Sir Keir Starmer hails Labour triumph as a “seismic result” for his party, lauds three and a half years of hard work…reports Asian Lite News
Labour has triumphed in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election – with Sir Keir Starmer hailing it a “seismic result” for his party.
Michael Shanks replaces shamed MP Margaret Ferrier, who was ousted from her seat in August following a successful recall petition for breaching COVID restrictions during lockdown in 2020.
Voters took to the polls between 7am and 10pm on Thursday and out of the 82,104 electorate, a total of 30,531 votes were cast (37.19% turnout).
The turnout is down from 66.48% at the snap 2019 general election, when 53,794 valid votes were cast. Mr Shanks defeated the SNP’s Katy Loudon by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a 20.36% swing from SNP to Scottish Labour.
Shanks said: “There’s absolutely no doubt that this result shows that there’s no part of the United Kingdom that Labour can’t win. “It’s been a long time in Scotland – Labour building back to a place where people can trust us again. The leadership of Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar has got us to a place where people have put their trust in us. I’m incredibly honoured by the trust people have put in me in this by-election. But it shows fundamentally that people are fed up with the division of the SNP and want to vote for something else. And it’s clear from this by-election people are willing to do that.”
The Scottish Conservatives backed Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, student Cameron Eadie stood for the Scottish Greens, while data analyst Gloria Adebo ran for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
All eyes were on the SNP and Scottish Labour – with both parties treating the by-election as an important battleground ahead of the next UK general election.
During the campaign, Labour stated a win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West could help springboard the party to Number 10.
Prior to the by-election Labour had just one MP in Scotland.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is now hopeful that Scottish Labour will make gains against the SNP at the next general election, which could potentially pave the way for Labour’s return to power at Westminster.
Following the result, Sir Keir said: “This is a seismic result. People in Rutherglen and Hamilton West have sent a clear message – it is time for change. And it is clear they believe that this changed Labour Party can deliver it. I have always said that winning back the trust of people in Scotland is essential.”
Sir Keir said the victory was the culmination of “three and a half years of hard work”.
He added: “I am grateful to everyone who has put their faith in us today – we will work every day to repay it.
“Voters across Scotland and across Britain want a government determined to deliver for working people, with a proper plan to rebuild our country. They want to move on from two SNP and Tory governments that offer only more division, more chaos and more infighting. The country deserves a government firmly on their side and focused on their priorities – and Labour will deliver that for them.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said it was an “extraordinary result”. He added: “And I think what it demonstrates is that Scottish politics has fundamentally changed. Scottish politics has been turned on its head and people in Scotland are sending a clear message to two failing governments that they want an end to the incompetence, they want an end to the chaos, they want an end to division, and they want fundamental change.”
Sarwar acknowledged the large swing in votes but said “the hard work doesn’t stop here”.
He added: “Of course, a great night. Of course, great momentum for the next general election campaign. But we are going to work flat out until we get over the line, get rid of this economically illiterate, morally bankrupt Tory Party, and elect a UK-wide Labour government.”
SNP leader Humza Yousaf joins SNP candidate Katy Loudon (centre) and suporters, in Rutherglen during campaigning ahead of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election. Picture date: Saturday September 30, 2023.
The result will pile more pressure on SNP leader Humza Yousaf – who has seen his party’s fortunes decline in the polls in the wake of the ongoing police investigation into SNP finances. Responding to the loss, the first minister said it was a “disappointing night” for his party.
He added: “I want to thank our exceptional candidate Katy Loudon and our activists for their incredible efforts. Let me also congratulate Michael Shanks on being elected. Circumstances of this by-election were always very difficult for us. Collapse in the Tory vote, which went straight to Labour, also a significant factor. We lost this seat in 2017, and like 2019 we can win this seat back. However, we will reflect on what we have to do to regain the trust of the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West.”
Labour leader says he would seek closer trading ties with Brussels when the pact negotiated by Boris Johnson comes up for review in 2025…reports Asian Lite News
Keir Starmer has committed to pursuing a major rewrite of the Brexit deal with the EU if Labour is elected, citing his responsibility to his children and future generations.
As the Labour leader begins to unveil his blueprint for power if the party wins the next general election, he told the Financial Times he would seek a closer trading relationship with Brussels when the agreement negotiated by then-prime minister Boris Johnson comes up for review in 2025.
“Almost everyone recognises the deal Johnson struck is not a good deal – it’s far too thin,” Starmer said. “As we go into 2025 we will attempt to get a much better deal for the UK.”
This weekend @DavidLammy and I spoke with political leaders from across the globe about the biggest challenges we face collectively.
I will take on those challenges and restore Britain’s standing on the global stage, for the security of people at home. pic.twitter.com/WwbWmKrMuU
Starmer made the comments in Canada at a conference of centre-left leaders, the Global Progress Action Summit, in Montreal, where he had a bilateral meeting with the country’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau. The trip is part of a wider tour of the international stage: Starmer visited The Hague last week and will arrive in Paris to see the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday.
The Labour leader said there is “more that can be achieved across the board” between the UK and EU in a revised deal – on business, veterinary compliance, professional services, security, innovation, research and other areas. He ruled out rejoining the EU, the customs union and the single market.
Johnson’s deal is up for review in 2025 but the process is seen more by Brussels as an ironing-out procedure. European appetite for renegotiating a deal that commenced in 2021 is uncertain.
“We have to make it work,” Starmer told the paper. “That’s not a question of going back in. But I refuse to accept that we can’t make it work. I think about those future generations when I say that.
“I say that as a dad. I’ve got a 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. I’m not going to let them grow up in a world where all I’ve got to say to them about their future is, it’s going to be worse than it might otherwise have been. I’ve got an utter determination to make this work.”
His comments join other recent interventions in which the leader – who has frustrated some for being tight-lipped – has started to outline what Starmer’s Britain might look like, as Labour begins to plan for power.
The party is consistently polling above the Conservatives. Last week Starmer sat down to dinner with union leaders gathered for the Trades Union Congress, with one official present summing up Starmer’s message as “eyes on the prize”.
In Paris on Tuesday, Macron and Starmer are expected to discuss post-Brexit relations, as well as a potential returns agreement with the EU to stop people travelling across the Channel in dangerously small boats.
