The government is looking at other countries it could process asylum seekers in, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has told Sky News.

Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Ms Cooper said the government has been talking to Italy about its arrangements with Albania and with the EU Commission about other options.

Ms Cooper said she has been speaking to the Italian interior minister about their deal, which means asylum seekers wanting to settle in Italy will be processed in Albania.

Politics latest: Nobody had courage to speak up when Prince Harry was in room

Asked if she wants the same deal for the UK, following reports the government is looking at a deal with Albania, Ms Cooper said: “We will always look at what works.

“There has to be practical things that will work, not gimmicks.”

She criticised the Conservative government’s Rwanda deal, which was meant to see UK asylum seekers processed in Rwanda. It cost £700m but only saw four volunteers sent there.

Former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett has suggested the government should create bespoke agreements with designated “safe” countries to deport foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, as this would override any claims through the Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Asked about that, and whether the UK is talking to Albania or any other countries about an “Italian-style deal”, Ms Cooper said: “We’ve talked to the Italian government about the arrangements that they have, and we’ve always said we’ll look at what works.

“We’re also talking to the EU Commission who are interested in different approaches around return hubs, that’s the kind of thing that you’re talking about.

“But our central focus is on the borders, the summit, the organised immigration crime summit and on tackling the criminal gangs.”

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The UK is hosting an “unprecedented” border security summit on Monday with interior ministers and law enforcement from more than 40 countries, Ms Cooper said.

She said the summit was necessary because illegal immigration is a “global problem”.

“The criminal gang networks that end up with people arriving in the UK, stretch back through northern France, through Germany, across Europe, to places like the hills of Kurdistan or the money markets in Kabul,” the home secretary said.

“So you need to tackle this as a global problem.”

Ms Cooper added that the government has got new agreements with France and the French government has changed the rules so its police force will now “take action” in the Channel to prevent migrants crossing to the UK in small boats.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “smash the gangs”, which Ms Cooper said can be seen through the 20% increase in migrant returns since Labour was voted in last summer, a 40% increase in illegal working raids and a 40% increase in arrests for illegal working.

The Home Office announced on Sunday that company bosses hiring in the gig economy could face up to five years in prison if they fail to check if their employees can legally work in the UK.

Ms Cooper told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Frankly, it is too easy at the moment for employers to take people on illegally through those contract mechanisms without those checks in place.”

The chair of a charity set up by Prince Harry says he asked for a public message of support for Meghan after a polo fundraiser “went badly”.

In a wide-ranging interview with Sky News’ Trevor Phillips, chair of Sentebale Dr Sophie Chandauka also claimed:

• The charity lost sponsors and donors when the Sussexes left the UK – but she wasn’t allowed to discuss the problem
• Harry is the “number one risk” to the charity
• He tried to “eject” her from the organisation
• He would appoint board members without consulting her

Sentebale was set up by the prince in 2006 in memory of his mother, Princess Diana, to help young people with HIV in Lesotho and Botswana.

Dr Chandauka has already accused the prince of “harassment and bullying at scale” by “unleashing” the Sussex PR machine – an allegation a source denied as “completely baseless”.

On Tuesday, Prince Harry quit as patron of the charity along with several other senior members after disagreements with the chair.

Polo fundraiser ‘went badly’

In a full interview with Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Dr Chandauka discussed Prince Harry’s filming of a Netflix show, which she said resulted in the charity losing the venue for an event they were holding.

She said the duke phoned her team, saying he’d like to bring a Netflix crew to the polo event.

She said the venue owners were originally “happy for us to use their polo grounds at a material discount”.

But as a result of the request, the price increased as it had become a commercial venture.

The charity was forced to pull out of the venue as it couldn’t afford the fee, according to Dr Chandauka, but then was “lucky enough” to find another through Prince Harry’s connections.

On the day, however, she claimed there were more problems.

“The duchess decided to attend, but she told us she wasn’t attending, and she brought a friend, a very famous friend,” Dr Chandauka said.

“The choreography went badly on stage because we had too many people on stage.

“The international press captured this, and there was a lot of talk about the duchess and the choreography on stage and whether she should have been there and her treatment of me.”

She claimed the media attention around Meghan’s treatment of her prompted Prince Harry to ask Dr Chandauka to issue a statement in support of the duchess.

