Unions call for public sector pay restoration to be ‘key feature’ of campaigning – UK politics live

12.42pm BST

Steve Valdez-Symonds , Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, has reacted to the latest Home Office data, saying that most people seeking safety in the UK are assessed to be entitled to asylum, adding that the government needs to provide safe alternative routes to the UK for people to claim asylum (My colleague, Jamie Grierson, has this useful explainer on safe and legal asylum alternatives to cut Channel crossings).

Valdez-Symonds said:

Today’s statistics again show that relatively few people come to the UK seeking safety from war and persecution, and – save for people from Ukraine – nearly everyone seeking asylum must rely on unsafe journeys and people-smugglers because the Government won’t provide safe alternatives.

The statistics show that most people seeking safety in the UK are judged to be entitled to asylum if and when their claims are properly decided, but the system’s still suffering the chronic impact of the previous Government’s disastrous refusal to process claims.

What the raw statistics can’t show is the true circumstances and humanity of each and every person involved.

Sadly, yesterday’s immigration announcement suggests the new Government intends to follow its predecessor by leaning into a heavily ‘securitised’ approach that ignores the vulnerability of people forced to make highly unsafe journeys while shirking its responsibility to establish systems which treat people fairly and with basic humanity.

12.22pm BST

The former home secretary James Cleverly has defended his record as he reacted to the latest Home Office figures which showed the outgoing Conservative government granted 286,382 work visas in the year to June 2024, 11% down on the previous year (see more details in post at 10.41 )

Home Office data also showed the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats fell by almost a third in Rishi Sunak’s last year as prime minister.

Cleverly, who is now the shadow home secretary and is vying to replace Sunak as the leader of the opposition, wrote in a post on X:

When I said I was going to cut migration, I meant it. Visas down, small boat arrivals down, cut the backlog & cut the asylum grant rate. It’s not about words, it’s about delivery.

Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government banned those coming to study in the UK and those on health and care visas from bringing family members and Labour has no plans to change the policy. This is despite there being acute shortages in the health and care sectors and universities depending on much of their funding from overseas students.

Over 19,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year – a 10% increase over the same period last year but a fall from the peak of more than 21,000 in the same period in 2022.

The previous Conservative government tried to reduce numbers through its Rwanda policy, but no flights took off under the now-scrapped scheme, which is estimated by the current home secretary, Yvette Cooper, to have cost £700m worth of taxpayers money.

Updated at 12.26pm BST

12.06pm BST

The gap in GCSE results between private and state schools has widened at the highest grades.

Almost half of entries from private schools scored at least a grade 7 this year, compared to around a fifth of those from both comprehensive schools and academies.

The figures, published by England’s exams regulator Ofqual, show that 48.4% of private school entries scored at least a 7 compared to 19.4% of those from comprehensive schools – a gap of 29 percentage points. Last year, this gap was 28.2 points – an increase of 0.8 percentage points.

The gap at A/7 grades between private and academies – state schools which are free from local authority control – now stands at 27.2 percentage points compared to 26.5 points in 2023, an increase of 0.7 percentage points.

Updated at 12.35pm BST

11.34am BST

Nearly three-quarters of Britons are worried about rightwing extremism after anti-migrant riots, polling has found, with increasing numbers concerned about societal divisions.

The survey also found that while people generally believed politicians did not react especially well to the wave of disturbances, they generally felt Keir Starmer responded well – while Nigel Farage did not.

In one part of the polling where people were asked to name worries, public services and the economy were still of the greatest concern, with 84% and 83% respectively saying they were very or fairly concerned about these.

Below this, 73% of people said they were concerned about rightwing extremism, 11 percentage points higher than when the same questions were asked in March this year.

The findings come amid the worst unrest seen in the UK for a decade in a series of towns and cities after the fatal stabbing of three young girls at a dance class in Southport on 29 July.

The Guardian’s senior political correspondent, Peter Walker , has the full story here:

Related: Almost three in four Britons worried about far right after riots

11.29am BST

Two of the contenders for the Scottish Conservative leadership drop out of race

Two of the contenders for the Scottish Conservative leadership – Liam Kerr and Jamie Greene – have dropped out of the race to replace Douglas Ross and backed veteran MSP Murdo Fraser for the top job.

It leaves three MSPs in contention to become Scottish Conservative leader – Russell Findlay , Murdo Fraser and Meghan Gallacher .

