Home Office should be split in two to curb migration, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick says

Published

1 year ago

May 8, 2024

admin

Former Tory immigration minister Robert Jenrick has called for the Home Office to be split in two as part of a 30-point plan to curb migration.

Mr Jenrick, who is seen as a potential Conservative leadership contender, has been ramping up pressure on Rishi Sunak over the issue after quitting his government post last year.

Politics Live: MoD contractor hacked by China ‘has contracts across Whitehall

In a report he co-authored for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), a centre-right think-tank, the MP for Newark said the government must “undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations” that have “betrayed” the public’s wish for lower immigration.

He proposed a number of policies that should be implemented ahead of the looming general election, including breaking up the Home Office to create a department more focused on border control.

He said voters “deserve a department whose sole mission is controlling immigration and securing our borders”.

The proposals also include capping health and care visas at 30,000, scrapping the graduate route for international students, and indexing salary thresholds for visa routes in line with inflation.

Mr Jenrick said: “It would be unforgivable if the government did not use the time before the general election to undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations that betrayed the express wishes of the British public for lower immigration.

“The changes we propose today would finally return numbers to the historical norm and deliver the highly selective, highly-skilled immigration system voters were promised.

“These policies could be implemented immediately and would consign low-skilled mass migration to the past.”

Mr Jenrick was the immigration minister between October 2022 and December 2023.

He quit over the government’s inability to get the Rwanda deportation policy off the ground, and has since become one of the Mr Sunak’s loudest critics, particularly on migration.

Official estimates published in November indicated the net migration figure – the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving Britain – reached a record 745,000 in 2022.

The 2019 Tory manifesto promised to bring the “overall number down”.

The intervention comes amid a pessimistic mood with the Conservative Party following a bruising set of local election results.

Many Tories on the right believe caps on legal migration and getting flights to Rwanda in order to “stop the boats” is the best way to give the party a fighting chance at the general election, which the prime minister has admitted he might not win.

The government is introducing a raft of restrictions in a bid to cut the number of people legally arriving in Britain, including a ban on overseas care workers bringing family dependants to the UK and a drastically hiked salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700.

A government spokesperson said: “The prime minister and home secretary have been clear that current levels of migration are far too high. That is why the government announced a plan to cut the number of migrants that would have come last year to the UK by 300,000 – the largest reduction ever.

“This plan is working, with the latest statistics showing applications across three major visa categories are down by 24%.

“Our approach is fair – reducing immigration and ensuring businesses invest in and recruit from the domestic workforce, whilst prioritising the overseas workers and students who will contribute significantly to our economy.”

Politics

Australian regulator asks High Court to allow appeal in Block Earner case

Published

4 hours ago

May 22, 2025

admin

Australian regulator asks High Court to allow appeal in Block Earner case

Australia’s financial regulator will seek the High Court’s permission to appeal a lower court’s ruling favoring fintech firm Block Earner, which found the company’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning service is not a financial product.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said on May 21 that it wants to ask the High Court of Australia to clarify what the definition of a financial product is and clarify the circumstances when an interest-earning product and the conversion of assets from one form to another are regulated.

“The definition of financial product was drafted in a broad and technology-neutral way, and ASIC believes it is in the public interest to clarify this,” the watchdog said.

“This clarification is important as it applies to all financial products and services whether they involve crypto-assets or not.”

On April 22, Federal Court Justices David O’Callaghan, Wendy Abraham and Catherine Button found that Block Earner’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning product is not a financial product, a managed investment scheme or a derivative under the Corporations Act.

ASIC said the court will consider its application. Special leave is required in an appeal to the High Court, and it’s only granted in cases where it would answer significant legal questions or matters of public interest.

A Block Earner spokesperson told Cointelegraph the matter has now escalated to a “broader legal question” around the definition of a financial product, which extends “well beyond Block Earner, and the crypto sector.”

