Keir Starmer sets out his asylum policy – but will it work?
Welcome to Friday’s Early Edition from i.
After months of apparent silence in the shadows, Keir Starmer seems to be enjoying his moment in the sun – and The Sun, to be precise. After writing an op-ed in the paper on Thursday, the Labour leader is apparently bidding to secure his own “Hayman Island moment” – referring to when Tony Blair flew to Australia in 1995 to receive Rupert Murdoch’s backing. A senior executive at News Corp told i: “We back winners and, at the moment, you have to say Labour look the likely winners of the next general election.” (You can read that full story here). But while Sir Keir used the Murdoch press to trail his long-awaited asylum policy in a bid to appeal to its readership, its reception has been mixed to say the least. While it might not be surprising that those in Government would lash out at his latest plans on immigration, some of those in the charity sector have been less-than-impressed too. What exactly is he proposing, and does anyone think it can work? We’ll take a look after the headlines.
Today’s news, and why it matters
The UK is set to squander lead in self-drive car technology and know-how because the Government is failing to introduce laws to let industry develop, MPs have warned. Current UK laws governing the sector are “archaic and limiting”, which restrict testing and rules around legal liability.
The father of Sara Sharif, along with her uncle and stepmother, have been charged with the 10-year-old’s murder, Surrey Police said. Urfan Sharif, 41, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and Urfan’s brother, Faisal Malik, 28, all of Hammond Road, Woking, were also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child.
Thousands of airline passengers have been affected by cancelled, delayed or diverted flights due to a lack of air traffic control staff at Gatwick. The airport confirmed a “short notice staff absence” in its ATC tower, managed by National Air Traffic Services, which meant 22 flights were axed, some were sent to other locations and dozens were heavily delayed.
Ministers are failing to effectively manage major projects involving billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money which go wrong and need to be reset, MPs warned. The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee found major resets were going wrong for a variety of reasons, including being rushed or avoiding them until “too late, even creating new problems”.
Public health officials are urgently trying to trace Britons who may have been infected with botulism at a French restaurant after an outbreak in which one person has died. The UK Health Security Agency revealed that three British people are being treated for the effects of the potentially fatal neurotoxin linked to sardines at the Tchin Tchin wine bar in Bordeaux.
Four questions on Labour’s asylum plans:
What is he proposing? Keir Starmer unveiled his plans for immigration during a visit to The Hague, where he was meeting the EU’s Europol law enforcement agency. A government under his leadership would treat people-smugglers like terrorists by freezing their assets and placing restrictions on their movement. He also pledged to discuss a potential migrant quota with the EU, which would significantly expand the UK’s co-operation with the bloc on immigration. A Labour government would also tackle the astronomical asylum backlog by using fast-track “Nightingale courts” to speed up the deportation of failed asylum seekers, to try and ensure legal challenges against removal could be heard quickly. And it would create a new Home Office returns unit with 1,000 staff to fast-track removals of failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders and visa overstayers. It would also fast-track asylum decisions on those who arrive via small boat from safe countries, such as Albania and India, whose applications are likely to fail. Meanwhile, an additional 1,000 new asylum case workers would be hired to clear the record backlog of claims and move migrants out of hotels where they are awaiting decisions. Read more about his plans here.
What is the difference between Starmer and Sunak’s plans? As Arj Singh writes, experts have suggested that there is little difference between Sir Keir’s plan and Rishi Sunak’s, once you strip out Labour’s opposition to the Prime Minister’s stalled Rwanda deportation scheme. Others, such as Rory Stewart, have described Sir Keir’s proposals as “brave and principled”. “He is taking a political risk but it will mean a workable asylum policy and far fewer dangerous boat crossings. It is logical, moral, good for Britain – and far better than the current government policy,” he tweeted. So what are the key distinctions? Poppy Wood examines them all here.
