British cancer patients are being denied life-saving drugs and trials of revolutionary treatments are being derailed by the red tape and extra costs brought on by Brexit, a leaked report warns.

Soaring numbers are being diagnosed with the disease amid a growing and ageing population, improved diagnosis initiatives and wider public awareness – making global collaborations to find new medicines essential.

But five years after the UK’s exit from the EU, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind concludes that while patients across Europe are benefiting from a golden age of pioneering research and novel treatments, Britons with cancer have “lost out” thanks to rising prices and red tape.

Brexit has “damaged the practical ability” of doctors to offer NHS patients life-saving new drugs via international clinical trials, according to the 54-page report obtained by the Guardian.

In some cases, the cost of importing new cancer drugs for Britons has nearly quadrupled as a result of post-Brexit red tape. Some trials have had shipping costs alone increase to 10 times since Brexit.

The extra rules and costs have had a “significant negative impact” on UK cancer research, creating “new barriers” that are “holding back life-saving research” for Britons, the report says.

In some cases, the impact has been devastating. Children are among the NHS cancer patients whose tumours have returned or treatment has stopped working, leaving them in limbo and denied drugs that could extend or save their lives, senior doctors told the Guardian.

Sources said officials in the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology were studying the findings of the review.

It cites evidence from a range of leading clinicians, scientists and researchers, and was compiled by experts from organisations including Cancer Research UK, the University of Southampton, and Hatch, a research consultancy.

In a statement, the government said clinical trials were vital to millions of Britons with long-term conditions for whom limited treatments were available in routine care, including cancer patients for whom routine therapies were ineffective.

Ministers were committed to “strengthening” the UK’s relationship with the EU on research, and the government offered “extensive support” for UK researchers to help them secure funding, a spokesperson added.

Three areas of UK cancer research have been hit particularly hard by its departure from the EU, according to the report. They are the regulatory environment for clinical trials, the mobility of the cancer research workforce and access to research funding and collaboration.

Clinical trial groups and universities are struggling to attract “global talent” in cancer research to come to Britain, with UK patients missing out on the expertise of the world’s top cancer scientists.

At the same time, UK researchers are finding it “more difficult” to attract grant funding to explore new ways to save the lives of patients “due to additional bureaucracy since the UK left the EU”.

The report also reveals the UK is needlessly duplicating drug testing in clinical trials involving the UK and EU, with extra checks causing potentially deadly delays.

In one case, the UK had to spend an extra £22,000 for an official to certify batches of aspirin for use in a cancer trial. Aspirin is one of the world’s most familiar drugs and the batches had already been checked in the EU.

Meanwhile, Brexit is having a wider, damaging effect on life-saving research in the EU, the report adds. “The exclusion of UK researchers from European cancer research activities has had, and will continue to have, negative consequences for the overall European cancer research effort,” it says.

Leading experts shown the report by the Guardian said the harm Brexit had inflicted on UK cancer research and NHS patients had been inevitable and predicted to occur.

“Those of us who understood the EU warned repeatedly about precisely these concerns,” said Dr Martin McKee, a professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “These findings are not just predictable, they were predicted.”

He added: “It was always inevitable that Brexit would lead to costly duplication and barriers to collaboration.”

Mark Dayan, the Brexit programme lead at the Nuffield Trust, a health thinktank, said the report highlighted “concrete examples” of “disruptions which many warned were inevitable from the moment that we left the EU with a relatively hard Brexit for health and research”.

The UK and EU are due to renew the trade and cooperation agreement this year, and discuss a wider reset which will shape the future UK-EU relationship.

Keir Starmer should make the case for “a new pact to protect health”, Dayan said, “cutting back pointless post-Brexit red tape on medicines testing and research approvals by being willing to cooperate and offer guarantees”.

The report recommends the creation of a mutual recognition agreement for testing medicines, to cut costs for researchers leading cross-border trials. Without it, patients will experience further delays to trials in future, denying them access to potentially life-saving treatments, it says.

A government spokesperson said: “We are strengthening our relationship with the EU on research and have been providing extensive support for researchers to help them secure funding from the £80bn Horizon Europe programme and get more vital treatments from the lab to patients.”

Last year, the Guardian revealed how hundreds of thousands of people in the UK were being forced to wait months to begin even basic cancer treatment, such as surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, with deadly delays “routine” and even children denied timely care.

Children are among the NHS patients being denied access to revolutionary cancer drugs as a result of red tape and extra costs caused by Brexit, according to a report leaked to the Guardian.

Two examples illustrate how the UK’s departure from the EU is derailing UK cancer research, leaving patients in limbo and unable to access pioneering treatments.

eSMART is a trial of new targeted drugs and chemotherapy for children, teenagers and young adults whose cancer has returned or treatment has stopped working.

The cost of importing medicines for the study – a collaboration between Paris and Birmingham – almost quadrupled from €52,000 to €205,000 (£175,000) because of Brexit.

A range of factors were cited, including the expense of additional requirements in the paperwork for packaging, licensing and importation.

