Barristers are demanding a 15 per cent pay rise to match settlements secured by other public sector unions.

They also want the Government to set up an independent pay review body, to help end the cycle of industrial disputes that saw barristers take strike action in 2014 and 2022.

The demands were part of a five-point plan to tackle a crisis in criminal justice set out by Sam Townend, the chairman of the Bar Council. There is a chronic shortage of barristers, and creaking court buildings require at least £1 billion of renovation.

The demands came days after train drivers were offered a 15 per cent pay rise to end two years of strike action, and nurses rejected a 5.5 per cent offer by the Government.

A bitter dispute under the Tories saw barristers mount indefinite strikes that delayed hundreds of trials and contributed to an increasing backlog of more than 65,000 cases. It was resolved in 2022 when they secured a 15 per cent increase in their fees.

Speaking at a fringe event of the Society of Labour Lawyers, Mr Townend said the Bar Council – which represents some 18,000 lawyers – was seeking a “15 per cent increase now to reflect the public sector pay settlement which others have had, including, for example, judges”.

To tackle a crisis in retention which had contributed to shortages of criminal barristers, Mr Townend suggested an “independent pay review, or fee review body to end the five- to seven-year cycle of industrial disputes as fees have failed to respond to inflation”.

Mr Townend said one in 20 trials at crown courts last year were aborted on their first day because the shortage of barristers meant no lawyers were available. 

“This is utterly wasteful,” he said.

He urged the Government to set up a matched funding scheme to increase recruitment of criminal barristers by paying for 100 additional pupillages every year over five years.

Extra money should also be directed at boosting “third-sector advice” such as law centres and Citizens Advice to ensure more people had access to justice who would otherwise not, he said.

Mr Townend, a former vice-chair of the Society of Labour Lawyers, told ministers: “Finally, if I may, a general warning. What the bar, and I think the public, do not want to hear is a plan of austerity-light or a continuity of cuts, just nicer done. That is not the change that was voted for.

“We know money is tight, and we know that it will take time, but politics is about choices. We must have a vision of a brighter future, a hope of a means to get to swift justice, of access to justice, and to turn around the degraded system of justice that the last government so manifestly left us in,” he added.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, told the Labour conference on Monday that the pay rises given to millions of public sector workers were the “right choice”.

Speaking to delegates in Liverpool, she said: “I am proud to stand here as the first chancellor in 14 years to have delivered a real meaningful pay rise to millions of public sector workers. 

“We made that choice not just because they needed a pay rise but because it was the right choice for patients and the British public.”

Flooding caused disruption across England on Tuesday, swamping roads and leaving vehicles abandoned, with more expected in nearly 30 areas despite an easing of heavy rain.

The Environment Agency issued 26 flood warnings – meaning flooding is expected – and 71 alerts, meaning it is possible, across England on Tuesday morning.

Part of the A421 in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, remained under water after heavy rain hit the area over Sunday and Monday.

National Highways said it expected the road to remain closed on Tuesday in both directions between the A6 Bedford and M1 Junction 13, and that it “cannot provide a timeline” for it to reopen.

The northbound A5 between the A421 in Bletchley and Great Holm at Milton Keynes was closed because of rising water levels on Tuesday morning.

Flooding between Rugby and Milton Keynes Central disrupted Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway services until 10am, according to National Rail.

London Northwestern Railway said its Marston Vale line, which operates between Bedford and Bletchley, would be suspended until Sept 30.

The National Grid said there had been a week’s worth of power cuts across the weekend.

In Northamptonshire, boat owners reported being rescued by the fire service after a river breached its bank. Saphire Blurton, 32, and Lee Mills, 53, were rescued from their boat on the River Nene on Tuesday – the day after they moved in.

Mr Mills told the BBC: “It was nice being rescued by the Fire Brigade… a bit ironic being rescued from a boat to a boat, but it was OK – they were really good people. They were really on it because a few boats have sunk down here this morning already.”

A Fire Brigade spokesman said: “Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service was called at 6.23 this morning to reports of a boat in difficulty in the water on South Bridge Road, Northampton.

“On arrival, firefighters found that the river had breached the side of the bank and liaised with the owner of the boat to offer them safety advice. Crews spoke to all the boat owners at the scene and, following advice from firefighters, three occupants were assisted from their boats on to dry land.”

Elsewhere in Northamptonshire, homes at Cogenhoe Mill Holiday Park were surrounded by water after the River Nene burst its banks.

Drier but noticeably cooler conditions are forecast on Tuesday, with Scotland and northern England still seeing some isolated heavy showers with a chance of thunder, according to the Met Office. It said further weather warnings were “unlikely”.

Maximum temperatures are expected to rise no higher than the mid-teens.

Liam Eslick, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “There may be odd, heavier bursts just clipping the South-East as a system does slowly start to move away, but it’s a much drier day for most people.

“There are going to be some isolated showers here and there, but they’re going to be very light – nothing like the torrential rain that we’ve seen over the last couple of days.”

River levels should start to decrease to more manageable levels elsewhere towards the end of the day as more water seeps into the ground.

The shift to drier conditions in southern areas will also signal a slight dip in temperatures. The gradual lowering will continue through Wednesday and Thursday but, with plenty of cloud around, it is unlikely any frost will develop.

The transgender owner of a £5 million Scottish castle is selling up, claiming the rural community is “not ready” to accept someone who has changed their gender.

Samantha Kane said it sometimes felt like she had “landed on Mars” when “hurtful” gender identity comments were shared on social media.

Ms Kane, who was born male and now styles herself as Lady Carbisdale, is thought to be the only person in the UK to have changed gender three times.

The barrister has spent millions of pounds restoring Carbisdale Castle, near Ardgay in Sutherland, after buying the 117-year-old property in 2022.

But Ms Kane has now decided to sell the 19-bedroom, 29-acre castle, complete with its own loch. It has been listed with a guide price of £5 million.

Ms Kane, 64, told the Daily Mail: “It has been a labour of love mostly. But when people sit in their bedrooms writing on social media they have to realise the effect that has on some people.

“I really have been quite hurt by comments on my gender identity, so now I think it just needs someone, for a better word, ‘normal’ to take over.”

Ms Kane added: “It is such a special place but I did suffer some prejudice and I think probably the Highlands is not ready for a transgender owner of the castle. It needs someone else to protect its future.

“But I came here to a near-ruined castle and have restored it to its former glory, so I’ve done the job I said I was going to do.

“It’s really such an important landmark and my main concern is to see it preserved and to see it respected.”

After Ms Kane bought Carbisdale Castle for more than £1 million, police were called over a community council meeting at which homophobic remarks were allegedly made about her.

Ms Kane had attended the meeting to state her intention to restore the manor but had to leave while a vote took place.

One resident, who did not want to be named, claimed he heard a woman had been “abusive” towards a committee member understood to have been Ms Kane.

He claimed: “The language she used was exceptionally strong which even a sailor would have been proud of. I wouldn’t use it as a man, never mind it coming from a woman.”

Police Scotland said it received a report of a disturbance in Carron Place, Ardgay, on Nov 23.

Officers issued advice and a woman received a recorded warning in relation to an earlier disturbance on Nov 21.

