Britain’s border protection ‘neither effective nor efficient’, report by sacked inspector David Neal says

Published

1 year ago

February 29, 2024

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Border protections at UK airports are neither “effective nor efficient” as ePassport gates are sometimes left unmanned, according to one of several delayed reports by sacked chief inspector David Neal.

The Home Office has published 13 papers written by the former borders and immigration inspector, who was dismissed last week after releasing information to the press about alleged airport security failings.

In one of the reports, about a reinspection of electronic passport gates, Mr Neal said roving officers were “distracted” by having to manage queues and deal with passenger queries, and that “basic stuff [is] not being done well”.

“Inspectors saw border posts left unmanned while officers signalled for attention from their managers.

“This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed urgently,” the report said.

Inspectors observed ePassport gates at three London airports in May 2023 – Heathrow Terminal 4, Luton and Stansted.

Staff at Stansted said the amount of casework they undertook had increased by 400% since the UK’s departure from the EU.

“On the basis of this inspection, I believe the protection of the border is neither effective nor efficient,” Mr Neal wrote.

Politics Live: Labour accuses Home Office of ‘trying to hide things’ over failings

Other reports by Mr Neal accused the Home Office of being dragged down by a “culture of defensiveness” and found that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s push to clear the legacy asylum backlog “at all costs” had led to a range of “perverse outcomes” for claimants.

One report said a perennial theme of the inspections had been “inexcusably poor data” collected by the Home Office.

Another damning report raised safeguarding concerns about the housing of unaccompanied asylum-seeker children and criticised the department for failing to provide guidance to hotels on when a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check should be renewed.

‘Border chaos’

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, accused the Home Office of “trying to hide” the information by publishing 13 reports, some 100 pages long, in one go.

The raft of reports were published just hours after damning findings from an inquiry into Sarah Everard’s killer was released, as well as a series of significant immigration statistics.

Ms Cooper said: “This is the border chaos the Tories are trying to hide.

“Ministers have sat on these devastating reports for months in a bid to hide their utter failure to protect our borders.”

She added: “From inadequate security checks at the border to spending billions on asylum hotels and unlawfully housing child refugees in inappropriate accommodation, the Conservative government have broken our immigration system. They have tried to bury this bad news, but the public deserve the truth.

“This is a government that has lost its way and on their watch our borders are less secure, and our asylum system is falling apart.”

Downing Street downplayed suggestions the release of the reports was a deliberate attempt to bury bad news.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “We wanted to publish them as swiftly as possible following the necessary and appropriate due diligence.”

The government had come under renewed pressure to release the reports following Mr Neal’s sacking.

During his tenure, he had repeatedly complained that the department was too slow to publish his reports, with 15 dating back to April 2023 still unpublished when he was dismissed.

The reports were meant to have been made public within eight weeks of being submitted.

‘Wholly inadequate’

Earlier on Thursday, the Home Affairs Committee (HAC) wrote to Home Secretary James Cleverly and described the delays as “unacceptable”. The panel of MPs also warned against a “great report dump” in order to “hide bad news”.

Following their publication, Diana Johnson, the Labour chairwoman of the HAC, said: “Not only have all these reports been published in one go, but there is no ICIBI (Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration) in post to provide a press release or a commentary on the contents of these reports.

“This is wholly inadequate and raises serious questions about what the Home Office has been doing all this time.”

Mr Neal’s exit came after he provided data to the Daily Mail which purported to show UK Border Force failed to check passengers on hundreds of private jets arriving at London City Airport.

Mr Neal said the alleged lack of checks meant criminals, illegal immigrants, trafficking victims and extremists may have entered the UK without undergoing scrutiny by the authorities.

The government said the claims had no basis in fact and accused him of breaching the terms of his appointment in leaking the information.

A report on Mr Neal’s inspection of London City Airport this month will be published “in the established eight-week period”, the Home Office said, alongside another report on social care visas relating to the immigration system.

The Home Office said it had “delivered” on a promise to publish all overdue reports as soon as possible.

A spokesperson added: “The publication of these reports that scrutinise the activity of the Home Office and make recommendations for improvement is in and of itself a demonstration of transparency and acceptance of independent scrutiny.”

Politics

Strive to become Bitcoin treasury company

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2025

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Strive to become Bitcoin treasury company

Strive Asset Management, founded by entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has revealed plans to transition into a Bitcoin treasury company.

According to a May 7 announcement, Strive is going public through a reverse merger and plans to use the combined company’s stock to accumulate Bitcoin (BTC).

The deal will see Strive merging with Asset Entities — a social media marketing company listed on the Nasdaq. The combined entity will operate under the Strive brand and use its access to the public equity markets to finance Bitcoin purchases, the company said.

Once the deal closes, Strive plans to issue approximately $1 billion in equity and debt and use the proceeds to accumulate BTC. The asset manager “intends to use all available mechanisms to build a Bitcoin war chest […] and build a long-term investment approach designed to outperform Bitcoin,” it said.

Strive plans to allow “Bitcoin holders to contribute Bitcoin in exchange for public stock through a structure that is intended to be tax-free,” it said. As of May 7, the company manages approximately $2 billion in net assets across a variety of funds.

In December, Strive filed to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) investing in convertible bonds issued by MicroStrategy and other corporate Bitcoin buyers.

Corporate Bitcoin treasuries

Corporate Bitcoin treasuries have become popular since the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Wall Street. Companies pioneering the Bitcoin buyer approach, such as Strategy have seen their share prices surge by 350% in 2024.