With the UK no longer a member of the EU, scientists in Birmingham also had to spend time arranging for a second qualified person (QP) to certify the drugs so that arms of the trial could open in Britain.

This caused major difficulties and delays, and companies sponsoring the trial were not prepared to release the relevant documents to greenlight the extra QP.

“New arms of the trial could open in the EU but not the UK, so patients across Europe have been able to access treatment as part of this trial, while patients in the UK lost out,” the report found.

Children in the UK will finally be able to join the trial this year, but only because a British charity, Cancer Research UK, provided £92,000 to help plug the funding gap.

The eSMART trial lead in the UK, Dr Lynley Marshall, told the Guardian that Brexit had made it harder to launch pioneering cancer trials in Britain.

She said: “Delaying QP release came at a cost of time and money – which could have been spent reaching more patients and offering them potentially transformative treatment. Children and young people with cancer cannot wait.”

Marshall, a consultant in paediatric and adolescent oncology and clinical research lead at the Royal Marsden hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research, said delays to UK arms of trials were also harming cancer patients in other countries.

“Data from these trials is used around the world to deliver better, kinder treatments. Delays anywhere affect every child and young person with cancer,” she added.

A second trial, Add Aspirin, is examining whether a daily dose of the drug can stop or delay cancer coming back. It is facing extra costs of up to £50,000 as a result of Brexit.

It has cost £22,000 for a second QP to certify batches of aspirin just for the UK arm of the trial, which is a partnership between the UK, Ireland and India.

The batches have already been checked in the EU (the manufacturer is in Germany and packaging is done in Spain).

Aspirin and placebo used to be sent to the UK to be shipped to trial sites around the country and in Ireland. Now, bespoke shipping is needed from Spain to Ireland to avoid sending items for Irish trials through the UK.

“This new shipping arrangement costs 10 times the pre-Brexit amount,” the report says. “Over the course of the trial, the extra shipping costs are anticipated to be £25,000.”

Children are among the NHS patients being denied access to revolutionary cancer drugs as a result of red tape and extra costs caused by Brexit, according to a report leaked to the Guardian.

Two examples illustrate how the UK’s departure from the EU is derailing UK cancer research, leaving patients in limbo and unable to access pioneering treatments.

eSMART is a trial of new targeted drugs and chemotherapy for children, teenagers and young adults whose cancer has returned or treatment has stopped working.

The cost of importing medicines for the study – a collaboration between Paris and Birmingham – almost quadrupled from €52,000 to €205,000 (£175,000) because of Brexit.

A range of factors were cited, including the expense of additional requirements in the paperwork for packaging, licensing and importation.

With the UK no longer a member of the EU, scientists in Birmingham also had to spend time arranging for a second qualified person (QP) to certify the drugs so that arms of the trial could open in Britain.

This caused major difficulties and delays, and companies sponsoring the trial were not prepared to release the relevant documents to greenlight the extra QP.

“New arms of the trial could open in the EU but not the UK, so patients across Europe have been able to access treatment as part of this trial, while patients in the UK lost out,” the report found.

Children in the UK will finally be able to join the trial this year, but only because a British charity, Cancer Research UK, provided £92,000 to help plug the funding gap.

The eSMART trial lead in the UK, Dr Lynley Marshall, told the Guardian that Brexit had made it harder to launch pioneering cancer trials in Britain.

She said: “Delaying QP release came at a cost of time and money – which could have been spent reaching more patients and offering them potentially transformative treatment. Children and young people with cancer cannot wait.”

Marshall, a consultant in paediatric and adolescent oncology and clinical research lead at the Royal Marsden hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research, said delays to UK arms of trials were also harming cancer patients in other countries.

“Data from these trials is used around the world to deliver better, kinder treatments. Delays anywhere affect every child and young person with cancer,” she added.

A second trial, Add Aspirin, is examining whether a daily dose of the drug can stop or delay cancer coming back. It is facing extra costs of up to £50,000 as a result of Brexit.

It has cost £22,000 for a second QP to certify batches of aspirin just for the UK arm of the trial, which is a partnership between the UK, Ireland and India.

The batches have already been checked in the EU (the manufacturer is in Germany and packaging is done in Spain).

Aspirin and placebo used to be sent to the UK to be shipped to trial sites around the country and in Ireland. Now, bespoke shipping is needed from Spain to Ireland to avoid sending items for Irish trials through the UK.

“This new shipping arrangement costs 10 times the pre-Brexit amount,” the report says. “Over the course of the trial, the extra shipping costs are anticipated to be £25,000.”

Israel’s military has admitted to several “professional failures” and a breach of orders in the killing of 15 rescue workers in Gaza last month, and said that it was dismissing a deputy commander responsible.

The deadly shooting of eight Red Crescent paramedics, six civil defence workers and a UN staffer by Israeli troops, as they carried out a rescue mission in southern Gaza at dawn on 23 March, had prompted international outcry and calls for a war crimes investigation.

