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Labour is pressing ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in a bid to achieve the highest rate of removals since 2018.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said detention capacity will be increased with the provision of 290 beds across Campsfield House and Haslar.

The former, in Oxfordshire, closed in 2019 while the latter in Gospar, Hampshire, shut in 2015.

In 2022, the then Conservative government said it would re-open both facilities to increase detention capacity by 1,000 at any given time, at the cost of £339m.

There has been strong local opposition to the plans, with critics pointing out that Campsfield House closed following years of problems including hunger strikes, self harm and suicides.

A Home Office source said they take the welfare and safety of people in their care “very seriously” and removals will be carried out “with dignity and respect”.

Sky News understands that the long-term intention is for 1,000 beds to be made available across the two sites, but 290 are part of the first phase of development and building work.

According to the Home Office, ministers have set their sights on achieving over the next six months “the highest rate of removals of those with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers” since 2018.

Staff will be redeployed to help drive an increase in returns, which the government said had dropped by 40% since 2010.

The measure is part of a wider effort to get a grip on the UK’s immigration and asylum system.

Labour promised in its election-winning manifesto to create a new Border Security Command to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel, using money diverted from the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme.

The Tories spent around £700m on the plan but not a single asylum seeker was sent there under it because of legal setbacks, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declaring it “dead and buried” days after taking office.

Voters will only put up with Labour’s blame game for so long


Jon Craig - Chief political correspondent

Jon Craig

Chief political correspondent

@joncraig

A “costly con” and a “political gimmick”: Labour’s verdict on the Tories’ Rwanda plan. Sound familiar?

This blame game is getting rather repetitive. Earlier this week Sir Keir Starmer slammed a “terrible inheritance” left by the Tories on prisons.

Now Labour is claiming a “dire inheritance” on border security.

Let’s not forget, either, Rachel Reeves’ claims of a “black hole” in the nation’s finances and Wes Streeting declaring “the NHS is broken”.

Okay, we get the message.

But the battle to “stop the boats” is potentially the toughest political fight Sir Keir will face against whoever becomes the new Tory leader.

Yvette Cooper is vowing to “clean up the mess the Tories made”, accusing the Tories of incompetence and a “staggering waste of taxpayers’ money”.

Yet facing such a daunting challenge, the new government – understandably – admits there are “no quick fixes” on border security and asylum.

But voters will only put up with Labour’s blame game for so long. On stopping the boats, possibly more than on any other issue, they want results.

As well as the extra beds, 100 new specialist intelligence officers will be brought into the National Crime Agency (NCA), the UK-wide body which has around 70 active investigations into people smuggling and trafficking groups.

This comes on top of the 50% uplift in the number of NCA officers stationed in Europol.

In addition, a new illegal working programme will be rolled out to investigate and target bosses who illegally employ people with no right to remain.

Read more:
Cooper to crack down on people ‘pushing hateful beliefs’
Starmer unveils plan to stop illegal migration crisis ‘at source’

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What Brits think of immigration

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, junior home office minister Seema Malhotra was unable to say when the approach would have an impact on small boat crossings, or whether scrapping the Rwanda plan would be enough to fund the measures.

Home Office figures showed 206 migrants crossed the English Channel in three boats on Monday, which has taken the 2024 provisional total of people to have crossed to 19,294.

This is a 10% increase on the figure recorded at this point last year, which was 17,620.

Immigration now tops the list of issues that Britons consider most important – for the first time since 2016 – according to a new poll by Ipsos released on Friday.

A Labour source said the Tories left behind a “dire inheritance” on border security and there are “no quick fixes”.

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Ms Cooper said: “We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced.

“Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe.

“They will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route into smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.

“And by increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long.”

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UK on ‘slippery slope’ to ‘death on demand’, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warns ahead of assisted dying vote

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UK on 'slippery slope' to 'death on demand', Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warns ahead of assisted dying vote

The UK is on a “slippery slope towards death on demand”, according to the justice secretary ahead of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying.

In a letter to her constituents, Shabana Mahmood said she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation.

“Sadly, recent scandals – such as Hillsborough, infected blood and the Post Office Horizon – have reminded us that the state and those acting on its behalf are not always benign,” she wrote.

