UK politics: Tom Tugendhat suggests Chagos Islands deal could lead to China establishing base there – as it happened | Politics

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The UK and Mauritius have agreed to engage in constructive negotiations, with a view to arriving at an agreement by early next year.

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David Clark, a Labour former special adviser in the Foreign Office, accused Cleverly of blatant hypocrisy.

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Well this is disappointing. I thought Cleverly was a cut above the populist buffoons around him. Turns out he’s just as much of a hyperbolic truth-twister as the rest of them. The negotiations to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands were initiated by him as a Minister. https://t.co/SL0KaOFZ5v

— David Clark (@David_K_Clark) October 3, 2024

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Well this is disappointing. I thought Cleverly was a cut above the populist buffoons around him. Turns out he’s just as much of a hyperbolic truth-twister as the rest of them. The negotiations to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands were initiated by him as a Minister.

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  Keir Starmer has repaid thousands of pounds in freebies to restore trust in politics, a minister has said as she ruled out accepting more hospitality.

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  Boris Johnson has insisted he would have won another election if he had not been forced from Downing Street, arguing in his new memoir that he broke no rules with lockdown parties and was the victim of a conspiracy.

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Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now sits in the Commons as an independent MP, has been campaigning on behalf of Chagossians for many years. He has welcomed today’s announcement as a “milestone for decolonisation”.

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I pay tribute to Olivier Bancoult and Chagossian communities who have been disgracefully treated for so long.

Following decades of campaigning, this long overdue settlement at last includes the right to return. A milestone for decolonisation.https://t.co/rBUTIztpFd

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 3, 2024

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The risk to peace in Northern Ireland from Brexit was exaggerated and was used by opponents “to trap the UK in the EU”, Boris Johnson has claimed in his memoir, Peter Walker reports.

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Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister and Tory leadership candidate, has suggested that China could end up establishing a military base on one of the Chagos Islands as a result of the UK’s decision to cede sovereignty.

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Britain will still have delegated sovereignty over Diego Garcia, the only inhabited island in the archipelago and the site of UK/US airbase which is regarded as being of key strategic significance by London and Washington.

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But, in an interview with the World at One, Tugendhat said that under the deal announced today Mauritius has not given assurances that it will not lease any of the other islands to another country. “Mauritius is free to rent them out to anybody else, including, for example, China,” he said.

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Tugendhat, who chaired the Commons foreign affairs committee before he became a minister, said that he did not accept the government’s argument (see 1.40pm) had to surrender sovereignty because it was losing cases in international courts.

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He cited Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, as one of several lawyers who have said the International Court of Justice was wrong to rule against the UK on this (Buckland wrote about this here) and Tugendhat said the UK could have ignored the court’s advisory opinion anyway.

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Tugendhat said he agreed the Chagossians had been treated shamefully. But he said they could have been allowed to return without sovereignty being transferred, and he claimed the Mauritian government was not interested in their plight until they took it up for political reasons in the 1990s.

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And he was particularly critical of James Cleverly, his Tory leadership rival and a former foreign secretary, for starting negotiations on the transfer of sovereignty.

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This is another area where, I’m afraid, we’re seeing legalism replacing leadership.

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And we saw this legalism in the Foreign Office in November 2022 [when Cleverly was foreign secretary] when the Foreign Office was pushing for this and nobody stopped it until finally we got leadership under Lord Cameron [Cleverly’s successor as foreign secretary].

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Asked to respond to Jonathan Powell’s claims that he was just engaged in posturing for Tory leadership contest purposes (see 1.40pm), Tugendhat said that Powell had been a Labour activist for many years and that his criticism of Tugendhat was “silly” because he (Tugendhat) had been opposing plans to transfer sovereignty of the islands for many years. It was an issue he took up as foreign affairs committee chair, he said.

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Nigel Farage also claimed the Chagos Islands deal would make Washington “furious”. (See 2.01pm.)

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But President Biden has issued a statement welcoming the proposed treaty. In it is he said:

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I applaud the historic agreement and conclusion of the negotiations between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on the status of the Chagos Archipelago. It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes. This agreement affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, while granting the United Kingdom the authority to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia.

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Diego Garcia is the site of a joint U.S.-UK military facility that plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security. It enables the United States to support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, provide rapid response to crises, and counter some of the most challenging security threats we face. The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century.

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Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has also criticised the decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it a “strategic disaster”.

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Giving up the Chagos Islands is a strategic disaster. Our American allies will be furious and Beijing delighted. Labour are making the world a more dangerous place.

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) October 3, 2024

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Giving up the Chagos Islands is a strategic disaster. Our American allies will be furious and Beijing delighted. Labour are making the world a more dangerous place.

