Author: Miles Donavan

Families placed far from their homes often find themselves unable to walk to their previous schools, creating additional stress and barriers to education. A quarter of Greater Manchester’s MPs are calling on the region’s mayor Andy Burnham to introduce a free bus pass for children living in temporary accommodation that’s more than a 30-minute walk from their school. According to housing charity Shelter, 4,234 children were living in temporary accommodation across Greater Manchester at the end of March 2024, equivalent to around one in every 30 children in the region. Families placed far from their homes often find themselves unable…

“It’s the equivalent of saying the Premier League cannot hire any footballers who come from overseas. What would that do to high-quality football? It would disintegrate – and that is exactly what they are doing to us in science.” Vital research into diagnosing and curing cancer is facing serious delays as international scientists increasingly turn down job offers due to prohibitively high visa costs. Since 2019, the cost of immigration for scientists coming to the UK has risen by 126 percent, making it up to 17 times more expensive than in comparable countries such as the US, France, Australia, and…

Socialist Spain’s welcoming and liberal approach to immigration is paying economic dividends. Spain’s economy is outpacing its European neighbours, with GDP expected to grow by 2.5 percent this year, far surpassing the economies of Italy, France and Germany, which are poised to expand 0.7 percent, 0.6 percent and 0 percent respectively. Meanwhile, in the UK, where a summer of anti-migrant protests and nationalist flag-flying has dominated the headlines of predominantly anti-immigration newspapers, the EY ITEM Club Summer Forecast predicts economic growth of 1% in 2025, up from the 0.8% projected in April’s spring forecast. So, what’s driving this exceptional growth…

‘It is the Christian way to meet those asking for help with compassion and understanding’ Nigel Farage’s plans for the mass deportation of asylum seekers have been condemned by church leaders, with the country’s most senior bishop saying it was ‘beneath us as a nation’. Earlier this week, Farage set out his plans for mass deportation of asylum seekers, including pledging to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, scrapping the Human Rights Act, and vowing to deport all illegal immigrants, saying that even women and children would be detained. As part of his policy offer, he also said he…

Farage’s party has had meetings with the Trump donor’s company Reform would allow a fossil fuel firm owned by a Donald Trump donor to open a huge fracking site in Greater Lincolnshire. The investigative environmental newspaper DeSmog has reported that the Reform mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns recently met with Egdon Resources, an oil and gas company owned by Texas-based Heyco Energy.  George Yates, who owns Egdon and Heyco, has donated more than $130,000 to Trump and other MAGA politicians since the beginning of 2019, according to DeSmog’s analysis. The firm says it has discovered huge deposits of natural…

IPPR says these two policies could save the taxpayer over £100 billion over the course of this parliament giving the government much needed fiscal headroom and allowing them to support households. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been told that a tax on bank profits could raise up to £8 billion a year for public services. The Institute for Public Policy Research says that the move would give the chancellor much needed fiscal headroom, should a levy on the windfalls from major firms such as Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest be imposed. The Independent reports: “The think tank argues the UK is…

Reform’s mass deportation policy would rip families apart and directly threaten children and young people’s safety Lisa Matthews is Policy and Campaigns Manager at Young Roots, a London-based charity that provides young refugees and asylum seekers aged 11-25 with practical and emotional support, legal advice and skills development, including English-language support. Last week, Nigel Farage unveiled Reform’s “Operation Restoring Justice” – a “five yearemergency programme” if the party gets into office, which includes leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, repealing the Human Rights Act and disapplying the Refugee Convention. They propose to carry out mass deportations of people seeking…

Despite Farage backtracking on that policy, Badenoch has doubled down in a bid to pander to Reform voters and the right-wing of her own party’s base. In a race to the bottom with Reform UK, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has proudly declared that she too would be happy to deport women and children in a bid to deal with small boat crossings. In an attempt to pander to Reform voters, Badenoch said that she would deport women and children who arrive in the country illegally, after Farage had to row back on a similar commitment just hours earlier. Earlier this…

‘To use women’s lives as a political prop while simultaneously advocating for politics that would harm them is hypocrisy at its ugliest.’ Carenza Arnold is Head of Campaigns at Women for Refugee Women Earlier this week, Nigel Farage made shocking comments that, if in power, Reform UK would detain and deport women and children who are seeking safety in the UK. Not even 24 hours later, Farage appeared to row back on this, stating, “we’re not even discussing women and children at this stage … I didn’t say exempt forever, but at this stage it is not part of our plan for…

She made an unsubstantiated claim about a rise in ‘racist attacks’ on white people and claimed asylum seekers get priority over Scots A councillor who was suspended from Scottish Labour after making an unsubstantiated claim about rising racist attacks on white children and teachers in Glasgow, has joined Reform UK.  Audrey Dempsey was suspended from Labour in April 2024 after she made the “anti-white racism” remarks. She was also under investigation by Scottish Labour for allegations about her social media activity. The councillor for Shettleston and Robroyston in Glasgow did not provide evidence for her claim, but previously told the…