Their bodies were uncovered days after the shooting, buried in a sandy mass grave alongside their crushed vehicles. The UN said they had been killed “one by one”. Israel at first claimed that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked after phone video recovered from one of the medics contradicted the account.

On Sunday, the military said an investigation had “identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident”.

As a result, the deputy commander of the IDF’s Golani Brigade “will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander … and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief”.

Another commander, whose unit was in operation in the southern city of Rafah, where the killings took place, would be censured for “his overall responsibility for the incident”, the military said.

Despite admitting mistakes, the report does not recommend any criminal action to be taken against the military units responsible for the incident and found no violation of the IDF’s code of ethics. The findings of the report will now be passed along to the military advocate general. Israel’s extreme-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called the army chief’s decision to dismiss the responsible deputy commander “a grave mistake”.

The Palestine Red Crescent rejected the findings of an Israeli military investigation that blamed operational failures for the killing of 15 Gaza emergency service workers, denouncing the report as “full of lies”.

“The report is full of lies. It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.

Human rights lawyers also called the inquiry into question, pointing out that it had been done by Israel’s military itself and alleging it lacked independence.

Sawsan Zaher, a Palestinian human rights lawyer based in Israel, said: “There is nothing objective or neutral about this inquiry. The severity of this case should have led to an immediate criminal investigation. Instead we see the Israeli military inquiring into itself and yet again evidence of violations of international law and war crimes are swept under the carpet.”

The report maintains, without providing further evidence, that six of the 15 Palestinians killed were Hamas militants. Previous claims by Israel along the same lines have been denied by the Red Crescent.

The investigation provided the most thorough account from Israel’s forces about what they alleged took place that night. According to the report, it was an “operational misunderstanding” by Israeli forces that led them to fire on the ambulances. They denied that there had been any “indiscriminate fire” and claimed troops were simply alert to “real threats” from Hamas on the ground, accusing the militant group of regularly using ambulances to transport weapons and terrorists.

The investigation claimed that “poor night visibility” was to blame for the deputy battalion commander’s conclusion that the ambulances belonged to Hamas militants and the decision to fire on them. Video footage that emerged from the scene showed that the ambulances were clearly moving with flashing emergency lights.

The investigation also found that the shooting of a UN vehicle, which drove past 15 minutes later, was carried out in violation of orders.

Daniel Machover, a human rights lawyer who co-founded Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, said the admission of the circumstances of the killing of the UN worker, who was in a clearly marked UN vehicle, “alone should be grounds for a court martial and a war crimes investigation, not simply a dismissal”.

After uncovering the bodies from a sandy grave in Gaza days after the attack, a UN official said the workers had been killed “one by one”, while the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said the men were “targeted at close range”.

Some witnesses and relatives have also alleged there was evidence that at least one of the victims had had their hands bound.

The military’s report said there was “no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting”. Ahmed Dhair, the forensic pathologist in Gaza who carried out the postmortems on the victims, said last week that he had not seen visible signs of restraint.

The Israeli military also defended the decision by soldiers to “evacuate” the bodies the next morning and claimed that while the decision to crush their vehicles was wrong, “there was no attempt to hide the incident”.

Dhair told the Guardian last week that the postmortems showed the victims were mostly killed by gunshots to the head and torso, as well as injuries caused by explosives. Dhair alleged evidence of “explosive bullets” in the bodies he had examined.

The Israeli statement on the findings concluded by saying that Israel’s military “regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians”. Asked if he thought the incident represented a pervasive issue within the Israeli military, Maj Gen Yoav Har-Even, who headed the inquiry, told journalists: “We’re saying it was a mistake, we don’t think it’s a daily mistake.”

Last week, Palestinian Red Crescent said that one of the two Palestinian paramedics who had survived the shooting, Assad al-Nsasrah, remained in Israeli detention.

Palestinians and international human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel’s military of failing to properly investigate or whitewashing misconduct by its troops. A recent report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation, concluded that Israel “did not take appropriate action to investigate suspected violations of international law that occurred as part of its war in Gaza”.

Ziv Stahl, the executive director of Yesh Din, said: “It’s another example of the almost full impunity given to soldiers for events in Gaza. In this case, I think they were quick to handle it because of the international pressure they are facing. By taking this small disciplinary action against one commander, it undermines any chance of a wider criminal investigation.”

The international criminal court, established by the international community as a court of last resort, has accused the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes. Israel, which is not a member of the court, has long asserted that its legal system is capable of investigating the army, and Netanyahu has accused the ICC of antisemitism.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s Easter ceasefire as a fake “PR” exercise and said Russian troops had continued their drone and artillery attacks across many parts of the frontline.

Citing a report from Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Zelenskyy said Russia was still using heavy weapons and since 10am on Sunday an increase in Russian shelling had been observed.

He said that, as of 6pm UK time, the Russian army had violated the ceasefire “more than two thousand times”, adding that there had been 67 Russian assaults against Ukrainian positions in various directions.

“In practice, across all main frontline directions, Russia has failed to uphold its own promise of ceasefire,” he wrote on social media.

