Work checks can cut illegal migration, pledges Cooper

The home secretary has said plans for new checks on unauthorised working will help cut levels of illegal migration.Yvette Cooper has announced plans to expand the range of companies that can be fined for not carrying out right-to-work checks on casual workers.Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said criminal gangs were using the prospect of illegal work to lure people into trying to enter the country.It comes ahead of a UK-hosted summit on Monday, to be attended by about 40 nations, on tackling organised immigration crime.Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart said his party would study the proposals, but Labour needed to do more to deter people from coming to the UK.
Companies have a legal responsibility to verify that people they employ directly have the right to work in the UK. For agency workers, the responsibility lies with the agency to conduct the relevant checks.There are sanctions including fines of up to £60,000 per unauthorised worker in cases where foreign workers are found to be working illegally.Under plans announced on Sunday, the requirement to conduct a test would be extended to self-employed contractors carrying out work on behalf of a company.Currently, firms are responsible for conducting checks on such workers only if they have sponsored the visa allowing them to work in the UK.Cooper told the BBC that checks were currently "not reaching" the so-called gig economy, where many workers are employed in temporary or casual roles."Criminal gangs promise people illegal work just as they then take their money for illegal crossings as well," she added.Asked how many illegal workers would be stopped under the new measures, she conceded it was "difficult" to provide a precise figure."What we need is for employers themselves to take action that prevents the illegal working in the first place," she added."Some of this is about us increasing enforcement, but some of this is the prevention action that we need employers to take."
'Wrong end'
The Home Office said the change would be made possible by amending the government's Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is making its way through Parliament.The department said a "full consultation" with businesses on implementing the checks would then follow, naming construction, food delivery, beauty salons, and couriers among sectors likely to be affected by the new rules.Elsewhere in her interview, Cooper confirmed the government is reviewing how international human rights law is applied to migration cases, although she did not provide details.The government has faced pressure from the Conservatives, who have called for a law change to stop those denied the right to stay in the UK challenging their deportation on human rights grounds.Shadow cabinet office minister Burghart accused Labour ministers of looking at the "wrong end of the problem" when it came to illegal working.He said Labour's decision to scrap the Tories' Rwanda deportation scheme shortly after entering office meant there would be no "deterrent" to stop people trying to enter the UK without permission.The Conservatives announced the plan in 2022, but failed to bring the scheme into effect before they were voted out of office at last year's general election.

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Daily Mail​

34 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

Fast-track suicide if you pay extra, discount deals for couples and you don't even have to be terminally ill: Inside Germany's morally queasy approach to assisted dying where business is booming for the pedlars of euthanasia

