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“I am ruthless.”

That was Sir Keir Starmer’s account of himself and his decision to let Natalie Elphicke into the Labour Party on our trip to Dover on Friday to unveil his plan to stop the small boats.

Because for all the controversy her arrival on the Labour benches caused this week, for Sir Keir it was worth it.

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Starmer sets out what he’ll do to tackle small boat crossings

It allowed him to take the fight on migration directly to the frontline, Dover, and stand next to the now Labour MP, Ms Elphicke, telling the cameras that Mr Sunak had “failed to keep the borders secure” and “can’t be trusted”.

As a piece of political theatre, it was ruthless.

And the timing was ruthless too, coming on the day the UK had come out of recession.

Rishi Sunak had wanted the television bulletins to lead on turning the economic corner and “sticking with the plan”.

That’s not what he got.

Instead, the Labour leader used the Elphicke defection to skewer Rishi Sunak on small boats on the very day the prime minister wanted to get back on the front foot about the economy.

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Starmer commits fully to stopping Rwanda plan in Sky News interview

Starmer goes further than before in attack on Rwanda ‘gimmick’

Sir Keir did qualify his ruthlessness as not an end in itself.

“I’m ruthless in trying to ensure we have a Labour government who can change this country for the better,” he explained to me.

“Not ruthless for my own ambition, not ruthlessness particularly for the Labour Party. I’m ruthless for the country.

“The only way we’ll bring about a change in this country is if we’re ruthless about winning that general election and putting in place a government of public service, that’ll be a major change in politics.”

Calling the Rwanda scheme a “gimmick”, Starmer went further than he had before in our interview on Friday, telling me he will stop the flights from day one of a Labour government.

Instead, he outlined his own plan to create a new “elite” Border Security Command, made up of MI5 agents, Border Force officers, police, specialist investigators and prosecutors to target the criminal gangs.

This, he insisted, would be a better deterrent as he pledged to bring down the number of boat crossings “drastically” from the approximately 30,000 people who arrived in Britain via such crossings in 2023.

He also said he would reinstate a “rules-based asylum system” in which claims are processed and people are either returned to their country or granted asylum, as he criticised the government’s huge backlog of unprocessed claims.

Pic: PA
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, sits with new Labour MP Natalie Elphicke, during a visit to Dover, Kent, to set out his party's plans to tackle the small boats crisis if it wins the general election, with a pledge to end the Conservative party's 'talk tough, do nothing culture' on small boats crossing the English Channel. Picture date: Friday May 10, 2024.
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Sir Keir Starmer with new Labour MP Natalie Elphicke. Pic: PA

But he admitted too after his speech that a Labour government would have nowhere to send thousands of migrants who had arrived from Afghanistan or Syria due to the lack of returns agreements with these war-torn countries.

I pushed him on targets: Would he commit to getting crossings down to 2020-type levels when 8,500 people came across on small boats?

But the Labour leader wouldn’t be drawn, telling me: “I’m not going to pluck out an arbitrary number” – as he took a swipe at Mr Sunak’s promise to ‘stop the boats’.

‘He’s going to open up our borders’

Rishi Sunak, for his part, was full of disdain – arguing that Starmer’s plan was to offer “an amnesty to illegal migrants” and that the Labour leader wasn’t offering anything new.

He said: “As far as I can tell all the things that we’re talking about today, are all things that we’re already doing – punching through the backlog, having more law enforcement officers do more, that’s all happening already.

“We’ve announced all of that more than a year ago.

“When it comes to illegal migration, it’s very simple – he’s just going to scrap the Rwanda plan and open up our borders.

“We’ve got a plan and we’re going to get our planes off.”

Read more:
A defection and intervention show Tories splintering
Officers raid homes of first people to be deported to Rwanda

Pic: Jacob King/PA
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Rishi Sunak was out and about on Friday trying to talk up the economy. Pic: PA

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So far in 2024, 9,037 people have crossed the channel in small boats – 35% higher than at the same stage last year.