At the time, Ms Kane described the police involvement as an “overreaction” despite claiming that some of what was said was “homophobic and racist”.

She said of the alleged abuse: “In my view it wasn’t a disturbance other than a handful of people wanting to see what I’m doing derailed. I’ve got a half a dozen people trying to smear my name and the castle’s name. They’d rather see a ruined castle than a preserved castle.”

Ms Kane said there were “a lot of great people in the community” and stressed the “actions of one or two people should not reflect the whole community”.

“Unfortunately if you have one or two very active and very vocal people trying to make it all personal… and comments on social media calling me a man – and this and that – it really hurt me and I can do without that,” Ms Kane said.

“It is a sad situation. But really for me I think it should be about whatever helps the castle, it shouldn’t be what helps me personally. In the interests of the castle I think it will be best served with someone else at the helm.”

Ms Kane was born in Iraq and moved to the UK, later making a fortune as the head of investment at a Saudi-owned company. She transitioned to become Samantha in 1997 and in 2004 transitioned back to a man.

In 2018, she underwent further surgery and hormone replacement therapy to revive her transition into femininity.

The former head of the Police Federation made a sexually suggestive remark about the grieving widow of a police officer killed in the line of duty, a misconduct panel was told.

John Apter is accused of saying he wanted to comfort Lissie Harper in his hotel room as she prepared to collect a posthumous award on behalf of her husband, Andrew Harper, who was dragged to his death while trying to stop a gang of quad bike thieves in 2019.

Mr Apter, who was chairman of the Police Federation between 2018 and 2021, allegedly told colleagues: “I wouldn’t mind looking after her tonight” and “I’d like to comfort her in my hotel room”.

A gross misconduct panel also heard the former Hampshire constable groped a much younger officer’s bottom and made a suggestive comment to a pregnant colleague while attending the annual Police Bravery Awards.

Barrister Cecily White, representing Hampshire Constabulary, told the misconduct hearing there was a “pattern” to Mr Apter’s behaviour, which she said was “sexist and derogatory”.

“There are significant similarities between the allegations that different people have made from different perspectives which show an unfortunate attitude towards women in the workplace,” Ms White said.

She added that his role as chairman “placed him in significant power and authority”.

Outlining the first of the allegations, Ms White said: “It was about the widow of Pc Andrew Harper, who was killed in the line of duty.

“His widow, Lissie Harper, was due to attend an awards ceremony to accept a posthumous award on behalf of her husband.

“In the context of a discussion about her attending the event, which would have been quite stressful for her, he said ‘I’d like to comfort her in my hotel room’, with an obvious sexual connotation.”

Pc Harper, a 28-year-old officer with Thames Valley Police, was killed in 2019 when a getaway car dragged him to his death.

He had married his wife just three weeks earlier and the pair were about to go on their honeymoon when he was killed.

Three teenagers were subsequently jailed for his manslaughter.

Ms White told the hearing Mr Apter is also accused of touching the bottom of a junior constable from another force – named only as Female A – on a police night out in December 2021 before the Police Bravery Awards in London.

The panel was told a large group of officers had been celebrating at a pub in central London.

Ms White said: “He bought [Female A] a bottle of Prosecco whilst everyone else got a single drink, continually topping her drink, giving her the impression that he was trying to get her drunk, directing all his comments to her. It made her feel uncomfortable.”

She said when the group moved on to a restaurant afterwards, Mr Apter allegedly placed his hands on Female A’s hips before squeezing her bottom at least once.

She described Mr Apter’s behaviour as “disrespectful and discourteous”.

The misconduct panel was told Mr Apter was allegedly “intoxicated” and “stumbling on the stairs” during the night out.

It was also alleged that he told a female colleague: “Maybe you’ll get a bum now”, after hearing about her pregnancy.

Mr Apter, who has since retired from Hampshire Constabulary, denies the allegations.

The hearing continues.

Sir Keir Starmer has called for the return of the “sausages” from Gaza in a slip-up during his speech at the Labour Party conference.

In an embarrassing gaffe, the Prime Minister misread his script – which called for the return of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct 7 last year.

He said: “I call again for restraint and de-escalation between Lebanon and Israel. I call again for all parties to pull back from the brink.

“I call again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the sausages… the hostages, and a recommitment to the two-state solution, a recognised Palestine and a safe and secure Israel.”

The Prime Minister also said criticism of the way he runs his Government was “water off a duck’s back”.

“Politics can be on the side of good, politics can be on the side of truth and justice, politics can secure a better life for your family through the steady and uncompromising work of service,” he said.

“Because service is responsibility and opportunity for all. The precondition for hope. The bond of respect that can unite a country, bind us to the politics of national renewal. Service doesn’t mean you get everything you want. It doesn’t mean everyone will agree.

“But it does mean we understand that every decision we take, we take together, and that it is our duty for the British people to face up to necessary decisions in their interests.

“And conference – you know me by now, so you know all those shouts, the bad faith advice from people who still hanker after the politics of the people before me, the weak and tawdry fantasy of populism, it’s water off a duck’s back. Mere glitter on a shirt cuff.”

The Conservatives responded with a video on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The party said: “Keir Starmer uses his first big speech as Prime Minister to call for the return of the sausages.”

It then led to a Star Wars style title, saying: “Episode X: Return of the Sausages.”

A Ukrainian front-line battalion filmed its drone-led rescue of an injured Russian soldier.

The K-2 Battalion, which is part of the Ukrainian Army’s 54th Brigade, posted the video across several different social media platforms this week.

Set to eerie music, the video runs longest on Telegram at more than 18 minutes. It picks out the strained facial expressions of the injured Russian soldier, damage to his wrist watch and the streak of dried blood running down the side of his face.

In the video, the drone operator decides not to kill the injured Russian soldier and instead drops water and a note before leading him across No Man’s Land to a Ukrainian trench.

It is unclear where or when the video was shot, although it appears to be set in late summer on a battlefield in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Throughout the war, the 54th Brigade has been positioned on the front line in the Donbas region.

The video appears to be part of a sophisticated recruitment for the K-2 Battalion which, like the rest of the Ukrainian army, is under pressure to sign up more soldiers.

The released video starts as a Ukrainian drone scans a Russian trench after an attack, searching for survivors. It spots the injured Russian soldier lying on top of at least two bodies under an earth arch.

The Ukrainian drone drops a grenade near the injured man but fails to kill him.

Later, the drone returns to the trench to discover that the injured soldier has crawled away from the earth arch and is now lying on his back, begging to be spared.

The Ukrainian drone operator takes pity on the injured Russian soldier. The drone dumps its grenades onto the battlefield, flies back to base and then returns with a bottle of water and a note with instructions on how the injured Russian soldier can reach Ukrainian lines and safety.

The Russian soldier crosses himself and waves “thank you” to the Ukrainian drone operator before he gulps down the water.

The Russian soldier then takes out a syringe from his pocket and injects a painkiller into his left arm. He lies back exhausted before gathering his strength and staggering out of the trench into a sun-drenched No Man’s Land.

He has a leg injury and immediately falls to the floor before gingerly picking himself up and slowly walking forward, threading his way between the artillery craters.

The Ukrainian drone leads the injured Russian soldier through the battlefield. Puffs of smoke show that fighting is continuing.

