Newslinks for Monday 8th September 2025 | Conservative Home

30,000 reasons why Labour won’t stop the boats

“More than 1,000 migrants arrived in the UK in small boats on Saturday – just as new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was ordered to ‘go up a gear’ to stop them. On her first day she was confronted with the second highest number of illegal migrants to enter the country this year in a 24-hour period. The surge of 1,097 small-boat migrants tipped the total for 2025 to more than 30,000 in record time – and is 37 per cent up on the same date last year. Ms Mahmood said it was ‘utterly unacceptable’, and is expected to order the transfer of migrants from hotels to army barracks. She will also consider changing human rights laws to make it easier to reject and deport asylum claimants. Ms Mahmood said on Sunday that a deal with France to return illegal migrants would begin soon, adding: ‘These small-boats crossings are utterly unacceptable and the vile people-smugglers behind them are wreaking havoc on our borders. Thanks to our deal with France, people crossing in small boats can now be detained and removed to France, and I expect the first returns to take place imminently. Protecting the UK border is my priority as Home Secretary and I will explore all options to restore order to our immigration system.’ Ministers are close to a one in, one out returns deal with Germany, following the one with France, and have indicated they will consider reforming the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A Government source said ‘nothing is off the table’. A Labour insider told The Sunday Times Ms Mahmood was likely to want to overhaul the ECHR, and she would be far more radical than her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, by ‘starting with the unthinkable and working backwards’. But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour has lost control of our borders. This has been the worst year in history for illegal channel crossings and we clearly have a full-blown borders crisis. They tore up the only deterrent this country had, our Rwanda plan, and replaced it with hollow slogans. The thousands of men streaming across the Channel and the fact this year has broken all records for illegal crossings shows Labour is too weak to do what is needed.’” – Daily Mail

• New Labour Home Secretary makes shocking admission as migrant crossings surge past 30,000 – Daily Express
• The new migrant hotels: The family homes in leafy suburbia being converted to house small boat migrants as government flounders – Daily Mail
• Migrant hotel closures to be fast-tracked as Starmer faces unrest from Red Wall MPs – The i

Comment:

• Keir Starmer may have just promoted his own replacement – Anne McElvoy, The i
• A nightmare on Marsham Street? Shabana Mahmood must do these things to end Channel crisis – Michael Knowles, Daily Express

> Today: Nadim Muslim: We are challenging the migrant hotels in Bolton

Unions threaten PM over Rayner law

“Sir Keir Starmer has been put on notice by Labour’s union backers that he must not water down the workers’ rights bill after Angela Rayner’s resignation. Union chiefs vowed to fight for the bill following the departure of the deputy prime minister, who championed the legislation despite fears that it would damage the economy. No 10 is coming under intense pressure to rethink the bill as part of efforts to boost growth, with sources suggesting it is listening to critics from the private sector who are concerned about the impact on business. UKHospitality, the trade body, will write to all new ministers this week to demand changes, including to rules that will protect workers from “unfair” dismissal from day one, and the automatic right to demand regular hours. The bill, which returns to the House of Commons for debate on Monday next week, is expected to cost companies £5bn a year through extra red tape and rules that will make it harder to sack poorly performing staff. However, unions are already unhappy that the bill does not go far enough. With the departure of Ms Rayner, Sir Keir has lost the minister most trusted to sell any compromises to the party’s Left. The unions are now expected to back someone even more closely aligned with their views in the race for Labour deputy leader. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, which opened its annual conference on Sunday, said: “At every stage, we’ll be in the room making sure that the bill does what it intended to do: to give workers more rights. We’ll fight for that every single inch of the way.” Allies of Ms Rayner also made it clear that she would resist any alterations to the bill, pointing to her resignation letter, which said the bill would provide the “biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation”.” – Daily Telegraph

• Tories demand ministers ditch Rayner’s ‘damaging’, union-pandering workers’ rights Bill now she has quit – Daily Mail
• Keir Starmer faces business and union backlash over Employment Rights Bill – CityAM
• Keir Starmer in crisis as unions hold him hostage over Angela Rayner plan – Daily Express
• Client of firm employing Angela Rayner’s partner greenlit for major projects – The Times

Comment:

• Labour can’t tear up the workers’ rights bill quickly enough. It’s already a catastrophe – Matthew Lynn, Daily Telegraph
• Angela Rayner’s exit & Starmer’s hasty Cabinet reshuffle is like an episode of The Traitors… now PM must watch his back – David Wooding, The Sun
• It’s better to have lots of jobs and fewer rights than the other way round – Telegraph View

> Today: James Cleverly: With Labour eyeing our homes as a piggy bank, of course Rayner had to go

Farage says Reform won’t make a pact with Boris Johnson

“Nigel Farage has said he would not let Boris Johnson join Reform UK because the former Conservative prime minister let in too many immigrants. The Reform leader acknowledged that a lack of government experience was his party’s “biggest weakness” but rejected suggestions from his latest defector that he should team up with Johnson. Nadine Dorries, who served as culture secretary under Johnson, became the latest former Conservative to join Farage’s party at the Reform’s conference last week, where he praised her experience in government. She was one of Johnson’s most loyal supporters and resigned from parliament in fury at Conservative MPs who ousted him as prime minister. Dorries told the Mail on Sunday that only a “very, very small” number of Tories would be welcome in Reform, but said “some kind of accommodation” should be reached between Farage and Johnson. “If there’s a will to make the lives of people better, then I think both men could and would find some way to accommodate each others’ egos and to coexist for the sake of the country,” she said. “We need all the political talents on the right of centre putting their shoulder to what needs to be done for the country.” However, Farage said Johnson would not be forgiven for a points-based immigration system after Brexit that saw net migration surge to a record 906,000 in 2023, dubbed the “Boriswave” by right-wing critics. “I like him personally, I always have done, he’s a very entertaining bloke, but I think that the Boriswave was felt by millions of people,” Farage told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. “Millions of people being allowed into Britain, most of whom by the way don’t even work, and are costing us a fortune. That’s something for which this audience will never, ever forgive him.” However, Farage said that Dorries “brings us the one commodity we’re very short of, and that’s experience at government level. That is our biggest weakness.”” – The Times

• Boris Johnson ‘will never be welcomed into Reform’ – Daily Telegraph
• Nigel Farage urged to work with Boris Johnson to crush Keir Starmer just hours after Reform insiders wrote off ex-PM – GBNews
• Kemi Badenoch issues blunt message to Tories planning to defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform – Daily Express
• WATCH: Tory chairman says pact with Reform UK is ‘as likely as a pact with Jeremy Corbyn’ – GBNews

Comment:

• Reform are already sick of Tory has-beens – they don’t want Boris Johnson – Kitty Donaldson, The i
• Reform is tearing the Tories apart – Tanya Gold, Unherd
• The Tories and Reform MUST unite. I know what will happen if they don’t – it’s what Keir Starmer is praying for… – Dan Hodges, Daily Mail

> Yesterday: Whatever the future of the right looks like, it shouldn’t involve cranks

News in brief:

• Labour’s housing ice age – Christopher Worrall, The Critic
• Reshuffle has eroded Starmer’s authority beyond repair – Aaron Bastani, Unherd
• Why do so many Brits hate Jews? – Stephen Pollard, The Spectator
• The last harvest? How tax changes are impacting British farming – Sarah Jordan, CapX