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Minister says poorer places have taken 'fair share' of asylum seekers, after PM suggests affluent areas should take more
Yesterday Andy Burnham suggested that more asylum seekers would need to be housed in more affluent areas in future. Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down well at the Daily Mail.
In an interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, Anna Turley, the immigration minister, said that areas like Blackpool (where the Grand Metropole Hotel was until very recently being used to house asylum seekers – see 9.24am) have already taken their “fair share” of migrants.
Backing up the point Burnham made yesterday, she said:
I think this is about fairness, and we won’t be asking anyone to take more than they can.
It’s about their fair share, and we have to look across the country at what is appropriate for areas to take, what is the infrastructure, what is manageable with the local community. So this is about fairness.
She also defended the government’s intention to switch from using hotels for asylum seekers to putting them on industrial sites or former military bases instead. She said:
The priority for us now is making sure that we look after asylum seekers in a secure place, in a place that is much more appropriate and where we limit the impact on local communities.
Key events
Bridget Phillipson condemns Richard Tice’s ‘chilling attempt to silence free press’
Richard Tice has been accused by Labour’s Bridget Phillipson of mounting a “deeply chilling attempt to silence the free press” after he sent a legal threat to the Guardian over its reporting on his financial affairs, Rowena Mason reports.
Offenders who commit violence against women and girls should be treated 'liked terrorists', Jess Phillips says
Jess Phillips, who was minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Keir Starmer’s government, has said that people who commit VAWG should be treated “like terrorists”. She was speaking in an interview on the World at One after the sentencing of Simon Levy, the sexual predator who was able to kill two women because of mistakes made by the police and prosecutors.
Phillips said:
Violence against women and girls has to be an absolute priority in every single police force in our country. Twenty per cent of callouts to almost every single force in our country is violence against women and girls … it kills way more people on the streets, just in London, let alone anywhere else.
These people are a danger and a risk to our society, and they have to be treated like terrorists, because that is what they are doing. They are harming and killing people on our streets. It’s exactly the same, and it needs to be treated with that level of seriousness.
Sharon Graham says she wants Unite to 'better serve working class' after being re-elected general secretary with 69% win
Sharon Graham has, as expected, been re-elected as general secretary of the Unite union. She faced a leadership challenge from Simon Dubbins, international director at the union, which is the second biggest in the UK and a key player in Labour party politics.
Graham won with 69% of the vote. As usual for an internal union election, turnout was low. Unite has more than 1m members, and only 100,089 people voted.
Commenting on her win, Graham said:
It’s an honour to be re-elected by Unite members to serve as their general secretary. This decisive victory is a powerful mandate to continue change …
My second period of office will continue to be marked by a relentless focus on the jobs, pay and conditions of workers. It will always be members over ministers and the workplace over Westminster.
We will continue to deliver much needed reform to our union. It is my mission to build the industrial and political power required to better serve the working class.
As Matthew Taylor explained in an article about the election earlier in the summer, Dubbins’ campaign was in part motivated by a concern that, under Graham, Unite has not done enough to counter the threat to the left posed by Reform UK.
Dubbins explained why he was standing against Graham at length last month in this Counterfire interview.
UPDATE: Unite is not giving the turnout figure in the election, but sources say it is around 10%. The journalist Andy Twelves says the figure is 10.31%.
Why Chris Philp wrong to say Burnham has had more small boat arrivals during his first 3 weeks than any other PM
In an interview with Times Radio, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, claimed that Andy Burnham has had more small boat arrivals in his first three weeks in office than any other prime minister. Philp said:
Three thousand have entered our country in the first 22 days of Andy Burnham’s premiership, that is more … than any other prime minister has seen in their first 22 days.
The Press Association’s QuickCheck team have been looking at this – and they say Philp is wrong.
PA says:
Burnham’s first 22 days saw considerably fewer migrants cross the English Channel than the first 22 days of the premierships of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.
Government data shows 3,003 people crossed on small boats between July 20 when Burnham became prime minister and August 10, 22 days later.
