“George Osborne is facing the first Conservative revolt over the budget from MPs worried about plans to remove up to £1,000 a year in tax credits from families. The chancellor will face “real anger and frustration” over the changes, which hit “the very people we ought to be supporting” according to Tory MPs. They also worry that the changes will be a disincentive to work after years of promises to make work pay. Mainstream Conservative MPs are sounding the alarm for the first time today over the scale and suddenness of the cuts. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that 13 million families will lose an average of £240 a year, and three million families will lose £1,000 a year.” – The Times (£)
“African migrants ‘marauding’ across Europe are threatening to undermine living standards, the Foreign Secretary warned yesterday. Philip Hammond said it was not possible for the EU to absorb ‘millions’ more immigrants – and Brussels must change the law to make it easier to send them home. His intervention came after a UN envoy accused Britain of racism towards the ‘courageous’ migrants trying to cross the Channel from Calais. François Crepeau, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, compared their attempts to sneak into the UK to westerners taking a ‘vacation in Thailand’.” – Daily Mail
Comment:
“Illegal migrants working on building sites and in care homes will be targeted in a wave of raids by immigration officers this autumn. Ministers will step up their action against such workers and their employers by focusing on three sectors of the economy — construction, care and cleaning. James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, told The Times: “Rogue employers who give jobs to illegal migrants are denying work to UK citizens and legal migrants and helping drive down wages.” Enforcement teams will conduct hundreds of raids in the latest government measure aimed at creating a “hostile environment” for illegal migration.” – The Times (£)
>Today: Ralph Buckle in Comment: The Government is wrong. We need more students from the Commonwealth to stay and work in Britain.
“Police have set up a £20million unit to investigate Third World corruption – while refusing to investigate domestic burglaries here. An International Corruption Unit (ICU) has been established to probe bribery and money laundering involving developing nations. It will be based in the National Crime Agency – known as ‘Britain’s FBI’. But the new funding from Britain’s ballooning aid budget will raise questions about spending priorities… Officials said it would become the central point for investigating international corruption in the UK, including money siphoned off by corrupt politicians. The 35-strong unit will also go after lawyers, bankers and accountants who help move money and hide it from the authorities. The unit was launched yesterday by International Development Secretary Justine Greening.” – Daily Mail
“Fracking sites could be fast-tracked through the planning system under new rules to be announced this week. Ministers will be given new powers to push through shale gas applications if they are being held up by councils. It is a response to concerns from ministers that Britain will have to rely on unstable imports and expensive solar and wind power. Energy Secretary Amber Rudd warned the current system allowed applications to be ‘dragged out for months or even years on end’.” – Daily Mail
“The Tories know one of his best achievements was to paint them as the party of the rich. He only lasted five years as leader, but that impression could weigh the Conservative party down for years. Earlier this year, pollster YouGov found that more people think the Tories are close to rich people than five years ago. A whopping 88 per cent said the party was close to the rich, up from 83 per cent in 2010. The number of voters who said the Tories were not close to working class people also went up from 68 per cent to 78 per cent. David Cameron needs to destroy that image of Tory toffs ruling for other toffs. He must take his party from blue blood to blue collar. And he needs to do it fast… Now is also the perfect time to start whittling away at misconceptions of the party, because Labour is as dejected as a collapsed cake on the Great British Bake Off. The Opposition can barely conduct its own leadership contest, let alone undermine what the Tories are up to.” – The Sun (£)
“Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn has backtracked on remarks he made suggesting he would bring back the Party’s commitment to nationalise industry. The veteran left winger said he would consider reversing Tony Blair’s decision two decades ago to scrap Clause IV, which committed Labour to ‘common ownership of the means of production’. But the remarks sparked a backlash from his leadership rivals and this morning he denied he would reinstate the clause. A spokesman for his campaign confirmed that Mr Corbyn would seek to open up a discussion about ‘public ownership objectives for the 21st century’ – including the railways – if he won the race to succeed Ed Miliband.” – Daily Mail
Comment:
“Andy Burnham has hinted he could block any move by David Cameron to bomb Islamic State targets in Syria. Parliament gave the go-ahead for raids in Iraq last year, and Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, has made it clear he would like Britain to take part in bombing over the border in Syria, the heartland of IS. A Commons vote to sanction the move is expected in September, after the election of the new Labour leader. But Mr Burnham said last night that if he wins, he would consider urging Labour to vote against the plans – because he has concerns over the legality of the move.” – Daily Mail
Comment:
“Abortion clinics could be given “buffer zones” to protect women from harassment and abuse by protestors, Yvette Cooper has said. Miss Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says that Britain does not want “US-style abortion wars” amid concerns that growing numbers of women are being filmed and harassed outside clinic. She said that the British Pregnancy Advisory Service has reported that clinics are being blocked by protestors, while staff have also suffered harassment. She said that one female member of staff felt so intimidated by the abuse that she needed a police escort to get from the clinic to her car.” – Daily Telegraph
“Labour headquarters was in chaos last night after up to a thousand people were barred from taking part in the leadership election as supporters of other parties. An effort to re-examine every new member, registered supporter and trade unionist who has signed up to vote has thrown up a huge number of people who should be ineligible. Every member of staff at the party’s Brewer’s Green headquarters in London is understood to be focused on rooting out members of hard-left groups such as Left Unity and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (Tusc). This extra resource is in addition to the 48 employees at the party’s membership office in Newcastle who have been verifying 140,000 recruits since May.” – The Times (£)
“Rather than listen to the will of the people, Labour has again decided to tune them out. Which is of course what it did before the election, and why it lost that election. So it will again ignore the eleven and half million people who cast votes for Conservative candidates, and instead focus on the hundred or so people queuing round the block to get in to hear Corbyn call for a return to unilateralism, withdrawal from Nato and a massive increase in government expenditure financed by People’s Quantitative Easing (simply printing more money). It will look at the mandate handed to a party it claimed was planning to privatise the NHS, and take that as evidence people want renationalisation of the railways.” – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: The Blairites should leave Corbyn – and join the Tories