Priti Patel suggests ‘market forces’ could make government U-turn on tax cuts unavoidable
Priti Patel has suggested “market forces” could make a government U-turn on corporation tax cuts unavoidable.
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the former home secretary said the need for financial stability “will probably dictate some of these changes now”.
Her comment came as Downing Street today insisted the prime minister and the chancellor “remain committed” to the growth plan set out in last month’s mini-budget, which prompted economic turmoil.
Asked if a U-turn on cutting corporation tax would be sensible, Ms Patel told the Beth Rigby Interviews… programme: “The market is going to dictate this primarily because we want to see stability, stability is absolutely crucial for everyone to carry on with their lives.
“I genuinely think from what we’re seeing that the markets will dictate it.”
Ms Patel, now on the backbenches after new prime minister Liz Truss did not give her a job, also reflected on her nearly three years as home secretary as she spoke about the murder of Sarah Everard, facing death threats and racism.
She said she was “dismayed” by the Metropolitan Police’s reaction to women attending a vigil for Ms Everard, who was kidnapped and murdered by a serving police officer during one of the COVID lockdowns.
Asked if the vigil, where women were manhandled and arrested, was the beginning of the end for the then-Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, Ms Patel said: “It was a range of things, it wasn’t just the one incident, appalling though it was.
“It was a range of things that we went on to see, the conduct, the culture of misogyny.”
She said she did not fire Dame Cressida straight away after that as she felt it was the whole Met Police leadership team that was failing women – and she brought them in to find out what was happening.
The MP for Witham, 50, added: “Let’s be honest, since then we’ve learnt so much about the Metropolitan Police about conduct, attitudes.”
Justice system has to raise its game
Focusing on violence against women and girls, Ms Patel said she was proud to have successfully overseen the Domestic Abuse Bill through parliament so it is now law.
She said under Boris Johnson’s government, they did “much more to shine a light” on how domestic abuse can affect anybody at any time, and said they gave victims the confidence to come forward.
However she said: “But to give them confidence to come forward also means that the institutions, the organisations, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the criminal justice system has to raise its game and that is also where we’ve been working.”
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Priti Patel resigns as home secretary
Death threats and racism
Ms Patel also spoke about receiving “consistent levels of harassment and abuse” over the 12 years she has been an MP.
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She said that has ranged from intimidation and unkind things to people following her home and death threats.
“I’ve had a lot of death threats, cases have gone to court,” she added.
“It provides pause for thought, there’s no doubt about that but I came into politics because I believe in public service – I’m very old fashioned in that sense that I do believe in public service.”
Ms Patel said there has also been abuse within parliament, with MPs saying she has “no right to speak out on certain issues because of the colour of my skin” – which she said was “unacceptable”.
In 2020, a Guardian cartoon depicted her as a fat cow with a nose ring.
“People know that I’m a Hindu and of Indian origin, that was completely unacceptable but yet a national newspaper felt they could do that and it was in the public interest,” she added.
UK
Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still ‘too high’ under Labour – but says Farage can ‘sod off’
The home secretary has admitted the UK’s illegal immigrant numbers are “too high” – but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.
Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase of irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Politics latest: Labour MPs attack asylum plans
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.
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Beth Rigby: The two big problems with Labour’s asylum plan
Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
• The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
• Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
• Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
• Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
• Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
• Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
• And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.
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Home secretary announces details on asylum reform
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.
The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: “Nigel Farage can sod off. I’m not interested in anything he’s got to say.
“He’s making mischief. So I’m not going to let him live forever in my head.”
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Nigel Farage said the home secretary was sounding like a Reform supporter
She earlier announced refugee status would be temporary, only lasting two and a half years before a review, and they would have to be in the UK for 20 years before getting permanent settled status, instead of the current five years.
Ms Mahmood said Reform wanted to “rip up” indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called “immoral” and “deeply shameful”.
The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to her Pakistani parents.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racial slurs.
BBC chair Samir Shah has said there is “no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this” – after Donald Trump said he would sue the corporation for between $1bn and $5bn.
It comes after the US president confirmed on Saturday he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster over the editing of his speech on Panorama – despite an apology from the BBC.
Samir Shah said the BBC’s position ‘has not changed’. Pic: Reuters
In an email to staff, Mr Shah said: “There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
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On Saturday, President Trump told reporters legal action would come in the following days.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he said.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
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The BBC on Thursday said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US leader’s lawyers threatened to sue for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Deborah Turness. Pic: Reuters
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
The Panorama scandal prompted the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The broadcaster has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con people out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the United States for five years in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country’s high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, in which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital currency and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures including former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole more than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after using the hacked accounts to ask people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster said the civil recovery order showed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at around £4.1m, was made last week, following a freeze placed on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured during extradition proceedings.
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Elon Musk was among those targeted by scammers in a Twitter hack
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A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his assets, the CPS said.
The attack also compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of other high-profile figures including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to temporarily freeze some accounts.
X said 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send tweets.
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