🇫🇷 Emmanuel Macron will host Sir Keir Starmer at the Elysée next week as the Labour leader “tests the waters” with France
“We have to make it work. That’s not a question of going back in, but I refuse to accept that we can’t make it work,” he said, adding that he was thinking about “future generations”.
The Labour leader spent the weekend meeting fellow centre-left leaders in Canada, including the country’s prime minister Justin Trudeau.
He is also expected to travel to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron later this week, where post-Brexit relations are expected to feature heavily in talks.
He also travelled to the Hague, the Netherlands, last week to meet with the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol, seeking a deal to try and stop smuggling gangs bringing people across the channel in small boats.
Meanwhile, Starmer is on course to clinch a landslide majority of 140 for Labour at the next UK general election, the first modelling based on a mega poll of new constituency boundaries suggests.
With the Conservatives still suffering from a large polling deficit, Labour’s support was found to be at about 35 per cent to 12 per cent ahead of Rishi Sunak’s party, The Guardian reported.
The results were revealed in an analysis of polling known as multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP), and will boost Starmer’s hopes of victory as the long campaign in the run-up to the next election progresses.
John Curtice, a political commentator, said that since the sleaze scandals that engulfed Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s mini-budget, there had been a “very substantial” drop in support for the Tories. Though Sunak had sought to steady the party, Curtice said there had been only “a bit of a narrowing” of Labour’s lead, The Guardian reported.
The general election poses a headache to pollsters and campaign strategists, as constituency boundaries are being redrawn for the first time in several election cycles.
The Opposition said more than 90% of crimes are going unsolved under the Tories, with a record 2.4 million cases dropped due to evidential difficulties in the last year…reports Asian Lite News
Labour has set up a task force responsible for drawing up reforms to increase the number of crimes solved – which the party would implement if it wins the next election.
The Opposition said more than 90% of crimes are going unsolved under the Tories, with a record 2.4 million cases dropped due to evidential difficulties in the last year alone.
Labour has set up a so-called “Charging Commission” with immediate effect. It will aim to identify reasons for the “woeful” decline in successful law enforcement and develop credible proposals to turn things around.
Senior experts from across the policing and prosecutorial sectors will sit on the commission. It will be chaired by the former Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, the party said.
Dame Vera quit as the victims’ commissioner in September last year, saying in a damning resignation letter that the “criminal justice system is in chaos” and ministers have downgraded victims’ interest.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “It should be unthinkable for so many more crimes to face no consequences whatsoever, but that is the shameful reality after 13 Conservative years.
“This expert Commission will help us to deliver on our pledge to make Britain safer.”
Labour pointed to recent Home Office figures showing that in the year to March 2023, there were “evidential difficulties” with 2.4 million out of 5.4 million recorded crimes.
Just 9.7% of all crimes resulted in a charge, out-of-court action or diversionary activity – leaving over 90% unsolved. Labour said a record-high number of victims are giving up on the criminal justice system, with 1.6 million cases being dropped due to complainants pulling out.
It comes as the number of days it takes to charge a suspect has tripled since 2016, from 14 to 44. Responding to Labour’s proposals, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Labour are soft on crime and soft on criminals. Keir Starmer has consistently whipped his MPs to vote against stronger sentences for violent offenders and rapists.
“Where Labour are in power, crime is over a third higher than Conservative-run areas, and as Director of Prosecutions Keir Starmer oversaw a huge drop in the number of sexual offences that were prosecuted. Meanwhile, we have cut the reoffending rate to lower than when Labour left office, increased the conviction rate by 15%, doubled charge rates for rape, and introduced tougher sentences for the worst offenders.”
According to Labour, the party’s Charging Commission will devise recommendations for key areas, including improvements to digital forensics to help police crack more cases and cutting red tape in joint-working arrangements between forces and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Alongside Dame Vera, members who have agreed to join the commission include former chief constable Stephen Otter, former chief crown prosecutor Drusilla Sharpling and West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Alison Lowe.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, said it was time to replace the “blame game” between the police and the CPS over plummeting charge rates with cooperation to punish criminals and protect communities.
Dame Vera said the commission will “forensically investigate the causes of this charging crisis, and set out robust recommendations for recovery”.
She said: “The woeful collapse in charging rates has exposed victims of crime to intolerable anguish and uncertainty, and we are now seeing record numbers of victims giving up on the criminal justice system altogether. Investigations and prosecutions for serious crimes like rape are in a dismal state, the criminal justice system is in chaos, and things simply cannot stay as they are.”
The state of the justice system is expected to be a dominant issue at the next general election, with both major parties seeking to sell themselves to voters as the party of law and order.
Under the Tories’ watch, 90% of crimes are left unsolved.
Labour has a mission to make Britain's streets safe and get public confidence in policing back up.https://t.co/6AKd3oZ5dE
The party is concerned about the number of suspects not being identified, victims not wanting to press charges, increasing difficulties getting evidence, and the speed of cases slowing.
It pointed to recent Home Office figures showing that, in the year to March 2023, there were “evidential difficulties” with 2.4 million out of 5.4 million recorded crimes.
Labour says this amounts to “a decade of dereliction” by the Tory government on crime.
Dame Vera said the “woeful collapse in charging rates” meant victims were “giving up on the criminal justice system altogether”.
“This Commission will bring together voices from across policing and prosecutions to forensically investigate the causes of this charging crisis, and set out robust recommendations for recovery,” Dame Vera said.
A Home Office spokesperson claimed “communities are safer” since the Conservatives took power 13 years ago. They said “neighbourhood crime including burglary, robbery and theft down 51% and serious violent crime down 46%”.
“The government has also delivered more police officers than ever before in England and Wales and the home secretary has been clear she expects the police to improve public confidence by getting the basics right – catching more criminals and delivering justice for victims,” the spokesperson added.
But they also acknowledged the criminal justice system “needs to work better together – including the current levels of cases being investigated and converted into charges and subsequent prosecutions”.
Sir Keir Starmer says despite the party’s success at Selby and Ainsty, its loss in Uxbridge and South Ruislip showed there was “still a long way to go”…reports Asian Lite News
Following the Labour party’s defeat in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection, Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged that something “very wrong” must be happening within the party regarding the contentious Ulez expansion policy.
