Robert Redford refused to be a Hollywood pretty-boy – and shaped cinema in the process

In 1972, the fabulously caustic film critic Pauline Kael compared Robert Redford to Lassie. She felt he’d wasted his early potential and become too sunny by half. But the joke’s on Pauline. If the actor-turned-activist/producer/Oscar-winning director did occasionally flirt with blandness, he never went all the way. Embraced by edgy, new wave directors, as well as old-school Hollywood, his best performances helped galvanise the cinematic landscape. As the co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, he also brought independent movies to the masses. Meryl Streep, his co-star in the hit 1985 romance Out of Africa, said “he was the golden boy of American cinema, but he always made room for others to shine”. Directors whose careers were boosted by Sundance include Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Nicole Holofcener and Ryan Coogler. Yep, we owe Redford – who died early on Tuesday morning at his home in Utah, age 89 – a huge debt.

He didn’t lead a charmed life; born in a poor neighbourhood of Los Angeles, Redford lost his Texan mother (“the strong member of the family”) in his teens. Still, once he started acting, he definitely got lucky, with a string of juicy parts in star-studded if somewhat febrile melodramas. In the 1965 Natalie Wood vehicle Inside Daisy Clover (the film that brought him to the attention of producer Alan J Pakula, with whom he later worked on All the President’s Men), Redford is magnetic as bisexual movie idol Wade Lewis, nailing the character’s white-toothed glamour and flibbertigibbet charm. In 1966’s This Property Is Condemned (again with Wood) he’s Owen, a jaded railway official, full of impatience and chilly angst. When he says, “I have no dream”, we can’t help but shiver. Beautiful and brittle, Owen is a proper mystery, even to himself.

Then came a small but crucial role in The Chase (1966), with Redford eye-catching as Bubber Reeves, the decent-ish Texan prison escapee drawn back to his corrupt home town, where Marlon Brando’s Sheriff Calder tries to uphold the law. Redford and Brando’s one scene together, right at the end, is tantalisingly charged; instead of the two men interacting, it’s Bubber’s disdain for his weeping mama (Miriam Hopkins) that all but burns a hole in the screen.

After that, Redford got the lead in Neil Simon’s 1967 comedy Barefoot in the Park (opposite a bright-eyed Jane Fonda). Redford had played the part of self-regarding Paul Bratter on Broadway and, in the film, seems comfortable making a twit of himself. He’s especially nifty in the bit where Paul gets sloshed in Washington Square Park. Like Grace Kelly in High Society, Redford is in his element playing an uptight if gorgeous square who seriously needs to loosen up. To put it another way: Redford’s comic timing is ace.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, of course, was the game-changer in 1969. The studios didn’t want Redford, by now in his early thirties, but his co-star Paul Newman insisted he was just right for this insouciant and brainy Western. And he was. Redford’s gun-toting outlaw acts like a man who’s stoned. Almost always wry and sporadically ratty, the “Kid” lives in the moment. Yet beneath his blithe exterior there’s a streak of melancholy. His ever-growing dependence on Butch and the woman they adore (Katharine Ross) is stirring. There are “classic” films that, on closer inspection, turn out to be deeply regressive (see Once Upon a Time in the West). This bromance, by contrast, stands up to scrutiny. Ross’s Etta Place says, “I won’t watch you die. I’ll miss that scene if you don’t mind.” The freeze-frame at the end was always poignant. With both leading men now gone, it’s devastating.

As well as making a ton of money, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid won four Oscars. Redford used his newfound fame wisely, demonstrating his versatility – and growing interest in politics – via The Candidate (1972), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and All the President’s Men (1976). Note how often his performances feel almost disconcertingly naturalistic. It’s as if he’s forgotten the cameras are rolling and is just experimenting with how to play in the scene, whether by letting his lips flap with exasperation and spewing gibberish (as a radical lefty who gets embroiled in a political campaign run by cynical Democrats, in Michael Ritchie’s satirical gem The Candidate) or by emitting a little growl of excitement, while sitting at a typewriter (as poised journalist Bob Woodward in the sweaty, impressively lo-fi Watergate drama All the President’s Men).

