Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a meeting with representatives from criminal justice agencies at number 10 Downing Street, Westminster, April 30, 2026
FORTY children remain missing from asylum-seeker hotels and could have become victims of trafficking or exploitation, MPs warned today.
More than 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing from Home Office hotels, it emerged in 2023.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said today that 40 of the youngsters, two of whom remain under 18, had still not been found as of June. The use of hotels to house lone child asylum-seekers was banned in 2023.
Last year then border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle told the committee that some of those found were “located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked or victims of other forms of exploitation.”
The JCHR said that it continues “to be extremely concerned about the fact that some children who went missing from asylum hotels in previous years remain missing.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham reacts as he speaks with young people during a visit to the Oh Yeah centre in Belfast, as he makes his first visit to Northern Ireland since coming to office, August 27, 2026
FUEL poverty campaigners warned today that Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s words “don’t inspire confidence” for households facing rising energy bills.
The End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC) hit back after government sources suggested there would be no further support before October’s price cap rise.
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End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis told the Morning Star that ministers must go “further and faster in bringing in support for households and reform of energy bills.”
Mr Francis added: “Bringing down energy prices must be at the centre of the Budget.
“But forcing households through a sixth winter of sky-high energy bills, caused by the power that volatile gas prices have on our energy system, is not going to help anyone.
TUC calls for tax increase on bank profits to pay for social tariff to cut household bills
HOUSEHOLD energy bills will hit a three-year high in yet “another nail in the coffin” for budgets after Ofgem announced a 4 per cent rise from October.
The regulator confirmed today that gas unit rates are set to rise from 6.29p per kWh last winter to 8p, up around 27 per cent year on year.
It means the new cap is £1,723, which is £147 more than the same period last winter, when the October cap stood at £1,576, and 150 per cent higher than at the end of 2020.
From October, the government’s cut to VAT on electricity bills from 5 to 0 per cent will shave around £45 a year off the average bill.
But with experts predicting a further 9 per cent rise in January, unions and campaigners have urged the government to act again.
Cornwall Insight predicts the January 2027 price cap will rise to £1,872, 18 per cent higher than January 2026.
“I CAN’T control wars in the Middle East that we weren’t a part of, which impact families here,” explains Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh.
She was trying to abdicate any government responsibility for the latest hike in household energy bills announced today by Ofgem regulators. From October, the price cap on gas and electricity units is to be raised by 4 per cent. This comes on top of the 13 per cent increase imposed for the current July-October term.
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Fahnbulleh’s blatant lie is that Britain is not complicit in Middle East wars, which — among other consequences — have driven up international oil and gas prices.
British military bases in England, Cyprus and Diego Garcia have been used by US air and naval forces to attack Iran and Yemen. RAF fighter jets have carried out hundreds of surveillance missions over Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen. They also shot down Iranian drones aimed at US, British and other military targets in Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Syria.
Britain continues to export military components to equip Israel’s genocidal war machine, many of them trafficked through Israeli firms and agents here with little or no regulation (see this week’s Private Eye for details). Hundreds of British residents have participated in the slaughter of Palestinian civilians, enrolling in the IDF with an impunity refused to British volunteers joining pro-Russian militias in Ukraine.
Then we come to the Energy Secretary’s unacceptable truth.
Energy price rises have hit millions of consumers not only financially, but also in terms of their quality of life, health and well-being.
That’s something she and her government can control, if they have the will.
They could disband the farce that is Ofgem, freeze energy prices — already among the highest in Europe — and tax monopoly profits (£70 billion to shareholders since 2010). Then, go on the offensive and take the whole energy sector back into public ownership. Use surplus revenues to invest in solar, tidal and wind power.
This would force Reform UK and the Tories to defend the privatisation and profiteering rackets.
Should weak-kneed Labour MPs baulk at the prospect of such a struggle, Burnham could deliver the appropriate riposte: “Back me or sack yourselves at the next general election.”
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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a meeting with representatives from criminal justice agencies at number 10 Downing Street, Westminster, April 30, 2026
A gas hob burning on a stove, August 26, 2022
