Sunday shows round-up: Labour defends its ‘one in, one out' migrant scheme
On Sky News, Trevor Phillips noted that France could refuse to take back certain individuals, and asked Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander why they would accept 'violent offenders and rapists'. Alexander said there is a lot of 'operational detail' that the Home Secretary and Prime Minister are working on, but claimed the deal was 'robust' and 'workable', and could ultimately 'break the model' of the international people smuggling gangs. Alexander said the government is not setting a numerical target for returns, but they are doing 'the hard work with our international allies', and their 'aspiration' is to return more than one in 17 migrants once the scheme ramps up.
Camilla Tominey: 'You can't possibly convince people… the economy is in a good state'
On GB News, Camilla Tominey questioned Heidi Alexander over the economy, which shrank by 0.1 per cent in May. Alexander defended the government's record, saying the UK had outperformed the other G7 economies over the first three months of the year, and that the £120 billion of inward investment since Labour took office showed that international capital looks at the UK as a desirable place to invest. Tominey pointed out that in 2022 Rachel Reeves had called for an emergency budget when the economy similarly contracted by 0.1 per cent under the Tories. Alexander said 'GDP figures do bump around from month to month', and talked up Labour's trade deal successes with India, the EU and the US. The Transport Secretary reiterated that Labour's 'number one priority' is to grow the economy.
Heidi Alexander: 'When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle'
On Sky News, Heidi Alexander would not confirm expected tax rises in the October Budget. She told Trevor Phillips that Labour have stuck to their manifesto promise of not raising taxes for people on modest incomes, and that 'fairness' would be their principle going forwards. Phillips suggested that 'fairness' might be code for wealth distribution, and asked why Alexander wouldn't say there will be tax rises on the wealthy. Alexander said she wouldn't set the budget in July because the 'global economy is very volatile', and the Chancellor would look at the OBR forecast and make decisions based on the need to invest in public services.
Ofcom CEO: 'It is a really big moment'
On 25 July, the Online Safety Act regulations will come into force for social media companies, who will have to either remove harmful content or use age checks to protect children on their platforms. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes if she was confident that the new rules would be effective. Dawes admitted that the path ahead was 'challenging', but said the new rules represent a 'big moment' that will bring about change. Asked how the new regulations would work in practice, Dawes said that companies have been allowed to decide what works best for their platform, but some might become 18 plus only, and others might screen adult content behind age checks involving facial recognition or credit cards.
Chris Philp: 'I think they're wrong'
On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp about defections to Reform, after four former Tory MPs made the move in the last two weeks. Philp said those people represented a 'very small number' of Conservative MPs over the last ten years, and suggested Reform has 'superficial attractions to people who are frustrated'. He criticised Reform for having 'slogans', but no 'credible plans'. Kuenssberg pointed out that Jake Berry had been in the cabinet with Philp, and suggested that those defecting do believe Reform have credible policies. Philp said they were 'wrong', that Nigel Farage does not have detailed solutions to immigration issues, and that his plan to lift the two child benefit cap would increase the welfare bill and taxes.
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NBC News
30 minutes ago
- NBC News
Trump to make unprecedented second state visit to the U.K. in September
President Donald Trump will make an unprecedented second state visit to the U.K. in September, where he will be hosted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla, along with First Lady Melania Trump, Buckingham Palace said in a statement Sunday. No American president has ever been invited for a second state visit. But Trump, a big supporter of the royal family, was hosted by Charles' late mother, Queen Elizabeth II in 2019. On this occasion however, he will not stay at Buckingham Palace, which is currently undergoing renovations. Instead, he will travel to Windsor Castle which sits around 30 miles to the west of Britain's capital, London. Trump who shocked reporters and palace pundits in 2018 when he breached royal protocol by walking ahead of the queen, at times blocking her view and giving her his back, said it was a 'great, great honor' when the U.K.'s Prime Minister Keir Starmer hand-delivered the invitation during a visit to the White House in February. 'That's really something,' he added. Second-term U.S. presidents who have already made a state visit to the U.K. normally take lunch or tea with the monarch, as was the case with George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Meanwhile, state visits are ceremonial meetings between heads of state that are used to honor friendly nations and sometimes smooth relations between rivals. Although the king formally issues the invitation for a state visit, which comes with a full display of pageantry and royal pomp, he does so on the advice of the government. The announcement comes as Starmer courts Trump's favor on tariff negotiations, which have thrown a wrench in the Labour government's efforts to grow the U.K. economy after it contracted in April amid a record fall in exports to the United States. Trump last month lowered tariffs on the U.K. aerospace sector to zero, but imports of British steel products continue to face a 25% duty. On his last visit to the U.K., Trump injected himself into British politics by endorsing Boris Johnson to be the next prime minister and weighed in on negotiations over Brexit. He also continued his public feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, branding him a loser. Charles could also face challenges with Trump on Canada, since he's also the head of state for the former British colony. Trump has on several occasions threatened to annex Canada and suggested it should become the 51st U.S. state. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney criticized the state visit invite in May. 'The true north is indeed strong and free,' Charles said, referring to Canada's national anthem.
