Newslinks for Sunday 7th September 2025

Immigration 1) Government “prepared to change human rights laws”

“Sir Keir Starmer’s new cabinet is prepared to overhaul human rights laws to tackle immigration — even if it makes his MPs feel “queasy” — as it seeks to counter Reform UK and win voters’ trust. The prime minister has appointed pragmatists, including Shabana Mahmood as home secretary and David Lammy as justice secretary, after Angela Rayner’s resignation on Friday. They are expected to take a tougher line on immigration, putting them on a collision course with Lord Hermer KC, the cautious attorney-general. A cabinet minister admitted the party would need to “do something that makes us feel queasy” to stop the advance of Nigel Farage, who, if elected prime minister, has vowed to stop migrants arriving on small boats within two weeks of new laws being passed.” – Sunday Times

• Farage shifts on two-week small boats pledge – BBC

Immigration 2) Starmer to move asylum hotel migrants to military barracks

“Migrants in asylum-seeker hotels will be moved into barracks on former military bases under plans to be unveiled within weeks. Shabana Mahmood is set to announce the policy imminently, after being instructed by Sir Keir Starmer to “get a grip” on the small boats crisis. Dozens of asylum hotels are to be closed after they became the focal points for nationwide protests against illegal migration. The Telegraph understands ministers are also close to agreeing on a “one in, one out” returns deal with Germany, having already sealed one with France.” – Sunday Telegraph

Immigration 3) Clearout of Home Office Ministers as reshuffle continues

“Ministers Dame Angela Eagle and Dame Diana Johnson have followed Yvette Cooper out of the door at the Home Office as Sir Keir Starmer continues his reshuffle. The prime minister shifted Cooper to the Foreign Office on Friday in a major shake-up of his top team prompted by the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. Now he is reshuffling other key ministerial posts, as he seeks to regain the initiative after the most tumultuous week of his premiership.” – BBC

• Key ministers already on the back foot – Mail on Sunday
• Grimsby Town owner joins government in reshuffle – BBC
• After drift and disaster can Starmer still reboot his ailing premiership? – Jason Cowley, Sunday Times
• Shabana Mahmood has saved Starmer once. Can she do it again? – Sunday Times
• How Starmer ousted Yvette Cooper to take on Reform – Sunday Telegraph
• Shabana Mahmood is just another Left-wing lawyer – Suella Braverman, Sunday Telegraph
• Starmer is taking a great Rightwards gamble – Leader, Sunday Telegraph
• Labour is wrecked and trust is rock bottom. Starmer must change course immediately – Leader, The Sun on Sunday
• Labour MPs fury with Starmer – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday
• Unite’s Sharon Graham: ‘Labour has one year to get it right. Farage is on their tail’ – The Guardian

Badenoch: After Rayner’s hypocrisy, new taxes on homes would be unacceptable

“The British public will not stand for a Prime Minister who repeatedly defended a minister failing to pay their taxes, and who attempts to extract ever more out of law-abiding citizens when they do the right thing – working, saving and investing. The question is not just ‘Will they raise taxes on homes?’ It’s ‘Can they?’ My answer is a simple no. Only the Conservatives believe our country must live within its means. Only the Conservatives have serious plans to bring down spending so we can lower tax and protect family homes from new taxes.” – Kemi Badenoch, Mail on Sunday

• Starmer has lost the moral right to raise new taxes on homes – Leader, Mail on Sunday
• Rayner was no working-class hero but a caricature of one – Camilla Long, Sunday Times
• Fresh twist as Angela Rayner’s lawyers increased value of constituency home by £150,000 after they said ‘error’ was made – The Sun on Sunday
• Starmer told to stop Angela Rayner getting golden goodbye of nearly £17,000 – Sunday Express

Haigh “intends” to stand for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

“A former minister who left the government over a past fraud conviction intends to stand as deputy leader of the Labour Party after Angela Rayner’s resignation. Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, has told friends she plans to run. She resigned from her cabinet post in November last year after it emerged that she had pleaded guilty to falsely telling police in 2013 that her work phone had been stolen.” – Sunday Times

Reform UK 1) Rees-Mogg offers to advise Farage on governing

“Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said he would offer advice to Nigel Farage on governing if Reform wins the next general election, but he will not defect to join the party. The former Tory Cabinet minister told The Telegraph that the Civil Service “can be obstructive” and suggested Reform should repeal human rights and climate change legislation to deliver its policies. Mr Farage, who suggested this week that a general election could be held by 2027, has said that he believes the Civil Service will try to stop him delivering his manifesto pledges if he becomes Prime Minister.” – Sunday Telegraph