“I have always held the view that, for this reason, the state should serve a clear role. It should protect and preserve life, not take it away.

“The state should never offer death as a service.”

Analysis: Justice secretary’s intervention is potentially embarrassing for the PM

On 29 November, MPs will be asked to consider whether to legalise assisted dying, through Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

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Minister ‘leans’ to assisted dying bill

Details of the legislation were published last week, including confirmation the medicine that will end a patient’s life will need to be self-administered and people must be terminally ill and expected to die within six months.

Ms Mahmood, however, said “predictions about life expectancy are often inaccurate”.

“Doctors can only predict a date of death, with any real certainty, in the final days of life,” she said. “The judgment as to who can and cannot be considered for assisted suicide will therefore be subjective and imprecise.”

Read more: Gordon Brown says assisted dying should not be legalised

Under the Labour MP’s proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.

The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.

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Details of end of life bill released

Read more: Where does the cabinet stand on assisted dying?

However, Ms Mahmood said she was concerned the legislation could “pressure” some into ending their lives.

“It cannot be overstated what a profound shift in our culture assisted suicide will herald,” she wrote.

“In my view, the greatest risk of all is the pressure the elderly, vulnerable, sick or disabled may place upon themselves.”

Kim Leadbeater waits to present the Assisted Dying Bill. File pic: House of Commons/Reuters
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Kim Leadbeater waits to present the Assisted Dying Bill. File pic: House of Commons/Reuters

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who put forward the bill, said some of the points Ms Mahmood raised have been answered “in the the thorough drafting and presentation of the bill”.

“The strict eligibility criteria make it very clear that we are only talking about people who are already dying,” she said.

“That is why the bill is called the ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’; its scope cannot be changed and clearly does not include any other group of people.

“The bill would give dying people the autonomy, dignity and choice to shorten their death if they wish.”

In response to concerns Ms Mahmood raised about patients being coerced into choosing assisted death, Ms Leadbeater said she has consulted widely with doctors and judges.

“Those I have spoken to tell me that they are well equipped to ask the right questions to detect coercion and to ascertain a person’s genuine wishes. It is an integral part of their work,” she said.

In an increasingly fractious debate around the topic, multiple Labour MPs have voiced their concerns.

In a letter to ministers on 3 October, the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case confirmed “the Prime Minister has decided to set aside collective responsibility on the merits of this bill” and that the government would “therefore remain neutral on the passage of the Bill and on the matter of assisted dying”.

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‘Immediate action’ taken after blueprints of prisons in England and Wales leaked on dark web

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'Immediate action' taken after blueprints of prisons in England and Wales leaked on dark web

“Immediate action” is being taken after blueprints of jail layouts were shared online.

The maps detailing the layouts of prisons in England and Wales were leaked on the dark web over the past fortnight, according to The Times.

The detailed information is said to include the locations of cameras and sensors, prompting fears they could be used to smuggle drugs or weapons into prisons or help inmates plan escapes.

Security officials are now working to identify the source of the leak and who might benefit from the details.

The Ministry of Justice did not disclose which prisons were involved in the breach.

A government spokesperson said in a statement: “We are not going to comment on the specific detail of security matters of this kind, but we are aware of a breach of data to the prison estate and, like with all potential breaches, have taken immediate action to ensure prisons remain secure.”

The leak comes amid a chronic prison overcrowding crisis, which has led to early release schemes and the re-categorising of the security risks of some offenders to ease capacity pressures.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is launching a sentencing review in a bid to ease the crisis.

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Starmer says UK will ‘set out a path’ to raise defence spending to 2.5% in spring

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Starmer says UK will 'set out a path' to raise defence spending to 2.5% in spring

The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.

Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.

There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte and  Keir Starmer, during a trilateral meeting in 10 Downing Street.
Pic: PA
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Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sir Keir Starmer and NATO boss Mark Rutte in October. Pic: PA

Ukraine war latest: Follow live updates

A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.

They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.

“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.

“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”

The defence review will also be published in the spring.

Read more from Sky News:
Strike using UK-made Storm Shadow missiles ‘very successful’
Putin warns US and UK over ‘escalation of aggressive actions’

While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.

They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.

With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.

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