At one point, the Russian soldier lies in a crater and signals to the drone that he wants to smoke a cigarette before moving on.

He takes out a new packet of cigarettes from a pocket, unwraps the packet, takes one and lights up.

The drone pans out for a wider view of the heavily scarred battlefield.

The sun is setting, bathing the battlefield in a soft orange light. Occasionally, an artillery shell lands near the injured Russian soldier who picks his way between debris and craters. The video’s accompanying subtitle claims that he is being shot at by his own forces.

The injured Russian soldier, with the Ukrainian drone as his guide, eventually makes it to the Ukrainian trench system where he collapses onto the dirt floor, exhausted.

Two Ukrainian infantrymen walk through the trench system towards the injured Russian soldier.

They walk with purpose, striding over rubbish and rubble with their rifles at their shoulders.

The Russian soldier surrenders. One of the Ukrainians then grabs him, roughly, and half-pulls, half-marches him to the trench command post.

The former head of the Police Federation made a sexually suggestive remark about the grieving widow of a police officer killed in the line of duty, a misconduct panel was told.

John Apter is accused of saying he wanted to comfort Lissie Harper in his hotel room as she prepared to collect a posthumous award on behalf of her husband, Andrew Harper, who was dragged to his death while trying to stop a gang of quad bike thieves in 2019.

Mr Apter, who was chairman of the Police Federation between 2018 and 2021, allegedly told colleagues: “I wouldn’t mind looking after her tonight” and “I’d like to comfort her in my hotel room”.

A gross misconduct panel also heard the former Hampshire constable groped a much younger officer’s bottom and made a suggestive comment to a pregnant colleague while attending the annual Police Bravery Awards.

Barrister Cecily White, representing Hampshire Constabulary, told the misconduct hearing there was a “pattern” to Mr Apter’s behaviour, which she said was “sexist and derogatory”.

“There are significant similarities between the allegations that different people have made from different perspectives which show an unfortunate attitude towards women in the workplace,” Ms White said.

She added that his role as chairman “placed him in significant power and authority”.

Outlining the first of the allegations, Ms White said: “It was about the widow of Pc Andrew Harper, who was killed in the line of duty.

“His widow, Lissie Harper, was due to attend an awards ceremony to accept a posthumous award on behalf of her husband.

“In the context of a discussion about her attending the event, which would have been quite stressful for her, he said ‘I’d like to comfort her in my hotel room’, with an obvious sexual connotation.”

Pc Harper, a 28-year-old officer with Thames Valley Police, was killed in 2019 when a getaway car dragged him to his death.

He had married his wife just three weeks earlier and the pair were about to go on their honeymoon when he was killed.

Three teenagers were subsequently jailed for his manslaughter.

Ms White told the hearing Mr Apter is also accused of touching the bottom of a junior constable from another force – named only as Female A – on a police night out in December 2021 before the Police Bravery Awards in London.

The panel was told a large group of officers had been celebrating at a pub in central London.

Ms White said: “He bought [Female A] a bottle of Prosecco whilst everyone else got a single drink, continually topping her drink, giving her the impression that he was trying to get her drunk, directing all his comments to her. It made her feel uncomfortable.”

She said when the group moved on to a restaurant afterwards, Mr Apter allegedly placed his hands on Female A’s hips before squeezing her bottom at least once.

She described Mr Apter’s behaviour as “disrespectful and discourteous”.

The misconduct panel was told Mr Apter was allegedly “intoxicated” and “stumbling on the stairs” during the night out.

It was also alleged that he told a female colleague: “Maybe you’ll get a bum now”, after hearing about her pregnancy.

Mr Apter, who has since retired from Hampshire Constabulary, denies the allegations.

The hearing continues.

A missing 10-year-old girl was located with thermal imaging drones one day after she got lost inside a forest in Louisiana.

Peyton Saintignan disappeared on Sept 14 after she sleepwalked deep into the woods near her home.

Drone footage, which was released on Monday, captured the moment she was found huddled under a tree in her pyjamas at 11pm local time the next day.

In the video, the drone operators can be heard cheering as soon as they see Peyton start to lift her head.

“She’s awake,” a male voice exclaims. “They got her! She’s alive!” another man says as clapping can be heard in the background.

Several police officers then arrive at the scene and Peyton, who appears to be shaking, is carried to safety.

Multiple police departments, firefighters, homeland security agents and hundreds of volunteers were involved in a major search which began on Sept 15.

However, it was volunteers from Arkansas who offered up their specialist drone equipment and eventually located Peyton 1.5 miles from her home.

She was found “in dense woods roughly 300 yards from where a trail camera had recorded her earlier Sunday morning”, Jason Parker, the local sheriff, said.

He explained that police had tried but failed to use a helicopter to find her and thanked the three volunteer drone operators, Josh Klober, Matt Ramos and Micah Carter, for “successfully located the young girl”.

“I can’t tell you how thrilled we all are to have a happy ending to this,” Mr Parker said at the time.

“A lot of prayers were answered today. And, I want especially to thank all the agencies who helped bring Peyton safely home and all the volunteers who gave their time and efforts.”

It was just the latest example of such aerial technology being used to find missing children.

Earlier this month, a three-year-old was quickly located within a cornfield in Wisconsin by police using drones with thermal capabilities.

A Russian missile touted as the “world’s deadliest weapon” failed to launch for the fourth time on Saturday, exploding as it was being refuelled at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome 500 miles north of Moscow.

Satellite images showed that the nuclear-capable Sarmat RS-28 missile, nicknamed “Satan-2”, left a crater on the launchpad, with damage visible to surrounding roads and buildings.

“The missile detonated in the silo, leaving a massive crater and destroying the test site,” said MeNMyRC, an open-source investigation project.

Four fire engines photographed at the test site had been “responding to a forest fire” that was probably linked to the failed launch, the project added.

“The Sarmat is a liquid-fuelled missile so this accident could have occurred separate from the actual launch activity,” it said.

The failed launch happened a week after a member of Vladimir Putin’s security council warned that a Sarmat missile could strike the European Parliament in Strasbourg in under four minutes.

“For your information, the flight time of the Sarmat missile to Strasbourg is three minutes 20 seconds,” Vyacheslav Volodin said in response to an EU vote that recommended allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with Western missiles.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on the incident but Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Studies, agreed that a Sarmat missile had exploded before a test launch.

“Looks like the Sarmat test was not quite successful, to put it mildly. It’s a big crater,” Mr Podvig said.

The Sarmat is known to have had only one successful launch, in April 2022.

The Kremlin has promoted the Sarmat programme as its core nuclear missile, producing slick videos using computer-generated graphics showing it delivering death to hundreds of thousands of people on the other side of the world within minutes of being launched.

Vladimir Putin unveiled the missile in 2018 as a replacement for the smaller original “Satan”. It was intended to support his promise of nuclear war if his “red lines” were crossed, although analysts have said that these threats appear increasingly empty.

“This is a sign that Russian manufacturing is seriously degrading,” said Carl Bildt, a former Swedish prime minister and now co-chairman of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

Designed as a “heavy” intercontinental missile, the Sarmat has a range of 11,100 miles and can carry up to 16 nuclear warheads.

Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of being “hypocrites” for accepting donor gifts while criticising Boris Johnson for taking money to help redecorate Number 10.

The Tory leadership frontrunner defended receiving freebies herself, saying it can allow a hard-pressed politician to spend time with her children.

But she insisted: “You can’t buy me with a glass of Prosecco and smoked salmon.”

Ms Badenoch’s comments come in the wake of Labour’s sleaze row, with ministers under fire for accepting free clothes, holidays and concert tickets.

She told Times Radio: “It’s about hypocrisy. They are being criticised because they are being hypocrites.

“They criticised Boris Johnson for putting wallpaper in a public property.”

This is a reference to claims in 2021 that an undisclosed loan was used to fund new wallpaper in Mr Johnson’s Downing Street flat. Following the furore, Mr Johnson agreed to pay for the refurbishment himself.

Angela Rayner tries to deflect criticism

Ms Badenoch made reference to the 40th birthday party of Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary,which was paid for by a donor.

“Once in a while [donors] would ask me to come to something, and my children haven’t seen me for a week and they would like to go,” she said.

“You declare it and you explain what it is you’re doing. Nobody paid for my birthday parties or anything like that.”

Ms Badenoch has taken freebies for an Ed Sheeran concert and a rugby game at Twickenham.

She said: “I think what Labour are failing to do is point out why politicians do this.

“What many people don’t see is the school sports days that I miss or my children crying as they were this weekend because I had to go to hustings, a lot of the constituency functions which you do which mean that you actually miss out on time with your family.

“So if someone says, well, you can do some work and we can have a chat and you get time to spend with your family at something that they probably wouldn’t be able to do normally, you say yes to it.”

On taking her husband to the rugby, she said: “He likes rugby. My husband spends a lot of money subsidising my life as a politician. He has to deal with the fallout.

“So here’s something nice that he can do with me. It doesn’t mean that those people are buying me. You can’t buy me with a glass of Prosecco and smoked salmon.”

Ms Badenoch hit out at Tory leadership rival Robert Jenrick for a poor record as immigration minister, saying things “didn’t go well” under his time in office.

She said that, unlike Mr Jenrick, she was able to campaign on her record in office as business secretary and equalities minister.

She added that while Britain will “probably” need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights in order to tackle the small boats issue, that would not be the major factor in bringing down immigration.

There are now four candidates left in the race to run the Conservative Party: Ms Badenoch, Mr Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat.

Each will make speeches at next week’s Tory conference, after which MPs will hold two votes to whittle the number down to the final two.

Asked by Times Radio whether she thought Mr Jenrick had done a good job as immigration minister, Ms Badenoch said: “I think it’s an interesting argument to say that things didn’t go well when I was doing the job, but give me another chance.

“I’m standing on my record. I got things done and I can do more. And I think when it comes to immigration, we need to start from first principles.

“This policy of leaving the ECHR is something that we probably will have to do, but it’s not where to start from. We need to start from first principles. What kind of country do we want to be? Why have we been so bad at managing the borders despite wanting to do so?

“More promises are not the answer. We need a plan and we need people who show that they understand the system and know how to fix it.”

Ms Badenoch also ruled out doing an electoral deal with Nigel Farage to help the Tories at the next poll.

She said: “I’m a Conservative. I love competition. It’s another thing that we believe in from first principles.

“But that means doing better than the other lot. We created a vacuum which Reform has filled by not being authentically Conservative or visibly Conservative, by not delivering on our promises. So we have a job to do in order to remove that vacuum.

“I don’t think that there is space for two centre-Right parties but I don’t think the solution is attacking Reform voters. We need to win them back.

“Many of the Reform voters in my constituency were former Conservatives. We’ve got to do that but doing a deal with Farage for me is not on the cards.”

Sir Keir Starmer faces a fresh backlash over his relationship with Lord Alli because of the role played by one of the donor’s former staff members in choosing prospective Labour MPs.

Matthew Faulding, who was in charge of candidate selection for this year’s general election, worked in Lord Alli’s office on secondment from his firm BM Creative Management in the months before the poll.

He was blamed by critics of Sir Keir for “parachuting” favoured candidates into constituencies, imposing them on local Labour associations. He is now secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party, “keeping them all in check” according to one former member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), who described the arrangement as “rotten to the core”.

It came as Lucy Powell, the Leader of the Commons, said Labour would not change the rules around MPs accepting so-called freebies.

The Labour Party conference has been overshadowed by a row over Lord Alli’s donations to Sir Keir Starmer to buy clothes and spectacles. Lord Alli was given a Downing Street security pass in what has been dubbed the “passes for glasses” controversy.

He is attending the conference but has kept a low profile, shunning the main conference hall and fringe events. On Monday afternoon he was spotted leaving the conference secure zone, when he walked past Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, who did not acknowledge him.

When a reporter for Sky News asked him about the controversy, he said: “Please don’t – this is not very nice.”

Some Labour members are angry that Lord Alli’s influence appears to have extended to the selection of Labour candidates, many of whom are now MPs.

Mark Seddon, a former Labour candidate who served on the NEC and is now director of the Centre for United Nations Studies at the University of Buckingham, said on X: “The same Matt Faulding who fixed the selections is now Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party, keeping them all in check. Rotten to the core.”

The journalist Michael Crick reported before the election that candidates parachuted into constituencies included Josh Simons, the former director of the Starmerite think tank Labour Together, who is now MP for Makerfield; Calvin Bailey, MP for Leyton and Wanstead; James Asser, former chair of the NEC and now MP for West Ham and Beckton; and Luke Akehurst, MP for North Durham, who was seen as Sir Keir’s enforcer on the NEC.

Sir Keir had previously promised not to impose candidates on local party associations, but during the general election he was accused of breaking that promise and “riding roughshod” over the wishes of members.

‘Starmtroopers’

Those on the Left of the party accused him of flooding the country with “Starmtroopers” to purge Labour of anyone deemed to have diverged from the party line.

Some members resigned in disgust after having candidates imposed from above rather than being able to interview and select their own candidates.

Mr Faulding, 35, was a deputy director of Progress, the Left-wing think tank, and was also a director of the Lowick Group, a strategic communications consultancy, before he worked for Lord Alli.

‘We want to be transparent’

At a Labour conference fringe event on standards in public life, Ms Powell said she would “very strongly refute” the suggestion that the Government was “in hock” to “vested interests”.

“Campaigning is an expensive business and you do have to raise money. That’s why there are quite tight rules around that and people have fallen foul of it. So perhaps that’s just sort of how things are at the moment and [we have] no plans to change that.”

She acknowledged there were still “many” issues around “culture and behaviour” in politics.

But she said Labour politicians held themselves to higher standards than the Tories, which was “why we are transparent, and we want to be even more transparent around some of these things as well”.

Defending her own record on taking handouts, she said the “vast majority of the so-called freebies” she had accepted were “attending official events” in her former role as the shadow culture secretary.

Lord Alli and the Labour Party were both contacted for comment.

The Work and Pensions Secretary has said young people benefit from being in the office, deepening a growing split in the Cabinet over working from home.

Liz Kendall said that young employees working for her during the pandemic had found remote working from shared rental properties “a nightmare” that left them “stressed”.

