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Irish and UK governments, and NI's executive, agree to work together to 'prevent abuse' of common travel area

The UK and Irish governments and the Northern Ireland executive have discussed protecting the common travel area and stronger enforcement to “prevent abuse”, the Irish government has confirmed.

Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn, Irish justice minister Jim O’Callaghan and Stormont’s justice minister Naomi Long spoke by phone on Wednesday.

Today in a statement the Irish government’s Department of Justice said:

The invisible border on the island of Ireland is among the most tangible gains of the peace process and is essential to the continuing normalisation of relationships.

Minister O’Callaghan discussed the importance of cross border cooperation in protecting the common travel area [CTA] for both Ireland and the UK yesterday by phone with the Northern Ireland minister for Justice, Naomi Long and the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn.

They discussed stronger co-operation and enforcement to prevent abuse of the common travel area.

Minister O’Callaghan emphasised that significant Border Management Unit doorstop operations now take place at Dublin airport. The number of people landing without documentation has reduced significantly since 2023.

Northern Ireland minister for justice Naomi Long and secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, agreed to work with Minister O’Callaghan to prevent abuse of the CTA.

The rioting in Belfast has been triggered by a brutal knife attack that happened on Monday night. The suspect is a Sudanese national who arrived in Belfast from Dublin, taking advantage of the CTA to cross the border without being stopped. He applied for asylum and was granted leave to remain three years ago. The stabbing has prompted claims that the CTA leaves a “loophole” in border controls that is being exploited by asylum seekers.

Ryan Henderson, assistant chief constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, is about to hold a press conference about last night’s rioting.

Burnham facing criticism after saying Waspi women should get 'some recompense' for pensions injustice

Andy Burnham is facing criticism after saying that he thinks the Waspi women should be entitled to “some” compensation.

The Waspi women are women born in the 1950s affected by the decision taken by the Conservative government in the 1990s to raise their state pension age from 60 to 65. The Labour government then put it up to 66, and the coalition government then brought forward the dates at which the rises were due to come into force.

Governments always announce increases in the state pension age years in advance, so that people have time to plan, but the 1990s changes were not advertised to the public as well as they could have been and for years Waspi (Women against state pension inequality) has been campaigning for compensation on behalf of women whose retirement planning was thrown into chaos because they did not get proper advance warning of the rise in their pension age.

The Waspi women achieved a huge victory in March 2024 when the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recommended a compensation scheme that could cost up to £10.5bn.

But the Conservative government refused to immediately accept the recommendation and Labour, despite supporting the Waspi campaign in principle when it was in opposition, ruled out paying compensation on the grounds that it was unaffordable.

At a hustings event on Wednesday, Burnham said:

I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.

As Lucy Fisher and Ian Walker report in their story on this for the Financial Times, this pledge has been seen as evidence of Burnham not being financially responsible. They report:

One government figure decried Burnham’s intervention as “pathetic”, adding: “He can’t say no to anyone.”

An ally of Sir Keir Starmer likened Burnham’s economic agenda to that of hard-left former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and argued that the mayor’s intervention would harm his chances of manoeuvring the prime minister out of Downing Street.

“Keir literally won by not being this version of the Labour party. This is the Andy Burnham that lost two leadership elections. For a reason. And will lose a third,” the person said.

At the time the ombudsman’s report came out, many at Westminster took the view that the recommendation was wholly unrealistic. Those parties most supportive of the Waspi campaign – the SNP and the Liberal Democrats – have tended to be those with little or no chance of running a government that might have to fund a £10bn compensation package.

The Waspi campaign has welcomed Burnham’s comment. Its chair, Angela Madden, said:

Andy Burnham’s continued support for Waspi women is both welcome and hugely refreshing. While some politicians have broken their promises, it takes real courage to speak out and say what millions of people across the country and hundreds of MPs from all parties already know - that 1950s-born women deserve justice.

But others have interpreted this as evidence that, if Burnham were to become PM, he would find it hard to say no to people. The Daily Mail has reported the story under the headline: “Labour’s magic money tree is back!” And Joshi Herrmann, editor of the Mill, a Manchester-based online news website, has posted a message on social media suggesting this announcement confirms his theory that Burnham is not ruthless enough to be a successful PM.

In an interview last week, Burnham rejected Herrmann’s critique. He would not accept that he was only cared about being popular. But he did say he cared about being seen to act with integrity, and that that included keeping promises. That seems to be the reason why he does not want to abandon the Waspi women.

The Home Office has released more information about the increase in immigration enforcement activity in Northern Ireland mentioned by Hilary Benn in his interview this morning. (See 10.52am.)

It says the number of immigration enforcement raids to detain and remove illegal migrants in Northern Ireland has “increased by 16% (from 2,312 during the last 21 months of the previous government, compared to 2,682 under this government).”

And the number of people detained and arrested for immigration offences “has increased by 30% (from 1,736 arrests during the last 21 months of the previous government, compared to 2,233 under this government).