“I said I wouldn’t. Not because I didn’t care about the duchess, but because I knew what would happen if I did so, number one. And number two, because we cannot be an extension of the Sussexes,” she said.

A source close to the former trustees of the Sentebale charity described Dr Chandauka’s account of the polo match as “highly misleading”. Sky News also contacted Netflix, who declined to comment.

‘Number one risk’

Dr Chandauka was asked if the Duke of Sussex is the “number one risk” to the charity, and replied “yes”.

She added that when she asked why there was a loss of sponsors at the time the Sussexes left the UK, she was told: “It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have with Prince Harry in the room.”

“What you discovered was essentially, donors were walking because of the prince’s reputation?” asked Trevor Phillips.

“Yes,” Dr Chandauka replied.

She also accused the prince of trying to “eject” her from the organisation.

“There were board meetings where members of the executive team and external strategic advisors were sending me messages saying, ‘Should I interrupt?’, ‘Should I stop this?’ ‘Oh my gosh, this is so bad’,” she said.

“In fact, our strategic adviser for fundraising then sent me a message saying she wouldn’t want to ever attend any more board meetings or bring her colleagues because of the treatment.”

When she didn’t leave, Dr Chandauka suggested Prince Harry tried to force the failure of the charity he set up in his mother’s memory.

“Prince Harry started to brief, and his team, sponsors that I had been speaking to, against me and the charity, because that is a sure way of getting me out if it’s seen as though I’m not being successful in my fundraising efforts,” she said.

When asked about a Sky News interview with former trustee Dr Kelello Lerotholi who said he was “surprised” by her accusations about the prince, Dr Chandauka said she wasn’t “surprised that he didn’t know much of what was going on in the organisation”.

“He had the worst attendance record and even when he was in the meetings, he didn’t actually contribute that much,” she said.

‘Everybody’s shocked and quiet’

Dr Chandauka gave an example of the prince’s behaviour in board meetings.

“Prince Harry decides, on this specific occasion, that he wants to appoint an individual to the board, with immediate effect, without having talked to me,” she said.

“His proxy on the board says, ‘Yes, I second that motion’. The third proxy on the board says, ‘Welcome to the board, Brian’.

“And everybody’s shocked and quiet, but this is what happens when the prince is in the room and no one has the courage to speak.”

Sky News contacted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about the contents of Sophie Chandauka’s interview with Trevor Phillips, and they declined to offer any formal response.

But the source close to the former trustees of the Sentebale charity has described as categorically false Dr Chandauka’s claims that Dr Lerotholi did not attend meetings and did not contribute much when he was in meetings and that the Duke of Sussex leaving the UK impacted the charity, caused it to lose sponsors, or that the duke posed the biggest risk to the charity.

The source also described as “completely baseless” Dr Chandauka’s claims that she was bullied and harassed, briefed against by Prince Harry, or that the Sussex machine was unleashed on her and that the people on the board of Sentebale were scared to speak up when the duke was in the room.

The claim that the press was informed about the royal patrons departure as trustees before the charity, has been described by the source as “categorically untrue”.

In response to Dr Chandauka’s claim that the Duke of Sussex was ‘forcing the failure’ of the charity ‘as a last resort’, the source pointed to the public statement of Prince Harry and his co-founder of the Sentebale charity, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, which read:

“It is devastating that the relationship between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation.

“These trustees acted in the best interest of the charity in asking the chair to step down, while keeping the wellbeing of staff in mind. In turn, she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position, further underscoring the broken relationship.”

The morning-after pill could become free from pharmacies in order to end an “unfair postcode lottery”, according to a health minister. 

The morning-after pill is a type of emergency contraception taken to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

Despite its name, it can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex, but the sooner it is taken, the more effective it is.

Emergency contraception is free from most GPs and sexual health clinics, but pharmacies can charge up to £30.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said women “face an unfair postcode lottery when seeking emergency contraception, with access varying dramatically depending on where they live”.

He described equal access to safe contraception as “a cornerstone of a fair society”.

The proposal, which will be announced on Monday as part of a wider investment in community pharmacies, would come into effect later this year.

As well as making access to the pill more equal, it is hoped the plans will free up appointments for GPs as women will no longer have to book in to receive the medicine.

The government is making a raft of changes to the healthcare system, including scrapping NHS England, the administrative body that runs the national health service.