He also said he had received no response from Russia to his proposal for a full ceasefire for 30 days, adding: “If Russia does not agree to such a step, it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things which destroy human lives and prolong the war”.

The current 30-hour truce announced by Putin on Friday is scheduled to end at midnight on Sunday (2100 GMT).

The US state department said it would welcome a ceasefire extension, though the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian media no such order had been given by Putin.

Earlier Zelenskyy wrote on social media: “We are documenting every Russian violation of its self-declared commitment to a full ceasefire for the Easter period and are prepared to provide the necessary information to our partners.

“In practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage. The Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance.”

Zelenskyy later said Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in an ambush in Toretsk in Donetsk oblast. Video footage from the battlefield appeared to confirm his claim that the east of the country was under Russian fire. White puffs of smoke could be seen above the village of Uspenivka, in the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk.

The Russians also reportedly attacked an evacuation convoy in the village of Zoria, near the city of Kostiantynivka. At least two civilians and a rescue worker from the Proliska aid agency were hurt when Russian drones targeted their cars.

“For us, it’s just another day of war – with shelling from various types of weapons and even one attempt to assault our positions,” Denys Bobkov, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s 37th separate marine brigade, told the Guardian in a message from the front.

Bobkov said that by 2pm on Sunday his brigade had recorded 16 drone attacks and two artillery strikes. It is fighting near the village of Novopavlivka, south-west of Pokrovsk and on the administrative border between Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.

The 66th brigade, based in the city of Lyman, also reported infantry attacks and attempts to repair damaged crossings. “The Russians are using the so-called ‘lull’ to improve their tactical position – to regroup in order to deliver another blow,” it said.

In Moscow, Russia’s defence ministry claimed Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times. It said there had been more than 900 drone strikes, with damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties. It did not give further details.

After a bloody week, during which Russia killed 35 people in a missile attack in the centre of Sumy, Ukrainian cities were relatively calm on Sunday. Worshippers gathered at St Volodymyr’s cathedral in Kyiv, where priests blessed their Easter baskets with Holy water.

“They’ve already broken their promise. Unfortunately, we cannot trust Russia today,” Olga Grachova, 38, who works in marketing, told the news agency Agence France-Presse.

The US has signalled it is losing patience with both sides. On Friday, Donald Trump said he was ready to walk away from his attempt to broker a peace settlement, declaring: “We want to get it done.”

“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people’ – and we’re going to just take a pass,” he said. The US president denied claims that Putin was “playing” him.

Late last night, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he hoped Ukraine and Russia would make a deal this week and that both would “then start to do big business with the United States of America, which is thriving, and make a fortune”.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, met European leaders in Paris last week to discuss how to end the war. Leaks suggest the White House is pushing for a Kremlin-friendly deal that would freeze the conflict along the existing 1000km-long frontline.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has suggested that Crimea and four other Ukrainian provinces could be given to Russia. The US is considering recognising Crimea as Russian and offering Moscow other incentives such as sanctions relief, Bloomberg reported.

The Kremlin insists its original war goals must be achieved. They include the removal of Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s president, as well as the country’s “demilitarisation” and a guarantee of its non-Nato “neutral” status.

Since their disastrous meeting in February in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy has been seeking to improve relations with Washington. Last month, Ukraine accepted a 30-day US ceasefire proposal and it is poised to sign an agreement on Thursday giving the US access to its minerals.

There are hints, however, that Zelenskyy is growing frustrated at the White House’s pro-Putin rhetoric. Trump has piled pressure on Ukraine – in effect cutting off military aid and temporarily pausing intelligence sharing – while taking no corresponding measures against Russia.

On Sunday, Zelenskyy appeared to take a swipe at Fox Television Stations after its Live Now network broadcast live coverage of Putin attending an Orthodox Easter service in Moscow with Russia’s patriarch, while incorrectly labelling Kyiv as part of Russia.

“Instead of broadcasting religious service from Moscow, the focus should be on pressuring Moscow to genuinely commit to a full ceasefire and to maintain it for at least 30 days after Easter – to give diplomacy a real chance,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it had asked for an explanation. “If this was a mistake rather than a deliberate political statement, there should be an apology and an investigation into who made the mistake,” a ministry spokesperson said.

RAF fighter jets have intercepted two Russian aircraft flying close to Nato airspace over the Baltic Sea.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said two RAF Typhoons were scrambled from Malbork airbase in Poland on Tuesday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M “Coot-A” intelligence aircraft.

On Thursday, another two Typhoons were scrambled from the base to intercept an unknown aircraft leaving Kaliningrad airspace close to Nato airspace.

The MoD said on Sunday that the intercepts marked the RAF’s first scramble as part of Operation Chessman and come weeks after the aircraft arrived in eastern Poland to begin deployment alongside Sweden in defence of Nato’s eastern flank.

The armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, said the UK was “unshakeable” in its commitment to Nato.

He added: “With Russian aggression growing and security threats on the rise, we are stepping up to reassure our allies, deter adversaries and protect our national security through our plan for change.

