Thousands of refugees could cross Channel if UK left EU, No 10 says 

Thousands of refugees could cross the Channel overnight and claim asylum in southern England if France expels UK border guards in the event of a UK exit from the EU, Downing Street has warned.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, accused No 10 of scaremongering after Downing Street signalled that David Cameron would raise the prospect of the refugee camps in northern France moving across the Channel.

Davis hit out at Downing Street after the prime minister’s deputy spokesman warned that France could rescind the right of UK border guards to be stationed in northern France if the UK left the EU.

The No 10 spokesman said: “We currently have these juxtaposed controls with France that, should the UK leave the EU, there is no guarantee that those controls would remain in place. If those controls weren’t in place then there would be nothing to stop thousands of people crossing the Channel overnight and arriving in Kent and claiming asylum.”

He added: “We have an arrangement in place with France. We are both EU partners. Should we leave the EU there is no guarantee that that relationship, in terms of the controls we have in France at the moment, would continue. If those controls didn’t continue then there are thousands of people there who are there specifically because they want to come to the UK who would then come to the UK.”

Asked about the claim, Cameron did not go as far as his spokesman but warned that leaving the EU could give France an excuse to move border controls from Calais to Dover.

He said: “This is a bilateral agreement, a good agreement that means our borders are effectively in Calais, not in Dover. That is good for Britain. I want to keep that. I work very hard with my French counterparts to make sure we do keep that … But the fact is there are a lot of opposition parties in France that would love an excuse to tear up that treaty and would like the border to be Britain, not in France.

“I don’t want to give people an excuse to do that. If we can get this deal in Europe, if we can get this renegotiation fixed and stay in a reformed Europe, you know what you get. You know the borders stay in Calais and we have a seat concerning the rules when it comes to the future of Europe.”

Davis said Downing Street was scaremongering because UK border guards were stationed in France under the terms of an Anglo-French treaty that was agreed outside the EU. 

Davis said: “As the argument slips away from the remain campaign they are forced to rely on desperate scaremongering. We already have a process where air carriers transporting passengers with no visa are fined as well as being responsible for returning people they have flown to the country illegally. There is no reason why the same policy would not work for trains and ferries. And we should spend a small fraction of the savings from our current EU budget contributions on enhancing our border controls and ensuring that they operate effectively.

“It is the failed EU immigration policy that has created the ‘Jungle’ camp near Calais. The idea that leaving the EU would give us less control of our borders is simply preposterous.”

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Inquest Told Soldier May Not Have Shot Herself 

Alison Foster QC, representing the family of 18-year-old Cheryl James, said: "Now there is distinguished pathological evidence showing that the shot that killed Cheryl James may not have been self-inflicted.

"Third party involvement is more than merely speculative, according to this inquest's pathologist.

"It's important such evidence is fully acquired and assimilated."

She asked for the inquest to be delayed by a few weeks to allow "important" pathological evidence to be properly considered.

Private James died from a fatal gunshot wound on 27 November, 1995, at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey

The original inquest, in 1995, lasted only an hour and recorded an open verdict which was quashed last year by High Court judges who ordered a fresh inquest.

This new inquiry - at Woking Coroner's Court - will hear from 80 witnesses over a two-month period.

It will also hear evidence suggesting she may have been sexually abused by senior ranks shortly before her death.

Pte James was in the second phase of her training to join the Army when she was found with a single bullet wound between her nose and her right eye.

Her parents have always refused to accept the official version of her death and fought hard for two decades to have a proper inquest.

The family and their lawyers have protested that the investigation should not have been carried out by the Army and key witnesses were not interviewed.

Her clothing wasn't examined and some of it even went missing.

Her father, Des James, told Sky News earlier this month he just wanted "to get to the bottom of what happened, in every detail".

Four recruits died at Deepcut between 1995 and 2002, all in similar circumstances.

As well at Pte James, Privates Sean Benton, 20, James Collinson, 17, and Geoff Gray, 17, were found with gunshot wounds.

  

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Police Could Stop Raids On Suspected Brothels

The police should no longer raid brothels and do more to "support" sex workers, in new draft guidance described by some as a step towards decriminalising prostitution.

Controversial recommendations from police chiefs warn that brothel raids "create a mistrust of all external agencies", and advises forces in England and Wales to move away from enforcing laws which make it illegal to sell sex.

Although the police have been advised to prioritise the safety of sex workers since 2011, today's new National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) strategy goes further, introducing a new "responsibility to protect", and describing sex workers "not… as offenders per se but people who may become victims of crime".