Last week, the UK's highest elected officials ruled on the most existential of questions: how we choose to die. At its third reading, the Assisted Dying Bill passed the Commons by a slim majority of 23 votes, and now its fate lies with the Lords, where it faces a bumpy ride before it becomes law. The upper chamber, for instance, will examine if a three-person panel of professionals (from law, psychiatry and social work) offers greater safety and oversight in approving a patient's application to die than a High Court judge, as was originally proposed. Peers will have at their disposal the grim cost-benefit analysis to the NHS in accelerating the deaths of the terminally ill, released last month under the cover of the local election results. According to the report, as many as 1,300 people are expected to apply to die in the first year, saving as much as £10million in medical bills. But can the health service cope with this demand, especially as NHS staff will be offered an opt-out from the ugly business of state-sponsored suicide? No doubt private health providers are already bending the ears of peers for a slice of the death industry pie. It would be tempting to allow private enterprise to take some of the strain, but I urge the Lords to look at how business seized the opportunity with morally queasy gusto in my native land, Germany, where some firms offer a 'fast track' service for people who can pay more and even special discounts to couples wishing to hasten their demise. Pictured: Pedestrians walk past the posters promoting the Assisted Dying bill at Westminster Underground station In Germany, anyone 18 or over can lawfully commit suicide with the help of a third party. Yes, anyone. There is no requirement for the person to be six months from death, nor is there any specification over having a life-limiting or debilitating illness (as in the UK Bill). A perfectly healthy university student can seek help to kill themselves for no better reason than they are fed up with life. Hannelore Kring, 83, is typical of Germany's liberal approach to assisted suicide. A recording of her death featured in a podcast by news broadcaster WDR and it is a spine-chilling reminder of how relaxed my countrymen are about dying. At an undertaker's, Frau Kring is accompanied by two 'death helpers' – a nurse and retired teacher – and sounds relieved her life will end in a matter of minutes. Dressed in black and with make-up, as if attending a party, she suggests a dance with the nurse. Indeed, she is not ill, she is as healthy as anyone in their 80s. She has run a second-hand men's boutique in Hamburg but feels life's no longer worth living. She's lonely, all her friends have died and the state of the world depresses her. The helpers ask if she really wants to go through with it. 'Absolutely!' she replies enthusiastically. The nurse hooks her up to an infusion of a lethal dose of narcotics – a 'suicide cocktail'. She merely has to turn a valve, letting the toxic chemicals enter her bloodstream, putting her to sleep for ever. It's important she takes the final step herself, otherwise the helpers could be charged with manslaughter. Assisted suicides like this have been fully legal in Germany since 2020, although legislation has been a generation in the making. After the Second World War the subject was largely taboo, in no small part due to revulsion at the Nazis' Aktion T4 programme, which entailed the 'mercy killing' of 300,000 disabled people. By the 1970s and 1980s, a push for more patient autonomy led to court decisions in 1984 and 1990 that ensured suffering, bed-ridden people had the right to stop treatments that prolonged their lives. With the 2009 Patient Directive Law, people could include such instructions in a living will if they became incapacitated. This gave legal protections to doctors offering assisted suicide. But then the public grew uneasy at what seemed a creeping commercialisation of the right to die. Healthcare is not free at the point of use in Germany, so the nation is more comfortable than the UK with private provision within the system. But only up to a point. Many were appalled in 2014 when a Berlin urologist Uwe-Christian Arnold revealed he had helped 'several hundred people' take their lives since the late 1990s for fees of up to €10,000. Christian groups accused him of undermining the sanctity of life. The German Medical Association threatened him with a €50,000 fine, saying doctors should prolong life, not give their patients lethal poisons. Arnold took them to court over the fine and won. Also in 2014, a right-to-die association in Hamburg caused uproar for offering fast-track assisted suicide consultations in exchange for higher membership fees. Its normal rate was €2,000, with a waiting time of a year, but it introduced a jump-the-queue service for €7,000. Other providers offered discounts for couples interested in dying together. These were grisly bargains that lead many to regard Germany as a Las Vegas of suicide, which was anathema to a country that saw itself as otherwise Christian and conservative. Church groups took to Berlin's streets as legislators sought to crack down on the industry. Arnold and others passionately defended their businesses. The 'death helpers' argued the issue was comparable to abortion: a ban would be unfair to the terminally ill, who shouldn't have to travel to places like Switzerland to end their lives with dignity. The debate ended with parliament banning 'commercial' assisted suicide under Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015. Subsequently, only friends and relatives who received no money for their assistance could help someone end their life. Legal challenges were launched by right-to-die advocates and people suffering terminal illnesses. In a 2020 judgement, the Constitutional Court said the freedoms enshrined in the country's post-war constitution meant 'the decision to take one's own life must be respected by the state as an act of personal autonomy'. Those who had been put out of work by the previous ruling were free to ply their trade once again. Five years after that decision, it feels like we're back to the Wild West of pre-2015. Assisted suicide in Germany is an unregulated free-for-all. A slew of undertakers, lawyers and independent doctors are facilitating a rising toll of assisted deaths. Last year it was about 1,000, though no one is keeping exact figures. Likewise there's no central registry of providers. Nearly anyone can set up shop. The largest player in the business is the German Association for Humane Dying (DGHS), which charges €4,000 a suicide but offers a discounted €6,000 for couples. It says that of the 623 people for whom it arranged suicide last year (it forwards requests to independent teams of doctors and lawyers), 22 per cent were just 'fed up with life'. Two-thirds were female. DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel says: 'Women are more likely to be widowed and 'left over' than men. Women are more likely to plan and communicate, while men often choose 'hard' suicide methods such as hanging.' Equally worrying is the fact that nothing prevents young people from choosing the path of assisted suicide. The youngest case I heard of was a 21-year-old man. The only requirement spelled out by the court was that the person be 'freely responsible' for their decision. At least DGHS, to maintain its reputation, has doctors and lawyers screen applicants to ensure they understand what they're getting into, that they're not being coerced and that they do not show symptoms of mental illness or dementia. But nobody knows how many independent providers are making money with assisted suicide. Nobody knows how they are screening clients, particularly in the more affordable services where standards may be lower. A study last month in the British Medical Journal analysed 77 assisted suicides in Munich. It found that one patient's consultation with a clinic lasted 55 minutes and the death was booked for the next day. The assisting physician in another case was a relative of the patient. In a 2022 case, the suicidal person was judged of sound mind based on a five-year-old mental capacity evaluation. But there is still broad support for the right to die: 80 per cent of Germans feel it's appropriate for the critically ill. But just 30 per cent say it should be available to people with a long life ahead of them, and only 3 per cent for young people having a crisis. Ute Lewitzska, professor for suicide studies at Frankfurt University, sees a fundamental change in how we deal with growing old. 'Supply creates demand,' she says. 'The 2020 court decision didn't just open a crack in the door, it flung the door wide open – and we're not going to be able to close that door again.' The fear is a normalisation of assisted suicide. For some it's a humane way to end one's life; for others it's an easy solution to suffering that's being oversold. Dr Lukas Radbruch, director of palliative care at University Clinic Bonn, has worked with end-of-life patients for three decades. He says many more now ask about assisted suicide but 'so many people are not sufficiently informed. Or we have doubts about how voluntary their choice is. Or we realise they still want to live, even if they say they want to die.' Sometimes a suicidal person needs counselling, not the means to kill themselves. Where do you draw the line? Dr Radbruch asks. In 2023 the German parliament tried to hammer out rules to provide clearer guidance, but MPs couldn't reach a consensus. Like many in the West, Germany seems destined to grope its way through this ethical minefield with no transparent way forward that is satisfactory for all. I do not envy the task ahead for Britain's Lords. My country's experience offers a salutary lesson that for the Bill to become law, they must make black and white what is a painfully grey issue.

