𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Well we finally have some good news on immigration. The removal of foreign criminals, immigration offenders and people with no legal right to be in Britain has reportedly reached its highest level since 2016, with more than 80,000 returns since Labour came to power. Well done, Labour!

Returns are said to be up 52 per cent compared with the equivalent two-year period before the 2024 General Election. If you have no right to be here, you should be removed. If you come to Britain and repay our hospitality by committing serious crimes, I have zero sympathy for you. But we need to go much further, because for every encouraging set of figures there seems to be another case that makes you wonder whether our immigration system has lost the plot.

Take Hendrix Ekwen. He is an Italian national who was convicted of raping a woman who was drunk, unconscious and vulnerable here in Britain. The details are appalling. At his criminal trial he was found to have demonstrated a sense of sexual entitlement and attempted to place responsibility for the rape on his victim.

Yet Ekwen has now succeeded in an immigration case allowing him to remain in Britain after eventually accepting responsibility for what he did, nine years after the attack. Apparently, among the things he told the tribunal was that he would never wish such an experience upon his sisters. How charming and touching. I’m sure his victim will be delighted to hear that.

This is where ordinary people become completely exasperated with the immigration system. We seem to spend an enormous amount of time considering the rights, rehabilitation and personal circumstances of people who have committed horrendous crimes, while the rights of their victims barely seem to get a look in. Where are her human rights? Where is her right to feel safe knowing the man who raped her has been kicked out of her country? And where is our right, as a nation, to say “you were welcomed into Britain, you committed a serious crime here, and therefore you have forfeited the privilege of remaining?”

Ekwen is Italian, and last time I checked Italy was a safe, democratic European country. We’re not talking about sending somebody into a war zone or handing them over to a brutal dictatorship. Being an EU citizen doesn’t automatically protect someone from deportation either. Foreign nationals, including Italians, can be deported following serious criminality, and so they should be.

So the question is simple – why is it still so difficult? The Government deserves credit for increasing removals, but now it needs to tackle the legal maze that allows cases like this to happen because immigration control isn’t simply about numbers on a spreadsheet or boasting about how many people have been put on planes.

It is about whose interests the British state puts first. When somebody who isn’t British commits one of the most serious crimes imaginable, protecting the public and standing with the victim should be at the very top of that list.

Andrew Should Speak Up

Now let’s have it right. Andrew, formerly known as Prince, has reportedly been enjoying himself in the South of France, and I think that is a terrible optic.

Yes, while the disgraced former Duke of York remains under an enormous cloud over his past associations and allegations which he has consistently denied, apparently Andy has been busy sunning himself on the Côte d’Azur. According to royal biographer Andrew Lownie, Andy was spotted wearing a red baseball cap, white trousers, Timberland shoes and Ray-Bans, accompanied by two women in their forties – one blonde, the other with red hair.

He’s even said to be looking for a property in the region. How lovely for him.

But instead of sipping a chilled glass of rosé and browsing French villas, perhaps Andrew could make himself useful for the first time in his life and finally answer some serious questions. US lawmakers have called for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to cooperate with a congressional committee examining Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. They want him to speak to them about what he knew and his relationship with the convicted sex offender. They even said he could do it via Zoom, so why hasn’t he?

Andrew has consistently denied wrongdoing and he is entitled to do so. But cooperating with investigators is not the same thing as admitting guilt. If he genuinely has nothing to hide, surely answering questions is the best way to demonstrate it?

Harry’s Coming Home

Harry and Meghan are coming home! I said on our Daily Expresso podcast last week that Harry would start spending more time back in Britain – although I thought it would be without Meghan. So I got half of it right, because reports suggest the whole family are heading back.

Naturally, there are a million questions. Have they secured the armed protection Harry has been fighting for? Where exactly will they live? What are they going to do for work? And, perhaps most importantly, why have they chosen to move back now? But actually, I don’t think the ‘why’ matters.

Harry is from these shores and has every right to live here with his wife and children. Of course, there are some enormous bridges to rebuild with the Royal Family – especially with William and Catherine who must be feeling slightly peeved that the Montecito circus is coming to town. Plus winning over the sections of the British public who cannot stand the Sussexes ain’t gonna happen overnight.

But on the whole I think this could be positive. Welcome home, H.

Britain is Blooming

I really dislike people running Britain down. Yes, we’ve got problems – plenty of them – and things could be better. But we’re still incredibly fortunate to live in one of the greatest countries in the world.

Sometimes we need to stop moaning and celebrate our wins, even the small ones. Which brings me, strangely, to Aldi. The supermarket has already sold more than 100 million British-grown flower stems this year, with demand up 10 per cent. It expects to sell 108.5 million by the end of 2026, while sales of its Truly British bouquet are up a whopping 51 per cent. That’s fantastic!

So well done to our horticulturists and shoppers choosing home-grown flowers. Britain isn’t perfect – nowhere is – but there’s still plenty happening on these shores to be proud of.