Greene told an audience in Perth he would take his own bid for the leadership no further, saying Fraser is the only candidate with the “gumption” to turn things around for the party. Kerr had a similar message, saying the party must unite under a “strong, experienced and respected leader”.

During the general election campaign, Ross announced his surprise resignation amid growing internal pressure over his multiple roles in the party.

He had faced sustained criticism for his decision to serve as an MP at Westminster and as an MSP at Holyrood in north-east constituencies while retaining his part-time role as a match official for the Scottish FA.

The Conservatives retained their three seats across the south of Scotland at the general election, but the leadership contest has been marred by infighting .

11.14am BST

Labour famously insisted during the general election campaign that it would not raise taxes on “working people”. Instead, Keir Starmer said he would end tax breaks for private schools, close tax-avoidance loopholes and introduce a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies.

Now, dozens of firms across the UK’s oil and gas supply chain have expressed “grave concern” about the plans to hike windfall taxes, arguing they threaten jobs and could undermine investment in renewable energy.

BBC News’ business editor, Simon Jack, his this report :

In an open letter to HM Treasury, seen by the BBC, 42 companies have warned that official plans threaten £200bn of investment in all forms of domestic energy, including renewables. The signatories include manufacturing, engineering and technology companies.

The Treasury said, however, that its industrial strategy would create “thousands of new jobs in the industries of the future”.

The government currently plans to increase windfall taxes on oil and gas profits from 75% to 78%, extend the tax until 2030 and abolish tax incentives for further investment.

In the letter, issued by Offshore Energies UK, firms express concern that reduced investment and greater uncertainty would be felt throughout the supply chain “through jobs, and the communities this industry supports, both directly and indirectly.”

They also argue that oil and gas revenues are helping fund investment in renewable energy.

A hostile tax environment would threaten not only the oil and gas industry, but also the firms who invest in renewable energies using cash generated through fossil fuels, the letter suggests.

“The companies investing in nascent opportunities like floating offshore wind and carbon capture and storage will require the cashflow from a stable and predictable oil and gas business to fund these opportunities,” it says.

“Sufficient investment in the UK energy transition can only happen if we support, not undermine our domestic oil and gas sector.”

11.02am BST

Unions to press Labour for ‘pay restoration’ deals for public sector

Unions are to push the government for “pay restoration” deals that would award above-inflation pay rises to public sector workers who have suffered a decade of real-term salary cuts.

The Trades Union Congress’s annual meeting next month is due to vote on a motion that calls for pay restoration to be “a key feature of our campaigning with the new government”, the group’s president said.

The current holder of the TUC’s revolving presidency, the Fire Brigades Union boss Matt Wrack , told the Financial Times – which first reported details of the TUC campaign – that he expected delegates to back the demand.

The PCS union, which is championing the motion, said it aimed to make up for the fact that pay levels had actually fallen an average of 1.5% a year since 2011.

However, it is likely to fuel attacks on Labour from the Conservatives, who have accused Keir Starmer of being “played by union paymasters” after a series of pay deals to settle long-running disputes with striking workers including junior doctors and train drivers.

The government has so far offered a 22% pay deal over two years to junior doctors , who had been calling for a 35% rise to counter a fall in real-wages over the past 15 years. The British Medical Association is holding a member ballot on that deal until mid-September.

You can read the full story from the Guardian’s banking correspondent,
Kalyeena Makortoff , here:

Related: Unions to press Labour for ‘pay restoration’ deals for public sector

Updated at 11.02am BST

10.54am BST

The Home Office has released lots of data today. We will bring you the key highlights but if you want to have a comprehensive look yourself you can find the relevant links to sub-topics we have not yet mentioned (on immigration enforcement, the Windrush taskforce, Ukraine visa schemes etc) here .

These are a few more important highlights from the datasets on asylum applications and leave to remain decisions:

• A total of 67,978 people were granted refugee status or other leave to remain in the UK in the year to June 2024, more than three times the 21,436 in the previous 12 months. Just under three-fifths (58%) of the initial decisions were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave.

• Nearly all (99%) of people arriving in the UK in the year to June 2024 after crossing the English Channel on small boats claimed asylum or were recorded as a dependant on an asylum application, the Home Office said. Overall, just under a third (31%) of the total number of people claiming asylum in the UK in the year to June had arrived on a small boat.

