UK home secretary Suella Braverman is fighting for her political life as she faces accusations of breaking the law over the government’s treatment of asylum seekers.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, is under increasing pressure to fire Braverman, who earlier admitted she had used her personal email seven times to handle documents about government business.
Braverman is under intense scrutiny about the crisis at an immigration processing centre at Manston in Kent, where conditions were described as “wretched” last week by David Neal, chief inspector of borders and immigration.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Braverman in the House of Commons yesterday that her failure to heed legal advice about the prolonged detention of migrants at Manston had led to dangerous overcrowding and outbreaks of disease, including diphtheria.
Cooper suggested the home secretary’s refusal to adopt contingency plans to ease the overcrowding, including at a meeting on October 19 — the same day she admitted wrongly using her private email for government business — amounted to her knowingly “breaking the law”.
Five more stories in the news
1.Banks prepare to hold $12.7bn Twitter debt until 2023 The lenders that backed Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover of Twitter have conceded they will be stuck holding the debt on their books for months or even longer, possibly incurring huge losses on the financing package, as they wait for the billionaire to unveil a clearer business plan.
- Dorsey’s endorsement: In his latest show of support for Musk’s takeover, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey rolled his entire stake into the private company.
2. Britishvolt on brink after government rejects rescue plea The UK battery start-up was teetering on the brink of collapse yesterday, after ministers turned down a request for emergency funding and the embattled company made a final effort to secure a private rescue to avoid bankruptcy. The company had planned to develop a £3.8bn gigafactory in the north-east of England.
3. EY partner pay in UK hits £803,000 Average UK partner pay at the Big 4 firm has soared to a record on the back of fast growth in its consulting business. EY’s UK arm reported a 17 per cent increase in sales to £3.2bn for the year to June, driven by a 33 per cent increase at the consulting division, whose sales reached £888mn.
4. Carlyle seeks $700mn over insurers’ failure to pay for jet seizures The aircraft leasing operator owned by Carlyle Group claims more than 30 insurers and reinsurers failed to pay out over jet seizures by Russian airlines. Carlyle Aviation Partners is one of many lessors struggling to recover aircraft leased to Russian airlines before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
5. Biden floats windfall tax on oil companies The US president has urged Congress to punish oil companies with higher taxes unless they increase output to bring down prices at the pump. His comments come days after oil and gas producers reported enormous profits and a week before crucial midterm elections.
—————————
(Source: FT, Nov. 1-2022)