A 16-year-old boy has been charged with assault over the attack on a Syrian boy at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorks Police say
The case is now active and sharing evidence is contempt, as is reporting information that can identify the child in proceedings
Thank you to everyone for the messages of support, sorry I can't reply to them all
The police have been very supportive and I and my partner are safe. And I'm not going to be intimidated out of doing my job
Breaking: Legal action has been launched over the Metropolitan Police’s alleged failure to “adequately investigate” Boris Johnson’s attendance at Downing Street Parties
The
@GoodLawProject
has given the force two weeks to respond to its legal letter
Twitter has verified the (previously banned) far-right party Britain First as an "official organisation" and is giving blue ticks to anyone "affiliated" with it
That will amplify their tweets to non-followers
I asked a wide spectrum of people working across different areas of Home Office responsiblity about Priti Patel's legacy. The consensus?
"The worst home secretary in living memory"
Breaking: The Home Office has admitted exercising an unlawful and secret policy of seizing mobile phones from all migrants crossing the English Channel
Lawyers made admission at the High Court, while fighting legal action brought by three asylum seekers
New: Liz Truss wants to impose targets to cut murders, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by 20% if she becomes prime minister
One senior police source described the policy to me as "incoherent shit"
Breaking: The RNLI has recorded a 2,000% increase in donations in a single day amid a surge in support over rescues of migrant boats
Criticism by Nigel Farage and others sparked an unprecedented flood of donations, including over £200,000 yesterday alone
Tommy Robinson has characterised his case as an establishment crackdown, but his Facebook live posed a real threat to actual victims
For the first time, The Independent can reveal how close he came to causing the Huddersfield grooming trials to collapse
A significant amount of responses to this story are suggesting that I have been "briefed" by civil servants/political opponents, or that it's part of a "witch-hunt"
It's not - it is the result of a six-month investigation by me, and only me
The home secretary will be departing for Kigali on Friday evening, accompanied by media representatives from outlets including GB News, the Daily Mail, Times, Express and Telegraph
The BBC, The Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mirror and i were not invited
I'm sure I'm not the only woman who recognises the tone of this carefully crafted email
The need to dress up a reasonable and urgent point in layers of self-deprecation, jokes, apologies and non-threatening punctuation (!) so your competency isn't perceived as aggressive
Helen MacNamara fmr dep cab sec emerging as one of the heroes of the pandemic. Her email to the then NHS England chief Simon Stevens on the issue of PPE for women (SS told her it wasn't a problem)
Exclusive: Tommy Robinson has been accused of misusing supporters’ money, as he declares himself bankrupt despite receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations and funding
I have interviewed former employees and donors about where the money went
While granting the Stalking Protection Order a judge found that Tommy Robinson's allegations against me and my partner were false
He rejected Robinson's justifications and said he has "incited his followers" against me across various platforms since 2018
Exclusive: Suella Braverman is facing fresh allegations of ministerial code breaches over her failure to formally disclose previous work with the Rwandan government
She was the director of a charity training its lawyers for five years
Durham Police have fined at least two people who travelled to the county from London, an FOI by the BBC has revealed
The pair, who were from different households, journeyed to Peterlee about a week after Dominic Cummings' trip
A helpful parliamentary written answer from the Home Office summarising one of the key drivers of small boat crossings
There is no visa or other form of permission for people wanting to travel legally to the UK for the purpose of claiming asylum, and it can't be done from abroad
New: British officials repeatedly told the government not to strike a deal with Rwanda over asylum seekers, court documents have revealed
It was “initially excluded from the shortlist of potential partner countries on human rights grounds”
Exclusive: Rishi Sunak is refusing to trigger an inquiry into Suella Braverman’s previous links to Rwanda
It's the second time in a week the PM has stopped short of a full investigation into alleged breaches of the ministerial code
🚨Breaking: The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has conducted a legal assessment of the UK government's new Rwanda treaty and bill - and concludes the scheme still violates international law🚨
The Metropolitan Police used its powers to ban pro-Palestinian marchers, but not Cenotaph "defenders" and far right groups, from Whitehall today
When asked why, the senior officer in charge of the operation said he thought they would "not cause serious disorder by themselves"
The Queen's Speech included a law billed as a "crackdown on foreign criminals", which the home secretary claimed would make the UK safer
It would apply to a current average of 10 people a year.
