News about Yvette Cooper

Earlier today, the Prime Minister suffered the indignity of seeing of seeing a Labour mayor win in his own constituency as the party hemorrhaged councils and seats. The Conservatives lost Gloucester, which they had previously held for 20 years, and Dorset to the Liberal Democrats . Lord Ben Houchen's re-election on Teesside was a crumb of comfort as the party lost more than half of its councillors up for re-election across England, just months away from a general election. Labour's David Skaith became the inaugural elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire this afternoon, a new position that covers the Prime Minister's Richmond constituency. It was one of the final blows in a day of reverses for the ruling party, including in many areas the Tories need to win to have any chance in the general election later this year. All eyes now turn to mayoral contests in London and the West Midlands, the results of which will be declared on Saturday.

The number of migrants crossing the Channel has hit a new record high for the first four months of the year, jumping 27% on 2023. A total of 7,567 people made the journey from January to April, figures show. with even more arriving today. That is 27% higher than the number of arrivals recorded in the first four months of last year (5,946) and an increase of 13% compared to figures logged for the same period in 2022 (6,691). On Tuesday alone, 268 people arrived in the UK in five boats and crossings continued on Wednesday, with dozens more being brought into Dover.

An anti-semitism campaigner who was threatened with arrest for being 'openly Jewish' at a pro-Palestine march has cancelled a protest walk over safety fears. Gideon Falter (left; inset bottom right), head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), today cancelled the Walk Together initiative, where 'thousands' of protesters were set to head to a pro-Palestine march on Saturday. He said: 'The Met Police has told us of its desire to protect Jews walking in the area, but we have to be sure that they can. 'Thousands of people have been intending to join and then walk where they please - things we used to take for granted in London as Jewish people - but we do not have confidence that they would be safe.' Mr Falter has led calls for the resignation of Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley (inset bottom second-right) after an officer said his being 'openly Jewish' was a 'breach of the peace' and other criticisms of how pro-Palestine marches are policed.

Some 200 men are living in small makeshift camps close to the busy French ferry port as they try to cross the sea to Britain in small boats or in the back of lorries. Among them were Sudanese teenagers Meshar and Abdi who told MailOnline they had no idea that a new law passed in Parliament last night meant that they could be deported to Rwanda where their claim for asylum would be assessed. But they maintained nothing would stop them in their bid to reach the UK, as did Yamal (pictured left), Sweb (centre) and Alam (right).

The 53-year-old news anchor grilled the shadow home secretary over the recent passing of the Rwanda Bill by the House of Lords. After confirming that Labour would scrap the plans if they came into power in the General Election this year, Ms Cooper said the policy was a 'gimmick'. The 55-year-old, who is the wife of Good Morning Britain co-host Ed Balls, then went on to say: 'The Home Secretary himself has described it as bats**t.' Ms Reid quickly interrupted by saying: 'Sorry, we can't use that word on television,' as her co-host Richard Madeley couldn't help but laugh. Ms Cooper hastily apologised after the mishap, saying: 'Sorry, Susanna.'

More than 1,500 protesters are set to descend on a pro-Palestinian march this weekend to press Scotland Yard to keep the streets safe for Jewish people. The Met faces potential clashes after an anti-Semitism campaigner threatened with arrest for being 'openly Jewish' launched the 'walk together' campaign. Gideon Falter (pictured, left) is encouraging people to follow the route of a pro-Palestinian march in London to 'force the police to make sure that these things are safe for Jewish people'.

SirKeir Starmer has been accused of 'deliberately avoiding' dealing with the row over Angela Rayner 's two houses. Labour's leader has still not seen the legal and tax advice his deputy received about her previous living arrangements, which have now been dramatically called into question by her former aide. However his team has looked at the guidance and the matter is under investigation by police. Asked yesterday why he was reluctant to look at it, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Angela welcomes the opportunity to set out all of the facts, be it with the police, the HMRC or the appropriate authorities. 'I certainly wouldn't expect to see their personal advice about the personal finances of any of my colleagues.' Told it was 'puzzling' that Sir Keir had not seen the guidance, Ms Cooper insisted on Sky News : 'I think that's a perfectly reasonable thing for him to do.'

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said her 'brilliant' superior would co-operate fully with any police or tax probe into two homes she owned in Manchester a decade ago. It came as one of Ms Rayner's former aides told police that she had not told the truth about her real 'home', after detectives reopened an investigation into whether she registered to vote correctly. Matt Finnegan, who worked with her when she was shadow education secretary, has given a statement to Greater Manchester Police in which he states that her actual home was with her then husband - not at the former council house where she was registered on the electoral roll. In a media round this morning Ms Cooper attacked 'gossip' being spread by Tory MPs in the run-up to local election on May 2 in which the Conservatives are expected to take a pasting.