“This mission shows our ability to operate side by side with Nato’s newest member, Sweden, and to defend the alliance’s airspace wherever and whenever needed, keeping us safe at home and strong abroad.”

The UK’s deployment of six Typhoon jets and nearly 200 personnel from 140 Expeditionary Air Wing is the UK’s latest contribution to Nato’s air policing efforts, coming after operations in Romania and Iceland last year.

The MoD said it represented a “landmark in Nato integration” with jets from RAF Lossiemouth operating alongside Swedish Gripen fighter jets, the first time Sweden has contributed such aircraft to an ally’s air policing since joining Nato in 2024.

The intercepts come after the defence secretary, John Healey, attended Nato’s Ukraine defence contact group in Brussels last week, where he co-led a meeting in which more than 50 nations pledged £21bn of support to Ukraine, the department said.

In April 2024, six Typhoon fighter jets with more than 200 personnel were stationed in Romania to defend Nato’s eastern border. This was followed in August 2024 with the deployment of four F-35B jets to Iceland, defending Nato airspace in the north.

The RAF’s quick reaction alert forces are based at RAF Coningsby, Lossiemouth, and Brize Norton.

Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar warned on Sunday that the US is “getting closer and closer to a constitutional crisis”, but the courts, growing Republican disquiet at Trump administration policies, and public protest were holding it off.

“I believe as long as these courts hold, and the constituents hold, and the congress starts standing up, our democracy will hold,” Klobuchar told CNN’s State of the Union, adding “but Donald Trump is trying to pull us down into the sewer of a crisis.”

Klobuchar said the US supreme court should hold Trump administration officials in contempt if they continue to ignore a court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Ábrego García from El Salvador, the Maryland resident the government admitted in court it had deported by mistake.

Klobuchar said the court could appoint a special prosecutor, independent of Trump’s Department of Justice, to uphold the rule of law and charge any officials who are responsible for Ábrego García’s deportation, or have refused to facilitate his return.

The senator’s comments came hours after supreme court released justice Samuel Alito’s dissenting opinion on the court’s decision to block the Trump administration from deporting more Venezuelans held in north Texas’s Bluebonnet detention center .

In his dissent, Alito criticized the decision of the seven-member majority, saying the court had acted “literally in the middle of the night” and without sufficient explanation. The “unprecedented” relief was “hastily and prematurely granted”, Alito added.

Alito, whose dissent was joined by fellow conservative justice Clarence Thomas, said there was “dubious factual support” for granting the request in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to block deportations of accused gang members that the administration contends are legal under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The majority did not provide a detailed explanation for the order released early on Saturday, only that the administration should not to remove Venezuelans held in the “until further order of this court”.

The court has said previously that deportations under the 1798 law can only proceed if those scheduled to be removed are offered a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.

Alito further wrote that both “the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law”, but it was not clear whether the supreme court had jurisdiction until legal avenues had been pursued through lower courts. He also objected to the fact that and the justices had not had the chance to hear the government’s side.

“The only papers before this Court were those submitted by the applicants,” Alito wrote. “The Court had not ordered or received a response by the Government regarding either the applicants’ factual allegations or any of the legal issues presented by the application. And the Court did not have the benefit of a Government response filed in any of the lower courts either,” Alito said.

In his dissent, Alito said the applicants had not shown they were in “imminent danger of removal”.

“In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” Alito wrote.

“I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate”, Alito added.

Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar warned on Sunday that the US is “getting closer and closer to a constitutional crisis”, but the courts, growing Republican disquiet at Trump administration policies, and public protest were holding it off.

“I believe as long as these courts hold, and the constituents hold, and the congress starts standing up, our democracy will hold,” Klobuchar told CNN’s State of the Union, adding “but Donald Trump is trying to pull us down into the sewer of a crisis.”

Klobuchar said the US supreme court should hold Trump administration officials in contempt if they continue to ignore a court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Ábrego García from El Salvador, the Maryland resident the government admitted in court it had deported by mistake.

Klobuchar said the court could appoint a special prosecutor, independent of Trump’s Department of Justice, to uphold the rule of law and charge any officials who are responsible for Ábrego García’s deportation, or have refused to facilitate his return.

The senator’s comments came hours after supreme court released justice Samuel Alito’s dissenting opinion on the court’s decision to block the Trump administration from deporting more Venezuelans held in north Texas’s Bluebonnet detention center .

In his dissent, Alito criticized the decision of the seven-member majority, saying the court had acted “literally in the middle of the night” and without sufficient explanation. The “unprecedented” relief was “hastily and prematurely granted”, Alito added.

Alito, whose dissent was joined by fellow conservative justice Clarence Thomas, said there was “dubious factual support” for granting the request in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to block deportations of accused gang members that the administration contends are legal under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The majority did not provide a detailed explanation for the order released early on Saturday, only that the administration should not to remove Venezuelans held in the “until further order of this court”.

The court has said previously that deportations under the 1798 law can only proceed if those scheduled to be removed are offered a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.