The Met Police has changed its statement over a BBC journalist being chased at an anti- lockdown protest
lts initial statement "suggested officers were not in the immediate vicinity of the incident" but footage showed them there and failing to intervene or help
Exclusive: The government has been accused of an “outrageous” cover-up after refusing to reveal how much sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost
It claims the secrecy is in the public interest because it needs a “safe space” to negotiate agreements
I did not speak publicly about this case while it was ongoing, but James Goddard has now been convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour towards me
He targeted me at a court hearing over his abuse of Anna Soubry at pro-Brexit 'Yellow Vest' protests
Breaking: Asylum seekers who are intercepted while crossing the English Channel in small boats have not broken the law, the Court of Appeal has found
Judges quashed the convictions of three men who were wrongly jailed for “assisting unlawful immigration”
Here follows a story about how the government influences media coverage
At 10am yesterday, journalists were sent a watchdog report finding the UK spent £3.5bn of aid money - 1/3 entire budget - on refugees and asylum seekers already here in 2022
Breaking: A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences
"The arrest relates to suspected membership of a proscribed organisation linked to right-wing terrorism"
The Ukrainian war will trigger a new refugee crisis, and those fleeing will be justified in wanting to get out of the surrounding region
The Nationality and Borders Bill is still going through parliament and will criminalise any asylum seeker arriving "without permission" in UK
My job has been covering the Home Office for seven years and this is the first policy I couldn't believe was real when I read about it
The home secretary appears to have confirmed it
The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice. 1/4
I revealed value of the Home Office contract covering the Bibby Stockholm in June
The Home Office accused me of being misleading because it covered more than barge (which story made clear) & when I asked for costs it refused
Today we learn it's £22.45m
I'm finding it difficult to believe that Twitter algorithms or chance brought Katie Hopkins to Donald Trump's attention, so how is it happening?
How did he come to retweet Britain First leader Jayda Fransen in 2017? Why did his son tweet in support of Tommy Robinson last year?
Breaking: Several asylum seekers selected by the government for transfer to Rwanda have been identified as potential trafficking victims - by the government's own official system
But not until AFTER they were detained and told they would be deported
Exclusive: Rishi Sunak has been accused of “cooking the books” to cut the asylum backlog as thousands of claims are removed from the system following his pledge
More than 6,000 people were wiped off the list without being assessed in just 3 months
Breaking: Despite ongoing legal challenges being considered by the Court of Appeal, the UK government has rewritten the Rwanda deal to expand it to cover everyone crossing the Channel - including modern slavery victims - rather than just asylum seekers
Breaking: Seven asylum seekers who were wrongly jailed for steering dinghies across the English Channel have had their convictions quashed
The Court of Appeal threw them out because of the same “error of law” that saw 5 other cases overturned last year
Exclusive: Britain’s most senior police officers were not consulted about Boris Johnson’s new plan to “beat crime” – or even aware it was being drawn up
The media were sent a copy of the document before police chiefs received it this morning
Exclusive: Priti Patel has been accused of misleading the public by labelling all Channel crossings by asylum seekers “illegal” after a court confirmed they're not
The Home Office has not publicly acknowledged the ruling despite admissions by its lawyers
Exclusive: The Conservative Party used disinformation tactics with a “new level of impunity” during last year’s general election, a report has found.
Researchers from King’s College London warned campaign risked undermining public trust over coronavirus
The Home Office's own research on grooming gangs found “links between ethnicity and offending” could not be proven
It was commissioned by Sajid Javid but kept secret initially, and published after this article I wrote triggered massive public pressure
Exclusive: The Home Office set up a website targeting asylum seekers with “misleading” claims to deter them from journeying to the UK
It created a fake organisation called On The Move, which claims to provide "free, reliable and important information”
The Met Police is facing demands for an explanation over how officers guarding Downing Street could have been unaware of the “BYOB” garden party
Baroness Jones is to write to the force and IOPC to ask whether officers witnessed the event or reported it
Exclusive: An Australian travel firm has been quietly handed a £1.6bn contract covering the UK’s new asylum barges, as well as other accommodation and "travel services"
The two-year contract was awarded directly without a competition
Exclusive: The government has been ordered to publish its assessments on the impact of national lockdowns and Covid restrictions after resisting making them public
Documents predicting how rules would affect different groups have so far been kept secret
Writing in 2011 under her maiden name, Ms Braverman said she was in a team of volunteer lawyers who “taught advocacy, legal drafting, negotiation and substantive law to judges, government lawyers...”
She suggested Rwanda did not have a “properly functioning legal system”
Exclusive: Home Office staff could strike if forced to implement the Rwanda deal and new small boats bill
Many fear the measures are unlawful and could put them at legal risk, and say they are sick of “constant downwards political pressure”
Absolutely stunning investigation on electoral fraud in Russia by Reuters.
'Officials at several polling stations were observed not keeping count..challenged with photos of the same people voting more than once, officials said that “they could be twins”.