In the first 22 days of Keir Starmer’s premiership, 2,258 people crossed the English Channel on small boats. In Sunak’s first 22 days, 4,105 people crossed, and the figure for the first 22 days of Liz Truss’s premiership was 4,739.
During Boris Johnson’s first 22 days in office, 138 people were recorded crossing the Channel.
Data collection on small boat crossings started in January 2018 so the figures do not include any other prime minister’s first 22 days.
Boat crossings are very seasonal, meaning prime ministers who enter the role in peak season are likely to see higher crossings in their first few weeks.
Between 2018 and 2025, the months that saw the most crossings were September (28,734 people), August (26,591), July (20,672), and October (20,324).
Starmer, Burnham and Johnson all became prime minister during July. Sunak became prime minister in late October and Truss took the role in early September.
Officials in the Ministry of Justice are reportedly unhappy about the way that, after Andy Burnham announced a new version of the prisoner early release scheme at the start of last week, they have now been asked to revise it again.
In the Times, Steven Swinford reports:
There is said to be anger within the Ministry of Justice, where some officials feel they have been unfairly blamed for simply doing their jobs in spelling out the pros and cons of each policy option to the prime minister.
One government source claimed that Burnham appeared to be “trying to be nice to everyone” and failing to understand the trade-offs involved.
“The Ministry of Justice is totally demoralised,” they said. “They never said anything was impossible — they simply spelt out the risks involved.”
And at the Telegraph Will Bolton and Tony Diver have also been talking to an MoJ source (who may or may not be the same one as Swinford’s). They report:
One senior Ministry of Justice source said: “Alex [Norris, the justice secretary] has 100 per cent been thrown under the bus. There’s a lot of anger and frustration from MoJ to the PM and No 10.”
A senior Labour source added: “There is frustration in the MoJ that he has raised victims’ expectations. If it’s an issue he’s staked himself on, then No 10 should be gripping it. They’re passing it on to Alex Norris, and he’s only been in post for two weeks.”
Swinford says Norris was all set to head off for a summer holiday on Monday night when he was told that Burnham wanted him to find a new early prisoner release mechanism that would keep the killers of PC Andrew Harper in jail.
Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, according to a report by Verdant, a Green thinktank.
The report is here, and here is Heather Stewart’s write-up.
The report says:
Successive heatwaves from May to the end of July 2026 have an estimated economic cost of at least £4.4bn. Previous estimates by Verdant placed the cost of the June 2026 heatwave alone at £2.36bn; this figure now includes all three heatwaves this year, from May to the end of July. May’s relatively minor event cost around £500m; July’s larger hit was £1.5bn, over two distinct peaks.
These losses are the result of reduced productivity due to the well-documented effect of all work becoming harder at higher temperatures, and that infrastructure and equipment overheat and fail. For each one degree Celsius temperature increase above 30 degrees in Europe, a 3% reduction in average output per hour has been observed. In a prolonged heatwave, these impacts add up to become significant economic losses. This is only the direct economic cost from productivity losses, and excludes things like losses from wildfires, or higher costs of energy for businesses and households.
Commenting on the report, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said it showed why the government needed to “set out an emergency response to the danger facing us now, and the damage coming fast down the tracks as heatwaves and flooding get more extreme”.
UK energy minister says John Swinney 'irresponsible' in calling for ban on Chinese wind turbine investment to be lifted
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, was “irresponsible” when he asked Andy Burnham to lift a ban on a Chinese firm building a wind turbine factory in the Highlands, a UK government minister has said.
As the Press Association reports, energy security minister Michael Shanks described the call from John Swinney in support of the proposed Ming Yang facility at Ardersier, near Inverness, as “surprising”.
With the development having the potential to create up to 1,500 jobs in the area, Swinney reportedly asked Burnham to review the government’s decision to block the Chinese investment. The Scotsman reported the SNP leader raised the issue in his first meeting with Burnham, and has also written to the PM on the issue – with Ming Yang also said to have been in contact with the UK Government following the change in leadership.
In April, Swinney described the government’s decision as “anti-Scottish”.