In a speech at the national policy forum in Nottingham, the Labour leader said that despite the party’s success at the Selby and Ainsty byelection, its loss in Uxbridge and South Ruislip showed there was “still a long way to go”.
He added: “We are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour party end up on each and every Tory leaflet. We’ve got to face up to that and learn the lessons.”
On Friday, Starmer urged the Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to “reflect” on the impact of extending the ultra-low emission zone to every borough, including Uxbridge and South Ruislip where the party was narrowly defeated in a byelection on Thursday.
The Tory victory has been credited by both Conservative and Labour campaigners to Khan’s upcoming expansion of the Ulez. This expansion will impose a daily fee of £12.50 on drivers who use older, more polluting vehicles.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the party had lost by 495 votes in the constituency because it had failed to “listen to voters” over concerns about Ulez.
Some environmentally minded Conservatives have urged Rishi Sunak to hold firm on net zero commitments. However, despite the intensifying climate emergency, with world temperature records broken twice in the last week alone, the prime minister is facing calls from other Tories to rethink “very unpopular” green policies, such as the plans to phase out gas boilers by 2035 and ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
One Tory cabinet minister told the Daily Telegraph: “It is about pace and practicality. This isn’t the area for pure ideology, it is an area for balance.” Another said: “There probably is a broader lesson that the Conservatives should stand for sensible approaches to net zero.”
Craig Mackinlay, the chair of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, told the Telegraph: “This is a wake-up call to warn politicians against anti-motorist policies across the entire country.
“We need to get the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars overturned at least until 2035, which is where most of the developed world is going.”
But fellow Tory Chris Skidmore, who led a recent net zero review of the UK’s climate goals, said: “It helps no one in politics if we are not honest about the reality of pollution in our cities and the health consequences of this, but we also need to be honest about what investments are needed to deliver policies with public support.
“This was what the net zero review very clearly set out: we need long-term investment to encourage private sector investment and to create a just transition by establishing the effective incentives to decarbonise.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that Sunak was preparing to launch an aggressive political campaign on crime, migrant boats and transgender rights in an attempt to drive down Labour’s lead in the polls.
The newspaper said the Conservatives were planning to focus on “divisive” issues, with the government said to be drawing up a series of policies for a crime and justice bill that would include tougher sentences for antisocial behaviour, fraud, burglary and robbery.
It was anticipated that Sunak would proceed with his intentions of amending the Equality Act to provide clear safeguards for biological women in single-sex environments, including areas like changing rooms and hospital wards.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, has suggested delaying the ban on new diesel and petrol cars, pushing it back “at least” five years to 2035.
Downing Street sources say there are no plans to change climate targets – but that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will try to set his party apart from Labour in the coming months.
As the major parties digest the by-election results, ex-climate minister Lord Ian Duncan, a Conservative, warned that if Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak do not put politics aside and agree a common approach to climate change, people will face “serious challenges”.
Lord Duncan, who was the parliamentary under secretary for climate change from July 2019 to February 2020, said a “bipartisan approach” was needed from both parties to “get behind” common climate policies.
The UK government’s net zero tsar, Chris Skidmore, said it would be an “abdication” of responsibility if ministers “play politics” with environmental policies.
Skidmore, the Conservative MP for Kingswood, said: “The net zero review I chaired demonstrated that net zero isn’t just an environmental policy, but a key economic driver of future growth and investment that can transform Britain for the better, but this requires all political parties not to play politics with safeguarding our futures.”
He urged politicians to prioritise “the lives and health of the public and the opportunity for economic growth” ahead of “gamesmanship”.
“It is also really bad politics, given that the environment and taking action on climate change consistently polls third in the issues that voters care about,” he added.
Rishi Sunak has avoided a clean sweep of by-election defeats after holding onto Uxbridge and South Ruislip in a night of three votes…reports Asian Lite News
There had been pessimism in the Conservative Party that they would lose the west London seat, alongside Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire and Somerton and Frome in Somerset.
But the vote in west London was dominated by the expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone – ULEZ – into the area by Labour’s mayor of London Sadiq Khan. It means Sunak avoids becoming the first prime minister since Harold Wilson in 1968 to lose three by-elections in one go.
Sir Keir Starmer will be disappointed to not have gained the west London seat. The majority before the vote was around 7,000 – and at one point in the campaign, Labour candidate Danny Beales had an eight-point lead over the Tories’ Steve Tuckwell.
Tuckwell walked away with a majority of 495 votes – and claimed Mr Khan had “lost Labour this election” after bagging 13,965 to Labour’s 13,470.
At the other end of the country, in North Yorkshire, Labour sealed their largest ever by-election win – overturning a Conservative lead of roughly 20,000 – by taking 16,456 compared to 12,295.
The party threw a substantial amount of resources at the Selby and Ainsty seat, which was not on their target list before the snap vote was called when former MP Nigel Adams stepped aside.
But Conservative voters appeared to stay at home, letting Labour take home the seat with a swing of 23.7 points.
There was further grim reading for the Tories in Somerset’s Somerton and Frome as the Liberal Democrats overturned a majority of 19,213, reclaiming a seat they had held until 2015. Now the Tories trail by 11,008 behind the Liberal Democrats’ 21,187 votes with 10,179.
Asked what went wrong, Tory chairman Greg Hands said it is “no secret” his party has had a difficult year and the backdrop to the by-elections “were not particularly favourable to the Conservatives”.
He added: “Clearly we’re disappointed by the results in Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome. We’ll listen carefully to the electorate in both of those constituencies.”
But Hands claimed there’s also “important lessons for Labour” and the result in Uxbridge showed “people were voting against a Labour London mayor who’d not run things properly in London”.
Labour are now claiming the ULEZ issue that dominated Uxbridge and South Ruislip does not represent the feeling across the UK.
A Labour spokesman said: “This was always going to be a difficult battle in a seat that has never had a Labour MP, and we didn’t even win in 1997.
“We know that the Conservatives crashing the economy has hit working people hard, so it’s unsurprising that the ULEZ expansion was a concern for voters here in a by-election.”
Labour MP Steve Reed was a bit more blunt in his conclusions.