The prime minister has promised to stop the boats and get the Rwanda flights going within weeks.

But the country is divided on the plan, and sceptical too – with a YouGov poll in April showing a straight split between those who are supportive of the plan and those who are opposed, with only 23% of respondents believing it will be effective, against 55% of people saying they think it won’t.

It is a sign of confidence that Starmer, who has had to rebuild Labour’s reputation as a party of national security and law and order in the wake of the Corbyn years, now thinks this is a fight he can take to the Tories.

That he took in a right-wing Conservative with a controversial past in order to hammer home that point shows what he’s prepared to do to win.

The question now is whether his plan is more convincing to voters than the prime minister’s.

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Shouts of ‘genocide’ in Commons as David Lammy denounces Israel’s ‘intolerable’ actions in Gaza

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Shouts of 'genocide' in Commons as David Lammy denounces Israel's 'intolerable' actions in Gaza

The foreign secretary has denounced Israel’s actions in Gaza as “intolerable” but stopped short of saying it had committed genocide.

MPs could be heard shouting “genocide” in the Commons chamber as David Lammy announced the government was suspending its trade negotiations with Israel and summoning Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, to the Foreign Office.

The UK has also sanctioned a number of individuals and groups in the West Bank which it says have been linked with acts of violence against Palestinians – including Daniella Weiss, a leading settler activist who was the subject of Louis Theroux’s recent documentary The Settlers.

Politics latest: Starmer says sorry for being ‘overly rude’ at PMQs

Israel immediately criticised the UK government actions as “regrettable” and said the free trade agreement talks, which ministers have now backed out of, were “not being advanced at all by the UK government”.

Oren Marmorstein, a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign affairs ministry, said: “If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy – that is its own prerogative.”

Mr Lammy’s intervention came in response to Israel ramping up its latest military offensive in Gaza and its decision to limit the amount of aid into the enclave.

Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, accused Israel of “deliberately and unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians by blocking aid from entering Gaza more than 10 weeks ago.

He also told the UN’s security council last week that it must “act now” to “prevent genocide” – a claim that Israel has vehemently denied.

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Aftermath of strike on Gaza school-turned-shelter

Speaking in the Commons, the foreign secretary said the threat of starvation was “hanging over hundreds of thousands of civilians” and that the 11-week blockade stopping humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was “indefensible and cruel”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to allow a limited amount of aid into the besieged enclave in response to global concern at reports of famine.

Mr Lammy said Mr Netanyahu’s govenrment was “isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world, undermining the interests of the Israeli people and damaging the image of the state of Israel in the eyes of the world”.

“We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict,” Mr Lammy added.

“Netanyahu’s government is planning to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need.”

Referring to one of the far-right ministers in Mr Netanyahu’s government, he said Bezalel Smotrich “even spoke of Israeli forces cleansing Gaza, destroying what’s left of residents, Palestinians being relocated, he said, to third countries”.

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Surgeon compares Gaza to ‘killing fields’

MPs from across the house shouted “genocide” as Mr Lammy said: “We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

In the Commons, a number of Labour MPs urged the government to go further against Israel.

Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP for Bolton South and Walkden, said there needed to be a “full arms embargo” and said: “Can I ask the foreign secretary what additional steps he’s going to be taking in order to stave off this genocide?”

Another Labour MP told Sky News that while the statement was “better than previously…without a concrete timeline and a sanctioning of responsible ministers, it’s hard to know what tangible difference it will make.”

Read more:
British surgeon in Gaza says it is now ‘a slaughterhouse’
Gaza at mercy of what comes next – analysis
How Israel has escalated Gaza bombing campaign

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Israeli officials have said its plans to seize all of Gaza and hold it indefinitely. – which would move the civilian population southward – will help it achieve its aim of defeating Hamas.

Israel also believes the offensive will prevent Hamas from looting and distributing humanitarian aid, which it says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu has defended Israel’s actions in Gaza and reacted angrily to a joint statement penned by the leaders of the UK, France and Canada, in which they urged Israel to end its military offensive in Gaza and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid allowed into the enclave.