Alito further wrote that both “the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law”, but it was not clear whether the supreme court had jurisdiction until legal avenues had been pursued through lower courts. He also objected to the fact that and the justices had not had the chance to hear the government’s side.

“The only papers before this Court were those submitted by the applicants,” Alito wrote. “The Court had not ordered or received a response by the Government regarding either the applicants’ factual allegations or any of the legal issues presented by the application. And the Court did not have the benefit of a Government response filed in any of the lower courts either,” Alito said.

In his dissent, Alito said the applicants had not shown they were in “imminent danger of removal”.

“In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” Alito wrote.

“I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate”, Alito added.

A man has described watching “in helpless horror” as his wife was struck by a van at a golf club.

Suzanne Cherry, 62, of Aldridge, died in hospital on 15 April, four days after she was involved in a collision at Aston Wood golf course in Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham at 10.25am on 11 April.

Paying tribute to his “beautiful wife” in a message released by West Midlands police, Cherry’s husband said: “On Friday 11 April, while enjoying what should have been the safest of one of Suzanne’s many activities, I watched in helpless horror as the life of my beautiful wife and our future together was snatched away in an instant.

“Suzanne had an amazing and infectious zest for life which touched everyone who was fortunate enough to know her. She was unselfish, always ready to encourage with love and support those around her to achieve more than they themselves thought possible.”

He added that she left behind “an unfillable void” in the lives of her mother, Maureen, her three adult children, two stepchildren and colleagues and friends, including those from her sporting activities.

“Sue was loved, and will be painfully missed by her entire family and friends, we ask that our privacy at this difficult time be respected,” he said.

Officers from three different forces have made six arrests in total relating to the incident.

West Midlands police arrested three men on 16 April, including a 51-year-old man, from Bloxwich, arrested on suspicion of murder; a 22-year-old man, from Dudley, on suspicion of manslaughter and assisting an offender; and a 41-year-old man, from Worcester, on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Officers from Staffordshire police arrested another man, aged 34, of Wednesbury, on 18 April on suspicion of manslaughter.

Two other men, aged 36 and 26, both of Coseley, were arrested on 18 April by officers in south Wales, each on suspicion of assisting an offender.

The suspects are being questioned by detectives in custody in Staffordshire, except for the suspect from Worcester, who has since been released and placed on conditional police bail.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is continuing to investigate the circumstances prior to the collision, when West Midlands police officers were responding to the vehicle being involved in reports of suspicious activity.

Officers are continuing to appeal for information and are particularly keen to hear via an online portal from anyone who was in the area of Blake Street and Birmingham Road between Sutton Coldfield and Shenstone in the morning of 11 April, and those with dashcam, CCTV and doorbell footage.

Prison officers will demand the immediate issue of electric stun guns to protect staff guarding Britain’s most dangerous jails when they meet the justice secretary this week.

Wednesday’s meeting with Shabana Mahmood was called after the attack on three guards at HMP Frankland, allegedly by the convicted terrorist Hashem Abedi. Two were seriously injured after being doused in hot cooking fat and stabbed, one five times in the torso, in a sustained assault.

The body representing prison officers will call for all staff to have stab vests, and also for electric stun guns for selected officers. It will also demand that an American “Supermax”-style regime is imposed on Britain’s worst inmates.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) wants electric stun guns issued to specialist teams in at least the highest-security prisons, to quell attacks that threaten the lives of officers.

The devices fire 50,000 volts to incapacitate a suspect, and are billed as a less lethal option than firearms, though some uses have been linked to deaths.

Abedi, 28, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman, is serving a 55-year sentence. The attack on the three officers happened in a kitchen area of the separation unit at HMP Frankland.

Mark Fairhurst, the chair of the POA, said: “We now need the tactical use of Taser as an option when faced with life-threatening situations. The threat in our prisons is such that we need that option available.”

Police officers across the UK can be issued with electric stun guns to use on the streets if they perceive sufficient threat.

Fairhurst said electric stun guns should be available for those guarding terrorists and other seriously violent convicted criminals when prison officers believed their livesor those of their colleagues were at risk.

He said: “Say staff are getting attacked by someone with a sharp-edged weapon, who is trying to kill them. All we have available at the moment is pava spray [similar to pepper spray] and a baton. When I call for assistance, what we need is a response team to turn up who have the option of using Taser.

“A sharp-edged weapon is as deadly as a knife. The idea we are going to fight them off with a baton and a canister of spray is putting my members’ lives at risk. You can’t run away, you are in an enclosed environment.”

The POA is asking for electric stun guns first to be given to response teams at the highest-security prisons, which all have separation units or their equivalent, for prisoners deemed to be highly dangerous or disruptive.

Those prisons include Frankland, where the attack took place on Saturday 12 April; Belmarsh, where Abedi had previously attacked officers; Full Sutton; Long Lartin and Whitemoor.

The meeting on Wednesday afternoon will be between the POA and Mahmood. Fairhurst said parts of prisons with the ultimate security should adopt “Supermax” rules.