In terms of their morals, Redford’s characters tend to be wayward. Many of them are conmen who’ve perfected the insincere smile. More than a few are over-confident opportunists and/or narcissists. In 1969’s Downhill Racer, wannabe Olympic ski champion Dave Chappellet is fascinatingly ruthless and self-involved. You keep expecting him to be punished. Or redeemed. Uh-uh. Like a shark, Dave just keeps on moving. In period romance The Way We Were, Redford’s ambitious writer cheats on Barbra Streisand’s impassioned Jewish radical and walks out on her, as well as their baby daughter. What a swine! Loyal Lassie, if you remember, always saved the day. That simply isn’t true of the vast majority of men Redford chose to inhabit.

His filmography, as already hinted, is hardly blemish-free. The Great Gatsby (1974) is a tepid mess and Redford is rubbish in it. Why? Because he doesn’t convince as a hopeless romantic. F Scott Fitzgerald’s self-made millionaire is meant to be gaga about Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow), but it seems preposterous that Redford’s Jay Gatsby would risk everything to protect this posh party girl. She barely seems to raise his pulse. Jane Fonda once said that Redford didn’t like kissing her on set and had “a problem with women”. All one can say for sure: the heat generated by Redford, here, wouldn’t boil a hummingbird’s egg.

Films like 1985’s Out of Africa were massively successful, but didn’t exactly stretch him. As elegant lion-killer Denys, he woos Meryl Streep’s sensitive Danish toff and is entirely seductive – particularly when languorously washing her hair – but also looks bored. He’s playing a fantasy figure and knows it. Meanwhile, in the tosh that is Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal (1993), he has the air of a sleepwalker who has no wish to be woken up.

He’s fully engaged, however, in 2013’s All Is Lost, in which he barely has a word to say. Made for $8.5m by JC Chandor, the film cast 77-year-old Redford as an imperilled sailor, trying not to be swallowed by the sea. All the old intensity is there, as his nameless character gets that sinking feeling in the Indian Ocean. He’s almost as compelling in what would prove his last significant turn in a feature film, David Lowery’s The Old Man & the Gun (2018). He plays a dapper and sedate bank robber, alternately wearied and thrilled by his own self-serving lies. His Forrest Tucker, who sports a sad clump of golden-hued hair, is running out of time. When the film uses a clip from The Chase, as a “flashback” of the young Tucker, it really does feel as if Redford the man and Redford the myth have merged.

Redford complained, on a number of occasions, that his blond good looks got in the way of him being taken seriously. It’s true that the darker-haired Warren Beatty and Paul Newman, though equally pulchritudinous, didn’t face nearly as much carping – legend has it that a studio executive once said of Redford, “He’s just another Hollywood blond. Throw a stick out of a window in Malibu, you’ll hit six like him.” Yet Redford proved, over and over again, that he was anything but pretty vacant. He did this, in part, by going behind the camera. Ordinary People (1980) won four Oscars in all, including Best Picture. Redford probably shouldn’t have won the Best Director Oscar (for God’s sake, he was up against Scorsese, for Raging Bull!), but his film spills over with impressively murky emotions and boasts a beautiful performance from Mary Tyler Moore, as a helplessly icy mother who can’t connect with her anguished teenage son.

What will Redford’s ultimate legacy be? Audiences rightly swerved his more clunkily earnest directing efforts (even the most ardent liberals and/or Tom Cruise fans may be tempted to have a cheeky nap during Lions for Lambs, his 2007 Afghan War “thriller”), and it’s possible very young viewers only know Redford as the craggy dude from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Still, so many pretty actors have learnt from his example, from Brad Pitt to George Clooney. By sniffing out smart scripts, and appearing to be amused by their own good looks, these icons have kept their careers going, just as Redford did.

Redford, a committed environmentalist, also took political and economic risks that paid off. In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Butch says of the “Kid”: “He goes his own way.” Those five words seem equally true of the canny pioneer born Charles Robert Redford Jr.

