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The health secretary has insisted the government “will not criminalise” homeless people, after a large backlash to its proposals for a new law.

Ministers are seeking to replace the 200-year-old Vagrancy Act from 1824 – which makes rough sleeping illegal – with its new Criminal Justice Bill, which the government says will instead target “nuisance begging”.

But the definition of a “nuisance” has led to uproar from both campaigners and MPs – including as many as 40 Tories, who are threatening to rebel over the plan – as it includes people sleeping in a doorway, those creating “excessive smell”, or someone “looking like they are intending to sleep on the streets”.

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A total of 37 housing and homelessness charities have today written to Home Secretary James Cleverly, warning the legislation “risks stigmatising people forced to sleep on the streets and pushing them away from help”, as well as seeing homeless women “penalised for seeking safety in well-lit doorways”.

And with the proposals including fines of up to £2,500, along with prison terms, it could see homeless people criminalised.

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Asked by Kay Burley on Sky News about the controversial definitions, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins claimed the government “wants to help the most vulnerable in society”, and was putting £2.4bn into eradicating rough sleeping.

She added: “We have been very, very clear. What we’re trying to target are those criminal gangs that make a living out of intimidating people.

“We want to stop some of the aggressive begging that can happen around cash points, for example.

“But we do not and will not criminalise people who don’t have a home. Absolutely not. That is not what this bill is about.”

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Asked if the wording of the definitions would be changed, Ms Atkins did not answer directly.

Instead, she said: “We are absolutely not criminalising people who… sleep on the streets because they do not have a home.

“What we want to do is support them into supportive accommodation because again, many people who are living rough have complex needs… they need mental health support.

“They may have been victims of horrendous adverse childhood experiences in their time.

“There are real vulnerabilities here that we want to support. And this is not about criminalising people who are homeless.”

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But Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis – one of the charities that signed the letter to the home secretary – issued a warning to ministers seeking to go forward with the bill.

“The government cites a moral imperative to end rough sleeping, yet these new measures will make it more difficult to do so,” he said.

“They will punish people for having nowhere else to go and push them further away from support.

“If we focus on the solutions that work – building safe and stable social housing and investing in specialist support that helps people keep their home – we can end rough sleeping.

“But the first and easiest thing the home secretary can do is listen to the concerns of these experienced organisations and remove these cruel and counterproductive measures.”

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The most recent government study into homelessness found 3,898 people sleeping rough on one night across England – an increase of 27% on the previous year.

It is also estimated that more than 242,000 households are experiencing some form of homelessness in England, including sofa surfing, being stuck in temporary accommodation and rough sleeping.

Research from Crisis also showed nine in 10 people sleeping rough had been victims of violence or abuse.

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Why Boris’s best mate is off to Reform

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Why Boris's best mate is off to Reform

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.

Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.

Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.

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Starmer and Macron agree need for ‘new deterrent’ to stop small boat crossings

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Starmer and Macron agree need for 'new deterrent' to stop small boat crossings

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the need for a “new deterrent” to deter small boats crossings in the Channel, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as part of the French president’s state visit to the UK, which began on Tuesday.

High up the agenda for the two leaders is the need to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, which Mr Macron said yesterday was a “burden” for both the UK and France.

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The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.

Sir Keir is hoping he can reach a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, ahead of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which will involve ministerial teams from both nations.

The deal would see those crossing the Channel illegally sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.

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However, it is understood the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that up to 50 small boat migrants could be sent back to France each week, starting from August, as part of an agreement between Sir Keir and Mr Macron.

A statement from Downing Street said: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street this afternoon.

“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.

“Moving on to discuss joint working, they shared their desire to deepen our partnership further – from joint leadership in support of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and increasing bilateral trade and investment.”

It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions.

“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.

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“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “entering the UK illegally” to Rwanda.

He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent ready to go, where every single illegal immigrant arriving over the Channel would be sent to Rwanda.

“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.

“Now, a year later, he’s realised he made a massive mistake. That’s why numbers have surged and this year so far has been the worst in history for illegal channel crossings.

“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”

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