Authoritarianism is on the rise globally. Join us at #Lab25 to understand this challenge & build a movement to resist. @labourlewis.bsky.social, @minnierahman.bsky.social, Shabna Begum, Amna Abdullatif, @maybulman.bsky.social (@lighthousereports.com) & @joemulhall.bsky.social (@hopenothate.org.uk).

Estimates of the size of the "shadow economy" France 7% Germany 7% Italy 8% ..even Estonia 7% UK: 5% Idea that ID cards are some kind of panacea... www.ey.com/content/dam/...

This. We have had ID cards in Italy since always and people can readily see how the shadow economy is doing there

The idea that digital ID cards will stop people working in the shadow economy and thus reduce small boat crossings is baffling The very nature of the shadow economy (the only way asylum seekers can find work) is employers don’t check documents.. That would obviously continue with ID cards

afaict the evidence base that digital ID will reduce the number of people migrating to the UK is "Macron says so". I hope he is duly flattered. Digital ID will be useful for many people, unusable for others, but fundamentally the issue here is with employers who don't do right to work checks

🔴 NEW: Larry Ellison’s £257m bet on Tony Blair Our investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how the Tony Blair Institute has been accused of pushing the interests of tech tycoon Ellison — Trump’s “CEO of everything” — and his company Oracle democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

Great (read scary) investigation into the Tony Blair Institute, its relationship with a US tech billionaire & efforts to get NHS health data opened up for AI I also had no idea TBI was so big: 900 staff! HT @petergeoghegan.bsky.social @maybulman.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Glad to have got this over the line How Tony Blair is lobbying on behalf of Big Tech His Institute (TBI) is pushing AI solutionism on Starmer’s govt, which is embracing it w open arms, as TBI donor & tech billionaire Larry Ellison is set to reap the benefits www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Let's get some facts right. There is absolutely no evidence that migrants "abuse" the NRM. Want to know how many bad faith applications were made in the last quarter? 1, according to the government's own data. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

NEW: French police have caused the deaths of dozens of people by intercepting small boats at sea These violent tactics are deployed now off the French overseas island of Mayotte Under pressure from the UK, France now plans to start intercepting boats in the Channel This is where that could lead ⬇️

Pendant un an, avec @lemonde.fr @spiegel.de @thetimes.com @artefr.bsky.social, nous avons enquêté à Mayotte sur la manière dont la police arrête les #kwassas, ces petits bateaux qui tentent de rejoindre l’île Nous révélons l'utilisation de tactiques dont les conséquences peuvent être mortelles 🧵

NEW: French police have caused the deaths of dozens of people by intercepting small boats at sea These violent tactics are deployed now off the French overseas island of Mayotte Under pressure from the UK, France now plans to start intercepting boats in the Channel This is where that could lead ⬇️

REVEALED: French police have caused dozens of drownings by violently intercepting small boats trying to reach overseas territory Mayotte. Similar tactics are being proposed for the Channel, to try to stop people from reaching the UK.

Today, 100s of families are still searching for answers about their missing children. Our 9 month investigation, interviewing over 100 witnesses, survivors, and staff, and gathering official documents to reveal how Syria’s children were stolen and how international silence enabled this tragedy.

“A row of men lean against the metal shutters that keep them out of Westminster tube station, as they piss through the bars directly onto the steps on the other side. Nearby a furious man in his early 30s yells ‘bring the cocaine here now, mate’. It is not yet 2pm.”

Today people went around my neighborhood in north east London spray painting St George’s crosses onto people’s homes. Many of these houses have non British people living in them. This is getting very dark, very quick.

Last week I watched 3 overcrowded boats leave a French beach in as many hours Despite UK-funded police + equipment being out in full force, it wasn't possible to stop them w/o putting lives at risk Throwing more money at security + tougher tactics is futile www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Brilliant work by my colleagues revealing how Assad's regime stole Syrian children and used them to blackmail parents, with thousands still missing to this day Highly recommend reading/watching the coverage in the BBC and Observer (links in the story below)

Three people died trying to cross the Channel last night, including two children. A woman died earlier in the day. Three others are missing www.lemonde.fr/internationa... I was in Northern France over the weekend and witnessed boats launching on Sat morning. Plan to share something on that soon

In the year to June 2025, 92% of refugee family reunion visas were given to women and children. More than half went to children. Two thirds to people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran and Sudan. It helps integration and provides a safe route. Family reunion should be easier, not harder.

Prisoners in the UK have access to vocational activities. The fact that people being held in immigration detention – who often have no criminal record, yet can be detained indefinitely – have access to such activities should not be a shock

Reform UK, which has a grand total of four MPs, was just given an uninterrupted platform for an hour and a half on the BBC and Sky News channels, in order to talk about its plans for mass deportations When was the last time the Greens (with four MPs) or the Lib Dems (with 72) were given the same?

Dramatic increase in Afghan nationals being refused asylum in the UK – yet there's no way of returning people to Afghanistan So what is the Home Office doing w/ the thousands of Afghans denied asylum? Keeping them indefinitely in asylum hotels that are the focal point of so much fury at the moment

EXCLUSIVE: Investigation proves Palestinians indiscriminately shot by Israeli military near food sites across 50 days, from yours truly for the @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

‼️Searches for ‘migrant hotels near me’ have shot up by 160% over the past 24 hours. "At this point, the narrative about asylum seekers, human rights, and the asylum system has completely broken down." @minnierahman.bsky.social Read more from Minnie in the Metro. metro.co.uk/2025/07/25/s...

