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For many, ‘Terrible Tuesday’ began ‘Awful April’ with increased bills for water, energy, council tax (to an average in England of £2,280), road tax, telephone charges, broadband, the television licence and stamp duty. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, spoke to President Donald Trump of the US as makers of motor vehicles, Britain’s biggest export to the US, contemplated American tariffs of 20 per cent on car imports. Matthew Doyle resigned as Sir Keir’s communications director. Plans were afoot to ban cars from Hammersmith Bridge, which has been closed for repairs for six years, when it is reopened.
Since there was a ‘draft bill due for imminent introduction that would make it unlawful’ the Sentencing Council decided not to bring in rules requiring judges to seek extra information before sentencing offenders from certain minority groups; Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, had said she did not want ‘a two-tier sentencing approach’. The University of Sussex hoped to overturn a ruling by the Office for Students imposing a £585,000 penalty for infringing freedom of speech. At a conference at Lancaster House on organised migration crime, the Prime Minister said: ‘We’ve returned more than 24,000 people who have no right to be here’; but it appeared that about a third of the figure had returned without telling the government. In the seven days to 31 March, 722 migrants arrived in small boats.
Birmingham council declared a ‘major incident’ over the 17,000 tons of rubbish left on the streets by dustmen belonging to the Unite union. The King spent a short time in hospital and cancelled an engagement in Birmingham because of the side-effects of his treatment for cancer.
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