Hundreds of Albanians who crossed the Channel on small boats have helped their drug gangs secure a stranglehold on Britain’s cannabis market.

They have been recruited as workers in illegal cannabis “farms” set up in rented houses or disused industrial buildings to produce crops worth up to £2 million a time and which can be grown and harvested in as little as 12 weeks.

The industrial scale of the cannabis production has been revealed by an undercover investigation into a secret channel on the encrypted messaging service Telegram. It is used by more than 700 Albanians to share intelligence on their cannabis operations.

Conversations between members of the group centre on the best chemicals for plant growth, the most effective way to harvest cannabis plants, the economics of securing properties for drug production and why crossbows are better than guns to defend their crops from rival gangs.

Members of the group recount robberies where cannabis “farm” workers have had their fingers cut off and landlords have demanded five-figure shares of the profits.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said that the ruthless professionalism that the Albanians have brought to cannabis farming has enabled them to displace the Vietnamese as the main domestic providers of the drug in Britain.

Albanian gangs who previously specialised in cocaine moved into cannabis because it was “very, very low-risk”.

It turns a good profit because of high demand – Britons consume 240 tonnes of the drug, worth £2.4 billion, a year – and does not require risky cross-border transportation because it is homegrown, according to the NCA.

The surge in Albanians crossing the Channel in 2022, when 12,685 reached the UK in small boats, has provided the ready supply of illegal workers, skilled in the hydroponic technology required to grow the plants in the darkened rooms of houses where all the windows have been sealed.

It has led to increasing focus by police on the domestic production of cannabis. Some 29 Albanians were sentenced in July alone for illegally producing the drug. That was followed by a further 24 Albanians appearing before the courts in August. That represents nearly one a day.

Some 101 illegal Albanian migrants were sentenced to more than 300 years in jail in three months at the end of last year. Three-quarters of them were convicted of offences linked to cannabis production across England and Wales in indoor farms.

Many of the illegal migrants were recruited by the gangs after a government crackdown on black economy work made it difficult for them to find jobs.

Fines for bosses who employ illegal migrants have tripled to up to £60,000 per worker to make the practice so economically damaging that it could “put them out of business”.

Police are concerned that Telegram has become a go-to platform for criminals. It has 900 million users but only about 100 employees. Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Russian-born founder, was detained in France this summer over its alleged failure to fight the use of the service for crime, including the spread of child sex abuse material.

The Albanians’ channel goes under the name Kusho, which means “cousin” and is the nickname Albanians use to address each other.

It currently has 703 members who share information about how to produce the maximum amount of cannabis from seed to full-grown plant.

Posts on the channel were collected by an Albanian reporter who infiltrated the group. “Everyone, you need to know how to grow ‘roses’,” said one of the organisers of the channel.

Another member listed the six key chemicals that had proved the most effective for fast, healthy growth.

One video demonstrated the best way to trim the dead leaves from a cannabis plant, while one member, using the pseudonym Bushi06, offered cannabis seedlings for £5 and boasted that he had sold 700 so far.

In discussions on how to protect the “farms”, one Albanian explained that it was better to spend £337 on a high-powered crossbow than a gun, because being caught in possession would carry a lesser sentence.

Some appeared less worried about police discovering their illegal operations than being attacked and robbed by rival gangs.

“Most robberies in the cannabis houses are happening in Leicester. They cut off the fingers of an Albanian worker,” said one member of the group.

“Police are not the big problem,” said a London-based Albanian using the pseudonym Deni. “The main problem is robbers who are now using drones to identify the houses. They detect the heat from the plants through the roofs of the houses.”

Others complained that landlords were overcharging them for the use of their properties or demanding a cut of the profits.

“London landlords are charging £4,000 a month for a house. Not worth it at all,”  said one.

Another said: “So far I have invested £31,000 in a house including 12K for sealing it up, and 12K for the lights. Do not know if I will get my money back. The agency who rented me the house are asking for £9,000 when the product is ready for harvesting.”

Last summer, police launched Operation Mille to target cannabis farms in the UK. Among those jailed was Nard Nidri, 34, who entered the UK illegally in 2022 and lived in Birmingham, then moved to Swansea, where he worked at a car wash, before being recruited for a cannabis farm.

He was one of four “gardeners” jailed for a combined total of six years in August after police arrested them at a property in Neath, south Wales. Two rooms and the attic had been adapted and insulated to grow plants with a street value of £85,000.

Sentencing them, Judge Geraint Walters said cannabis farms being run by Albanian criminal gangs had reached “epidemic levels” and had, in his judgment, “become something of an industry”.

He suggested that authorities should look at the rental housing sector, noting that while so-called cannabis “farmers” often appeared in court, landlords and others receiving money from the rent of properties being used for the growing operations rarely did so.

Ethnic minority children risk being forced out of private schools under the Government’s VAT plans, a best-selling black author has claimed.

Candice Brathwaite warned Sir Keir Starmer that he risks “widening the gap” through the tax raid, which is set to come into force on January 1 next year.

The author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother, who sends her daughter to private school, said many ethnic minority parents have “three jobs apiece to make that education happen – just to make their generational landscape a bit more socially mobile”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Headliners podcast, she said the 20 per cent tax would likely mean switching her daughter to a state school – warning that many others could follow suit.

“[The VAT] is now the thing that could possibly make us decide that we can’t do this anymore,” she said.

“I would say to [Sir Keir]: ‘Really have a think about actually how you could be widening the gap.’ I appreciate you’re extremely privileged to go to private school at all but kids of colour? Give me a break. They hardly touch the start line, you know.

“And for someone like me who is not pulling from that magical rainbow pot of gold it is the thin line… Why take that from people who are already trying really hard?”

Four in 10 private school pupils are from a minority ethnic background, according to the latest annual survey by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

The figure has risen over the past 15 years, up from 23 per cent in 2009 –  reflecting the increasing diversity of the overall UK school population.

There are also wide regional disparities, with children from minority ethnic backgrounds making up more than 60 per cent of pupils at ISC schools in London last year.

Religious groups have warned the Government’s VAT plans could unfairly impact pupils at private faith schools, whose needs cannot be as readily met in the state sector.

Raisel Freedman, assistant director at the Partnership for Jewish Schools (Pajes), said the policy could “decimate” many Jewish schools and “force [Jewish] parents with more than a couple of children onto the poverty line”.

Of the 140 Jewish schools across the UK, 60 per cent hold independent status, equating to around 22,000 students.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, defended the VAT policy earlier this week. Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, she said it was “the fair choice, the responsible choice, the Labour choice to support the 94 per cent of our children in our state schools”.

A Government spokesman said: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year, such as recruiting 6,500 new teachers.”

Scrapping inheritance tax relief for agricultural land could lead to the death of the family farm, the Government has been warned.

Ending the exemptions on inheritance tax for farmland is reportedly among the money saving measures the Chancellor is considering in the upcoming Budget.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is warning that restricting or abolishing the relief could force landowners to sell farms to cover the taxes, leaving significant amounts of land out of production.

Nearly 90 per cent of respondents in a survey conducted by the CLA said they would have to sell some or all of their farms if the relief was lifted.

“Scrapping APR relief would mean the death of my family farm,” said James Grindal, a farmer in South Leicestershire.

“Like many small farms, we survive on slim margins and wouldn’t have the funds to cover this hefty tax.

‘Forced to sell’

“As farmers, we want to feed the nation, but cannot do that if we’re forced to sell our land.”

Under current rules landowners can pass down any land that has been farmed for two years without paying the 40 per cent inheritance tax on its agricultural value.

Farm assets may also qualify for business property relief, which applies up to 100 per cent on unlisted companies, plus 50 per cent relief on land, buildings and machinery.

The exemptions were worth at least £2bn in 2021-22, according to figures from Tax Justice UK.

Under the relief, farmland is given an agricultural value, significantly less than the market value of the land. If lifted, farmers face being priced out of passing on their land by developers or corporations, the CLA said.

Nearly 20 per cent of farms failed to make a profit last year, according to Government figures, and 59 per cent made a profit of less than £50,000, leaving agricultural businesses with little scope for extra costs.

Removing the tax exemption is also expected to hit tenant farmers particularly, as landowners have little incentive to keep their property in agricultural use.

‘Pressing challenge’

Victoria Vyvyan, the CLA president, said: “The Government has said it won’t increase taxes on working people.

“Farmers are working hard around the clock feeding the nation and looking after the environment, and uncertainty over tax is one of the most pressing challenges facing the rural sector.”

The CLA estimates that a reduction of 5 per cent in the number of businesses registered in rural areas, would equate to more than 27,500 businesses and potential unemployment of 190,000.

“Removing or even capping inheritance tax reliefs would have a major impact on the viability of family farms, jeopardising the future of rural businesses up and down the country,” said Mrs Vyvyan.

“Many farmers could be forced to sell land to pay inheritance taxes, putting livelihoods, and the nation’s food security, at risk, especially if the land is bought by corporates with deep pockets and no inheritance tax concerns.

“At a time of profound change in the industry, we need stability for our businesses while we adjust to new agricultural policies.”

‘A handy tax shelter’

Critics argue that APR allows wealthy landowners to avoid paying taxes on their estates. James Dyson, the billionaire inventor, is one of Britain’s biggest landowners having bought up 36,000 acres of land over the last decade in what has been criticised as a “very handy tax shelter”.

A Government spokesman said: “We do not comment on speculation around tax changes outside of fiscal events.”

Brighton is reversing a parking crackdown on motorists which has driven away visitors from the seaside resort.

The East Sussex city’s Labour-run council is cutting car parking charges, which had shot up to as much as £33.50 a day under the previous Green Party administration.

The Greens had claimed that high prices would help create a “car-free” city which would be more appealing to visitors.

But Brighton and Hove City Council has now admitted that the charges were so high that they damaged the local tourist industry by scaring away day-trippers.

Cllr Trevor Muten, the cabinet member for transport, said the parking fees had “increased to the extent they have become more of a deterrent than an incentive for some visitors”.

He added: “We have more than 200 different permit tariffs and the demand for parking has rippled from the city centre to outlying areas of the city. We need to change.”

A review conducted by the council this month found that it faced a predicted shortfall of £1.16m in parking revenue by April 2025 because of the high charges.

