Sun Says

Hope for peace

TODAY marks the dawn of a new era of hope for the Middle East.

As US Vice-President JD Vance said yesterday, a truce brokered by Donald Trump has brought the region to “the cusp of true peace”.

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While other world leaders postured and bewailed, the US President used his extraordinary power of persuasion to force Hamas and Israel to strike a deal to end two years of bloodshed.

It means thousands of Palestinians will return to what is left of their homes and get the food and medical aid they need, and Israelis can welcome back loved ones taken hostage during the terrorist massacre which started the conflict.

The 19th Century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once said that politics is “the art of the possible”.

But hard-nosed businessman President Trump has proved it can also be “the art of the deal”.

The path to lasting peace is still littered with pitfalls.

Hamas must be made to disarm and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will have to be persuaded to drop his opposition to a future, self-ruling Palestinian state.

More tears will be shed in the days to come.

Much trauma awaits Israeli families whose loved ones return alive but emaciated or, tragically, in body bags.

There will also be anger if terrorist killers are freed as part of the deal.

Yet despite these hurdles, this is the brightest glimmer of hope the region has seen in a generation.

And if, one day, it leads to a lasting peace, the whole world will rejoice.

Win for justice

THE phrase “justice must be seen to be done” is as relevant today as when it was first uttered in court a century ago.

That is why The Sun challenged an order banning a child rapist from being identified as an asylum seeker.

In a shocking example of two-tier justice, both the prosecution and the offender’s lawyer had opposed our attempt to report his status.

But this newspaper chalked up a landmark victory for open justice and Press freedom by fighting to have the order overturned.

Judge Maria Lamb gave an instant ruling that we were right.

The jury took just two-and-a-half hours to convict the serial offender.

A double triumph for common sense.

Silly Mili

ED Miliband’s fixation with Net Zero gets more desperate and costly by the day.

The Energy Secretary is targeting well-off families with £7,500 “bribes” to fit green heat pump systems most of us can’t afford.

His barmy campaign confirms what we already knew about Mr Miliband’s obsession with meeting unrealistic carbon emission targets.

It’s a waste of money — and he is a waste of space.

Shabana needs to be tough like Arnie

NEW Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has no time to lose.

She has built a reputation as an immigration hardliner from the right wing of the Labour Party and is nicknamed The Terminator.

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So her appointment, in the reshuffle forced on Sir Keir Starmer by Angela Rayner’s resignation, was a clear sign of intent.

But she has been parachuted into the middle of the Government’s biggest political crisis zone.

A chaotic year of ineffective posturing saw an astonishing 111,000 asylum applications pile up after Sir Keir ditched the Rwanda deterrent.

Nigel Farage’s Reform have swept into this policy vacuum and seized the initiative.

Little wonder that a new poll puts them on course for Number Ten.

The new Home Secretary says she has no choice but to deliver.

She is right to call for legal migrants to put more into society if they want to have leave to remain here.

But voters want fast action on stopping the boats and kicking out those who should not be here.

Ms Mahmood has ordered reviews of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Modern Slavery Act.

Now she must bang heads together to deliver them early.

Thousands have dodged deportation because of these two legal millstones around the Government’s neck.

If Ms Mahmood wants to succeed, she needs to quickly live up to her Terminator reputation.

By saying Hasta La Vista to those here illegally.

Air Miles Miliband

ED MILIBAND’S reckless rush to Net Zero is already costing households dear.

This month, regulator Ofgem said Labour’s obsession with wind and solar power will see electricity prices hiked by almost £100 by 2031.

Now, as we reveal today, the Energy Secretary has himself clocked up 50,000 miles on globe-trotting flights since Labour came to power.

Forget his Red Ed nickname. It should now be Air Miles Miliband after he enjoyed carbon-busting jollies to India, China, Brazil and the US.

All this from a politician who in opposition urged voters to cut their use of flights.

To offset hypocrite Miliband’s globe-trotting would require 1,200 trees to be planted.

And that’s before you deal with the hot air he spouts.

Lost decades

WE are now in a new cost of living crisis — or perhaps we never really escaped the first one.

A dismal report yesterday revealed family incomes are £20,000 less than they should have been had economic growth in the UK not flatlined after 2005.

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It means Brit households have effectively lived through two lost economic decades.

Covid, the credit crunch, war in Europe and energy price shocks were hammer blows.

But inflation is now firmly entrenched in the economy thanks to Rachel Reeves’s policies, which have directly driven up prices.

