Newspaper headlines: Asylum detentions to begin and ‘Tory MPs plotting’
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A variety of stories lead the papers. The Guardian says the Home Office will launch a major operation to detain asylum seekers across Britain on Monday in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda. The paper says officials plan to pick people up or hold them when they arrive for meetings with immigration services or bail appointments. It adds that campaigners have warned the move risks provoking long legal battles, protests, and clashes with the police.
The Daily Telegraph says the government has accused the EU of double standards after Ireland vowed to return asylum seekers arriving across the border with Northern Ireland back to the UK. Irish ministers have announced plans for new legislation to allow the removals. The paper quotes a government source saying the UK “won’t accept any asylum returns from the EU via Ireland until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France”.
Tens of thousands of people are lodging asylum claims in the UK after initially entering on student, work, or visitor visas, according to the Daily Mail. The paper says official documents for the year to March 2023 show 21,525 asylum claims by visa holders, a figure the paper says is a 154% rise on the year before.
The Daily Mirror says Prime Minster Rishi Sunak is under pressure to call an election but that he refused five times during a TV interview on Sunday to say when it would be. The paper says a vote would allow the public to finally “give their verdict on 14 years of Tory hell”.
The i says Tory rebels are “on manoeuvres” and plotting to oust Mr Sunak “in anticipation of disastrous local election results”. One back bencher is quoted saying the rebels are “waiting for things to build up enough that his removal seem inevitable”.
Millions on disability benefits for conditions like anxiety and depression could lose the payments and instead be offered “meaningful support” – such as therapy and social care – to help them back into work, the Times reports. The paper says the changes could mark the biggest welfare reforms “in a generation” and that the Tories plan to make the issue a dividing line at the election.
The Metro reports that the prices of beer, bread, and biscuits are expected to rise after severe autumn and winter rain slashed harvest forecasts. The paper says forecasts suggest production of wheat, barley, oats, and oilseed rape could fall by 17.5% on last year, and notes that it comes just as prices are beginning to fall after the inflation of recent years.
The seven largest European banks that remain in Russia paid the Kremlin more than €800m (£685m) in taxes last year, a fourfold increase on pre-war levels, according to the Financial Times. The paper says the banks saw a jump in profits caused by high interest rates in Russia as well as the impact of international sanctions on their rivals. It adds that the profits partly came from funds the banks cannot withdraw because of restrictions imposed by Russia in 2022 that stopped dividends being paid to businesses in “unfriendly” Western countries.
The Daily Express leads with comments from Dame Esther Rantzen ahead of a parliamentary debate on whether the UK should allow assisted dying, a change she has spoken out in favour of since being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The broadcaster is quoted saying: “I am fighting for my family and lots of others”.
The mother of Gogglebox star George Gilbey has revealed the last words he said to her before his death, the Sun reports. Gilbey, a self-employed electrician and dad-of-one, died after falling from a height while working in March. The paper says he called mum Linda just hours before the accident and quotes her saying: “He was happy. He ended the call with ‘I love you’. I treasure those words.”
And the Daily Star says Britain is set for a “Bank Holiday heatwave” thanks to a 300-mile plume of warm air moving towards the country from Germany.
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