‘Anti-car reputation’

Cllr Alistair McNair, leader of the Conservative opposition group on the council, told The Telegraph: “Parking revenue has been falling and the council has a reputation for being anti-car.”

“We hope resident permit holders also get a reduction in their fees and this city starts to be car-friendly, which also means family and disabled-friendly.

But he warned: “This parking charge reduction, while welcome, is a gamble as revenue could fall further because the city’s reputation has been tarnished for years.”

Brighton is one of several British cities to have attempted to disincentivise driving in recent years by charging residents to park via permits, on top of council tax bills, and increasing charges for on-street parking.

But the council’s Labour leadership, which took power in May last year, is moving away from the approach taken by a minority Green administration between July 2020 and May 2023.

Cllr Samar Bagaeen, an independent opposition councillor, hailed the council’s “about-turn”.

“The council’s approach to parking has for a number of years been both flawed and counter-productive, damaging the night-time economy in the city,” he said.

“Prices rose exponentially in all car parks over the past 10 years making even parking for one hour very poor value for money.

Steady decline since 2021

Brighton and Hove City Council said that the use of council-owned car parks had steadily decreased since 2021 and average hourly fees were higher than in most other cities.

Last year, it was estimated that higher charges had reduced the council’s parking revenue by as much as £1.2 million.

The council has now announced that rates will come down at its car parks in The Lanes, Regency Square, London Road, Trafalgar Street and Norton Road.

One-hour and evening tariffs will also be reduced in a bid to support the night-time economy and encourage people into under-used car parks.

“Brighton and Hove has a bustling night-time economy and it’s vital we do whatever we can to increase footfall and support those local businesses to thrive,” Cllr Muten said.

Other cities have seen higher car parking charges introduced to reduce the use of cars.

In the London borough of Southwark, the Labour council raised the cost of permits by as much as 368 per cent to force a “reduction in vehicles”.

Lambeth’s Labour council has vowed to make the borough “diesel-free” and in May last year bumped year-long permits for diesel engines up to £140, a £42 increase on the price in 2022.

Sir Keir Starmer has admitted that Lord Alli gave him £32,000 to pay for clothing, double what he previously declared.

The Prime Minister received clothing donations worth £10,000 in October 2023 and £6,000 in February 2024, his office said on Friday. The donations were originally declared as money for his private office, but have now been “re-categorised”.

The extra £16,000 comes on top of the £16,200 that had already been declared.

His disclosure will raise more questions over how close Sir Keir is to the Labour peer.

Sir Keir also received £2,400 from Lord Alli for glasses, and the use of an £18 million penthouse during the election campaign and on other occasions. Members of his frontbench team have also declared large donations from the peer.

Last night, Labour claimed there were no further re-categorisations to come.

The latest gifts were not previously known as they were described as being “for the private office of the Leader of the Opposition”.

It is understood that Sir Keir sought advice from the registrar of MPs’ interests over the two donations, and they will be re-categorised as “donations in kind” of clothing. The original donations were declared on time.

Sir Keir said last week he would no longer accept money for clothes while in office, as did Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister.

Lord Alli gave Ms Rayner a donation for work clothing in June. It was declared as a donation in kind worth £3,550, without explaining that it was for outfits.

Labour has claimed that all opposition parties invest in the presentation of candidates, including speech and media training, as well as photography and clothing.

It emerged this month that the parliamentary standards watchdog would not investigate another instance in which Sir Keir initially failed to declare clothes donated to his wife, Lady Starmer, also by Lord Alli.

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister defended the use of the peer’s Covent Garden apartment. He said he took the offer so that his son would have a place to study for his GCSEs without having to walk past journalists and protesters outside their family home. The exams finished in mid-June, about a month before the family moved out.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, also used the property to host a fundraising event. Ms Rayner has used another of Lord Alli’s properties, a flat in New York, for a holiday.

The London flat was also used by Lord Alli to host Sir Tony Blair and Sue Gray to discuss the future of the Labour party, months after she became Sir Keir’s chief of staff.

The former prime minister was seated next to Ms Gray during the summit at the flat at the beginning of the year.

It emerged yesterday that the peer also held a number of meetings with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, and warned against military intervention in the country.

Lord Alli spoke in the House of Lords about his “several” meetings with Assad, who is responsible for multiple war crimes.

He argued against then-prime minister Lord Cameron’s plan to bomb Syrian troops a week after Assad unleashed chemical weapons against his own people.

In a speech in 2013, he said that if Assad were toppled, the country would be at the mercy of “soldiers with guns but no paymaster”. The following day, the Commons unexpectedly failed to approve military action after Labour – then led by Ed Miliband – refused to back the move.

The King has been urged to ditch his suit in favour of a more laid-back “island vibe” when he attends a major Commonwealth meeting in Samoa next month.

He may also leave the country as an island chief, after a local mayor revealed plans to bestow an honorary title on the monarch.

Samoa’s Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, has urged all delegates heading to the island nation for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which kicks off on Oct 21, to dress down.

She said she had been “frank” in her discussions with London in particular, as she sought to prepare her VIP royal visitors for what to expect.

“I had an audience with the King,” she said of their meeting at Buckingham Palace earlier this year.

“October’s very hot in Samoa. We’re not really keen for people to wear suits and be hot and uncomfortable.

“You know, we want to encourage more of an island vibe (but) just because it’s an island doesn’t mean we’re on holiday. It just means that people have to be comfortable so we can have a good meeting.”

The King, whose sartorial choices are often hailed by fashion industry experts, tends to opt for cream or beige tones in the summer months.

However, he is rarely seen in anything but a suit and tie, a uniform he is expected to stick to throughout his forthcoming visit to Australia and Samoa.

He once said that it was his duty on royal tours abroad to showcase what he could of British tailoring.

However, he is not averse to giving a sartorial nod to his host country. While the traditional male attire – a wraparound skirt known as a “lavalava” – is likely off the cards, the King may opt for a more subtle acknowledgement of local custom.

The King has, on occasion, proved willing to ditch his tie.

In his younger years, he was photographed in an array of colourful outfits during foreign tours, donning safari suits, turbans, feathered headdresses, tropical shirts and kaftans.

Ms Mata’afa, who boasts Samoan royal lineage herself and is the island’s first female prime minister, has insisted it will be a CHOGM like no other.

“This is going to be an island CHOGM,” she said in a separate video message released earlier this year.

“Can I tell you it’s warm in October, so please don’t wear your suits… in your packing please do consider that you are coming to an island, and we want you to be comfortable.

“We look forward to welcoming you in true island style and we will show you a part of the world that possibly many of you have never travelled to before.”

Meanwhile, local mayor, Tofaeono Atuaia Kitiona, revealed that the monarch could be heading home with a new title to add to his collection.

“Given the King’s imminent arrival, it is only fitting that we confer upon him a chiefly title that befits his stature,” he told the Samoan Observer.

He said the area where the King and Queen will stay has its own traditional kings, with “matai” family chieftain titles handed down through generations.

A meeting has been held to discuss which matai title would be most fitting for the monarch, with two options under consideration, Le Toaiga-o-Tumua, which translates as The Near East, and Asomua-o-le-malama, meaning Dawn of the Light.

Mr Kitiona said his village was “deeply honoured” to be hosting the King.

“We are meticulously preparing for this visit, understanding that our performance as the host will reflect on the entire nation,” he said. “We have been entrusted with the important task of ensuring the King’s stay is seamless and exemplary.

“Our efforts are focused on making sure that everything is perfect because failing in this duty would mean failing Samoa as a whole.”

Anyone responsible for anything untoward faces potential banishment from the village.

As huge air strikes levelled at least six buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, it became clear that Israel was targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters. 

On Saturday morning, the IDF confirmed that they had assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader. 

It marked the most audacious strike in a campaign to destroy Hezbollah – Iran’s most formidable regional proxy – in an operation has called Operation Northern Arrow. 

The lead up to Friday’s attack was paved by a series of preliminary strikes to decapitate Hezbollah’s military leadership, cripple its subaltern class, destroy its ability to communicate meaningfully and spread panic through its ranks.

The synchronised sabotage of the group’s pagers last week caught the world’s attention, but by then Israeli forces had already embarked on an assassination operation to eliminate as many of Hezbollah’s high command as possible.

The first significant blow was struck in the summer when Fuad Shukr, the movement’s overall military leader, died in an air strike on southern Beirut, a stronghold of the terrorist group.

Arguably a more devastating strike came in September in another attack on the Lebanese capital that killed some 16 commanders of the Radwan Brigade, Hezbollah’s elite special forces unit, including Ibrahim Aqil, the overall leader of the unit.

But the most consequential strike, without question, hit on Friday afternoon. As well as the leader of an Iranian proxy group, Hassan Nasrallah had become a key adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He helped shape Iran’s proxy network, along with former leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. 

Over its four-decade history, Hezbollah has weathered a series of top-level assassinations.

Abbas al-Musawi, Nasrallah’s predecessor and the movement’s co-founder, who was killed along with his family when Israeli helicopters fired missiles at his motorcade in southern Lebanon in 1992, is one example.

But never have the killings come in such quick succession, notes Lina Khatib, an associate at the think tank Chatham House. 

“I don’t think Hezbollah will be able to recover from this historic loss. It’s not going to be something seen in the near future, but the long-term implications of the damage that has been done to Hezbollah will, I think, be irreversible,” said Ms Khatib..

One senior Israeli intelligence source, who has been in the service for 30 years, said the recent wave of assassinations escalations had opened the door to targeting Hezbollah’s leader.

“In the past, Israel has avoided assassinating Nasrallah, because it’s almost like assassinating the head of a state, and Israel usually shies away from doing things like that. But now it’s a different ball game,” the source said before Friday’s attack on the headquarters in Beirut.

How Israel did it

Hezbollah’s senior military leaders are so secretive that they are known within the movement as “untraceable ghosts” – yet Israel seems to know exactly when and where they are meeting and how to strike them at will.

It is clear that the movement is heavily infiltrated, believes Hilal Khashan, a Hezbollah expert at the American University of Beirut.

“It is not just a question of infiltration by Israel – it is a question of infestation,” he says.

