About: Priti Patel
France and Britain trade barbs over treatment of Ukraine refugees in Calais
France and Britain engaged in a diplomatic spat on Sunday (6 March) over the treatment of Ukrainian refugees stuck in the French port of Calais, with UK Interior Minister Priti Patel defending Britain's actions after earlier criticism from France.
Surveillance plane to be deployed over Channel to monitor migrants
The EU's border agency is to deploy a plane 24-hours-a-day over the Channel coast to monitor migrant crossings, France announced Sunday (28 November) after pushing its European partners for help in cracking down on people-smuggling.
UK migrant plan stokes tensions with France
Britain and France locked horns on Thursday (9 September) over reported plans by London to turn back boats carrying migrants across the Channel, triggering alarm and anger in Paris.
UK announces harsher sentences for Channel migrants
Britain has announced it will seek harsher sentences for migrants caught entering the country without permission amid a record-breaking surge in arrivals over the English Channel.
UK arrivals face ten day hotel quarantine as Johnson imposes new restrictions
Residents arriving in England from 22 ‘red list’ hotspot countries with new variants of COVID-19 will have to quarantine in hotels at their own expense, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday (27 January).
UK interior minister Patel vows asylum system overhaul
British interior minister Priti Patel accused migrants crossing the Channel on boats of “shopping around” to claim asylum, as she vowed Sunday to overhaul the UK’s response to the arrivals. Delivering the keynote address on the second day of the...
Ice cream maker Ben and Jerry’s turns fire on UK migration rhetoric
The British government has become embroiled in an unlikely row with ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's over its approach to migrants arriving by boat from France, after the brand criticised ministers' increasingly bellicose rhetoric.
UK sets out steep barriers for EU migrants from 2021
EU nationals without a well-paid job offer and sufficient qualifications will be unable to work in the UK in the future, according to a tough new ‘points-based’ immigration system that will come into force when it leaves the EU's Single Market at the end of 2020.
UK post-Brexit rules to ‘turn off tap’ of low-skilled foreign labor
Britain will “turn off the tap” of foreign, low-skilled labor and require all skilled workers wishing to come to the country to have a job offer and meet salary and language requirements as it sets post-Brexit rules from next year.
UK overseas aid budget fraud levels do not seem credible, watchdog says
The UK government’s claims of low levels of fraud in Britain’s overseas aid budget do not seem credible given mounting evidence of missing money, the House of Commons financial watchdog has said.
UK’s May promises to keep 0.7% aid spend target if she wins election
British Prime Minister Theresa May promised Friday (21 April) to keep the UK’s aid spending at 0.7% of GDP if – as appears likely – her ruling Conservative party win the upcoming snap election.
UK doubles funding to fight tropical diseases in developing world
The UK has pledged to double the funding it gives to fighting neglected tropical diseases, in a move that will protect more than 200 million people around the world from debilitating and painful conditions.
Attacks on UK aid budget are ‘fake news’, says Miliband
The President of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, has condemned British media attacks on the UK’s aid budget as “fake news”.
Plan to align UK aid with trade policy could sideline poor countries
UK aid will be more closely allied with trade policy after the British government signalled a new approach to development assistance that may risk sidelining poorer countries.
UK watchdog calls for clearer picture of how aid investments benefit the poor
The private sector arm of the UK’s aid programme is failing to demonstrate adequately how its investments improve the lives of the world’s poorest, according to the state spending watchdog, even as the government plans to ramp up the funds it channels through the body.
More than 25% of UK aid budget will be spent by other ministries by 2020
More than a quarter of UK overseas aid will be spent by ministries other than the Department for International Development (DfiD) by 2019/20 - according to figures that have sparked renewed concern about changes to Britain’s aid policy.
UK development minister challenged over ‘wasted aid’ claim
The new minister in charge of Britain’s overseas aid budget faced criticism on her first appearance before a Commons committee when she was unable to come up with a figure for the amount of aid that was being “wasted and stolen” – after publicly highlighting it as a significant problem.
New UK development minister plans aid review based on ‘Conservative values’
Too much of Britain’s aid money is wasted, stolen or spent on inappropriate projects, the new minister overseeing the UK aid budget has declared, as she served notice of plans to take an approach based on “core Conservative principles”.