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The government has agreed to buy the National Grid’s Electricity System Operator for £630 million. The government intends to create a new national energy operating system which will also oversee the provision of gas across the UK. Meanwhile, the Energy Secretary is reportedly considering scrapping plans for a large nuclear power plant in Wales, opting instead for unreliable and insecure wind and solar power infrastructure.
The Prime Minister was in Washington DC this week to speak about, among other things, the war in Ukraine. Media reports suggested that Starmer wants to give Ukraine permission to use British-made long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia, which drew a strong warning from Putin about further escalation. President Biden seems to be reluctant to permit the use of NATO weaponry on Russian sovereign territory and a decision has been delayed.
Red Ed seizes control of Britain’s electricity
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, has said that the government will not fund the refurbishment of Casement Park Stadium in time for the European Football Championships in 2028. The stadium has a long association with nationalist politics and the IRA, and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Sue Gray, was reportedly taking a personal interest in securing funding. Benn cited disproportionate costs as his reason to not proceed with funding.
The Swedish government has said it will offer families of migrants up to €30,000 in voluntary repatriation grants. The scheme is designed to encourage those currently living in Sweden who would prefer to move back to their home country or to relocate to somewhere else to do so. Sweden became the first country in recent years to record net negative immigration figures, with more people leaving than arriving.
Keir Starmer has said he is open to and interested in sending asylum seekers to Albania to have their applications assessed. The scheme is part of a package of measures adopted by Giorgia Meloni’s administration in Italy and has been credited with bringing numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Italy crashing down. The two leaders will meet this week in a mini-summit, with immigration high on the agenda.
Unlikely allies
Media
Wolfgang Münchau on the EU’s economic decline
James O’ Malley on the need for nuclear energy
Blog
Is Labour Already Sowing The Seeds Of Another Economic Crisis? By Robert Lee
Every post-war Labour government has produced an economic crisis. This one promised to be different by prioritising economic growth and fiscal stability. These promises have already been shredded by economic decisions made or proposed that are negative for growth and/or fiscal sustainability. Absent a sharp change of direction, a major currency crisis is likely before the next election. However, Labour will not reverse Brexit, so its freedoms can then be utilised to bring about radical reforms and engineer a turnaround.
The economy should maintain some momentum for the second half of the year, but Labour’s counterproductive policies and an overly restrictive monetary policy will increasingly weigh on the economy during 2025. The opportunity to continue outperforming the G7 is being squandered. Five decades as an economic forecaster have made me wary of predicting economic disasters and crises. Is Labour destined to yet again end a period in office with a currency crisis? I fear so, in which case we will need all our Brexit freedoms to engineer a turnaround through a deregulatory drive, and radical market-led reforms of our public services, institutions and tax system.
Key Points
When the last government tried to introduce measures to reduce immigration, it was widely criticised as being ‘xenophobic’. In particular, it was taken by many pro-European commentators as evidence of Britain becoming a small-minded, insular outlier amidst a continent that is welcoming to newcomers. The hand-wringing over compliance with the ECHR seemed to be more about Britain not straying too far from the European norm than a substantial worry about human rights.
It is ironic, then, that just when in Britain a new government which wants closer ties with Europe and is more enthusiastic about immigration takes office, across Europe governments are taking measures to stem or even reverse immigration, often in response to electoral successes by anti-immigration parties. Germany has imposed border checks for 6 months to prevent migrants from entering from other EU countries and is looking at sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. Italy is off-shoring asylum claims and has given authorities the power to detain would-be migrants for up to 18 months in specially-built detention centres. Sweden is even offering financial incentives to recent immigrants to leave the country — a policy once associated in this country with Enoch Powell.
Is the mood in Europe so different from the UK? Are European leaders responding to electorates who are much more sceptical of immigration than voters in the UK? Certainly not. There remains a strong democratic mandate for stricter immigration rules in this country. The peculiarities of our voting system and the fact the deep frustration that voters had with the incumbent Conservatives meant that those voters who did try to express a desire for lower immigration are hugely underrepresented in Parliament.
So far, the new Labour government has done little to suggest that it will follow its friends in Europe in trying to reduce net migration. The ‘new task force’ which we were promised would ‘smash the gangs’ is yet to appoint a head, let alone deploy resources on the ground. The Rwanda scheme was scrapped on day one, and the Home Secretary seems to be spending more time policing speech than policing the nation’s borders.
Keir Starmer should look to his European counterparts both for a cautionary tale and for inspiration. If Labour sit on their hands when it comes to immigration and the situation continues much as it has for the last two decades, he can expect a reckoning at the next election, just as centre-left European parties have been punished at the polls this year for perceived failures on immigration. Instead, he should learn from Europe and adopt those measure which seem most effective in bringing down the numbers coming from other parts of the world.