Once a small, tight-knit organisation, Hezbollah has rapidly expanded over the past decade after it sent fighters to participate in the Syrian civil war in support of Bashar al-Assad, the country’s president and a Hezbollah ally.

The larger an organisation, the more exposed it is to espionage, notes Mr Khashan. A deep financial crisis in Lebanon, among the worst in world history for 150 years, has also opened the door to financial inducement within the movement, he adds.

“Poverty in Lebanon became a breeding ground for spies to act on behalf of Israel,” Mr Khashan said.

This is how Israel went after Hezbollah’s chain of command.

Southern commanders

At 10.15am on Jan 8 this year, an Israeli drone hit a small car as it travelled through the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm in the south of the country, about 16 miles from the border with Israel. 

The assassination of Wissam al-Tawil was the highest profile since the conflict began following the Oct 7 attacks, and at the time raised fears of a major escalation. 

It came only two weeks after Israel had already taken out a top Hamas leader with an airstrike in Beirut, and marked a turning point for Israel beginning to shift focus north – where Hezbollah rockets had been raining down on Israel for months – after heavy fighting on the ground in Gaza. 

Footage from the scene showed a vehicle charred grey, pockmarked with tiny holes likely from shrapnel, the result of a precision attack with limited collateral damage. 

Months passed until Israel would choose its next target: Talib Sami Abdullah. The exact circumstances of his death were unclear but he appeared to also have been targeted by a drone strike in the rural south. 

The killing was significant in decapitating the central unit of the south, facing Israel, where countless rockets had forced so many to flee their homes.

Shifting north

The next to fall was the head of the adjacent southwestern unit. 

This time, a drone struck a vehicle in Tyre, Lebanon’s fourth largest city, a gateway between north and south that juts out into the Mediterranean. 

Footage from the scene shows a vehicle burning between two modern apartment blocks in a built-up area, a sign Israelis were tracking movement from rural strongholds to the relative safety of urban areas, where the risks for Israel to attack were greater. 

But little could have prepared Hezbollah for what came next: an air strike in the middle of the sprawling capital of Beirut.

At the end of the month, an apartment block was severed likely by a missile – likely fired by a F-15, F-16 or F-35 jet – killing Shukr, a founding member of Hezbollah’s armed wing ostensibly in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children in Israeli-occupied Golan a week earlier. 

Experts disagreed on whether the huge blast site and collapsed building was the result of weapons hidden in the building or secondary explosions triggered by utilities.

Beirut

In September, Israel stepped up its targeting of Hezbollah with a wave of suspected sabotage attacks that led to pagers and walkie-talkies exploding. 

Analysts believed Mossad was trying to soften Hezbollah for further attacks. 

A large IDF air strike followed days later on a residential street in Beirut. Footage showed rubble and wreckage where two more top commanders had been killed. 

Experts said the shop fronts blown out in the blast were significant.

Israeli intelligence believes that Hezbollah uses phone and electronics shops underneath civilian homes for weapons storage and safe houses. 

Another air strike followed a few days later but failed to kill its target, Ali Karaki, with an attack on what looked to be a basement of a separate residential block. 

Karaki had survived a previous assassination attempt too, exposing flaws in Israel’s precision targeting. 

All the strikes in Beirut were in the Shia southern suburbs, which are under Hezbollah control, known as Dahieh or Dahiyeh.

Some of the assassinations may have been helped by the suspected Mossad explosives planted in pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah fighters earlier this month.

While the explosives maimed and killed many, they also crippled communications, limiting the group’s bandwidth to talk to each other, and narrowing the options, giving Israel a greater chance to intercept vital messages.

“They are on the move all the time so if we know that one week ago, Israel managed to breach the communications system of Hezbollah then maybe they still have the ability to track them,” Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, said.

“For Hezbollah to change all their communications is a huge logistical operation so they will still be depending on the communications they’re left with.”

Headquarters

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.

A devastating round of airstrikes on Friday evening targeted what Israel said was Hezbollah’s secret underground headquarters. The Israeli military said Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, was killed in the attack. 

Hezbollah has yet to comment publicly on whether its leader has survived unscathed, with sources initially offering contradictory information – itself an indication of the turmoil within the group.

The strikes have also killed Ali Karaki, commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, IDF said. 

Hezbollah crippled

The decapitation strikes are, of course, only a single, if important, element in Israel’s strategy of countering Hezbollah and fulfilling its war objective of allowing 60,000 residents to return to their homes in the north of the country.

The assassinations would probably not be enough in themselves to deter Hezbollah from firing rockets into northern Israel, which it has been doing in support of Hamas following the start of Israel’s operation in Gaza last October.

There are still a large number of commanders playing important roles who have not been killed, while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which forms a part of Hezbollah’s command chain, will help replenish the supply of military leaders, notes Ms Khatib.

But taken together with the other elements of the Israeli assault, the future of the movement is looking more uncertain than ever before.

“Although Hezbollah right now is far from crumbling, I think it is facing the greatest challenge in its history,” she said.

For a start, Hezbollah will not just be paranoid about spies in its ranks, it will also have lost faith in any form of technology to communicate. 

Co-ordinating a missile response to Israeli air strikes or even organising basic logistics is made much more complicated if the only way of communicating is through verbal messaging.

Writing off Hezbollah would certainly be premature. It still has a large arsenal of long-range guided missiles that, if fired in sufficient quantity, could overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system – which has so far managed to intercept much of the low-grade rocket fire aimed in its direction.

Striking back

Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the past week, most have been aimed away from population centres, with only a single missile being aimed at Tel Aviv, which was easily intercepted.

The big question is whether Hezbollah will not fire its rockets – or whether, because its capability has been so eroded, it cannot.

Iran, Hezbollah’s paymasters, may be preventing the group from firing its more sophisticated missiles, which it views as an insurance in the event of Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, those close to Hezbollah say it has chosen not to escalate because its leaders believe that is what Israel wants them to do.

“It [Israel] is … looking to provoke Iran and Hezbollah into an escalation that would allow it to appeal for American intervention. Hezbollah does not wish to walk into that trap,” says Kassem Kassir, a Lebanese commentator close to Hezbollah.

Yet arguments that Hezbollah is no longer able to escalate even if it wished to are increasingly being advanced by experts.

The top-level assassinations aside, the pager and walkie-talkie attacks killed, maimed or otherwise incapacitated so many seasoned senior and mid-level operatives that Hezbollah has seen its military capability to conduct a war greatly reduced, according to some analysts. One Hezbollah source admitted some 1,500 fighters had lost eyesight or limbs.

“Those considered worthy of carrying a pager have mostly been eliminated, meaning that those people running many of Hezbollah’s operations right now are young and inexperienced,” said Mr Khashan, of the American University of Beirut.

In his last broadcast speech, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, vowed a “reckoning will come” with Israel over its attacks on his fighters.

“It’s nature, its size, how and where? That is certainly what we will keep to ourselves,” he said.

In the end, the reckoning came for him in the form of a huge Israeli bombardment targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters on Friday night.

The arch-foe of Israel was eliminated after more than 30 years of leading Hezbollah in its wars against the Jewish state.

Among supporters, Nasrallah was lauded for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To enemies, he was head of a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran’s Shi’ite Islamist theocracy in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.

His regional influence was on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza war, as Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, and Yemeni and Iraqi groups followed suit, operating under the umbrella of “The Axis of Resistance”.

Wearing the black turban of a Sayyed, or a descendent of the Prophet Mohammad, Nasrallah used his addresses to rally Hezbollah’s base but also to deliver carefully calibrated threats, often wagging his finger as he did so.

He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 aged just 35, the public face of a once shadowy group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to fight Israeli occupation forces.

Israel killed his predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, in a helicopter attack. Nasrallah led Hezbollah when its guerrillas finally drove Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.

A fiery orator viewed as an extremist in the United States and much of the West, he is also considered a pragmatist compared to the militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982, during Lebanon’s civil war.

Despite the power he wields, Nasrallah has lived largely in hiding for fear of an Israeli assassination.

Conflict with Israel largely defined his leadership. He declared “Divine Victory” in 2006 after Hezbollah waged 34 days of war with Israel, winning the respect of many ordinary Arabs who had grown up watching Israel defeat their armies.

But he became an increasingly divisive figure in Lebanon and the wider Arab world as Hezbollah’s area of operations widened to Syria and beyond, reflecting an intensifying conflict between Shi’ite Iran and U.S.-allied Sunni Arab monarchies in the Gulf.

While Nasrallah painted Hezbollah’s engagement in Syria – where it fought in support of President Bashar al-Assad during the civil war – as a campaign against jihadists, critics accused the group of becoming part of a regional sectarian conflict.

At home, Nasrallah’s critics said Hezbollah’s regional adventurism imposed an unbearable price on Lebanon, leading once-friendly Gulf Arabs to shun the country. This contributed to its 2019 financial collapse.

In the years following the 2006 war, Nasrallah walked a tightrope over a new conflict with Israel, hoarding Iranian rockets in a carefully measured contest of threat and counter-threat.

The Gaza war, ignited by the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel, prompted Hezbollah’s worst conflict with Israel since 2006, costing the group hundreds of its fighters including top commanders.

Nasrallah grew up in Beirut’s impoverished Karantina district. His family hails from Bazouriyeh, a village in Lebanon’s predominantly Shi’ite south which today forms Hezbollah’s political heartland.

He was part of a generation of young Lebanese Shi’ites whose political outlook was shaped by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Before leading the group, he used to spend nights with frontline guerrillas fighting Israel’s occupying army. His teenage son, Hadi, died in battle in 1997, a loss that gave him legitimacy among his core Shi’ite constituency in Lebanon.

He had a track record of threatening powerful enemies.

As regional tensions escalated after the eruption of the Gaza war, Nasrallah issued a thinly veiled warning to U.S. warships in the Mediterranean, telling them: “We have prepared for the fleets with which you threaten us.”

In 2020, Nasrallah vowed that U.S. soldiers would leave the region in coffins after Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq.

As regional tensions rose in 2019 following an attack on Saudi oil facilities, he said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should halt the Yemen war to protect themselves.

“Don’t bet on a war against Iran because they will destroy you,” he said in a message directed at Riyadh.