I'm genuinely gobsmacked that the Home Office think this is a good idea. How do they envisage "training" technology to verify the age of a young person from (say) Darfur or Iraqi Kurdistan? They might as well get the calipers out and start doing phrenology

Border Force chief who ‘suggested game of Naked Attraction’ with colleagues was able to leave civil service with unblemished record

French police slashing small boats once they’re already afloat is nothing new (we revealed it was happening more than a year ago www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...), and it doesn’t lead to fewer people crossing, only increases the risk if drowning www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A new low by the Telegraph, and the Minister for Defence who made the claim. Not only are we talking about Afghans who worked with British Forces for the most part, immediately putting a target on their backs, but the data leak alone ensures they need to be provided with asylum to protect them.

Afghans are contacting me in a panic after receiving an email from the MoD today saying their personal data may have been compromised Some are, ofc, still in Afghanistan and were already afraid for their safety. Now that fear has increased dramatically As if they hadn't been failed enough already

Two governments took The News Agents to secret court for two years via a constitutionally unprecedented superinjunction to stop you from hearing this story. The MoD is responsible for a data leak that put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk of death. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdc6...

Explosive revelations here – recommend reading the full thread and linked pieces

Difficult to understand obsession - on part of both French and UK media - with "illegal working" as a "pull factor." No systematic data/stats (AFAIK) but both anecdote and HO releases suggest small boat arrivals only a small % of those found working illegally. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

😭Arguing with 3 people at once none of which has a realistic answer to the fact that the UK just needs immigrants. We will always be one of the countries where people seek safety & opportunity. We can make that safe & work for all our benefit, or carry on like this🤷‍♀️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ao...

New: 'Defects' in decision-making led to Afghan special forces being wrongly denied relocation to the UK, High Court rules Caseworkers weren't given access to relevant payment records & were 'overly reliant' on UKSF's input @hollybancroft.bsky.social write-up www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Difficult to express how I feel about those in our politics and media who are more concerned about what some rapper said at Glastonbury than fact that, as a matter of deliberate policy, the Israeli government is paying mercenaries to murder starving civilians for fun. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Seriously depressing talk from Yvette Cooper on #r4today this morn. We showed how dangerous these practices are last year www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio... Hard to believe this is the same Yvette Cooper who used to do a great job at grilling Tory ministers about these sort of stupid ideas

The UK's 2 Afghan relocation schemes are being quietly closed to new applications/referrals today ACRS aimed resettle around 20k people. It's relocated 12.8k in 4 years, around half of whom came in Aug 2021 ARAP has resettled 21.3k Afghans, with 22k cases still pending www.gov.uk/government/p...

The British government's plans to ban Palestine Action is the first time a rarely-used arm of its legal definition of terrorism, covering "serious damage to property", has been the basis for proscribing a group Human rights groups and MPs have raised concerns www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/w...

I previously reported on this alongside @lighthousereports.com. We found that French maritime were stabbing boats already at sea. Other incidents included threatening to use pepper spray and creating waves to try to push the dinghies back. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

Another major recognition for our investigation into Turkey's EU-funded deportations of Syrian and Afghan refugees with @lighthousereports.com @andresmourenza.bsky.social @maybulman.bsky.social @sebnemarsu.bsky.social @nicolasbourcier.bsky.social and the rest of our stellar team

At least 60 *people* are feared missing & drowned at sea after two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration has said. IOM says 743 people have died so far this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/...

I am expanding my data team at @lighthousereports.com. We are considering candidates located anywhere in the world. The position is remote. If you are a data journalist who is passionate about global investigative journalism, check it out: jobs.workable.com/view/ru2gQrx...

It’s always nice when the govt is forced to release docs/info that show they were hiding the truth from you before Evidence disclosed in court this week reveals what was going on behind the scenes as 100s of Afghan commandos were being wrongly denied relocation to the UK 🧵

This is somewhat concerning in light of the fact that Jenkins oversaw the rejection of resettlement applications from Afghan commandos who served alongside the SAS, many of whom were present during night raids where alleged unlawful killings by Brit troops took place www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The latest in the scandal behind the abandonment of Afghan commandos who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the UK – mounting evidence of a cover-up

More evidence that the UK's mass rejection of Afghan commandos was part of a war crimes cover-up We contributed to this BBC Panorama report indicating that the Afghan 'Triples' were denied relocation to Britain to prevent them testifying about unlawful killings www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Today's performative clampdown on migrants will gut our care homes of desperately needed staff. We are *already* short of over 150k carers. Banning foreign care workers will only exacerbate this - increasing suffering of society's most vulnerable members & pressures on the NHS. It's madness.

Those who are uncomfortable with this Labour immigration announcement, but think it's necessary to satisfy Reform voters, this is for you. You will not satisfy. You will never satisfy.

This is a v cool job in a v cool organisation, and you'd work with me and lots of v cool people