Author: MoorningTimes

The 10-year jail sentence handed to a British couple in Iran is “totally unjustifiable”, Yvette Cooper has said.Lindsay and Craig Foreman were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle journey and detained on charges of espionage. The couple from East Sussex, who are being held in Tehran’s Evin prison, deny the allegations.“This sentence is completely appalling and totally unjustifiable,” said Cooper, the foreign secretary. “We will pursue this case relentlessly with the Iranian government until we see Craig and Lindsay Foreman safely returned to the UK and reunited with their family.“In the meantime, their…

Deepfake nudes and “revenge porn” must be removed from the internet within 48 hours or technology firms risk being blocked in the UK, Keir Starmer has said, calling it a “national emergency” that the government must confront.Companies could be fined millions or even blocked altogether if they allow the images to spread or be reposted after victims give notice.Amendments will be made to the crime and policing bill to also regulate AI chatbots such as X’s Grok, which generated nonconsensual images of women in bikinis or in compromising positions until the government threatened action against Elon Musk’s company.Writing for the…

A coalition of refugee support groups has called for a Home Office organisation to be axed, claiming it is putting hundreds of children at risk.The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium, which consists of more than 100 organisations including the Refugee Council, Barnardo’s and the NSPCC, has published a report analysing the performance of the Home Office’s national age assessment board (NAAB), which was set up in March 2023 to determine the ages of young asylum seekers newly arrived in the UK, often on small boats.The board employs more than 50 social workers to conduct the assessments, but some children have…

A “grace period” should be introduced for British dual nationals living, working or holidaying abroad who face being blocked from returning to the UK if they do not have an up-to-date British passport, the Liberal Democrats have said.Entry requirements change on 25 February as part of a wider initiative to streamline immigration which requires British dual nationals to present either a valid UK passport or a “certificate of entitlement” on their foreign passport to the airline, ferry or train operator.The Lib Dem shadow immigration and asylum minister, Will Forster, said the “lack of planning and haphazard communication” over the changes…

There’s a funny moment towards the end of The Tony Blair Story, Channel 4’s three-part documentary about the former prime minister, in which Blair is asked to introspect about his own personality. For the previous three hours or so we have enjoyed a series of talking heads picking over his premiership. Now he breaks the fourth wall and, with something like incredulity, says what’s the point of asking him to identify his own weaknesses when all he’ll give is a “politician’s answer”. Reminded he’s no longer a politician, Blair replies as honestly as at any point in the encounter: “You’re…

Jenrick confirms Reform UK would only allow British nationals to claim benefits, as he puts welfare cuts at centre of his plansRobert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokersperson, is giving his speech now.He has announced, or confirmed, three measures to cut welfare spending.1) Restoring the two-child benefit capUntil recently the party was saying it would restore the two-child benefit cap, but with an exception for families where both parents are British and working full time (a very small cohort). But Jenrick said the party would “restore the cap in full”.At one point Nigel Farage said he would lift the two-child cap.…

What were they thinking? Labour inherited the worst of everything, including prisons beyond breaking point, court backlogs as bad as NHS waiting lists, children cast into exceptional destitution, the National Grid unable to cope with demand, reservoirs unbuilt while sewage poured into rivers, high debt, no money and deep public distrust in politics. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were honest about what they found.So what on earth can have seized them, within months of taking over, to decide this was a good time for a gigantic English council re-disorganisation? Angela Rayner, who was in charge of the Ministry of Housing,…

One in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding, according to new data.The figures show the number of homes being built in risky areas is on the rise – a previous analysis showed that between 2013 and 2022, one in 13 new homes were in potential flooding zones.The research comes with the government under huge pressure to deliver new affordable housing, amid signs that the climate breakdown is accelerating.Data published by the insurer Aviva reveals that of the 396,602 new homes recorded by the Ordnance…

British Steel has secured an order worth tens of millions of pounds to supply rail for a high-speed electric railway in Turkey, amid continuing uncertainty over the long-term future of the government-controlled steelworks in Scunthorpe.The site will supply 36,000 tonnes of rail to ERG International Group, the company announced, in what it called an “eight-figure agreement”.The rail is destined for a 599km railway line being built to connect the Turkish capital, Ankara, with the western port city of İzmir, which will reduce the travel time and cut carbon emissions.British Steel said securing the contract had allowed it to create 23…

Being forced to abandon plans to delay local elections in England with fewer than three months’ notice is not just another policy U-turn by the government. It brings to a head issues of aptitude and judgment. The rationale seemed sound: avoid electing councillors to bodies that would be abolished under Labour’s reorganisation of local government. The political problem was that 21 of the 30 councils were Labour-led. That created a perception – fair or not – of democratic manipulation.The elections should have gone ahead. The Electoral Commission last December warned of “unprecedented” uncertainty around them. The commission was clear: “Scheduled…