Kerr goes for 1500m gold after huge Ingebrigtsen and Hocker shocks

Defending champion Josh Kerr goes for back-to-back 1500m golds at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, with the highly anticipated showdown set to deliver fireworks despite the shock absences of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker.

Kerr triumphed in Budapest two years ago and is aiming to emulate the likes of Mo Farah, Jess Ennis-Hill and Seb Coe by winning consecutive World Championship golds, but the 27-year-old will go into the final without facing two of his biggest rivals.

Norwegian star Ingebrigtsen crashed out in the first round after an injury disrupted year, before the American Hocker, who beat Kerr to Olympic gold in Paris last summer, was controversially disqualified for “jostling” in his semi-final.

There are still plenty of other threats, with the 20-year-old Dutch rising star Niels Laros widely regarded as the favourite, not to mention two other Scots in the 2022 world champion Jake Wightman and Neil Gourley.

Follow all the action, results and analysis from Tokyo below:

Republican gala dinner in Windsor disrupted by climate protesters

Climate protesters have interrupted a gala dinner for Republicans in Windsor celebrating Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK.

Campaigners from Fossil Free London shouted, “if we drill baby drill, how many will we kill?” – mocking one of the US president’s famous sayings – and held up banners reading “oily money kills” as drums were beaten.

Male guests appeared to force the demonstrators out of the dining hall – bedecked with formal framed portraits – amid shouting.

Two men carried out a demonstrator by his hands and feet. Other guests started filming the disruption on their mobile phones.

Tickets for the formal three-course dinner, organised by Republicans Overseas, were sold out.

Chair of the Republicans Overseas UK group called for a “Maga revolution” in Britain when he spoke at the event.

Greg Swenson told guests: “I hope whether it’s Reform [UK] or a party like Reform, I hope they [the British public] get a Maga revolution, a common sense revolution in the UK.”

Of the protests, he said: “What a great moment for us to actually have a protest. Haters will hate.”

He ended his speech by repeating Mr Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” phrase in defiance of the campaigners.

But campaigners point out that burning fossil fuels is one of the key factors in rising global temperatures.

Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, said: “The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries think almost half of the world’s population will lose their lives due to climate impacts in our lifetime.

“This cascading risk is the greatest security threat our world has ever known…

“We need to stop the drilling. If not, we won’t keep living. From the North Sea’s Rosebank oil field to Greenland and the USA, we must keep it in the ground.”

In January, a warning by the institute escalated estimates of the risk to global economic wellbeing from fires, flooding, droughts, temperature rises and nature breakdown.

A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “We received a report of a public order incident at a private event in Windsor Guildhall at approximately 8.45pm this evening.

“Two individuals were removed by the event organisers and no arrests were made.”

During Tuesday evening, a small group of anti-Trump demonstrators rallied on Windsor’s main street, beneath British and American flags decked out along the road.

Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, were greeted by home secretary Yvette Cooper after they landed in the UK.

The King is due to greet President Trump at nearby Windsor Castle on Wednesday with a ceremonial welcome and a lavish state banquet.

On Sunday, climate change campaigners unfurled a banner with a picture of Mr Trump reading “Climate criminal. War criminal. The only place he’s welcome is The Hague,” inside the grounds of Windsor Castle.

A series of other protests are planned against Mr Trump’s visit to the UK. One of the largest is expected to be in central London on Wednesday, organised by the Stop Trump Coalition.

Poke me again will you Facebook? This feature won’t bring us back

I still remember my first poke from a boy. I was 19 years old and in my third term of university; the young man in question and I had worked a couple of pub shifts together. We’d exchanged flirty quips and meaningful looks along the bar. There was a vibe. Then, one evening, he poked me.

Ugh, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter, please. No, I was minding my own business, clicking through a Facebook album of around a thousand identikit drunken photos from a night out on my PC, when those three little game-changing words popped up on my screen: “Adam poked you.”

Wahhh! It felt like I’d been directly plugged into an electric current, skin tingling and hairs standing on end just as much as if I’d been physically touched. His action was somehow more provocative than a message, more… intimate than just tagging me in a post. He’d actually poked me. It had to mean something.

If you’re under the age of 30, you may well have never experienced the thrill of a good poking. Now, two decades after the feature was first introduced (good Lord I feel old), Meta’s revamping it in a bid to attract younger users with a shot of nostalgia for a time they never actually lived through. “Pokes never really left but they’re making a comeback in a major way,” reads a Facebook post describing plans to revive and update this former staple of the platform. “Now you can see who poked you and find other friends to poke.”

Users will be able to view their “pokes-count” with friends on a dedicated page, apparently, where they’ll be alerted to each new poke they receive. It follows an unexpected popularity boost last year; Facebook described the poke as “having a moment” after registering a spike in usage.

It’s all part of a wider plan to try to recapture “OG Facebook”, according to founder Mark Zuckerberg, who said on a podcast in March: “A lot of the fun and useful parts of the original experience, we just sort of didn’t focus as much on. And not only did we not focus on them as much, but… I realised no one else actually recreated a lot of these things that used to be pretty magical about Facebook either.”

He went on to describe that earlier version of Facebook as offering “these joyful experiences” that “just kind of don’t exist on the internet today”.

And, as much as one might be inclined to roll their eyes at adjectives like “magical” and “joyful” being applied to the now-$15bn corporation, he’s not actually wrong. It’s hard to imagine if you’ve grown up with social media as it is now – a monstrous behemoth of a “distractification” industry designed purely to steal every possible sliver of your time – but in its humble beginnings, Facebook was fun.

Following on from early rivals MySpace and Bebo, the platform first entered the UK in 2005, the same year I started university, and was only initially available to students – you had to have a uni email address to join. Way back before insane algorithms, rage-bait, influencers and echo chambers existed, it truly was a social network. You followed your friends, and friends of friends, and only saw their posts. You logged on primarily to view the interminable photos of your mates in various states of inebriation from the night before and, crucially, to stalk that fit guy you met on the troublingly sticky dancefloor of the student union. This was back when Facebook relationship statuses meant everything (“it’s complicated” – so intriguing!) and the site had the potential to connect you with your next sexual conquest or, more realistically, rejection.

It was an exciting time, and the poke made it even more so. Pre-FB, you’d have seen that boy from your seminar smouldering in the library and simply lusted from afar. Now, you could playfully let him know you were interested – all without having to think up an excruciating opening gambit or even say “hello”. If he responded online, maybe he was interested too. If he ignored it, no real harm done – you could simply pretend it never happened, or say you went round poking everyone while pissed. Rejection averted.

But that was the thing that made the OG Facebook genuinely “magical” – online interactions were merely a jumping off point for irl ones. This new tool enabled you to connect so that you might get a conversation going the next time you bumped into them in halls or happened to be out at the same indie club night. The exhilaration was bound up in the real-world potential that this digital realm had unlocked.

I can see why Zuckerberg would be desperate to invoke FB’s original mojo. While it remains the world’s most-used social media site, the average age of the most active users has climbed since its inception as a tool specifically geared towards bright young things. Colloquially known as the “old person’s platform”, Facebook has seen an increase in engagement among the 55+ demographic, who often spend more time on there than any other cohort. Anecdotally, I know very few millennials who use it at all these days, let alone regularly. Instagram and WhatsApp have largely taken its place, while TikTok and Snapchat have cornered the Gen Z market (the less said about Twitter the better at this point).

And yet harking back to the “good old days” of Facebook is like trying to turn back the clock to a completely different era – a simpler, more innocent time of the internet when it felt full of hope and possibility. When it really did enable communities to form, online friendships to be forged and, yes, gentle flirting to take place at the touch of an icon of a pointing index finger. That world no longer exists. Facebook knows that – after all, the platform was instrumental in its destruction, replacing social “networking” with social “media” and building a business model whose role is not to connect people but to keep them separate, alone and silently scrolling a screen for hours on end. It has no interest in creating an environment in which an interaction might lead to you putting down your phone, leaving the house, and meeting up with someone new – someone who might take that most precious commodity of all: your attention.

