Back to work with a 💥 Ali Fortescue 👏🏻

One more reason to watch Sky’s political coverage 24 hours a day every day for six weeks (sleeping is cheating)

📣POLITICS HUB is going seven days a week and our brilliant Ali Fortescue will be taking the hot seat on Fri-Sun, with the ace Sophy Ridge at the helm Mon-Thurs 👊

🚨🚨BIG NEWS (For me): I’ll be in the Politics Hub hot seat Friday-Sunday while the wonderful Sophy Ridge gets a little break!

Nice chilled first day back.

PM calls General Election on July 4th - it’s first time there’s been a July election since 1945

🚨Belated maternity news🚨

I’m off for a bit!

Bye cya 👋👋

“Where is he?!”

Labour’s Yvette Cooper on whereabouts of immigration minister Robert Jenrick missing from front bench

Via Ali Fortescue

Front page of Rwanda + Illegal Migration Bills

Suella Braverman: 'I may not have always found the right words in the past'

🔥Suella Braverman MP resignation statement:

'The Conservative Party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if we introduce yet another Bill destined to fail. Do we fight for sovereignty or let our party die?'

.. Overall though marginally more measured tone than previous

Slice of good news for govt: High court win over RAF Scampton + Wethersfield asylum housing plans - Local council cases dismissed but have been granted right to appeal.

Shaping up to be a big immigration week.

On legal migration - Hearing from the Home Sec v shortly. Expect something on minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas + shortage occupation list.

On Rwanda - new treaty and emergency legislation expected in coming days.

Greece has reduced small boat crossings from nearly 1M in 2015 to around 12,000 in 2022 (UNHCR figs) - but their tactics have been controversial, accusations of “pushbacks” at sea and inhumane treatment at Greek border ports

As 2022 net migration figure revised up to record 745,000.

Reminder of pledges past:

🔵Cameron / May: <100,000

🔵Johnson: 250,000

🔵Sunak: Committed to making sure 'overall numbers come down'.

My analysis with Kamali Melbourne

Jacob Rees Mogg says the Home
Secretary has an “odd way” of looking at the net migration figures.

After James Cleverly🇬🇧 said: “The figure is not showing a significant increase from last year’s figures and is largely in line with our own immigration statistics”

Hard to put into words just how enormous the recent flows of migration into UK are, so this chart 👇 is prob a better place to start.
This country has NEVER seen net migration as high as this.
Look at the population-adjusted figures going back to 1850.
It’s totally unprecedented.