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Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Starmer Brutally Mocked After Shambolic Welfare U-Turn: 'Epic Political Mismanagement'
Keir Starmer has been ridiculed by his online critics after he was forced into an eleventh hour U-turn over his welfare reforms last night. The government's plan to cut Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) was met with fury by Labour backbenchers in recent weeks. Labour MPs ended up banding together to set up a rebellion so large that Downing Street feared the proposals would not be voted through parliament – even though the government has a working majority of 165 MPs. So, the prime minister had to introduce not one but two rounds of concessions to the bill to win the rebels over. The watered down legislation was voted through on its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday, but at a very high cost to the prime minister and his authority over the party. It certainly does not help that as leader of opposition, Starmer condemned Boris Johnson and the Tory government for lurching from 'crisis to crisis and U-turn to U-turn'. As the Labour leader wrote in 2020: 'When they've notched up 12 U-turns and rising, the only conclusion is serial incompetence.' Boris Johnson and his Government has lurched from crisis to crisis and U-turn to correct one error, even two, might make when they've notched up 12 U-turns and rising, the only conclusion is serial incompetence. — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 2, 2020 It's also a brutal way for the PM to ring in the anniversary of his landslide victory in the 2024 general election. So it's no wonder that social media quickly hit out at Starmer for his 'epic' mismanagement.... The last time a government lost the second reading of a bill was 39 years ago, which is exactly how long Keir Starmer feels he's been PM for — Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) July 1, 2025 The political ineptitude and mismanagement of this is epic. The whips office, the Downing St operation, and DWP should be hanging heads in shame. And truly disastrous for Keir Starmer and what's left of his authority — Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) July 1, 2025 MPs vote to approve (what's left of) the welfare bill by 335 to 260One of the most shambolic days I can remember in Parliament. Up there with the worst of the Johnson era — Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) July 1, 2025 Yet another U-turn from Keir Surrender: he's agreed to scrap the entire PIPs section of the welfare bill. The backbench rebels have humiliated him. — Andrew Neil (@afneil) July 1, 2025 What better way to mark my first year in office than with a disastrous shitshow of U-turns, rebellion and a good kick up the arse from my own party? #WelfareBill#WelfareReformBill — Parody Keir Starmer (@Parody_PM) July 1, 2025 A Labour Govt that got into power after the Tories imploded.A giant majority that can't get behind a Kendall's career is Starmer must be made to realise he cannot show his face in public ever again, he has to McSweeney is an amateur with zero… — EuropeanPowell (@EuropeanPowell) July 2, 2025 And there's no guarantee that this is rock bottom, either. Instead, the shambles of the last few days may have just taught rebels – and campaigners – that the government can be swayed if only they're pushed hard enough... ok maybe the answer to this is we need to bully keir starmer harder and about more things — NJ (@NoJusticeMTG) July 1, 2025 'It's A F*****g Farce': Labour MPs Turn Their Fire On Keir Starmer Over Welfare Shambles Keir Starmer Hit By Major Labour Rebellion As MPs Back His Welfare Bill Keir Starmer In 11th-Hour Welfare Climbdown In Bid To Avoid Commons Defeat
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour to block Gerry Adams from claiming compensation
Sir Keir Starmer is to change the law to block taxpayer-funded compensation for Gerry Adams over his detention as a suspected terrorist in the 1970s. The Prime Minister has sanctioned a legal change that aims to reinstate the Tory government's block on the former Sinn Féin leader's compensation without breaching human rights laws. The move follows a backlash from IRA victims, politicians and former senior civil servants over a decision earlier this year by Labour to repeal the Tories' Troubles legislation. Labour had reversed two sections of the 2023 Northern Ireland Troubles Act which denied Mr Adams – and up to 400 other IRA 'suspects' also detained in the 1970s – the right to claim compensation. The move came after a Northern Irish High Court ruled that the Tories' legislation was incompatible with human rights laws. Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said at the time repealing the law underlined 'the Government's absolute commitment to the Human Rights Act'. However, in a report by the think tank Policy Exchange, 16 leading peers including Lord West, the former Labour security minister, and Lord MacDonald, a former director of public prosecutions, urged Labour to reconsider its decision. The peers – including Lord Butler, the former Cabinet secretary, and Lord Bew, the former chairman of the committee on standards in public life – warned that it would not aid 'the cause of reconciliation in Northern Ireland to leave open the possibility of meritless litigation'. Suzanne Dodd, whose father Stephen, a police officer, was killed in the IRA bombing of Harrods in 1983, said: 'Considering the IRA victims have not received any compensation, how could Gerry Adams get compensation? My father was killed 41 years ago and it is highly unacceptable to hear that.' Now Labour is seeking to restore the block on compensation but in a way that will be robust enough to resist any further legal challenges that it is a breach of human rights laws. 'Both the Prime Minister and Government have been very clear that we are looking at every conceivable way to lawfully address this issue,' said a government source. 