BBC News

34 minutes ago

• BBC News

Give new recruits £10,000 to join army, says Sir Ed Davey

New soldiers should be offered a £10,000 bonus to rapidly boost troop numbers to deal with an increasingly unpredictable world, the Lib Dems have government should also distribute pamphlets to make sure every British home is "war-ready" and able to deal with blackouts and chaos caused by the outbreak of conflict or cyber-attacks, Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey Lib Dems claim the plans will "urgently" boost to the number of trained soldiers from just under 71,000 to more than 73, the face of a "barbaric" Russian President Vladimir Putin and an "erratic" US President Donald Trump, Sir Ed said the UK must be better prepared. Over the weekend, Sir Ed visited Estonia to see British troops on what he called Nato's "frontline with Russia".His visit had shown him "it is clear given the threat of a barbaric Putin and the challenge of an erratic Trump, we need to do more to make Britain war-ready," he said."War readiness also starts at home," Sir Ed added, "which is why I am calling for a public awareness campaign aimed at every home in Britain - to make sure we're all prepared for the possibility of a conflict or hostile acts such as major cyber-attacks".Under the plans, new recruits receive a £10,000 bonus after completing training and serving for two armed services personnel would be offered a £20,000 payment if they return to serve two additional starting salary for new recruits to the British Army is £26,334 a a government scheme launched last November, a total of 17,000 armed forces personnel became eligible for retention engineers can get £30,000 if they sign up for a further three years, with privates and lance corporals eligible for £8,000 for four proposed Lib Dem scheme would be limited to 3,000 personnel, including new recruits and re-enlistees, with its £60m cost covered by the main defence plans are drawn up with the expectation that defence spending would rise to 2.5% of national income or GDP by 2027 - as promised by Lib Dems have called for the uplift in defence spending to be funded through an increase of the Digital Services Tax - a 2% levy on the biggest social media and tech companies, which raises about £800m a Lib Dems argue the bonus scheme would "urgently increase" the number of trained UK regular soldiers up to 73,000 - from the 70,752 listed in the most recent official month, the government set out plans for a small increase to the size of the regular army to 76,000 full-time soldiers after 2029 - although this has yet to be has also proposed a 20% increase in Active Reserves "when funding allows" - most likely after 2030 following an overhaul of the armed forces. The government is consulting on plans to regenerate military homes with £7bn of funding by 2025, after bringing the defence estate back under Ministry of Defence (MoD) control last Conservatives have called for an increase in UK troop numbers but have not set out how many they think are week, the shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge set out plans to have military homes run by a housing association to tackle the "poor" state of accommodation and stem an exodus of a third of UK troops were considering leaving the armed forces due to the standard of accommodation, the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) own survey found. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.

