THE NUMBER of people crossing the English Channel in small boats during Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s tenure is poised to exceed 50,000 within the next 24 hours. This milestone comes as Sunak nears the end of his twentieth month in office, a stark contrast to the thirty-five months it took his predecessor, Boris Johnson, to reach the same figure.

The UK government says it wants to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says if he wins the general election, the first flights will leave for Rwanda later in July.

But Keir Starmer has pledged to scrap the Rwanda scheme if Labour wins and would instead use counter-terrorism powers to stop gangs smuggling people across the Channel.

As of Saturday evening, the tally of small boat arrivals under Sunak’s leadership stood at 49,709. With three Border Force catamarans already active in the Channel and favourable weather conditions predicted for the next day, the count is expected to increase significantly before midday on Monday.

Currently, 2024 is on track to be the most challenging year on record for small boat arrivals. The total number of arrivals this year stands at 12,646, with projections indicating it will surpass 13,000 within the next 24 hours. This would be the first time such a figure has been reached before the midpoint of the year.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General, criticised Sunak’s handling of the situation, stating, “Rishi Sunak will always be known as the Prime Minister who broke his promises to Britain. He pledged to stop the boats, yet 50,000 people have made the crossing on his watch. This year is shaping up to be the worst ever for small boat arrivals.”

Ashworth also highlighted other areas where he believes Sunak has failed, including rising national debt, increased NHS waiting lists, and economic recession. He pointed out that Sunak’s promise to cut taxes resulted in the highest tax burden in 70 years and accused the Prime Minister of not maintaining integrity in Downing Street.

On Sunday morning, three of the five Border Force catamarans were deployed from Ramsgate to assist with operations in the Channel. Additionally, RNLI lifeboats were in use. Historical data shows that 2024 has seen a 16% increase in arrivals compared to the same period last year, with the total number of arrivals since 2018 now standing at 126,968. Notably, nearly 40% of these crossings have occurred during Sunak’s premiership.

Labour’s Five-Point Plan

Labour has proposed a comprehensive five-point plan to reform the asylum system:

1. Border Security Command: Establish a new elite Border Security Command to combat people smuggling gangs.
2. End Hotel Use: Halt the use of hotels for asylum seekers within 12 months and expedite returns to safe countries.
3. Resettlement Reform: Redesign resettlement schemes to include a clearer process for refugees with UK family connections.
4. International Agreements: Negotiate new agreements for safe returns and family reunions for child refugees.
5. Humanitarian Aid: Address humanitarian crises at their source and restore the 0.7% aid commitment when fiscally possible.

Ashworth concluded by urging voters to choose Labour for meaningful change, stating, “Change will only come if you vote for it with Labour.”

A CAMPAIGN group, fighting against proposals to for a deep space radar dish array in north Pembrokeshire, described as “the United States’ lurch into an attempt to dominate all of space,” has raised more than £1,000.

The UK/US military plans for a 27-dish Deep Space Advanced Radar Concept (DARC) at Cawdor Barracks, Brawdy is part of AUKUS, a three-way security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to build three DARC radar installations around the world, one in each of the three countries.

The radars would track foreign countries’ communications and military satellites in space, so that British, US and Australian aircraft could then destroy them with anti-satellite missiles at will.

A scoping report was submitted to Pembrokeshire County Council early last year, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which said DARC would track active satellites above the Earth.

That application stated: “The Ministry of Defence has a duty to protect the UK national interest around the world. This includes the Space Domain, which offers both the UK and its Allies an important strategic advantage, but also emerging threats and vulnerabilities that need to be monitored.”

It added: “The Deep-space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) is a United States Space Force (USSF) led programme that aims to set up three geographically dispersed radar sites to increase global Space Domain Awareness with the UK and Australia being offered to host one of the three sites.”

Late last year, Cawdor Barrack was identified as the preferred UK site, with the-then UK Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps.

It was said that retention of the base for DARC would create up to 100 jobs.

The DARC scheme would be subject to an as-yet unsubmitted planning application.

Campaign group, PARC Against DARC is hoping to stop the scheme, describing the proposals as a “monument to the needless, sabre-rattling, expansionist vanity project that is the United States’ lurch into an attempt to dominate all of space, against the stated wishes of almost every nation in the UN”.

PARC (Pembrokeshire Against Radar Campaign) was originally set up back in 90s when the US Military unsuccessfully attempted to build a similar radar installation on the Dewisland peninsula, north Pembrokeshire.

The revamped 2024 operation has launched a change.org petition webpage and an online crowdfunder page, along with social media pages.