'What we are effectively doing is bringing back what the previous government did but in a lawful way in primary legislation.' Representing Gerry Adams The precise details of the new legislation have not been revealed by the Government as lawyers ensure it is legally watertight. It is not known if Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, was involved in the decision. Lord Hermer represented Mr Adams in a damages claim in 2023. It was brought against the former Sinn Féin president by three victims of Provisional IRA bomb attacks at the Old Bailey, London Docklands and the Arndale Centre in Manchester. Lord Hermer has previously refused to disclose whether he has or has not given advice in cases where he may have a conflict of interest because of his previous involvement. Mr Adams, who has consistently denied being a member of the IRA, was detained in the Maze prison along with hundreds of others suspected of involvement in terrorism amid sectarian violence in the early 1970s. Sections 46 and 47 of the Northern Ireland Troubles Act reversed the Supreme Court decision, preventing any compensation being paid out to Mr Adams and between 300 and 400 others. The move was backed by Labour in opposition. However, Patrick Fitzsimmons, another Maze former Maze detainee who tried to escape, successfully challenged the legislation in the Northern Ireland High Court, arguing that it was a breach of his human rights. When Labour took power in July, the party abandoned any attempt to appeal the decision and moved to repeal the relevant sections of the Northern Ireland Troubles Act.
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Student blocks leased by Home Office to house migrants empty for year
Student blocks leased by the Home Office to house nearly 700 asylum seekers have stood empty for a year at a cost of millions of pounds to taxpayers. The blocks were built in 2019 for Huddersfield University students and feature 'spacious' studio bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and a gym, but have never been used. They were leased for an estimated £7 million in spring 2024 by the Tory government to provide a cheaper alternative to hotels for asylum seekers. However, they are still empty with no final decision on when migrants might be moved in. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has pledged to axe the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of the Parliament in four years' time. At the end of March 2025 there were more than 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels, costing up to £6 million a day, out of a total government bill for asylum accommodation and support of £3.6 billion for the current year. It is understood negotiations are under way between Home Office and local council officials to place asylum seekers in the blocks but a source familiar with the talks said a decision on moving them in was 'months away'. It is part of attempts by Labour to use alternative 'mid-sized' sites including empty tower blocks, former student accommodation or vacant college buildings as an alternative to hotels. The new strategic partnerships would see accommodation either be owned by councils and leased to the Government for asylum use or secured by the Government and leased to local authorities. A Home Office spokesman said: 'Decisions on the future use of accommodation sites will be made in due course in consultation with local authorities and other stakeholders. 'This [Huddersfield] lease agreement was agreed before the election and change of government. No asylum seekers will be moved into the site until it is ready for occupancy, including meeting legal and building regulations.' The Huddersfield student blocks were one of four large sites identified for asylum seekers by the last government. They included the Bibby barge in Portland and former RAF bases at Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex. Labour shut down the Bibby and handed Scampton back to the local council, which now plans to turn the former Dambusters' squadron base into a national heritage site and aviation hub. Wethersfield is still being used to house hundreds of asylum seekers. The Home Office earmarked £358 million to use the Huddersfield blocks until 2034, according to the National Audit Office, which had access to internal data. This included running costs of £24.7 million a year and £7.1 million for 'site acquisition, lease and set up' in 2024/25. The Home Office said these were estimates and the actual cost was lower. After the blocks were built in 2019, they were issued with a prohibition notice following the Grenfell Tower fire as their cladding and internal fire protection works were judged unsafe. Remedial work costing almost £12 million – including refurbishing the studio bedrooms – was carried out in 2023 ready for student accommodation that September until the Home Office secured the site for asylum seekers. The Home Office denied at the time that students had been kicked out. 'Students who had enquired about the accommodation prior to Home Office involvement were informed by the housing company that they would need to seek alternative options,' it said. The Home Office interest came amid a growing backlash against asylum hotels. The numbers of migrants in hotels hit a high of 56,042 in September 2023 at a cost of £8 million a day. The Tories suggested then that migrants could move into the site in autumn 2024 but then lost the election. Labour has been reviewing asylum sites since inheriting the four 'big' sites from the Tories. A Home Office spokesman said: 'We inherited an asylum system under exceptional pressure and are urgently taking action to restore order and reduce costs, having already made asylum savings of half a billion. 'We are making strong strides to deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system. This includes ending the use of hotels, testing new locally led models and working closely with local authorities and other departments to ensure a fairer, more efficient approach that supports both individuals and communities.'
