Asylum seekers could start being housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge as soon as today as the government unveils a new crackdown on illegal migration.
About 50 people are expected to be in the first group of migrants to board the vessel docked in Portland Port, Dorset, despite local opposition.
The developments come as the government begins a so-called “small boats week” – with a series of announcements on the issue that Rishi Sunak has promised to solve.
This includes a huge increase in fines for landlords and employers who house and give work to illegal immigrants.
The government is also considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island in a bid to clear the asylum backlog and deter people from crossing the Channel, multiple reports on Monday suggested.
Safeguarding minister Sarah Dines would not confirm or deny this but told Sky News the government is looking at “all possibilities”.
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She said the first occupants of Bibby Stockholm are expected to arrive “in the coming days”, describing the situation in the Channel as “urgent”.
The minister would not confirm an exact date for “operational” reasons, although Sky News understands 50 single males are set to move on board today.
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The plan has faced weeks of delays amid safety concerns raised by the Fire Brigade Union, which has branded the site a “potential death trap”.
Defending the plan, Ms Dines said the barge “sends a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation but not luxurious”.
“Luxurious hotel accommodation has been part of the pull, I’m afraid,” she said.
“There have been promises made abroad by the organised criminal gangs and organisations which have tried to get people into the country unlawfully and they say, ‘You will be staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of a town in England’.
“That needs to stop and the barge is just one of a wide range of other measures.”
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What’s it like onboard the Bibby Stockholm?
Govt ‘looking at all possibilities’
The Bibby Stockholm will ultimately house 500 asylum seekers, which Ms Dines later suggested could happen by the end of the week.
Asked about the Ascension Island reports, Ms Dines said the government is “looking at all possibilities”.
She told Sky News “times change” when asked why the plan was reportedly being reconsidered after seemingly being rejected by Boris Johnson’s former government.
“We look at all possibilities. This crisis in the Channel is urgent, we need to look at all possibilities and that is what we are doing.”
The proposals to use the British Overseas Territory are apparently being considered as a “plan B” if the Rwanda plan fails.
The controversial deportation scheme has been stalled by legal challenges that will end up in the Supreme Court.
Deep in the South Atlantic, Ascension Island could be used to house an asylum processing centre as an alternative attempt to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel – something Mr Sunak has staked his premiership on.
Government ‘completely failing’
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‘Proper plan needed to get asylum backlog down’
On Monday it was announcedcivil penalties for employers will be increased up to a maximum of £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for repeat offenders, tripling both from the last increase in 2014.
Landlords face fines going from £1,000 per occupier to £10,000, with repeat breaches going from £3,000 to £20,000. Penalties relating to lodgers will also be hiked.
Image: Home Secretary Suella Braverman (centre) tours a building site on the outskirts of Kigali during her visit to Rwanda
But Labour said the measures would do nothing to deter people from crossing the Channel as it accused the government of “completely failing in this area”.
Shadow minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News: “They have 173,000 people now who are in the backlog in our asylum system. That’s the reason that they’ve ended up having to use hotels and (military) bases and now this barge.
“They are there because of their chronic failure.”
It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.
Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.
“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”
He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.
However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”
Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.
“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.
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Police chase suspected phone thief
Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.
At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.
However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.
After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.
A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.
Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.
They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.
There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.
But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.
The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.
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Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.
The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.
Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.
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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem
Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.
‘Missing in action’
General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”
She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Image: Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.
He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.
“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.
A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.
Binance co-founder CZ has dismissed a Bloomberg report linking him to the Trump-backed USD1 stablecoin, threatening legal action over alleged defamation.