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A government deal with Iraq to return illegal migrants “will deter small boat arrivals” and “secure our borders”, Keir Starmer has said. The deal, signed by Home Office minister Dan Jarvis, will set up a formal process to return Iraqis who have arrived in the UK with no right to stay in the country. Jarvis described the deal as a “positive move” and “part of the jigsaw” to tackle small boat Channel crossings. He also told LBC that the government is “not paying” Iraq for the deal but had offered “specific financial support” to help the country tackle people smuggling. Jarvis signed the agreement during a visit to the UK by Iraq’s deputy foreign minister Faud Hussein.
The government is looking at a “range of appropriate accommodation” in which to house asylum seekers in England, the Home Office minister Dan Jarvis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday. He refused to specify what kind of accommodation was under consideration, although he acknowledged that “nobody really thinks that hotels are a suitable location” after this week’s high court ruling.
Councils across England are weighing up their own legal challenges after a high court ruling blocked people seeking asylum from being housed in an Essex hotel. The Conservative-run Broxbourne council in Hertfordshire said it was taking legal advice “as a matter of urgency” on whether it could follow the example of neighbouring Epping Forest district council, which successfully applied for an injunction to stop asylum seekers being accommodated at the Bell hotel in the town. The ruling has been seized on by Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, who said the party’s 12 councils would also consider such challenges.
Conservative former Home Office minister Damian Green has said the government should “go back to the idea of camps” for housing asylum seekers. Green, who lost his seat in the general election last year, told the World At One: “What they should now do is actually toughen up the accommodation that we offer people to make it clear that it’s a deterrent as much as anything.”
UK inflation rose again last month to a higher-than-expected 3.8% amid higher food prices and travel costs, adding to fears that the Bank of England will delay further interest rate cuts. Figures showed the annual rate as measured by the consumer prices index climbed from June’s 3.6% reading, sitting above the central bank’s 2% target for the 10th consecutive month. Responding to the latest figures, chancellor Rachel Reeves said there was “more to do to ease the cost of living”.
Rachel Reeves is considering plans for a tax on expensive homes in an effort to raise billions of pounds and close a large hole in the public finances. The UK chancellor has ruled out increases to income tax, VAT and national insurance, but Treasury officials have been tasked with exploring other options to boost revenue.
During the media rounds on Wednesday Jarvis said he believes “the very worst politicians” try to drive people apart, when asked on Sky News about Farage’s opinion piece in the Telegraph about hotels housing asylum seekers. Jarvis said: “I haven’t read Mr Farage’s op-ed, but I’ve always thought that the best politicians try and bring people together, and the very worst politicians try and drive them apart.”
Jarvis said talks in recent days have “brought the prospect of peace much closer” in Ukraine, but insisted that Russia should not have a veto on Ukraine’s Nato membership. He told Times Radio that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Alaska summit, plus talks in Washington over the previous days, had “brought the prospect of peace much closer than they had been previously”.
Scotland Yard’s plan to widen the use of controversial live facial recognition technology is unlawful because it is incompatible with European laws, the equalities regulator has claimed. As the UK’s biggest force prepares to use instant face-matching cameras at this weekend’s Notting Hill carnival, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said its use was intrusive and could have a “chilling effect” on individuals’ rights.
The shadow home secretary has called for an emergency cabinet meeting “to establish plans for the deportation of all illegal immigrants upon arrival”. In a letter to home secretary Yvette Cooper, Chris Philp claimed the “migration crisis” was due to “the catastrophic decision to cancel the Rwanda deterrent just before it was due to start, with no replacement plan”. Philp also told Cooper that flats are “sorely needed by young people”, as he called for assurances that asylum seekers would not be moved from Epping’s Bell hotel into apartments.
The head of the British armed forces will tell his American counterparts the UK is prepared to send troops to defend Ukraine’s skies and seas but not to the frontline with Russia, as planning intensifies for a postwar settlement. Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, will on Wednesday attend meetings at the Pentagon designed to finalise what 30 different countries are willing to commit to Ukraine’s national security.
Train fares in England are now expected to rise by a higher-than-expected 5.8% next year, causing concern among passenger groups. Rail ticket increases are usually calculated by adding one percentage point to July’s inflation reading on the retail prices index (RPI), which came in 0.2 points above forecasts on Wednesday at 4.8%. The government has not yet confirmed how it will calculate rail fare increases for 2026 regulated fares, which account for about half of rail journeys.
The Liberal Democrats have called for rail fares to be frozen to “avoid another hit to the cost of living and encourage more people on to trains”. Paul Kohler, MP for Wimbledon and Lib Dem transport spokesperson said: “To increase rail fares at all in the midst of a cost of living crisis would be nothing other than a slap in the face to ordinary people.”
Scotland’s justice secretary has said she wants a consultation on the parole process to help make the system “fair, transparent and trusted”. Angela Constance spoke as the Scottish government launched a consultation on possible changes to how the current system works.
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) is to be absorbed by Whitehall as the government seeks to cut the cost of bureaucracy. The agency will merge with Peter Kyle’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in April 2026, in a move the government said would cut “duplication” and ensure “clear ministerial oversight”.
The government has lined up special managers to run Liberty Steel’s South Yorkshire operations if it is put into administration, according to a dramatic revelation at London’s high court. London’s high court heard on Wednesday that creditors to Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), part of Liberty Steel, were seeking a compulsory winding up order. The company asked to adjourn the hearing in order to try to agree a “pre-pack” administration that would allow its owner, metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, to keep control of the insolvent company.
The Scottish Greens will seek to change the law to give councils new powers to charge the owners of derelict land and buildings. MSP Ross Greer said the move will help tackle “landbanking”, a practice which can see companies buy vacant plots in a bid to prevent rival firms from developing them.
The average UK house price increased by 3.7% to £269,000 in the 12 months to June, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a slight slowdown in price growth after a 3.9% rise was reported in the 12 months to May.
Updated
Labour preparing to use public-private funding model for NHS in England
Labour is preparing to kick off a new wave of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in England to build the neighbourhood health centres at the heart of its NHS 10-year plan.
Ministers will make a final decision in the autumn budget about whether to use the funding approach, which was put on pause eight years ago.
But critics say lessons have not been learned about the pitfalls of PPPs, and point to the chaos unleashed by the 2018 collapse of the mega-contractor Carillion, with its complex portfolio of projects.
While it was originally conceived under the Conservatives, Tony Blair’s Labour government made significant use of the private finance initiative (PFI), a form of PPP used to build schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure, without adding to the national debt.
Backers of PFI say this approach allowed public infrastructure to be built that otherwise would not exist; but opponents say the taxpayer was often left footing huge bills for inflexible contracts that ran for as long as 30 years.
Treasury data shows that 560 PFI contracts are outstanding in England, for projects including schools, hospitals, libraries and road maintenance. Hundreds of these contracts will end in the coming years, raising questions about the state of the assets being inherited by the taxpayer, and potentially triggering legal battles about the precise conditions of “handback”.
A report last year from the Association of Infrastructure Investors in Public Private Partnerships (AIIP), chaired by the Labour peer and former frontbencher John Hutton, warned of the risk of “serious disruption” as these deals come to an end, amid what it called “mistrust between the parties to some PFI contracts”.