In this plan, selected high-risk inmates would leave their cell only when handcuffed and escorted by three staff, there would be no mixing with other prisoners, and they would be restricted to their basic entitlement of rights and privileges.

Fairhurst said: “It’s called a separation centre for a reason. We’re just treating them like everyone else.”

He said the set of demands was reasonable and that he was hopeful, adding that the strength of feeling was such that the government would be “foolish not to consider them”.

The Ministry of Justice did not comment on whether it would consider issuing Tasers to some prison officers. The government has announced a review and has already banned inmates in separation units having access to knives or being allowed to prepare meals in kitchens.

“This will look into how this was able to happen, and what we must do to better protect our prison officers in the future,” Mahmood said on Friday.

The attacks are being investigated by counter-terrorism police because of Abedi’s past. They have searched the prison looking for where and how the makeshift blade was made, and signs of violent Islamist extremist literature.

Also in the separation unit at HMP Frankland was Anjem Choudary, serving life imprisonment after being convicted of directing a terrorist organisation, membership of a proscribed organisation, and encouraging support for a terrorist organisation.

Nigel Farage has defended allowing labelled chlorinated chicken from the US into the UK as part of a trade deal, as a poll suggested his Reform UK party could be on course to take the highest number of seats at a general election.

Speaking before the local elections in England on 1 May, Farage said British consumers already ate chicken from places such as Thailand reared in poor conditions, and accepted chlorine-washed lettuce.

He told the Sunday Times: “If you have a look at the chicken we are currently importing from Thailand, you look at the conditions they’ve been reared in, and that every single bag of pre-made salad in every single supermarket has been chlorinated … once those basics have been accepted I’ll have a debate with you.”

Asked how he would prevent British chicken farmers being undercut by cheap producers from the US, he said: “I want to promote British farming as being a high-end product. I think the growth of farmers’ markets, they are a much more discerning audience that wants to know where their meat comes from. I don’t think British farmers have anything to fear from this long term.”

Both the government and the Conservatives have objected to US demands for its producers to be able to sell chicken with lower welfare standards in the UK. Britain does not allow imports of products such as chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef and Donald Trump has been pushing for agriculture to be part of a trade deal if the UK wants tariffs to be lowered on its exports such as cars and steel.

In the interview in Lancashire, where Reform is challenging both the Tories and Labour for council seats, Farage also spoke about his rift with Trump’s adviser the US billionaire Elon Musk, who had been pushing for him to take a harder line on immigration and support the far-right figure Tommy Robinson.

He said he had been in contact with Musk since their spat on X, but added: “I’ve fought against this for 25 years. You can’t bully me, I know what I think is right and what I think is wrong. Nobody pushes me around – not even him.”

Reform is hoping to take hundreds of seats off the established parties at the local elections, with a three-way split in the polls between Farage’s party, Labour and the Tories.

Keir Starmer’s Labour is narrowly ahead in most surveys. However, an MRP poll by More in Common found this weekend that Reform could win more seats than the other parties at a general election even if it has a slightly lower vote share.

The poll looking at constituency-level splits surveyed 16,000 people, with its model suggesting 180 seats for the Reform party on 23.7% of the vote, 165 for the Tories on 24.3% of the vote and 165 for Labour on 24.5%. It indicated 67 seats for the Lib Dems on 13.3% of the vote and 35 for the SNP on 2.2%.

Its modelling suggested that if a general election were held now then Labour could lose 246 seats, including 10 cabinet ministers, with losses to Reform in the ”red wall” and Welsh valleys, and to the SNP in Scotland.

The poll also indicated Labour was being squeezed from both sides, with progressive voters looking to the Lib Dems, Greens and independents causing seats to be lost to the right.

The polling suggests the main parties could be on course for difficult local elections on 1 May, although they are hard to forecast on account of the often low turnout.

Pope Francis and JD Vance, who have disagreed very publicly over the Trump administration’s attitude to immigration and its migrant deportation plans, met briefly in Rome on Sunday to exchange Easter greetings.

The meeting came a day after the US vice-president, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 2019, sat down with senior Vatican officials and had “an exchange of opinions” over international conflicts and immigration.

Francis, who is recovering from a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, received Vance in one of the reception rooms of the Vatican hotel where he lives. The 88-year-old pontiff offered the vice-president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries.

“I know you have not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health,” Vance told the pope. “Thank you for seeing me.”

The Vatican said the two men met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta “to exchange Easter greetings”. Vance’s office confirmed that they met, but provided no further details. In all, Vance’s motorcade was on Vatican territory for 17 minutes.

Vance later joined his family for Easter mass at St Paul Outside the Walls, one of the four pontifical basilicas in Rome. The Vances visited the tomb of the apostle St Paul that is said to be located there.

Vance and the leader of the world’s 1.4bn Roman Catholics differ sharply when it comes to the issue of migration. In February, Francis – who has made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy – warned that the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and other policies cracking down on immigration, were driving a “major crisis” that “damages the dignity of men and women”.