What do charities and experts say? Some asylum and refugee charities expressed anger at the plans for appealing to anti-migrant rhetoric. Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, said: “Today was an opportunity for Keir Starmer to inject some decency and compassion into the debate around refugees. Instead, he chose to mirror the gimmicks and divisive rhetoric employed by the Conservatives. ‘Smash the gangs’ may get him a headline in The Sun, but it’s not a plan.” Dr Peter Walsh, of the Migration Observatory of Oxford University, also criticised the “real lack of clarity” around Labour’s enforcement plans, including whether they can achieve anything extra on intelligence-sharing. He also warned that treating people smuggling gangs like organised crime or terror groups, as Sir Keir has suggested, was difficult as it operates like a “cottage industry” that is “very difficult to police”. According to The Times, EU sources said there was “absolutely no question of helping the UK” until the bloc had resolved its own internal efforts to reform its “broken” asylum-sharing system. But others have reacted more optimistically. Immigration barrister Colin Yeo said Labour’s plans “are starting to piece together a plausible programme for government” and that a deal with the EU “would offer possibilities for genuine control of the border”. And the Refugee Council said Labour would “restore the right to asylum and protection – an important moment for all of us campaigning for refugee protection. It is right to focus on the cost and chaos of the current system and treat those seeking safety fairly and with compassion.”
What do Tories say? While Rishi Sunak and senior Cabinet colleagues claimed Labour’s plans would lead to the UK being a “dumping ground” for 100,000 migrants a year, not all Tories are so dismissive. One senior Tory told i that the EU would be looking for concessions as part of any agreement. “Everything leads to burden-sharing as the EU is not going to change their policy,” the MP said. Tory former immigration minister Lord Kirkhope, who designed the failed Dublin returns agreement that the EU is now trying to replace, agreed it was unrealistic to expect a returns deal without a UK quota. He told i: “I have been trying to get the Government to get on board with the new EU successor agreement to my Dublin agreements which have not sustained”. Read the full story here.
Around the world
The death toll in Libya’s coastal city of Derna has risen to 11,300, as questions were raised about the maintenance of two dams which burst after heavy rain, unleashing massive floods. A further 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city.
President Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been criminally charged with three counts of lying when buying a firearm after his plea fell apart. Mr Biden, 53, is accused of lying about his drug use when he purchased a firearm in October 2018, a period during which he said he was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine. He reportedly kept the gun for 11 days.
Authorities in Kerala, India are racing to contain an outbreak of the deadly virus Nipah, after two people died. Schools and offices have been shut, public transport suspended and more than 800 people tracked over the virus, which has a fatality rate of up to 75 per cent.
US authorities have seized artworks by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele from galleries in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Ohio following a claim they were looted during the Holocaust. The pictures are being sought by the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-Jewish art collector, cabaret performer and outspoken critic of Nazism.
Nasa has released a long-awaited report into UFOs, in which it has refused to rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life and called for more crowdsourcing of data from the public. In a press conference, Nasa officials also announced the creation of a new role of director of research into “unidentified anomalous phenomena”, or UAP.
Watch out for…
Kim Jong-un, who spends today in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far eastern Russia and is expected to visit a plant that builds fighter jets.
Thoughts for the day
Keir Starmer’s immigration plans are not about undoing Brexit. What a shame, writes Ayesha Hazarika.
The smell of blood, the screams of patients – a visit to Ukraine reminded me of my last days in Aleppo. I travelled to Ukraine last month to show Ukrainian children that we see what is happening to them and that we care, reports Afraa Hashem.
The age of the ‘has been’ is over, we’re finally giving legacy acts like Sugababes what they deserve. We should respect music stars who keep going beyond their heyday – it’s Sugababes at the O2 for me this weekend, says Kuba Shand-Baptiste.
Culture Break
‘My team let me grieve for my husband for one album. Then it was back to sounding happy’. Corinne Bailey Rae talks about shedding cheery soul-pop, being raised in a racist culture, and why the media didn’t accept she was Black and middle class.
The Big Read
Don’t panic: your iPhone isn’t going to kill you, despite radiation fears in France. Apple has had sales of the iPhone 12 halted in France due to fears about the phone ’emitting too much electromagnetic radiation’. Stuart Ritchie explains what’s going on.
Sport
England’s Cricket World Cup hopes have been transformed by an injection of Bazball. England’s build-up to the World Cup in India next month had gone stale before Stokes’ sprinkle of stardust, writes Chris Stocks.
Something to brighten your day
I’m obsessed with the £500 gadget that turns smelly food waste into compost in three hours. My council doesn’t collect food waste separately to normal rubbish – so in search of a cleaner, greener solution, Emma Henderson tried out a new machine.