Bring back all the Noughties features you like, but never again will those three little words set a young woman’s heart racing. Sorry, Facebook – the poke is officially broke.

Once-a-day pill can help people lose ‘significant’ weight

A once-a-day pill for obesity could be a cheaper and more accessible weight-loss drug, after a study found the tablet can lead to “significant” reductions in body weight.

More than 60 per cent of adults living in the UK are obese or overweight – a crisis which is costing the NHS about £107bn a year.

But almost one in five people taking the drug Orforglipron lost 20 per cent of their body weight after using it for a year and a half, researchers found.

Although the weight loss seen in people taking the tablet is not as stark as that among patients taking Mounjaro, experts believe the tablet will be more accessible and convenient compared with weight-loss injections.

“Because this pill is easier to use and may be less expensive, it could allow more people access to effective weight-loss medications and make obesity treatment simpler and more convenient for patients everywhere,” said Dr Stephen Lawrence, GP and associate clinical professor at the University of Warwick.

About 1.5 million people in the UK take drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy to deal with conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

The medications, known as GLP-1 agonists, predominantly treat diabetes but are also available on the NHS or via private providers to help adults with a high body mass index. The drugs are mainly used to control blood sugar levels, but they also reduce food cravings and, as a result, can cause rapid weight loss.

The Orforglipron pill is also a GLP-1 agonist made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

A snapshot of the results was published by the company in August, and the full paper detailing the findings has now been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented to the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Vienna, Austria.

The study split 3,127 participants with obesity into groups taking different strengths of the weight-loss pill, while others took a placebo for 72 weeks.

Patients from the US, China, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Slovakia and Taiwan took part in the study.

Researchers from McMaster University in Canada found that after 72 weeks, people taking the lowest dose of 6mg Orforglipron lost an average of 7.5 per cent of their body weight.

Those taking the highest dose, a 36mg tablet, lost an average of 11.2 per cent of their body weight.

Among patients taking the highest doses, 54.6 per cent of people had a reduction of 10 per cent or more of body weight, 36 per cent had a reduction of 15 per cent or more, and 18.4 per cent had a reduction of 20 per cent or more.

People taking the drug also had better blood pressure, a smaller waist circumference and a reduction in bad cholesterol levels. They reported the most common side effects were “mild to moderate” gastrointestinal issues.

“In adults with obesity, 72-week treatment with Orforglipron led to significantly greater reductions in body weight than placebo,” the authors wrote. “The adverse-event profile was consistent with that of other GLP-1 receptor agonists.”

Dr Sean Wharton, who led the research, added: “This could mean an expansion of obesity interventions to groups who are currently excluded due to the cost of and lack of access to injectable medications.”

Weight-loss jabs have been hailed as transformative by health leaders. But injections come with additional work for overstretched health services, so tablet forms of medication, which are expected to be cheaper and easier to use, may offer a new hope for the millions of people looking to lose weight.

Eli Lilly said in August it was putting up the list price of the drug by as much as 170 per cent following pressure from Donald Trump, who said he wanted to bring overseas prices on US drugs into line with US costs.

The move sparked panic among many who already take the drug, with long-term users on higher doses expected to be forced to shell out an extra £100 each month. However, the new pill is expected to be cheaper.

Dr Crystal Wyllie at Asda Online Doctor said: “Taking a pill is much more convenient for patients who struggle with needles, and also easier for healthcare services to administer. With manufacturing costs likely lower than those of injectable medications, Orforglipron could be cheaper to buy, store, and transport.”

I wish my mum had contacted Macmillan Cancer Support

I wasn’t at my mum’s side when she learned she had breast cancer, but that made me determined to be there the day she was getting the all-clear 18-months later. However, things didn’t go to plan that day.

Mum’s cancer journey started over a decade ago, a few months after a routine mammogram – when she developed “a pain”. She told herself it was probably nothing, because the scan she’d just had was fine. When she mentioned it to her GP – a small lump that didn’t feel quite right – she convinced herself that she was just being silly. The biopsy begged to differ.

In the list you keep in your head of the cancers you worry your mum might get, breast wasn’t that high on mine. Yes, it’s long been the number one cancer affecting women, with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that about 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year  – the risk factor only increasing with age. But my mum had other health concerns to contend with.

As a schoolgirl in swinging London, she’d been a back-of-the-bikeshed smoker, which had graduated into a lifelong habit. Lung cancer seemed like a possibility.

Mum’s also the biggest sun worshipper I know. Long before any of us had heard of SPF, she would think nothing of spending an afternoon in the garden, stretched out on a blanket, slathered in baby oil. So, given what we know now about UV radiation, I wondered about skin cancer too.

Mum went on to have a series of lumpectomies to get rid of three spots of malignant tissue. She would also have lymph nodes removed as a precaution, as well as undergo extensive chemotherapy.

For me, her diagnosis was as though a stopwatch had been started. How long might she have left? She did her best to be stoic. Which was just as well, given what government austerity measures at the time were doing to the NHS: budget cuts, hapless reorganisations, and an end to the “gold-standard” two-week referral from detection to the start of treatment.

All mum could do was wait for the brown envelopes to drop on the doormat detailing appointments at unfamiliar hospitals many miles away, sometimes after the appointment had been and gone.

If she felt let down by the bureaucracy of our health service, the same could not be said for the army of individuals involved in her care. On a human level, she found her nurses and doctors to be uniquely composed and compassionate throughout her treatment.

When the day finally came for her oncologist to tell her that all the signs of her cancer had gone, I was invited along to hold her hand. “The scans are back,” he began. “And I need to discuss your options for the next course of action.” It seemed the cancer hadn’t quite gone after all. She had fought so hard to get to this point, she was expecting good news, and was unprepared for the knockback.

But she did go on to beat cancer – and has been in remission for more than five years, which we couldn’t be more grateful for. However, should it ever come back, there’s one thing we’d do differently from the off: make a call to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Only with hindsight, did we realise how much help Macmillan would have been. Someone to provide her with a calming companion for the journey, someone to help with the cancer admin – the appointments, the prescriptions, the test results – and someone to explain what all the scans and tests were for, what the results might mean, and what to expect next.

I couldn’t always be around while mum was living with cancer, and that’s where Macmillan steps in. Now, enjoying a slice of cake at a Coffee Morning, which is raising money to fund the work they do, seems like the least I can do.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Starmer’s migrant plan in jeopardy as man wins High Court bid to block removal

Sir Keir Starmer’s new “one in, one out” deal with France is in jeopardy after an asylum seeker successfully delayed his removal at the High Court and deportation flights left the country without any migrants on board.

Several migrants who were due to be among the first to be sent back to France under the swap deal had their removal delayed after legal action, and the first legal case reached the High Court on Tuesday afternoon, with a detained asylum seeker successfully arguing against his planned deportation, which was set for Wednesday.

It was the second day in a row that the Home Office failed to deport migrants on passenger flights intended to get the returns deal underway.

The department has booked seats for migrants on several flights this week, with asylum seekers given directions for deportation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Multiple flights are planned on Wednesday,The Independent understands.

Downing Street denied that the government’s return deal with France was a shambles, or that its plans had been hampered by legal action. A spokesperson for No 10 also denied that the latest postponement showed that ministers were powerless in the face of the courts, adding: “As I said, we have never provided an operational running commentary on the details of the scheme.”

Numerous asylum seekers are believed to have issued letters before legal action to the Home Office, detailing why they should not be removed to France, and officials have cancelled their plane tickets and deportation notices.

