Key events
Eritreans could be stopped from coming to UK if country continues to reject returns deal
Rajeev Syal
And to another key story today on immigration – Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned that Eritreans could be blocked from coming to the UK unless the east African country accepts more rejected asylum seekers and criminals.
As The Guardian’s Home Affairs editor Rajeev Syal writes:
VIPs and officials from the east African country have already been stripped of fast-track access to UK visas after their government refused to cooperate with the return of its nationals, the home secretary said.
The warning comes after Eritrea abruptly withdrew returns cooperation earlier this year, the Home Office said.
The UK should not get drawn into rejecting applicants for asylum from Eritrea, refugee organisations have warned, because it is a war-torn country and the UK usually accepts the vast majority of applicants, who are often escaping famine and conflict.
Eritreans were the most common nationality arriving by small boat in the year ending June 2026. Returns arrangements are vital for removing people who have been refused asylum and foreign criminals.
Mahmood said:
“Eritrea has had every chance to accept the return of criminals and those with no right to be in the UK. Unlike other countries, it has refused.
“My message to the Eritrean government is simple: take back your nationals or face a complete ban on your citizens entering the UK.
“I will not hesitate to impose further measures on other countries refusing to cooperate.”
The move follows similar threats of visa sanctions against Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025. Angola and Namibia subsequently agreed to cooperate with demands on migrant returns, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced visa restrictions before reaching an agreement with the UK in February.
Just over 100 refused asylum seekers from Eritrea have been deported – a figure comprising less than 4% of the 2,626 people whose claims were rejected in the past four years. Nearly 6,000 Eritreans have reached the UK across the Channel in the year to June, the highest number of any nationality.
Quick reminder to anyone not super across what banks have to pay in taxes, their current rate is a 3% surcharge on profits, on top of the 25% corporation tax rate.
All banks operating in the UK – both British and foreign – pay this levy, and the sector has recorded tremendous profits in recent years driven by higher interest rates. (Markets are also assessing that the central bank will most likely raise rates next month to 4%.)
Taxing the big banks a little bit more has long been mooted as a voter-friendly way for Healey to raise some cash.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to joined the banks today though in criticising against the measure. The argument is that it would damage the UK finance sector’s international competitiveness, drive businesses out of the country, and/or that banks might just pass on the costs to customers.
Tory shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith has argued: “Britain needs growth but a raid on the financial services sector will stifle it.”
Healey at IMF asked about higher bank taxes in budget
Heather Stewart
Healey is meeting with UK journalists now at the IMF in Bangkok, including my colleague Heather Stewart.
The August print – a 0.1% growth instead of the predicted 0.1% contraction – would have been very welcome news this morning, but he still faces a major challenge trying to find cash going into his 28 October budget.
The idea of raising taxes on bank profits has been floating around, and Healey is asked on this. He replies:
“I don’t want anybody to try and read in or second guess what [we may] do in two weeks’ time.
My observations on the banks are just that people too often see them as a big distant financial institutions, when they are hardwired into the economic fabric of this country and our future prospects.
That said, you know I’ve got decisions to take in the in the budget, and I will. I’ll set those out in two weeks’ time.
Healey added that his “special responsibility as Chancellor is to protect the resilience of the British economy for the future”.
He also repeated comments welcoming the IMF’s support for the UK’s fiscal plans.
To just go back to that GDP uptick briefly, John Healey is at the IMF/World Bank meetings in Bangkok and is due to speak shortly.
I’ll bring his comments here courtesy of my colleague Graeme Wearden’s reporting over on our business live blog.
Basically, the UK economy is still weak but performing slightly better than earlier gloomy predictions; the IMF in fact this week raised its growth forecast to 1.£3% – up from its April prediction of 0.8%. Analysts are saying, at this rate, the UK is on track to be the second- best- performing G7 economy this year.
Entering the conference centre this morning, Healey said in brief remarks:
“I’m pleased the IMF here in Bangkok have backed our economic plans in London. They say the UK stands out on growth despite the deep economic shocks that are affecting worldwide at present.
