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In a church hall in Hull, groups of asylum seekers queue for tea and toast and advice from immigration experts.

The room is busy, the busiest it’s been since the riots.

The volunteers who run the weekly event say many people were initially too scared to come out following the violence.

As in other towns and cities, a hotel housing migrants became a target for the rioters.

Wahag, 24, describes watching the attack from a window on the third floor of the hotel.

Riot police protected the hotel
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Riot police stood guard outside the hotel

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Wahag watched from a window as people gathered outside

Speaking in Arabic via a translator, he recalls: “I felt scared. I saw the people throwing stones and rocks at the hotel.”

He says he and the other migrants were advised not to go out.

Concerned there could be further riots, he says: “I’m worried that if it does happen again, it would be very bad.”

Wahag says he arrived in the UK by small boat just a few months ago after making the journey across Europe from Yemen.

The riots have left him with mixed views on Britain, where he thought he would be safe.

“There are some bad people and some good people,” he reflects, but he says the UK has a “good government”.

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Bodycam: Police attacked in Hull riots

Aftermath of protests in Hull
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Shops were attacked and looted in Hull city centre

Wahag reveals that the Home Office has now granted him leave to remain in Britain.

The decision came much more quickly than he expected. His is one of many asylum claims processed since Labour won the election, as it begins to tackle a backlog of applications.

He says he is “happy” Labour is now in power.

“The previous government, they wanted to deport us but now they are making the procedure easier for us,” he says.

It means he will have to move out of the hotel, but is now free to make a life in Britain.

Many of the migrants we spoke to remain more wary about going out.

William, from Kenya, believes asylum seekers were targeted because people think “we came here to seek money or their jobs”.

But he says it’s unfair migrants are blamed for the accommodation and support they are given.

William
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William hid in a community centre as cars and tyres were set alight nearby

“It’s the Home Office and the government,” says William.

“If we were given the right to work we cannot be living in hotels, living for free.”

‘It’s not our fault they put me in that hotel’

Mustafa, who came to the UK on the back of a lorry nine years ago, was also in the hotel as rioters attacked it.

“We hear they are shouting ‘we need to burn the hotel, we need to burn the people in the hotel’,” he recalls, praising the police for keeping him and others safe.

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Earlier this year Mustafa, from Iraq, was destitute.

His asylum claim had been rejected and he was sleeping on a park bench.

But he has since put in a fresh claim, which meant the Home Office gave him a room in the hotel while he awaits a decision.

Asked if he understands why some people find it frustrating he gets a hotel room, an option not available to people born in Britain who find themselves destitute, he says “of course, of course”.

But he says: “You know the procedure of the Home Office. It’s not our fault they put me in that hotel.”

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Inside the simmering anger after UK riots

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A Home Office spokesperson said it is “determined to restore order to the asylum system after it has been put under unprecedented pressure, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly”.

They added: “We have taken necessary action to restart asylum processing and clear the backlog of cases which will save an estimated £7bn for the taxpayer over the next 10 years.”

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‘Significant’ number of countries to provide troops to Ukraine peacekeeping force

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'Significant' number of countries to provide troops to Ukraine peacekeeping force

A “significant number” of countries will provide troops to a Ukraine peacekeeping force, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said.

On Saturday, leaders from 26 Western countries – plus two EU leaders and NATO’s secretary general – gathered for a virtual call of the “coalition of the willing”, hosted by Sir Keir after Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted a 30-day interim ceasefire agreement.

Politics latest: Farage welcomes defectors

The prime minister said military chiefs would meet this Thursday to discuss the next “operational phase” in protecting Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force – if a deal can be agreed with Russia.

Speaking on Monday, Sir Keir’s spokesman said they now expect “more than 30” countries to be involved in the coalition – but did not reveal which other countries had joined since Saturday.

He added: “The contribution capabilities will vary, but this will be a significant force, with a significant number of countries providing troops and a larger group contributing in other ways.”

The spokesman did not say which countries agreed to be part of a peacekeeping force, which Sir Keir and French leader Emmanuel Macron have confirmed the UK and France will be part of.

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What could a peacekeeping force actually do?

Could troops end up fighting?

Russia has repeatedly said it would not accept soldiers from NATO countries being stationed in Ukraine.

Asked if British troops fired on by Russia in Ukraine would be allowed to fire back, the spokesman said: “It’s worth remembering that Russia didn’t ask Ukraine when it deployed troops.

“We’ve got operational planning meetings that they are going through.”

The spokesman also said he did not know if the US – notably absent from the coalition – will be joining the military chiefs’ meeting on Thursday, but said the UK is having “regular discussions with our American counterparts”.

Both the UK and France are pushing for the US to provide security guarantees to prevent Russia from reneging on any peace deal with Ukraine.

Read more:
Who’s in the coalition of the willing?

Follow live updates from the Ukraine war

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Which nations will join peacekeeping efforts?

Trump and Putin to hold talks

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he supports the truce brokered by the US in Saudi Arabia, but “lots of questions” remain over the proposals.

Donald Trump said on Sunday night he will speak to Mr Putin on Tuesday about ending the war and negotiators have already discussed “dividing up certain assets”, including land and power plants.

He said a “lot of work” had been done over the weekend on a peace deal.

The leaders involved in Saturday’s call were from: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, and the UK.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa also joined.

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A Labour Party in Tory clothing? Why Starmer’s backbenchers are deeply uncomfortable

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A Labour Party in Tory clothing? Why Starmer's backbenchers are deeply uncomfortable

Since taking office nine months ago Sir Keir Starmer has weathered party rows about winter fuel payments, the two child benefit cap, WASPI women, airport expansion and cuts to international aid.

