Home Affairs and Defence Editor - Daily Express. Views my own.
Joined March 2014
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22 May 2023
Exclusive: I met with a people smuggler in Istanbul, who claimed European countries are "sending" migrants to the UK. "Ari" said people who "don't like it" in Europe can take "easy" boats from France.
Special report for @ExpressPolitics @Daily_Express:
express.co.uk/news/uk/177286…
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Great to see our @Daily_Express investigation being discussed. More to come.
'It's a shocking statistic.'
Former Immigration Minister Kevin Foster outlines the solutions to clearing Britain's asylum backlog as new new figures reveal over 100,000 failed asylum seekers are still in the country.
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Crazy story by @JerryLawton
"WE WAS ROBBED!"
@JerryLawton for @DailyStarSunday
Thieves have stuck the boot into England after nicking some of their kit.
Raiders swiped footwear, balls and training gear belonging to the Three Lions stars.
#DailyStarSunday
#TomorrowsPapersToday
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Exclusive: More than 100,000 failed asylum seekers are feared to be living in Britain illegally because they haven’t been deported, the Sunday Express can reveal.
Some 2,000 people who first sought sanctuary in 2010 are still in the UK.
And more than 26,000 have been here for at least a decade despite losing their cases, according to Home Office figures.
In total, 108,022 people refused protection after claiming asylum between 2010 and 2024 have not been removed.
One in four people who first claimed asylum in 2010 still hadn’t been returned by March 2026.
Some 26,850 failed asylum seekers who first claimed asylum between 2010 and 2016 haven’t been returned.
And then the Channel migrant crisis began… and the scandal of asylum seekers switching from work, study and visitor visas.
In short, there’s an extraordinary deportation backlog that is growing at an alarming rate.
More on this to come.
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This statement defies belief.
A police officer suffered a fractured spine after Corner smashed her in the back with a sledgehammer.
Jun 12
The sentences handed to four young activists for taking direct action at an Israeli arms factory are completely disproportionate and wrong.
They've been sentenced for a "terrorist connection" they were never charged with.
A clear miscarriage of justice and dangerous precedent.
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Michael Knowles retweeted
This is expected to be Dan Jarvis’s first event as Defence Secretary
But the government are now barring journalists from attending and may not even livestream his speech
It looks like tomorrow’s defence event is still going ahead (though media are yet to be invited!!)
Defence industry has been invited to a drones launch speech by an unnamed cabinet minister
Shows No10 is still trying to push this through…
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Exclusive: In Belfast, so many people I’ve spoken to rejected the violence. But they spoke of a real anger over migration. And the loss of trust in politicians to come up with a solution. There’s a sense of a vacuum on the issue that’s being filled.
I spoke to one local politician who used a megaphone to try and convince masked protesters not to descend into chaos and violence.
He said: “There’s a small school in the area. It wasn’t doing so well, and migrant families coming into Belfast through the backdoor of Dublin, which is a sore point round here as they don’t like Dublin, but families were placed in hotels all around the city and they were bussed to the school.
“The migrant families get uniforms bought for them. This is not the families’ fault. It is the politicians’ fault.
“There’s a special menu for cultural reasons. There’s a ‘them and us’. People are sick of it.
“People are seeing migrants getting houses in an area they can’t get a house in.
“They just don’t believe in the political answer anymore.
“There’s always been a siege mentality here. The Shankill has never truly lost it and it is certainly back now and it’s back with a vengeance.
“It really is a case of ‘what we have, we hold’.”
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Full story: express.co.uk/news/politics/…
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Michael Knowles retweeted
Jun 11
This appears to be an admission by the Treasury that the Labour Party has given up on welfare reform and in fact is prioritising welfare over defence. Which has been evident for some time but is now explicit.
Jun 11
🚨 NEW: A Treasury source attacks John Healey for resigning as Defence Secretary
"Let's be clear on what John is asking for: cuts to schools and hospitals"
h/t @e_casalicchio
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The infighting of this Labour Government is extraordinary.
Imagine revealing that intelligence suggests Russia could attack NATO within four years and then briefing against giving the Armed Forces the kit they need.
Jun 11
TREASURY source hits back to say Chancellor "will always do what is right and needed to keep this country safe... Let's be clear on what John is asking for: cuts to schools and hospitals."
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Exclusive: Paramilitary groups have not “sanctioned” the violence engulfing Belfast, the Daily Express has been told. The leaders are effectively turning a blind eye to their foot-soldiers joining the disorder which has seen police pelted with bricks, petrol bombs and bins.
The violence would be much more coordinated if it had been arranged by Northern Ireland’s feared paramilitaries, the Daily Express has been told.
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Jun 11
A government source and ally of the PM insists that the Defence Investment Plan WILL be enough to keep Britain safe and No10 will "do what is right".
