Newslinks for Tuesday the 28th of October 2025

Jenrick tells ‘Calamity Lammy’ releasing an illegal migrant sex offender by accident is no laughing matter

“The Justice Secretary was tonight branded ‘Calamity Lammy’ as he faced a House of Commons grilling over the mistaken release from prison of an Ethiopian sex offender. David Lammy, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, came under fire from MPs after he revealed that ‘human error’ appeared to be to blame for the blunder. Hadush Kebatu, a failed asylum seeker, was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre. Kebatu had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl after arriving in Britain on a small boat. In a statement to MPs, Mr Lammy announced an independent inquiry into Kebatu’s release would be chaired by Dame Lynne Owens, a former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner. Responding to Mr Lammy, Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told the Commons: ‘Dear oh dear. Where to begin? This Justice Secretary could not deport the only small boat migrant who wanted – no – who tried to be deported. Having been mistakenly released, Hadush Kebatu came back to prison asking to be deported not once, not twice, but five times, but he was turned away. The only illegal migrants this Government are stopping are those that actually want to leave the UK. His officials, briefing the press, called it the mother of all – yeah, they’re not wrong, are they?’ Mr Lammy laughed as Mr Jenrick added: ‘Calamity Lammy strikes again.’ – Daily Mail

• Little for Lammy to laugh at in asylum seeker’s screwball comedy – The Times
• Ministers warned not to scapegoat prison staff over mistaken release of Kebatu – Guardian
• Calls for Lammy to resign explode over failure to deport Epping sex attacker – Daily Express
• Migrant Gaffe. Justice Sec David Lammy under fire over Epping boat migrant’s mistaken prison release – The Sun
• Epping migrant sex offender’s jail mistakenly released other inmate – The Times

Comment

• Deputy PM David Lammy laughed theatrically but he was seething, his voice now near castrato – Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
• Calamity Lammy had no answers on the migrant sex offender debacle – Madeline Grant, Spectator
• David Lammy is the worst person at the worst time to be Justice Secretary – Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
• Every single twist in the story of the migrant wrongly freed from jail proves the Home Office is beyond incompetent – Daniel Hannan, Daily Mail

Asylum seekers set to be housed in barracks in desperate bid to close hotels

“Small boat migrants will be housed in two army barracks in Scotland and the south of England from next month as Sir Keir Starmer piles pressure on the Home Office to end the use of asylum hotels within a year. A total of 900 migrants will be housed under plans to use the Cameron Barracks in Inverness and the Crowborough army training camp in East Sussex, Home Office sources told The Times. Small boat arrivals will start being housed in existing military accommodation at the two sites by the end of next month. They will be the first of up to 10,000 migrants who the Home Office is hoping to house on military sites as it works with the Ministry of Defence to find several more disused sites. There are also plans to build pre-fabricated, modular units similar to Portakabins on some of the sites.” – The Times

• Large-scale migrant centres on ex-military bases now cost the taxpayer less than asylum hotels, vindicating Tory schemes Labour tried to scrap – Daily Mail
• Asylum seekers play football match under Labour council scheme – Daily Telegraph
• Home Office could house migrants in ‘Portakabins’ in bid to close asylum hotels – The i
• Hotel migrants threatened staff with knives when they couldn’t have lunch at 6.30am – Daily Express
• Revealed: the civil servants who presided over asylum hotel failures – The Times
• Migrant ‘Spin Op’. Fury as charity bankrolled by Home Office uses taxpayer cash to put positive spin on migration to schoolchildren – The Sun
• Home Office ‘should be split up’ after migrant hotels fiasco – Daily Telegraph

Parliament probes collapse of China spy trial and gets conflicting stories in growing blame game

“The government’s refusal to state Beijing was an active national security threat was the single issue that brought the prosecution of the Chinese spy case to a “crashing halt”, prosecutors have claimed. Amid a blame game over the collapse of the trial, Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, told a joint committee of MPs and peers that the government’s key witness should have been able to provide such a statement “relatively easily”. Parkinson added that Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, who was giving evidence on behalf of the state, must have known the case would collapse when he refused to give it. However, Collins insisted that prosecutors should have known from the outset that he could not provide this statement because it was not official government policy at the time. He said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” when he found out the case was not going to go to trial.” – The Times