Lawyers representing an Eritrean asylum seeker, who was due to be removed on a flight at 9am on Wednesday, told the High Court that he faced a real risk of destitution if returned to France. The migrant said he was a victim of trafficking in Libya, and had been subjected to forced labour in the North African country.

He said that he had been put in a warehouse with 50-60 other migrants and held against his will for two months. He travelled from Libya through Italy to France, where he was living on the street and was gifted some money by his mother to make the small boat journey across the Channel.

The Eritrean was granted interim relief by a High Court judge on Tuesday evening, allowing him 14 days to make legal representations, and halting his immediate removal to France.

The development is a massive blow to Sir Keir, who is trying to turn round a 10-point lag in the polls behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, with the worsening migrant crisis being a key issue.

There are high hopes that the one-in, one-out deal will break the business model of the gangs behind the small boat crossings, but the latest legal delays look set to scupper hopes of an early success.

Imogen Townley, a solicitor representing an asylum seeker who was granted a temporary suspension order preventing removal to France, accused the government of taking an “arbitrary and chaotic approach” to selecting people for deportation to France.

“You would think that they would be able to identify the right people to remove to France, but unfortunately, they have been taking this fairly unreasoned approach, and you’re even seeing children caught up in this process, and children selected for removal to France when they are explicitly or should explicitly be excluded From this process”, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The issues have brought back memories of the notorious Rwanda scheme launched by the Conservatives, which failed after it was tied up in legal knots.

However, a cabinet minister denied that the High Court decision will prevent the deal with France from going ahead.

Technology secretary Liz Kendall told Times Radio she would not comment on “operational details”, but said: “This is one person, it is not going to undermine the fundamental basis of this deal.”

She added: “This decision is disappointing, but it won’t prevent the rest of that deal going ahead.”

The Conservatives said Labour is “too weak to control our borders” and called for the complete repeal of the Human Rights Act for immigration matters.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Two flights, zero deportations. Labour’s France returns deal failed to remove a single migrant, yet thousands more continue to arrive. The government must come clean on whether even one person has been sent to us from France in return.”

Some of the asylum seekers who have been detained at the Brook House detention centre at Gatwick under the scheme are believed to be survivors of torture and trafficking. Others have received Home Office decisions saying that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they may be victims of modern slavery, it is understood.

The Independent previously reported that children had been detained for removal to France, but these minors have since been released into the care of the local council. At least 12 children whose ages are disputed by officials, meaning they were treated as adults, have been detained under the scheme, with four still in detention, support workers said.

The charity Detention Action warned that screening interviews for some migrants are being held after midnight, with some conducted by phone and video conference. This is resulting in poor-quality assessments, they said.

The legal advice service is also fraught with delays, and migrants only have seven days to challenge their removal to France.

Lochlinn Parker, acting director of the charity, said: “Adults and children are arriving from Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria and elsewhere, seeking our protection, only to be locked in small cells and denied the support they urgently need. The new home secretary must change course and stop putting people in even more danger.”

Among the migrants detained for deportation to France are people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan and Syria, and Kurdish people from a number of countries.

Emma Ginn from Medical Justice said the group’s clinicians have “medically assessed people in detention under this scheme who are survivors of torture and trafficking, with experiences of sexual abuse and slavery”, accusing the government of ignoring “the fundamental issue that they are seeking safety”.

Meanwhile, Griff Ferris, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said the scheme was “just another grim attempt by a government flailing to appease the racist far right”.

The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has topped 30,000 for the year so far – the earliest point in a calendar year at which the mark has been passed since data on crossings was first reported in 2018.

A Home Office spokesperson said the department would “not comment on operational details” of the flights.

The spokesperson said: “Under the new UK-France treaty, people crossing in small boats can now be detained and removed to France. We expect the first returns to take place imminently.

“Protecting the UK border is our top priority. We will do whatever it takes to restore order to secure our borders.”

Inflation holds steady but soaring price of beef, coffee and chocolate drive up bills

UK inflation remained unchanged last month at 3.8 per cent, official figures show, but consumers are still facing rising food and drink costs on some of the most popular everyday items like coffee and chocolate.

