When pressed if he could imagine another independence vote during his time in Downing Street, the Prime Minister said: "No, and nobody’s raising that with me as their first priority.

"Certainly, in the discussions I’m having with the First Minister, that is not, we’re talking about jobs, energy, security, and dealing with the cost-of-living crisis."

Up to 15 Labour MPs could DEFECT from party in backbench rebellion

Labour party insiders have suggested up to 15 MPs could defect from Sir Keir Starmer's party in a potential rebellion among backbenchers.

Sources told The New Statesman that there could be mass defections among the soft-left to the Green Party if Zack Polanski wins the leadership contest.

Polanski, the current deputy leader and member of the London Assembly, is campaigning on a platform of "eco-populism" against co-leader Adrian Ramsay, who is running on a joint leadership bid with Herefordshire North MP Ellie Chowns.

While another Labour MP suggested Polanski is too "student politics" to bring the Greens to national success, they conceded there could be "several" defectors.

Nominations for the party's leadership officially opened today and voting among party members will commence in August.

The result will be announced on September 2.

Chris Philp likens Labour to a 'lazy student' over Channel crossings

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has compared Labour to a "lazy student" over record migrant Channel crossings.

The Croydon South MP said: "Labour seems to think praying for bad weather is a good border security strategy. This is a weak Government, with no plan to end illegal immigrants crossing the channel

"They should never have cancelled the Rwanda removals deterrent before it even started. That’s why 2025 is the worst year in history for illegal crossings - not the weather.

"Blaming the weather for the highest ever crossing numbers so far this year is the border security equivalent of a lazy student claiming “the dog ate my homework”. This is a clear failure for our weak Prime Minister and his weak Home Secretary."

'Chunky tax hikes' loom as Keir Starmer looks to make Britain 'battle-ready'

Sir Keir Starmer's plans to make Britain a "battle-ready" nation have been overshadowed by a funding row as senior Labour figures have warned tax rises will be needed to pay for it.

A new defence review has warned Britain faces a "new era of threat" and must rebuild its military to prepare for war.

The Prime Minister said that the UK will move to "war-fighting readiness" ahead of the review, which he said would create a "battle-ready, armour clad" nation.

Under the plans, the British Army will grow for the first time in a generation to at least 76,000 full-time soldiers in the next Parliament, surpassing the recommended target of 73,000.

However, Starmer said he was "100 per cent confident" that recommendations in the long-awaited strategic defence review (SDR) would be delivered, senior Labour figures and economists have issued a warning that taxes would have to rise to pay for it.

Keir Starmer's defence review does not 'get a ringing endorsement'

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Sir Nick Harvey has criticised the Government's proposed 3 per cent of GDP spending on defence as insufficient for the UK to maintain European leadership.

Speaking to GB News, Sir Nick Harvey said he would not give the spending target "that ringing endorsement" despite supporting the policy's direction.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Robert Jenrick: Free speech should not be sacrificed 'to appease Islamists'

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has said the treatment of a man who burned a Koran outside the Turkish consulate is "grotesque."

He was speaking after Hamit Coskun was convicted at Westminster Magistrates' Court yesterday after the protest against the "Islamification" of Turkey.

Jenrick wrote in The Telegraph: "[Starmer's] own MPs are calling for him to specifically outlaw any “desecration” of holy books and he ominously failed to rule it out.

"So it’s free speech for flag-burners, but criminal records for Koran-burners? The double standard could not be starker: this is two-tier justice, made to measure for Two-Tier Keir’s Britain. Hamit Coskun’s fate is grotesque."

Labour threatens legal action against former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich

Labour has threatened legal action against former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich to release £2.5billion of funds from the sale of the London football club to help victims of the Ukraine war.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said they were "frustrated" by the failure to reach an agreement with Abramovich on the frozen proceeds of the sale.

The Stamford Bridge club was sold in May 2022 after Abramovich was among the high-profile Russian oligarchs sanctioned following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The funds were frozen, with a plan for them to be used to alleviate the suffering caused by the war in Ukraine.

A joint statement between Reeves and Lammy said: "The Government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion.

"We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach an agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far.

"While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required, to ensure people suffering in Ukraine can benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible."

WATCH: Andrew Griffith tells GB News the defence announcement is an 'absolute shambles'

Shadow Secretary for Business and Trade Andrew Griffith has told GB News that yesterday's announcement from Sir Keir Starmer was an "absolute shambles".

Griffith has slammed the announcement, saying it was "leaked out" and has called for an inquiry.

The MP for Arundel and South Downs accused Labour of running purely on "ambition".

Keir Starmer 'on a war path' over defence spending plans

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of being "on a war path" over yesterday's defence plans and has been urged to restore international aid to prevent "horrors of war".

Ellie Chowns MP, who holds the defence brief for the Parliamentary Green Party, said: "Keir Starmer is sounding like he is on a war path with his 'battle-ready, armour-clad nation' rhetoric.

"Security is not just based on arms expenditure and threats, but on real leadership that uses diplomacy and development too.

"There must be a real commitment to an international order based on human rights, equality and genuine cooperation.

"To avoid the horrors of war and armed conflict, we need to look at the deeper causes of insecurity, including poverty and climate breakdown.

"This is why the Green Party strongly supports the restoration of the international aid budget to at least 0.7 per cent of GNI.

"We will continue to argue that real patriotism means ending UK-made weapons or components being sold to dictators, human rights abusers or for use against civilians anywhere in the world."

Thames Water bidder drops out of plans to refinance company

A Thames Water bidder may have put the final nail in the coffin over the company's debt lifeline after Britain's largest water firm confirmed private equity firm KKR has withdrawn from investing in the utility.

The water company is now progressing talks with other senior creditors for an alternative to stabilise its finances.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Labour accused of 'sitting on its hands' over defence cuts

Labour has been accused of having "sat on its hands" over cuts to defence numbers.

Figures analysed by Sir Ed Davey's party show that full-time trained Armed Forces personnel have dropped by 2,181 since Labour came to power in July 2024.

Helen Maguire MP, Liberal Democrat defence spokeswoman and army veteran, said: "This Government has sat on its hands rather than acting to undo the Conservatives' reckless cuts to our armed forces.

"Since their fine words at the election on making the Army fit to fight again, we've seen a drop of over 2,000 armed forces personnel. It's time for Labour to walk the walk and make good on their promises.

"We're calling for emergency measures to reverse the shameful Army troop cuts - introduced by the previous Conservative government - so we can restore our armed forces."