Newslinks for Thursday 5th of June 2025

June 5, 2025

Badenoch launches review into leaving ECHR and ‘lawfare’ that blocks policy delivery

“Kemi Badenoch is to launch a review into whether Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights and how to prevent lawyers “subverting” government policy. In a speech on Friday, the Conservative leader will announce plans for a commission, headed by Lord Wolfson, her shadow attorney general, to investigate how a Tory government could prevent lawyers using human rights and other legislation to block government decisions. She will also announce plans to bar migrants from claiming asylum if they arrive in Britain in small boats. Rishi Sunak announced a similar policy while in government. The move will be seen as an attempt to resolve an issue that divides the Tory party, with MPs on the Right arguing in favour of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and those on the Left seeing any attempt to quit the convention as a red line. It is understood that the commission will not solely focus on the ECHR and Refugee Convention, but will look more widely at how to prevent “lawfare” in environmental and equalities legislation. A Conservative Party aide familiar with the details of the plans said: “Kemi has worked hard to bring the shadow cabinet together on this very difficult issue.” – Daily Telegraph

Labour MPs fear ‘Red Wall’ collapse without radical action to stop small boats – The i
Labour’s plan for illegal migrants explained — and is it working? – The Times
France agrees to intercept migrant boats for first time – Daily Telegraph
Battle lines drawn over immigration: Keir plans legal crackdown on migrants exploiting ‘right to family life’ as Kemi pledges to revive Rwanda-style scheme – Daily Mail
Fury as unions could stop plans to force French cops to intercept UK-bound migrants as it’s ‘too dangerous’ – The Sun

Editorial

French trawlers must be banned from UK waters until there is visible evidence of them stopping the dinghies – The Sun

Comment

By not stopping the boats, Starmer is signing his political death warrant. But there IS one solution, if only he’s brave enough – Stephen Glover, Daily Mail
French attempts to ‘stop the boats’ are too little, too late – Henry Hill, Daily Telegraph

Stride to announce Conservatives will not risk a Truss style mini budget again

“Sir Mel Stride, Conservative shadow chancellor, will on Thursday apologise for the chaos unleashed by Liz Truss’s ill-fated “mini” Budget in 2022 and plead for time to be allowed to rebuild the party’s economic reputation. Stride’s speech is an acknowledgment of the bleak political legacy of the 49-day Truss premiership, admitting: “The damage to our credibility is not so easily undone.” But it is also a plea to his party to be patient, in spite of the Tories’ grim opinion poll rating, and to allow him time to forge “a credible plan” on the economy. “Over the next four years, our party will do just that,” he will say. Many Conservative MPs are already speculating that party leader Kemi Badenoch may not survive in her post much beyond next summer’s local elections, and they may not give Stride four years to flesh out his plan. Stride, speaking in London, will say that the Truss “mini” Budget had for a few weeks in 2022 “put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected” – FT

Top Tory set to take on Reform and Labour in major economy speech – Daily Express
Tories will ‘never again’ put economy at risk like Truss did, Mel Stride to say – Guardian
Tories attempt to banish the ghost of Liz Truss-era turmoil – Daily Express

…meanwhile Criminals access HMRC records of 100,000 taxpayers

“The records of up to 100,000 taxpayers have been accessed by organised criminals following an attack on HMRC. The tax authority is thought to have lost £47 million as a result of the breach last year, with officials telling MPs that 0.2 per cent of PAYE taxpayers with personal accounts were affected – representing about 100,000 people. The raid comes after HMRC pushed millions of workers to file their tax returns online as part of its Making Tax Digital scheme. Officials told the Treasury committee that the incident was “not a cyber attack” but instead took the form of multiple phishing attacks “designed to extract money” from the tax authority, carried out by several organised crime gangs over an extended period last year.” However, on its website, the authority confirmed it had only just started writing to affected taxpayers…The news came to light on the same day that HMRC’s phone lines were hit by a system outage, which meant only those using the specific phone number in the letters to phishing victims were able to call the organisation.” – Daily Telegraph

HMRC issues update as 100,000 UK taxpayers have accounts frozen – Daily Express
Criminals steal £47mn from HMRC after accessing 100,000 taxpayers’ accounts – FT
Criminals access HMRC records of 100,000 taxpayers in £47million raid that saw scammers ‘masquerading’ as Brits to extract rebates from government – Daily Mail
HMRC urgently sending letters to 100,000 people after ‘breach’ – Daily Express

Winter fuel payments to return — but half of pensioners will miss out

“Rachel Reeves is next week expected to set out plans to restore winter fuel payments and then claw them back from millions of better-off pensioners through higher tax bills. The chancellor will use her spending review to implement a higher means test for winter fuel payments, designed to restore them to the poorest half of pensioners. The Treasury is drawing up plans to link winter fuel payments to average incomes. The government would initially restore grants of up to £300 to 10 million pensioners from this autumn. It would recoup the money from about 5 million wealthier pensioners through higher tax bills over the course of the next financial year. Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, said the government was determined to avoid “paying a few hundred pounds to millionaires”. It is understood that one leading option is to base the threshold on the average level of real household disposable income — people’s income after taxes — which is currently about £37,000.” – The Times

1.3m pensioners on disability and housing benefit in line for winter fuel payments – The i
Free school meals extended but winter fuel changes could tax dead pensioners’ families – Guardian
Chancelbore of the Exchequer: Weary factory workers steal the show in the background at Rachel Reeves’ trains and spending speech – Daily Mail
Winter fuel payments will be given to more pensioners this year – but not all – The i

Comment

PM swings on policies like windsock in a storm… damage from winter fuel fiasco means Labour’s future already looks bleak – Leo McKinstry, The Sun

Labour Council forced to scrap low-traffic neighbourhood that netted £1M in fines

“A Labour run-council has been ordered by the High Court to scrap a hated LTN which earned £1million in fines. An ‘unlawful’ low-traffic neighbourhood in West Dulwich, south London will become the first in the UK to be axed after a judge rejected an appeal from Lambeth council. The council will now have to pay out £35,000 in legal fees to the West Dulwich Action Group, which brought the case, but campaigners are calling for this to be increased to include the £1,080,580 taken in penalties. Nonetheless, the body celebrated the victory in their bitter fightback against the LTN which they argued had increased pollution and traffic on bordering roads. A spokesman for WDAG said: ‘This ruling is definitive – the LTN was unlawful. The council has lost, has been denied permission to appeal, and must now face the consequences of what that means. ‘At the top of that list is the £1 million in fines it issued while the unlawful scheme was in place. ‘We now call on Lambeth Council to clarify whether it will refund those fines. This is not just about legality – it’s about fairness and public trust. If the law was broken, the money should be paid back.’ – Daily Mail

Boost for campaign to halt prosecutions of Northern Ireland veterans

“A debate on the Northern Ireland Legacy Act will happen in Parliament in July after a petition, supported by the Daily Express surpassed 100,000 signatures. The act was introduced by the Conservative government in 2023 in a bid to protect veterans of campaigns in Northern Ireland from spurious prosecutions, causing outrage amongst former soldiers and campaigners. Labour has begun the process of repealing the act after a court in Belfast ruled that parts of it were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The petition, launched by former Brigadier Ian Liles OBE, calls on the Government to “not make any changes to legislation that would allow Northern Ireland Veterans to be prosecuted for doing their duty in combating terrorism”. After surpassing the landmark and forcing a debate on July 14, Liles told the Daily Express: “I was relieved because it means that it needs to be debated but we hope to get to 250,000 signatures and really pressure them to appeal the decision by the Irish court that the Legacy Act broke international human rights law.” – Daily Express