She said that there was no “one size fits all” answer to home working, but highlighted the social benefits of the office for the young.

Her stance echoes Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, who has said that she wants civil servants in the office.

However, their comments are at odds with Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, who said that being able to work from home contributes to “productivity” and “resilience”, and makes a “significant contribution” to tackling regional inequality.

‘Bickering’ ministers

The Tories claimed that the Cabinet was not “on the same page” over home working.

Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow business secretary, said: “This just goes to show that if the Labour front bench can’t figure out what they want between themselves, businesses have no chance of navigating Labour’s byzantine regulations.

“Clearly the Business Secretary has been spending too much time telling some of the most successful businesses in the world how to operate, and forgotten to make sure the rest of the Government is on the same page as him.”

He added: “Ministers should spend less time bickering with themselves and more time engaging with businesses.”

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, Ms Kendall told a fringe event: “I do know from my own experience that many young people wanted to be in [the office], because it was a nightmare working from home and they were stressed, and it was great teamwork. But that was just in my circumstances.”

The Work and Pensions Secretary highlighted the challenges of working from home for young graduates who are often living in shared rental accommodation.

‘True flexibility’

She told delegates at a fringe event hosted by the Institute for Public Policy and Research: “Let me just say, from my perspective, during Covid, when I had a couple of young people start work for me, and they were desperate to get into their office.

“They didn’t want to try to work from home with two or three people in shared accommodation. I mean, this is not just London. They didn’t know people.”

She added: “Different things work for different people, and I think that that’s what true flexibility means.

“And as people of a certain generation, someone called me a veteran MP the other day…. How I worked is completely different from what people my age when I started work expect. So we have to change.

“So I’m not going to say either, ‘Everybody in the office’. Neither am I going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, let’s all work from home’. [It’s] what works for your company, but also for your individuals.”

Earlier on Monday, Ms Reeves said that there was “value” in working from the office.

She told LBC: “I lead by example. That first weekend when I was appointed Chancellor, I arrived at the Treasury at about three or four on a Friday afternoon.

‘Bringing people together’ 

“We work well into the evening, not just me and my political team, but civil servants. And we came in on a Saturday and a Sunday.

“We did that in the office, not on Zoom, because I do think there is real value in bringing people together and sharing ideas. You’re challenging each other.”

She said that there was “certainly a case for flexible working” to allow parents to take care of children or elderly relatives, but added: “I do think that productivity gains are more likely to happen when you have that sharing of ideas and bringing people together, and I lead by example on that in my department, and I think that it’s, it’s reaping dividends.”

Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was asked about his stance on Monday, telling Bloomberg Radio: “Well, I work for the Chancellor, and so I’ll be going to the office.”

Mr Reynolds, who is heading up the New Deal for Working People alongside Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, praised working from home in an interview with The Times last week.

He told the newspaper: “We’ve had flexible working laws for quite some time in the UK. I think where people reach agreement with their employer … it does contribute to productivity, it does contribute to their resilience, their ability to stay working for an employer.”

While he said that there “are times when it is absolutely necessary” to have the workforce in the office, he added: “The UK has very significant regional inequality. It could play a significant contribution to tackling that.”

Mr Reynolds criticised Amazon’s move to order staff back into the office five days a week, saying that “flexibility, when agreed between employer and employee, is good for productivity, is good for staff resilience”.

Also at the fringe event, Ms Kendall expressed concern about the growing mental health crisis among young people, and criticised the former government’s approach and rhetoric on the issue.

“I think it’s really important that we don’t just say, ‘Well, buck your ideas up’. You know, as the last government did. ‘Some day you’ve got to toughen up’.

“Is anybody with a young person who’s anxious, trying to even get them to school, just telling them to toughen up? Well, how successful is that?”

A young mother who took her baby to a riot at a hotel used by asylum seekers has been spared jail, with a judge asking her: “What on Earth were you thinking?”

Nevey Smith, 21, brought her 20-month-old son in a pram to the disorder outside the Holiday Inn in Newton Heath, Manchester, and threw water at police officers trying to contain the violence.

A large mob descended on the hotel and hurled bottles, bricks and eggs at the building as riots broke out across the country in the wake of the Southport killings on July 29.

Daniel Calder, Smith’s lawyer, told the court that she did not know what an asylum seeker was.

Judge Patrick Field KC, sentencing Smith at Manchester crown court on Monday,  told her: “You chose to join, notwithstanding that you had your 20-month-old child in a pushchair. 

“What on Earth were you thinking? I doubt you had his safety in mind.”

The judge also told Smith, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, that she had a “lot to learn” and “quite a lot of growing up to do”, labelling her “misguided, naive and immature”.

He added that her role was “minimal and peripheral” as she had not been involved in throwing bricks or encouraging others to do so.

Mr Calder told the court that Smith had not set out to attend the protest on the day, and had been passing the riot when she “foolishly” got involved. He added that she had not expressed discriminatory views.

Smith was given a community order and made to attend reviews at a women’s problem-solving court and carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.

Her mother, Vanessa Smith, 42, was also at the protest and admitted violent disorder. She will be sentenced on Thursday.

A 40-year-old woman and an eight-year-old girl have been found dead at a property in Salford.

Greater Manchester Police were called to South Radford Street shortly after 10:30am on Monday following reports of a concern for welfare at the property.

Officers attended, with assistance from North West Ambulance Service and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, and the bodies of a woman and girl were found at the property.

All known next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.

Det Supt Simon Moyles said: “A woman and young girl were both tragically found dead and we are working hard as a team to establish what happened here this morning. 

“Whilst we are not actively looking for anyone else in relation to this investigation, I understand the news of their deaths and the large police and emergency services presence at the address will most likely cause some concern to residents and those further afield in Greater Manchester.

“I want to reassure them that we believe this to be an isolated incident with no wider threat in the community.

“A cordon has been put in place and there is a scene contained on South Radford Street. We continue to thank the public for their patience as we respond in the area.

“We have placed a number of highly visible officers to patrol in and around the area should any residents wish to come and talk to us or pass on any information they may have about this tragic incident.”

A Salford City Council spokesman said: “We are aware of the terribly sad news this morning and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those who have tragically lost their lives. 

“We’re working closely with GMP and assisting them with their ongoing investigation and our teams will be supporting both local residents and council staff who have no doubt been greatly affected by the events today.”

Underneath the blank grey sky of a damp rainy afternoon in September, the small village of Shiptonthorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire is quietly going about its business. In the village hall, a group of mature ladies are setting up for a watercolour class. There’s the odd dog walker, and a couple of retirees are tending to their gardens during a gap in the rain – gardens which, like the rest of the village, are neat, tidy and unassuming. A Yorkshire flag flutters bravely in the breeze. All seems peaceful, quiet, orderly and very English.

But a week ago, Shiptonthorpe was rocked by the latest arrival in a long series of missives sent to a small group of people who live in or are closely connected with the village. This one, typed on plain white paper and delivered by post, referred to the recipient as a “witch” and offered up hopes and prayers for rain and “lots of it, so your house can be flooded again and again … so you are washed away, never to be seen again”. Previous letters sent to the same resident referred to her as an “ugly fat old cow who nobody likes most find you revolting [sic] … everyone agrees you should rot in hell … hope cancer finds you soon”. In a sickening twist to the tale, the recipient, who has received many such letters over the past two years, is now suffering with cancer. 