He said: “I think the winning Conservative candidate just said it, didn’t he? He said that if it wasn’t for ULEZ, he believes Labour would have won this by-election.
“Clearly, it did resonate with a lot of people. They didn’t like the fact that ULEZ was going to cost people more to drive around at a time when there’s a cost-of-living crisis going on. That’s exactly what Danny Beales was saying all the way through the campaign.
“But I think when the voters speak, any party that seeks to govern has to listen. So that’s what Labour will be doing after this.”
The by-elections came about after Johnson, Adam and David Warburton stood aside from their seats amid scandal and shunned honours.
There was a 6.7-percentage point swing in the share of the vote from Conservative to Labour in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Labour needed a 7.6-point swing to take the seat.
The byelection was triggered by Johnson’s shock resignation after the Commons privileges committee recommended a lengthy suspension from parliament for knowingly misleading parliament about lockdown parties in Downing Street.
In Selby, the Conservatives blamed the outgoing MP, Nigel Adams, for their defeat. People were “really disappointed” that Adams quit in a huff because he didn’t get a seat in the Lords, said Andrew Jones, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, who has been overseeing much of the Tory campaigning in Selby. It was “the main talking point” on the doorstep, he claimed.
The Liberal Democrats have gained four seats from the Conservatives at byelections this parliament, after winning Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire in 2021, and Tiverton and Honiton last year.
In her victory speech in Somerset, Dyke thanked lifelong Conservative voters for switching to the Lib Dems for the first time.
The Lib Dems won 21,187 votes with a 28-point swing, while the Tories achieved their worst result in the history of the seat with 10,179 votes and 26% of the vote. The Greens came third, with Reform UK fourth and Labour fifth.
Labour’s proposed legislation could also be used to proscribe the IRGC, which sends hit squads to assassinate dissidents on British soil…reports Asian Lite News
The Labour Party has said that it will introduce legislation to ban dangerous state-sponsored organisations that pose a threat to the UK, including Russia’s Wagner group and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the UK anti-terrorism legislation doesn’t “fit” the dangers posed by emerging “hostile-state threats” such as Wagner, the Russian private military company accused of human rights abuses in Africa and Ukraine. The mercenaries’ leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, mounted an armed rebellion against President Putin’s regime last month.
The government has repeatedly signalled its intention formally to proscribe Wagner, which would make it a criminal offence to belong to the group, attend its meetings, encourage support for it or display its logo in public, putting it on the same footing as groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda. However, ministers have so far failed to do so. A senior government source said the plans to proscribe Wagner were being blocked by the Foreign Office, which “didn’t want to upset Russia”.
“At the moment the government is left having to use terrorism legislation to proscribe organisations,” Cooper said. “And the terrorism legislation doesn’t quite fit. We think there should be parallel legislation . . . around state threats.”
Cooper, 54, said Labour’s proposed legislation could also be used to proscribe the IRGC, which sends hit squads to assassinate dissidents on British soil. Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, recently disclosed that ten IRGC plots in the UK had been foiled in the past year. In February, the television channel Iran International TV, acting on advice from the Metropolitan Police, closed its London studios after state-backed threats.
It is understood the Foreign Office is concerned banning the IRGC would lead the UK to lose its embassy in Tehran, which would damage the “protection of UK interests”.
Cooper, a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, criticised successive Conservative governments for failing to provide the required “leadership” against myriad new threats to the UK.
She said a Labour government would seek to build a new integrated strategy for dealing with threats from hostile states, similar to the Contest anti-terrorism strategy. “You would have the same broad approach that brings together not just the intelligence agencies, the police, different government organisations, different non-government private sector – public sector organisations as well, as part of the comprehensive response and strategy to the homeland security threat.
Cooper added: “Foreign security threats are actually increasingly become domestic security threats.” She pledged that Labour would create a “joint cell” between the Home Office and the Foreign Office to build a “combined team working together to co-ordinate . . . across different departments”.
The government and intelligence agencies have repeatedly been criticised for failing to tackle the challenges posed by hostile states such as China and Russia. Last week, the intelligence and security committee (ISC), a group of senior MPs and peers that reviews the work of the intelligence agencies, published a damning report revealing that China had penetrated every sector of the UK economy, and lambasted successive governments for pursuing short-term economic interests rather than addressing the threat. The report concluded that Britain was being subjected to a “whole-state assault” by China, which had targeted politicians, sensitive infrastructure, the military, private companies and the academic sector.
In 2020 the ISC published a similar report on the government’s policy towards Russia. It claimed British intelligence agencies took their “eye off the ball” over Russian interference and that the government “badly underestimated” the threat.
Cooper said China posed a “complex strategic challenge” and committed Labour to conducting a “comprehensive” review of critical national infrastructure. “We’ve seen concerns about the secret Chinese police stations [in the UK] and also some long-term economic concerns as well [around] security of supply chains and the use of Chinese equipment as part of police security cameras,” she said. “Obviously we have substantial trade with China. We also have to be very clear-eyed about areas where there is an impact on our long-term economic resilience, but also on our national security. We want to see leadership and a proper overarching strategy, rather than this piecemeal approach.” Cooper claimed “security [would] underpin everything that Labour does”.
“Keir [Starmer] has talked about us needing to face down the age of insecurity, whether that’s a threat to economic security that families face, the sense of insecurity that people have in their own communities and their own streets,” she added. “People concerned at the cost-of-living crisis on mortgage insecurity, through to community and safety issues, or the security of knowing that public services will be there for you when you need them. But, of course, national security is the bedrock on which everything else has to be built. And you know, it’s the bedrock for opportunities, for social justice. And so that’s why we see national security as being the first duty of any government, and certainly the first duty of a Labour government to make sure that our country is safe.”
The recruiters and lenders pull off the schemes, the documents and workers allege, by rushing workers through a smoke-and-mirrors process that hides key details about their employment and loan contracts….reports Katie McQue
Employment agencies and loan companies in the Philippines have worked together to cheat thousands of women seeking domestic worker jobs overseas in schemes that combine labor exploitation and predatory lending, interviews with workers and thousands of pages of confidential complaints filed with Philippine authorities show.
These companies play on workers’ hopes for better lives for themselves and their families, pressuring them into paying illegal recruiting fees and taking out loans with interest rates often exceeding 130%, workers and complaint documents allege.
