First asylum seekers arrive on Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset … – The Guardian

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GB News is being investigated for four further potential breaches of impartiality rules, as the media regulator, Ofcom, struggles with the rightwing channel’s willingness to push the boundaries of British broadcasting rules, Jim Waterson reports.

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Here are more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing.

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• The PM’s spokesperson confirmed that the government is talking to other countries to see if they would be able to take asylum seekers arriving in the UK, as Rwanda says it will. The Times claims there have been talks with Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Morocco and Niger. The spokesperson would not confirm those names, or say what other countries were being considered. But he did say some EU countries were also engaged in similar talks. Asked specifically about Niger, where they has recently been a coup, he said that any agreement would have to be with a safe third country.

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• The spokesperson said it was wrong to say that Rwanda has said it could only take 200 asylum seekers from the UK. He said that report just referred to a specific site, and that Rwanda was “more than capable” of taking more people.

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• The spokesperson said the government was keeping dangerous dogs legislation under review. That was in response to a question about the Daily Mirror’s campaign calling for the laws to be tightened.

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• The spokesperson backed the decision by the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, to stop her department engaging with Greenpeace after it staged a protest at the PM’s home in Yorkshire. “We don’t think that people accused of breaking the law should have a seat at the table in discussions with government,” the spokesperson said.

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• The spokesperson would not confirm a claim from Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader and China hawk, that China installed a tracking device in at least one official government car. But the spokesperson said “very comprehensive security measures” were in place.

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That didn’t take long. While the No 10 “small boats week” media operation seemed to be going quite well at 8am this morning, by noon it was looking less of a triumph.

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In her media round this morning Sarah Dines, the Home Office minister, confirmed in effect that the government was considering sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island (see 9am) and said that the Home Office hoped to have 500 migrants on the Bibby Stockholm by the end of the week (see 9.33am).

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The Downing Street lobby briefing has now finished, and on both these points No 10 was in corrective mode.

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• The PM’s spokesperson made it clear that the government does not expect to have 500 asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm by the end of the week. Asked about background briefing from the Home Office saying Dines misspoke (see 11.24am), the spokesperson said the 500 figure referred to the “capacity” of the barge, not the number of people expected to be in it by Sunday. Asked when it would be full, he replied: “I don’t think we are setting a deadline for that.”

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• The spokesperson played down suggestions that the government was seriously considering sending people to Ascension Island. Asked about these reports, the spokesperson said the government was “confident” it would win its case at the supreme court and be allowed to remove migrants to Rwanda. Asked specifically about the Ascension Island proposal, the spokesperson refused to discuss the story, claiming it was not appropriate to discuss specific other country options. But he did not repeat what Dines said about “all possibilities being considered”, and reporters at the briefing came away with the clear impression that this is not a proposal being taken seriously within government.

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I will post more from the lobby briefing soon.

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Here is Rajeev Syal’s story about the first asylum seekers arriving on the Bibby Stockholm.

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The first asylum seekers have arrived on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Ali Fortescue from Sky News is reporting.

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Breaking: Understand the first of the migrants have arrived on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland. More are expected to arrive later today.

— Ali Fortescue (@AliFortescue) August 7, 2023

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BREAKING: Sky News understands the first migrants have arrived on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, and more are expected to arrive later today.

Sky's @AliFortescue has more on the story

Latest: https://t.co/Vc9cs8Ew1Z

Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/D9rcXT9WTz

— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 7, 2023

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England’s national parks would be “destroyed” by proposed government rules that would allow landowners to convert barns into houses without planning permission, critics have said. Helena Horton has the story here.

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In her interviews this morning Sarah Dines, the Home Office minister, was asked about the asylum seekers who will be placed on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland. Here are the main points she made.

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• Dines refused to confirm that the first asylum seekers would be moved onto the barge today, although she would not deny that either. On the Today programme she said they would be moving in “pretty soon, imminently, this week, in the coming days”. Asked why she could not just say it would be today, she told LBC she could not be specific “for security and operational reasons”.

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• She said the Home Office hoped to have 500 asylum seekers on the barge by the end of the week. On the Today programme, asked if 500 people would be on the Bibby Stockholm by the end of the week, she replied:

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Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping.

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• She said the government was putting asylum seekers on a barge because it wanted to show that people coming to the UK on small boats would not end up in “luxurious” accommodation. She told Sky News:

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[Using a barge] sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation but not luxurious.