Analysts say adding Bitcoin to corporate treasuries can “potentially be a valuable hedge against growing fiscal deficits, currency debasement, and geopolitical risks,” asset manager Fidelity Digital Assets said in a 2024 report.

Corporate Bitcoin treasuries collectively hold roughly $74 billion worth of BTC as of May 7, according to Bitcointreasuries.net.

Trump connection

Ramaswamy, an outspoken ally of President-elect Donald Trump, founded Strive in 2022. Its stated goal is to help investors “harness the power of capitalism,” according to Strive’s website.

In 2023, Ramaswamy — who largely earned his $1 billion net worth from biotechnology startup Roivant Sciences — campaigned against Trump in the Republican presidential primary. He later endorsed the president-elect.

Magazine: Bitcoin’s $100K push wakes taxman, Vitalik visits real Moo Deng: Asia Express

Politics

Trump memecoin dinner attendees could include foreign nationals — Report

Published

3 hours ago

May 7, 2025

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Trump memecoin dinner attendees could include foreign nationals — Report

At least some of the top holders of Donald Trump’s memecoin who apply to attend a private dinner with the president could be based outside the United States.

According to a May 7 Bloomberg report based on an analysis of the top TRUMP tokenholders, 19 of the top 25 wallets on the leaderboard used foreign exchanges that exclude US-based customers, suggesting either foreign nationals or Americans living abroad. In addition, more than half of the top 220 holders — the group eligible to apply for a dinner with the president — also used exchanges in other countries.

As of May 7, the identities of the top tokenholders and those who might choose to apply for the May 22 Trump dinner and “special VIP tour” were unknown. However, the project stated that anyone who applied could not bring guests, had to pass a background check, and “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country.”

The implications of having dozens or hundreds of memecoin holders potentially tied to foreign governments and interest groups have raised ethics concerns from some US lawmakers, claiming that Trump was engaging in “pay-to-play” corruption. At least one senator has called for the president’s impeachment, saying Trump was “selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him.”

Memecoin concerns are slowing crypto legislation

Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate have already been pushing back against considering any crypto-related legislation until Republicans address concerns around “Trump’s crypto corruption.” The Senate is expected to vote on a bill regulating stablecoins on May 8, and House Republicans recently introduced a discussion draft of a digital asset market structure bill.

Then-president-elect Trump launched the memecoin on Jan. 17 — three days before taking office — followed by the first lady introducing her own token. Two companies connected to Trump control roughly 80% of the memecoin’s supply.

The launch of the memecoin and its potential influence over the president and his agenda has already prompted some companies to get on board. On April 30, a trucking logistics management company announced a $20 million investment in the TRUMP token, suggesting influencing Trump’s trade war between the US and Mexico, where the firm conducts much of its business.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Politics

Trump-backed USD1 is now the seventh-largest stablecoin worldwide

Published

7 hours ago

May 7, 2025

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Trump-backed USD1 is now the seventh-largest stablecoin worldwide

USD1, the US dollar stablecoin launched by the President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI), has become the seventh-largest stablecoin worldwide in just two months since its launch.

WLFI’s snapshot vote for a USD1 airdrop proposal is underway, and USD1’s market capitalization has continued to climb.

Launched in early March with a $3.5 million supply, USD1 has expanded into a market cap of $2.2 billion at the time of writing, leaving rival stablecoins First Digital USD (FDUSD), PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Tether Gold (XAUT) behind, according to data from CoinGecko.

Although rising fast, the USD1 market cap is still far from the market value of major stablecoins like Tether’s USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), whose market caps are worth $149 billion and $61 billion, respectively.

BNB Chain drives USD1 issuance

Trump-backed USD1 is almost exclusively issued on Binance-backed BNB Chain. According to data from BscScan, as much as $2.1 billion of all USD1 supply is issued on BNB Chain, accounting for more than 99% of its total circulating supply, while an Ethereum-based version accounts for just $14.5 million, according to Etherscan.

USD1’s latest market spike was sharp, jumping 1,540% from $128 million to $2.1 billion within two days in late April, according to CoinGecko.

The spike came days before Eric Trump announced that Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX would use the USD1 to invest $2 billion in Binance.

Justin Sun-backed HTX among the first CEXs to list USD1

As USD1’s market cap spiked, some centralized exchanges (CEXs) rushed to list the Trump-backed stablecoin.

HTX, a crypto exchange closely associated with Tron founder Justin Sun and formerly known as Huobi, announced the listing of USD1 with permanent zero-fee withdrawals on the BEP-20 network on May 6.

According to websites like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, HTX was one of the first CEXs to list USD1, as the token is primarily available on decentralized exchanges, including PancakeSwap and Uniswap.

Most WLFI inflows come from outside the US

While the WLFI community has been voting on the USD1 airdrop, some reports suggested that WLFI investment is mainly coming from outside the United States.

According to a poll by V1PS founder Notaz.Sol, as much as 90% of WLFI investors are likely coming from non-US jurisdictions, including Europe, Asia and Latin America.

A May 7 Bloomberg report also indicated that over half of the top holders of Trump-branded memecoins reside abroad.

The USD1 stablecoin’s growth lines up with Trump’s pro-stablecoin agenda announced in his executive order on “Strengthening American leadership in digital financial technology” in January.

While WLFI has been closely associated with Binance, both Trump and Binance have repeatedly denied and criticized reports suggesting any links or deals between the parties.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight