There are dark circles under her eyes, and she looks pale, as she calls the council’s housing department.
She tells them she doesn’t know where she’ll sleep tonight, along with her girls, aged 11 and seven.
Image: Nedret Batir was in tears as she spoke to Sky News
The man on the phone reassures her that they are looking for alternative accommodation and that she will have to wait.
But the panic is written all over her face. The clock is ticking.
“But I don’t have no place to leave my luggage,” she says, “because I have to go and pick up my children from school”.
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The caseworker simply replies: “Yeah, that’s not my concern.”
Image: Nedret Batir and her daughters with everything they own
‘Social cleansing’
Hers is a tale of desperation that has become normalised in England – but with a difference.
She has fallen victim to an out-of-area policy in place in this borough, and apparently across others in the capital, that moves families hours away from everything they know.
If two offers of accommodation are rejected, families are being told they are making themselves “intentionally homeless”.
And that is exactly what has happened to Nedret.
She has rejected a rental property in Hartlepool, five hours away from London. As a result, they have told her that they will be ending their duty to house her.
“I can’t take it anymore,” she tells me sobbing, “I don’t know what to do.”
She says she cannot tear her children away from where their father lives, where they go to school, and where she has support.
Image: Nedret Batir and her daughters, Eda and Ebru, on the bus
But the Enfield policy is written clearly, in an email, stating: “We will be finding homes for homeless families in parts of the country that are affordable to people on low incomes.
“The homes we offer will usually be a long way from Enfield, and outside southeast England.”
Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa calls it “social cleansing”.
I show him the emails, the policy, the wording that is causing sleepless nights across the area, and probably the capital.
“It’s only affecting a certain group, those from low incomes,” he adds.
“Basically if you’re poor, get out. I’ve never seen it so, like in black and white. That is not what housing should be in the sixth richest economy in the world.”
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1:32
Why isn’t housing a bigger election issue?
Sky News has investigated and discovered that this is not just happening in London, it’s across the whole of England.
In every region, there has been a rise in the number of families with children being moved “out of area” into temporary accommodation.
Overall that figure has gone up in recent years by almost a quarter, according to our freedom of information requests.
‘I don’t have anybody here’
Abdullah Ahadi is already experiencing it first-hand, along with the isolation that being sent hours away can bring.
It’s 4.30am on a pitch-black March morning when we knock on his door in Corby, Northamptonshire.
He opens it, balancing on a walking stick, having been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.
It’s silent on the estate, a warren of brick homes, and his is the only one with a light on inside.
Image: Abdullah Ahadi, who has muscular dystrophy, walks his children to his car before the long drive to school
He is being temporarily housed here with his wife and four children – who were born in London and grew up in Harrow, in the northwest of the capital.
Abdullah said: “They told me if you don’t accept this house, we will take your name from the list which says you need a house [so] I have no choice.”
But it means he must get up before dawn, to drive his children to school in Harrow, for what often becomes an eight-hour round trip.
As everyone piles into his car, he describes the loneliness.
Image: Mr Ahadi spends up to eight hours a day on the school run
“I don’t have anybody here. I worry about my kids. At the weekend they just stay inside the home.
As his six-year-old triplets, two boys and one girl, fall asleep – Abdullah’s 10-year-old daughter, Laaibah, describes the exhaustion of waking up so early.
“You can tell from my voice,” she says.
Articulate and softly spoken, she says she misses her friends, but admits she hasn’t told them about her living situation.
“They just know that I live far away.”
She also describes how she feels “different from people” in Corby.
“There’s not much Muslims there so every time I walk past, most people stare at me because of my hijab.”
Image: Mr Ahadi’s daughter Laaibah
It also weighs heavy on Abdullah’s mind that his condition is deteriorating – his muscles are “wasting day by day”.
He says: “If something happens to me, who is coming here to take care of the children? We have a lot of support from family and friends in London.”
I ask why he doesn’t move his children to a new school in Corby.
He replies that he doesn’t know how long the family will be there, as it’s supposed to be temporary.
And that hits at the heart of this. School is the only constant in these families’ lives, and they cling to it.
‘I just want to give up’
Nedret and her daughters are the same.
They have now been moved to Ilford, another hotel room; still in London – but a two to three-hour bus journey to their school.
Ebru, 10, says she is struggling to do her homework in a cramped room, and getting up early to do the commute is taking it out of her.
I tell her that her mother has described her as “brave”, and ask her if she feels it.
She replies: “Yes and no. At one point I do, and at one point I don’t, I just want to give up.”
Her sister Eda is also extremely tired.
By the time we reach their school, because of terrible traffic, and missing another bus, it is nearing 11am, or, as Eda says, “nearly playtime”.
None of these families, on low incomes, can find affordable private rentals, even when they do – it’s hard to act fast enough to secure them, such is the market.