As a result, around 1,000 illegal migrants have been removed from Northern Ireland inn the past year.

The Home Office says:

The home secretary is investing £3.7bn into immigration enforcement activity over the next 3 years including in Northern Ireland. Investment into enforcement will increase by over 20% by 28/29.

This will see a surge in intelligence-led operations lead by immigration enforcement and Border Force along CTA [common travel area] routes to detect, track down, arrest and remove illegal migrants. Nearly 1,000 illegal migrants have been removed in the last year alone.

Scottish councils face £500m shortfall in operating costs, spending watchdog says

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

Scotland’s local councils face a half billion pound shortfall in their operating costs this year thanks to rising costs, lower government funding and higher demand.

The Accounts Commission, the statutory body which patrols the finances of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, said the £529m gap was around 3% of their revenue funding but with much of their spending devoted to fixed costs like wages, the shortfall would hit services.

Although local authorities increased council tax charges by an average of 7.7% this year, and expect to raise £1.2bn from fees and service charges, they would need to cut or reorganise services and head count to find savings.

Their real terms funding for day to day spending from the Scottish government had risen by only 2% this year, the commission added, while funding for capital projects had fallen by 15% in real terms.

Its bulletin on spending found:

Despite a small real terms increase in Scottish government funding for 2026/27, councils still face major risks to their financial sustainability as funding fails to keep pace with rising demand and increasing costs.

Cllr Ricky Bell, resources spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), said the bulletin had correctly identified the “perilous position” they were in. He said:

Of notable concern, the ‘critical financial pressures’ facing our health and social care partnerships, and real terms reductions in the capital settlement justify and strengthen support for the resourcing Cosla called for through our budget lobbying this year.

The report quite rightly expresses grave concern for local government finance over the medium term, spanning from the Scottish spending review. [We] will continue to advocate for fair and flexible funding for our councils moving forward.

Benn says 1,000 people removed from Northern Ireland over past year by immigration enforcement, and more raids planned

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrrow, picking up from Aneesa Ahmed.

In his interviews this morning, Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, said that 1,000 people had been removed from Northern Ireland over the past year as a result of immigration enforcement and he said that even more checks were planned.

This is what he told GB News:

For over a century, people from the United Kingdom and Ireland have been able to live and work and travel freely across the British Isles [under the common travel area], and every single day here in Northern Ireland, people cross that border to go to work, to shop, to visit friends, to worship, and vice versa.

It’s brought huge benefit to the people of the British Isles, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Ireland.

So, what that means is you need to target your enforcement operation, and we already work very closely with the Irish authorities to prevent abuse of the common travel area.

You’re going to see an increase in that activity, enforcement and raids.

In the last year alone, 1,000 people have been removed from Northern Ireland because they do not have the right to be here, and it is that intelligence-led operation, including on major travel routes, airports, bus routes, train routes, and ports, that is the most effective thing that we can do, because the common travel area underpins, of course, the Good Friday agreement.

MP Kim Leadbeater, the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, has condemned the riots in Belfast and appealed for people not to “cause more trouble and more problems.”

This comes after a second night of disorder in Northern Ireland, which saw homes set alight, which she described as “absolutely devastating”.

A Sudanese man was remanded in custody on Wednesday over the knife attack in which victim Stephen Ogilvie lost an eye.

The stabbing triggered a wave of disorder in which mobs set homes, a bus and cars on fire, with people targeted based on their race.

Leadbeater said it was not right to “vilify an entire community or an entire group of people who might not look like you do”.

She told the Press Association: “I don’t have the right to tell anybody else what to do, but what I do understand is the pain and trauma of having someone you care about murdered.

“And, you know, it would be really easy for me to be filled with anger and rage, and to want to hate every individual who looked like the individual who took my sister’s life.

“I chose not to do that because that act was his and his alone. And that isn’t what most people in the area where I grew up, and I’m proud to call home, are like. And I will not allow our community to be defined by that.

“And that is the same for any individual who commits such a horrific crime. You don’t then vilify an entire community or an entire group of people who might not look like you do.”

Leadbeater’s sister Cox was shot and stabbed by a neo-Nazi almost 10 years ago, and marked the first killing of a sitting British MP since the death of Conservative MP Ian Gow in 1990.

Badenoch apologises for Belfast knife attacker being granted asylum under 2023 Tory government

Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has apologised for the alleged Belfast knife attacker, Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, being granted asylum under the 2023 government run by her party. She said she believes it was done under a fast-track scheme.

Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I cannot apologise for things that I did not know were even happening – we’re only discovering this now.

“I am sorry that these things happened under a Conservative government, but I need to talk about solutions.

“Apologies aren’t going to fix what is happening in our borders right now, and we spent far too much time trying to point fingers, rather than deal with the problem.”

Badenoch placed the blame of this decision around Alodid’s asylum status on Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman – who are now in Reform.

She said: “I was in the government, and the home secretary and the immigration minister who enacted this policy are in Reform. So as far as I am concerned, every party is culpable.