It’s all a little reminiscent of Wicked Little Letters, a film based on the real life story of the mysterious and anonymous vile letters sent to residents in Littlehampton in the 1920s. Or, as one local councillor put it to me, possibly a little too jovially: “It’s like a real life Bridgerton.” This Lady Whistledown, however, is seriously vindictive, weirdly obsessed with sexual shenanigans and has been causing havoc since 2022.

“I’ve had four [letters]” one resident who wishes to remain anonymous told me. “Really awful ones.” The first came in November 2022, when this person had been trying to run as a local ward councillor. “This letter, the first one I received, was so vile – it had words in it that I won’t even speak,” she tells me. “Basically it was telling me that I would not be able to get anywhere in politics unless I was going to do naughty things with men. It referred to me as a cow that should be put out to pasture.” She has had three more since then; one accusing her of embezzling parish funds, a letter that arrived in April and the worst, a revolting Christmas card declaring that “this card has your name all over it!” printed over and over with the word c–t. Her partner has received a letter too, she says, warning him to watch out for her and her wicked ways: “Apparently I’ve been having multiple affairs all over the place.” 

“It’s been an absolute nightmare,” she tells me. “I have nightmares about all of it and wake up crying. I just want it to end. I don’t understand where this hatred has come from.”

From the outside, certainly, it’s hard to imagine a more innocuous-looking place than the neat and tidy Shiptonthorpe. The verges are well tended, the hedges neatly trimmed and the notice board outside the village hall is stuffed with information about local activities: a forthcoming quiz night with a light supper; a Shirley Bassey impersonator coming to perform; the village Am Dram society’s performance of The Vicar of Dibley. Residents have already been encouraged to deck their houses with Christmas lights come December and look forward to the panto – Alice in Wonderland – in January.

Despite outward appearances, however, there is also an air of unease about the place. Curtains are firmly drawn and people do not stop to chat or say hello. There are a surprising number of For Sale signs in front gardens. And the locals I do see are reluctant to talk about what has been happening. One elderly lady sucks her teeth and tells me she has no comment when I ask her about it, except to say: “It’s very upsetting and not something that should be happening in this village.” Her husband scurries off the moment I come near.

Dig a little deeper, meanwhile, and what emerges is a story of internecine warfare that anyone familiar with village life will recognise – one that revolves around the parish council.

In May 2023, eight of the nine parish councillors voted in were new faces, after an election in which 18 people, including all of the former council members, stood for office – a surprisingly large number in a village of 520. 

“It was time for a change,” Victor Lambert, the new chairman of the parish council and a resident of Shiptonthorpe for 26 years, tells me. “The people who had been on the council had been there for 10 to 11 years. We didn’t think they were doing anything dramatically good for the village, so it was time for some new ideas.”

Lambert, who says he too has received a poison pen letter (“along the lines of ‘I hope you die’”), is at pains to tell me that he and his fellow new councillors were voted in with a record turnout of 56 per cent – “nearly unheard of in parish elections. We were democratically elected.”

The two big issues at stake were the drawing up of a new lease agreement between the parish council, the Shiptonthorpe Parish Charity, which owns the village hall, and the village hall committee. The second was an accusation that the parish council was being secretive about the fact that the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) was considering building some new social housing in the village, on a field that it owned. Throw in some political rivalry at ward level, and it’s not surprising that tensions were simmering. Accusations were hurled. Allegations about conduct were made. An official investigation into behaviour was opened with ERYC’s standards committee. Local news site The Pocklington Bugle started documenting every twist and turn of the infighting, sending tempers soaring even higher. Things grew deeply unpleasant. 

Amid all this, the poison pen letters had started to trickle in – to people on both sides of the parish council wars, both serving and previous members, as well as to councillors at county level.

Leo Hammond, the Conservative councillor for the Wolds Weighton ward of ERYC, which encompasses Shiptonthorpe, has received eight letters since the tail end of 2022. “Some are handwritten, some are typed, all generally along the same lines and saying the same things,” he tells me quite cheerfully. He is accused of being an embarrassment, a disgrace and “an arrogant, divisive young man whose sole aim is to pursue a career in politics”.

“For some reason, the author’s got some kind of obsession with my sexuality, claiming that I’m a closet homosexual, which my girlfriend and I find quite funny.” One letter was signed by Robert Ducker, the previous chairman of the parish council, although: “Robert assures me it was not sent by him.” 

Everyone I speak to has their theory about who might be behind the missives. Hammond believes there are two authors at play. He believes that the one writing to him is doing it for political purposes “and is quite bitter about the fact that we won in the elections last year”. He says that he sees similarities in the letters and emails received from one former East Riding councillor who lost his seat in last year’s May elections. But he thinks whoever is sending the truly vile letters to villagers is someone else.

Of the parish councillors themselves, the two camps again divide, each suspecting the other side of nefarious play. But the general consensus across all sides is this: that whoever is sending the letters has to be local. 

“It can’t be someone new to the village,” says Becky Oxley, who lives just outside Shiptonthorpe but has popped in to let her friend’s dog out for a run. “Otherwise how would they know all these people?” 

This is not, surprisingly, the first time Shiptonthorpe has been subject to such a brouhaha. “Poison pen letters have gone round before over the last 20 years,” Hammond tells me. “But this time it’s much more intense and on a much wider scale.”

The police have been informed, and have opened a case – but say they can do very little to apprehend the perpetrator. Nobody even knows where the letters are being sent from: in 2023, Royal Mail stopped including the regional sorting office on franked mail.

The overriding sense is of suspicion, misery and, above all, deep sadness that a small community has ended up like this. “We all know each other,” says one person. “You wonder who it is. It’s really unsettling.” Shiptonthorpe is, says Hammond, “one of the warmest, most united communities in my ward. It’s a really nice place to live, with really friendly people.”

Right now, however, it feels far from friendly. Even the village Facebook page has been made private, with all posts and comments now moderated and approved by an admin team “to make sure there’s no more nonsense”.

Until then, everyone is hoping that if the letters don’t stop, the perpetrator will at some point, slip up. Which will, of course, cause even more of a hoo ha. For anyone who thought village life was sleepy, the goings-on in Shiptonthorpe prove that to be far from the case.

China on Wednesday publicly announced for the first time a successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean, in a move described by military analysts as a strategic show of power.

The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force at 8.44am local time and “fell into expected sea areas,” the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement.

It added that it was a “routine arrangement in our annual training plan” and not directed at any country or target.

But the launch comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region over China’s nuclear build-up and expansionist ambitions that have been creating potential flashpoints with neighbouring countries including Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.

“Timing is everything.This launch is a powerful signal intended to intimidate everyone,” said Drew Thompson, a former US defence official and now senior fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.

According to the Xinhua news agency, the launch “effectively tested the performance of weapons and equipment and the training level of the troops and achieved the expected goal”.

Mr Thompson said the test was a “capability demonstration” with the very practical purpose of measuring the missile’s performance but he described the timing as “more strategic than tactical”.