A leaflet from Enfield Council explains the “severe shortage of accommodation for private rent” in London and the region.
It describes how it “is especially hard to find affordable homes for people on benefits or a low income”.
Image: The Ahadi family travel long distances every day to get to school
Local Housing Allowance rates and rents elsewhere are apparently “more closely aligned and so are affordable for residents”.
Eventually, six months after they first moved to Corby, Abdullah’s family is brought back to London, to Hounslow in the west of the capital.
With his condition, driving more than an hour to school one way is still taking its toll, but life is much better being closer to support.
But it’s temporary. And that’s the thing. At any point, they could be moved on.
Laaibah looks less tired when I meet her at the new “emergency accommodation”, a light and airy house under Heathrow Airport‘s flight path.
She is worried about where they will be moved to next.
“If I make friends here it will be temporary and if I move you never know if people are going to be rude to me, and it is just going to feel bad if you are lonely. If I move school it is going to be really hard to make friends,” she says.
Image: Mr Ahadi says he is worried who will look after his children if something happens to him
Hunger and exhaustion
Seven months after Nedret was moved from Enfield to Ilford, we meet her in the same hotel room. Nothing, for her, has changed since the start of the year.
She says she has been spending money on taxis to school, and two buses back, and has run out.
“I can’t take my kids to school, I can’t buy them any food, my credit cards are full.”
Despite the school suggesting they move closer, Nedret says there are no spaces.
Image: Nedret Batir and her daughters Ebru (left) and Eda (middle)
At one point she suggests to me she even regrets not accepting the original Hartlepool offer.
Ebru, meanwhile, looks exhausted too – describing the family’s hunger.
“When I’m in bed sometimes me and [my sister] can’t sleep because we’re starving and my mum can’t do anything.”
Her school attendance has also dropped to 51%.
“I can’t do anything about it”, Ebru tells me, looking upset.
She now sees a therapist but says they “just give me kind words, she’s telling me: ‘You’ll get through this’. But I don’t think so. I don’t think so at all”.
Unfortunately, no matter where they are sent the rental market will continue to be volatile – and increasingly inaccessible to the poorest.
Temporary accommodation alone is not the answer to Britain’s housing crisis.
Harrow Council said: “While we can’t comment on individual cases, we understand the stress and uncertainty that comes with the threat of homelessness or the increasing number of families that have become homeless.
“That’s why we ensure the support is there including financial assistance to secure their own accommodation in the private rented sector. We are facing unprecedented demand and currently supporting over 4,000 families a year who are under the threat of becoming homeless, and over 1,200 households in temporary accommodation.
“Like many local authorities we have a high demand for social housing and a shortage of temporary accommodation. Harrow has one the lowest stocks of social housing in London.
“When we can we look to offer accommodation within, or as close as possible to Harrow. However average rents in Harrow have increased by over 10.5% in just the last 12 months so this has made it even harder for families and the council to find affordable accommodation which is suitable for households who approach seeking our help.
“It is also hard to find emergency accommodation in neighbouring boroughs for the same reasons.
“We do everything we can to find the most suitable homes for those in need of temporary accommodation, prioritising those with the most urgent need. Where we can’t offer something within the borough, we ensure that accommodation outside of the borough is suitable and meets their needs.”
An Enfield Council spokesperson said: “Despite extremely challenging financial conditions, we continue to do all we can to invest in Enfield to deliver positive outcomes for our residents. However, like many London boroughs, we are seeing a number of acute challenges including a shortage of social and affordable homes to rent.
“In line with other councils, we have moved to a national placement policy as a result of the extreme shortage of accommodation in London and the South East. Our priority is to find a suitable, permanent home for families as long-term hotel accommodation is neither appropriate, nor affordable.
“Hotel accommodation is incredibly costly and is damaging to the health and wellbeing of families which is why we must find alternative, suitable options. Given the dwindling supply of housing which is not set to improve in the near future, residents have been advised to be ready at short notice when a placement becomes available.
“Increasing numbers of families are turning to councils for temporary accommodation and financial support as homelessness reaches record highs. The scale of homelessness and impact on councils’ budgets mean we must manage these pressures whilst ensuring that homeless families are provided with appropriate housing, rather than unsuitable hotel accommodation.”
This is a special report in Faultlines, a Sky News series that aims to explore some of the biggest issues facing Britain ahead of the general election.
You can watch Adele Robinson’s full report today at 10.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 4.30pm, 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Sky News or on YouTube.
Police have made 200 arrests in London after crowds turned out for a Palestine Action demonstration – despite the group being banned.
Organisers Defend Our Juries said up to 700 people were at the event in Parliament Square and claimed police were preparing for the “largest mass arrest in their history”.