They say Britain stands out on our plans to get to grips with the big borrowing costs by previous governments. They also say it’s important to stay the path, and I will follow that as I prepare my budget in two weeks’ time.”
Reform politicians filmed making racist, misogynist comments
Ben Quinn
Reform leader Nigel Farage has postponed a major announcement that was due to take place in Essex this morning after an ITV investigation aired last night showing party councillors and election candidates making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views.
Three councillors have already stood down from the party, which said it was conducting an investigation over the first revelations from the ITV undercover investigation.
More are expected from the undercover filming of senior Reform politicians and officials working at its UK headquarters.
Farage has made repeated pledges over the last two years to rid Reform of “extremists” and “bigots” and introduce vetting. The party says it carries out vetting checks on everyone who wants to stand for election.
However, the first clips from ITV’s year-long undercover investigation showed Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull, calling Asian homeowners “parasites,” and stating that “no more than 1% of [the] British population can be non-white”.
Feeney won seats on Birmingham city council and Solihull Metropolitan borough council and was then appointed deputy mayor of Solihull. He has announced that he has left Reform “for personal reasons”.
Other candidates were recorded making comments of extreme violence and sharing deeply misogynistic and racist views, including a Bromley councillor calling for King Charles to be killed and another councillor who made disturbing sexual and misogynistic comments about female colleagues.
Feeney was filmed with other candidates who went on to become councillors, Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan, talking about where a local mosque might be built. After they make extreme racist comments in the discussion, Feeney says: “Oh god, we’re all going to end up in the papers”.
Chris Whelan announced he had resigned from Reform on 12 October “on personal and health grounds”. Campbell is still in post.
Dame Julia Unwin, chairwoman of the Charity Commission, is expected to deliver the following remarks at the AGM today in central London, condemning the harassment and abuse of RNLI rescuers.
“I want to use this opportunity to condemn in the strongest terms the thuggery and intimidation that volunteers of the RNLI have faced over recent weeks – and indeed over months and even years.
“Charities must only do things that meet their purpose and objects.
“For the RNLI that means rescuing people in peril in the sea.
“It is not their right to do so.
“It is their absolute duty.
“The charitable sector must have the courage to tolerate vigorous debate, individual charities must accept that people might disapprove of their work, for reasons of values, politics, faith or identity.
“We should in fact welcome differences of view as evidence that we are living in a society in which everyone has freedom of conscience.
“But we must never grow accustomed to criminal or para-criminal abuse.”
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our UK politics live blog, I’m Frances Mao stepping in for Andrew Sparrow today.
The UK economy’s 0.1% growth figure this morning is better than expected – markets had prepared for a slight contraction for August but once again, AI spending has boosted the economy.
That headline figure doesn’t mask the deeper issues though of rising inflation and government debt; fevered speculation continues on how Healey will address this in his first budget in two weeks time. Kemi Badenoch is expected to join the City’s critical chorus in denouncing the idea of slapping higher taxes on the banks.
Meanwhile, the charities regulator today is expected to lambast the “thuggery and intimidation” faced by Royal National Lifeboat Institution volunteeers in recent weeks, following anti-migrant demonstrations.
The charity, which saves lives at sea, had to temporarily pause its work at Portsmouth after facing a barrage of abuse from far-right groups and agitators calling the lifesavers “traitors” after instances when they helped rescue asylum seekers on small boats.
In addition to those threats, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has previously called the RNLI a “migrant taxi service”.
Yesterday, the Guardian reported Farage’s call for NGOs and their volunteers who help asylum seekers to face criminal prosecution. Talking to a rightwing US podcaster he claimed such groups had “actually aided and abetted criminality in absolutely every way”.
When asked if he believed “in criminal penalties for those who facilitated this invasion of the English Isles”, he replied:
Totally, totally. The role of the NGOs, the role of those that are sponsored by taxpayers’ money, because they’re nice, they’re good, they’re kind. They have actually aided and abetted criminality in absolutely every way.
These are people [who are] are deluded – deluded, hard-left socialist Marxists, who don’t believe in countries, don’t believe in borders, don’t believe in identities, are intent on destroying everything that exists.
The Charity Commission head is expected to warn against a “normalisation of violence” against workers.