The deputy leader was once 3/1 favourite to succeed Sir Keir Starmer but her odds have dramatically dropped to 41/1 on Saturday morning - down from 29/1 overnight, according to Betfair Exchange. Eight of her Shadow Cabinet colleagues are now placed more favourably following the police's announcement yesterday it will begin an investigation into whether she broke electoral law over the sale of her council house. However Starmer welcomed the probe by Greater Manchester Police into how his deputy dealt with the 2015 sale of her council house, saying he was 'fully confident' in his number two. But Betfair punters appeared less confident in her position in the party. Andy Burnham is now viewed as Starmer's most-likely successor, with the Mayor of Greater Manchester placed at 7/1. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is second with 9/1. Yvette Cooper (10/1), Wes Streeting (12/1), and Lisa Nandy (14/1) are all placed ahead of Rayner.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner was targeted by a 'tax dodger' protest as she broke cover on the election campaign trail today. Ms Rayner joined shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves in the North East. But their visit ahead of next month's local elections was interrputed by demonstrators holding a banner, which read: 'Angela Rayner - Tax Dodger?' The protesters, later revealed to be local Tory activists, were dressed in high-vis jackets adorned with the words 'Tax Inspector'. The incident will heap more pressure on Labour and Ms Rayner amid a weeks-long row about her financial affairs. She is facing questions over whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her ex-council house because of confusion over whether it was her main residence. Ms Rayner has denied allegations that she avoided capital gains tax on the sale of her own house or broke electoral law by falsely declaring where she was living.

Ms Rayner joined shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves in the north east this morning. She is facing questions over whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her ex-council house because of confusion over whether it was her main residence. She has denied allegations that she avoided capital gains tax on the sale of her own house or broke electoral law by falsely declaring where she was living. She has been backed by Ms Reeves and party leader Sir Keir Starmer . But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today insisted there are still questions for the opposition to answer.

Hannah Barnes (left), a prolific reporter on NHS gender services, has praised the Cass Report, which concluded young people were being set on paths of irreversible change without substantial medical evidence to support their treatment. She said the report is an 'incredibly thorough' piece of work examining how the service treats young people seeking gender-affirming care, adding that society owed its author, Dr Hilary Cass (right), a 'huge debt of gratitude'. Leading paediatrician Dr Cass concluded there was a 'lack of high-quality research' on the effects of giving puberty blockers to transgender children.

According to latest estimates, pickpocketing during the daytime, which included pickpocketing, reached a four-year record peak. According to statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), more than seven in ten (71 percent) of pickpocketing incidents and almost half of bike robbery (46 percent) occurred in the morning or afternoon. The results, which were released in the annual British Crime Survey, are compared to recent records of 63 percent and 41 percent respectively in 2020.

When out on patrol with officers from the Metropolitan Police in Earlsfield, south-west London, the Mayor of London made the promise alongside shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper. It comes after Mr Khan continued to tell angry Londoners that if he is re-elected, he would not press ULEZ further. Labour incumbent Ed Miliband said: "Keeping Londoners safe is my number one priority, being both tough on crime and tough on its complicated causes.' I'm delighted to report that I'd brought an additional 1,300 police and community support officers on the beat in London, as part of a new Labour government. This comes as a result of the recent investment that I'm already delivering in City Hall to protect Londoners.'

On the BBC last night, a video (left) showing the 35-year-old Afghan national being laid to rest. His funeral was reportedly held at a mosque in west London before he was admitted to a Muslim funeral at a memorial in east London on March 11. Since being found to have reportedly poured chemicals on his former partner and her children in January, Ezedi (right, on CCTV) was subjected to a national manhunt. His body was discovered in the Thames later in life. After the Mail led a media fight to shed light on Ezedi's case, explosive new information about him - including his inability to correctly answer questions about Christianity and his'safeguarding contract' were published yesterday. The 35-year-old Afghan national had been refused asylum by the Home Office twice and was considered so vulnerable by the Baptist Church that it shirked a'safeguarding deal' for the protection of parishioners due to his sex and exposure convictions. MPs chastised both the government and the church for Ezedi's treatment today. According to Labour, the government had serious concerns to answer about how Ezedi was able to remain in the UK. Inset: A Baptist minister baptized Ezedi.

