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When I asked Sir Keir Starmer a couple of weeks back if he was ruthless, he said he was – but qualified it.

His ruthlessness was trained firmly on trying to get a Labour government that “could change this country for the better”.

He was “not ruthless for [his] own ambition”, nor was it ruthlessness for the Labour Party.

“I’m ruthless for the county,” said Sir Keir. “The only way we’ll bring about change in the country is if we are ruthless about wining the general election.”

But that ruthlessness is now blowing up and knocking the party’s election campaign off course.

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After a slick first week, Labour is having its first crisis, as the row whether to de-select Diane Abbott has seized the headlines and muddied the message.

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It has prompted, not just open splits at the top of the party, but wider questions about whether Starmer is purging the Labour Party as left wing candidates are blocked from standing and loyalists are being drafted into safe sets.

Ms Abbott herself has called it a purge, while Andrew Fisher, who worked in Jeremy Corbyn’s team asked: “Is it racism, sexism, factionalism or a combination of all? Either way it looks appalling.”

After iron tight discipline, the party is beginning to fray at the edges.

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Ms Rayner, the most senior women in the party, came to Ms Abbott’s defence today, telling me in the Sky News daily podcast that she should be allowed to stand if that is what she would like to do.

Yvette Cooper has also weighed in, describing Ms Abbott as a trailblazer and a “really important figure in the Labour party”.

Starmer, for his part, says the decision hasn’t been taken and will be made by the party’s national executive committee.

But there is clear a split – and it looks ill-disciplined at exactly the time when the party needs to show the public that is not another version of the warring Tories.

Ms Rayner was careful not to lay the blame of this at the feet of Starmer. She told me when I asked if the party leader was trying to purge the left that she “didn’t think Keir was acting in a factional way” – but that doesn’t mean others are not.

When I asked her about what Andrew Fisher had said about this being a very bad look for the party, Ms Rayner said: “It’s not a great look the way Diane was briefed against.”

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Rayner: ‘No reason why Abbott can’t stand as Labour MP’

The briefings the The Times newspaper on Thursday night that Ms Abbott was going to be barred from standing, promoting her defiant response and a rally outside Hackney Town Hall, has taken the issue from being relatively contained to out of control.

And this is the dilemma for Starmer. If he is ruthless about changing Britain, the less left wing firebrands on this benches, the better.

If he only wins a small majority, he needs the support of all his MPs and can ill-afford a left faction frustrating his government. So de-selecting unbiddable MPs and replacing them with loyalists makes perfect ruthless sense.

But when does being ruthless tip over into something more sinister, that seems unfair and actually turns voters off?

Perhaps the Labour high command think they can ride it out, purge these MPs and the news cycle moves on.

But the party already has a big problem in what are supposedly safe seats with the Muslim community that are angry over their stance over the Israel-Hamas war.

They are also facing an independent Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North.

Does the party really want to kick out the first ever black woman MP from the party too?

One senior Labour figure insists to me that his is not a purge and that it’s “important” to see all these cases differently.

But even if that is the intention, it is not how it’s being received amongst big chunks of Labour backers and voters.

If Sir Keir Starmer is really ruthless about winning this election, he might be advised to resolve this issue and quickly.

As Rayner acknowledged, it has become a distraction and that will be – in her words – a “frustration” to Starmer.

His top team have long said they will have wobbles along the way and what’s important is how its handled. This one needs sorting, and quick.

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Kosovo PM Albin Kurti: We feel ‘obligation’ to host UK migrant return hub

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Kosovo PM Albin Kurti: We feel 'obligation' to host UK migrant return hub

Kosovo feels a “political duty” to process failed migrants from the UK, if legal issues can be overcome, the country’s prime minister has told Sky News.

Albin Kurti said there is “limited capacity” in the small nation, which has a population of fewer than two million people, but that he expected a “successful result” from negotiations.

Talks are under way, he confirmed, between officials from both countries about a migrant returns deal for those whose claims have been ruled ineligible by the UK, and are awaiting deportation to their country of origin.

A Home Office team is exploring options for how one could work, Sky News understands, although no formal request has yet been made to Kosovo to host a facility.

Mr Kurti, who is attending a Western Balkans Summit in London this week, said: “We want to help the UK, we consider that that is our friendly and political duty.

“We have limited capacity but still we want to help, and as we speak, there is regular communication between our teams of state officials from our ministry of internal affairs and lawyers about how to do this smoothly for mutual benefit.

“Of course, we want, as a country, to benefit but we consider it first and foremost our obligation to help you because you helped us a great deal and will never forget that.”

Rescued migrants are brought in by the RNLI to Dover earlier this month. Pic: PA
Image:
Rescued migrants are brought in by the RNLI to Dover earlier this month. Pic: PA

Western Balkans key allies

Sir Keir Starmer has identified the countries of the Western Balkans as key allies in the fight against irregular migration, with 22,000 people using this route to reach the UK last year.

The UK government has signed agreements to tackle smuggling gangs with Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Keir Starmer said earlier this year that the government was in talks with unnamed countries about setting up “return hubs” which he called an “important innovation” for individuals who have exhausted all appeals in the UK system.