On Nasrallah’s watch, Hezbollah has also clashed with adversaries at home in Lebanon.

In 2008, he accused the Lebanese government – backed at the time by the West and Saudi Arabia – of declaring war by moving to ban his group’s internal communication network. Nasrallah vowed to “cut off the hand” that tried to dismantle it.

It prompted four days of civil war pitting Hezbollah against Sunni and Druze fighters, and the Shi’ite group to take over half the capital Beirut.

Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel for New York to “trick” Hezbollah’s leader into thinking he was safe, a senior Israeli official told The Telegraph.

Mr Netanyahu’s address to the UN was part of a “diversionary plan” intended to make Hassan Nasrallah believe Israel would not take drastic action with the prime minister out of the country.

Israel struck Beirut with a massive air strike on Friday that shook the Lebanese capital.

Mr Nasrallah was believed to be watching Mr Netanyahu’s speech “and was then attacked by Israeli Air Force planes”, the official said.

“Netanyahu approved the strike before delivering his speech at the UN,” the official added.

He went on to say that the Israeli assessment was that Mr Nasrallah was in the building at the time of the strike.

There are conflicting reports about his fate, however. Iran has said that the Hezbollah chief is in “good health”.

The attack came minutes after Mr Netanyahu vowed to continue operations against Hezbollah while addressing the UN chamber.

He struck a defiant tone, telling delegates that Israel would “continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met”.

Israel’s prime minister made little mention of the US-led peace plan that aims to establish a 21-day ceasefire between the IDF and Hezbollah.

He told the UN: “We will not accept a terror army parked on our northern border…able to perpetrate another October 7th-style massacre.”

On Friday night, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief lamented that no world power, including the US, can “stop” Mr Netanyahu.

Josef Borrell told reporters that Israel’s prime minister seems determined to crush militants in Gaza and Lebanon with or without Western approval.

“What we do is to put all diplomatic pressure to a ceasefire, but nobody seems to be able to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank,” Mr Borrell said.

On Friday night Israel launched a new wave of air strikes on Beirut, targeting six suburbs in the south of the Lebanese capital that it said were being used by Hezbollah to store weapons.

China’s newest nuclear attack submarine has sunk in a shipyard accident, in a setback to the country’s attempts to overtake the United States in a naval arms race, according to US officials.

The sinking of the first of a new Zhou-class of nuclear-powered submarines triggered a scramble for Beijing to cover up the incident, officials told The Wall Street Journal.

The newly built vessel, which features a distinctive X-shaped stern, was sighted on satellite images alongside a pier at Wuchang Shipyard as it was being equipped for sea in late May.

It is claimed to have sunk later that month or in early June. Suspicion was said to have been raised when floating cranes were seen at the site soon afterwards.

Brent Sadler, a former submarine officer at Washington’s Heritage Foundation think tank, said: “The sinking of a new nuclear sub that was produced at a new yard will slow China’s plans to grow its nuclear submarine fleet. This is significant.”

Undersea warfare has become a Chinese priority in its arms race with the US as tensions rise in the Pacific.

Submarines would probably play a key role in any future conflict over Taiwan, with a Chinese fleet potentially attempting to invade, while blockading the US from arming and supplying the island.

Submarine warfare has traditionally been an area of significant US supremacy, but China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy has been closing the gap.

A senior US defence official told The Wall Street Journal: “It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal the fact that their new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank pierside.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defence industry, which has long been plagued by corruption.”

The submarine is thought to have been salvaged from the site, but experts said that it will require a huge refit to make it seaworthy.

Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, said: “Can you imagine a US nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, holy cow.”

He continued: “The whole boat would be full of water.

“You’d have to clean out all the electronics. The electric motors may need to be replaced. It would be a lot of work.”

US officials said that it was not clear if anyone had died during the sinking and it was also not clear if the vessel had been carrying nuclear fuel at the time.

They had not detected any indication that Chinese officials had sampled the water or nearby environment for radiation, the officials added.

The Labour peer at the centre of Sir Keir Starmer’s donations row previously criticised “entitled” MPs who took freebies following the Westminster expenses scandal.

Lord Alli gave Sir Keir £32,000 to pay for clothing, thousands of pounds in designer clothing to Lady Victoria Starmer, Sir Keir’s wife, and work clothing to Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister. He also lent the Prime Minister his £18 million Covent Garden penthouse.

But speaking to the Financial Times in 2011, Lord Alli criticised MPs who took handouts and suggested people who were involved in the riots that swept across the UK that year felt able to steal from shops because they believed politicians were “on the take”.

His comments came two years after The Telegraph exposed widespread abuse in how MPs claimed their expenses, which led to a major overhaul of the Commons expenses system.

When asked about the unrest, Lord Alli said: “When you’re at the bottom of the heap and you see people can bankrupt your economy and still take huge bonuses, when MPs can help themselves to expenses which they think they’re entitled to but are probably not right…

“When [journalists] who are the checks and balances on that political power are breaking the law with such abandon when you look up and see everybody on the take – everybody – and you can get a free pair of trainers…

“Tell me what the difference is between a free pair of trainers and a banker’s bonus, or a TV set in a second home that isn’t in your constituency or [hacking] Milly Dowler’s phone to get £1,000 from the editor of some tabloid?”

Lord Alli added: “The difference is it’s four years in jail for the person with the trainers and nobody else.”

Sir Keir was the director of public prosecutions at the time of both the expenses scandal and the 2011 riots, which came after 29-year-old Mark Duggan was shot dead by police.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Lord Alli but the row over his gifts has damaged the Government’s popularity and overshadowed Labour’s annual party conference last week.

Sir Keir also initially failed to declare around £5,000 in designer clothing given to Lady Starmer by the peer, although he will not face a parliamentary standards investigation.

Lord Alli declined to comment on the growing row when he attended the Labour conference. 

When he was approached by Serena Barker-Singh, a journalist for Sky News, he said: “Please don’t. This isn’t very nice.”

Lord Alli’s office and Downing Street were contacted for comment.

Cancer patients are being told that surgery to remove body parts containing tumours can be “gender-affirming”.

Leaflets given to NHS patients at cancer centres and made by charity Macmillan, tell patients that surgery could be an opportunity “to remove a body part that you prefer not to have anyway”.

A leaflet available for patients at Weston Park Cancer Centre in Sheffield has been described as “staggeringly inappropriate and insensitive”.

A charity said it was “disgusting” that a health centre was promoting “some kind of two-for-one deal” on life-changing cancer surgery.

The materials are not made by Weston Park or the NHS but were on display to cancer patients at the centre. They say they were made in partnership with LGBT cancer charity Outpatients, and replicate statements found on the Macmillan website.

“Sometimes surgery to treat cancer is also gender-affirming. Surgery to remove the cancer may remove a body part that you prefer not to have anyway,” it said. “Again, it is helpful if your team understands how you feel about this, so they can support you and plan your treatment well.”

There are multiple cancers that could involve surgery to remove a body part associated with one sex.

Breast cancer patients can sometimes require a mastectomy to remove one or both breasts, to treat the tumour and also reduce the chance of it returning.

Women with ovarian or womb cancer can also sometimes require a hysterectomy to remove the uterus, which also means they can no longer get pregnant.

For men, the testes or prostate can be surgically removed as a way of treating those cancers too.

The materials offer other advice to LGBT patients on taking cross-sex hormones while having treatment and the risks of radiotherapy if a patient wants to or has had genital surgery.

It also explains that “some side effects can be upsetting because they cause changes that do not reflect how you identify”.

“For example, hair loss or a change in your weight or body shape may be upsetting if your appearance is an important part of your gender identity,” it reads. “Some treatments might change part of your body that you have worked hard to align with your gender.”

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at human-rights charity Sex Matters, said: “Trying to put a positive ‘gender-affirming’ spin on mastectomies is staggeringly insensitive and inappropriate from Weston Park Cancer Centre.

“Female survivors of cancer have been saying for years that trans activists’ promotion of elective mastectomies as a treatment for gender distress is deeply upsetting,” she said.

“For a health centre to suggest that life-saving surgery for cancer patients might offer some kind of two-for-one deal, with gender affirmation thrown in, is frankly disgusting.”

‘Particularly disturbing’

Kate Barker, chief executive of LGB Alliance, said: “Mastectomies are life-changing and it’s shocking to see them treated with such flippancy.

“It’s particularly disturbing to see this message targeted at lesbian and bisexual women, implying that this group might be ‘affirmed’ by losing their breasts.”

Prof Chris Morley, chief nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Weston Park Cancer Centre, said: “A large number of organisations, including Macmillan, provide information that is valuable to our patients.

“We recognise that there has been feedback on the content of this booklet, and we do not want anyone to be distressed by anything we have available, so we have raised this with the authors to make them aware of the concerns.”

A Macmillan spokesman said: “Macmillan wants to make sure that everyone, whoever they are and whatever their circumstances, gets the care they need when they are diagnosed with cancer, without judgment or prejudice.

“We are proud to have many partnerships with patient groups who help shape our cancer resources and ensure we meet the specific needs of different communities with tailored information and support that is right for them.

“In this case, the booklet and supporting content on our website was produced in partnership with Outpatients, a charity that works with and for people who are LGBTQ+ and have cancer, to support them through their diagnosis and treatment.”

Police forces should not be allowed to use dogs to fight crime, animal rights campaigners have said.

Animal rights activists say the time has come to phase out the use of dogs in law enforcement following a spate of injuries to animals on the frontline during the summer riots.

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has been encouraged to “phase out the use of dogs” amid rising risks to their welfare and improvements in technology that can replace their role.

“With more technology at our disposal than ever before, there’s no need to continue to use dogs – or any animal – to maintain law and order,” Elisa Allen, vice-president of programmes at Peta, wrote in a letter to Sir Mark Rowley seen by The Telegraph.

“Now is the time to make a change. Please, begin phasing out animals from police service.”

It is the first time the organisation has called on the police forces of the UK to reconsider the century-old practice of training and using canines.

The first formal police dogs began work in Britain in 1908 in Hull. Alsatians, also known as German shepherds, became the default police dog following the First World War after British officials saw the power, trainability and effectiveness of the breed when it was used by Germany during the war.