Goth has the House of Lords' first red-and-purple colours. Lady Smith of Llanfaes (Plaid Cymru) arrived clopping in, dressed in ermine and white slingbacks. Last week, Her Ladyship, who took her place at the start of company, turned 28. Both Welsh and English were spoken at her oath. The former did well, but not 'heirs' but rather 'hairs'. She then shook her own dyed mane, signed the Lords Register, and took the ballpoint pen as if she'd just filled in her National Lottery numbers. Well, she did. The Lords serve for a year, and the new daily attendance allowance is £342. If Lady Smith had retired at 80, she may have earned the equivalent of £3.5 million in public funds. As they say in Bangor's posh banlieues, butter should butter a few leeks.

On a beach in France, a migrant was stabbed by two men before he boarded an inflatable dinghy to cross the English Channel. The perpetrator was taken into Dover by a Border Force vessel yesterday, before being escorted to a lifeboat that brought him to shore. He was then admitted to the hospital in an ambulance for his injuries, which were described as non-life threatening, and he has since been discharged. He told Kent Police officers that he had been 'assaulted on a beach near Calais by two men who later stayed in France while he crossed to the United Kingdom.' On one of the busiest days of crossings this year, the guy was on one of eight dinghies that made it to UK shores carrying more than 400 migrants. No arrests have been made over the stabbing, but detectives are said to inform French authorities that the case was not being investigated further.

After all court problems have been exhausted, Whitehall officials predict it will take six weeks for the first plane to land in east Africa, with 150 deportees set to be sent notice letters this week. But the first flight for some time may be the first for some time, according to The Times. In order to ensure that the machine is working properly, the government in Kigali needs a halt after it lands. According to a source, it would take them two months to process and move out of the reception center, but then they will be able to process them faster.' It means that regular flights will not begin until late summer, at the earliest, with the first arrivals scheduled to be held in a 200-person hostel.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper (left) laid out plans to create a new'returns and enforcement unit' to quickly deport failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders. The new unit, which will have funds to employ 1,000 workers, will concentrate on speeding up removals to countries that have been declared safe. However, a Tory source said the initiative was an attempt by Labour to 'deflect attention' from the party's opposition to the Rwanda initiative, which was designed to move Channel migrants to the east African nation within days of their arrival in the UK, which is returning to the Commons tonight. The report stated that the government is already sending thousands of residents from safe countries such as Albania - and that Labour has no initiative to discourage arrivals from countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, which are too dangerous for return people to.

Small boats have crossed into Britain, and criminal gangs are earning more than £1.6 million a day, it has been reported. 401 people were smuggled on to Britain's shores in seven small boats on March 4, a record for a single day in 2024. According to the Labour Party's report, the average cost for smugglers to cross the Channel is £4,000 per person, and the criminal migrants would have paid the gangs £1.6 million. The criminal smuggling syndicates are profiting a lot from this barbaric trade,' Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

It's the first time in six years that the number of terror suspects arrested has increased relative to the previous year. Of the 219 arrests in 2023, 61% resulted in a arrest, with 57 suspects facing felony charges relating to terrorism-related offenses. It comes as the government introduced a new term of 'extremism' this week, amid growing concerns about threats to social cohesion and democracy. According to Home Office reports, the majority of people arrested (72%) were British nationals or people of British dual nationality.

JANET STREET-PORTER: If you've been a victim of physical, verbal or sexual abuse from someone you thought cared, why do you feel embarrassed, almost as if it's your fault? Could it be because the police don't seem to take violence against women seriously? Our economy may be stagnant, but there is a boom in one sector - domestic violence. Every year, millions of incidents are recorded, but criminals get away with it. The new conviction rate for rape is shocking. Cases take longer than ever to bring to court. And often, the police suspect that a woman wearing a short skirt or had a few drinks 'asked for it.' Too many coppers haven't made it to the modern world; they're stuck in the 1950s' sluggish shaming attitude. A string of shocking revelations about the macho culture in certain departments has fundamentally undermined women's confidence in the service.

According to a study by spending watchdog The National Audit Office found that removing migrants from Rwanda aboard chartered jets will cost the east African country an extra £120 million. The Home Office has already paid Rwanda £220 million, and it is expected to cough up another £50 million per month between this year and 2026. With the additional £120 million on top, the agreed payments will bring the total payments to £370 million. In addition, if 300 migrants are deemed out, the Home Office is expected to shell out more than £51 million over five years.

The Home Office was forced to borrow an additional £4 billion from Treasury to fund a massive overspend on asylum policies, owing to the Home Office's rising costs. Official estimates estimate that the Home Office's overspend in all areas of immigration and asylum will reach $5.9 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. According to a Labour Party study, there was a 'eye-watering' £4.3 billion overspend on asylum over the year. In hotels around the country, more than 50,000 asylum seekers are now being housed full board.