“I am saying that we’re sorry, we tried a lot of things, people took advantage of our kindness. They exploited our kindness.”

“The civil service clearly, and probably Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick as well, also believed that these people were genuine refugees.”

The Conservative party’s line is that leaving the European convention on human rights will solve the problems they believe are associated with illegal immigration.

Gavin Robinson MP, DUP leader, said borders into the UK need “protecting” more

Gavin Robinson MP, DUP leader, has said borders into the UK need “protecting” more. Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster, he also said that he believed that there was “less” violence last night than on Monday.

Of the violence, he said: “You cannot raise your concerns about damage to British values and then behave in such an unBritish way,

“Where your neighbours, where your colleagues, where your classmates are sitting intimidated and in fear, are having their homes attacked and their livelihoods destroyed.

“That is totally unacceptable and it is not British.”

Yesterday, he brought up the knife attack during prime minister’s questions. He later added in a statement: “I welcome the prime minister’s agreement to meet and discuss these issues further. That meeting must focus on protecting community cohesion, strengthening border security, restoring public confidence in the immigration and asylum system, and ensuring that the concerns of law-abiding citizens are listened to and acted upon.

“People are tired of warm words and promises. They want to see action. The Government must now demonstrate that it is prepared to defend our borders, uphold the rule of law and take the necessary steps to keep people safe.”

As Belfast News Letter reports, TUV MP Jim Allister also argued the current system between the Republic of Ireland and the UK is having a “deadly impact”.

However, Claire Hanna, leader of the SDLP, accused those calling for a hard border of leaning into “people’s worst fears and anxieties”.

Hilary Benn accuses people of inciting disorder in Belfast after second night of unrest

Good morning. Hilary Benn, secretary for Northern Ireland, has accused people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast after two days of unrest in the city after a knife attack.

This comes after a second night of violent unrest in the area, where police used a water cannon to disperse a crowd of about 300 people who burned a truck and threw bricks and petrol bombs close to the Sandyknowes roundabout near Newtownabbey, eight miles north of Belfast.

Twelve police officers were injured and 16 arrests were made in the second night of unrest, Benn said. There was video footage of dozens of men dressed all in black and wearing face coverings gathering on Antrim Road, where they could be seen tearing bricks from properties and smashing paving stones with sledgehammers to create projectiles to throw at police.

Rioters attempted to set fire to a derelict property near a petrol station in Newtownabbey, with some throwing petrol bombs at police lines. They could also be seen taking wheelie bins from outside homes and lighting fires in them. Some of these protesters reportedly planned to target a nearby hotel that was believed to host migrants.

These anti-immigration protests, some of which turned violent, started on Tuesday in response to a knife attack. Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, of Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie on Monday. He was further charged with possessing a knife in a public place, Kinnaird Avenue, on the same day.

The Guardian’s report from Wednesday night described scenes of demonstrators tearing up a garden fence to use as a barricade and shield – and using tyres, furniture and wheelie bins to start a large fire. A white van was driven into the flames reportedly by a man who left it in gear, and jumped out. Police tried to extinguish the flames.

Now, Benn is accusing people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast. This comes as figures including Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk have been posting about the riots online – including a list of protest locations posted by Robinson, accompanied by the caption describing the attack as “yet another invader attack on our people”. Later, he claimed that they are “not my protests” and said he was “merely passing on information”.

When asked by BBC Breakfast this morning about the alleged incidents of people’s addresses being shared on social media so that their homes could become targets of potential hate, Benn said: “It is completely unacceptable to direct someone to a particular address because you say, or you think you know, that a particular person lives there.

“The vast majority of people would be very shocked to know that was going on and the social media companies have a responsibility to take down illegal content, particularly when we’ve been seeing circumstances like we have in Northern Ireland recently.”

Also on BBC Breakfast, Benn said that the recent violent outbursts in Northern Ireland are not a true reflection of the country. “This is not what Northern Ireland is about, it is not the true Northern Ireland, it’s a place full of warm-hearted people,” he said.

“We’re talking about small number of thugs engaged in this behaviour and now the eyes of the world are on Northern Ireland and that is why this must stop.”

Benn also said on Sky News that ethnic minority people in the region were concerned whether they would be targeted next, adding: “We’ve had reports of people being stopped in their cars to be asked what their nationality is on their way to work, and this is completely unacceptable.”

Asked whether these were racist riots rather than protests, he said: “Well, if you are targeting people on the basis of the colour of their skin how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery, there’s no question about it at all.”

The family of the Ogilvie, the stabbing victim, condemned the violent protests and appealed for an end to misinformation. Ogilvie is in hospital having lost his left eye in the attack.

Here is the agenda for the day.

09.30am: Parliament holding a general debate on the legacy of Jo Cox, almost a decade on from her murder

Morning: An adjournment to mark the ninth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire

Morning: Government responding to second night of unrest in Belfast, and seeing if and how it links to the unrest seen earlier this month in Southampton

5.30pm: Scottish first minister’s questions