There are now more than 2,500 dogs used by police in the UK, according to estimates, with the Met alone having about 400.

Dogs are used by a range of forces for a host of purposes, including tracking suspects, riot control, bomb and drug detection, and search and rescue.

The Alsatian is still the most common general purpose police dog and some are also trained as specialist urban search and rescue dogs.

Spaniels and labradors, known for their temperament and sensitive noses, are the main choice for detection dogs.

“Dogs in Britain’s police forces never signed up to risk their lives but are being battered on the front lines of riots and left to bake to death in hot cars,” Ms Allen said.

“Peta is urging the Metropolitan Police to end the use of dogs and adopt modern methods of maintaining law and order that don’t subject animals to a lifetime of violence.”

In the letter, she told Sir Mark that police forces “have in recent months admirably protected the public from hateful, violent extremists” but warned this unrest highlighted the risks to the police dogs.

“Ike and Zoe, dogs used by Merseyside Police, were hit by bricks thrown by the unruly crowd,” she said in the letter.

“A third dog, Quga – who was bitten and strangled by an offender while on duty in July – sustained further injuries when her back leg was burned during the riots.”

The Met Police was approached for comment.

An enabler for Mohamed Fayed sought out young women in pubs and clubs for the Harrods billionaire to prey on, it can be revealed.

The young blonde associate, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would visit pubs in Surrey looking for “pretty young girls” and promise them a job at Harrods, a woman whom she procured has claimed.

She would befriend the women by boasting of her wealth and designer bags before asking if they would like to meet her “boss”, the billionaire Egyptian businessman.

She would then arrange a date to meet the girls, drive them to Fayed’s Park Lane penthouse apartment in a white Range Rover, and hand them over to the alleged sex abuser.

The disclosure sheds new light on the network through which Fayed procured women. Lawyers have compared the tycoon to Jeffrey Epstein, who used his associate Ghislaine Maxwell to groom underage girls.

Fayed has been accused by more than 100 women of sexual abuse in the wake of a BBC documentary about his alleged attacks.

At least four women in Surrey were approached by the glamorous executive around 2011 and taken to see Fayed, The Telegraph understands.

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was approached by Fayed’s associate when she was a university graduate while drinking at a pub in Cobham.

She was driven to London to meet Fayed, who greeted her wearing silk pyjamas and asked: “Would you stay with me tonight?”.

Refusing, she was allowed to leave untouched after accepting £350 in cash and a promise that he would get her a job at the department store.

Speaking for the first time, she said: “He rang me up all the time. He would just be like ‘you need you to come and see me, you need to come and work at Harrods’.

“It was like having a chit-chat with a dirty grandpa. It was very odd. He was a man of few words but I knew straight away what he wanted.”

Nineteen women have made allegations against Fayed to the Metropolitan Police, the force has revealed.

The reports, made between 2005 and 2023, included three allegations of rape, 15 reports of sexual assault and one related to trafficking. The offences are said to have taken place between 1979 and 2013.

Between 2005 and 2023, the Met approached the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on five occasions – two of these, in 2009 and 2015, were to pass full files of evidence.

However, in all 19 allegations that were reported to police, no further action was taken against Fayed, who died last year aged 94.

The Metropolitan Police also announced it was looking into any other people who “could be pursued for criminal offences” over sexual abuse allegations against Fayed.

“It is important to make clear at this stage that it is not possible for criminal proceedings to be brought against someone who has died,” the force said. This means there is no prospect of any conviction relating to Fayed himself.

“However, we must ensure we fully explore whether any other individuals could be pursued for any criminal offences.

“As such, we are carrying out full reviews of all existing allegations reported to us about Al Fayed to ensure there are no new lines of enquiry based on new information which has emerged.”

Son defends his ‘wonderful dad’

Fayed’s son said in a statement on Friday evening that the allegations made against his late father have “thrown into question the loving memory I had of him”.

In a statement to Sky News, Omar Fayed said: “I am horrified and deeply concerned by the allegations recently brought to light against my late father.

“The extent and explicit nature of the allegations are shocking and has thrown into question the loving memory I had of him.

“How this matter could have been concealed for so long and in so many ways raises further disturbing questions.”

Mr Fayed, the founder of data visualisation and mapping company EarthX, said although he loved his father “very much” and he was a “wonderful dad, that aspect of our relationship … does not blind me from an objective assessment of circumstances”.

He said he stood “unequivocally in support of any legitimate investigation into these allegations”, adding: “The alleged victims and public deserve full transparency and accountability.

“I will continue to support the principles of truth, justice, accountability and fairness, regardless of where that journey may lead. No-one is above the law.”

‘Culture of secrecy and fear’

It came as Michael Ward, the managing director of Harrods, claimed that he was “not aware” of Fayed’s predatory sexual abuse.

Mr Ward has been under mounting pressure to reveal what he knew about Fayed’s alleged attacks after managers were accused of presiding over a “culture of secrecy and fear”.

Mr Ward, who has been in the post since 2006, oversaw the luxury retailer both while it was under Fayed’s ownership and afterwards. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Ward.

On the blonde fixer, the woman added: “I think she would have gone around Parsons Green, Chelsea and where all those girls hang out and going up to them saying: ‘Hey do you want to go work at Harrods?’

“We all had a lucky escape, I can tell you that.

“I think she thought she was getting quick cash in hand. I don’t think she would have known the full scale.”

Yesterday, the lawyers representing women who allege rape and sexual abuse while working at Harrods said there was “credible evidence of abuse” at Fulham Football Club under Fayed’s ownership.

The allegation was made by the Justice For Harrods Survivors, which is now representing 60 women, and says that it has been contacted by more than 200 people from all over the world.

A spokesman for the group said: “Given our prolonged experience in dealing with the women impacted by this case, we expected that anywhere Mohamed Al-Fayed went, abuse would follow. Sadly, this has proven to be true. We are now in possession of credible evidence of abuse at other Al-Fayed properties and businesses, including Fulham Football Club.”

Fayed’s son said in a statement on Friday evening that the allegations made against his late father have “thrown into question the loving memory I had of him”.

In a statement to Sky News, Omar Fayed said: “I am horrified and deeply concerned by the allegations recently brought to light against my late father.

“The extent and explicit nature of the allegations are shocking and has thrown into question the loving memory I had of him.

“How this matter could have been concealed for so long and in so many ways raises further disturbing questions.”

Mr Fayed, the founder of data visualisation and mapping company EarthX, said although he loved his father “very much” and he was a “wonderful dad, that aspect of our relationship … does not blind me from an objective assessment of circumstances”.

He said he stood “unequivocally in support of any legitimate investigation into these allegations”, adding: “The alleged victims and public deserve full transparency and accountability.

“I will continue to support the principles of truth, justice, accountability and fairness, regardless of where that journey may lead. No-one is above the law.”

A driver escaped from a car that had broken down on a level crossing just moments before a train smashed into it.

The vehicle is said to have come to a stop on the tracks at the Grove Ferry level crossing near Hersden, Kent before it was hit on Friday afternoon.

The red Nissan Qashqai was left completely crumpled after it was hit by the oncoming train and flung into the level crossing’s barrier and traffic lights.

The driver’s door was still open, suggesting the motorist scrambled out moments before the collision.

Emergency crews were called to the scene after the collision on Friday afternoon. No one was injured in the crash and the car was removed shortly after.

Services were delayed, cancelled or diverted via Dover Priory while Grove Ferry Hill was also understood to be closed. 

Southeastern said trains were unable to run between Canterbury West and Ramsgate. The line has since reopened.

At 4.00pm, Network Rail Kent and Sussex said: “We’re aware of a slow-speed collision between a train and a car at Grove Ferry level crossing.

“Thankfully there are no reported injuries and our front-line responders are working with Kent Police and British Transport Police to remove the car from the crossing.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “The power to the electrified third rail was switched off while our front-line responders supported Kent Police and the British Transport Police in quickly and safely removing the car from the crossing and assessing the train and the level crossing for any damage.

“The car was successfully removed and the line reopened at 5.20pm, with train services having resumed and moving through the affected area at a slow speed, so there will still be some delays.

“We’ll be working over the weekend to fix the crossing and get the road reopened.

“We’re sorry to any passengers disrupted by this incident and thank them for their patience and understanding.”

A justice minister has opened the door to thieves, shoplifters and other common criminals being spared short jail sentences.

Sir Nic Dakin said short prison terms were more likely to result in making offenders “better criminals” rather than rehabilitating them and turning them into “better citizens”.

It is the strongest indication yet that Labour’s forthcoming sentencing review – due to be announced next month – could pave the way for scrapping many short jail terms. These would be replaced with community punishments geared towards rehabilitation, meaning some low-level criminals would avoid jail.

The review is expected to be headed by former Tory justice secretary David Gauke who argued that introducing a legal presumption against sentences of under a year and scrapping those under six months could reduce reoffending. His plans were shelved after he quit the Government when Boris Johnson became Tory leader.

Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, wants the review to provide “creative” solutions to tackle reoffending as well as the overcrowding crisis which has forced her to introduce an early release scheme freeing thousands of prisoners 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than halfway.

Asked about scrapping short sentences, Sir Nic said: “All the evidence seems to suggest that short sentences tend to make better criminals rather than better citizens. Where we will come from is that it is better to have a system that makes people better citizens than better criminals.”

However, speaking at a fringe event at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, he said community alternatives must be robust enough to satisfy the public’s demands for justice. “Anything that the sentencing review comes out with has to have the confidence of the general public,” he said.

‘Real and positive change’

Sir Nic also said that Lord James Timpson, the prisons minister in the Lords and a longstanding prison reform campaigner, was “probably right” when he said that “only a third of [prisoners] should definitely be there.”

“If that is what James said, that’s probably right. James is obviously leading on all of this stuff. James has a lot of personal experience and a wealth of knowledge in this area. He is speaking from understanding. If that is accurate, there’s a massive challenge and a massive opportunity in that challenge.”

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is expected to fast-track the review to complete it within six months because internal forecasts indicate that prisons in England and Wales will run out of space again within nine months largely because of a glut of more rioters from the summer disorder being jailed in the coming months.