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In his interview on the World at One Jonathan Powell, the former Tony Blair aide who helped to negotiate the Chagos Islands/Mauritius deal as an envoy for Keir Starmer, said the Chagossians were treated “shamefully” when they removed from the islands in the 1960s. He said:

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What we did in 60s, what Britain did, was wrong. We treated them shamefully.

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And that’s why previous governments have given them British nationality, British citizenship, and so on.

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So we setting up a fund that will be administered with the Mauritian government, because this is now Mauritian territory, so we can’t say who goes back.

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Powell said that, under the deal, Chagossians will not be able to return to Diego Garcia, where Britain will retain delegated sovereignty for at least 99 years. (See 1.19pm.) But they would be able to return to other islands if they wanted, he said.

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Many of Chagossians are either Mauritian citizens or have the right to Mauritian citizenship.

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Going back to the islands … it’s going to be difficult. They’re very remote and very hard to live on, and the life there before was very difficult.

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But yes, we are committing ourselves to helping on visits, and we’re committing to a fund to help on resettlement, if that’s possible.

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Jonathan Powell, who as Tony Blair’s chief of staff played a major role in negotiating the Good Friday agreement, had a key role in finalising the Chagos Islands’ deal. Only a month ago he was appointed by Keir Starmer to be his special envoy on the negotiations with Mauritius over the future of the islands.

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In an interview with Radio 4’s the Word at One, Powell said that over the past month he had negotiated “intensively” and to get this agreement and that the deal was “genuinely historic”.

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He was also scathing about the comments from the three Tory leadership candidates on the deal. (See 12.31pm.) Asked for his reaction, he said:

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I do think these comments from the Tory leadership candidates are a bit silly. James Cleverly was leading these negotiations not that many months ago with the Mauritian government [when he was foreign secretary].

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The reason the British government started negotiating with the Mauritians was because of the law cases. We lost a law case at the ICJ [International Court of Justice], and then we lost another on in the Law of the Sea tribunal. Legal advice was clear that we were not going to be able to sustain that position. So that previous government started a negotiation.

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What this government has done has been able to conclude it, because that government managed to lose the trust of the Mauritian government during the process.

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So for the people who were involved in that negotiation to start criticising the outcome of something they couldn’t achieve is absolutely ludicrous.

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When it was put to Powell that the previous government did not want a deal like this, he did not accept that.

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No, it’s not because of that. The negotiators who’ve been working on this are the same civil servants all the way through. It’s because they are criticising it because they want to try and score points in their desperate attempt to win the leadership.

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Powell”,”caption”:”Jonathan Powell”,”credit”:”Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1727958023000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”08.20 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1727959256000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”08.40 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1727959256000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”08.40 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”08.40″,”title”:”Envoy on Chagos Islands treaty says it is ‘ludicrous’ for Cleverly to criticise deal Tory government was also working towards”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 3 Oct 2024 12.36 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 3 Oct 2024 04.15 EDT”},{“id”:”66fe84b38f0897e7854a9f01″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Russell Findlay taken part in first minister’s questions since he was elected as the new Scottish Conservative leader last Friday.

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The baptism was barely fiery. With only a hint of nerves at the beginning of his questioning, the former investigative journalist had a decent first outing, interrogating John Swinney on the SNP government’s plans for a national care service, after revelations that more than £28m had been spent on the project – which would centralise adult social care and social work into a single service – just days after councils pulled their support.

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Swinney responded that he supported the new service to deal with precisely the issues like delayed discharge that Findlay was setting out. He also lost no time in reminding the chamber that Findlay was a supporter of Liz Truss – no doubt a theme the SNP will return to frequently in coming months.

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Findlay would be wise to spend his early days as leader repairing trust amongst his group of MSPs after a surprisingly bitter leadership campaign.

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But he must also take on the challenge posed by Reform UK after the party managed to secure 7% of the vote share across Scotland, despite having no infrastructure or leadership north of the border.

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He also needs to navigate a change of emphasis as all candidates for the top job agreed it was time to stop relying on opposition to independence as their guiding principle.

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Findlay at FMQs today.”,”caption”:”Russell Findlay at FMQs today.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1727956147000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.49 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1727956531000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.55 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1727956531000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.55 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.55″,”title”:”Russell Findlay taunted over his support for Liz Truss in his first FMQs as Scottish Tory leader”,”contributors”:[{“name”:”Libby Brooks”,”imageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/01/24/Libby_Brooks.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=19e4fb3c4a4673c447ab329a47cdf77b”,”largeImageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/01/24/Libby_Brooks.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6e3c999375ccf1ce0c3c9b2278df42dd”}],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 3 Oct 2024 12.36 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 3 Oct 2024 04.15 EDT”},{“id”:”66fe79d48f0897e7854a9e6c”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Three of the four Tory leadership candidates have issued statement strongly denouncing the government’s decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

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Robert Jenrick, the favourite in the contest, called this a “dangerous capitulation”.