These Philippines-based labor firms tell job seekers they can’t get coveted positions as household workers in Hong Kong or Taiwan unless they pay fees ranging between $800 to $1,700, according to interviews with 15 workers. Those fees represent huge sums for workers from impoverished backgrounds. They are also illegal under Philippine law, the complaint documents allege.
To make sure they collect their money, the workers and documents say, employment firms steer workers to lenders that advance them money to cover the hefty fees. The interviews and documents reveal that these lenders promise low interest rates but the actual interest charges are much higher — with annual interest rates ranging between 61% and 578%. Those rates are far above the Philippines’ 8% per year legal limit on what lenders can charge on loans to overseas workers.
The recruiters and lenders pull off the schemes, the documents and workers allege, by rushing workers through a smoke-and-mirrors process that hides key details about their employment and loan contracts. The complaints say some lenders blackmail borrowers by coercing them into signing over blank checks — and then threatening to “bounce” the checks and file criminal charges against them if they complain to government authorities or don’t keep up with their payments.
“I’m so afraid of that blank check, because maybe one day they arrest me because of that,” said Merry Criz Renayong, whose loan with a Philippine lender carries an interest rate of more than 180%. “I’m so afraid I might go to jail.”
In a nation where poverty pushes as many as one in 10 adults to seek employment abroad each year, the money overseas workers send home helps their families survive, boosts the Philippine economy and earns them praise as “modern-day heroes.” But their financial needs and uncertain immigration status when they go abroad leave them vulnerable to mistreatment not only by employers but also by recruiters and lenders, workers and labor experts say.
“Of course, we want to work abroad, so they charge workers huge amounts of money,” said Annabelle Gutierrez, 38, who described paying a large recruiting fee with a high-interest loan from a lender she’d been directed to by an employment agency. “We grab it because we don’t have a choice.”
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sworn in as Philippines’ 17th President.(photo: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbidV2368058591112&set=pb.100044537672013.-2207520000 )
Crippling debts
This article is part of a reporting collaboration organized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Trafficking Inc. ICIJ, The Guardian, NBC News, Reuters and other media partners are examining human trafficking and labor abuses in many parts of the globe.
This story is based on interviews conducted by ICIJ over several months as well as complaint documents obtained by ICIJ that total 2,741 pages and name 12 licensed loan companies operating in the Philippines. The complaints were filed in 2020 and 2021 with at least 10 Philippine government entities, including the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.
The complaints were prepared by Migrasia, a Hong Kong-based non-governmental organization run by legal scholars and researchers who focus on issues related to migrant workers throughout Asia.
The complaints have not been previously reported on by news outlets. Officials with Migrasia said collusion between labor firms and lenders has been going on for many years, but their working relationships have never been the subject of wide public exposure.
The choreographed double dealing alleged in the interviews and the complaints provides a fresh example of the kinds of traps and hazards that workers from around the world face when they leave their home countries and seek opportunity elsewhere.
A lack of action by authorities in their home and destination countries leaves workers who cross national borders at the mercy of players who don’t have their best interests in mind. These workers are often burdened with crippling debts owed to recruiters, go-betweens, traffickers and others involved in their journey to what they hope will be better lives.
Along with alleging illegal tactics by lenders and recruiters based in the Philippines, the complaint documents criticize Philippine authorities for failing to crack down on the firms’ practices.
A 2020 filing with government agencies said “little progress has been made” in fighting these schemes despite “numerous complaints made across several months” to the Philippines SEC, whose authority includes regulating consumer lenders.
“The SEC has merely acknowledged receipt of the complaints and has not made any attempt to follow up on the substance of the complaints,” the document asserted.
A 2021 filing naming multiple employment agencies said the Philippine government had failed to even issue warnings to these companies and other labor firms despite “overwhelming complaints and evidence verified by numerous independent parties.”
In a written statement provided to ICIJ, Migrasia said the problem has continued to increase in recent years.
“We hope that authorities in the Philippines and Hong Kong start to take these issues more seriously and listen to community leaders and experts so that they can permanently eliminate these illegal fees and debts from arising,” the statement said.
Borrowing trouble
In October 2019, Merry Criz Renayong left her hometown of San Jose and headed to Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
If she could persuade an employment agency in Manila to get her a job as a housemaid for a good family in Hong Kong, she thought, she could make more money than she was earning in San Jose waiting tables. She could send money home to her family. And she could save enough to send her son and daughter to college, helping them fulfill their dreams of becoming flight attendants.
In a third-floor office in a concrete building along downtown Manila’s United Nations Avenue, staffers with Rapid Manpower Consultants, a recruitment agency licensed by the Philippine government, told her she needed to pay nearly $1,200 to secure a position in Hong Kong, Renayong said in an interview with ICIJ.
Recruitment agencies in the Philippines are prohibited from charging placement fees to applicants seeking domestic worker jobs abroad. But migrant workers can be charged for mandatory training and medical exams under Philippine law and experts say they are often overcharged by agencies seeking to pass their recruitment costs on to the workers.
When Renayong told staffers at Rapid Manpower that she couldn’t pay what the labor firm was demanding, she says, they had a solution — they led her outside the building and around a corner to the offices of Hoya Lending Investor Corp.
Hoya, she says, offered her a loan that would cover the fees demanded by the recruiter and told her the loan contract carried a low interest rate. But she says they wouldn’t give her a copy of the contract she signed, snatching the original away when she tried to take pictures with her phone.
A complaint document prepared by Migrasia said Hoya “generally refuses” to provide borrowers with their loan contracts and other required disclosures, telling them that they can have a copy of their contracts only after their loans are fully paid. During this process, the complaint said, borrowers “are under extreme stress” and “are unable to ask questions or make informed choices” because they know that if they don’t comply, the employment agency working in collaboration with Hoya would block their chance at getting a job in Hong Kong.
After she finished signing the loan documents, Renayong says, Hoya staffers took her to a bank on a different floor of Hoya’s building and helped her set up a checking account. Then, she says, they had her sign a blank check and told her that if she was late with a payment, they’d cash the check for the whole amount she owed — a move that could overdraw her account and lead to criminal charges against her under the Philippines’ “bouncing check” law.
