Home secretary rejects Zarah Sultana’s claim Labour failing to improve lives – UK politics live

Sultana announced on Thursday she was quitting Labour to join Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance

Ministers are “looking at a range of different issues” for cutting small boat crossings, the home secretary said as she declined to confirm reports the government was considering a “one in, one out” policy for asylum seekers, reports the PA news agency.

Asked whether the government was looking at such a scheme with European nations, Yvette Cooper told Sky News:

We’ve been looking at a range of different issues, different ways of working – not just with France but with other European countries, other countries like Iraq, countries where we’ve seen these networks of criminal gangs operating.

We’ve seen these just appalling scenes of people just standing in the water, climbing into the boats, French police unable to do anything about it.

So [that is] one of the things I’ve been working very closely with the French interior minister on, and he and I agree those French rules need to change.

I think she has always taken a very different view to most people in the government on a lot of different things, and that’s for her to do so.

I just strongly disagree with her.

These are real changes [that] have a real impact on people’s lives. Continue reading...