In his landmark speech setting out his prison reform plans in July 2019, Mr Gauke said his research showed moving away from sentences of under six months “would deliver real and positive change, for the offenders to turn their lives around and for the safety of the public.”

The MoJ research estimated there would be about 32,000, or 13 per cent, fewer proven reoffences a year if criminals jailed for six months were instead given a community order. Sentences of under one year account for around two-thirds of people jailed in any one year – and disproportionately involve women.

Time off for good behaviour

Mr Gauke proposed three options of a ban on sentences under six months; a presumption against jail terms of under six months; or a combination of a bar on sentences under six months and a presumption against those under one year. Sexual, violent and terrorist offences would be excluded.

Alex Chalk, justice secretary under Rishi Sunak, revived the proposals for a presumption against sentences under one year, replacing them with suspended prison terms in order to place a “sword of Damocles” over offenders. If they breached their licences, they would be recalled to jail to serve their full sentence.

However, despite the plan being initially backed by the then-prime minister, Number 10 moved away from the plans following a revolt by backbench MPs. It delayed the Bill so long that it was lost in the parliamentary wash-up when Mr Sunak called the election.

Ms Mahmood is understood to believe a presumption against short sentences or a move to suspended sentences is a probable outcome of a review but also wants it to consider wider options such as Texas-style schemes enabling prisoners to earn time off their sentences for good behaviour and attending workshops.

An MoJ spokesman said: “The new Government inherited a justice system in crisis and has begun work to rescue and rebuild it so that prison creates better citizens, not better criminals. The Lord Chancellor has already confirmed plans to launch a review into sentencing and further details will be set out in due course.”

It is a Friday night in Tooting, south London, and the queue for the bar is snaking across the bingo hall. Two 20-something women are on stage having a dance-off over a contested call. The prize? A cardboard cut-out of John Travolta. An entertainer in a satin Pink Ladies jacket – the theme is Grease vs Dirty Dancing – yells his own versions of traditional bingo calls across the room. “87, I’ve never been to Devon,” he says. “33, I need a wee.” The jokes are weak, but the crowd goes wild. 

Bingo has had a millennial makeover. Rank Group, owner of Mecca Bingo, which has 52 venues across the UK, said 44 per cent of its new customers in the year to June were under 35 years old. The group returned to profitability last year. And Buzz Bingo, which operates 82 clubs, said around half of its 200,000 new visitors in the year to January were under 35 years old.

Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – have also been drawn into the fold. Lucy Goodsell, 21, is dressed for a night out, wearing a silky black shirt, enormous hoop earrings and an inflatable crown (her prize from a previous round). “I love a bit of bingo, me. I like the thrill.” She cackles over the pop of another prosecco cork. “Doesn’t that sound sad?” Her friend announces she forgot to pick up a bingo dabber pen so has instead been using her pink lip liner. It doesn’t seem to have slowed her down. Lucy’s group of girlfriends come to this bingo hall once a month.

Positioned strategically near the bar is another group of friends in their early-to-mid-20s, clustered around bottles of pink fizz. “Bingo is something different – it’s fun, safe, and silly… you can just let loose,” says 22-year-old Amy Hull. Her friend, Sarah Carroll, 26, wins the interval karaoke competition with a dramatic rendition of Hopelessly Devoted to You, and is met with a raucous round of applause. The prize is a giant blow-up microphone, which she wields as she answers my questions. 

“We’re all first-timers, I just saw the event on Facebook,” she says. “I love Dirty Dancing, and it’s more of a girly [night].”

It is a distinctly female environment, with men either relegated to the edges of the room or sat looking miserable, obviously there at the behest of an overexcited wife or girlfriend. Even the bingo calls have been tweaked for a new generation of players. “Two fat ladies” (88) is banned. “We’re not fat-ist, here,” says the entertainer.

Mia Bravo, 23, is here with her mum Penny, a loyal member of the Tooting club. “I’ve noticed a lot more young people coming in,” Penny says. “The bar’s cheaper for youngsters and the bingo is a bonus to them.” A pint is £4.30, a large glass of wine £5. Her friend chips in: “I think that’s where the stigma is. When I said to you about it,” motioning to her daughter, “you said, ‘I’m not going with all them old ladies,’ and I said, ‘you’ll be surprised how many young people go.’” 

Not long ago, bingo seemed to be in terminal decline. The smoking ban in 2007 was a challenge, but this downward trajectory grew steeper with Covid. 75 bingo clubs have shut their doors in Britain since 2020, says Miles Baron, chief executive of the Bingo Association, due to a combination of the pandemic and the spike in energy prices following it. “You can imagine what [some clubs] cost to heat,” Baron says. “We’re clawing our way back, but it’s a slow incline.” 

Its renaissance among young people is partly down to concepts such as Bongos Bingo, a “a crazy mix of traditional bingo, dance-offs [and] rave intervals,” which started in Liverpool but now has nearly 50 locations worldwide. Dabbers Social Bingo operates two sites in London with the tagline: “Your nan’s fav game just had a full-blown boozy glow up.” 

At Hijingo in Shoreditch, east London, another “multi-sensory” bingo club geared to a new, younger audience, players are greeted with neon lights, robotic dancers and extravagant prizes including European holidays. You can purchase fancy cocktails and, on Sundays, bottomless brunch. These fit in with a broader trend: competitive socialising. Bingo fits with the rise of activity bars in cities including London, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol that offer games alongside food and drinks. Now you can play darts, ping-pong and crazy golf, or even get to grips with axe-throwing, shuffleboard or simulated clay pigeon as you enjoy your pint or cocktail.

But as well as flocking to boozy bingo nights, people are also reviving the traditional bingo hall. In many ways, Buzz Bingo Tooting is exactly as you’d expect. There are Wetherspoons-esque printed carpets, disconcertingly bright lighting, slot machines and pensioners. One thing is different – there is no reverential hush. Instead, the music is ratched up a notch, and a particularly excitable table of women at the front start dancing through the aisles. Fleur Traynor, a 32-year-old nursery worker, grew up with her mum playing bingo “but I haven’t been for eight years,” she says. What brought her back? “Cost of living crisis, innit. It’s a cheap night out.” 

In big cities especially, where a round of drinks won’t give you much change from £30, the cheap and cheerful food and booze in bingo halls is a draw. “A lot of things have risen in price, bingo has stayed the same, so by default it has become better value,” says Baron. Younger people – mostly women – come because it’s “authentic, it’s safe, 80 per cent of the attendees are female, unlike pubbing or clubbing. You don’t have to dress up to go, but you can if you want to. And it’s multi-generational,” he says.

Sarah Calakovic is the branch’s regional manager. Buzz Bingo Tooting, like many bingo halls, offers touchscreen tablets that do the hard work for you, but younger people are drawn to the “the retro experience of [playing on] paper,” she says. Themed bingo nights have proven especially popular with a younger demographic – as well as Grease vs Dirty Dancing, Calakovia has recently presided over “battle of the bands” theme nights, one with Charlie Simpson from the noughties boy band Busted as a special guest, and “raunchy evenings” featuring oiled and muscly Magic Mike inspired dancers. 

“As we came out of Covid, people were absolutely looking for ‘experiential’ evenings,” she says. She points out that some Gen Z-ers are choosing to drink less alcohol, or to forgo it entirely, and bingo is one example of “experiential leisure” that works booze-free. Regardless, “there’s an atmosphere,” she says. “It’s a really fun night out.” I never thought I’d say this about a bingo hall, but I’m inclined to agree.

Labour has signalled a U-turn on backing a definition of ‘Islamophobia’ amid concerns over free speech.

In opposition, the Labour Party formally adopted a definition of Islamophobia and incorporated it into its code of conduct which all party members are expected to follow.

The definition states: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”

But campaigners fear that the definition, drawn up by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims, is too broad and could amount to a “blasphemy law”.

Critics argue that its adoption risks leading to free speech being “curtailed” with legitimate debates about issues such as polygamy being shut down.

Now, in the strongest signal yet that the government is now backing away from adopting this definition, Lord Khan, the faith minister, has admitted that it is “not in line” with equality laws.

In a letter to the Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO), seen by The Telegraph, Lord Khan said the Government was “committed to tackling religious hatred”, adding that the definition of Islamophobia “plays an important role”.

But he went on to say that the APPG’s definition of Islamophobia “is not in line with the Equality Act 2010, which defines race in terms of colour, nationality and national or ethnic origins”.

He said that defining Islamophobia was a “complex issue” and ministers were approaching the issue in a “more holistic” way.

“We want to ensure that any definition comprehensively reflects multiple perspectives and implications for different communities,” he said.

“This Government is actively considering our approach to tackling Islamophobia through a more holistic lens, and will provide further information on this in due course.”

Lord Khan added: “More appropriately, the Equality Act 2010 provides protection from discrimination, harassment or victimisation to anyone with a religious belief as well as to those who lack a religion or belief, subject to certain exceptions.

“A person who experiences Islamophobia from their employer or when accessing goods and services may be able to bring a case of religious discrimination or harassment to an employment tribunal or other civil court.”

Lord Khan was writing in response to a letter from the NSO in which they raised “grave concerns” about the Islamophobia definition.

They noted that the definition “has already been adopted by the Labour party and incorporated into its governing body’s code of conduct” and went on to warn that: “Adoption of this contested definition into law would have serious implications on free speech, not least the ability to discuss historical truths.”

The National Secular Society, which also wrote to ministers, argues that adopting an “Islamophobia” definition would “inflame, rather than dispel, community tensions and division”.

Lord Khan told the NSO that freedom of speech and the freedom to discuss religion are “incredibly important”, and promised that the Government’s approach to tackling religious hatred would “never inhibit the lawful right to freedom of expression”.

Labour adopted the APPG’s definition of Islamophobia in 2019, and it continues to feature in the latest edition of the party’s rulebook.

‘Risks shutting down debate’

Neil Basu, a former UK counter-terror chief, warned at the time that it “risks shutting down debate” about Islam and could allow terror suspects to “legally challenge investigation” and undermine counter-terror laws “on the basis that they are ‘Islamophobic’”.

Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell Mama, which monitors anti-Muslim hate, has said that the definition would “curtail free speech” and would risk “giving oxygen to groups like the far Right”.