It wasn’t until she started her new job in Hong Kong, she says, that she learned the loan contract required her to pay the lender $365.41 a month — more than three-fifths of the monthly wages she was going to earn in Hong Kong.
The actual annual interest rate on the loan was 188%, according to calculations by ICIJ and the Center for Responsible Lending, a U.S.-based non-profit that monitors high-cost loan products. Hoya charges an average interest rate of 143%, according to a sample of loans reviewed by Migrasia.
The dream job Renayong went into debt for didn’t last. Her employers in Hong Kong, a three-generation household, complained about how she cooked chicken and about the make-up and hair products she wore inside the house, she says. They let her go after three months.
She couldn’t afford to pay another fee to get a job with a different employer in Hong Kong and had no way to keep up with her payments to Hoya, she says. She found a job as a domestic helper in Qatar without having to pay a placement fee. She worries about what Hoya Lending will do when she comes home to the Philippines after she completes her Qatari labor contract in August.
“I’m trying to earn to pay them back in case they file a legal case against me,” she said.
Rapid Manpower did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and when reached by phone, Hoya declined to comment on the allegations.
Powerful connections
The links between Philippine labor firms and lenders go beyond informal working arrangements. The 2021 complaint that names several employment agencies said the Philippine government has allowed “very powerful families” and a “circle of friends” to own or control multiple companies that work in concert to shake down these workers.
In one example, the complaint alleged, a recruiting firm called A&W International Manpower Services Specialist also controlled two lenders — PJH Lending Corp. and Prosperity and Success Lending Investor Corp. — as well as medical diagnostic and training centers and other ventures that profit from migrant workers’ efforts to gain employment overseas.
Gutierrez, the 38-year-old Filipina worker, said in an interview that after she applied with A&W for a household worker position in Hong Kong, the recruiting agency told her she needed to take out a loan with Prosperity and Success Lending to cover more than $900 in fees.
To stop her from looking elsewhere for a loan, she says, A&W’s staff demanded she turn over her identification papers, including her passport.
“I was telling them I wanted to take the loan from another lending company, but they held my documents until it was time for me to fly,” she said. “They forwarded my documents to the lending company, and the loan was ready before my flight.”
Gutierrez and 12 other borrowers interviewed for this story say they felt misled about the costs of their loans, because their lenders falsely promised low interest rates or withheld information about the rates they’d be paying.
A complaint document said loans made by Prosperity and Success Lending generally carried annual interest rates that were “around 90% and often exceeding 100%.”
Gutierrez is from Tarlac City, in a region of the central Philippines known for its vast sugar and rice plantations. Like many others, she said, she has no way to earn an adequate living unless she can work overseas.
In addition to being told to sign blank checks, she says, Prosperity and Success Lending also required her to appear in a video stating she owed $900 to the lending firm.
“I was nervous about getting on the plane to Hong Kong because I was thinking what if my job is not okay, then they would spread that video,” she says.
A&W did not provide a response to ICIJ’s requests for comment. Prosperity and Success Lending declined to comment.
Poverty and Hope
More than 18% of the population of the Philippines are unable to meet their basic food and non-food needs, pushing millions of Filipinos to leave the country to find better jobs and better wages. A recent survey found that 7% of Philippines households have a member working overseas and 7% of adults still living in the country say they’re seeking jobs overseas.
The money overseas workers send back is a vital driver of the country’s economy. In 2022, Filipinos working overseas sent home a record $36.1 billion in cash remittances, accounting for about 9% of the gross domestic product. Social and political reformer Corazon Aquino popularized calling the nation’s overseas workers “modern-day heroes” during her term as president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992.
There are hundreds of thousands of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. Household jobs involving cooking, cleaning and caring for children in Hong Kong are coveted by Filipinos because there’s a relatively generous minimum wage of more than $600 a month, and the treatment of household workers is more regulated than in other common employment destinations, such as the Persian Gulf countries. In Hong Kong, the law requires that they get a day off each week, a rarity for domestic workers in the Middle East.
Despite Hong Kong’s draw, human rights groups say exploitation and abuse of foreign household workers in the Asian metropolis is all too common. In a 2019 survey of Hong Kong domestic workers, 15% said they had been physically abused during employment. Hong Kong media highlighted concerns about heavy debts owed by domestic workers after three Filipino household helpers died in debt-related suicides in early 2016 and again in 2020 when local police announced they’d busted a “loan shark syndicate” preying on Filipina domestic workers.
An Amnesty International report submitted in January to the United Nations said Hong Kong’s policies on domestic workers’ immigration status and living conditions leave them vulnerable to exploitation by their employers and job-placement firms. The report noted that migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong are “commonly heavily indebted” due to “excessive and illegal” fees charged by employment agencies.
In response to questions from ICIJ, Hong Kong’s Department of Labor said it “does not tolerate any exploitation or abuse” of foreign household workers. On the issue of debt, the agency said it works to help them “carefully assess their repayment ability when taking out loans.”
Fear and intimidation
When workers are unable to keep up with their loan payments, harassment and intimidation by lenders and debt collectors is common, according to interviews and the complaint documents.
Hoya, for example, reveals photos and full names on Facebook of borrowers who have missed payments, according to posts viewed by ICIJ and a complaint document focusing on Hoya. The lender also suggests online that it will file criminal charges against borrowers who fall behind, even though it isn’t a crime in the Philippines.
One post recently visible on a Hoya Facebook page displays copies of two arrest warrants with the names of the persons being arrested covered up.
“Two new love letters[s],” the post says, along with a toothy smiley face emoji. It says the warrants are “for those who don’t want to talk to us and continue to not know how to pay voluntarily. Don’t be surprised if you get one of these.”
One of the complaint documents crafted by legal experts at Migrasia charges that Philippine authorities have allowed Hoya to abuse the criminal court system by fabricating “bouncing check” cases against borrowers. The document alleges that the lender “works with complacent prosecutors and known to be favorable judges in order to fabricate these cases by confiscating bank checks, colluding with bank staff, and conspiring with members of the judicial system.”
The complaint said it’s estimated that more than 60 borrowers are arrested and prosecuted each year in the Philippines by lenders that abuse the judicial system as a tool for collecting predatory debts.
