Home Office to share data on asylum hotel locations with food delivery firms
Currently delivery riders discovered to be sharing their accounts with asylum seekers have their profiles suspended.
The latest measures hope to crack down further on the practice.
The gig economy firms have also been increasing real-time identity and right to work checks which has led to thousands of workers being taken off the platforms, the Home Office said.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp claimed last month to have found evidence of people working illegally for the food delivery firms during a visit to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers in the UK are normally barred from work while their claim is being processed, though permission can be applied for after a year of waiting.
Delivery firms met Home Office bosses earlier this month to discuss the concerns of abuse in the sector.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Illegal working undermines honest business, exploits vulnerable individuals and fuels organised immigration crime.
'By enhancing our data sharing with delivery companies, we are taking decisive action to close loopholes and increase enforcement.
'The changes come alongside a 50% increase in raids and arrests for illegal working under the Plan for Change, greater security measures and tough new legislation.'
The three delivery companies said they were fully committed to working with the Home Office and combatting illegal working.
Ministers promised a 'nationwide blitz' to target migrants working illegally as part of efforts to deter people from coming to the UK from France.
Officials hope to tackle the 'pull factors' attracting migrants to the UK alongside the deal struck by Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month to send some people who reach England in small boats back to France.
More than 23,500 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far in 2025, a record for this point in the year.
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The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
What would UK recognition of Palestine as a state actually mean?
The UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire and a two-state solution in Gaza, Sir Keir Starmer has vowed. The prime minister said Benjamin Netanyahu's government must end its starvation tactics and allow the supply of aid into the embattled enclave after a UN-backed food security body said the 'worst-case scenario of famine' was playing out in the territory. The announcement on Tuesday came after an emergency virtual cabinet meeting where Sir Keir laid out his plan for peace in the Middle East, agreed over the weekend with French President Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz. Sir Keir has come under mounting pressure from his own party to recognise a Palestinian state, which has only grown since President Emmanuel Macron announced France's intention to do so by September. It comes as British foreign secretary David Lammy is attending a United Nations conference in New York on Tuesday to urge support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Here, The Independent asks experts about what the UK recognising Palestinian statehood would mean in practice. What would UK recognition of Palestine as a state mean? Dr Julie Norman, an associate professor at UCL specialising in Middle Eastern politics, said it looks likely that the UK will recognise Palestine as a state, which would mean voting for this at the United Nations (UN) – but it would be unlikely the UN would recognise Palestinian statehood due to the probability of the United States blocking the move. However, she said countries such as the UK and France voting for recognition at the UN would be a 'significant' move. And she said the UK officially recognising Palestinian statehood would still be of 'value', even if the reality is that not much would change on the ground, with Israel still 'fully rejecting' the prospect of recognition. Speaking of British recognition, Dr Norman said: 'It would be a strong moral commitment and stance to Palestine at a moment when it's never been more fraught in Gaza and the West Bank. 'In the short term, it's a diplomatic stance, and it makes room for policy changes. 'And, if and when parties come back to discuss the long-term conflict, it would put Palestine in a better position. So it wouldn't change things immediately, but I would say it still has value.' She added that the move might initially see more change in London than in Ramallah, a city in the central West Bank, which serves as the administrative capital of Palestine – with, for example, the opening of an embassy in the UK capital. This would not mean recognition of Hamas. What is the two-state solution? The idea of dividing the Holy Land goes back decades. When the British mandate over Palestine ended, the UN partition plan in 1947 envisioned dividing the territory into Jewish and Arab states. Upon Israel's declaration of independence the following year, war erupted with its Arab neighbours and the plan was never implemented. Over half of the Palestinian population fled or were forced to flee. Under a 1949 armistice, Jordan held control over the West Bank and east Jerusalem and Egypt over Gaza. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek these lands for a future independent state, and the idea of a two-state solution based on Israel's pre-1967 boundaries has been the basis of peace talks dating back to the 1990s. The two-state solution has wide international support, but there is disagreement about how it would be implemented. Israel's creation and expansion of settlements in the Occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, are seen as a major obstacle to this. What would recognition of Palestine as a state mean for refugees? Sir Vincent Fean, a former British Consul General to Jerusalem and now a trustee of the charity Britain Palestine Project, explained that recognition of Palestine as a state would mean that if Palestinian passports were issued, they would subsequently be recognised by the UK as passports of a state. However, Sir Vincent said Palestinian statehood would not affect the UK's refugee system. 'Does it impact the tally of refugees coming to the UK? No,' he said. This is because he expects the visa regime the UK currently has with Palestine – where travel is only allowed between the two after a successful visa application – would continue. He added that Palestinian statehood 'wouldn't particularly change the right of return for Palestinians to their homeland'. He said this was a 'long-standing right', although it would require negotiation with Israel. What does UK recognition of Palestinian statehood mean for how the two would communicate? Sir Vincent said this was a 'very important point' to clarify, as he highlighted the distinction between recognising the entity of Palestine and recognising factions of government. He said: 'It's important to say the British government doesn't recognise governments, it recognises states. 