Under the wording, Islamophobia would be defined as “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”.

Mr Mughal, who was once tipped to become the Government’s first Islamophobia adviser, said that such a definition could prevent legitimate criticism of Muslims, including from members of the same religion.

Since entering Government, Sir Keir has come under pressure from some quarters to back the definition, with several Muslim organisations calling for the government to act particularly  in the wake of the summer riots.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said: “We welcome the Government’s acknowledgement of the definition’s incompatibility with equality law and urge them to uphold their promise to address anti-Muslim hate in ways that won’t erode freedom of expression around religion.”

The Government was approached for comment.

The plan had been years in the making, the target one of the most famous figures in the Arab world, and one of the most hated in Israel.

In the 11 days before it was implemented, Israel had conducted a military campaign of metronomic efficiency in Lebanon, each phase meticulously and ruthlessly executed, each blow delivered as Hezbollah was still staggering from the one that preceded it.

But then, at dusk on Friday, came the heaviest blow of them all — one that may forever cripple Hezbollah, weaken Iranian influence and potentially even reshape the Middle East itself.

Their detonations echoing across the Beirut skyline, more than 80 bunker-busting bombs pulverised not just four high-rise buildings above the ground but also the subterranean complex that housed Hezbollah’s secret headquarters.

The synchronised sabotage of Hezbollah’s communication devices and other assassinations in previous days had shown Israel was not short of accurate intelligence about a movement that it had clearly infiltrated at all levels.

But this was on a different scale. If previous attacks had systematically severed many of the spokes of the Iran-backed movement, this one was striking at its very hub.

Not only did Israel know the location of the secret bunker of a man who had not been seen in public for two decades, they knew where Hassan Nasrallah would be and that he would be meeting some of the few senior commanders who had survived the assassination strikes of the preceding weeks.

In fact, Israel had known for months, tracking Nasrallah’s every movement until deciding to strike this week after learning that the Hezbollah leader planned to move to an unknown location, according to Israeli officials quoted by the New York Times.

As the plans were finalised, it was decided the operation should be mounted as Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly – something Israel’s military chiefs believed might persuade Nasrallah to lower his guard.

The ruse succeeded. As Mr Netanyahu addressed the press in New York following his speech, an aide whispered in his ear and the Israeli prime minister withdrew to give the command to attack.

For hours afterwards neither side knew Nasrallah’s fate but gradually, amid the chaos in southern Beirut, there was enough intelligence to confirm that he was indeed dead – something Hezbollah itself grudgingly conceded a few hours later.

Sweetening the triumph for Israel, the bomb did not just kill Nasrallah.

A number of senior Iranian military figures were also among the dead, Israel believes, as was Ali Karaki, a senior Hezbollah commander who survived a previous assassination attempt just days earlier.

Israel’s military leadership made it clear on Saturday that this was not the end of the assassinations, with remaining Hezbollah commanders still in their sights.

“This is not the end of our toolbox,” Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, Israel’s top army general, told reporters. “We have more capacity going forward. Anyone who threatens the state of Israel, we will know how to reach them.”

If this was a moment of unalloyed triumph for Israel’s military establishment and, so he hopes, a passage to possible political redemption for Mr Netanyahu, there is no question Hezbollah has suffered the most grievous in a litany of disasters.

Nasrallah might not have been involved in Hezbollah’s day-to-day military operations but he was the centrifuge around which the movement spun. For many in the Middle East, perhaps more than any other of Israel’s foes, he was the embodiment of resistance to the Jewish state.

The son of a greengrocer, he climbed through Hezbollah’s ranks until he reached the top after Israel killed his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi, one of the movement’s co-founders, in a missile strike on his motorcade in 1992.

Nasrallah proved a much more adept leader than Musawi, using his organisational skills and close ties to Iran to turn the movement into a formidable political and military force.

Having waged a guerrilla war that persuaded Israel to end its occupation in southern Lebanon in 2000, he was increasingly viewed as a hero by many in the Middle East.

He burnished that reputation when his fighters battled invading Israeli troops to a bloody standstill in the hills of southern Lebanon in 2006, a stalemate he successfully, if dubiously,  portrayed as a great military victory to his fellow Shia Muslims in Lebanon and beyond.

Spinning Nasrallah’s death and the turmoil of recent days will be far harder.

Even before the killing of Nasrallah, a growing number of analysts believed that Hezbollah’s reputation as the world’s most powerful non-state armed group was withering.

Now, with its leader out of the equation, it may quite possibly be facing a slow but terminal decline. As its once formidable reputation shrinks so too might that of Iran, which created, nurtured, funded, armed and trained Hezbollah.

Iran’s ability to project influence through the region by means of proxy militias is now in question.

Despite warning Israel that it had “opened the gates of hell against itself”, Tehran appears to have abandoned Hezbollah to fend for itself, rebuffing calls from the movement to come to its rescue by attacking Israel directly.

“Nasrallah’s killing is going to cause irreversible damage for Hezbollah and I don’t think it will be able to recover from it,” said Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at Chatham House, the international affairs think tank.

 “I think we are seeing both a historic shift in Hezbollah’s power and a historic shift in the trajectory of Iran’s influence in the Middle East.”

Sir Keir Starmer “wants a solution” to the long-standing row over the Elgin Marbles, a former member of his shadow cabinet has claimed.

In an interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea, Thangam Debbonaire, a former Labour MP and previously the shadow culture secretary, said the Prime Minister sees the two countries as “allies”.

Ms Debbonaire, who lost her previously safe seat in Bristol to the Green Party at the general election, described the removal of the marbles from Ottoman-ruled Athens in the early 19th century as an act of “theft”.

“The way the Parthenon sculptures came to this country was, at best, unacceptable. I think we all know it was theft,” she told Ta Nea.

“If you stand in front of any of them in the British Museum, you are struck by what’s missing.”

The Greek government says that Lord Elgin, a British diplomat, stole the ancient sculptures from Athens, but the British Museum claims he was given written permission to take them in a decree issued by an Ottoman official.

Greece has contested this, suggesting that any legal documentation could be a forgery as the firman – a Sultan’s decree – exists only in Italian translation.

For decades Greece has been pushing for their return, but British law prevents treasures from being legally given away.

Labour has not said it will repeal the law, but in July Chris Bryant, the Culture Minister, praised an agreement which saw British museums loan several items back to their countries of origin as a “success”.

He added that loaning objects from the British Museum was a “matter for the trustees”. In January last year the museum’s chair George Osborne was understood to be in talks with Greece to draw up a deal that could repatriate the statues as part of a “cultural exchange”.

Discussing Sir Keir’s position, Ms Debbonaire said: “Keir wants a solution. He wants a solution because we’re allies. Greece is the home of democracy. We are great celebrators of democracy in the Labour Party.”

She added: “This is a unique moment in history. The British Museum, with the new government, is in a really historic position to be able to tell a new story for these sculptures. I think we’re all going to be better off when a way is found for them to be viewed in whole and in Athens, which is such a historic setting.”

Ms Debbonaire admitted she had not directly discussed the matter with Sir Keir in recent months, however. But said she was confident she would see the marbles returned to Greece “in my lifetime”.

She said: “I also know, and it’s a matter of public record, that the British Museum has moved a long way towards [plans for return].”

“[I’ve] talked to Nick Cullinan, the Museum’s new director, about what his plans are for the British Museum. I am confident that I will see it in my lifetime. I’d like it to be quite soon.”

Sir Keir attacked former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s hardline approach towards the Greek government last year, and criticised the last minute cancellation of a meeting with Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the issue.

Mr Sunak was said to have been left frustrated in November last year after the Greek leader publicly lobbied for a change to his government’s stance on the marbles during an interview with the BBC.

At the time, Sir Keir said Mr Sunak had “tried to humiliate” his Greek counterpart. Mr Sunak eventually met with Mr Mitsotakis later that month.

A mother has launched a legal battle to stop the state from spiking her Down’s syndrome son’s drinks with sedatives so he can be jabbed with the Covid vaccine, The Telegraph can reveal.

Cups of tea and glasses of orange juice have been secretly laced with sedatives to subdue the man, in his thirties, so he can be given the vaccine and booster jabs.

But his mother now is planning to prosecute her local NHS integrated care board (ICB) for “forced vaccination”, which she claims is “tantamount to assault” and a breach of his human rights.

Adam, whose name has been changed because he cannot be identified, is the subject of a series of Court of Protection orders because he “lacks capacity” and cannot make decisions for himself.

His ICB, which also cannot be named, obtained a court order in 2021 allowing the “covert” spiking so he can be given the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The court concluded the vaccine was in Adam’s “best interests” because he is in a “clinical risk group” due to his learning disabilities, autism, Down’s syndrome and obesity.

The method of sedating him via a drink was chosen because it “avoids the use of restraint or physical force” and overcomes Adam’s needle phobia, legal papers seen by the Telegraph explain.

Catherine, his mother, is fighting a fresh application made by the ICB to allow care home staff to administer sedation and vaccines without having to seek court approval each time the Government issues new vaccine guidance.

‘The pandemic is over’

“The pandemic is over and Covid is now treated as little more than the common cold,” his mother, who is in her 60s and from the home counties, said. “But my son is being categorised as at the same risk as those with life-threatening diseases.

“It is terrifying that this is happening years after the pandemic and at a time when we are not required to wear masks or socially distance.

“As Adam’s mother, I know what is best for him. I think this excessive state intervention is unfair, particularly now the Covid landscape has changed so drastically.”

The mother and her legal team have set up a crowdfunding campaign called “Stop Sedate-to-Vaccinate” to raise funds for her to fight the NHS application for “forced medical treatments”.

A court previously heard that Adam struggled to follow social distancing rules because he liked to “hug” people.

His carers, including his doctor and a solicitor assigned by the court to represent him, believe he needs the vaccine because Government guidelines classify him as vulnerable due to his “chronic neurological disease”.

Benefits outweigh risks

The 2021 ruling by Judge Brown concluded that although Adam “finds health interventions distressing” the benefits of the vaccine “far outweigh the risks”.

But his mother, a devout Christian, claims administering the vaccine “against his will” has meant he “will not be able to trust people and his life will be filled with fear”, adding that it amounts “to unlawful use of restraint.”

