Shabana Mahmood’s double down on immigration ‘disappointing’, says Alf Dubs
The home secretary’s decision to double down on hardline immigration reforms in light of Labour’s byelection defeat to the Green party is “disappointing”, according to the Labour peer Alf Dubs,Lord Dubs, a child refugee who fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the Kindertransport in 1939, had previously accused Shabana Mahmood of “pulling up the drawbridge” on child migrants,Hannah Spencer, a plumber and Green councillor, won the previously safe Labour seat of Gorton and Denton in east Manchester on Thursday, overturning a majority of 13,000,The Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia, came third, behind Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin,Labour has been accused of alienating voters on its left flank by trying to combat the rise of Reform, particularly on the issue of immigration.
The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has said Labour is echoing “the rhetoric of the far right” on its proposed immigration reforms, modelled on the hardline Danish system,Mahmood indicated on Friday that she would press ahead with the controversial policies, despite the objections of many backbench Labour MPs and union figures,The government plans the biggest shake-up of the asylum system in 40 years,Under the proposals, those who enter the country illegally will have to wait 20 years to apply for indefinite leave to remain,“The Greens are showing that, in humanitarian terms, they are probably in the right place [on immigration],” Dubs said.
“Reform hasn’t done as well as Reform expected.”Dubs, 93, said he did not consider Mahmood’s response to be “sensible” in light of the humiliating byelection defeat.The Green party has proposed its own reforms to the immigration system, saying asylum seekers should be allowed to work and that the government should establish more safe routes for refugees to enter the country.The Labour reforms are widely seen as a reaction to the surge in support for Reform.Nigel Farage has said his party would scrap indefinite leave to remain and deport about 600,000 migrants in its first term if it won power.
“I think [Mahmood] should be much more influenced by the fact there was a Green victory and the Greens have a sensible policy on this, and the Labour party ought to have an equally sensible policy,” Dubs said.He added that he was particularly concerned by the plight of child refugees, many of whom are affected by the decision to suspend family reunion visas last year.Until September, an adult who was granted refugee status could sponsor their spouse or partner and dependent children under the age of 18 to join them.“We should have a more humanitarian policy for refugees and asylum seekers anyway, particularly family reunion and children,” he added.“I think what [Mahmood] is saying is disappointing and hope she’ll move away from that position and come to a better arrangement.
“One of the priorities should be family reunion for child refugees, if a child is abroad and has close family here with settled status.Children should be able to come here as asylum seekers.”
Young fashion fans help UK charity shops thrive on struggling UK high streets
Young people inspired by secondhand fashion websites such as Vinted and Depop are helping charity shops thrive despite rising energy and employment costs.Save the Children’s retail sales rose 3% last year, helped by a surge in December when the charity rang up 11% more than the same month a year before, raising more than £1m for its causes.Ian Matthews, the charity’s director of retail and communities, said it saw a “big spike”, with sales continuing to be pretty strong in January.It did better than the charity industry’s average of 1.4% last year, according to the Charity Retail Association (CRA), which was itself ahead of the wider retail industry’s 1
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Investors have a new mantra as they prepare for AI to shake up the global economy – the Halo trade.Interest in Halo – short for “heavy assets, low obsolescence” - has risen as investors seek out companies with tangible, productive assets, which might be insulated from AI disruption, such as energy and transport infrastructure companies.While US mega-cap tech companies have had a rough start to 2026, the Halo trade helped to push UK and EU stock markets to record levels by the end of February.Goldman Sachs reported this week that its basket of more than 100 big-spending companies had outperformed a similar grouping of capital-light firms by 35% since 2025, as “asset intensity becomes a key driver of valuations and returns”.“After more than a decade of under‑investment (particularly in Europe), corporates are shifting decisively back toward physical assets,” Goldman analysts told clients
Square Mile strikes back: how the City of London is fighting disinformation about crime
“Just visit London and you’ll see that it’s filled with crime,” the tech billionaire Elon Musk said as he was beamed into Tommy Robinson’s far-right rally in the UK capital last September.The comments by the SpaceX and Tesla boss, part of a roving speech that was later condemned by the UK government, added to a growing wave of anti-London disinformation that has spread in recent months. That includes Donald Trump’s notorious comments of London “no-go zones” and Nigel Farage’s warnings against wearing jewellery after 9pm in the West End.But the panic over antisocial behaviour and petty crime plaguing the capital has burst out of rightwing circles and social media platforms and into City boardrooms and diplomatic meetings, raising the hackles of state officials and influential financial sector bosses who fear that, if left unchecked, trade, recruitment and business investment could suffer.“Nobody’s saying ‘it means that I won’t invest in the City’,” said Susan Langley, the City of London’s mayor
Harrods faces legal action over £1-a-head dining charge not going to staff
Harrods is facing legal action over its addition of a £1-a-head cover charge to diners’ bills that does not go to workers, in a test case that could lead to changes at a string of upmarket restaurants.Legislation, which came into force in October 2024, requires business owners to hand over all tips and service charges to staff. Some restaurants, including those at Harrods, add a mandatory cover charge as well as an optional service charge and only pass on the latter to their workers.An employment tribunal case involving 29 Harrods restaurant workers backed by the United Voices of the World (UVW) union is to be heard in September. Workers argue that the cover charge functions in practice as a service charge and so should be distributed to them and not kept by Harrods
Paramount Skydance wins Warner Bros Discovery bid after Netflix walks away from deal
Paramount Skydance has beaten Netflix to take over Warner Bros Discovery’s storied Hollywood studios and streaming business after the streaming giant refused to increase its bid.The $110bn deal ends a high-stakes bidding war between the two media companies, but the takeover still faces regulatory hurdles and a backlash from critics worried about a rightward tilt in US media.David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company.”In a statement on Thursday evening, the Netflix co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said: “At the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive.”Netflix was given four business days to beat Paramount’s revised offer but quickly decided against doing so
Rachel Reeves ‘to give go-ahead’ for £1bn military helicopter deal
Rachel Reeves is to approve a £1bn deal to build military helicopters in Yeovil, saving about 3,000 manufacturing jobs, according to reports.The chancellor is expected to sign a contract with Leonardo – the Italian owner of the former Westland factory in Yeovil, Somerset – to build the new battlefield helicopters, after months of speculation as to whether the historical site would survive.Workers had feared the company would follow through on threats to close the facility at the end of March if the government failed to place an order for new helicopters in time.Leonardo was the only bidder for the UK’s £1bn “new medium helicopter” contract that was launched in February 2024, after the US aerospace company Lockheed Martin and Europe’s Airbus pulled out.The new aircraft will replace the Royal Air Force’s ageing fleet of Puma helicopters, which had been in service since the 1970s
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