On the crowdfunder page, which has raised just over £1,000 to date, it says: “In 1991, faced with a near-identical over-the-horizon radar array project barely a couple of miles away in Dewisland, the people of Pembrokeshire formed PARC (Pembrokeshire Against the Radar Campaign), and after one of the most sensational, national and viral UK campaigns of the 1990s, demolished the radar plans, and forced Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher herself to cancel the entire radar project.

“Well, PARC is back—and we’re here to repeat history.

“To pull it off, and defeat the US’s attempt to colonise space in a way that no citizen of the county, the nation or the world has ever voted for, we are going to need all the support and solidarity we can bring together.”

Identifying Cawdor as the preferred site last year, Grant Shapps said: “As the world becomes more contested and the danger of space warfare increases, the UK and our allies must ensure we have the advanced capabilities we need to keep our nations’ safe.”

PARC Against DARC is to is to host a public launch meeting at Solva Memorial Hall at 7pm on June 27.

A SENEDD member called on the next UK Government to finally put an end to the “theft” of steelworkers’ pensions following a two-decade campaign for justice.

Rhys ab Owen said staff at Allied Steel and Wire (ASW) in Cardiff lost their pensions when the company collapsed in 2002, making thousands of people unemployed.

Leading a Senedd debate, he said: “This meant that it was no longer about fairness, or what pensioners were owed, but whatever the scheme could afford to pay out.

“’Wind up’ is one term for it – an aptly named term, perhaps – another term is ‘pension theft’, and I believe that is a far more effective term.”

“The ASW workers were not the first nor the last to experience this injustice, this gutting of their pensions. Wind-ups were increasingly common in the early 2000s and punished those who were most loyal and hard-working.”

Mr ab Owen, who sits as an independent, said the then-Labour UK Government’s financial assistance scheme had an arbitrary maximum payout of 90% of the pension value.

“This meant pensioners lost 10% of their pensions from the get-go,” he explained. “Then more due to inflation, and on top of it all, many had to pay tax on the measly sum.

“For workers who had worked for decades – slaving away day after day in dangerous work –  it is no wonder this faulty scheme led to protests across the UK.”

The South Wales Central MS warned that many pensioners have still not been offered compensation despite a parliamentary ombudsman report and a Court of Appeal case.

“Do we really need another ITV drama to resolve this scandal?” he asked, appearing to refer  to Mr Bates vs The Post Office which brought the Horizon scandal to life.

His father – Owen John Thomas, a former Plaid Cymru politician, who represented the same region in the then-Assembly – was involved in the steelworkers’ campaign from the outset.

Mr ab Owen paid tribute to his father in a statement to the Senedd in the days following his death in May, saying it was characteristic of him to put other people and the country first.

During the debate on June 21, he said: “This struggle for Cardiff workers has lasted so long that it’s been through two generations of the Thomas family, my father being a constant voice in this battle from which I am glad to take on the mantle.”

The former barrister and law lecturer warned countless workers have died waiting for their pensions to be restored, with some unable to pay for their own funerals.

“Some have, tragically, taken their own lives waiting to find justice,” he said. “This is a scandal still unresolved, a scandal that has been going on for 22 years; widows still paying mortgages that should have been paid off decades ago.”

Expecting a Labour landslide in the general election on July 4, Mr ab Owen asked: “Will the party founded and funded over the years by the workers, will they finally give the ASW steelworkers and their families the money that they are owed?”

Adam Price said it was fitting for the debate to take place next door to T? Hywel where the steelworkers’ journey for justice began in a meeting organised by Mr ab Owen’s father.

He told the chamber or Siambr: “Time after time, the story of capitalism in these islands –  and the story of the failure of our democracy – is the story of pension scandals….

“It says something about these countries in the UK – the way we treat our workers, our older workers in retirement. It’s that moral question this incoming Labour Government now faces.”

The former MP and Plaid Cymru leader welcomed a pledge in Labour’s manifesto on miners’ pensions, calling for an equal commitment to former steelworkers.

Sarah Murphy, responding for the Welsh Government, acknowledged the injustice the Allied Steel and Wire pensioners have faced.

The minister pointed out that pension powers are not devolved as she called on the UK Government to “do the right thing and give restorative justice” to former ASW workers.

She told the Senedd: “We are disappointed the UK Government has failed to secure the pensions justice for the former ASW workers that they deserve.

“I recognise the sense of betrayal that they must feel….

“These pensions are not a gift; they are deferred salary. The contributions were made in good faith by ASW workers in the expectation that they would receive security in retirement – not just for them, but also for their families.

“Those contributions should be honoured and honoured in full.”