Anybody displaying assist for Palestine Motion ‘will feel full force of the law’, justice minister says – UK politics stay

The training secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has reaffirmed her dedication to attempt to cut back the variety of youngsters lacking courses at colleges.

Writing within the Each day Telegraph, she stated progress was being made, albeit slowly, regardless of authorities figures displaying the variety of youngsters in England who missed at the least half of their courses rose to just about 150,000 final autumn.

There have been requires higher funding in psychological well being assist for kids who’re affected by anxiousness and despair and it’s broadly thought that top unattendance ranges are partly a product of the pandemic and its lockdowns.

The federal government has been accused of not correctly investing in focused assist and being too centered on slogans reasonably than concrete motion.

After taking on as training secretary final July, Phillipson confirmed plans for unauthorised vacation fines to rise from £60 to £80. This enhance got here into impact in August 2024.

New “attendance hubs” had been launched to assist cut back persistent college absences, together with free breakfast golf equipment that should enhance pupil absence and attainment over the long run. However since Covid each authorised absences for sickness and unauthorised absences have remained stubbornly excessive.

“Reversing the harmful attitudes towards school attendance will not happen overnight. But we are beginning to make progress,” Phillipson wrote within the Telegraph on Monday.

“Now is the time to redouble our efforts to get more children back through the school gates.”

“It’s where they learn the habits that will shape them throughout life. It’s where the building blocks of a healthy society are laid,” she wrote.

The jail inhabitants in England and Wales has ballooned over current a long time, primarily due to longer sentences and courtroom backlogs.

Final 12 months, hundreds of prisoners had been launched early in an emergency effort to take care of jail overcrowding.

The federal government lately accepted suggestions made in David Gauke’s sentencing evaluation, together with curbing the usage of brief custodial sentences, which may see as much as 10,000 fewer folks despatched to jail over the following three years. However these measures will take time to develop into laws.

Within the meantime, the jail inhabitants of England and Wales has apparently continued to rise.

A complete of 88,238 folks had been in jail as of 11 August, up 231 on the earlier week and an increase of greater than 1,200 up to now two months, in response to knowledge revealed by the Ministry of Justice on Monday.

The overall is now simply 283 under the document excessive of 88,521, which was set on 6 September 2024 within the aftermath of final summer season’s dysfunction in cities and cities throughout elements of the nation.

Motoring teams have welcomed the federal government’s new street security plans however, as my colleague Kevin Rawlinson notes in this story, are urging ministers to go additional with measures they consider may shield youthful drivers and their passengers.

“The time has come for a bold and proactive approach to road safety. This strategy is much overdue as road deaths have plateaued over the last decade,” stated the AA’s president, Edmund King.

“We believe these new measures will not only modernise our approach to saving lives but also provide renewed momentum in making our roads safer for everyone.”

Imaginative and prescient checks for older drivers and focusing on drink and drug drivers had been “practical steps that can make a real difference”, he stated. However failing to introduce limits on new drivers transporting peer-age passengers for six months was “a major oversight”, he added.

Nicholas Lyes, the director of coverage and requirements on the street security charity IAM RoadSmart, stated:

Given progress on decreasing deadly and severe collisions has stalled in recent times, we welcome the UK authorities’s ambition to publish an up to date street security technique with the reported measures being a step in the correct route.

Whereas many drivers over the age of 70 are protected and competent, well being points and confidence can have an effect on driving skills, so it’s smart to evaluation whether or not adjustments should be made.

We might additionally assist decreasing the drink-drive restrict in England and Wales, alongside measures to focus on drug-driving. Nevertheless, these would require considerably extra backing for roads policing groups to successfully implement new legal guidelines.

Regardless of it being the summer season recess, there was a flurry of political exercise over the current days and weeks.

The most recent reported proposal sees over 70s dealing with the prospect of being banned from the roads in the event that they fail obligatory eye checks.

The measures, first reported by The Occasions, will doubtless function in a brand new street security technique set to be revealed by the federal government later this 12 months.

They arrive amid concern concerning the variety of folks being killed or significantly injured on Britain’s roads.

Final 12 months, 1,633 folks had been killed and nearly 28,000 significantly injured in visitors incidents, and numbers have remained comparatively fixed after a big fall between 2000 and 2010.

Beneath the plans being thought-about by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, the drink-drive restrict in England and Wales may very well be lower from 35 micrograms of alcohol a 100ml of breath to 22 micrograms.

This determine can be in keeping with Scotland, which lower its drink-drive restrict in 2014, and the remainder of Europe, the place no different nation has a restrict as excessive as that in England and Wales.

The UK can also be one among solely three European nations to depend on self-reporting of eyesight issues that have an effect on driving, main ministers to contemplate obligatory eye checks each three years for drivers aged over 70 and a driving ban for many who fail. You possibly can learn extra on the proposals right here.