In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, Shanks said that, after Swinney made those comments earlier this year, he arranged for the first minister to have a “security briefing at the highest level” on the issue.
Shanks went on:
I do think it is surprising he is now making what feels like a political intervention.
I think it is for him to answer why he is balancing what seems to be a political intervention against the country’s national security.
I think it is irresponsible for the first minister to do that.
There is no inherent reason why the UK government would not want to see jobs created in the north of Scotland either, so I hope people would take it on face value when I say there are national security implications. That is a legitimate reason for us to say no to a particular investment.
Just 20 of 6,600 Defra staff working on climate adaptation amid drought and wildfires
Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the part of government tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed. Sandra Laville has the story.
On his visit to Stevenage, Andy Burnham also said he would visit the town on Remembrance Day to mark its 80th birthday.
He explained:
I’m going to come back to Stevenage on 11 November. We will pay our respects for Remembrance Day around that time, but I’ll be here because if I’m right, that will be 80 years to the day that the post-war Labour government created the first new town right here in Stevenage.
Burnham also said he would be coming with “an offer for what we’re going to do” to support council house-building in the area.
Burnham suggests disposable barbecues could be banned to prevent wildfires during heatwave
Disposable barbecues could be banned to help prevent fires, Andy Burnham has said.
Speaking to reporters on a visit to Stevenage, Burnham said:
There is obviously a significant problem of wildfires in the south. The New Forest fire is a great concern; we have seen them in northern areas, as well as Suffolk recently.
This is a message for the public as well because the wildfires I mentioned, many of them have been created by disposable barbecues.
I do believe we need to get the message out loud and clear. People should not be using those barbecues outside at this moment in time.
I don’t know yet what the remedy is, but I do want to leave the [Cobra emergency committee] meeting today with a loud and clear message that we do want people to take the greatest possible care when they are out in the countryside, both in terms of cigarettes, but also those temporary barbecues that we know are causing risk of fires.
For full coverage of extreme weather news, do read Taz Ali’s live blog.
The order of service for the funeral of Ann Widdecombe has been published, the BBC’s Michael Keohan reports. He says:
She will enter Buckfast Abbey to ‘amazing grace’ just after 2pm.
There will also be tributes from Sir Christian Sweeting and Ann’s nephew the Rev Roger Widdecombe.
Donations have been requested to be split between Leprosy mission and Aboud India in memory of Ann.
Ahead of the funeral at 2, there will be a solem mass at 11.
The full order of service is here.
Minister defends plan to house up to 1,250 asylum seekers on ex-military base near Piddington, tiny Oxfordshire village
Andy Burnham made his comment yesterday suggesting more asylum seekers should be housed in more affluent areas in response to questions about plans to house up to 1,250 people in a former military base near Piddington, a tiny village in Oxfordshire. Residents are strongly opposed.
In interviews this morning, Anna Turley, the immigration minister, defended the plan, saying “they’re not going to be in the village” and that, although the asylum seekers would be able to leave, they would have everything they needed on site.
She told Sky News:
The reality is, this is a military base that is outside the village. It’s self-contained. People there will be managed and processed properly with the services that they need there on site. So we are looking to reduce the impact on local communities.
In her interviews this morning, Anna Turley, the immigration minister, said the government was still negotiating with Napo, the probation union, in the hope of averting the strike action its members have voted for.
Asked about this, she told Sky News:
We’ll continue to negotiate with them.
“The justice secretary last year put in over £700m of extra money to support probation services. They’ve also had a pay increase this year.
So it’s really important that we look to make sure that they’ve got the support that they need. We’ll continue that negotiation. The justice secretary I know will be continuing to work with them.
Minister says poorer places have taken 'fair share' of asylum seekers, after PM suggests affluent areas should take more
Yesterday Andy Burnham suggested that more asylum seekers would need to be housed in more affluent areas in future. Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down well at the Daily Mail.
In an interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, Anna Turley, the immigration minister, said that areas like Blackpool (where the Grand Metropole Hotel was until very recently being used to house asylum seekers – see 9.24am) have already taken their “fair share” of migrants.