NPCC Lead for Sex Workers, Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Holland, said: "The draft strategy makes clear that the majority of sex workers are not committing offences but that they are a vulnerable group that we have a responsibility to protect.

"The horrendous murder of five young women in Ipswich in 2006 highlighted the need to improve our response to vulnerable sex workers. Since 1990, there have been 152 sex workers murdered in the UK.

"There is no perfect solution to dealing with sex work and sexual exploitation but this strategy sets out an approach that considers risk, threat and harm to all and aims to tackle both neighbourhood nuisance and the exploitation of sex workers by organised criminals and gangs."

The new policing policy comes amidst increasing measures to create safe areas for sex workers to carry out business.

A "managed area" in Leeds introduced in 2014 has effectively decriminalised prostitution in Holbeck - an industrial area on the outskirts of the city centre - between 7pm and 7am, leaving sex workers and clients free to conduct transactions without facing arrest or questioning by police.  

n Liverpool the so-called "Merseyside Model" has seen police approach crimes against prostitutes as hate crimes since 2006, and a collaborative working between law enforcement and other services such as harm reduction, counselling and outreach.

Supporters of the scheme say that as a result sex workers are safer, and conviction rate for rapes in the Liverpool area have risen significantly above the national average.

Sky News spoke to women selling sex on the streets of Liverpool. Many spoke of violent assaults and rape but said they did feel they could report threats to the police.

"I have when I've pulled a punter up when he's wanted business, and he's put his hands behind me and dragged me up," said one woman working in the Kensington area of Liverpool, who did not want to named. "I've not experienced proper violence where I've been raped and that. I'm one of the lucky ones."

But the measures in Liverpool and Leeds have attracted anger among local residents and local businesses, who have complained of sex workers soliciting in public places and detritus such as condoms left in residential areas.

There are concerns that changes to the approach to policing prostitution is decriminalising the sex trade without parliamentary consent.

"We absolutely need a new approach to prostitution. But what it will take is for parliament to pass a new law. because at the moment our law sends really mixed messages," said Kat Banyard, from campaign group End Demand. "The job of police is not to manage sexual exploitation, it's to end it."

 

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Prisons overhaul to be announced by David Cameron

 

Plans to overhaul the "failure" of the prison system in England and Wales are to be set out by the prime minister.

David Cameron will say high reoffending rates and violence in jails are "scandalous".

A pilot scheme will see six governors given autonomy over how prisons spend their budgets and which education services are used.

Penal charities said reforms would not work if inmates were "crammed into filthy institutions with no staff".

Legislation is expected to follow, so the plans for the "reform prisons", as they are being called, can be adopted more widely.

Mr Cameron will say that "current levels of prison violence, drug-taking and self-harm should shame us all", with a typical week seeing 600 incidents of self-harm, at least one suicide and 350 assaults including 90 on staff.

He is also expected to say he is accepting the recommendations made in Dame Sally Coates's review of prison education, due to be published soon.

These include a promise to protect the £130m prison education budget.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said it was highly unusual for a prime minister to take such a close interest in prison reform, but Mr Cameron wants to make it a "great progressive cause" in British politics.

'Steep challenge'

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said Mr Cameron's proposals were "only part of the equation - you have got to look at what drives crime".

She said the focus on prisons by the government was long overdue but it would be a "really steep challenge to try and sort it out".

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Prisons are currently violent and overcrowded. As such, they fail everyone: victims, the public, staff and prisoners themselves.

"Prison reform, however, is the tip of the iceberg.... We need action now to tackle sentence inflation and the profligate use of prison. Then the prime minister's vision can become a reality."

In his speech, the prime minister will say: "We need prisons. Some people - including, of course, rapists, murderers, child abusers, gang leaders - belong in them.

"For me, punishment - that deprivation of liberty - is not a dirty word.

"I never want us to forget that it is the victims of crime who should always be our principal priority. And I am not unrealistic or starry-eyed about what prisons can achieve.

"Not everyone shows remorse and not everyone seeks redemption.

"But I also strongly believe that we must offer chances to change; that for those trying hard to turn themselves around, we should offer hope; that in a compassionate country, we should help those who've made mistakes to find their way back onto the right path."

Mr Cameron will say prisoners should be seen as "potential assets to be harnessed" and the "failure of our system today is scandalous".

He will highlight figures showing 46% of all prisoners reoffend within a year of release, and say that cycle of reoffending costs up to £13bn a year and leads to more victims of crime.

 

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