He added: “It’s a signal that China has capabilities beyond what it has already brought to bear. It’s demonstrating that it has acted with a degree of restraint and that there are limits to its forbearance and its tolerance.”

The PLA Rocket Force, which oversees the country’s conventional and nuclear missiles, has been tasked with modernising China’s nuclear forces.

Some analysts have warned that the speed of China’s nuclear build-up goes beyond a credible minimum deterrence, even though Beijing states it adheres to a “no first use” policy.

China is expanding its nuclear arsenal “faster than any other country” and could have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as the US or Russia by the end of the decade, said a report in June by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The Pentagon’s China Military Power Report estimated that, as of May last year, China had around 500 operational nuclear warheads, which would increase to 1,000 by 2030 and 1,500 by 2035, roughly matching the numbers currently deployed by the US and Russia.

Euan Graham, an Indo-Pacific security expert and senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said both the launch and the authorities’ acknowledgment of it were “unusual”.

The launch is the first time in over four decades that China is known to have successfully conducted an atmospheric test of an ICBM.

The first test of a Chinese ICBM took place in May 1980, when a DF-5 flew more than 5,500 miles. Since then, most of China’s nuclear weapons tests have been conducted underground.

“Above all, it highlights that China is not subject to any arms control restraints on nuclear weapons and is now in a period of unrestricted strategic competition,” said Dr Graham.

“From an Australian/Pacific Islands point of view, it’s a pointer to China’s strategic interests directly impacting the Pacific region.”

Few details are known about the latest test, including the path of the missile, where exactly it had fallen, or which countries were informed in advance.

China’s most up-to-date ICBM is the DF-41, which came into service in 2017 and which has an operational range of up to 7,460-9,320 miles, capable of reaching the US mainland.

Donald Trump has pledged to take jobs from Britain, Germany and China if he returns to the White House.

Speaking in Georgia, the former president set out plans for an aggressive trade policy that would impose “very substantial” tariffs on companies that did not relocate jobs to the US.

In a pitch to “every major company and manufacturer on Earth”, Trump also said he would use America’s economic muscle to slash the corporate tax rate for businesses that moved their operations to the country.

“Not only will we stop our businesses leaving for foreign lands but under my leadership we’re going to take other countries’ jobs,” the former president told a crowd in Savannah, Georgia.

“We’re going to bring thousands and thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars in wealth back to the USA.”

“I want German car companies to become American car companies, I want them to build their plants here,” Trump continued. “I want to beat China in electronics production. And we’ll be able to do that easily.”

He said that Britain was “dying” to attract big business from the US and was using its tax incentives to do so.

“One day you’re going to read, ‘Oh gee, so-and-so, they just signed with China, they just signed with Germany, they just signed with Great Britain – it’s dying to have them, they’ll give you free tax,” he said.

Slashing tax

Companies such as the investment giant BlackRock have sent white-collar jobs to Britain, drawn by depressed salaries and tax incentives.

Trump pledged to levy tariffs on companies that refused to move their operations to the US, while slashing the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 15 per cent for those that agreed to relocate.

The policy would prompt a “manufacturing boom” and cause General Electric (GE), IBM and “every other manufacturer that left us to be filled with regret and come sprinting back to our shores”, Trump said.

IBM and the three companies formed when GE split up in April are based in the US, although they are reported to have moved jobs to countries such as Mexico in recent years.

Trump cut the tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent during his term in the White House in 2017.

“This is going to blow that away,” he claimed on Tuesday, saying he would bring in “the most competitive tax anywhere on the planet – but only for those who make their product in the USA.”

By contrast, his political rival Kamala Harris proposes raising the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 28 per cent.

New manufacturing investment

Trump also announced plans to reward US-based manufacturers by expanding research and development tax credits, writing off 100 per cent of the cost of heavy machinery in the first year, and allowing full expensing for new manufacturing investments.

Republicans have previously expressed wariness about the former president’s tax promises and believe he is promising more than he can deliver, Politico reported last week.

In addition to his pledges on Tuesday, Trump has also said he would eliminate or cut taxes on tips, social security benefits and overtime pay, on top of the $4.6 trillion it will cost to renew the bulk of his 2017 tax cuts.

The Republican presidential candidate claimed he would ramp up production of cars in the US, while repeating his plan to impose a 100 per cent tariff on imported Chinese cars that are manufactured in Mexico.

Trump labelled Ms Harris a “communist” and “tax queen” and claimed that she had only become the Democratic presidential candidate, having replaced Joe Biden in July, because of “political correctness”.

“She’s called the tax queen in other countries because she forces everybody out of our country into their hands,” he said. Her economic plans would lead to a “1929-style depression” and an exodus of businesses, he added.

A gunman who allegedly staked out Donald Trump’s golf course for 12 hours has been charged with the attempted assassination of the former president.

Ryan Routh, a former construction worker, was arrested by authorities nine days ago after allegedly fleeing the scene when he was spotted by a US Secret Service agent some 300 to 500 yards from Trump as he played golf.

He was detained some 50 miles from the Trump International Golf Course in Florida in a black Nissan and charged the following day with federal firearms offences.

Trump claimed on Monday that the authorities were “downplaying” the attempt on his life – the second in two months, after another gunman grazed his ear as he addressed a rally in Pennsylvania.

“The Kamala Harris/Joe Biden Department of Justice and FBI are mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July,” the Republican presidential candidate said in a statement. “The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist.

“It’s no wonder, since the DOJ and FBI have been coming after me nonstop with Weaponized Lawfare since I announced my first historic campaign for the presidency.”

By coincidence, the case has been assigned to US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who in July dismissed a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Citing data from Mr Routh’s mobile phone, the authorities alleged the 58-year-old had taken up position at the golf course in the early hours of Sept 15.

Some 12 hours later, he was allegedly interrupted by a Secret Service agent before he could fire a shot after they noticed his semi-automatic rifle pointing out of shrubbery on the course.

Mr Routh wrote a note months before the alleged assassination attempt saying that he intended to kill the Republican candidate, according to court documents.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” it read.

In his letter, which was addressed to “The World”, Mr Routh seemed to predict that the attempt would fail, saying he “tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster” and offering $150,000 to anyone who could “complete the job”.

On Monday, Mr Routh was denied bail after prosecutors argued that he should remain behind bars as a flight risk and threat to public safety.

Migrants are being smuggled into the US by legitimate travel agents based in Europe, the State Department has said.

US authorities accused rogue agencies operating in Europe, Africa and the Middle East of orchestrating illegal immigration.

The State Department said it had sanctioned the owners and executives of agencies selling fraudulent travel documents as well as flights “designed primarily to facilitate irregular migration to the United States”.

Officials declined to say how many travel agencies were involved.

Reports at the end of last year claimed “pseudo-legitimate” travel agencies had organised trips to Mexico and then smuggled between 500 and 1,000 migrants across the border at any one time. CNN has reported that one nationality being targeted was Senegalese who were being lured to Europe and then to the US.

Immigration is a key battleground in the presidential election with Donald Trump positioning himself as the only candidate who can tackle the issue. If the Biden administration can convince voters that it is getting on top of illegal immigration that will hugely assist vice-president Kamala Harris in the tightest of races.