Food and drink price rises have accelerated for the fifth month in a row, in another hit to the poorest households, with the chancellor admitting that many people are “finding it tough”.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced on Wednesday the rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was 3.8 per cent in August, the same as July. This was the level that most economists had been expecting.

However, the rate of food and drink inflation rose to 5.1 per cent in August, from 4.9 per cent in July, as shoppers continued to face higher prices for items at the till.

Among food items, beef and veal has had the biggest annual rise in price, up by a quarter (24.9 per cent) over the past 12 months. Butter is next in line, up 18.9 per cent, while both chocolate and coffee have risen 15.4 per cent in the space of a year.

ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said: “The cost of airfares was the main downward driver this month with prices rising less than a year ago following the large increase in July linked to the timing of the summer holidays.

“This was offset by a rise in prices at the pump and the cost of hotel accommodation falling less than this time last year.

“Food price inflation climbed for the fifth consecutive month, with small increases seen across a range of vegetables, cheese and fish items.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “I know families are finding it tough and that for many the economy feels stuck. That’s why I’m determined to bring costs down and support people who are facing higher bills.

“Through our Plan for Change, we are taking action – raising the National Living Wage, extending the £3 bus fare cap, and expanding free school meals, to put more money in people’s pockets while we work to build a stronger, more stable economy that rewards hard work.”

The Food and Drink Federation recently said current prices were “steeper than anything in recent decades” and has projected that costs could continue to rise, with food inflation estimated to hit 5.7 per cent before the end of this year.

The ONS also releases inflation data for CPI including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) – that measure of inflation sits at 4.1 per cent for the 12 months to August, down from 4.2 per cent a month earlier. CPIH is a more comprehensive measure of inflation, which allows international comparisons to be drawn, though the UK tends to use CPI more frequently.

Scott Gardner, investment strategist at Nutmeg, pointed out the signs within the data which suggested some positives for the future – but noted households would still be footing the bill for now.

“With forecasts suggesting inflation could rise even further in the short term and hit 4 per cent going into the autumn, the cost of living strain on household finances will persist in the months ahead. In short, already sticky inflation is likely to get stickier,” he said.

“While the headline rate remains elevated, there are some positives from this latest inflation reading. Closely watched core inflation fell during the 12-month period to August. Services inflation also showed good progress but there are signs that businesses continue to pass on their own cost increases. At the same time, for consumers, the energy price fall was offset by an increase in food prices, which continue to accelerate and punish many at the checkout.”

Meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has underlined that businesses are also still in the firing line and reiterated their call for the government not to add further tax burdens on firms in the Budget.

“Businesses will be worried by inflation holding at 3.8 per cent at a time when cost pressures continue to bite, especially on wages. The BCC’s latest economic forecast expects inflation to remain at around this level until the end of the year,” said Stuart Morrison, BCC research manager.

“Firms are clear that April’s rise in national insurance, continued strong wage growth and higher tariffs are all eroding their operating margins. There is also growing concern that sticky inflation will limit the scope for further interest rate cuts.

“Ahead of the Autumn Budget, our message to the chancellor is clear – there must be no new tax rises on business. Firms cannot provide the economic growth we all need if they continue to be hampered by rising costs.”

One finance expert urged savers to protect their money by ensuring their bank’s interest rate was higher than the rate of inflation.

“While the inflation rate holding at 3.8 per cent may appear stable, it still poses a challenge for savers. At this level, the real value of their money continues to be chipped away,” explained Derek Sprawling, head of money at Spring Savings.

“Now is not the time for complacency and savers should be proactive in reviewing their accounts. With many still earning minimal interest, switching to a savings product that offers a return above inflation is key to preserving financial wellbeing.”

With inflation remaining high and jobs data from this week also still uncertain, there is expected to be no chance the Bank of England will cut interest rates further when the Monetary Policy Committee meets on Thursday. Many analysts are now expecting no further cuts across the remainder of 2025, leaving the Bank Rate at 4 per cent.