• ‘Red flags raised’. Blame game over collapsed China spy case intensifies as senior officials hauled before Parliament – The Sun
• Key witness in China spy case blames prosecutors for its collapse – The Times
• China spy witness ‘knew ducking million-dollar question about Beijing would torpedo trial’ – Daily Mail
• China spy case collapsed days after Powell’s mystery meeting – Daily Telegraph
• China spy case: DPP and cabinet secretary grilled — as it happened – The Times

Today

Having looked everywhere for revenue to bolster her Budget, Reeves admits tax rises are coming

“Rachel Reeves (has) confirmed she’s looking at tax rises and spending cuts next month as she attempts to plug a hole in the public finances. The Chancellor said the Government needed to ensure there is ‘sufficient headroom’ above its spending plans when she reveals her next fiscal package on 26 November. Ms Reeves hinted the wealthiest will have to ‘contribute’ more, having previously vowed to try and keep taxes for working people ‘as low as possible’. …Ms Reeves is estimated to be facing a black hole in the public finances of billions of pounds, which has left her considering even more levy hikes. There is speculation this could see her break Labour’s manifesto pledges and raise income tax, while the Treasury is also considering proposals for a mansion tax.” – Daily Mail

• Mansion tax fears turning housing market into ‘stagnant swamp’ – Daily Telegraph
• Bigger tax hikes and spending cuts on the way, Reeves signals – The i
• Rachel Reeves facing ‘nightmare’ as pressure mounts for huge tax u-turn – Daily Express
• Of course I’m coming back for more in the Budget, Reeves admits as she scrambles to fill £30bn black hole – Daily Mail
• More signs Reeves is planning a ‘class war’ mansion tax: Now Housing Secretary refuses four times to rule out ‘house price levy’ in Budget that would hit middle-class homeowners – Daily Mail
• Reeves faces £20bn hit to UK public finances from productivity downgrade – FT
• Reeves cash Isa raid ‘will cost the Treasury £2.5bn’ – Daily Telegraph
• Starmer warned of leadership challenge as Budget anxiety grows – The i

Comment

• Why I used to feel sorry for Rachel Reeves – and why I don’t anymore – Esther McVey, Daily Express
• Rachel Reeves should focus on cutting welfare – Matthew Bowles, Spectator

Today

Farage calls Pochin’s advertising comments ‘ugly’ but not ‘genuinely racist’

“Nigel Farage said he is “very unhappy” with a Reform MP for claiming there were too many black and Asian people in adverts, but said he did not believe that she was “genuinely racist”. The Reform UK leader said that Sarah Pochin’s remarks were “ugly” and “taken on their own could be read to be very, very unpleasant indeed”, but he would not be taking further action against her. He said: “I don’t like the way in which she did it. I am very unhappy with her indeed, [and] if I felt the intention was deliberately and genuinely racist, I would have taken a different course.” He said that her comments should be taken in the context of “DEI madness”. He added: “I understand the basic point, but the way she put it, the way she worded it, was wrong and was ugly, and if I thought that the intention behind it was racist, I would have taken a lot more action than I have to date.” – The Times

• Farage: Sarah Pochin’s remarks were ugly – but I understood the point – Daily Telegraph
• Nigel Farage defends Reform MP who moaned about TV ads being ‘full of black and Asian people’ – after Keir Starmer accused her of racism – Daily Mail
• Nigel Farage defends MP’s complaint about TV adverts as ‘ugly’ but not ‘deliberately’ racist – Guardian
• ‘It’s terrifying’.  East London protesters are foreign army invading streets, Farage slams as he refuses to call Sarah Pochin rant racist – The Sun
• Reform UK expels five councillors over leaked video of bitter infighting likened to ‘Jackie Weaver style’ meltdown – Daily Mail
• Two Reform councillors kicked out in row over bringing party into ‘disrepute’ – Daily Express

News in Brief

• A vote for Zack Polanski is a vote against success – Eliot Wilson, CapX
• Surprise election win gives Milei chance to remake Argentina – Nick Burns, Unherd
• How multiculturalism really works – Chris Bayliss, The Critic
• Our politicians won’t save Britain. We will – Lawrence Newport, CapX