TORY leadership rivals are right to make immigration a key battleground as they slug it out during their party conference.
Millions of Britons are concerned about unsustainable levels of migration and the last Government’s failure to get a grip on our borders — despite promises to the contrary — was inevitably punished at the ballot box.
The Tories need to show they now have a plan.
Not everyone who comes here respects our values and freedoms.
More than that, the whole economic argument for mass migration is flawed.
Our public services and infrastructure have not kept pace with rapid population growth since Tony Blair first opened the floodgates.
Access to GPs and hospital treatment is under growing pressure and net migration accounts for almost 90 per cent of the increase in England’s housing deficit over the past ten years.
While immigration has added greatly to our country, too many of those coming here in recent years take more from the economy than they contribute.
Meanwhile, there are millions of inactive Britons — while employers continue to recruit cheap labour from abroad.
Ideas from the party conference this week on how to balance genuine welfare needs with the urgent task of getting benefits claimants off hand-outs and into work, are vital.
That is how to tackle the immigration issue and turn around our economy.
PROSECUTING people who don’t pay the BBC licence fee is morally indefensible in the era of Netflix and YouTube.
So it is positive news that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood are uncomfortable with the nearly 1,000 prosecutions a week and are considering ending them.
They are said to agree taxpayers should not bear the cost of policing the Beeb’s outdated £169.50 levy.
The bad news is that the persecution will continue for at least two more years.
That could mean another 100,000 people criminalised for not paying for a BBC service they might not even use.
The Government needs to scrap not only the prosecutions — but also be ready to get rid of the licence fee altogether.
WHILE the Tory leadership race drags on, the Government has at least found it has some effective opposition.
Take a bow Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield who, after quitting Labour in disgust, looks set to be a champion for pensioners starved of the winter fuel allowance and women whose rights have been abandoned to woke warriors.
She will doubtless also be a thorn in the side for unelected characters looking to wield influence over the Government.
THIS is the shocking moment when former Love Island star Ovie Soko dislocated Chris Robshaw’s shoulder.
The celebrities were tasked with boxing each other, and the pair were involved in a brutal fight on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Ovie, 33, signed up to compete on the survival show alongside the likes of fellow reality stars Pete Wicks, Bobby Norris and Georgia Harrison.
However, the former ITV2 personality was engaged in a gruelling boxing bout against the former England Rugby player.
The fight between the duo was stopped after Chris claimed that his shoulder was dislocated.
After the incident, he was then rushed to see the show’s expert medical team.
Chris, 38, was then examined by seasoned expedition leader Dr Raj Joshi who asked him to tightly squeeze his fingers in the examination.
He then informed the star: “Okay. So your shoulder is unstable.
“This could pop at any time. So for that reason, I’m gonna have to medically withdraw you from the course.”
Dr Raj added: “It’s just one of those things, yeah, all right, yeah, okay. I’m gonna have a chat with the DS.”
The former athlete couldn’t help but reflect on his journey on the hit Channel 4 endurance show.
He stated: “As a sports person. You gradually come to terms with your body can’t do it.
“Your body’s not what is 10 years ago. When you do get to that stage where you do have to, unfortunately, move on from what you love doing, it’s really hard.”
Chris was the eleventh recruit into the notoriously tough process which sees a number of celebrity stars put in harsh environments around the world.
Their two-week long training course is designed to replicate the actual United Kingdom Special Forces selection course.
He was the fourth recruit to drop out of the process after Tez Ilyas was culled, Marnie Simpson and John Barrowman withdrew.
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is available to watch on Channel 4.
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FANS have spotted a closing down sale at a local shoe shop – yet another outlet to shut up shop in the “ghost town”.
The Shoezone branch in Burgess Hill, West Sussex – one of 330 nationwide – was pictured with large “Closing Down Soon” banners.
The pictures were posted on the local Facebook page Burgess Hill Uncovered.
The caption read: “Shoe Zone are not renewing their lease at Market Place Shopping Centre, therefore the store will be closing in the near future. Sorry to hear this for the staff.
“How long do you think it’ll take the agent to fill the unit (if at all!) and what would you like to see come into the centre in its place?”
The post was met with a flurry of 162 comments, with many locals complaining about the number of recent closures in the area.
One wrote: “What a surprise, another one going… just keeps getting worse and worse…”
Another added: “It’s shocking the town is ruined.”
A third commented: “Everything is going to closed in burgess hill it looks like a ghost town.”
One commenter simply pasted the lyrics of the Queen song Another One Bites The Dust.
Others noted that there will be a scarcity of shoe shops in the area following the closure, which is set to take place in March.
One wrote: “Nowhere now in BH to buy a pair of shoes.”
Another said: “That’s really sad… And there isn’t one nearby either…. Probably Crawley will be the nearest one now.”
The news comes following a series of Shoezone closures over the last two years.
The high street chain closed 13 branches last year – including another in Sussex.
This year, it has closed its Watford branch and announced several other closures – including in Stoke-on-Trent and Inverness, Scotland.
High streets across the UK have suffered from decline over the past decade.
Since 2018, 6,000 retail outlets have brought down the shutters, according to the British Retail Consortium.
The trade association’s chief executive Helen Dickinson OBE blamed the closures on “crippling” business rates and the impact of coronavirus lockdowns.
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre’s director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is “less bad” than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend,” Prof Bamfield said.
“Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023’s biggest failures included Paperchase, Cath Kidston, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
BRITAIN must quit the European Convention of Human Rights as a matter of “leave or die”, Robert Jenrick will warn today.
The Tory leadership frontrunner will blast Strasbourg judges for strangling our ability to deport foreign murderers, rapists and paedophiles.
Failing to cut ties will only embolden Nigel Farage’s Reform which could “condemn us to obscurity”, he will tell party activists.
Mr Jenrick will make the pledge at a non-sanctioned “rebel rally” on the outskirts of the Birmingham conference this morning.
He will say: “The choice is clear, it’s leave or remain.
“In fact it’s more than that – it is leave or die.
“If we don’t do this now, we’ll never restore the public’s trust and there’s every chance that Reform will grow and grow and condemn us to obscurity.”
Mr Jenrick is also agitating for an annual cap on legal migration to bring down the numbers.
Blasting 14 years of broken promises, he will say: “Our party’s survival rests on restoring our credibility on immigration.
“If we continue to duck and dance around this question our party has no future.”