Daily Mirror

35 minutes ago

• Daily Mirror

Labour industrial strategy's £275m boost 'backs young people in whole country'

The long-awaited strategy will include a £275million boost to skills training for the one in seven young people out of work and education - backing British talent instead of importing workers from overseas Labour's long-awaited industrial strategy will prove the Government is 'on the side of working people' across the whole country the Industry minister vows ahead of its publication on Monday. The strategy is intended to boost key sectors of the economy for the next decade, with advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence among the sectors to see increased focus. ‌ Today, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds vowed to 'power the industrial strategy by investing in working people' ‌ He promised a £275million boost to skills training for the one in seven young people out of work and education - backing British talent instead of importing workers from overseas. And writing for the Sunday Mirror Sarah Jones, the Industry Minister said the strategy would not just focus on London and the south east. 'From Belfast to Barrow, Derby to Dundee, our modern Industrial Strategy will build on the world-leading strengths of our nations and regions to turbocharge investment into our communities, raising wages and living standards for working people,' she wrote. 'We're not just putting a sticking plaster over the cracks of the economy. We're setting out a plan to fix the problems that have plagued us for years.' The training cash will fund the creation of new 'Technical Excellence Colleges' to provide cutting-edge courses in defence and engineering. It's been targeted to address the UK's skills gaps which leave businesses struggling to find people with the talents and skills they need. ‌ 'To make Britain the best place in the world to do business, we also need the best workforce in the world with the right skills and expertise to thrive,' Mr Reynolds said. 'Where past governments have watched from the sidelines as British industry has faced under-investment and opportunities have been shipped overseas, this government is leading the way, and our modern Industrial Strategy is a downpayment on a decade of renewal.' The UK's last industrial strategy was in 2017, when the Tories published a four-year plan ending in 2021. We're giving young people a chance to succeed By SARAH JONES, Minister for Industry This government is on the side of working people. And our modern Industrial Strategy, which we will publish tomorrow, will prove that beyond doubt. For the past 14 years, governments have sat on the sidelines watching British industry struggle – no direction, no support and no strategy. ‌ Neglecting our world-class industrial sectors and leaving workers in the lurch, while only worsening the gap between rich and poor and extending the north-south divide. Even before we entered Government we have been listening to industry and knew bold action was needed. Working hand in hand with industry and the workforce we will take the action needed to keep jobs and investment on our shores for decades to come. And the UK means the whole of our country: not just London or the Southeast. ‌ From Belfast to Barrow, Derby to Dundee, our modern Industrial Strategy will build on the world-leading strengths of our nations and regions to turbocharge investment into our communities, raising wages and living standards for working people. We're not just putting a sticking plaster over the cracks of the economy. We're setting out a plan to fix the problems that have plagued us for years. Currently one in seven young people are unemployed or out of education. We're giving them the chance to succeed by creating thousands of new training opportunities and transforming Britain's skills system, with more than £275 million in new investment to help British workers secure good, well-paid jobs in the industries of tomorrow. ‌ This will fund new training, short courses and other education opportunities right across the country in sectors like defence, AI, clean energies and advanced manufacturing. These are sectors where the UK is already world-leading, and which are expected to add £158 billion to our economy by 2035 and create an astounding 1.1 million new, well-paid jobs. Our skills overhaul will also set up new Technical Excellence Colleges across the UK to help train thousands of new skilled workers by 2029, in careers like engineering, programming and IT systems, helping Britain to stay competitive on the global stage. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Tomorrow, our new Strategy will set out how we'll invest billions in our high-growth sectors in every part of the country: creating thousands of secure, well-paid and high-skilled jobs, backed by employment rights fit for a modern economy. The number one mission of this government's Plan for Change is growth, and putting more money in working people's pockets. And that's exactly what our modern Industrial Strategy will do.