In a direct rebuttal to John Healey, the source says: “We cut the international aid budget to make record investment in our armed forces, and now the PM is imposing cuts on other government departments to fund billions more.
“The Defence Investment Plan will deliver the capability our armed forces need.
"We will always do what is right, and needed, to keep the country safe.”
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It’s a good job Britain’s intelligence agencies aren’t warning of rising threats from Britain’s enemies.
Oh, right, they are.
Make it all make sense. And meanwhile, the welfare bill continues to surge.
Jun 11
Defence Investment Plan (yet another DIP update):
- discussions between Treasury, MOD and No10 still “live” as of last night despite earlier claims that a long-running disagreement over a proposed ~£13bn additional uplift in funding was largely resolved (this figure is much less than the military say they need and is regarded - to put it mildly - as “not enough”)
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton has written to the Prime Minister amid concerns that the funding boost proposed by the Treasury is not enough. I don’t know what the content of the letter was. But clearly this highly unusual move is a signal of the seriousness of the moment and the challenge that Sir Keir Starmer faces to get a credible and affordable Defence Investment Plan over the line. It is worth adding that it’s perfectly legitimate for a CDS to write to a PM but not the kind of action he would take regularly
- expectations valiantly hanging in there for an announcement of a vast new defence drone testing centre to happen in Swindon on Friday. Various start-ups were as of yesterday still making plans to go (me too - was there last week, could make this a regular commute). The talk last night had been about this drone testing moment being something that could take place to coincide with some words from the PM announcing top line figures of the funding for defence and some of the key programmes in the DIP. But this clearly can’t happen until there is a firm agreement on the settlement
- DIP then unveiled in full on Monday before the PM heads off to the G7 (though again this presumably can’t happen unless the money is green lit)
(It is worth saying that this extraordinary display of confusion and paralysis at the heart of government over what is meant to be a strategic priority – the defence of the nation – has left officials inside the MoD, the military and defence industry slack-jawed)
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A witness told me protesters broke into this house, and dragged out a vintage VW before torching it and the house.
The horrific reality of the riots in Belfast. Another home burned down.
Bricks everywhere. The road charred.
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The horrific reality of the riots in Belfast. Another home burned down.
Bricks everywhere. The road charred.
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New: The family of Belfast stabbing attack victim Stephen Ogilvie say they are "completely devastated by the horrific attack on our loved one".
In a statement posted on the Facebook page of DUP MLA Phillip Brett, they said: "This has been a massive shock to our whole family, and right now, our only priority is being at his bedside and helping him recover.
“We want to say a profound thank you to the local people who bravely stepped in during the attack. Your quick actions absolutely saved his life, and we will never forget what you did for him in that moment.
"We also want to thank the emergency services and the doctors and nurses looking after him.
“We are aware of the tensions and talk of protests following this incident.
"We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, and peaceful protest is the only way forward.
"We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including in our healthcare system and hospitality sector and we depend on them to make our country work.
“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility.
“We are asking the media and the public to please give us some space. We need privacy to focus on our family right now, without cameras or people speculating about what happened.
“If you know anything at all about the attack, or saw anything strange near Kinnaird Avenue, please go to the police.
“Thank you for respecting our privacy.”
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New: Belfast attack suspect Hadi Alodid said “I’ve killed someone, I don’t know if they are dead” while in hospital receiving treatment for a hand injury, before telling medical staff “I will kill you”, a court has heard.
Alodid, 30, appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, with threats to kill an NHS radiographer and with possession of a knife.
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For what it’s worth, sources now confirming he was granted refugee status.
And he had leave until 2028.
It’s worth noting returns to Sudan are minuscule, so he’d likely have remained in the UK for much longer.
BREAKING: The Sudanese migrant arrested over the stabbing in Belfast was given leave to remain in September 2023 after claiming asylum in February of that year.
He travelled from Paris to Dublin, before boarding a bus from the Irish capital to Belfast.
He immediately claimed asylum.
Huge scandal.
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BREAKING: The Sudanese migrant arrested over the stabbing in Belfast was given leave to remain in September 2023 after claiming asylum in February of that year.
He travelled from Paris to Dublin, before boarding a bus from the Irish capital to Belfast.
He immediately claimed asylum.
Huge scandal.
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New: @Nigel_Farage has blasted the Home Office over leave to remain.
He said: “I mean, it’s absolutely shocking, barbaric, ghastly.
“We know that he’s Sudanese. No 10 are refusing to say whether he came here illegally, which I think tells us probably all we need to know.
“He was given leave to remain, as almost all these people are. We dish out leave to remain like Smarties to people about whom we know nothing, and some of whom cause great harm in our country. Frankly, these people shouldn’t be here. It’s as simple as that.”
Questions like to intensify over the lack of checks on Northern Ireland's land border with the Republic of Ireland.
Update: The Sudanese national arrested over the stabbing in Belfast had leave to remain and arrived from Dublin.
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