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
MPs vote in favour of measures to decriminalise abortion in move to make biggest law change in more than 50 years
MPs have voted in favour of measures to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancies in the biggest change to the law on reproductive rights for half a century. Women will no longer face prosecution for aborting their own baby for any reason and at any stage up to birth under the proposed legislation, which was backed by 379 votes to 137 on Tuesday night. Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP who put forward the amendment, said it will remove the threat of 'investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment' of any woman who acts in relation to her own pregnancy. She told the Commons the current 'Victorian' abortion law in England and Wales is 'increasingly used against vulnerable women' and said her amendment was a 'once-in-a-generation' opportunity to change the law. Ms Antoniazzi's amendment will be the biggest change to the law concerning women's reproductive rights since the 1967 Abortion Act. It will alter the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act - which outlawed abortion - meaning it would no longer apply to women aborting their own babies. MPs and pro-choice activists welcomed the abortion vote and said it will finally put an end to the prosecution of vulnerable women for ending their own pregnancies. But anti-abortion campaigners and MPs opposed to the reforms said the move allows women to end the life of their unborn child right up to birth, and for any reason, without facing repercussions. Under Ms Antoniazzi's amendment women will no longer be prosecuted for an abortion when it relates to their own pregnancy, even if they abort their own baby without medical approval or after the current 24-week legal limit. However it maintains criminal punishments for doctors who carry out abortions beyond the legal limit and abusive partners who end a woman's pregnancy without her consent. Ms Antoniazzi listed examples of women who have recently been investigated or prosecuted for having an abortion, adding: 'Just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice. It is cruelty, and it has got to end.' 'Women affected are often acutely vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, girls under the age of 18 and women who have suffered miscarriage,' she said. Six women have appeared in court in the last three years charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy - a crime with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment - while others remain under investigation. Tory MP Rebecca Paul said she was 'disturbed' by the decriminalisation amendment, which will mean that 'fully developed babies up to term could be aborted by a woman with no consequences'. 'The reason we criminalise late term abortion is not about punishment. It's about protection,' she added. 'By providing a deterrent to such actions, we protect women. 'We protect them from trying to perform an abortion at home that is unsafe for them. We protect them from coercive partners and family members who may push them to end late term pregnancies.' Conservative MP Rebecca Smith told the Commons she the amendment risks 'creating a series of unintended consequences which could endanger women rather than protect and empower them'. 'If offences that make it illegal for a woman to administer her own abortion at any gestation were repealed, such abortions would de facto become possible up to birth for any reason, including abortions for sex selective purposes.' Meanwhile Dr Caroline Johnson, a Tory MP and consultant paediatrician, said the proposed legislation creates a 'situation where a woman is able to legally have an abortion up until term if she wants to'. She tabled a separate amendment that would have made it mandatory for women seeking an abortion through the at-home 'pills by post' scheme introduced during the pandemic to have an in-person consultation with a doctor before they are prescribed the drugs. However this was rejected last night as 379 MPs voted against it - the same number who backed decriminalising abortion. Another amendment, put forward by Labour MP Stella Creasy, had also sought to repeal sections of the 1861 Act, decriminalise abortion up to 24 weeks, and ensure that late-term abortions did not result in prison sentences. Ms Creasy's amendment would have gone go further in making it a human right for women to access abortion so that parliament could not, in future, roll back abortion rights as has happened in other countries. However, Sir Lindsay only selected Ms Antoniazzi's to be debated by MPs this evening, which had more than 170 backers last night - compared to over 110 for Ms Creasy's. During a Westminster Hall debate earlier this month, justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the Government is neutral on decriminalisation and that it is an issue for Parliament to decide upon. Though the Government took a neutral stance on the vote, several high-profile Cabinet ministers, including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, were among the MPs who backed the amendment in the free vote. Abortion in England and Wales currently remains a criminal offence but is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time, such as when the mother's life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability. It is also legal to take prescribed medication at home if a woman is less than 10 weeks pregnant. Efforts to change the law to protect women from prosecution follow repeated calls to repeal sections of the 19th-century law the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019. The measures to decriminalise abortion, which still need to complete their legislative journey through both the Commons and the Lords before they can become law, were welcomed by leading abortion providers and physicians. Heidi Stewart, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, described it as a 'landmark moment for women's rights in this country'. She said: 'There will be no more women investigated after enduring a miscarriage, no more women dragged from their hospital beds to the back of a police van, no more women separated from their children because of our archaic abortion law.' It was welcomed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, with its president Professor Ranee Thakar describing the vote as a 'victory for women and for their essential reproductive rights'. And the British Medical Association also welcomed the vote as a 'significant and long overdue step towards reforming antiquated abortion law'. But Alithea Williams, from the anti-abortion campaign group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said she was 'horrified that MPs have voted for this extreme and barbaric proposal'. She added: 'This change has been made after only a few hours debate, with little notice. It was not in the Government's manifesto, and it certainly doesn't reflect public opinion. 