In a letter to US bishops, Francis also appeared to respond to Vance directly for having claimed that Catholic doctrine justified such policies.

Vance, who acknowledged the pontiff’s criticism, has said he would continue to defend his views. While he did not address the issue specifically during an appearance at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February, Vance called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there were “things about the faith that I don’t know”.

On Saturday, Vance met the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and its foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

Vance’s office said he and Parolin “discussed their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world, and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace”.

The Vatican, for its part, said there had been an “exchange of opinions” including over migrants, refugees and conflicts.

“Finally, hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic church in the United States, whose valuable service to the most vulnerable people was acknowledged,” the Vatican added in a statement.

The reference to “serene collaboration” appeared to refer to Vance’s accusation that the US conference of Catholic bishops was resettling “illegal immigrants” in order to obtain federal funding. Top US cardinals have pushed back strongly against the claim.

In the traditional Urbi et Orbi message, which was read out on his behalf on Easter Sunday, Francis called on world leaders to help those in need and to work towards peace.

“I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development,” he said. “These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

A leafy corner to the west of Watford was transformed into a jungle last year. Authentic-looking exotic flowers lined the floor, tree trunks soared up to an artificial canopy and reeds hung from their branches. Peering between them was Hollywood A-lister Scarlett Johansson.

The extravagant construction was a set in Sky Studios Elstree where the movie Jurassic World: Rebirth was being made. Filming there, instead of in an actual jungle, enabled Universal Pictures to pocket millions of pounds of UK taxpayers’ money to partially cover its blockbuster costs.

Jurassic World: Rebirth, which is released in cinemas in July, is the third movie about dinosaurs that Universal has made in the UK. Recently filed documents reveal that HMRC gave its predecessor, 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion, £89.1m – believed to be the largest payment for a film since the UK government incentive scheme began in 2007. The scheme, designed to drive investment in the UK’s film industry, gives studios a reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the sum they spend on making a movie in the UK, provided that at least 10% of its total cost is incurred there.

Analysis of more than 400 sets of filings also shows that Dominion was one of the most expensive movies of all time, with total costs of £453.6m, just overtaking the £452m spent on Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.

The £89.1m from the incentive scheme, along with £2.8m from the coronavirus job retention scheme, brought the net cost of making Dominion down to £361.7m. Its 2018 prequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, banked a further £70.7m from the scheme, bringing the total to £159.8m for the two. Universal’s movie division made combined profits of £3.9bn ($5.2bn) during the time that Dominion was made.

The latest data from HMRC shows that, in 2023, it handed a total of £553m to movie studios, bringing the total paid since 2007 to £5.9bn. When it increased the level of tax relief for the film industry about a decade ago, the government noted that “this measure is expected to have a positive impact on the film industry, but is not expected to have significant wider macroeconomic impacts”.

The latest data from the British Film Institute (BFI) shows that, in 2019, every £1 of reimbursement handed to studios generated £8.30 of additional Gross Value Added (GVA) benefit for Britain’s economy. It led to a total of £7.7bn in GVA being generated by the film incentives in 2019.

Released in December 2021, the BFI’s Screen Business report shows that, between 2017 and 2019, the incentives to studios yielded a record £13.5bn of return on investment to Britain’s economy and created more jobs than ever before. Filming drives spending on services such as security, equipment hire, transport and catering. In 2019, this spending created 49,845 jobs in London and 19,085 throughout the rest of Britain. Universal alone spent £37.5m on the staff behind Dominion and Fallen Kingdom.

Critics, however, have queried the effectiveness of the scheme. Some argue that Britain’s filming facilities, talent and landscape are strong enough to attract studios without incentives, so the UK could reap the benefits without the government needing to spend any money.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which campaigns for reform of UK taxation , said: “It’s little wonder that the majority of taxpayers feel hard done by when they see the eye-popping sums saved by larger companies. Inward investment is a major boon for the UK but the right balance must be struck.”

The incentive scheme has made the finances of films more transparent. The cost of movies made in the US is usually a closely guarded secret as studios tend to absorb the cost of individual films in their overall expenses and don’t itemise how much was spent on each one.

In contrast, studios set up separate companies for movies made in the UK to show more than 10% of the total cost was spent here, in order to qualify for the scheme. The companies have to file annual accounts, which lifts the curtain on everything from staff numbers and salaries to total costs.

Dominion starred Chris Pratt, along with Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum – the original cast of the 1993 Oscar-winner Jurassic Park. It was made at the height of the pandemic in 2020, causing the cast to quarantine for five months at the opulent Langley hotel, a former manor home of the third Duke of Marlborough where rooms cost more than £400 a night.

William Sargent, chair of London-based visual effects firm Framestore, said: “The spend happens and taxes are paid a year at least before the government writes a cheque in return.” He added that film industry workers then spend the money they have been paid which, in turn, generates more tax receipts for the government: “If you follow the actual tax collection against the impact of this onward money, it vastly exceeds the payout.”

Universal Pictures was contacted for comment.