Reform UK has said that it would tighten the law to make it easier to prosecute lawyers and advisers who help people make bogus asylum claims.

Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, announced the proposals in response to a major BBC investigation illustrating the extent of fraud in the asylum advice industry.

A report yesterday, by Billy Kenber and Phil Kemp, said “migrants are falsely claiming to be victims of domestic abuse in order to stay in the country”. Today they have followed it up with a second report about how “migrants are falsely claiming to be victims of domestic abuse in order to stay in the country”.

In a response to the initial investigation, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said:

Anyone abusing protections for people fleeing persecution over gender or sexual orientation is beyond contempt.

Let me be clear: try to defraud the British people to enter or remain in the UK and your asylum claim will be refused, your support cut off, and you will find yourself on a one-way flight out of Britain.

Sham lawyers facilitating this abuse will face the full force of the law.

Today Reform UK went further. Yusuf said:

A Reform UK government will put a stop to the legal-industrial complex exploiting the generosity of the British taxpayer. We will criminally prosecute unscrupulous immigration lawyers by creating a new strict liability offence. We will also end legal aid for illegal arrivals and visa overstayers. Those who break into our country will no longer get taxpayer funds to fight their removal.

Reform will ensure our borders are secured, illegal migrants deported and British taxpayers are no longer defrauded in this manner.

Explaining the proposed change, Reform UK said:

A Reform government will make facilitating a false asylum claim a ‘strict liability’ criminal offence. There will be no requirement to prove intent in prosecutions, and this serious crime will be punishable by up to 2 years in jail. Lawyers defrauding the British people in this way will not be tolerated. Similar duties already apply to law firms and lawyers to prevent bribery and tax evasion and it’s reasonable to also apply this to immigration law firms.

The SNP is to bring in a national ban on smartphones in classes if it wins May’s Holyrood election, John Swinney has pledged. As the Press Association reports, the first minister and SNP leader insisted the devices were “a distraction from learning” pledging legislation after the election to ban them across Scotland. PA says:

Currently head teachers have the power to ban smartphones in their schools, with a number of councils in Scotland having acted.

However Swinney said that the SNP will now seek to “ensure a full national ban in Scotland’s classrooms”.

He told the Daily Record newspaper: “We have already taken action to empower headteachers to act but if re-elected we will legislate to deliver a full ban across Scotland.

“The SNP is on the side of schools and we will take every step necessary to ensure teaching in our classrooms is done without distraction.

“We have record levels of literacy and numeracy in our schools and this national ban will support pupils and teachers to build on that progress.”

UK GDP expanded by a stronger than expected 0.5% in February, official figures show, suggesting the economy was gaining momentum before the onset of war in the Middle East dashed hopes of recovery, Heather Stewart reports.

Good morning. ‘We don’t comment on leaks,’ is the usual government response to an unsanctioned lobby scoop. But this morning Peter Kyle, the business secretary, took a different response. Asked about a Times splash saying the government is making plans to deal with possible food shortages in the summer, caused by the Iran war, he told Sky News:

It is difficult for me, because, of course, these leaks are very unhelpful. But when people do read it, they need to be reassured that we are doing this kind of planning, and we are doing this kind of scenario planning.

Kyle contrasted his stance with Boris Johnson’s conduct in the early days of Covid, when the Tory PM “missed five Cobra meetings in the lead-up to it”.

The Times story, by Aubrey Allegretti, is not saying that the country is going to run out of food. But it does say that serious contingency planning is taking place, with an assumption that under a “reasonable worst-case scenario”, supermarkets might start running out of some items. Allegretti says:

Britain could face shortages of chicken, pork and other supermarket goods this summer if the war in Iran continues, a secret government analysis has found.

Officials have drawn up contingency plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” amid fears that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will lead to shortages of carbon dioxide (CO₂) which is critical to the food industry …

Farming and hospitality would likely be hit earliest and hardest, given CO₂ is used to help increase the shelf life of food such as salad, packaged meats and baked goods.

CO₂ is used in the process of slaughtering nearly all pigs and more than two thirds of chickens and the sector is not thought to have much by way of surplus supplies. While the government does have stockpiles, this was said to not be a long-term solution …

While there are not expected to be critical food supply shortages, officials expect there could be a lack of product variety in shops.

The “reasonable worst-case scenario” assumes that by June the strait of Hormuz is still closed, and there is no permanent peace deal. According to Allegretti’s story, officials are working on the basis that, in these circumstances, supplies of CO₂ could fall to just 18 per cent of present levels. This could have consequences for healthcare and the energy sector, as well as the food industry. Allegretti says one plan involves possible emergency legislation being passed to require factorsies to maximise CO₂ production.

In interviews this morning, Kyle did not dispute the story; instead he presented it as evidence of the government taking emergency planning seriously.

He told Times Radio:

I can tell you, because I’m in these meetings, the prime minister has been there since the very start, and he is going through personally and driving deep dives into lots of areas of resilience throughout our economy.

He said that at the start of the conflict he reversed the mothballing of the Ensus bio-ethanol plant in Teesside to secure supplies of carbon dioxide.

People should be reassured that we are doing this kind of action behind the scenes to keep resilience in our economy, so that when the full extent of what may or may not emerge, because this situation is still unfolding in the Middle East, you have a government that is acting with creativity and boldness.

Kyle told Sky News that supplies of CO₂ were “not a concern” now.

He went on:

If any of these things change, I will be up front with the public about it in advance so that we can prepare. But right now, people should go on as they are, enjoying beer, enjoying their meats, enjoying all the salads.

But also there are critical uses for CO₂ – MRI scanning, for example, water purification; it’s involved in our nuclear industry, our civil nuclear power industry, some defensive uses for it as well.

There’s lots of needs for CO₂, so these are the reasons why I took it so seriously way back to six months ago, not just in the last few weeks.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Keir Starmer meets executives from tech companies including TikTok, X and Meta in Downing Street to discuss restricting social media for teenagers. Last night, for the second time, MPs rejected a proposal to ban under-16s from using social media.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.

10am: John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister, launches the SNP manifesto for the Holyrood election.

Morning: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, does a walkabout in South Wales Valleys town with the party’s Welsh leader, Dan Thomas.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: The Covid inquiry publishes its report on vaccines and therapeutics.

Afternoon (UK time): Rachel Reeves attends IMF meeting in Washington. She is also doing a huddle with reporters.

4pm: Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Russell Findlay, the party’s leader in Scotland, attend a rally in Edinburgh.

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