Labour has refused to set specific targets on how it wants to reduce net migration to the UK should it win the General Election. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the party wants to see “significant changes” and is clear that net migration “must come down”. But she stopped short of setting a target, saying the Conservatives have failed when they have done so and arguing that “variations” each year – such as the war in Ukraine – must also be considered. Her comments came after Sir Keir Starmer pledged to tackle what he called “sky high” migration. Elsewhere, Ms Cooper also claimed the issue with Diane Abbott over whether she can run in the upcoming general election has been “resolved” after days of back and forth. Asked on Sky News whether she expects Ms Abbott to be the Labour candidate for Hackney and Stoke Newington after a row over whether this would be permitted, the shadow home secretary said: “I assume so. Yes. “I mean, I’m very glad it’s been resolved for Diane. She continues to be a very important figure in the Labour Party.”
General election latest: Labour’s Yvette Cooper refuses to set target for curbing migration as Abbott issue ‘resolved’
Related video: Worker pulls faces as Sunak says ‘life has been difficult’ in election campaign speech
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Labour has refused to set specific targets on how it wants to reduce net migration to the UK should it win the General Election.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the party wants to see “significant changes” and is clear that net migration “must come down”.
But she stopped short of setting a target, saying the Conservatives have failed when they have done so and arguing that “variations” each year – such as the war in Ukraine – must also be considered.
Her comments came after Sir Keir Starmer pledged to tackle what he called “sky high” migration.
Elsewhere, Ms Cooper also claimed the issue with Diane Abbott over whether she can run in the upcoming general election has been “resolved” after days of back and forth.
Asked on Sky News whether she expects Ms Abbott to be the Labour candidate for Hackney and Stoke Newington after a row over whether this would be permitted, the shadow home secretary said: “I assume so. Yes.
“I mean, I’m very glad it’s been resolved for Diane. She continues to be a very important figure in the Labour Party.”
Key Points
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Scottish Lib Dems say vote for them would mean more support for mental health
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have said a vote for them would mean more support for mental health and less pressure on GPs.
Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton told BBC One Scotland’s The Sunday Show that the Lib Dems would triple digital mental health support on social media.
He said social media in itself is responsible for mental health problems in modern society, particularly among young people.
He said one in four GP appointments are due to mental health issues and believes his party’s approach would help free up appointment spaces with GPs across the country.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey stands with Alex Cole-Hamilton (left) and activists during their party’s Scottish launch at North Queensferry (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)
Tom Watling2 June 2024 11:30
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Green Party co-leader says 3 candidates are no longer running
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said three of the party’s election candidates were “no longer going forward” following reports of inappropriate comments.
Mr Ramsay told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “The Green Party takes any suggestions of antisemitism, or indeed any form of racism, very seriously.
“Any suggestions that have been made of inappropriate comments in recent weeks are being investigated by the relevant people.”
He added: “In the last couple of weeks, there were three candidates who had been selected who are no longer going forward.
“I understand there’s a small number more who are still being looked at.”
Mr Ramsay said the Green Party was planning to get at least four MPs elected “to push the new government to be bolder”.
He said the party had a “fantastic chance of winning” the constituencies of Bristol Central, Waveney Valley, North Herefordshire and Brighton Pavilion.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay speaking during the Green Party General Election campaign launch at St George’s Bristol earlier this week (Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
Tom Watling2 June 2024 11:00
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Plaid Cymru leader ap Iorwerth accuses Starmer of acting as ‘puppet master’ in Wales
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has said Sir Keir Starmer wants to “act as the puppet master within all of the Labour Party” through his “parachuting of candidates last minute to Wales”.
He told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme that his party would support a no-confidence motion in Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething next week.
Mr ap Iorwerth said: “We have no confidence in the First Minister. More importantly than that, the Welsh public don’t have confidence in him.
“But it’s Labour who will decide – Labour members of the Senedd in that vote of no confidence, but crucially also Keir Starmer, who has shown through his parachuting of candidates last minute to Wales that he very much wants to act as the puppet master within all of the Labour Party.”
Mr ap Iorwerth added: “We have a Labour Party that has converged so much with the Conservatives and offer so little for Wales.”
Tom Watling2 June 2024 10:45
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Labour’s Cooper refuses to rule out off-shore processing of illegal migrants
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has declined to rule out off-shore processing or sending asylum-seekers to have their claims processed abroad.
Ms Cooper told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that her party would create a border security command “to clear the backlog and to end asylum hotel use, and to put another new returns and enforcement unit in place to actually get the proper returns where people have no right to be here”.