All of these decisions have been justified in the name of balancing the books – filling that notorious £22bn black hole, sticking to the fiscal rules, and in the pursuit of growth as the government’s number one priority.

But welfare reform feels like a far more existential row.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting argued on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the current system is “unsustainable”.

Ministers have been making the point for weeks that the health benefits bill for working-age people has ballooned by £20bn since the pandemic and is set to grow by another £18bn over the next five years, to £70bn.

But the detail of where those cuts could fall is proving highly divisive.

One proposal reportedly under consideration has been to freeze personal independence payments (PIPs) next year, rather than uprating them in line with inflation.

Charities have warned this would be a catastrophic real-terms cut to 3.6 million people.

Concerned left-wing backbenchers are calling on the government to tax the rich, not take from the most vulnerable.

The Sunday Times and Observer have now reported that Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has dropped the idea in response to the backlash.

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Streeting defends PM’s comments on ‘flabby’ public sector

Read more:
Streeting denies Labour ‘changing into Tories’
Planned PIP freeze set to be scrapped – reports
What cuts could be announced?

Wes Streeting denied reports of a cabinet row over the plan, insisting the final package of measures hasn’t yet been published and he and his cabinet colleagues haven’t seen it.

Not the final version perhaps – but given all backbench Labour MPs who were summoned to meetings with the Number 10 policy teams for briefings this week, that response is perhaps more than a little disingenuous.

In his interview with Sir Trevor Phillips, he went on to make the broader case for PIP reform – highlighting the thousand people who sign up to the benefit every day and arguing that the system needs to be “sustainable”, to “deliver for those that need it most” and “provide the right kind of support for the different types of need that exist”.

To me this signals the government are preparing to unveil a tighter set of PIP eligibility criteria, with a refocus on supporting those with the greatest needs.

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Liz Bates: Will there be a backlash over benefits?

Changes to incapacity benefit to better incentivise working – for those who can – are also clearly on the cards.

The health secretary has been hitting out at the “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions, arguing that “going out to work is better for your mental and physical health, than being spent and being stuck at home”, and promising benefit reforms that will help support people back to work rather than “trapped in the benefits system”.

Turning Tory?

Starmer said this week the current welfare system couldn’t be defended on economic or moral grounds.

The Conservatives don’t disagree.

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Conservatives: Scrapping NHS England is ‘right thing’

Before the election, they proposed £12bn in cuts to the welfare bill, with a focus on getting people on long-term sickness back to work.

This morning, shadow education secretary Laura Trott claimed Labour denied that welfare cuts were needed during the election campaign and had wasted time in failing to include benefits reform in the King’s Speech.

“They’re coming to this chaotically, too late and without a plan,” she said.

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈

Notwithstanding the obvious critique that the Tories had 14 years to get a grip on the situation – what’s most striking here is that, yet again, the Labour government seems to be borrowing Conservative clothes.

When challenged by Sir Trevor this morning, Streeting denied they were turning Tory – claiming the case for welfare reform and supporting people into work is a Labour argument.

But, from increasing defence spending and cutting the aid budget to scrapping NHS England, there’s a definite pattern emerging.

If you didn’t know a Labour administration was in charge, you might have assumed these were the policies of a Conservative government.

It’s a strategy which makes many of his own backbenchers deeply uncomfortable.

But it’s doing a good job of neutering the Tory opposition.

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Sky News and Politico join forces again with new Politics At Sam And Anne’s podcast

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Sky News and Politico join forces again with new Politics At Sam And Anne's podcast

The new Sky News and Politico podcast Politics At Sam And Anne’s launches today, with Anne McElvoy replacing Jack Blanchard as Sam Coates’s co-host.

The political podcast will be available from 7.30am Monday to Thursday and will see Coates, Sky News’ deputy political editor, and McElvoy, Politico’s executive editor, unpack everything there is to know about the day ahead in Westminster.

Each instalment of the award-winning podcast will give audiences the latest insight into British politics in no more than 20 minutes.

The podcast originally launched in September 2023 with Jack Blanchard – Politico’s former UK editor, and now author of Politico’s DC Playbook.

👉Listen to Politics At Sam And Anne’s on your podcast app👈

McElvoy’s arrival comes after a successful year for the podcast as it was recently recognised at the inaugural Political Podcast Awards and credited for its “must-know political insight”.

Coates, who won Presenter of the Year at the 2025 Political Podcast Awards, said: “Having Anne on board as my new full-time co-host is hugely exciting.

“With her phenomenal multi-decade background in domestic and international affairs, Anne is best in class at dissecting how events around the world are shaping Westminster.

“By combining Politico’s incredible depth and Sky’s ability to cut through the noise, we are well placed to continue providing unrivalled analysis and the latest scoops to our informed Westminster audience.”

McElvoy said: “Sam’s boundless energy, deep cross-party knowledge and a shared delight in informed conversation on the topics and characters shaping politics make even our early morning recordings fun.

“Our mission remains delivering the unmissable first podcast of the day for and about Westminster. We will explore the news moments that matter, offer our own insights and spontaneous exchanges and preview events that shape our political world.”

David Rhodes, executive chairman of Sky News, said the podcast was “the go-to source for people who work in Westminster and beyond”.

He said: “It provides an unparalleled service, giving a community of highly engaged listeners the full story, first each morning on what’s happening in politics.”

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