Top story: Anger over offshore processing plan
Hello, I’m Warren Murray, and sad to say this is the final Guardian Morning Briefing. As you might have seen, the Briefing will relaunch in this space as First Edition from 25 April. A bit more to say after the papers section – but for now, on with the news.
People seeking asylum in the UK will face the prospect of being flown 4,500 miles away to Rwanda. The planned government crackdown on unauthorised migrants has been described as “shameful” by Labour. Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the government was choosing “control and punishment above compassion” when every Conservative PM since Churchill had provided “a fair hearing on British soil for those who claim asylum”. The PM is expected to announce measures including putting the navy in charge of Channel operations, and a reception centre instead of hotels to hold people – the first at a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire.
The deal with Rwanda, which will reportedly cost an initial £120m, follows three years of promises by Priti Patel to outsource asylum processing to third countries, and failures to strike deals with Albania and Ghana. According to a 2020 Human Rights Watch report, detainees in Rwanda suffer from arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture in official and unofficial facilities. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the Rwandan proposal was “unworkable, unethical and extortionate”. The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it was waiting to see the bilateral agreement, but “UNHCR does not support the externalisation of asylum states’ obligations”.
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Partygate not over – Boris Johnson is facing three more potential fines, according to senior sources, as he suffered his first ministerial resignation over Partygate – the Lords justice minister, David Wolfson. One policing source said an assessment by Met detectives that the PM breached the rules more than once meant the level of fine would go up with each instance. One Tory MP said they were deeply worried about a “drip-drip” of revelations ahead of local elections and the final Sue Gray report. “Each one of these will come as a hammer into the nail of the Tory coffin and what the PM is doing is implicating all the MPs in this. We are in a long, slow death march.” By Wednesday afternoon, momentum appeared to have stalled among Tory MPs prepared to oust Johnson, although several confirmed sending letters of no confidence to the party’s 1922 Committee. A number of others leapt to his defence.
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Subway arrest – The man suspected of firing more than 30 shots in a gun attack on a New York subway train is in custody charged with a federal terror offence. Frank R James, 62, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan by two patrol officers without incident. Officials said James was apprehended thanks to a tip that came in from a McDonald’s on First Avenue where a member of the public took photographs and called Crime Stoppers.
Officers patrolled the area and found James. “We could have not done this without the public’s help,” an FBI officer said. At least four schoolchildren aged 12 to 16 are believed to be among the 29 injured passengers requiring medical treatment after suffering from bullet wounds, smoke inhalation, falls and panic. Five of 10 people shot were reported to be in critical but stable condition; another 19 were injured, though nobody was reported to be in life-threatening condition.
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Russian warship ‘seriously damaged’ – The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been crippled and its crew evacuated after an explosion. A Ukrainian official earlier claimed, without providing evidence, that its forces had hit the Moskva with missile strikes. The Odesa governor, Maksym Marchenko, said: “It has been confirmed that the missile cruiser Moskva today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards on Snake Island.” On the first day of the invasion, the small island garrison refused calls to surrender, telling the ship to “go fuck yourself”. More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending Mariupol have surrendered and the port has been captured, Moscow has said, as the presidents of four countries bordering Russia arrived in Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine. This morning, our defence editor Dan Sabbagh charts how Russian use of indiscriminate weapons has plumbed the depths, including the possible but as-yet unconfirmed release of a chemical agent in Mariupol. Follow all today’s developments at our live blog.
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Easter travel woes – Holidaymakers are being warned of disruption whether travelling by air, rail, road or sea. Staff sickness and a shortage of workers have already been causing chaos for air passengers, while ferry operators have struggled to meet demand as P&O Ferries services remain suspended. The Easter weekend is the first public holiday since the lifting of almost all Covid travel restrictions. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said in a BBC interview it would be “extremely busy on our roads, potentially at our ports, particularly at Dover”. Network Rail has advised passengers to travel either side of the long weekend because it is closing parts of the system for engineering works – more details in our full story. Motorists may also face traffic jams as the RAC estimates 21m leisure journeys by car will take place this weekend.
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Covid catches up – Operations are being cancelled across England as Covid causes “major disruption” inside the NHS, the country’s top surgeon has said. Six million are on the waiting list for hospital care, including more than 23,000 waiting more than two years. Boris Johnson in February hailed “the biggest catch-up programme in the history of the health service” but in the same month dropped every domestic Covid restriction. Now, more than 28,000 NHS staff are off work every day due to Covid, while more than 20,000 patients are in hospital with it. “We have heard that planned surgery is being cancelled again in different parts of the country due to staff being off sick with the virus,” said Prof Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The British Medical Association accused the government of failing to grasp the threat of Covid to the NHS, backlog targets and wider society. NHS England said staff “continue to pull out all the stops” to tackle the backlog.