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It’s taken three months for Starmer to surrender Britain’s strategic interests.

This is a dangerous capitulation that will hand our territory to an ally of Beijing. pic.twitter.com/CmYDCAn2u5

— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) October 3, 2024

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It’s taken three months for Starmer to surrender Britain’s strategic interests.

\n This is a dangerous capitulation that will hand our territory to an ally of Beijing.

\n

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James Cleverly, who was foreign secretary when the last government was in talks with Mauritius about giving it back sovereignty over the islands, accused Labour of being weak and unpatriotic.

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Weak, weak, weak!

Labour lied to get into office.

Said they’d be whiter than white, said they wouldn’t put up taxes, said they’d stand up to the EU, said that they be patriotic.

All lies! https://t.co/e998Xd6Tcx

— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) October 3, 2024

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Weak, weak, weak!

\n Labour lied to get into office.

\n Said they’d be whiter than white, said they wouldn’t put up taxes, said they’d stand up to the EU, said that they be patriotic.

\n All lies!

\n

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And Tom Tugendhat, a former security, claimed this move would undermine the UK’s security.

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In a dig at Cleverly, he also said it was “disgraceful” that the last government started negotiations with Mauritius about a sovereignty transfer.

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This is a shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed.@FCDOGovUK has negotiated against Britain’s interest & it was disgraceful that these negotiations started under our watch.

Lord Cameron rightly blocked them only to see it back under David…

— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) October 3, 2024

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\n

This is a shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed. @FCDOGovUK has negotiated against Britain’s interest & it was disgraceful that these negotiations started under our watch.

\n

Lord Cameron rightly blocked them only to see it back under David Lammy’s complete failure of leadership.

\n

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The government rejects claims the deal poses a security risk. It argues that move will “protect our national security”.

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UPDATE: Kemi Badenoch, the fourth candidate still in the Tory leadership contest, has also attacked the decision. See 4.42pm.

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In its the news release about the agreement to return sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the government says this deal will close a potential illegal migration route. It explains:

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The UK and Mauritius have reached a historic agreement to secure the strategically important UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, which plays a crucial role in regional stability and international security.

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For the first time in more than 50 years, the status of the base will be undisputed and legally secure, following a political agreement between the UK and Mauritius …

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Without today’s agreement, the long-term, secure operation of the military base would be under threat, with contested sovereignty and legal challenges – including through various international courts and tribunals …

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Diego Garcia has also seen a small number of vulnerable migrants arrive since 2021, subsequently launching asylum claims. The agreement will shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, with Mauritius taking responsibility for any future arrivals.

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In a statement, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said:

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Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future. It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.

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And here is the text of the joint statement from the UK and Mauritius about the deal.

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Keir Starmer spoke to Pravind Jugnauth, the prime minister of Mauritius today, following the deal to return sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to his country.

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But No 10 stressed that, under the deal, he UK/US military base on Diego Garcia will continue to be able to operate.

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In its summary of the call between the two prime ministers, Downing Street said:

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The leaders began by welcoming the political agreement achieved today between the UK and Mauritius on the exercise of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago after two years of negotiations.

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The prime minister reiterated the importance of reaching this deal to protect the continued operation of the UK/US military base on Diego Garcia.

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He underscored his steadfast duty to national and global security which underpinned the political agreement reached today.

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The homelessness figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governmment out today suggest that rough sleeping in England increased by 14.2% in the year ending in March 2024.

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They show there were 16,680 households who were rough sleeping when they approached a local authority for help with housing in 2023-24.

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Commenting on the figures, Vikki Slade, the Lib Dem housing spokesperson, said:

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It is heartbreaking to think that so many families and children will be on the streets or without a place to call home this winter.

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For years, the previous Conservative government chose to ignore the thousands that are rough sleeping and broke their promise to ban no fault evictions.

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The new government must address this awful situation as a matter of urgency and that starts by publishing a cross-Whitehall plan to end all forms of homelessness within this parliament.

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Slade said today’s figures also show that the number of households living in temporary accommodation reached 117,450 in March 2024 – the highest figure since these records began in 1998.