Backing up the point Burnham made yesterday, she said:
I think this is about fairness, and we won’t be asking anyone to take more than they can.
It’s about their fair share, and we have to look across the country at what is appropriate for areas to take, what is the infrastructure, what is manageable with the local community. So this is about fairness.
She also defended the government’s intention to switch from using hotels for asylum seekers to putting them on industrial sites or former military bases instead. She said:
The priority for us now is making sure that we look after asylum seekers in a secure place, in a place that is much more appropriate and where we limit the impact on local communities.
Met Office issues extreme heat warning as government convenes emergency Cobra meeting
Taz Ali is covering all today’s extreme heat news on a seperate live blog. It’s here.
Home Office says another 13 hotels no longer being used for asylum seekers
The Home Office has announced that 13 hotels in England are no longer being used to house asylum seekers. They include the Grand Metropole Hotel, Blackpool.
The government says this means 44 asylum hotels have closed so far this year. The number still being used is below 160, it says.
Anna Turley, the immigration minister, said:
For too long, communities have watched hotels at the centre of their towns and cities become symbols of a broken asylum system.
We are turning that around by ending the use of asylum hotels for good and moving people into larger, basic accommodation like former military sites.
Here is the full list of the 13 hotels no longer being used for asylum seekers: Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Loughborough; Chimney House Hotel, Sandbach; Britannia Ashley Hotel, Hale; Gold Thorn Hotel, Wolverhampton; Grand Metropole Hotel, Blackpool; Nottingham Hotel, Nottingham; Grosvenor Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon; Staycity Apartments Deptford Bridge, Lewisham; Needham House, Hitchin; Holiday Inn, Bridgwater; Holiday Inn Express, Dunstable; Dubrovnik Hotel, Bradford; and Best Western Brook Hotel, Norwich.
Probation chief says he’s ‘not fully confident’ service will cope with early prisoner releases
Good morning. Andy Burnham is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee this afternoon to discuss the heatwave and the climate crisis.
About time too, some people will say. One of them is Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, who has been calling for this and who posted this on social media in response.
Good.
Now we need action. Tax fossil fuel giants to pay for firefighting helicopters. A cool space in every community. A maximum working temperature.
And no new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. We cannot negotiate with the science.
We are running a separate heatwave/climate live blog, and most of the coverage of the politics relating to this will be there.
But the Cobra announcement won’t deflect all attention from the prisons crisis. Yesterday Burnham said that he was “increasingly confident” that the new review of the early release scheme he has ordered will result in the killers of PC Andrew Harper not being let out. That has not silenced his critics. As Peter Walker, Rajeev Syal and Caroline Davies report, 50 police leaders, including every chief constable in England and Wales, have signed a letter urging him to do everything in his power to stop the killers benefiting from a programme designed to free up prison space, saying there is “a profound strength of feeling across policing” that this should not happen.
The Conservatives are claiming that the changes in approach to this issue adopted by No 10 over the past week – denounced as a U-turn in the Daily Express splash, and described as “chaos” in the Times – are “re-traumatising” victims. And there are new warnings about what will happen when the early release scheme does start.
Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation for England and Wales, has said he is “not confident” the service will cope when the new round of releases starts in the autumn. In an interview with the BBC, he said:
Ultimately I’m not fully confident that the probation system will be able to cope with this massive work and there’s a risk that things will go wrong.
Probation services are already under unprecedented pressure.
They’re managing a caseload of 258,000 cases, that’s nearly three times the number that are in our prisons, and obviously the early release scheme will be increasing that pressure considerably.
The BBC has more details here.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Andy Burnham is on a visit in the east of England.
Afternoon: The funeral of Ann Widdecombe takes place at Buckfast Abbey in Devon.
Afternoon: Burnham chairs a Cobra meeting to discuss the extreme heat.
As I explained last month, we are no longer going to have comments open below the line on this blog. If you want to contact me, please email [email protected]. You can use this to flag up corrections, comments for publication, questions or complaints. There is a longer post here about how we hope this will work.