'So it isn't actually recognising President [Mahmoud] Abbas as head of the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] and head of the Palestinian Authority. 'In practice, he would be the interlocutor in Ramallah, because there isn't an alternative.' He stressed, however, that Britain has already proscribed Hamas as a terrorist group and that this would not change. Dr Norman added that the Palestinian Authority is currently the main governing entity for Palestinians in the West Bank, which the UK has recognised and had lines of communication with for a long time. If Britain were to recognise Palestinian statehood, this would not change and would continue. Sir Vincent also said that the prospect of Hamas running Palestine next is 'practically zero' because the militants' chances of winning an election are 'remote'. He said the plan for the future governance of Gaza involving the Palestinian Authority will be a focus of the UN meeting being held this week. What countries have recognised Palestinian statehood? France has become the latest country to announce it will recognise Palestinian statehood, drawing angry rebukes from Israel and the United States and opening the door for other major nations to perhaps follow suit. Mr Macron last week published a letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming France's intention to press ahead with recognition and work to convince other partners to do the same. He said he would make a formal announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next month. France is now the first major Western country to shift its diplomatic stance on a Palestinian state, after Spain, Ireland, and Norway officially recognised it last year. The three countries made the declaration and agreed its borders would be demarcated as they were before the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. However, they also recognised that those borders may change if a final settlement is reached over the territory, and that their decisions did not diminish their belief in Israel's fundamental right to exist in peace and security. About 144 of the 193 UN member states recognise Palestine as a state, including most of the global south as well as Russia, China and India. But only a handful of the 27 European Union members do so, mostly former Communist countries as well as Sweden and Cyprus. The UN General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in November 2012 by upgrading its observer status at the world body to "non-member state" from 'entity'. What implications would UK recognition of Palestinian statehood have internationally? Dr Norman said: 'This is where it can be important'. Two major global powers, such as the UK and France, making the move would be 'significant' and would pave the way for conversations on the issue happening elsewhere, such as in Canada, she said. 'It starts isolating the US as the main major power backing Israel to the exclusion of Palestine,' she said. 'It makes them the exception and shows the rest of the world somewhat united in Palestinian self-determination, which has been the UK's policy for a while now. If we're serious about that, then we need to be serious about that. 'We don't have as much military weight as the US, but we do still have diplomatic weight, and we should use what we can. 'It would show Europe is committed to a two-state solution, and wouldn't let that disappear or sit in the back seat.'
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Paris robbery prompts £3m insurance payout to Royal Collection
A dramatic daylight robbery at a museum in Paris last year has resulted in an insurance payment of over £3m to the Royal Collection Trust, after two royal items were stolen while on loan to an exhibition. The figure has been revealed in the Royal Collection Trust's annual accounts, showing the scale of the loss from the raid on the Cognacq-Jay Museum in Paris last smashed display cases and took items from an exhibition of 18th Century luxury miniature haul included two historic, richly-decorated snuff boxes on loan from the UK's Royal Collection. Media reports at the time of the robbery last year claimed there had been losses of around a million euros - but a figure of £3,020,000 is shown in the annual report of the Royal Collection Trust as an insurance receipt, outlining this is "in respect of snuff boxes stolen whilst on loan to the Musée Cognacq-Jay".The trust, a charity that looks after the paintings, sculptures, furniture and jewellery in the Royal Collection, says in the report published on Tuesday that the money "will be placed into a designated fund to be used for the enhancement of the collection".The two stolen items from the Royal Collection are believed to be a snuff box with a cameo of the Birth of Venus, thought to have been made in Germany in the 18th Century, and a Fabrique Royale snuff box, made in Germany in the 18th Century, and encrusted with nearly 3,000 Fabrique Royale box had belonged to the Russian royal family before being seized by the Soviet authorities in 1917. It was later bought in 1932 by Queen Mary, wife of George French newspaper Le Monde reported that the robbery had been perpetrated by four masked raiders who pulled up on scooters and then used an axe to break into display cases, in front of shocked visitors at the well as the stolen items on loan from the Royal Collection there were also exhibits from the Louvre museum and the Palace of Versailles in France. The trust's annual report also showed record numbers of visitors to Buckingham Palace last year during its summer were 683,000 visitors, with more of the Palace being opened to visitors and for an increasing number of days. The East Wing, which overlooks the Mall, has been renovated and opened to tourists for the first the biggest attraction remains Windsor Castle, which had almost 1.4 million visitors during there were 2.9m visitors to the royal palaces and exhibitions, with ticket sales contributing to an income of almost £90m, which produced profits of almost £ the ways of improving access this year has been £1 tickets for people on Universal Credit and a range of other benefits, with 19,500 of these tickets being sold in four months at Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Starmer says UK will recognize Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September – unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and takes steps toward long-term peace. Starmer called ministers together for a rare summertime Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza. He told them that Britain will recognize a state of Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly, 'unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two state solution." Britain has long supported the idea of an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, but has said recognition should come as part of a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict. Pressure to formally recognize Palestinian statehood has mounted since French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will become the first major Western power to recognize a Palestinian state in September.
