The new Prime Minister may believe he has the common touch, but when it comes to illegal immigration he risks being seen as a soft touch. In his first week in office, 881 illegal migrants crossed the Channel by boat, despite his boasts about the “very rigorous” approach of the Home Office.
Channel crossings at record level
On Tuesday, a 42-foot dinghy carrying 165 migrants was launched from the French coast, easily beating the previous record of 128 passengers set earlier this month. The people smugglers are clearly not intimidated by Britain’s new leader, and the gangsters are becoming bolder. Burnham, usually loquacious on other issues, has remained reticent about the crisis.
Voters are fed up with the privileged treatment of migrant lawbreakers, who are often offered more support and better accommodation by the British state than law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. The sense of injustice is particularly acute at this time of year, as Britons taking holidays abroad face ever-growing scrutiny and checks while illegal crossers are effectively offered a free ferry service by the Border Force Agency.
The integrity of the borders and public faith in the legal system are under threat. Burnham must get a grip.
Millionaires and tax overpayments
A group called Patriotic Millionaires has sent an open letter to Downing Street calling on the Labour Government to increase taxes on the wealthy. Gary Lineker is among the signatories. “Our richest people can do more and most want to,” he says.
Yet in the financial year 2024/5, the Treasury received £585,000 in deliberate tax overpayments. Contrary to Lineker’s claim, most millionaires are not keen on handing more money to HM Revenue and Customs. Many have left the country in the wake of Labour’s recent tax hikes, while others use complex financial arrangements to reduce their liabilities. The plea for higher taxes is just virtue signalling.
Justice delayed
Ann Widdecombe was bludgeoned to death on July 8, yet the trial of Joshua Kerry, the man charged with her killing, will not begin until June next year. McKinstry contrasts that delay with the 1953 case of Reginald Christie, the Rillington Place murderer, who was arrested on March 31, tried on June 22 and executed on July 15. McKinstry asks whether anyone would claim we have a more effective legal system.
Cricket in No 10
Burnham is renowned for his devotion to Everton but is almost as keen on cricket, having been a good enough pace bowler to represent Lancashire schoolboys. He shares this enthusiasm with predecessors including John Major, Rishi Sunak and Theresa May, who was instrumental in getting a knighthood for her hero, Geoff Boycott.
Clement Attlee was so obsessed with cricket that he had the Press Association install a news ticker machine in Downing Street, just so he could read county scores. Alec Douglas-Home, briefly PM in the early sixties, played at first-class level. Stanley Baldwin fell in love with his future wife Lucy when he watched her score a half century for the White Heather women’s club in Yorkshire.