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The fugitive cave man of Bristol: How wanted man living in subterranean hideout was finally caught by police after bragging about off-grid lifestyle on YouTube
Gary Edwards smiled and shook his guest warmly by the hand as he invited him in to his 'cosy' subterranean home - a damp cave outside Bristol which he had moved a mattress and sink into. Presenting himself as a victim of the city's spiraling homeless crisis, a dirty and bedraggled, but cheerful and optimistic Edwards proudly showed his YouTuber friend around his hovel. Viewers of the video, which was watched 45,000 times, saw how Edwards had made every effort to make his squat homely, fitting it with a wood-burner, kitchen sink and even a 'double bed' (a dirty mattress and sleeping bag in a dryish corner of the cave). Responding to questions from interviewer Joe Fish, Edwards took the opportunity to rail against the state of the nation, and specifically the late Tory government, complaining: 'People who are out on the streets have to survive on nothing. 'I haven't had any money off the government in ten years. People treat us differently to everyday society. Society is told homeless people are criminals, drug addicts and alcoholics.' His eloquence won him many fans in the comment section with people describing the cave man as a 'survivor', an 'inspiration' and a 'great mentor to young people.' But what the commenters didn't know, and crucially what Edwards didn't say, is his choice of accommodation was no doubt because he was a fugitive who had been wanted by the police for over three years. MailOnline can reveal that Edwards began living in his makeshift home, located on a sheer drop rockface outside the city limits shortly after he was charged with assaulting an emergency worker in 2022. He managed to live there for years using his skills as an 'outdoorsman' to survive on the absolute fringes of society, until he was finally arrested in May after MailOnline tipped off the police to his whereabouts and true identity. Edwards was ordered to appear before Poole magistrate's court to answer to the crime he was charged with back in 2022 but, in a stunning turn of events, the fugitive caveman refused to turn up again. He is now back on the run to evade concurrent charges which include failing to surrender, failing to comply and the use of threatening language to cause alarm and distress. MailOnline made repeated attempts to establish from the courts service why he had not been remanded in custody upon his most recent arrest - however, they did not respond. He has not returned to his cave residence which our exclusive pictures show is now abandoned. His current location remains a mystery. Remarkably, despite being wanted by the police, Edwards had saw fit to give a tour of his home to a YouTuber last year, in which he railed against the lack of support homeless people were given by the council. In the video, titled 'Interview with a Cave Man - I investigate the Cave People living beneath UK City', Mr Edwards bragged that he was able to survive due to his outdoors skills. He also claimed that the only reason he had joined others living in the colossal cave system was due to a lack of council support for mental health services, moaning: 'For British people if you don't have an addiction or a health problem or you can't be classified as having a mental health issue you just don't don't get anything on the system.' Edwards was first found by a YouTuber named Joe Fishh investigating the South West cities reclusive cliff dwellers. Bristol has a well-established homeless epidemic which has led some desperate figures on the edge of society to seek refuge in the caves and nooks scattered along the cliffs on the outskirts of the city close to the famous Clifton suspension bridge. Edwards, who didn't give his name in the near 40-minute documentary, used his 15-minutes of fame to rail against the perceived injustices in the system. He said that without a bank account it was impossible to access benefits and even those high street banks that offer a so-called 'homeless person's account' require proof of address from account holders. Bristol has a well-established homeless epidemic which has led some desperate figures on the edge of society to seek refuge in the caves and nooks He said without any hope of finding a permanent place to live he has resorted to the caves sorting himself out some running water and setting up a sink to wash his