Charities condemn Reform UK’s ‘sadistic’ and ‘abhorrent’ migration plans – UK politics live

The Liberal Democrats have welcomed the government’s Send plans as “solid steps” to improve the system.

Responding to the white paper, Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, said:

Reform of our broken special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is long overdue. Parents and carers have been crying out for change for years, and finally the government has today taken solid steps to start addressing the deep-seated issues in this adversarial system.

The devil will be in the detail to ensure change is properly resourced with people and money, but also trust is restored with parents who are fearful of losing their rights and hard-won support for their children. I have listened to so many parents who have been fighting a losing battle to get the most basic level of support their children deserve – this is too important to not get right.

The Conservative party has not issued a formal statement about the Send plans since their publication this morning, but last night they questioned whether the funding for it was new, and demanded “cast-iron guarantees that no child with an EHCP will lose the support that many parents have fought for”.

Diane Taylor covers migration stories for the Guardian.

Almost 7,000 Ukrainian refugees are calling on the prime minister to secure their futures in the UK by granting them indefinite leave to remain here.

There are currently approximately 264,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK and new research from the Sanctuary Foundation of more than 1,300 of them found that, while 85% of them are in employment and 98% express deep gratitude to the British public for welcoming and supporting them, only 35% feel optimistic about their future here due to visa uncertainty.

Ukrainians are currently in the UK on temporary visas. They are calling for a clear pathway to settlement, clarity on visa extensions and protection for Ukrainian children who have integrated into UK schools.

Dr Krish Kandiah from the Sanctuary Foundation, said:

The Homes for Ukraine scheme revealed this country at its very best – opening doors, offering sanctuary, and turning compassion into action for those fleeing war. Four years on, it is deeply encouraging that so many Ukrainians still feel welcomed and supported. Yet the shadow of visa uncertainty is debilitating and disorienting. Having offered refuge, we cannot now leave our Ukrainian friends living in limbo.

A petition signed by almost 7,000 Ukrainians in the UK calling for immigration security will be presented at Downing Street at 2pm today.

Local government organisations have welcomed the government’s plans to overhaul Send provision.

The County Councils Network represents county and unitary councils in England. They are the authorities dealing with education. Bill Revans, its Send spokesperson, said:

For years, the County Councils Network has warned that the present Send system is not working for young people nor for local authorities. Over £30bn has been invested into a one size fits all system where education outcomes haven’t improved. Meanwhile, councils have racked up unsustainable spending on services and we, local leaders, have felt families’ frustrations as they have faced longer waits for support. At present, many families believe that an education, health and care plan (EHCP) is the only route to secure support for their child.

Whilst the devil will be in the detail, the proposals represent a potential radical overhaul of the system whereby mainstream schools are resourced to support more pupils with Send needs. This should help ensure that more young people are supported in their local school with the requisite help in place without the need for an EHCP or a specialist placement, with a focus on prevention and early intervention within the wider system, including early years. We also support measures to address the escalating costs of private placements.

It is important to retain the tribunal system, but proposals to rebalance this process are correct. [See 12.25pm.] At present, tribunals can rule without any consideration for the costs beholden on the local authority’s limited budget – a root cause of the present financial crisis the system has generated for councils. A rebalancing so it is more equitable to all parties – addressing where faults have been made, but in line with the rights afforded to all children in the existing admissions process will make for a fairer system.

And Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association, said:

For too long, the Send system has been failing children, young people and their families. Substantial reform is desperately needed so that they get the support they need.

We’re pleased the government shares our aspiration that children with Send who require support do so in a mainstream setting where appropriate; and that all children can reach their potential.

Keir Starmer has opened a formal investigation into a Cabinet Office minister involved in falsely accusing journalists of having links to pro-Russian propaganda, Henry Dyer reports.

For the record, here is the Reform UK summary of eight policies announced by Zia Yusuf in his speech this morning. (See 2.32pm.)

-Deliver net negative immigration by ending the era of mass immigration and deporting all illegal migrants from the United Kingdom, with the party stating that it would expect to deport over 600,000 in its first term.

-Apply visa bans on countries that refuse to take back their illegal migrants, including the likes of Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan who all have large illegal migrant populations in the UK.

-Deliver Operation Restoring Justice by leaving the European convention on human rights immediately, derogating from every international treaty that has been used to frustrate the deportation of those who have no right to be here, immediately commencing the rapid construction of secure detention capacity for 24,000 illegal migrants, and establishing UK Deportation Command to identify, detain and deport illegal migrants.