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Another Brexit dividend – Ecologists in Gibraltar have told how the island was almost overwhelmed by its own rubbish because of Brexit. Waste from the territory was usually processed in the Spanish province of Cádiz, but things were left in limbo with Britain’s exit from the EU. Six thousand tonnes of trash had soon piled up. Equipment was rushed in from the UK to shred and compact the rubbish.
They were thinking about storing it all in Gibraltar’s underground tunnels, but eventually Madrid signed off on continuing to process rubbish from the outpost. The last bits of refuse were cleared just as Gibraltar was hit with a fierce storm and swells of more than four metres. “If we had had that kind of powerful storm when the rubbish was there, we would be talking about plastic scattered across the strait of Gibraltar,” said Antonio Muñoz, from a local ecological group.
Today in Focus podcast: Is Johnson on his way out?
He says he will pay the penalties issued by the Met police, but he is not resigning – at least, not yet. Are Tory MPs prepared to push the prime minister out of office?
Lunchtime read: Climate and food – the coming crisis
The world’s farms produce only a handful of varieties of bananas, avocados, coffee and other foods – leaving them more vulnerable to the climate breakdown. Our food system isn’t ready for the climate crisis.
Sport
It was fraught, it was suffocating, it was full-blooded – entirely as billed – and it blew up in the 89th minute with a mass melee between the players of both Atlético Madrid and Manchester City, including plenty of substitutes. At the centre was scampering scoundrel Phil Foden, who beat Diego Simeone at his own game before Pep Guardiola claimed he had never criticised Atlético’s style. Benfica salvaged pride at Anfield whereas Liverpool preserved dreams of a seventh European crown and unprecedented quadruple. Jürgen Klopp will consider it a decent exchange.
One of Britain’s most prestigious women’s cycling races is on the verge of being saved 24 hours after its longstanding sponsor pulled out in protest against British Cycling’s suspension of its transgender policy. Montpellier and former Bath forward Zach Mercer has reflected on being capped too early for England and the Top 14 leaders’ status as unlikely underdogs. Kenny Shiels’s talk of “emotional” women is unacceptable; the Northern Ireland Women manager’s comments send a poor message and were not adequately addressed by his apology.
Business
Asian shares have mostly tracked Wall Street higher today. Traders are awaiting a European Central Bank meeting later in the day. There have been gains on the markets in Australia, China and the Nikkei, while South Korea’s Kospi index fell after the central bank unexpectedly raised its policy rate to 1.5%, the highest since August 2019, as it seeks to quell inflation. Futures trading has the FTSE opening higher at time of writing, while the pound is on $1.313 and €1.204 at present.
The papers
In our Guardian print edition today the lead story is “Johnson may face three more fines in party scandal”. Also on the front: members of Scientists for Extinction Rebellion have pasted pages of scientific papers to the windows of the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and glued their hands to the glass to highlight the climate science they say the government is ignoring.
The Mirror has “Worst is to come, PM” as Boris Johnson faces three more possible Partygate fines. “Tory law chief quits” says the Metro, in reference to Lord Wolfson’s protest at the PM “breaking the law with impunity”. The Financial Times has “Russia menace edges Finland and Sweden closer to Nato entry”, which you can read about here. “Channel migrants to be sent to Rwanda” says the Telegraph, and the splash headline in the Times is much the same. The former has a basement story on university graduates facing a £3,000 hit as student loan interest rates go up.
Others lap up the Rwanda offshore processing news: “Rwanda plan to smash the channel gangs” says the Daily Mail, and it’s a “bold” plan in the eyes of the Express, which hopes it will “end the small boats crisis”. The i says “Patel in Rwanda signing deal to export Britain’s asylum seekers”. And the Sun says “Take Matt”, about Matt Hancock and how a government inquiry has ended its “witch-hunt” into who leaked footage of him sharing a “lockdown-breaking office clinch” with Gina Coladangelo. No one is being charged.
A thank-you
The Guardian Morning Briefing was launched in 2017, and has been compiled most days by me, Warren Murray, alternating with Martin Farrer (who also contributes the business section when he can), Graham Russell and Virginia Harrison, as well as Alison Rourke back in the day. Grand oversight by Bonnie Malkin and, before her, David Munk. Contributions as well by Kate Lyons and Helen Sullivan.
Very special thanks for the sport section go to Mike Hytner, Emma Kemp and their team. On the subeditors’ desk, Anthony Morgan, Adam Fulton, Mike Coulter, Stuart MacFarlane and numerous others have chipped in. Sincere apologies to anyone I have overlooked. And thank you, Briefing readers, for your support, which has meant more than you could know.
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