dishes. Today, his cave seems to be uninhabited. The dark cave, which can only be accessed through thick shrubbery and via a route which lies on the edge of a cliff face, has a large reconstructed metal fence as its entrance which now lies open. On the metal fence are the words 'community spirits keeps us going'. To the left of the entrance, there is a sink on top of a pool of dirty water, with pots and pans hanging from a metal fence. Intriguing items were scattered across the cave floor, including a giant and filthy teddy bear, a tattered copy of 'The Great Controversy', an empty paint bucket, roll-on deodorant and a calculator. A doorstop, water bottle, kitchen knife, bike light, a head torch, lighters and a single large sandle (size 11) were among other items lying in small suitcase near the entrance to the cave. There is, what appears to be a stove, in a makeshift kitchen separated from the cave via wooden poles. Crisscrossed wooden sticks and branches have been placed on top of rocks to create a makeshift roof over some dirty blankets and a duvet - which is presumably the bed the cave dweller slept on. A booklet was discovered next to the makeshift bed - which was a copy given out to the attendees of Massive Attack's famous 1.5 degrees climate action performance, which took place in Bristol in 2024. Next to the blankets were random items including eggshells, hand warmers, baby wipes, a flask, toiletries, a thermostat, a pocket mirror, scissors and a torch. An unopened Cucina tomato sauce jar was also discovered, which you can purchase from Aldi, had an expiry date which went back to 2023. An opened BBQ flavoured Pringles can was also found on some rocks - and this expiry date wrote 2025. There was various graffiti written on the rocks and cave walls. Speaking last year, Edwards said: ''I sort of generally take care of the place. I've already cleaned six bagfuls of cans and bottles out of there. 'There were loads of old sleeping bags that you know you wouldn't ever want to sleep in again so we got rid of all of them and and basically cleaned out all the cr*p.'
The Sun
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Builders are being undercut by illegal migrant labour – Brits who pay taxes and play by rules feel shafted
ON Question Time last week, Labour's clueless Treasury minister Darren Jones made an extraordinary claim. He told the BBC's top debate show that 'the majority of people in these boats are children, babies and women' when they cross the Channel. This is simply not true. 2 2 The Government's own website states: 'Seventy per cent of people detected arriving irregularly have been adult males aged 18 and over.' And — thanks to the exclusive Sun on Sunday investigation published here — we now know what many of them get up to once they arrive. The British people are being taken for fools again. We already know that our borders are in chaos. But, thanks to successive Labour and Tory governments, those arriving then go on to work illegally on the £260billion black market economy. And all the while we pay for their accommodation. Today it's highlighted in Barking but make no mistake, this scandal is playing out in towns and cities right across the country. Nearly 40,000 boat migrants have arrived since Labour came to power — and numbers are up 40 per cent on this time last year. How many of these already work on the black market without paying tax? Labour has long championed the mantra of British jobs for British workers. But brickies and builders are being undercut by illegal labour. Britain is in social and economic decline. The social contract is stretched to its limits. People that pay their taxes and play by the rules increasingly feel shafted. Yes, these migrants may be victims of exploitation — but they are also part of the criminal economy. Unscrupulous bosses are laughing all the way to the bank while British workers get priced out again. I was the first to highlight the impending invasion of young, undocumented males. Most of the media ignored me. But we can now see I was right. Immigration is out of control. The situation in the Channel is a security emergency. If we cannot stop this in Barking, how on earth will we control the borders in Dover? Keir Starmer's soft touch is laughable. He promised to smash the gangs — but all he has smashed are illegal immigration records. The only way to deal with this problem is to say everyone that comes to Britain illegally will be deported — and actually mean it.