Ms Harris has been accused of presiding over the “worst invasion in US history” over repeated claims made by Trump that she was appointed Joe Biden’s “border czar” although the Administration denies that was ever her role.

In an announcement on Tuesday, the State Department said: “The United States is imposing visa restrictions today on multiple executives of travel agencies in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

“These companies prey on vulnerable people by operating services designed primarily to facilitate irregular migration to the United States through countries in Europe and the Western hemisphere.

“We will continue to engage with partner governments and the private sector to end this exploitative practice, which puts vulnerable people in harm’s way.”

Officials told The Telegraph that the visa restriction policy was part of a “comprehensive approach to reduce irregular migration and targets owners, executives, and senior officials of companies providing travel services and transportation by land, sea, or charter air designed to facilitate irregular migration”.

They said the crackdown was in response to what they called a “disturbing trend” of airlines and agencies offering flights and documentation illegally.

A State Department spokesman added: “No one should profit from vulnerable migrants—not smugglers, private companies, public officials, nor governments.

“We will continue engaging with governments both within and outside the region, as well as the private sector, to counter this exploitative practice, which puts migrants in harm’s way.”

Officials said the identities of the rogue agents were protected by confidentiality laws.

The latest crackdown expands on a more limited policy announced last November which targeted travel agencies running charter flights into Nicaragua for migrants who were then taken on a “dangerous overland path” north to the US border.

Official figures suggest more than 600,000 people illegally entered the US and evaded capture in the 12 months to October 2023.

A former Democratic senator has ruled out endorsing Kamala Harris after she pledged to gut the Senate’s voting rules to protect abortion rights.

The Democratic presidential nominee this week said she supported lowering the threshold for the number of votes needed to stop someone talking out reproductive legislation, known as a filibuster.

Responding to her comments, Joe Manchin warned the move could “destroy our country” and said he could not endorse her for president.

When a bill reaches the voting stage on the Senate floor it only needs 51 of 100 votes to pass. But before the legislation can reach that stage, it often requires 60 Senate votes to stop opponents engaging in endless debate in an effort to kill the bill, meaning a filibuster could take down a potential national law to codify access to a safe abortion.

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom”, Ms Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio on Tuesday.

Ms Harris has attempted to make abortion one of the central issues of her campaign as she draws a strong line between herself and Donald Trump, who has tied himself in knots in an attempt to please his pro-life and moderate supporters.

“Shame on her,” Mr Manchin told CNN. “She knows the filibuster is the holy grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.”

Asked whether he would back her bid for the White House, Mr Manchin said: “That ain’t going to happen.

“I think that basically can destroy our country, and my country is more important to me than any one person or any one person’s ideology. … I think it’s the most horrible thing.”

Mr Manchin said he expected Ms Harris, who had previously supported axing the filibuster, would U-turn on the issue as she had with other key issues.

He said: “Well, she said she supported banning fracking too, and she changed that. I was hoping she would change this.”

Ms Harris’s abortion pledge came as Trump attempted to woo female voters at a rally in Pennsylvania by promising to be a “protector”.

“I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector,” he told the crowd on Tuesday.

“You will no longer be thinking about abortion,” Trump added. “Because we’ve done something that nobody else could have done. It is now where it always had to be, with the states and a vote of the people.”

Polling has consistently shown Trump trails Ms Harris on the issue of abortion. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found the Democratic candidate leads her Republican rival by nine points among women.

Meanwhile, police are investigating apparent gunfire damage at a Democratic Party campaign office in Arizona, days before Ms Harris is scheduled to visit the battleground state.

Tempe Police Department told NBC News that on Monday “what appears to be damage from gunfire at … a DNC Campaign Office, was discovered”.

Sean McEnery, the coordinated campaign manager for the state’s Democratic Party, said: “Overnight, several shots were fired into our Tempe Democratic Party coordinated campaign office.”

Ms Harris is expected to visit the state on Friday.

Wes Streeting will order the NHS to prioritise clearing backlogs in parts of the country with the highest levels of worklessness.

The Health Secretary will use his speech to the Labour Party conference on Wednesday to outline his efforts to get sick workers off waiting lists, saying “crack teams” will be sent into the 20 hospital trusts in the areas with the biggest rates of economic inactivity.

The Government will pledge to roll out “Formula One pit stop” surgery clinics, modelled on a scheme at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, in central London, that operates at evenings and weekends.

Surgeons at the hospital are able to perform a week’s operations in a day by running monthly high intensity theatre lists at weekends. 

Under the model, two operating theatres run side by side and as soon as one procedure is finished the next patient is already under anaesthetic and ready to be wheeled in.

It comes after a landmark report on the NHS warned that hospitals are doing less work for patients despite being given more money than ever.

Lord Darzi’s report, published earlier this month, found that, while hospital staff numbers had risen by 17 per cent since 2019, there had been little change in output. 

Productivity was found to be at least 11.4 per cent lower than in 2019, while surgical activity was down by 15 per cent.

A second report, by the Institute of Public Policy Research, warned last week that, on current trends, the number of people on long-term sick leave is set to rise by more than 50 per cent in the next five years.

More than 4.3 million people will be economically inactive because of sickness by the end of this Parliament – up from 2.8 million now – unless the pattern is changed, the report found.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that the bill for sickness and disability benefits will soar by £30 billion in the next five years on current trajectories.

Under the Government’s plans, teams of leading clinicians are being sent to hospitals to roll out the reforms and get patients treated faster. 

Health officials said doctors who have developed new ways of working are delivering up to four times more operations than normal, likening the system at Guys and St Thomas’s to a “Formula One pit stop”.

Mr Streeting will say: “Ending the junior doctor strikes was central to our commitment to deliver 40,000 more appointments a week to cut waiting lists.

“But as well as getting staff back to work, we need to get them working at the top of their game. We’re sending crack teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to roll out reforms – developed by surgeons – to treat more patients and cut waiting lists.

“The first hospitals targeted by these teams will be in areas with the highest numbers of people off work sick, because our reforms are focused not only on delivering our health mission but also moving the dial on our growth mission.

“We will take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, get sick Brits back to health and back to work. That’s the difference a Labour Government makes.”

NHS waiting lists currently stand at 7.6 million, and were rising before the election. The figures show 3.1 million have been waiting longer than 18 weeks for treatment, the maximum amount of time patients are supposed to wait.

Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will also announce that young people will be put in touch with football clubs and theatre groups as part of Labour’s drive to get them back into work.

Ms Kendall will pledge that “no young person is left behind” as she seeks to overturn the high rate of youth unemployment. She wants job centre staff to visit sports and arts organisations to help more 18 to 24-year-olds get into employment, education or training.

She will say: “Too many young people have been written off by the Tories and denied the support they need to build a better life. This isn’t good for them, or our country. This Labour Government will make sure that no young person is left behind.”

Almost one million young people – more than one in eight – are not in education, employment or training, with more than 200,000 18 to 24-year-olds now out of work because of long-term health problems.

Ms Kendall will warn that failing to tackle this problem will harm young people’s life chances and future earnings, as well as adding to the spiralling benefits bill. She will bring out a white paper later this year on getting people back into work.