• Rees-Mogg reveals his teenage daughter Mary has joined Reform UK – Mail on Sunday
• Doctor claims Covid jabs may be linked to cancer in royal family – Sunday Times
• Lucy Connolly: I want to work with Reform – Sunday Telegraph
• Reform UK’s new faces seek to share spotlight with Farage – BBC
• Lucy Connolly blasts ‘broken’ prison system that failed her as she joins Nigel Farage on stage – The Sun on Sunday
• Vibes of fury and joy power the Farage Show. And booze, of course – Sunday Times
• Majority predicted for Reform for the first time – but can they keep it up? – Sunday Telegraph
• Reform voters look like the average Briton. Starmer does not – Luke Tryl, Sunday Times
• Conference shows party’s growing ambition like never before – Chris Mason, BBC
• Farage admits he was wrong to say he had bought house in Clacton – The Guardian

Reform UK 2) Dorries calls for Farage and Johnson to “join forces”

“Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson have been urged to join forces to stop Labour winning the next General Election. Nadine Dorries, who sensationally defected from the Tories to Reform UK last week, said that the ‘biggest egos in modern British politics’ should form a pact to bring down Sir Keir Starmer’s malfunctioning Government. Ms Dorries, a long-term supporter of Mr Johnson, said: ‘If there’s a will to make the lives of people better, then I think both men could and would find some way to accommodate each other’s egos and to coexist for the sake of the country.’ ” – Mail on Sunday

• How Boris’s Brexit opened the door to the biggest wave of migrants in history – Sunday Telegraph
• Only Kemi’s Tories have what Britain truly needs to end the Starmer disaster – Sarah Vine, Mail on Sunday

More than 425 arrested at rally opposing ban on Palestine Action

“More than 425 people have been arrested at a demonstration against the government’s ban of the campaign group Palestine Action. Hundreds gathered in Parliament Square in central London to oppose the group’s proscription, some holding placards that read: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” The Metropolitan Police said the majority of arrests were for supporting a proscribed organisation. More than 25 people were arrested for assaults on police officers and other public order offences.” – BBC

• Starmer has ‘legal duty to stop Gaza genocide’, says Greta Thunberg – The Guardian

Other political news

• Does Graham Linehan’s case prove police are handcuffed by the law? – Sunday Times
• Cancelled by Britain, Graham Linehan’s war with trans lobby ended his career and his marriage. Now he’s quit the UK for America and wants asylum as a ‘free speech refugee’ – Mail on Sunday
• MoD puts £182m towards ‘cyber sixth forms’ to boost defence – Sunday Telegraph
• Don’t block the bill, peers told as assisted dying heads to the Lords – Sunday Times
• Trump says Venezuelan jets will be shot down if they endanger US ships – BBC
• Boko Haram kills at least 60 in overnight attack on Nigerian village – BBC
• Teenagers more patriotic than their parents – Sunday Times
• France’s political future could be won or lost by bots and memes – The Observer
• Politics meets high society for Zac Goldsmith’s marriage to Hum Fleming – Sunday Telegraph

Colvile: Pressure on the public finances will keep getting worse

“So where does it all end? Some of the more excitable figures on the right are predicting a full-on bond strike — debt servicing costs for the UK climb so high that we can’t make the numbers add up, the IMF swoops in and it’s Healey and Callaghan all over again. That still seems unlikely. More likely is that the gilt market remains a constant, bleeding wound, putting pressure on the public finances, which leads to tax rises and speculation about tax rises, which leads to lower growth, which leads to pressure on the public finances and so on and so on (at least until someone, somewhere, makes the radical case to the British public that we can’t actually afford to keep spending money we don’t have).” – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times

• Reeves considering £2bn NI raid that would devastate GPs – Sunday Telegraph
• Are there too many economic gurus in Downing Street? – Sunday Times
• Treasury bosses have spent thousands on posh restaurants and hotels since Labour came into power – The Sun on Sunday
• Unhinged Labour risks wrecking the economy – Ken Costa, Mail on Sunday

Hannan: Differences between Reform UK and the Conservatives are more about vibes than policy

“The difference has more to do with mood, texture, vibe. It is captured in the parties’ names. Conservatism, as Roger Scruton liked to say, is rooted in love: love for our institutions, our laws, our customs, our nation. The urge to reform, by contrast, begins from the premise that our institutions have failed us, that things need to be shaken up, overhauled, remade. We see the difference in the few policy areas where the Conservatives and Reform do fundamentally disagree. Reform wants a different voting system (or at least it did until it looked possible for them to win under first-past-the-post), a new House of Lords, and an abandonment of our parliamentary government with, as Zia Yusuf suggested this week, a Cabinet appointed from outside the legislature, US-style.” – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph

News in brief

• Starmer’s reshuffle pushes Labour to the right – Andrew Marr, New Statesman
• Welfare dependency begins at school – Lana Hempsall, The Spectator
• The Government has betrayed Generation Rent – Harry Phibbs, CapX
• Why I’m defecting to Reform – Charles Roberts, The Critic
• Reform UK looks to Trump as it prepares for power – Rob Lownie, Unherd