The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Philippine government’s Department of Migrant Workers, which is responsible for the protection of the rights and promote the welfare of overseas workers and their families, also did not provide a response to the allegations presented to it by the ICIJ.
Another Manilla-based lender, CASH4U, tried to blackmail victims into making payments by threatening them with criminal charges and impersonating law enforcement, a borrower’s affidavit and two complaints Migrasia filed with Philippine authorities alleged.
A July 2020 complaint prepared by Migrasia claimed CASH4U representatives “falsely threatened borrowers that legal action will be taken, despite acting illegally themselves.” The complaint said CASH4U also threatened that a partner company in Hong Kong would send a “demand letter” to a borrower’s employer — a move that would violate the borrower’s privacy and put them at risk of being fired from their job and sent home.
Another complaint filed a month later included a screenshot of a message that it said CASH4U had sent to a borrower with this epithet: “YOUR [sic] USELESS BITCH.” It was accompanied by a photograph of a CASH4U staffer’s middle finger. According to the complaint, CASH4U sent another borrower a threat of legal action that will “greatly affect your local or international employment in the future.”
One CASH4U borrower, Venus Macaraeg, claims that the lender hounded her for more money even though she’d repaid the loan, plus interest, forking over more than $1,200.
“They would not explain why I owe additional money,” she said in an interview. “They said that if I did not pay the penalty interest, I would be subject to a criminal investigation or blacklisting from working in Hong Kong.”
A former director of CASH4U told ICIJ that the company was put out of business by the pandemic, but it has outsourced its debt collections to a collection agency.
Fighting back
Macaraeg hasn’t been able to see her own child for five years, but she is bringing up someone else’s. In Hong Kong, she’s employed as a domestic worker and a nanny to a 4-year-old boy she refers to as “my baby here.”
The 39-year-old has been supporting herself and her sister since they were orphaned as teenagers. Her sister is now looking after Macaraeg’s 16-year-old daughter, and Macaraeg sends part of her monthly salary home to support them.
Macaraeg says she was coerced by a recruitment firm called Angelex Allied Agency into taking out a loan of nearly $800 from CASH4U. The money was to pay for her training — and Angelex refused to return her passport to her until she paid, she says.
Angelex Allied Agency did not respond to the ICIJ’s requests for comment.
Macaraeg has fought back by volunteering for Migrasia and other groups that work to protect migrant workers, helping other workers targeted for unfair loans get refunds from their lenders. She recently founded her own Hong Kong-registered NGO to assist migrant workers who’ve been stuck with illegal recruitment fees.
Macaraeg is also advocating for herself, lodging a complaint against CASH4U with Philippine authorities. She says the lender stopped bothering her after she sent it a torrent of emails listing the laws she said the company had violated when it gave her the loan.
“I send lots of emails, so they are so scared,” she says.
Many overseas workers, she says, aren’t able to defend themselves in the same way because they aren’t yet aware of their rights.
“These companies keep intimidating the borrower,” she says, “so they can keep collecting money from them.”
(Publishing in association with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists)
Labour’s reputation in Delhi and among British Indian voters in the UK has slipped in recent years, because of the support by some in the party for the independence of J&K…reports Asian Lite News
Keir Starmer has promised to reset relations between the Labour party and India after years of tension between the two.
The Labour leader said on Monday that his party had made mistakes in its approach to relations with the world’s most populous country, and that it would seek closer ties if elected to power next year.
Labour’s reputation in Delhi and among British Indian voters in the UK has slipped in recent years, not least because of the support by some in the party for the independence of of Jammu and Kashmir. Some UK Indians have also complained that the party has focused more on poorer inner-city Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities than on them.
“India is shining as the biggest global beacon for democracy and democratic values – and a huge contributor to global growth and prosperity.
Starmer told those attending the UK-India Week conference: “In the past Labour gave the impression we could only see the lives of people in communities who needed our support. But my Labour party understands that what working people in every community need is success, aspiration and security.”
He added: “There are lots of issues in the Labour party where, over the last two years, we have openly taken the decision to change our party to look out to the world in a different way – and to recognise when it comes to India, what an incredible, powerful, important country India is … and to ensure that we have the right relationship as we go forward.”
Labour’s relationship with India, and with Indian voters, has suffered in recent years as the government in Delhi has pursued an increasingly rightwing nationalist agenda, while Labour has been accused of taking sides with Pakistan in the dispute over Kashmir. There are 1.9 million British Indians, making them the largest minority ethnic group in the UK, and a potentially important source of votes in swing constituencies.
In 2019, the party sparked anger among Indian groups when it passed an emergency motion at its annual conference calling for international observers to be allowed into the territory, which is the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan. The party then wrote a letter clarifying that it would not take sides in the dispute.
The incident accelerated a general drift by British Indian voters away from the Labour party. A study in 2021 found that in the previous decade the party had gone from 60% support among UK Indians to 40%, with Muslim voters far more likely to support Labour than Hindus.
Welcoming Starmer to India Global Forum, Founder and Chairman, Manoj Ladwa said, “Whilst British politicians will vigorously seek out every vote, the relationship with India is now of national strategic importance. We cannot and must not allow it to be held hostage to the vagaries of domestic politics.”
Encompassing 12 marquee events with 150 speakers and 2,000+ participants, ‘UK-India Week 2023’ brings together business leaders, policymakers, and thought leaders from India and the UK to discuss opportunities for further collaboration and growth between the two countries. UK-India Week 2023, described as a highly anticipated fixture in the bilateral calendar by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, runs until 30 June 2023.
Indian-origin community in UK
According to the 2011 census of England and Wales, there were 1.4 million people of Indian origin residing in the UK, accounting for 2.5 percent of the overall population.
As a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace study noted in 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the UK in 2015, it was “A time when the British Indian community was growing in stature and showing signs of political evolution. Historically, survey data have suggested that British Indians—like most other ethnic minorities—have been staunch supporters of the left-of-center Labour Party.”
It cites a 2010 survey of ethnic minority voters in the United Kingdom, where 68 per cent of them favoured the Labour Party. Among other reasons, it can be attributed to the Conservatives’ opposition towards immigration and liberalising cultural norms.
Change in position
The Carnegie study said that in recent years, “extant survey data, as well as anecdotal evidence, have indicated that the community’s political leanings are shifting,” particularly the British Hindus.