-Deploy stop and search to get knives off our streets by changing the law to allow Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which currently allows senior police officers to authorise stop and search to an area for 24 hours, extendable for a further 24 hours, to be extended by up to 30 days to enable the police to disrupt impending crime in hotspots.

-Protect Britain’s Christian heritage by preventing churches being turned into places of worship of other faiths by automatically listing historic churches, preventing alterations affecting their historic character, requiring their upkeep and restricting change of use. Reform UK would also create a new planning use class for churches to prevent them being converted into places of worship for other religions.

-Introduce the “Polanski Law” to make aiding and abetting illegal entry into the UK a criminal offence, regardless of intent. This will close the loophole in the current law by making it a strict liability offence for people to perform any act that assists or encourages illegal entry, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. This will stop the Green Party endorsed charity industrial complex from facilitating large scale illegal entry under the guise of humanitarian or charitable action. The legislation will not impede lifeboats saving those in genuine distress at sea.

-Overhaul the PREVENT programme so it is focused on the real threats Britain faces, especially Islamist terrorism, and mandate home searches in cases of repeat referrals. Where an individual is referred by three separate corroborating authorities, they will automatically and without exception be subject to a thorough physical search of their homes.

-Proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Muslim Brotherhood to begin ridding the UK of extremist organisations.

While there is a lot of overlap between Conservative policy and Reform UK, the Tories are not proposing to ban churches being converted into mosques, and Reform UK are definitely putting more emphasis on protecting the UK’s “Christian heritage”. There is something quite American about this; in the US, rightwing white nationalism has a distinct religious component that is much less common in Europe.

Sunder Katwala from the British Future thinktank says this is an irony in claiming to be Christian as a party while promoting a migration policy that is distinctly un-Christian.

Zia Yusuf’s rhetoric of protecting Christianity, rhetorically, is combined with an indecent threat to deport many tens of thousands of Christians, including those here 5-20 years with permanent status, as well as recent arrivals, from across the Commonwealth and elsewhere outside Europe

The 600k settled residents (non-EU) threatened with deportation + > million newer arrivals mostly non-white & less likely to have no religion than median white Briton. Many tens of thousands of Christians, as well as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs & others of no faith. (But Yusuf isn’t deporting most Poles)

The policy of revoking past grants of permanent settlement to deport settled migrants om a scale unprecedented in any democracy is fairly described as un-Christian in values, & also inhumane from a humanitarian perspective, in its indecent treatment of people of all faiths Inc Christians & of none.

Here is the text of Bridget Phillipson’s speech this morning launching the schools white paper.

Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, will confirm that MPs can debate Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, even though parliamentary rules mean the conduct of members of the royal family is not normally a matter for debate, Steven Swinford from the Times says. The Liberal Democrats want to hold a debate on Andrew in the Commons tomorrow and Hoyle is expected to clarify what is allowed.

Hoyle first told MPs earlier this month that Andrew was no longer protected by the Commons convention about debating royals saying that, because he was no longer a prince, the rule did not apply.

The Conservative party has claimed that Reform UK’s plans to deport hundreds of thousands of people who are in the UK illegally are much the same as theirs.

In a statement issued after Zia Yusuf set out the Reform plans in a speech, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said:

Reform’s home affairs spokesperson has nothing new to offer beyond copying and pasting Conservative plans.

Reform are a one man band. Only the Conservatives have a credible plan to control our borders through leaving the ECHR, deporting all illegal immigrants within a week and banning asylum claims from illegal entrants.

In a summary of its plans, Reform UK said it would set up a UK Deportation Command, with “the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a time and deport up to 288,000 annually”.

The Conservatives say, under their borders plan, they would set up a removals force to deport 150,000 illegal immgrants a year.

But others are less positive about the Reform UK plans.

Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, said:

Reform’s Trump-inspired plans for an ICE-style force will only bring chaos and disorder to Britain’s streets, not the order and control our immigration system needs.

It’s nonsense to claim that ripping up the European convention on human rights – a largely British creation – will bring more control. It will undermine the cooperation we need to tackle the problem, and deprive British people of hard-won rights and freedoms too.

Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the Work Rights Centre, a charity that works with migrants, was particularly critical of the Reform plan, not just to deport people in the UK illegally, but to abolish indefinite leave to remain, the status that allows foreigners who have lived in the UK for a period of time to stay for good. Vicol said:

We have watched in horror as Ice attacked migrant communities and citizens in the US – yet this is what Reform wants to base their immigration policies on? This is a sadistic vision of UK families and communities being ripped apart, money being wasted, and the government turning against its own people.

Cancelling the immigration status of people who have settled and built their entire lives here would not only be callous, but actively hurt our economy and public services. People who hold ILR [indefinite leave to remain] are our partners, neighbours, friends, teachers, NHS workers, and include high tax contributors. There is absolutely no reason to terminate their status other than for Reform’s own self-serving goals of division and chaos.

Amnesty International UK also criticised the Reform UK plans. Referring to the way Yusuf claimed that the UK was experience an immigrant “invasion”, Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty chief executive in the UK, said:

Language that frames migration as an ‘invasion’ poisons the public debate and emboldens ideas many believed we had left behind generations ago. Appealing to racism or aggressive nationalism as a shortcut to power is reckless and dangerous.

The UK does not need or want a British version of Ice. Proposals to mirror the United States through mass detention and rapid deportations risk unleashing a system built on fear, aggressive raids and discrimination, where enforcement operates with sweeping powers and too little accountability. That is not security. It is a blueprint for division, harm and lasting damage to our freedoms.

And Nathan Phillips, head of campaigns at Asylum Matters, also criticised Reform UK – while pointing out that Labour too is not committed to protecting the ILF status quo. Referring to the Yusuf speech, he said:

This is an utterly abhorrent, terrifying proposal that would destroy individual lives, our communities and our economy. It’s hard to believe anyone could look at the violent abductions and state-sponsored murders taking place in the US and conclude that’s what we need here.

What’s most disturbing is that this extremist policy isn’t an outlier. Our current government is condemning Reform’s plan to end indefinite leave to remain, while actively planning to deny thousands of people the right to claim ILR, and make even more people, including refugees, wait decades to achieve that security. It’s broadcasting its own Ice-style TikTok videos while calling newcomers to this country “strangers”.

The National Education Union, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, has said that it welcomes the “ambition” behind the government’s Send plans. Like other organisations, it has called for more funding, but its overall response is notable more positive than the NASUWT’s overnight one. (See 9.36am.)

This is from Daniel Kebede, the NEU’s general secretary.

The National Education Union welcomes the government’s ambition to reshape the Send landscape to ensure it works for all children. All children must have ready access to special needs support from their school without a long bureaucratic process and mainstream schools will have more access to specialist services.

The NEU has been calling for funding for more resources for inclusion in mainstream schools, so we welcome the announcement of the inclusion grant. However, it is too small. It only equates to a part-time teaching assistant for the average primary school and two teaching assistants for average secondary schools. This is not enough to make schools more inclusive.

The Experts at Hand specialists will need capacity and resource but will provide schools with the additional support and advice that we have long been calling for. (See 9.50am.)

The NEU is pleased that the government intends to tackle the profiteering by independent special schools who have been charging exorbitant fees for poor quality provision and draining resources from the system …

For these reforms to be successful the government must work with the profession and schools. They must listen to parents’ concerns, and they must make sure that there are enough resources available. Schools are running on empty. The government must not put more expectations on schools without real additional resources – and the funding currently announced is not enough.

“Nothing is off the table” in the UK’s response to US President Donald Trump’s threats that he will impose 15% global tariffs, Downing Street has said.

As the Press Association reports, at the Downing Street lobby briefing No 10 left open the possibility that the UK could impose reciprocal trade levies on American goods and services, but insisted that it was focused on “constructive engagement” with the Trump administration as a trade war would harm businesses.

Trump said on Saturday he would be imposing a 15% global tariff “effective immediately” after the supreme court overturned his previous import taxes policy in a ruling on Friday, PA reports. It triggered condemnation from the British Chambers of Commerce, which warned the change would mean an extra 5% increase in tariffs on a “wide range” of exports to America, except those covered under a transatlantic trade deal.

Asked how the government planned to respond to Trump’s announcement, the PM’s spokesperson told reporters:

Our approach to the US has always been pragmatic.

We continue to have productive conversations with them … and those discussions are happening at all levels, but nothing is off the table at this stage.

Industry doesn’t want to see a trade war where both sides keep escalating the situation, and that’s why our focus is on constructive engagement with our US counterparts to retain the UK’s competitive advantage.