'We call on the Lords to throw this undemocratic, barbaric proposal out when it reaches them. We will never accept a law that puts women in danger and removes all rights from unborn babies.' How using medicines led to charges under 'outdated and harmful' laws Six women have appeared in court charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy in the past three years. These included Nicola Packer, 45, who was cleared last month by a jury of 'unlawfully administering' herself with abortion pills at home during lockdown in 2020. Under emergency legislation in the pandemic, which has since been made permanent, the law was changed to allow the tablets to be taken in a system known as 'pills by post'. This let women access the medicine with no visit to a clinic up to a legal limit of ten weeks, compared to the normal limit of 24 weeks when assessed by two doctors. Ms Packer had taken prescribed abortion medicine when she was about 26 weeks pregnant. She told a court in London she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than ten weeks. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said Ms Packer's trial demonstrated 'just how outdated and harmful' that existing abortion law was. Another of these women is Carla Foster, 47, who was found guilty in June 2023 of illegally obtaining abortion tablets when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant. Ms Foster, from Staffordshire, was given the pills after claiming in a remote lockdown consultation she was only seven weeks pregnant. A court heard she had lied to a nurse on the phone about how far along she was to obtain the drugs, after searching online: 'I need to have an abortion but I'm past 24 weeks.' She pleaded guilty to a charge under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and got a 28-month sentence, with half to be spent in jail. This was reduced to a 14-month suspended sentence on appeal with a judge saying the case called for 'compassion, not punishment'. Ms Foster would not have faced prosecution under changes to laws approved last night.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Dates of Donald Trump's September state visit to UK confirmed
The US president will be accompanied by his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, on his state visit to the UK from September 17 to 19, Buckingham Palace said. DONALD Trump will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle during his unprecedented second state visit to the UK in September. This will be Trump's second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been feted by a state visit in 2019. The House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Trump's visit as it will be in recess for party conference season, meaning the president will not be able to address Parliament as French President Emmanuel Macron did during his state visit this week. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar left red-faced as Labour-run council orders no Alexander Dennis buses However, the House of Lords will be sitting. A senior minister insisted the timing of the trip was a matter for Buckingham Palace, rather than an attempt by the Government to avoid potential embarrassment over a parliamentary address. Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones said: 'I don't know why the particular dates were chosen by the Palace. 'Of course, state visits are organised by the Palace, not by the Government or Parliament.' Former Commons speaker John Bercow (below) opposed Trump appearing in Parliament during his first term in office and 20 MPs have signed a motion resisting an invitation being issued this time around. Jones told ITV's Good Morning Britain the Government was 'looking forward to welcoming' Trump. 'We benefit in terms of our economy and our defence and national security capabilities by continuing our very historic and important relationship with the United States of America, whoever is president,' he said. In February this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented the US president with a letter from the King as he invited him for the visit during a meeting at the White House. As the pair were sat next to each other in the Oval Office, Starmer handed the president the personal invitation, later saying 'this is truly historic and unprecedented'. After reading it, Trump said it was a 'great, great honour', adding 'and that says at Windsor – that's really something'. In the letter, Charles suggested he and the president might meet at Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland first before the much grander state visit. However, it is understood that, although all options were explored, there were logistical challenges surrounding an informal visit, with complexities in both the King and Mr Trump's diaries meaning a private meeting was not possible over the course of the summer months. This week, a senior Police Scotland officer said the cost of policing a visit by Trump will be 'considerable' and that the force will look to secure extra funding. It emerged on Wednesday that the force was in the early stages of planning for a visit at the end of this month, which is likely to see the president visit one or both of his golf clubs in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire and require substantial policing resources and probably units to be called in from elsewhere in the UK. Precedent for second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama. The late Queen hosted Trump during his first state visit. News of the plans for the September visit comes days after the King wrote to Trump to express his 'profound sadness' after catastrophic flooding killed nearly 90 people in Texas. Charles 'offered his deepest sympathy' to those who lost loved ones over the July Fourth weekend, the British Embassy in Washington said. Back in March, Trump sent the King his 'best wishes' and 'good health' in a phone call with Starmer after Charles spent a brief period in hospital after experiencing temporary side effects from his cancer treatment. The September state visit comes after Charles visited Canada back in May where he opened the nation's parliament. Many Canadians saw the King's two-day visit to Ottawa as a symbol of support for the country that has faced the unwanted attention of Trump's trade war against his neighbour and threats to annex Canada. This week, French president Macron and his wife Brigitte were hosted by the King and Queen during his three-day state visit. Macron's itinerary included a glittering state banquet at Windsor Castle, a carriage ride through the historic Berkshire town and a ceremonial welcome. The state dinner was attended by the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Prime Minister and senior members of the Cabinet.