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There are different measures of rough sleeping. There is also an annual count of how many people are rough sleeping one night in the autumn, and the figure for autumn 2023 was 3,898. That was a 27% increase on the previous year, but the government said that was partly the result of homelessness returning to levels it was at before the Covid measures to bring people off the streeets brought it down dramatically.

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The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, Haroon Siddique reports.

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Today’s homelessness figures highlight the need for the government to press on with banning no-fault evicitions, campaigners say.

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The figures show a 4.6% increase in the number of households in England threatened with homelessness because an assured shorthold tenancy has come to an end.

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The last government promised to abolish section 21 evictions (so-called because section 21 of the Housing Act allows no-fault evictions with two months’ notice), but it never implemented this promise and Labour is now doing this with its renters’ rights bill.

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Tom Darling, director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said:

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It’s frankly ridiculous section 21 still exists – we’re approaching 6 years since the previous government first promised to abolish it, while every indicator on the dashboard has been going in the wrong direction. And now we discover homelessness caused by evictions is up almost 5% on the previous year. It’s clear from today’s data that that the renting crisis is driving the homelessness crisis …

Amid this escalating social crisis, the government’s renters’ rights bill is absolutely crucial. This legislation is a significant improvement on the last government’s effort. As drafted it will already make a difference for a lot of people.

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The number of households in England needing help with homelessness rose by more than 10% last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

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In a report out today with homelessness figures for the financial year ending in March 2024, it says “initial assessments were made for 358,370 households in England in 2023-24, up 10.4% from the previous year”. The report says:

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146,430 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness and therefore owed a prevention duty in 2023-24. This is a 3.1% increase from 2022-23. The increase from 2022-23 has been influenced by a 4.6% increase, to 57,340 households, in those threatened with homelessness due to the end of an assured shorthold tenancy. …

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178,560 households were assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty in 2023-24. This is up 12.3% from 2022-23. Similar to increases in prevention duties, this also has been influenced by an 8.9% increase, to 22,160 households, in those threatened with homelessness due to the end of an assured short hold tenancy.

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figures”,”caption”:”Homelessness figures”,”credit”:”Photograph: MoHCLG”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The homelessness figures cover familes that get help from local authorities either as a result of the prevention duty (an obligation to help a household threatened with homelessness) or the relief duty (an obligation to help households already homeless). These figures apply to people who get placed in temporary accommodation, such as B&B rooms. These are the the same as the rough sleeping figures, which cover people sleeping on the streets.

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Commenting on the figures, Rick Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, a body representing homlessness services, said:

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Everyone needs a safe and secure place to live, but alarmingly the number of people being threatened with or forced into homelessness continues to surge, exposing people’s lives to trauma. Vital homelessness support services are at breaking point and many councils – spending the lion’s share of their budgets on temporary accommodation – are facing bankruptcy.

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Urgent action is needed. Building social housing and the promised cross-government strategy should reduce homelessness in the long-term, while the renters rights bill will help prevent homelessness among people renting privately. But a cliff-edge in homelessness funding is looming in March 2025. The government must therefore use the autumn budget to provide financial certainty for homelessness services.

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Good morning. Yesterday Keir Starmer made the surprise announcement that he has paid back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and rented clothing for his wife, received since he became prime minister. The news overshadowed reports about what happened on his visit to Brussels to meet the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (also important – here’s our story), but No 10 felt they had to put the news out yesterday because the donations were all being revealed in the latest update to the Commons register of members’ interests published yesterday.

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However, as is often the case when a politician under pressure over ethics/transparency makes a concession to critics/the media/public opinion, Starmer has now opened himself up to a whole new bout of questions. The Conservative party (which has a lot of experience of donation scandals) is on the case, and last night it issued this statement.

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Day after day more and more comes out about the scandal at the top of Keir Starmer’s government. This scandal has become a complete distraction from the job of governing.

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It appears Starmer will only be transparent when his back’s against the wall. This announcement today poses more questions than it answers. Why did Starmer take these freebies in the first place? Why haven’t Angela Rayner and other senior party members not paid back donations?

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Starmer said yesterday that his government would be drawing up new “principles” to cover political donations and No 10 indicated that Starmer was not saying it was always unacceptable for ministers to accept donations.

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This article by Peter Walker looks at some of the other revelations in yesterday’s updated register of members’ interests.

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We’re likely to get more on this as the day goes on.

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Parliament is still in recess, and there is not a lot in the diary. Boris Johnson’s memoir is out today; it has already been serialised extensively in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, but today journalists will get their chance to find the bits that Mail might not have been keen to highlight. There are homelessness statistics out. And David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is due to visit Dublin with Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister dealing with Brexit-related issues.

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If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.

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If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. I’m still using X and I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I’m also trying Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).

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I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.

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