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We’ve been here before. Yvette Cooper is the third home secretary to promise to reform procedure for armed police officers after the shooting of Chris Kaba.

But then we have had three home secretaries in the past year: Tories Suella Braverman and James Cleverly and now Labour’s Ms Cooper.

It was when dozens of officers in London handed in their weapons after Metropolitan Police marksman Martyn Blake was charged, in September last year, that Ms Braverman launched a review.

Firearms officers “mustn’t fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties,” she declared. Her review would ensure they have the confidence to do their jobs, she said.

Yvette Cooper swerves budget questions – Politics latest

Then in March this year, Mr Cleverly announced that investigations into police officers suspected of committing offences in the line of duty would be “sped up”, to provide swifter clarity to both officers and victims.

“The government will amend the threshold for referring police officers for criminal prosecution, so that only cases that have a reasonable prospect of conviction should be referred,” the Home Office added.

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So what happened to speeding up the reforms? Were they stalled by the July general election? Apparently not. Ms Cooper said it was right to wait until the end of Mr Blake’s trial before announcing changes. Fair point.

What are the changes, then? In a rare cross-party consensus between the two front benches, the home secretary has accepted all Mr Cleverly’s proposals, for which he was gracious in expressing his gratitude.

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Retired firearms officer Tony Long, who shot dead Azelle Rodney in 2005, speaks to Sky News as a police officer is cleared of the murder of Chris Kaba.

But she’s gone much further. The one audible cheer from the surprisingly few MPs in the chamber – only around 25 or so on both sides – came when she proposed a “presumption of anonymity” for police on trial up to a conviction.

In his measured response, Mr Cleverly spoke of the fear of reprisals against Mr Blake and his family. A real concern. There are reports of criminals putting a £10,000 bounty on his head in revenge for the shooting of Mr Kaba.

The cross-party consensus didn’t extend to the back benches, however. From the Labour benches, there were concerns about confidence in police among black communities from left-wingers Diane Abbott, Bell Ribiero-Addy and Kim Johnson.

And from the Reform UK duo of Lee Anderson and Richard Tice there were demands for more government backing for the police. Mr Tice said confidence in the police disciplinary process and the Crown Prosecution Service was collapsing.

The home secretary said the anonymity proposal will be part of the government’s Crime and Policing Bill, a bill Sir Keir Starmer has claimed “will take back our streets”. But it’s an unwieldy piece of legislation.

It already includes measures on neighbourhood policing, improving the vetting of police officers and tackling anti-social behaviour, retail crime, knife crime and violence against women and girls.

It hasn’t yet been introduced in parliament, however. So despite all the talk by successive home secretaries about speeding up reforming trials of armed police officers, the wait goes on.

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112 crypto companies urge Senate to protect developers in market structure bill

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112 crypto companies urge Senate to protect developers in market structure bill

112 crypto companies urge Senate to protect developers in market structure bill

Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, a16z and others pressed the Senate to add explicit protections for developers and non-custodial services in the market structure bill.

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After six months of planning, Reform’s immigration policy is as clear as mud

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After six months of planning, Reform's immigration policy is as clear as mud

Reform’s plan was meant to be detailed. Instead, there’s more confusion.

The party had grown weary of the longstanding criticism that their tough talk on immigration did not come with a full proposal for what they would do to tackle small boats if they came to power.

So, after six months of planning, yesterday they attempted to put flesh on to the bones of their flagship policy.

Politics latest: Farage rows back on pledge to deport illegal migrant women and girls

At an expensive press conference in a vast airhanger in Oxford, the headline news was clear: Reform UK would deport anyone who comes here by small boat, arresting, detaining and then deporting up to 600,000 people in the first five years of governing.

They would leave international treaties and repeal the Human Rights Act to do it

But, one day later, that policy is clear as mud when it comes to who this would apply to.

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Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA
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Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA

I asked Farage at the time of the announcement whether this would apply to women and girls – an important question – as the basis for their extreme policy seemed to hinge on the safety of women and girls in the UK.

He was unequivocal: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.

“And I’ve accepted already that how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue.”

But a day later, he appeared to row back on this stance at a press conference in Scotland, saying Reform is “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.

Read more:
Farage has a new ‘leave’ campaign – here’s how it could work

He later clarified that if a single woman came by boat, then they could fall under the policy, but if “a woman comes with children, we will work out the best thing to do”.

A third clarification in the space of 24 hours on a flagship policy they worked on over six months seems like a pretty big gaffe, and it only feeds into the Labour criticism that these plans aren’t yet credible.

If they had hoped to pivot from rhetoric to rigour, this announcement showed serious pitfalls.

But party strategists probably will not be tearing out too much hair over this, with polling showing Reform UK still as the most trusted party on the issue of immigration overall.

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Crypto trader ups MEXC ‘bounty’ to $2.5M after in-person KYC request

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Crypto trader ups MEXC ‘bounty’ to .5M after in-person KYC request

Crypto trader ups MEXC ‘bounty’ to .5M after in-person KYC request

The “White Whale” increased his social media pressure campaign to $2.5 million after claiming that MEXC requested an in-person KYC verification in Malaysia.

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