Top story: Rudd and May feel heat from immigration blunders
Good morning briefers. This is Martin Farrer and I’ve got the top stories you need to start your week.
The immigration scandal engulfing the government shows no sign of abating with the emergence of a letter written by a minister two years ago showing that the Home Office knew its policies were wrecking the lives of some of the Windrush generation. The letter written by then immigration minister James Brokenshire concerns the case of Trevor Johnson, who arrived in Britain as a boy from Jamaica in 1971 and has lived here ever since, but who now faces being deported. It was sent to the Labour MP Kate Hoey, who was seeking help for Johnson, her constituent. Amid calls for home secretary Amber Rudd to quit over the scandal, the justice secretary, David Gauke, said on Sunday the problems with the government’s “hostile environment” policy towards immigrants lay with poor implementation by officials rather than any flaws with the principles. However, the buck may not stop with Rudd because the architect of the policy was Theresa May when she was home secretary. The former Tory cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi said on Sunday the cabinet had been deeply divided about the policy which has left some like Johnson without benefits or access to health services because they lack the paperwork to prove their residency. “I think we were all responsible,” she said.
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Facebook ‘morally repugnant’ – Martin Lewis, the consumer champion and money-saving expert, is suing Facebook for allowing fake ads using his face and name. Lewis, who founded the consumer site MoneySavingExpert.com, said he has been used unwittingly to promote get-rich-quick schemes such as trading in bitcoins and is seeking exemplary damages from the social media company. Lewis said: “I get about five messages a day from people saying, ‘I’ve just seen your Bitcoin ad and wanted to check it’ ... [Facebook] is facilitating scams on a constant basis in a morally repugnant way.”
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Fox hunt – The US court case involving Donald Trump’s embattled legal fixer Michael Cohen has cast new light on the property empire of rightwing Fox News presenter Sean Hannity. Thousands of pages of public records reviewed by the Guardian show that Hannity has spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. They also show, however, that Hannity acquired some of the properties with the help of the US housing department, a fact he did not disclose when praising the department’s boss, Ben Carson, on his television show last year. Hannity has also been criticised for using his show to defend Cohen and Trump without disclosing that he also consulted Cohen for legal services.
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Union trouble – More woe for Theresa May, who could face a cabinet revolt if she crosses one of her Brexit red lines and accepts that Britain must remain in a customs union. As peers prepare to inflict more defeats on the government over the EU withdrawal bill, the prime minister’s position has been called into doubt by threats of a leadership challenge from her party’s pro-Brexit wing. Backing down on the customs union issue, which appears more likely after proposals to avoid the u-turn were rejected by Brussels, could trigger rebellions by leading Brexiters such as Michael Gove and Boris Johnson. The former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said the “sabre-rattling” from some in the party was “deeply unhelpful”.
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Off key – The singer Shania Twain has apologised after saying in a Guardian interview that she would have voted for Donald Trump if she could have done so. The Canadian country star said she regretted her remarks, which were widely derided on social media. She added that the question about the US presidential election had “caught her off guard” and that she did not hold “any common moral beliefs” with Trump.
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Amazon killing – A Canadian man has been lynched in the Peruvian Amazon after he was accused of killing an 81-year-old female shaman. Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, lived in the region and was believed to be a patient of Olivia Arévalo, an indigenous healer with the native Shipibo-Konibo people. She was shot dead on Thursday and local police said they believed villagers thought Woodroffe was responsible. Ronald Suárez, the highest authority of the 40,000-strong Shipibo-Konibo people, said the men responsible for the lynching had resorted to “traditional justice”.
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All saints’ days – Today could become a bank holiday if Jeremy Corbyn wins the next election. It’s St George’s day, lest we forget, and the Labour leader will today announce plans to create four new bank holidays celebrating the patron saints of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland if he gets into No 10. He argues that we enjoy fewer bank holidays than any of our European counterparts and need more days off after years of Tory austerity. Under Labour’s proposals, UK-wide public holidays would be held on St David’s day (1 March), St Patrick’s day (17 March), St George’s day and St Andrew’s day (30 November).
Lunchtime read: Women lead new band of eco warriors
The fight against nuclear power, fossil fuels and industrial pollution gains a new roster of champions today as the world’s foremost environmental prize announces more female winners than ever before. The Latin American winner, for example, is Francia Márquez, who won a battle against mining companies poisoning rivers in Colombia with mercury and cyanide. Other winners include South African anti-nuclear activists Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid, Vietnamese clean-energy advocate Nguy Thi Khanh, US clean-water defender LeeAnne Walters, and the one male winner is Philippine anti-lead campaigner Manny Calonzo. In Europe, the prize was won by French marine-life champion Claire Nouvian, whose bid to save the vampire squid from extinction led to a decade-long effort to outlaw deep-sea bottom trawling.
Sport
Arsène Wenger has admitted that supporters campaigning for the manager’s removal had created a “hurtful” atmosphere that was damaging Arsenal’s reputation on a worldwide scale. Before Sunday’s game against West Ham, the hope and, indeed, the expectation had been for an outpouring of affection, yet the afternoon was marked by much of the ambivalence and frustration that has characterised the Gunners’ season.
Elsewhere, champions Manchester City celebrated their title success with a 5-0 demolition of Swansea City. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has been named as the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year for the 2017-18 season, while Fran Kirby won the women’s award. And Gary Ballance sent Yorkshire to the verge of their first victory in 2018 against newly promoted Nottinghamshire with a calm knock of 82.
Business
Low interest rates mean the Bank of England won’t have the ammunition to deal with the next recession in the way that it tackled the global financial crisis a decade ago, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. Asian markets were nervous overnight ahead of a wave of reporting from large US companies and manufacturing data from several leading economies. The pound is up slightly at $1.402 after its battering last week, and €1.142.
The papers
The Telegraph leads with a call by doctors to “Ban fast food shops near schools” to help tackle obesity, while the Times leads with Theresa May’s aforementioned Brexit woes: “May faces Brexit showdown”. The Sun also has a snippet of that on the front but concentrates its main fire on the story of prisoners putting on a performance of Les Miserables: “Lags Miserables,” the headline puns.
The Guardian leads with the latest on the Windrush scandal while the FT says an EU budget overhaul will “shift funds to southern states”.
“Car-theft kit for sale on Amazon”, says the Mail, while the Mirror splash says “Dementia diet gave me my mum back” about how a woman has apparently recovered from the disease by eating a diet rich in blueberries and walnuts.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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