The Israeli prime minister said: “By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.

“No nation can be expected to accept anything less and Israel certainly won’t. This is a war of civilisation over barbarism. Israel will continue to defend itself by just means until total victory is achieved.”

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SEC crypto task force to release first report ‘in the next few months’

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<div>SEC crypto task force to release first report 'in the next few months'</div>

<div>SEC crypto task force to release first report 'in the next few months'</div>

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Paul Atkins appeared before lawmakers in one of his first hearings since becoming chair of the financial regulator, addressing questions about his plans for the cryptocurrency industry.

In a May 20 hearing discussing oversight of the SEC, Atkins reiterated his pledge to make regulating digital assets a “key priority” while chair. In response to questions from North Carolina Representative Chuck Edwards, the SEC chair did not directly answer how much of the regulator’s funds were used to support the crypto task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, and said its findings were “still under development.”

“We should be having something here in the next few months with proposed steps forward,” said Atkins in response to the task force’s first report. 

Cryptocurrencies, Government, SEC, United States
Paul Atkins at a May 20 SEC oversight hearing. Source: House Appropriations Committee

The SEC chair’s appearance at the oversight hearing was one of his first since being sworn into office in April. Nominated by Donald Trump, Atkins, also a former commissioner, was seen by many lawmakers and those in the digital asset industry as someone who could radically change the SEC’s approach to crypto. 

Looking to Congress for help with regulatory clarity

Atkins’ remarks came less than 24 hours after US Senators voted to move forward on consideration of a bill to regulate stablecoins, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act. The bill is one of many related to aspects of digital assets that could affect how the SEC regulates the industry alongside agencies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

“Whatever happens in Congress […] that will help undergird what we do,” said Atkins.

Related: Paul Atkins: ‘Crypto markets have been languishing in SEC limbo

Since being sworn into office in April, the SEC chair has given opening remarks and overseen the commission’s roundtable events on digital assets. The next event, scheduled for June 9, will have SEC commissioners and industry leaders discuss issues related to decentralized finance.

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

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Suspension of trade talks a political signal that Israeli leadership is increasingly isolated

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Suspension of trade talks a political signal that Israeli leadership is increasingly isolated

The UK has suspended trade talks with Israel, in protest at what David Lammy called the “intolerable” conditions in Gaza, which he said would leave the population at risk of starvation.

This is, the foreign office confirms, a UK first, in suspending trade talks for a political or humanitarian reason. The Israeli ambassador in London, Tzipi Hotovely, will be summoned to the Foreign Office to deliver the message.

Politics live: PM apologises for being ‘overly rude’ at PMQs

This suspension, with immediate effect, is a political signal that the Israeli leadership is increasingly isolated even among its allies; and intended to ratchet up the pressure to let aid in.

It comes with a step change in the UK’s language on the humanitarian situation.

Keir Starmer on Monday night, in his joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, said there would be “concrete steps” if food and medicine continued to be held up at borders; and this is one of the levers available.

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Doctors in Gaza plead for help

David Lammy, announcing the move and targeted sanctions against West Bank settlers linked to violence, called it a “dark phase” in the conflict and said: “[Benjamin] Netanyahu’s actions have made this necessary.”

More on Israel-hamas War

Trade talks were launched under Rishi Sunak’s government, and a 2030 Roadmap was agreed for boosting trade.

Gaza live: UK halts trade talks with Israel

But although the Labour government committed to continuing with it, the last round of talks was held more than a year ago.

Israel has, the UN say, not allowed trucks in for 11 weeks, after saying Hamas steal the aid intended for civilians. Some trucks entered on Tuesday, but aid agencies say it is nowhere near enough.

With the collapse of the latest talks between the two sides in Qatar last week, the ceasefire the UK is calling for looks far off.

Using economic measures to force the aid issue is likely to be a signal to other allies, including the European Union, to take similar steps.

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