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Luxurious hotel accommodation has been part of the pull, I’m afraid. There have been promises made abroad by the organised criminal gangs and organisations which have tried to get people into the country unlawfully and they say: ‘You will be staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of a town in England.’

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That needs to stop and the barge is just one of a wide range of other measures.

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• She said people on the barge would have “some free movement”. Asked if they would be able to travel off the boat and onto the isle of Portland, where the barge is docked, she told LBC:

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They’re going to have some free movement. You know, we’re a democratic country, of course. But there are going to be some parameters to that.

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They’ve got medical supplies on board. They’ve got a gym on board and various activities to keep them occupied.

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But of course, they’re going to be able to stretch their legs, get some air, get out and about, but within proper parameters.

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• She insisted the barge was “a safe place for people to live and stay”.

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to 500 asylum seekers could be on Bibby Stockholm barge by end of week, says minister”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 7 Aug 2023 09.20 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 7 Aug 2023 04.00 EDT”},{“id”:”64d0985e8f08e5e4127d041c”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Good morning. Downing Street has reportedly decided that today marks the start of “small boats week” in terms of its summer news grid and, on the basis of today’s front pages, whoever is running the No 10 spin operation seems to be, so far, doing a pretty good job.

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The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express have both splashed on an announcement from the Home Office about fines for people who employ or rent property to migrants without a lawful immigration status are rising sharply.

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This morning the BBC news is leading on reports that the first asylum seekers will be moved onto the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland today.

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And, not content with “is happening” news, the Times and the Daily Mail are both splashing “might happen” reports saying that the government is considering deporting asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to Ascension Island, the British overseas territory 4,000 miles away in the south Atlantic.

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In his Times report Matt Dathan says:

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n

Ministers have resurrected proposals to send illegal migrants to Britain’s overseas territories as part of alternative options to tackle the small boats crisis …

n

The volcanic island, 4,000 miles from the UK in the middle of the South Atlantic, was previously considered as a location to process asylum seekers. Ministers believed its remote location would create a strong deterrent factor for migrants planning to cross the Channel in small boats.

n

Using Britain’s overseas territories forms part of a range of “plan B” contingencies that have been discussed by ministers and officials in case the government’s policy to deport migrants to Rwanda has to be abandoned.

n

The government is also in negotiations with at least five other countries over a similar deportation deal to the one agreed with Rwanda last year, The Times understands. This involves sending asylum seekers on a one-way flight to another country rather than taking them to an overseas territory temporarily.

n

“,”elementId”:”4efe2570-4c0d-4e4a-877c-081eb43d8278″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Sarah Dines, a Home Office minister, has been doing an interview round this morning, and she in effect confirmed that the Ascension Island option was being examined.

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Asked on Times Radio if the Times and Daily Mail reports were correct, she replied:

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n

We are pretty confident that Rwanda is a legal policy. The high court and the lord chief justice found that it was, so that is what we are focusing on.

n

But like any responsible government, we look at additional measures, so we are looking at everything to make sure our policy works. We need to reduce the pull factor of illegal criminal gangs getting people to this country, basically abusing the system.

n

“,”elementId”:”f3104b47-1ec4-45ab-a742-9845343f8547″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

On the Today programme, when it was put to her that Ascension Island was a “plan B” in the event of the supreme court deciding deportations to Rwanda are unlawful, Dines said she would not use the terms “alternative” or “plan B”. But she went on: “We are looking at additional schemes across the globe, of course we are.”

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And on Sky News, asked why the Home Office was considering Ascension Island when it examined, and rejected, this option three years ago, Dines replied:

“,”elementId”:”1b00e0c9-9216-439b-b6c7-aa88c1572cf1″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement”,”html”:”

n

Well, times change. We look at all possibilities. This crisis in the Channel is urgent, we need to look at all possibilities and that is what we are doing.

n

“,”elementId”:”9b99947b-3ef1-4304-bf8f-4503541d325d”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

I will post more from her interviews shortly.

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It’s August, and parliament is in recess, and so the political news diary is fairly empty. But we will get the only No 10 lobby briefing of the week at 11.30am.

“,”elementId”:”4f2366c9-a373-4a3e-989e-9072e4d94a8e”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.

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Key events

Pro-migrant campaigners in Portland have been delivering welcome packs to the Bibby Stockholm barge for asylum seekers.