Kosovo is the first to confirm these negotiations are under way, and further discussions about it are likely in the margins of this week’s summit.

The small eastern European nation and the UK have strong ties, with Sir Tony Blair feted in the country for his government’s role in spearheading NATO airstrikes on Serbia in 1999, which helped end the Kosovo War.

In June, Kosovo made an agreement with the US, negotiated under the Biden administration, to take up to 50 US deportees who met certain criteria. But it is understood only one or two have arrived due to legal issues.

Kosovo would likely be seeking a defence agreement and UK investment in return, with the country concerned about Russian aggression and hostility from neighbouring Serbia.

Read more:
UK to ask Kosovo to take migrants
Govt considering sending failed asylum seekers to overseas migrant hubs

Tony Blair receiving a hero's welcome in Kosovo in 1999. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Tony Blair receiving a hero’s welcome in Kosovo in 1999. Pic: Reuters

Kosovo wants security support

Mr Kurti added: “We would like mainly to get support in security – be that through strategic agreements, or through equipment and projects we might do. Our two teams are working on this, but I think this will have a successful result.”

It is not expected the UK will make a formal request until further legal issues are worked through, which could be significant.

A controversial deal made by Italy in 2023 to send thousands of migrants to two detention centres in Albania has cost millions of euros and been halted by multiple legal obstacles.

Andi Hoxhaj, Balkan expert at King’s College, said: “Such a deal is unlikely to happen at the Summit. Nevertheless, I expect some statement indicating that the UK and one or two Western Balkan countries are close to reaching an agreement.”

“Establishing an agreement with the UK would not be politically sensitive in Kosovo. The country continues to seek deeper ties with one of its strongest allies-one that played a crucial role in its path to independence.”

Kosovo has convict deal with Denmark

Sir Keir was left embarrassed on a visit to the Albanian capital in May when he announced the UK was in talks about return hubs in the Balkans, only for Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to say he would not allow the UK to “dump immigrants” in his country when it is in a “marriage” with Italy.

Under Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Office has shifted focus to migration – with more staff working on the issue, drawing up sanctions on people smugglers and pursuing returns agreements.

Kosovo has also ratified a deal with Denmark – another active contributor to the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force – to take 300 convicts from its overcrowded prisons, due to start in 2027.

Return hubs are different from offshore processing – which is what the Conservatives had proposed with the Rwanda scheme.

It is proposed that individuals would only be sent to a return hub if their claim for asylum in the UK had been rejected – and they were awaiting deportation.

By sending them to a third country, the government hopes it will prevent people trying to frustrate and delay the process of removal and that it could act as a deterrent to people coming in small boats.

Only 3% of people of small boat arrivals in 2018-24, or around 5,000 people, were returned from the UK, according to the Oxford Migration Observatory, although removals of failed migrants from all routes has increased in the past year.

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Police should focus on ‘tackling real crime’, No 10 says, after Met Police halts non-crime hate probes

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Police should focus on 'tackling real crime', No 10 says, after Met Police halts non-crime hate probes

Officers should focus on “tackling real crime and policing the streets”, Downing Street has said – after the Metropolitan Police announced it is no longer investigating non-crime hate incidents.

The announcement by Britain’s biggest force on Monday came after it emerged Father Ted creator Graham Linehan will face no further action after he was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence over three posts he made on X about transgender issues.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said police forces will “get the clarity they need to keep our streets safe” when a review of non-crime hate incidents by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing is published in December.

“The police should focus on tackling real crime and policing the streets,” he said.

“The home secretary has asked that this review be completed at pace, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing.

“We look forward to receiving its findings as soon as possible, so that the other forces get the clarity they need to keep our streets safe.”

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He said the government will “always work with police chiefs to make sure criminal law and guidance reflects the common-sense approach we all want to see in policing”.

After Linehan’s September arrest, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said officers were in “an impossible position” when dealing with statements made online.

File pic: iStock
Image:
File pic: iStock

On Monday, a Met spokesperson said the commissioner had been “clear he doesn’t believe officers should be policing toxic culture war debates, with current laws and rules on inciting violence online leaving them in an impossible position”.

The force said the decision to no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents would now “provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations”.

Justice minister Sarah Sackman said it is “welcome news” the Met will now be focusing on crimes such as phone snatching, mugging, antisocial behaviour and violent crime.

Asked if other forces should follow the Met’s decision, she said: “I think that other forces need to make the decisions that are right for their communities.

“But I’m sure that communities up and down the country would want that renewed focus on violent crime, on antisocial behaviour, and on actual hate crime.”

The Met said it will still record non-crime hate incidents to use as “valuable pieces of intelligence to establish potential patterns of behaviour or criminality”.

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Fed mulls ‘skinny’ payment accounts to open rails for fintech, crypto firms

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Fed mulls ‘skinny’ payment accounts to open rails for fintech, crypto firms

Fed mulls ‘skinny’ payment accounts to open rails for fintech, crypto firms

Industry watchers welcomed the idea of “skinny” master accounts as another sign of the end of crypto’s banking troubles, in what insiders describe as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

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