Devesh Kapur, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Caroline Duckworth and Milan Vaishnav, at the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discussed this in a 2021 The Guardian article.
While noting the erosion of Labour support from Indian and Indian-origin voters in favour of the Conservatives, it added that Labour was still the choice for a majority (54 per cent) of those surveyed. However, this is a fall from previous years and many voters said they were undecided in their preference. They could then play a key role in influencing closely contested electoral seats’ results.
There are also variations across age and religion, with younger voters being more supportive of Labour. “A majority of Muslim and Sikh respondents would vote Labour in a snap election, but among Christians and Hindus the Conservatives would be the most popular party. Given Hindus’ relative demographic weight, Labour’s problem with British Indians is largely driven by the flight of Hindu voters from its ranks,” the article said.
Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks after Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Budget speech. (UK Parliament_Jessica Taylor)
The general election poses a headache to pollsters and campaign strategists, as constituency boundaries are being redrawn for the first time in several election cycles…reports Asian Lite News
Keir Starmer is on course to clinch a landslide majority of 140 for Labour at the next UK general election, the first modelling based on a mega poll of new constituency boundaries suggests.
With the Conservatives still suffering from a large polling deficit, Labour’s support was found to be at about 35 per cent to 12 per cent ahead of Rishi Sunak’s party.
The results were revealed in an analysis of polling known as multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP), and will boost Starmer’s hopes of victory as the long campaign in the run-up to the next election progresses.
John Curtice, a political commentator, said that since the sleaze scandals that engulfed Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s mini-budget, there had been a “very substantial” drop in support for the Tories. Though Sunak had sought to steady the party, Curtice said there had been only “a bit of a narrowing” of Labour’s lead.
The general election poses a headache to pollsters and campaign strategists, as constituency boundaries are being redrawn for the first time in several election cycles.
In the first MRP based on the new boundaries, conducted by FocalData and presented by the Best For Britain campaign group, Labour’s potential success was said to be under varying degrees of risk, The Guardian reported.
Over in the UK, Keir Starmer has labor riding high in the polls for the first time in forever, and the left is furious with him for compromising with the electorate https://t.co/ytndOEwROG
If the Reform party – the reincarnation of the Brexit party – repeats the tactic used in 2019, of standing aside in Tory marginals, Labour’s seats would still be at a healthy 401, leaving the Conservatives on 202.
Another scenario has Labour winning 370 seats to the Tories’ 232, based on redistributing undecided voters by their education profile.
If both were combined, under what was billed as Labour’s “worst-case scenario”, the model predicts a hung parliament – with the party about a dozen seats short of a majority, with 316, leaving the Tories at 286.
The poll of 10,140 voters was undertaken between April 20 and May 9.
Sunak hopes to build on migration agreements secured with France and Albania and will begin negotiations for a returns agreement with Moldova…reports Asian Lite News
The amount of taxpayer cash spent on the UK’s asylum system has quadrupled over the past decade to hit £2.1bn, Home Office statistics show.
The figure represents a fourfold increase since 2010, when costs stood at £567m.
The Labour Party, which obtained the figures, attributed the jump from £1.4bn in 2020/21 to £2.1bn in 2021/22 to slower asylum decisions, the rising backlog and the home secretary’s “last minute decision-making” over the use of hotels.
The Labour Party said the asylum system was “completely broken and British taxpayers are paying the price”.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “After 13 years, the Tories have broken the asylum system and these figures prove it. Nothing the government is doing is working, and their legislation is making the situation worse, with more people stuck in the system than ever before. Labour has set out serious plans for a cross-border police unit, fast-tracking to clear the backlog and a proper deal with Europe on safe returns.”
A Conservative spokesman responded: “Labour’s approach to asylum was a disastrous open-door policy coupled with massive amnesties.
The Labour Party said the asylum system was "completely broken and British taxpayers are paying the price" https://t.co/2yovgVFzkk
“Given the chance they’d do it all over again. Labour are against deporting foreign criminals. Labour are against deporting illegal migrants. Labour are against stopping the boats. Only the Conservatives have a plan to tackle illegal migration as we deliver on our five priorities: halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting waiting lists and stopping the boats.”
The data comes after the UN’s refugee agency identified significant failings in the UK’s asylum system, including the detention of torture victims and laws not being “complied with”.
In a scathing report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees noted “numerous risks to the welfare of asylum seekers” after its investigation between 2021 and 2022.
However, the Home Office said “significant improvements” have been made since the audit took place. Separate Home Office figures released on the same day also showed the backlog of asylum cases in the UK hit a new record high.
A total of 172,758 people waited for an initial decision on an asylum application at the end of March 2023 – up 57% compared with the same period last year.
Labour also claims that over the past year, only 1% of small boat asylum cases have had a decision made and that the productivity rate of Home Office workers had fallen from 14 decisions per month in 2011 and 18 in 2016, to just five per month in the last financial year.
On Thursday Sunak will head to Moldova for the European Political Community summit where he will warn that a rise in illegal migration and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine have created “unprecedented threats” at Europe’s borders.
Sunak is hoping to build on migration agreements secured with France and Albania and will begin negotiations for a returns agreement with Moldova.
He will also announce a new partnership with Bulgaria to help it destroy the business model of organised criminal gangs who are facilitating illegal migration.
Last month, the Labour Party accused the government of “breaking promises” on migration as official figures are expected to confirm that numbers have increased.
Speaking in the Commons, Sir Keir Starmer said : “The prime minister stood on three Tory manifestos, each one promised to reduce immigration. Each promise broken.”
Sunak is battling discontent on the Tory backbenches over the ONS figures, which are expected to show that net migration has increased from 504,000 last year to more than 700,000 in the year to December 2022.
Suella braverman
Recently, Braverman announced new curbs on international students bringing family members to the UK in a bid to lower the numbers. But Sir Keir said the reason the government had to issue so many visas was because of “Labour and skills shortages”.
The package announced last month will mean that international students will no longer be able to bring dependants with them unless they are on postgraduate courses that are currently designated as research programmes.
It will also remove the ability for international students to switch out of the student route and into work routes before their studies have been completed “to prevent misuse of the visa system”, the government said.
