Keir Starmer has completed his international mini-tour by meeting Emmanuel Macron in Paris for symbolically significant if low-key talks that skirted around specifics of Brexit or migration policy. Suella Braverman halted annual inspections of immigration detention centres, such as Brook House, last year, shortly after ministers received direct warnings that vulnerable people, such as torture victims, had been left unprotected, the immigration watchdog has disclosed. An inquiry into abuses at the Brook House immigration detention centre has identified a “toxic culture” and numerous breaches of human rights laws relating to torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as racist, derogatory language used by some staff towards detainees. The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels has risen to £8m a day, according to the Home Office’s annual report. Almost 90% of people, including 65% of Conservative supporters, think Britain needs a fresh team of leaders, new polling suggests. (See 3.18pm.) This is what Rob Ford, a politics professor, says about the implications of these findings. Given the evidence from polling like this, it is hard to see exactly what could lead senior Conservatives to believe a “small boats” focussed May election is the path to victory, but apparently at least some do believe this.
And this is what Will Jennings, another politics professor, is saying. My current view on Westminster polling is that it is unlikely that Labour leads of 20+ points will last up until an election, but that the government has a huge uphill task to win back voters - that is just not being reflected in most commentary.
Ministers have announced commissioners will run Birmingham city council as part of a series of drastic emergency measures for the country’s largest local authority, which has in effect declared itself bankrupt. Crumbling and potentially dangerous concrete has been found in 174 English schools, 27 more than previously known, as ministers face criticism for a slow response to the crisis. Lee Anderson, the Conservative party’s deputy chair, has been found to have broken parliamentary rules by filming a promotional clip for his GB News programme from the roof of the House of Commons. The UK’s financial regulator has found no evidence showing banks have shut or denied accounts to customers based primarily on their political beliefs, according to a preliminary review launched in the wake of the Nigel Farage debanking row.