New: Most of the asylum seekers so far housed on the Bibby Stockholm are not small boat migrants and arrived in the UK on legal flights
But ministers have claimed the barge and use of military bases as accommodation would “deter” English Channel crossings
In more than a decade of court reporting, covering the most serious and high-profile cases in Britain, I have never felt so sick as today
David Carrick's offending was unimaginable in its brutality and perversion and there are many details that are too graphic to report
As a south-of-the-river person, I hereby gift everyone in the queue for the Queen's lying in state a map of all the decent pubs en route (or very close to it)
If you are hearing about the 'yellow vests' who have been intimidating MPs, journalists and Remain protesters outside Parliament for the first time, here's a history of the group
It's mostly made up of Tommy Robinson supporters, ex-EDL, Britain First and Pegida UK supporters
I'm seeing a lot of people tweeting about the Cyprus case expressing shock that the woman was questioned for hours without a lawyer present
This also happens in the UK, where there is no obligation for rape complainants to have legal support or advice during interviews
Exclusive: Boris Johnson and government ministers have made dozens of false statements to parliament since the last general election - and failed to officially correct them
An Independent investigation has found at least 27, not counting repetition
The incident happened after I sought comment for a story, but I have been suffering online abuse stemming from Tommy Robinson and his supporters since late 2017, and made my first police report relating to it in 2018
This is the story he tried to stop:
Earlier this year, Priti Patel claimed most migrants crossing the Channel on small boats were "economic migrants"
The Home Office's own data now shows that 94% have applied for asylum since 2018. Only 8% of those claims were refused
Breaking: An alleged far-right extremist has been charged with attempting to launch a terror attack on a solicitors' firm in London.
Cavan Medlock, 28, is accused of planning to kill a lawyer from Duncan Lewis because of their work representing migrants
Revealed: The UK has lost track of thousands of migrants by removing their asylum claims from the system
But the Home Office's reliance on posted letters is causing chaos, and it is already having to reverse decisions and put cases back into the backlog
Breaking: The government has been defeated in the House of Lords as peers moved to force Rishi Sunak’s small boats bill to comply with international law
The amendment could be the first of several defeats this evening over the Illegal Migration Bill
Breaking: Priti Patel must reconsider the Rwanda deal because it is not safe, parliament's human rights committee has said
It warned that removing people to “another state where they face a real risk of serious human rights abuses” violates intl law
Listening to Priti Patel claim the government has been "consistently ahead of the curve" on coronavirus and thinking about a Home Office drinks reception on 9 March, where her staff actually made fun of me for asking about the protocol for shaking hands
Breaking: The Met Police has launched a new investigation into alleged breaches of Covid laws at Downing Street, Chequers, inside parliament and at CCHQ
It said "a number of other events" have been referred since original Partygate probe
It was “impossible to expect” the police officer who witnessed Downing Street’s notorious Christmas party to realise Covid laws were being broken, the acting head of the Metropolitan Police has claimed
Interesting, given that's how Covid fines worked
Breaking: UK police and law enforcement will lose access to key EU databases even if a security deal is struck before Brexit, officials have confirmed
Letters published today warn of a 'major operational impact', even with contingency plans in place
After David Carrick entered his first guilty pleas, the Metropolitan Police started searching its own records for officers and staff who had also been accused of sex offences or domestic abuse in the past, but remained in service
They have found 1,071
When the government talks about asylum seekers "flouting our laws", it's worth remembering that crossing the English Channel in a small boat to claim asylum wasn't a crime until the government changed the law specifically to make it one on 28 June 2022
The chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Diana Johnson, called the refusal to attend Wednesday’s evidence session “wholly unacceptable”
She said the reason given - changes in the Home Office ministerial team - "does not make sense as it was the home secretary giving evidence"
For 3 days this week, the National Conservatism Conference filled a large venue across the road from the Home Office, attracting an array of ministers and MPs
But it has no links to the Tories, and is run by a US group concerned for “Western civilization”
The 'loverboy method' described here by Romanian police RE Andrew Tate's arrest is commonly used by UK grooming gangs (also known as the 'boyfriend model')
But British far right activists who claim to defend grooming victims are jumping to his defence
Britain First is urging its supporters to join the Conservative Party in order to “make Boris Johnson‘s leadership more secure”
The far-right group sent an email to subscribers claiming “thousands” of its activists were becoming members of the Tories
This video is doing the rounds on far-right networks, claiming to show Muslim worshippers violating UK's coronavirus lockdown
But in the video, it is clearly raining. It's been wall-to-wall sunshine in London since the new measures came into force.
Don't fall for it.