The group said those arrested included former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, NHS workers, quakers and a blind wheelchair user.
The Metropolitan Police said a “significant number of people” were seen “displaying placards expressing support for Palestine Action, which is a proscribed group”.
“We have now made 200 arrests in Parliament Square this afternoon,” the force wrote in a post on X.
In an earlier post, it wrote: “While many of those remaining in the square are media and onlookers, there are still people holding placards supporting Palestine Action. Officers are steadily working through the crowd making further arrests.”
Image: An aerial view of Parliament Square
Image: Protesters write on placards for the Lift the Ban campaign rally on Saturday. Pic: PA
Legislation to proscribe Palestine Action came into force on 5 July, making it a criminal offence to show support for the organisation, carrying a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
Defend Our Juries announced the protest would go ahead earlier this week despite the ban, following several other similar demonstrations since the proscription last month.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the group said that “Palestine Action and people holding cardboard signs present no danger to the public at large”.
Image: A woman is dragged away by police officers after attending the Palestine Action protest in Parliament Square. Pic: PA
Three people have been charged as a result of illegal Palestine Action activity.
Jeremy Shippam, 71, of West Sussex, Judit Murray, also 71, of Surrey, and Fiona Maclean, 53, of Hackney in east London, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 16 September.
Another march organised by the Palestine Coalition, which is a separate group, set off from Russell Square and assembled on Whitehall.
The Met Police said one person had been arrested there for showing a placard in support of the Palestine Action.
Image: A man is detained by police officers in Parliament Square. Pic: PA
Crowds had assembled in Parliament Square by 1pm, with people seen writing “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” on placards.
Many remained silent while others sang pro-Palestine chants.
A Home Office spokesperson said in a previous statement: “The Home Secretary has been clear that the proscription of Palestine Action is not about Palestine, nor does it affect the freedom to protest on Palestinian rights.
“It only applies to the specific and narrow organisation whose activities do not reflect or represent the thousands of people across the country who continue to exercise their fundamental rights to protest on different issues.”
The ban faces a legal challenge in November after the High Court granted a full judicial review to Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori.
The Department for Work and Pensions will launch an independent review into its handling of prosecutions against Post Office staff, Sky News has learned.
About 100 prosecutions were carried out by the DWP between 2001 and 2006 during the Horizon IT scandal.
The “independent assurance review”, however, is yet to be commissioned and will not look at individual cases.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongfully convicted of stealing by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015, due to the faulty Horizon IT system.
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2:55
What did we learn from the Post Office inquiry?
The DWP told Sky News they have “committed” to commissioning the review into prosecutions led by the department, where Post Office staff were investigated for “welfare-related fraud”.
They described cases as “complex investigations” which they said were “backed by evidence including filmed surveillance, stolen benefit books and witness statements”.
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They also added that “to date no documentation has been identified showing that Horizon data was essential to these prosecutions”.
The review will look at a period of time spanning 20 years covered by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024, from September 1996 to December 2018.
The Horizon Act was effectively blanket exoneration legislation which automatically quashed Post Office convictions but did not include DWP or Capture-related prosecutions.
Image: Roger Allen
The family of Roger Allen, who was convicted in 2004 of stealing pension payments by the DWP and sentenced to six months in prison, are “frustrated” the review won’t look at his or other cases.
Mr Allen died in March last year, still trying to clear his name.
Keren Simpson, his daughter, describes the review as a “development” but a “fob off”.
“I think it’s just getting us off their backs,” she said, “I’ll believe it when I see it because they’re not taking any accountability.
“They’re not acknowledging anything. They’re denying everything.
“No one’s saying, look, we really need to dig in and have a look at all these cases to see if there’s the same pattern here.”
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1:29
‘Everyday life was a struggle’ – former sub-postmistress
Mr Allen pleaded guilty to spare his wife – after his lawyer told him in a letter that there had been “an indication from the Crown that they may discontinue the proceedings against Mrs Allen were you minded to plead guilty”.
Despite the Criminal Cases Review Commission deciding Mr Allen had grounds to appeal against his conviction, it was upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2021.
The independent review will look at the “methodology and processes” used by the DWP, and the “thoroughness and adequacy” of efforts to obtain case documents.
The DWP say that the review won’t be commenting on individual cases or those that have been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
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11:28
Post Office: The lost ‘Capture’ files
Potential reviewers will also be approached with experience “outside of the civil service”.
They will be asked to produce a report with recommendations for any further actions within six months of starting their review.
Lawyer Neil Hudgell, instructed by some of those prosecuted, described the review as “wholly inadequate”, saying the DWP “should not be marking its own homework.”
“Any involvement in the process of appointing reviewers undermines all confidence in the independence of the process,” he added.
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2:48
‘All we want is her name cleared’
He also criticised the DWP’s statement as “strikingly defensive and closed minded”.
