I wrote about this craziness a couple of months ago. I can't believe they are actually doing it neilobrien.co.uk/p/you-cant-…

EXCL: Shabana Mahmood will announce a new legal route for refugees that prioritises Afghan women and girls and Palestinians, unfreezing a scheme that will put the most vulnerable refugees on a faster path to permanent status. @jessicaelgot @syalrajeev theguardian.com/politics/202…

I said it in 2020 and I’ll say it again. If you leave a home empty long-term in the middle of a housing crisis, it should be seized. Today’s announcement is great news.

🚨 NEW: John Healey says Gordon Brown emails him in the middle of the night in all caps offering advice "He was and still is an inspiration, a mentor... he captured for me the best of a Labour Chancellor"

EXCLUSIVE: The former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, was given asylum and citizenship in the UK — then “plotted” huge foiled terror attack targeting Jews in Europe last year Mr X had legal anonymity for 100 years: Sunday Times quashed this thetimes.com/uk/crime/articl…

Labour rocked by a row over cracking down on Boris wave migrants. Angela Rayner and now Rachael Maskell call for care workers to be exempt from changes to ILR rules. Maskell “It’s the wrong set of values - it’s not the values we have got.”

Found the worst profile on hinge 🤒

I’m afraid I pulled up short at this complaint & it coloured by impression of Grenfell’s evidence more generally. We ask these people to slit throats at a moment’s notice, to face things we must pray we never do, & she’s worried about swearing?

EXC: Migrant households received £12bn in Universal Credit last year. That is an increase of 57% on the total paid out in 2023. £7.7bn of this went foreign national households with at least one person out of work.

There are lots of real economic headwinds, not least from the Iran war (which is part of why we opposed it). But there are also lots of brilliant business owners who live in Britain and are investing in it (even if the BBC don’t cover their comments, or investments, as news)

Exclusive: A massive leak from the heart of Downing Street reveals how much Andy Burnham appears to have borrowed from Keir Starmer's plans since entering Number 10. I've obtained a 50 page bundle of presentations, strategy ideas and policy submissions drawn up in April in an attempt to keep Starmer in power. Here's what happened next. A @JoeCookJ production Watch: piped.video/watch?v=qBn9GK_D…

Lots of people getting overexcited. Wait until the weather turns, Burnham has made some actual decisions and yet another horrific ultra-violent crime hits the headlines. Reality hits in the autumn with the Budget. In the meantime, everyone should relax & enjoy the sunshine.

NEW: Chancellor John Healey has appointed trade union boss Paul Nowak as a director of the Bank of England

It is a very obvious point but one that is worth repeating. Statutory obligations aren’t just things that government must do, but also things that they must pay for. If they can’t do, they must pay others to do it for them. And if they can’t do or pay others to do they will be in breach of the law and liable to legal claim and remedy. It’s this financial obligation which drives all the downstream behaviour - out competing people for houses, hotel payments, using MoD barracks, buying student blocks, suspending council house allocations. All of these make perfect financial sense “within the system” since the financial obligation exists, and is assumed to remain indefinitely.

This is a bit farcical really. "Until you get the proper briefings you can only know so much." UK's dodgy fiscal position is not a state secret! It's not like entering Home Office or MoD and finding out all the security intelligence.

My @thetimes column: Small boat protesters reflect a broken system times-comment.com/smallboatp…