She also claims he has lost weight and “is healthier than the average person” who “hardly gets a cold” and has already had Covid which was mild.

The judge concluded she was in no position to rule on the efficacy of the vaccine or some of the other theories about it which were based on “extraordinary and dangerous misinformation”.

In her ruling allowing the initial vaccination, Judge Brown wrote how she understood “genuine and legitimate concern from some, about the administering of a new vaccine to combat a new virus”, adding how some people “legitimately and in good faith, raise questions about its efficacy and possible side effects.”

‘Waste of public money’

The mother’s lawyer, Stephen Jackson of Jackson Osborne Solicitors, said Adam’s four years of good health without vaccination since the pandemic “speaks volumes for his natural immune system.”

“This is a scandalous waste of public money. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation assesses they need to jab approximately 10,500 people like Adam to avoid just one non-severe visit to the hospital.

“At £25 a shot, that’s £262,000 that could be better spent, leave aside the cost of these proceedings.”

A spokesman for the UK Health Security Agency, the government body responsible for public health protection, said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on a specific case.

He added: “Vaccination is voluntary on the basis of informed consent. Where an adult is unable to consent for themselves it is a matter for their doctors to consider their best interests in collaboration with relatives.”

The integrated care board, which insists Adam’s sedation and vaccination are legal, declined to comment “because of patient confidentiality”.

The case will be heard at the Court of Protection in November.

Inside the secret sedation plot

As a “thank you” for having a mug of breakfast tea and a glass of orange juice brought into his room, Adam invariably hugged the staff he trusts so implicitly at his care home.

Unbeknown to him, on five separate occasions over the last 16 months those drinks were laced with a “covert anxiolytic medication” – a powerful sedative. Twice he became groggy before eventually succumbing to a deep sleep.

Each time, a team of senior carers, a nurse and the home’s manager stood quietly outside the room awaiting the nod to enter. One of them was armed with a syringe – kept well hidden due to Adam’s needle phobia – loaded with the Covid vaccine.

When the sedatives worked, Adam’s sleeve was quickly rolled up, the antiseptic wipe swiped over his upper arm and the needle inserted deep into his muscle as the plunger was pressed emptying the syringe barrel of its viscous contents. One carer made copious notes in readiness for a report which would be sent to the Court of Protection explaining how the procedure had gone.

On two occasions, in November 2023 and June 2024, the primary dose and booster were administered, one carer then had the arduous task of telephoning Adam’s mother to inform her that despite her opposition her son had been vaccinated.

Foiled plot

Three times the secret sedation plot was foiled by Adam. In May 2023, “he poured the drink down the sink”, legal papers show. In June this year, the “oral sedative (Lorazepam) was not effective”.

The Court of Protection orders approved the use of one of three possible sedatives; 30mg of Temazepam, 4mg of Lorazepam or 10mg of Diazepam.

One document states that “AD [Adam] has not suffered any complications or side-effects following the administration of the vaccine and/or sedation.”

At the height of the pandemic, his carers had attempted to assess how capable he was of expressing his opinions about whether or not he wanted to be vaccinated. Four times they went through a special pack created by Mind, the mental health charity, that explained how the vaccine works and can be administered.

Adam said ‘no’

“On all occasions when a picture showing a vaccine being administered was used, AD [Adam] shook his head and said ‘no’,” one ruling notes.

It adds: “However, he demonstrated limited understanding of the information given to him about the Covid-19 virus.”

A judge concluded that Adam should have the jab because the “benefits far outweigh the risks”. She approved the “covert” sedation process because it prevented restraint and the use of force.

Adam’s mother, who visits her son at his special care home nearly every day and attends church with him on Sundays, believes the drugging and injection of her son represents an assault.

“Adam won’t take tablets,” his mother says. “So, they have had to hide the sedatives in either a cup of tea, glass of orange juice or even Coke. It is very upsetting.

“I am not alerted to when it happens. I get one telephone call after the event.”

A mother has launched a legal battle to stop the state from spiking her Down’s syndrome son’s drinks with sedatives so he can be jabbed with the Covid vaccine, The Telegraph can reveal.

Cups of tea and glasses of orange juice have been secretly laced with sedatives to subdue the man, in his thirties, so he can be given the vaccine and booster jabs.

But his mother now is planning to prosecute her local NHS integrated care board (ICB) for “forced vaccination”, which she claims is “tantamount to assault” and a breach of his human rights.

Adam, whose name has been changed because he cannot be identified, is the subject of a series of Court of Protection orders because he “lacks capacity” and cannot make decisions for himself.

His ICB, which also cannot be named, obtained a court order in 2021 allowing the “covert” spiking so he can be given the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The court concluded the vaccine was in Adam’s “best interests” because he is in a “clinical risk group” due to his learning disabilities, autism, Down’s syndrome and obesity.

The method of sedating him via a drink was chosen because it “avoids the use of restraint or physical force” and overcomes Adam’s needle phobia, legal papers seen by the Telegraph explain.

Catherine, his mother, is fighting a fresh application made by the ICB to allow care home staff to administer sedation and vaccines without having to seek court approval each time the Government issues new vaccine guidance.

‘The pandemic is over’

“The pandemic is over and Covid is now treated as little more than the common cold,” his mother, who is in her 60s and from the home counties, said. “But my son is being categorised as at the same risk as those with life-threatening diseases.

“It is terrifying that this is happening years after the pandemic and at a time when we are not required to wear masks or socially distance.

“As Adam’s mother, I know what is best for him. I think this excessive state intervention is unfair, particularly now the Covid landscape has changed so drastically.”

The mother and her legal team have set up a crowdfunding campaign called “Stop Sedate-to-Vaccinate” to raise funds for her to fight the NHS application for “forced medical treatments”.

A court previously heard that Adam struggled to follow social distancing rules because he liked to “hug” people.

His carers, including his doctor and a solicitor assigned by the court to represent him, believe he needs the vaccine because Government guidelines classify him as vulnerable due to his “chronic neurological disease”.

Benefits outweigh risks

The 2021 ruling by Judge Brown concluded that although Adam “finds health interventions distressing” the benefits of the vaccine “far outweigh the risks”.

But his mother, a devout Christian, claims administering the vaccine “against his will” has meant he “will not be able to trust people and his life will be filled with fear”, adding that it amounts “to unlawful use of restraint.”

She also claims he has lost weight and “is healthier than the average person” who “hardly gets a cold” and has already had Covid which was mild.

The judge concluded she was in no position to rule on the efficacy of the vaccine or some of the other theories about it which were based on “extraordinary and dangerous misinformation”.

In her ruling allowing the initial vaccination, Judge Brown wrote how she understood “genuine and legitimate concern from some, about the administering of a new vaccine to combat a new virus”, adding how some people “legitimately and in good faith, raise questions about its efficacy and possible side effects.”

‘Waste of public money’

The mother’s lawyer, Stephen Jackson of Jackson Osborne Solicitors, said Adam’s four years of good health without vaccination since the pandemic “speaks volumes for his natural immune system.”

“This is a scandalous waste of public money. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation assesses they need to jab approximately 10,500 people like Adam to avoid just one non-severe visit to the hospital.

“At £25 a shot, that’s £262,000 that could be better spent, leave aside the cost of these proceedings.”

A spokesman for the UK Health Security Agency, the government body responsible for public health protection, said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on a specific case.

He added: “Vaccination is voluntary on the basis of informed consent. Where an adult is unable to consent for themselves it is a matter for their doctors to consider their best interests in collaboration with relatives.”

The integrated care board, which insists Adam’s sedation and vaccination are legal, declined to comment “because of patient confidentiality”.

The case will be heard at the Court of Protection in November.

Inside the secret sedation plot

As a “thank you” for having a mug of breakfast tea and a glass of orange juice brought into his room, Adam invariably hugged the staff he trusts so implicitly at his care home.

Unbeknown to him, on five separate occasions over the last 16 months those drinks were laced with a “covert anxiolytic medication” – a powerful sedative. Twice he became groggy before eventually succumbing to a deep sleep.

Each time, a team of senior carers, a nurse and the home’s manager stood quietly outside the room awaiting the nod to enter. One of them was armed with a syringe – kept well hidden due to Adam’s needle phobia – loaded with the Covid vaccine.

When the sedatives worked, Adam’s sleeve was quickly rolled up, the antiseptic wipe swiped over his upper arm and the needle inserted deep into his muscle as the plunger was pressed emptying the syringe barrel of its viscous contents. One carer made copious notes in readiness for a report which would be sent to the Court of Protection explaining how the procedure had gone.

On two occasions, in November 2023 and June 2024, the primary dose and booster were administered, one carer then had the arduous task of telephoning Adam’s mother to inform her that despite her opposition her son had been vaccinated.

Foiled plot

Three times the secret sedation plot was foiled by Adam. In May 2023, “he poured the drink down the sink”, legal papers show. In June this year, the “oral sedative (Lorazepam) was not effective”.

The Court of Protection orders approved the use of one of three possible sedatives; 30mg of Temazepam, 4mg of Lorazepam or 10mg of Diazepam.

One document states that “AD [Adam] has not suffered any complications or side-effects following the administration of the vaccine and/or sedation.”

At the height of the pandemic, his carers had attempted to assess how capable he was of expressing his opinions about whether or not he wanted to be vaccinated. Four times they went through a special pack created by Mind, the mental health charity, that explained how the vaccine works and can be administered.

Adam said ‘no’

“On all occasions when a picture showing a vaccine being administered was used, AD [Adam] shook his head and said ‘no’,” one ruling notes.

It adds: “However, he demonstrated limited understanding of the information given to him about the Covid-19 virus.”

A judge concluded that Adam should have the jab because the “benefits far outweigh the risks”. She approved the “covert” sedation process because it prevented restraint and the use of force.

Adam’s mother, who visits her son at his special care home nearly every day and attends church with him on Sundays, believes the drugging and injection of her son represents an assault.

“Adam won’t take tablets,” his mother says. “So, they have had to hide the sedatives in either a cup of tea, glass of orange juice or even Coke. It is very upsetting.

“I am not alerted to when it happens. I get one telephone call after the event.”