She said: “So, your question was might there be other future arrangements and so on? Keir has always said we would look at what works and there are different kinds of, I think, the sort of offshore processing arrangements and things that have already been used at different times in the past.
“For example, the Dublin agreement did mean that, under that scheme, some people were returned to France or to Germany or other countries.”
When asked if Labour would send asylum seekers who are stuck in the system to another country to have their claims processed, Ms Cooper said: “That’s certainly what used to happen as part of the Dublin scheme and we look at what works.”
Tom Watling2 June 2024 10:33
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SNP House of Commons leader accuses Labour and Conservatives of ‘conspiracy of silence’
The SNP’s House of Commons leader has accused Labour and the Conservatives of a “conspiracy of silence” on austerity in Scotland.
Speaking with Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Stephen Flynn said there has been £18 billion in public sector cuts, with neither party “providing an answer” on the matter.
He said the SNP is the only party who would return the country to a single market, invest in net zero technologies and will not privatise the NHS.
Tom Watling2 June 2024 10:15
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Yvette Cooper fails to rule out overseas schemes for illegal migrants
Yvette Cooper fails to rule out overseas schemes for illegal migrants
Yvette Cooper refused to rule out overseas deportation schemes for asylum seekers under a Labour government. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on 2 June, the Shadow Home Secretary said, “We’re not going to do the Rwanda scheme… but Keir Starmer has always said we would look at what works.” “For example, the Dublin agreement did mean that under that scheme some people were returned to France or Germany or other countries”, she explained. Yvette Cooper reiterated ‘Labour’s first steps for change’, by saying that the Border Security Command and ending asylum hotels were Labour’s key priorities.
Tom Watling2 June 2024 10:00
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Tory minister says Labour having an ‘identity crisis’
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has suggested Labour is having a “bit of an identity crisis”.
Ms Atkins said she would not comment on individual Tories who have defected to Labour, saying they will have had their “own reasons for going”.
She then told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “It’s a great surprise, I think, to everyone, including possibly to Natalie Elphicke herself, that such a hard-right Conservative politician should choose to join Labour.
“But then we see this week from Labour that Sir Keir Starmer can’t work out whether Diane Abbott, one of his longest-standing and trailblazing Members of Parliament, should in fact be a Member of Parliament. He can’t work it out. So, it shows that there is a bit of an identity crisis within Labour.”
She added: “We see today that Sir Keir is suggesting giving out peerages to solve the problem and, interestingly, inserting some of his own, his boys’ club, into those very seats from which he’s ejecting women. I have noticed that.”
Tom Watling2 June 2024 09:35
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Yvette Cooper denies that Keir Starmer has offered Labour MPs a seat in the Lords
Yvette Cooper has denied that Keir Starmer has offered Labour MPs a seat in the Lords.
The shadow home secretary told Sky: “That’s not the way the system works”.
It follows reports that a string of former Labour MPs, including Diane Abbott, have been offered as seat in the House of Lords to stand down and make way for allies of Sir Keir Starmer.
A number of people close to the Labour leader have been parachuted into some of Labour’s safest seats.
Ms Cooper also said she assumed Ms Abbott would stand for Labour at the election.
Tom Watling2 June 2024 09:20
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Keir Starmer pledges to slash ‘sky high’ migration numbers under a Labour government
Tom Watling2 June 2024 09:00
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A reminder of what happened yesterday
Both the Conservative and Labour parties kicked off their “battle bus” tours on Saturday. The coaches will spend the next five weeks driving thousands of miles across the country in an attempt to win over voters.
Sir Keir Starmer, his deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves were in Boris Johnson’s old constituency, Uxbridge, to launch Labour’s red coach. Emblazoned on the bus, dozens of times over, was the word “change”.
In Redcar, northeast England, prime minister Rishi Sunak kicked off the Tories’ tour in their blue Mercedes coach. He travelled the first stop on the bus to nearby Blythe.
In the East Midlands, meanwhile, Reform’s Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage addressed crowds in Ashfield, Mr Anderson’s constituency. On the agenda: immigration, immigration and, yes, immigration.
Britain’s Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak (C) greets the party’s Cramlington and Killingworth candidate Ian Levy and Blyth and Ashington candidate Maureen Levy during a campaign visit to Blyth (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer holds a card detailing his policy priorities at the launch of the Labour Party election campaign ‘Battle Bus’ in Uxbridge (Getty Images)Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage woo crowds in Ashfield, East Midlands (X / Nigel Farage )
Tom Watling2 June 2024 08:46
Read the full story on www.independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-2024-labour-sunak-starmer-polls-abbott-b2555188.html