Edward Enninful rejects Rwanda scheme and calls for ‘more inclusive policy’ on migrants
Vogue UK editor-in-chief Edward Enninful – a former refugee – is calling for a “more helpful and inclusive policy” to replace the government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda.
Telling people they are not wanted is a “problem in itself”, he told Sky News, and we could be “turning incredible people away”.
“You might be saying no to the next doctor who’s going to discover (a) the vaccine or the next prime minister,” he explained.
Enninful, 50, came to Britain after fleeing Ghana with his family in the 1980s. They lived in London’s Ladbroke Grove where his mother worked as a seamstress.
His new memoir, A Visible Man, documents more than just his fairy tale rise to the top of the fashion industry – it also relates what it was like to be a black gay working class refugee in Britain.
“This country was built on refugees,” he told me. “People from India, people from Africa, from the Commonwealth.”
The new home secretary, Suella Braverman, has said she will find a way to “make the Rwanda scheme work”.
Enningful has grave concerns, however. “You know, I’m a refugee and I think refugees contribute to the country so we have to have empathy,” he said.
“I feel that sending people to Rwanda is not really the solution. Sometimes empathy is quite hard for people to show (but) I think that’s the only way forward when it comes to refugees.
“I would love to see a more helpful, inclusive policy in place.”
How does he feel about Liz Truss’s new cabinet? It is the first time that none of the four highest offices of state – prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary – is held by any white men.
Enninful is cautious – saying it’s not just about seeing different faces but about feeling real change – something that, in his mind, hasn’t happened yet.
“I think we all should do better,” he said. “Anybody with a platform, any sort of famous person of colour should really do better.”
Edward Enninful talking to Sarah-Jane Mee
Asked about Rishi Sunak missing out on becoming the first prime minister of colour, he said it simply wasn’t the time but is hopeful that day will come.
As for whether Liz Truss will fulfil her dream of appearing in Vogue – as revealed by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – the fashion jury is out.
“We feature people who have something to do with the zeitgeist,” Enningful said, speaking last month.
“So I’ll let you know. We’re waiting to see how she progresses and then we’ll have that conversation again.”
Enninful’s new memoir is called A Visible Man
A new trend Enninful is not a fan of is being “anti-woke”.
“To me the word woke… I don’t even know what it means,” he said.
“You know, I’m a result of wokeness if you want – I was somebody who was welcomed into the UK.
“So, for me, a country that is unified regardless of your background will always be a great thing for me, and so I don’t really take that word on board.”
Enninful prefers the term inclusion to diversity, and does not shy away from controversial topics and big issues – either in the glossy pages of his magazine or in conversation.
He also celebrates the fact that other publications are following suit.
In Vogue, he is planning more inclusivity and less celebrity. The success of a cover featuring essential workers got him thinking.
“I’d love to have more real women on the cover,” he said.
“Women who are not necessarily famous, women who are not necessarily movie stars or musicians, but really represent the world.
“Represent the worlds that they’re in.”
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.
Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.
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