In different information, a hostile atmosphere period deportation coverage is being expanded by Labour as the federal government continues to attempt to restrict the risk from Reform by speaking and performing toughly on migration.

Overseas criminals from 15 extra nations, together with India, Bulgaria and Australia, face deportation earlier than they’ve an opportunity to enchantment in opposition to the choice to take away them, in a widening of the federal government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.

This brings the entire affected nations to 23 (you’ll be able to learn the federal government’s press launch right here for a full record and our write up and evaluation of the coverage right here).

The scheme, which was launched by the Conservatives in 2014 and applies to England and Wales, permits the UK to deport offenders who’ve had a human rights declare in opposition to their removing rejected, with any appeals heard from overseas over a video hyperlink.

Beforehand, offenders from these nations may keep within the UK whereas their circumstances went via the appeals system, a course of that would typically take a very long time.

Officers have stated rising deportations will assist ease stress on overcrowded prisons. However figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) from the tip of June counsel there are at the moment simply 772 prisoners from the 15 new nations lined by “deport now, appeal later”.

The transfer comes after a separate announcement by the MoJ over the weekend that international criminals can now be deported as quickly as they’re despatched to jail in a bid to fight the overcrowding disaster.

My colleagues Henry Dyer and Rob Evans completely revealed final week that Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British military and a member of the Home of Lords, urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Motion on the request of a US defence firm that employs him as an adviser. Right here is an extract from their story:

Richard Dannatt wrote privately to 2 separate Dwelling Workplace ministers asking them to deal with the “threat” posed by the group after its activists focused a manufacturing facility in 2022.

The activists brought on in depth injury to the manufacturing facility which is run by Teledyne, a US multinational that sells know-how for navy, aerospace and different purposes. Lord Dannatt has been a paid adviser to the corporate since 2022.

Dannatt’s involvement after the assault on the manufacturing facility in Wales led to allegations heard later in courtroom that the peer was “seeking to influence” the prison investigation into the Palestine Motion activists.

As we talked about within the opening publish, the Metropolitan police, a pressure beneath large budgetary and useful resource stress, arrested a complete of 532 folks on Saturday on the largest demonstration regarding Palestine Motion because the group was proscribed final month.

Detained protesters had been taken to prisoner processing factors within the Westminster space.

These whose particulars may very well be confirmed had been launched on bail to look at a police station at a future date.

The Met stated 522 folks had been held for displaying an merchandise in assist of a proscribed organisation, and there have been an extra 10 arrests, six for assaults on officers, two for breaching Public Order Act circumstances, one arrest for obstructing a constable within the execution of their obligation, and one for a racially aggravated public order offence.

Good morning and welcome to our stay protection of UK politics.

The federal government has defended its controversial proscription of protest group Palestine Motion, with the justice minister, Alex Davies-Jones, saying supporters of a “terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law”.

The feedback come after an enormous demonstration in opposition to the proscription occurred in London over the weekend through which 532 folks had been arrested. Nearly all of these arrested, 348, had been aged 50 or over, in response to official figures.

Responding to questions concerning the protest this morning on BBC Breakfast, Davies-Jones stated:

I wish to thank the police for his or her bravery and their braveness in finishing up their diligent duties within the line of public safety, and I wish to state that the correct to peacefully protest on this nation is a cornerstone of our democracy, and naturally, we respect that.

However with reference to Palestine Motion, they’re a proscribed terrorist organisation and their actions haven’t been peaceable.

They’ve violently carried out prison injury to RAF plane. We now have credible stories of them focusing on Jewish-owned companies right here in the UK, and there are different causes which we will’t disclose due to nationwide safety.

However they’re a proscribed terrorist organisation and anybody displaying assist for that terrorist organisation will really feel the total pressure of the regulation.

The house secretary, Yvette Cooper, proscribed Palestine Motion final month beneath the Terrorism Act after activists brought on an estimated £7m of harm to jets on the RAF Brize Norton navy base in Oxfordshire.

It made membership of or assist for it a prison offence, punishable by as much as 14 years in jail.

The federal government justifies the ban by saying it narrowly targets a bunch that has been organising severe criminality.

However critics say the ban is a draconian clampdown on freedom of expression and is the newest erosion of civil liberties which were introduced in beneath successive governments.

Palestine Motion is interesting in opposition to the ban after a Excessive Courtroom ruling on 30 July gave it permission to take action. We can have extra on Palestine Motion shortly.

Here’s what else is on the agenda for the remainder of the day:

11am: Reform UK press convention.

11.30am: Foyer briefing with the prime minister’s spokesperson, who will doubtless be requested concerning the extent of the UK’s involvement in the Trump-Putin Ukraine summit in Alaska on Friday.

Late morning: Kemi Badenoch, the chief of the opposition, visits East Anglia to spotlight native considerations about the usage of asylum accommodations.