Updated at 11.03am BST

10.41am BST

Fall in number of visas granted to health and care workers and families of overseas students

The number of visas granted to financially dependent relatives and partners of students coming to study in the UK has fallen sharply compared to last year, according to newly published Home Office data.

In the first six months of this year, visas granted to dependants of overseas students fell by 81% to 11,675, compared to the same period in 2023.

Since January, international students taking taught postgraduate courses or undergraduate degrees have been unable to bring family members or dependents on a student visa.

Separately, Home Office figures show there were 89,095 health and care worker visas granted to main applicants in the year ending June 2024, a 26% decrease from the previous year.

In March, the Conservative government, under former prime minister Rishi Sunak, announced social care workers would no longer be able to bring dependents on their visa.

This is despite post-Brexit immigration controls and staff resignations during and after the Covid pandemic having worsened staff shortages in the care sector.

In 2022-23 there were 160,000 vacancies, according to the charity Skills for Care , which projects there will be another 480,000 jobs in the sector by 2035.

The Home Office statistics also reveal that the outgoing Conservative government granted about 286,382 work visas overall in the year to June 2024 – 11% down on the previous year.

Updated at 10.52am BST

10.24am BST

The number of UK asylum applications withdrawn in the year to June 2024 was 21,425, relating to 23,246 people, up from 14,789 applications and 15,857 people in the previous 12 months.

About 76% of withdrawn applications in the year to June were classed as “implicit withdrawals”, meaning the Home Office chose to withdraw the application rather than the applicant withdrawing it themselves.

Implicit withdrawals cover a range of scenarios, including an applicant not attending an interview, failing to complete a questionnaire by a particular date, or not providing up-to-date contact information.

This has drawn criticism in the past that the Home Office has used withdrawals to speed up clearing the backlog.

Charities have said that withdrawals should never be used to do this and should only be used under very specific circumstances.

Updated at 10.27am BST

10.11am BST

Opening summary

Good morning and welcome back to our rolling coverage of UK politics.

The Home Office has released data on what it calls irregular migration. This includes those arriving on small boats across the English Channel, along with some other groups arriving illegally. Data on asylum applications has also been published. These are some of the main takeaways:

• In the year ending June 2024, there were 38,784 irregular arrivals, 26% fewer than in the year ending June 2023, and 81% of these arrived by small boats.

• In the year ending June 2024, 31,493 people arrived by small boats, 29% fewer than the 44,460 people who arrived in the previous year.

• The average number of people per boat has risen to 51, compared with an average of 44 in the year ending June 2023.

• A total of 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2024. This is up slightly from 118,329 at the end of March 2024, but down year-on-year by 32% from 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

• The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 76,268 at the end of June, down 46% from the record 139,961 at the end of June 2023.

These statistics were released after the home secretary, Yvette Cooper , indicated she will press ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in an attempt to achieve the highest rate of removals since Theresa May’s premiership.

She announced the Border Security Command “is gearing up” after the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats exceeded 19,000 this year so far.

The plans, which have been criticised by campaigners who say Labour are demonising migrants through their rhetoric, include 100 more new intelligence officers to target people smuggling gangs.

Here are some of the other main headlines today:

• The number of new child benefit claims rose to 86,656 in April, up 16% on the previous month, according to a freedom of information request obtained by the BBC. It came after the government changed the rules on how much parents can earn and still be eligible for the benefit.

• 16-year-olds received GCSE grades similar to last year and only slightly above pre-pandemic levels. Ian Bauckham, the head of England’s exams regulator Ofqual , hailed this year’s results as a return to consistency, with 70.4% of entries by pupils in year 11 receiving a grade 4 – equivalent to a C – or higher, a touch higher than the 70.3% in 2023 and half a percentage point above 2019. You can follow our GCSE results day blog here for the latest.

• Membership of the main political parties continued to decline last year even as they stepped up preparations for the general election, newly published accounts have shown. Labour shed another 37,000 members over the course of 2023, bringing its total membership at the end of the year to 370,450. Although Labour remained by far the largest party in the UK, the figure is well down on its recent peak of 532,046 at the end of 2019. The Liberal Democrats lost about 11,000 members and while the Conservatives do not publish membership figures, income for the party from membership fees fell from £1.97m to £1.5m.

It is Yohannes Lowe here with you today. Please do email me on yohannes.lowe@theguardian.com if you spot any typos or omissions.