Early evening summary
British jets are ready to “confront” Russian planes violating Nato airspace, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary has told the UN, as she accused Moscow of risking “direct armed confrontation”.
Pat McFadden, the new work and pensions secretary, has told the BBC that further welfare reform “must happen”.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Here is some more response to the Reform UK immigration plan.
From Sunder Katwala, director of the thinktank British Future
Threatening to revoke the settled status of millions who already have indefinite leave is morally wrong, beyond the legal and practical chaos it would cause – it undermines the very idea of belonging in this country.
Debating future settlement rules for new arrivals is a legitimate public policy debate. Most of the public agree it is fair that people living here can apply to settle permanently after five years. The uncertainty this proposal creates for people who have already built their lives here – Hongkongers, EU citizens who came before Brexit and others – is unfair and must be resolved with urgency.
The government needs to speed up its own consultations on citizenship reforms to reduce that anxiety. It should immediately make clear that it rejects in principle and practice Reform’s proposals to remove and unsettle the status and rights of people who hold settled status now.
Public attitudes research by Focaldata for British Future finds that 59% of the public, (and 64% of 2024 Labour voters) agree that migrants living in the UK and paying taxes should be eligible to apply for citizenship after five years or less.
From the Labour MP Stella Creasy
Reform’s call to deport ALL people who legally make a life here - paying taxes, forming families, volunteering and even being elected - needs calling out.
Contrary to Farage, ILR doesn’t = criminal. They ARE net contributors to our economy.
An expensive, hateful & stupid plan.
From Colin Yeo, an immigration barrister, in response to a poster on Bluesky saying the plan is impossible
It’s quite do-able from a legal perspective. I don’t think dismissing Reform in this way is wise. Voters need to understand that this stuff can happen if they vote for it - and that it would be morally, socially, culturally, economically disastrous. So they shouldn’t vote for it.
It’s not a gimmick. It’s a repudiation of 75 years of integration. It’s a betrayal of the Windrush generation. It’s unfair and it’s un-British.
Mass deportation is possible. It’s important to understand what it would really involve. Both the ideology of racial and national purity that drives it and what carrying it out really means in practice. Camps, barbed wire, goon squads, depossessed people who lose everything they know
From the New Statesman’s Ben Walker
Abolishing indefinite leave to remain makes it personal. Meat to the core who’ve never met an immigrant but uncomfortable to a great many more. V easy for opponents to humanise this. Reform wins the numbers argument, not a human argument.
From the Green MP Carla Denyer
.@Nigel_Farage Why don’t you come to Bristol and actually meet some of the people you want to kick out of this country? Care workers, grandparents, volunteers, friends. Valued members of our community. Come and meet the people your cruel policies would tear from their neighbours
From the SNP’s Pete Wishart
There’s a real sense that Farage has grossly overreached with that nasty press conference. He’ll be coming for members of our community, friends, colleagues, people who are settled here, and when it gets personal he will lose. This might be our best chance to halt his progress.
