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The home secretary has announced a new Illegal Migration Bill that will mean migrants arriving on small boats will be “removed swiftly”.

Suella Braverman told the Commons: “They will not stop coming here until the world knows that if you enter Britain illegally you will be detained and swiftly removed back to your country, if it is safe, or a safe third country such as Rwanda.

“And that is precisely what this bill will do. That is how we will stop the boats.”

Small boats crackdown reaction – latest politics updates

The home secretary said the bill will mean last-minute judicial reviews “conducted late at night with no chance to make our case or even appeal decisions” are no longer allowed.

She added that she “can’t say definitively” if the new bill complies with human rights laws.

“Of course, the UK will always seek to uphold international law and I am confident that this bill is compatible with international obligations,” she said.

Under the proposed plan:

• People arriving on small boats will be detained within the first 28 days without bail or judicial review and can be detained after that if there is a reasonable prospect of removal

• The onus to remove those who enter illegally will be on the home secretary – to “radically” narrow the number of challenges and appeals

• Only those under 18, those medically unfit to fly or at “real risk” of serious harm in the country they are removed to will be able to lodge an appeal to stop them from being deported

• Any other claims, including the right to private or family life, will be heard remotely after they have been removed

• People will be prevented from using modern slavery laws to oppose their removal

• Deportation can only be deferred when a person is cooperating with law enforcement agencies in trafficking investigations

• An annual cap on the number of people entering via safe routes – to be set by parliament – will “ensure an orderly system”

• A lifetime ban on settlement, citizenship and re-entry to the UK for those removed under the scheme.

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‘Nobody wants to be a refugee’

Ms Braverman said the government is adding to its detention capacity, including on military bases.

She added that new safe routes have yet to be decided but said the bill will allow there to be a “more comprehensive discussion” on them to allow “more legitimacy” on what they should be.

The home secretary said the bill was “not about scapegoating, this is about safeguarding”.

She added: “It is essential that the UK takes a robust approach, but compassionate approach. This is, at core, a humanitarian package of measures which sends the message to people: do not come here illegally.”

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Labour: ‘Deeply damaging chaos’

Labour: ‘Bill is a con’

However, opposition MPs hit out at the plan, with Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper calling the bill a “con” as she described the plans as “Groundhog Day”.

The veteran Labour MP mentioned a smuggler interviewed by Sky News the day before, saying the “disgraceful Tory attitude…is letting criminals off the hook and has let the gangs take hold”.

She added: “One smuggler told Sky News yesterday that three-quarters of the smugglers live in Britain, yet barely any of them are being prosecuted and they still haven’t found the hundreds of children missing from asylum hotels who have been picked up by criminal gangs.

“They could be setting out a serious plan today – and we would work with them, and so would everyone across the country.

“Instead, it’s just more chaos.”

Diane Abbott, who was Labour’s shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, accused Ms Braverman of using “inflammatory” language as she called the bill “deplorable and unworkable”.

In Ms Braverman’s original statement, she said: “For a government not to respond to waves of illegal migrants breaching our borders would be to betray the will of the people we were elected to serve.

“They will not stop coming here until the world knows that if you enter Britain illegally you will be detained and swiftly removed.”

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Sky report quoted in small boats debate

‘Only 50% chance compatible with Human Rights Act’

Moments after the home secretary’s statement Conservative MPs and peers were sent a letter, seen by Sky News, by Ms Braverman, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and Home Office minister Lord Murray of Blidworth, urging them for their support for the bill.

It outlined the main details of the bill and insisted it “does not mean the provisions in the bill are incompatible” with the Human Rights Act.

“Only that there is a more 50% chance that they may not be,” the letter said.

“We are testing the limits but remain confident that this Bill is compatible with international law.”

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‘People smuggling is just another job’

Ahead of the announcement, the home secretary said the plan “pushes the boundaries of international law” but insisted it is needed because the asylum system is being “overwhelmed”.

Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland told Sky News on Tuesday morning he had been assured the bill would not actually break international law.

The prime minister had said the new bill, which is key to one of his five priorities, will “take back control of our borders, once and for all”.

Opposition parties and refugee charities had already started criticising the bill before it was announced, with some saying the plans were “costly and unworkable” and they “promise nothing but more demonisation and punishment of asylum seekers”.

Critics said the UK had “comprehensively shut down” legal routes for refugees to come to the UK.

Labour raised doubts about the legality and feasibility of the bill and the Liberal Democrats said ministers had drawn up “another half-baked plan”.

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‘The capital is under attack’: Russian drones launched over Kyiv after Moscow targeted

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'The capital is under attack': Russian drones launched over Kyiv after Moscow targeted

Russia has launched a “massive” drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital overnight, after Moscow itself was targeted.

Amid flailing peace talks, the Kremlin’s nightly attacks on Ukraine continued.

Ukraine war – follow the latest updates

A large-scale Russian attack through the night into Sunday injured at least 11 in Kyiv and killed three people in towns surrounding the capital.

There were attacks elsewhere as well, including drone strikes in Mykolaiv, where a residential building was hit.

An apartment building destroyed after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv.
Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Image:
An apartment building destroyed after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine

‘Massive’ attack

In Kyiv, the city’s administration warned “the night will be difficult”, as people were urged to remain in shelters.

The city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko described it as a “massive” attack.

He said: “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working. The capital is under attack by enemy UAVs. Do not neglect your safety! Stay in shelters!”

It came after at least 15 people were injured in attacks the night prior.

Russia claimed it also faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday, and that it intercepted and destroyed around 100 of them near Moscow and across Russia’s central and southern regions.

A municipality worker cleans up after a Russian drone strike on Kyiv.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A municipality worker cleans up after a Russian drone strike on Kyiv. Pic: Reuters

Russia ‘dragging out the war’

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continued a prisoner exchange, marking a rare moment of cooperation in the war.

Amid the most recent attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his calls for sanctions on Russia.

Russia “fills each day with horror and murder” and is “simply dragging out the war”, he said.

A resident looks at an apartment building that was damaged in a Russian drone strike.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A resident looks at an apartment building that was damaged in a Russian drone strike. Pic: Reuters

“All of this demands a response – a strong response from the United States, from Europe, and from everyone in the world who wants this war to end,” Mr Zelenskyy added.

Every day “gives new grounds for sanctions against Russia”, he said, and each day without pressure proves the “war will continue”.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is ready for “any form of diplomacy that delivers real results”.

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Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

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Nine of Gazan doctor's 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.

Warning: This article contains details of child deaths

Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.

Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.

Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.

In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.

The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.

Rescuers removing the children's bodies from the rubble. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.

“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

Rescuers placing the children's bodies in a van. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack

Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.

Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.

Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar's husband who is also a doctor, being taken into hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.

Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.

Rescuers unload the children's bodies. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

‘No political or military connections’

Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.

“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies

He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”

Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.

Read more:
Mum of emaciated baby in Gaza says ‘I don’t want to lose her’
Dad wrongly pronounced dead in Israeli bombing killed in airstrike

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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

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UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

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UN's Antonio Guterres condemns 'teaspoon' of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.

He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.

A woman walks amidst rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Pic: Reuters
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A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’

Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.

The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.

Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.

More on Gaza

Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

Palestinians carry a body at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, northern Gaza .
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza

The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.

The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip May 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Image:
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.

Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.

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Read more on Sky News:
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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