Police in England and Wales identify 287 child sexual exploitation cases for review

Police forces in England and Wales have identified a further 287 outstanding cases of alleged child sexual exploitation by rape gangs, Yvette Cooper has disclosed.The home secretary said the government was planning to wipe the convictions of grooming victims prosecuted over soliciting for prostitution, after concerns that children had been criminalised by the authorities.The disclosures were made on Tuesday before a hearing of the home affairs select committee, where she also:Indicated that the government would legislate for a fast-track system to speed up the removal of people applying for asylum from “safe” countries.Called for the creation of a digital service for e-visas and border control so that the government could monitor who is in the UK legally.Voiced concern over the rising numbers of teenage extremism offences

UK politics: Yvette Cooper quizzed over immigration and prisons crisis – as it happened

Q: Do you share the concerns of the Met police about offenders being released from jail early?Cooper says the government inherited an “appalling” crisis in prisons.It set up the sentencing review to look at how the prison overcrowding situation could be eased, she says.But she stresses that some of David Gauke’s recommendations have not been accepted.Q: Are you asking for extra resources for the police as part of the spending review to deal with the consequences of this?Cooper says she won’t be tempted into talking about the spending review. But she will always be pressing for more resources for policing for the challenges they face, she says, including for “challenges from the sentencing review”

Keir Starmer facing scrutiny over failure to establish new ethics watchdog

No 10 is facing scrutiny over its failure to bring in a new ethics watchdog almost a year after the election, as a new inquiry was launched to examine the seeming lack of progress.Amid signs that the plans have been kicked into the long grass, parliament’s public administration committee said it was launching an inquiry to push the government on what has happened to its ethics commitments.It was one of Keir Starmer’s flagship manifesto pledges that the new Labour government would “establish a new independent ethics and integrity commission, with its own independent chair, to ensure probity in government”.The party promised to “restore confidence in government and ensure ministers are held to the highest standards”, and to enforce restrictions on ministers lobbying for companies they used to regulate, with meaningful sanctions for those breaching the rules.However, there was no blueprint for a commission ready to go when Starmer formed the government last year

Nato to force UK to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP to appease Trump, say sources

Defence sources believe that Britain will be forced to sign up to a target of lifting defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 at this month’s Nato summit after a campaign by the alliance’s secretary general to keep Donald Trump onboard.One senior insider said Britain would “without a doubt” sign up to a proposal from the Nato chief, Mark Rutte, to lift allies’ defence spending, which would represent a real-terms increase of about £30bn from the Labour government’s plan.They expressed surprise that Keir Starmer had tied himself up over spending at the launch of the strategic defence review on Monday, when he refused to set a firm date when budgets would increase to 3%.The prime minister has agreed to increase defence spending from its current 2

UK to invest £2bn in drones to make army ‘10 times more lethal’

Britain will spend an extra £2bn on drones and seek to introduce weapons and tactics developed during the war in Ukraine under a strategic defence review unveiled by the government.The plan will prioritise cheap one-way attack craft and more expensive reusable systems, as well as the creation of a drone centre to share knowledge and better coordinate across the armed forces.John Healey, the defence secretary, told MPs the army would become “10 times more lethal” by combining technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence “with the heavy metal of tanks and artillery”.It was part of a wider commitment to make the UK “battle-ready” in the words of the prime minister, Keir Starmer. He argued on a visit to the BAE Systems shipyard at Govan, in Glasgow, that defence had to come above other public services

Reform UK to pilot Doge-style scheme to examine council spending

Reform UK has told council officers they will face “gross misconduct” if they obstruct an Elon Musk-style department of government efficiency unit to examine all council spending in areas they control.The party will pilot the Doge-style scheme in Kent county council, led by a team including the Brexit donor Arron Banks as well as cybersecurity entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried.The move has been criticised as “political theatre” by senior local authority figures and opposition politicians.Robert Hayward, the Conservative peer and pollster, told Politico he had written to the Electoral Commission arguing that the Reform volunteers should be scrutinised under political donation rules as a donation in kind. Lord Hayward said: “Without full disclosure, the risk is that any donation could be buying access or influence election results