Exclusive: Priti Patel “misled parliament” with a series of false statements on Channel migrants – but is not being investigated for a breach of the ministerial code
They were made during the passage of laws that criminalised small boat crossings
This is the second court case over a far-right extremist's actions towards me, after James Goddard was given a restraining order last November
I wrote this at the time. I am just one of too many journalists being threatened and harassed over their work
Britain First was banned by Twitter in December 2017 and by Facebook the following March, after its leaders were jailed for religiously-aggravated harassment
The loss of its previously huge reach crushed its public visibility, membership and fundraising
Here it is: Suella Braverman is facing fresh allegations of ministerial code breaches over her failure to formally disclose previous work with the Rwandan government
She was the director of a charity training its lawyers for five years
It's not a borderline case. Now- verified leader Paul Golding has been convicted of a terror offence
Britain First was formed out of the fascist British National Party and became known for launching so-called Christian patrols, mosque “invasions”, anti-immigration and Islam
The men, from Iraq and Iran, were all arrested on arrival in UK despite committing no crime & were stripped of their possessions
Authorities kept their mobile phones for months, leaving them unable to contact their loved ones. One man feared his wife and daughter had been killed
A Brexit supporter has been jailed for sending MPs death threats
Jarod Kirkman told female MPs their "days are fucking numbered bitch" and "expect it soon". He sent David Lammy racist abuse
The emails were headed "Brexit traitor"
New: Shamima Begum's lawyer tells me she only held British nationality and 'has never had a Bangladeshi passport' meaning she is stateless
The government was found to have acted unlawfully in two cases involving Islamists of Bangladeshi heritage last year
Shamima Begum has been stripped of her British citizenship, letter to her family obtained by ITV News shows
The family's lawyer say they will be appealing the decision, following warnings that she could not be made stateless under international law
James Cleverly has got off on the right foot with Home Office civil servants
Yesterday afternoon, he gave a speech from the atrium of the department's Marsham Street headquarters that was broadcast to all staff, and went down very well
Here's what he said:
Almost 2/3 of British people want the government to resettle Ukrainian refugees, poll has found as ministers refuse to set up a scheme
Research carried out by YouGov following Russian invasion found that 63% of Britons would support and only 18% opposed
A teenage neo-Nazi has been convicted of planning terror attacks as part of what he believed was an upcoming "race war"
The 16-year-old boy had plans to firebomb synagogues in Durham area and searched for targets
He had also written his own manifesto
Exclusive: Striking barristers are not responsible for a “disaster of justice” facing Britain, the head of Rape Crisis has said
She says barristers "are boldly taking a stand to push for ...a justice system that is functioning and intact and effective”
Hundreds of conspiracy theorists have been protesting in Trafalgar Square again today, including anti-vaxxers, 5G, QAnon and claims coronavirus is a hoax
Police just announced they will be dispersing demonstrators and "those who remain may get arrested"
Exclusive: The British far right is becoming more openly racist in the wake of a backlash against international Black Lives Matter protests, a new report has warned
There are signs of a "shift" from previously dominant anti-Islam to white nationalism
After I put questions about the website to the Home Office, the first line of its response was: "The Independent’s claims are wrong and misleading"
They hadn't seen my article, I hadn't even written it
Exclusive: The Home Office set up a website targeting asylum seekers with “misleading” claims to deter them from journeying to the UK
It created a fake organisation called On The Move, which claims to provide "free, reliable and important information”
Exclusive: Police officers are being “repeatedly exposed to trauma” as they are increasingly called to homes where people who have died during the coronavirus outbreak
One officer recently responded to 15 deaths in the space of 24 hours
A plea for everyone to stop regurgitating the government's language around "addressing the Supreme Court's concerns" with the Rwanda deal
It didn't have "concerns", it ruled the agreement unlawful based on exhaustive consideration of the facts and evidence. Ludicrous framing
Breaking: All prosecutions under the new Coronavirus Act have been unlawful, a review has found.
The Crown Prosecution Service revealed that all 44 charges it had so far checked had been withdrawn or overturned
Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 13 months for breaking contempt of court laws
The punishment can be legally reported for the first time after The Independent challenged a reporting restriction imposed on the case at Leeds Crown Court
The Suella Braverman v Holocaust survivor saga isn't the first time the Home Office has picked an ill-advised fight on Twitter
In January 2021, they tweeted this about a completely accurate article I'd written
.
@Independent
This is not true.
@PoliceChiefs
made clear they have power to remove a person if they breach the rules. Holiday travel is not allowed. Police can fine anyone trying to do so, direct them to go home and, if necessary, use powers of arrest.
In September, Suella Braverman praised Douglas Murray in parliament for his "mainstream, insightful and perfectly decent political views", accusing counter-terror bodies of "disparaging" him
Here's his latest article, saying Nazis actually felt really bad about the Holocaust
Incredible for this is happening on the day the Daniel Morgan report found that "concealing or denying failings for the sake of an organisation’s public image is dishonesty for reputational benefit, and constitutes a form of institutional corruption"
Police officers who stopped two black athletes as they drove through London with their baby in the car are under investigation for misconduct
A watchdog revealed that after the incident, officers put their three-month old son on a police database
Priti Patel has refused to attend a planned session giving evidence to parliament’s Home Affairs Committee
She was due to answer questions this morning on issues including the Rwanda migrant deal, violence against women, policing and passport delays