“We believe the Full Federal Court’s April ruling was a strong and well-reasoned decision that upheld the integrity of our operations,” the spokesperson said. “We remain confident in the soundness of that judgment and will respond to ASIC’s application through the appropriate legal channels.”

Legal saga ongoing since 2022

ASIC first launched legal proceedings against Block Earner in November 2022, arguing the company needed a financial services license to offer its yield product, which was available from March 17, 2022, until the company shut it down on Nov. 16, 2022.

In February 2024, an Australian court initially ruled the fintech firm would need a financial services license to operate its crypto yield-bearing products.

Another June 2024 ruling in Australia’s Federal Court released Block Earner from any financial penalties because it had “acted honestly” and pursued its legal opinions before launching the products, which ASIC appealed.

Block Earner appealed the Federal Court’s decision that it needed a financial services license on July 9, 2024.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Politics

VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

Published

6 hours ago

May 21, 2025

admin

VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence.

Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.

The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21.

“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.

Thematic crypto funds

VanEck’s PurposeBuilt Fund is the latest in a series of funds from the asset manager and rivals designed to offer exposure to projects and companies in fast-growing segments of Web3.

On May 14, VanEck launched a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) to invest in stocks and financial instruments providing exposure to the digital economy.

In April, VanEck launched another ETF investing in a passive index of companies operating in the crypto space.

Asset managers such as VanEck are requesting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) permission to list upward of 70 crypto ETFs.

The wave of ETF filings is in response to US President Donald Trump softening the agency’s regulatory stance toward crypto after Trump took office in January.

Avalanche RWA ecosystem

Avalanche has emerged as a hub for real-world assets (RWAs) and other institutional-oriented crypto projects.

Its interrelated networks, called subnets, allow institutions to run Ethereum-style smart contracts in a controlled environment. On May 16, Solv Protocol launched a yield-bearing Bitcoin token on the Avalanche blockchain, targeting institutional investors

Avalanche has around $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of May 21, according to data from DefiLlama.

“We’re seeing a shift away from speculative hype toward real utility and sustainable token economies,” John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said in a statement.

Magazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions — Sky Wee

Politics

US lawmaker reintroduces bill amid pushback on Trump’s crypto ties

Published

7 hours ago

May 21, 2025

admin

<div>US lawmaker reintroduces bill amid pushback on Trump's crypto ties</div>

A Democratic representative in the US Congress will support a blockchain bill at a time when many left-leaning lawmakers are blocking crypto-related pieces of legislation due to concerns with President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.

In a May 21 notice, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer said he had reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bill that “solidifies that digital asset developers and service providers that do not custody consumer funds are not money transmitters.”Emmer, a Republican, said Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres would co-lead the bill, making it a bipartisan effort in Congress.

“The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act reflects a thoughtful, bipartisan effort to get digital asset policy right,” said Torres. “While similar language was voted down in markup last Congress, we took that feedback seriously and returned with a smarter, sharper framework that protects innovation without compromising oversight.”

Cryptocurrencies, Law, Politics, Congress — *Reintroducing the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act on May 21. Source:* *Tom Emmer*

Representatives of advocacy organizations, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, Solana Policy Institute, Digital Chamber, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund and Blockchain Association, said they would support the proposed blockchain regulatory bill. It was unclear whether Emmer and Torres had a majority of votes in the House of Representatives for the legislation to pass.

Torres has supported many bills and policies favorable to the crypto industry since assuming office in 2021. Together with Emmer, he has led the Congressional Crypto Caucus to advance crypto-friendly policies in the House since March.

A bipartisan blockchain bill amid memecoin concerns?

Other Democratic House members, including Representative Maxine Waters, have suggested they intend to block any legislation related to crypto and blockchain until Republicans address Trump’s connections to the industry, such as his family’s stake in World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin. The president is planning to host a dinner with up to 220 people holding the most significant amounts of his memecoin on May 22.

Cointelegraph reached out to Torres’ office for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

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