“It cannot be anything approaching rigorous or robust without a proper case by case review of all affected cases, including those dismissed by the Court of Appeal.”
He said that where hundreds of convictions were quashed “at the stroke of a pen” a proper and “targeted” review is “the least these poor victims are owed.”
“At the moment there is a widespread feeling among the group that they have been “left behind and that is both legally and morally wrong.”
A Freedom of Information request to the Department of Work and Pensions by Sky News has also found that most cases they prosecuted involved encashment of stolen benefit payment order books.
In response to questions over how many prosecutions involved guilty pleas with no trial, the DWP said the information had been destroyed “in accordance with departmental records management practices” and in line with data protection.
A 15-year-old boy has been found guilty of the murder of Sheffield schoolboy Harvey Willgoose.
Harvey, also 15, was killed by a fellow student outside their school cafeteria in February this year.
His parents, Mark and Caroline Willgoose, have told Sky News that school knife crime is “a way of life for kids”.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had brought a 13cm hunting knife with him into All Saints Catholic High School, Sheffield, stabbing Harvey twice in the chest just a few minutes into the lunch break.
His defence told the court the defendant had “lost control”, stabbing Harvey after years of bullying and “an intense period of fear at school”.
Moments after stabbing Harvey, he told teachers, “you know I can’t control it” and “I’m not right in the head”.
Giving evidence, the boy told the court he had no recollection of the moment he killed Harvey, something the prosecution said was “a lie”.
They told the jury the schoolboy “wanted to show he was hard” and had become “obsessed” with weapons in the lead up to Harvey’s death, with photographs of him posing with knives found on his phone.
Chris Hartley, of the Crown Prosecution Service, expressed the organisation’s “huge sympathies” for Harvey’s family and friends.
“The CPS and South Yorkshire Police were able to prove that the defendant did not lose self-control but intended to deliberately attack 15-year-old Harvey,” he said in a statement after the verdict.
“We remind teenagers that there can be horrendous and serious consequences of carrying knives. It has been proven that if you carry these weapons, you are more likely to use them or be a victim of knife crime. You are putting yourself, other people and your future at risk. Please stop carrying knives and stop putting lives in danger.”
Image: Harvey Willgoose and his mother
Speaking to Sky News ahead of today’s verdict, Harvey’s mother, Caroline Willgoose, said she felt she had “led [her son] into the lion’s den”.
She said Harvey was a “school avoider” who had “anxiety” about going to school.
“We badgered Harvey into going to school but I don’t think people realise that there is a problem in all schools with knives,” says Mrs Willgoose.
“It’s a way of life now for kids, and it needs to stop.”
During the trial, it was revealed that the defendant had had previous violent outbursts at school, and, a few months before Harvey was stabbed, the school had called the police when the defendant’s mother contacted them to say she had found a weapon in her son’s bag at home.
Harvey’s parents told Sky News’ Katerina Vittozzi they feel that the school did not take previous knife-related incidents “seriously enough” and felt “100%” the outcome might have been different if they had.
The head of St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust – a group of schools including All Saints – also told Sky News Harvey’s death “was an unimaginable tragedy for all”.
Steve Davies said: “We think especially of Harvey’s family, loved ones and friends today. We cannot begin to imagine the immeasurable impact the loss of Harvey has had on them.
“Harvey was a much-loved, positive and outgoing pupil whose memory will be cherished by all who knew him. As a community, we have been devastated by his death, and we continue to think of him every day.”
He added: “Harvey’s death was an unimaginable tragedy for all, and one that understandably gives rise to a number of questions from his family and others.
“Now that the trial has finished, a number of investigations aimed at addressing and answering these questions will be able to proceed.
“We will engage fully and openly with them to help ensure every angle is considered and no key questions are left unresolved.”
Describing her son as “a character” who “never stopped smiling, never stopped singing”, Mrs Willgoose said she was now campaigning for “all schools and colleges” to use knife arches.
“I want people to go into schools and talk about the devastation of what knife crime does.”
In an emotional interview with Sky News’ Katerina Vittozzi, Mrs Willgoose said she felt her son was “put here for a reason” and “I can’t let go until I put things right for him”.
“There’s no winners when it comes to knife crime,” she said.
The defendant “has ruined his life, his parent have got an empty bed”, she added. “He’s got to live with this for the rest of his life.”
Harvey’s father, Mark Willgoose, said that his son had had “a short life, but a good life”.
“He crammed everything in, and you’ve just got to try and see the positives in that,” Mr Willgoose added.
“Whatever happens in court, it’ll never be justice. It’ll never be enough.
“I think we’ve just got to make sure Harvey’s death is not going to be in vain, and if whatever we do saves one life, then it’s been worth us doing it.”
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.