Her National Insurance rise has left hard-pushed customers facing bigger bills at the tills, as shops were forced to pass on huge extra costs.

Unnecessary Net Zero measures only add to the misery.

The irony is that yesterday’s report on living standards was by the Left-leaning Resolution Foundation.

Many of its former members are now sitting in Downing Street as key advisers to the Prime Minister and Treasury.

Yet most of their ideas to fix the economy are based on seizing ordinary people’s hard-earned savings, property taxes and taxing the rich so highly they flee the country.

Big business is already warning of the folly of this outdated 1970s-style approach.

Don’t do it, Chancellor.

Action, not talk

NEW Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she will not allow migrants to avoid deportation through bogus last minute claims that they are the victims of modern slavery.

She insists these “vexatious” appeals make a mockery of our laws.

Of course, she is right that migrants are gaming a broken asylum system.

But for all her tough talk, how exactly does she plan to do it?

Successive Home Secretaries have promised to do “whatever it takes” to secure our borders.

All have foundered on the immovable rock that is European human rights laws.

Those same laws which are defended to the hilt by her cabinet colleague, Attorney General Lord Hermer.

We wish Ms Mahmood well. But it’s actions that count.

Hope & glory

FOR all the talk of trade deals and tariffs worth billions there is one British institution that remains priceless.

Our Royal Family — such a vital asset to this country — once again totally charmed the world’s most powerful man, Donald Trump.

Amid the doom and gloom it’s good to remember that no-one does pomp and pageantry quite like us Brits.

THE NHS is chucking tens of millions of pounds down the drain by failing to stamp out health tourism.

At a time of sky-high taxes, it’s intolerable that money is being lavished on “free” care for foreign visitors.

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New figures show that hospitals are owed £252million for treatment given to patients from abroad — that’s enough to provide 5,000 extra nurses.

The NHS prides itself on providing medical attention free at the point of use to anyone who needs it, irrespective of their status or wealth.

But it is not a charity and trusts have a duty to safeguard taxpayers’ money.

With 7.4million on waiting lists for routine treatment in England, it is an outrage that bosses are writing off such huge sums.

Brits facing long delays for ops or forced to wait for hours on hospital trolleys will be appalled that this small fortune is not being spent on them and their families.

To make matters worse, one of the main reasons managers do not bother to chase outstanding fees is simply that it makes them feel “uncomfortable”.

Public satisfaction with the NHS — which also spent £1.8million on “staff networks” hosting “woke” events over the past two years — has sunk to a record low.

Three-quarters of hospitals are in debt.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has warned senior execs there is “nowhere to hide” on “wasteful spenders”.

They’re hiding in plain sight currently.

Petering out

PAINFULLY slowly, the truth about the Peter Mandelson debacle is being dragged out of Number Ten.

After going to ground at the end of last week, Sir Keir Starmer surfaced yesterday to admit he HAD known about emails from Mandelson to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he defended his US ambassador at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Specifically he knew the Foreign Office was investigating what would prove to be a huge scandal, but did not know — or did not ask — precisely what had been written.

This is a prime example of the PM blasting himself in both feet.

First by chaotically backing then sacking Mandelson — and then by taking an age to set out the facts.

Danny ploy

WHILE Labour rips itself apart, Nigel Farage is getting on with making Reform more professional.

MP Danny Kruger — the latest Tory defector to his party — is a serious thinker, with experience of No10.

Putting him in charge of Reform’s preparations for Government is another sign Farage isn’t messing around.

Plans for Nigel

IN typically ferocious style, Nigel Farage yesterday laid down the gauntlet to Labour on immigration.

How the Government responds may well end up deciding whether it wins a second term.

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Farage speaks ordinary Brits’ language and understands their “total despair”.

His cure for the crisis was plenty of harsh medicine:

1. Deportation flights starting immediately and ultimately booting out up to 600,000 illegals.

2. Bringing back Rwanda-style deals with third countries — the only proper deterrent to the small boats we ever had, and foolishly scrapped by Labour.

3. Ripping up European human rights laws and quitting the ECHR, which will also go down well with voters.

Labour will never do it and the Tories have dithered. But can Farage actually deliver it?

How will he achieve returns deals with rogue and failed states such as Iran and Afghanistan?

Many Brits will be wary of his idea of giving taxpayers’ cash to the vile Taliban regime.

The Tories tried for years to bring in a British Bill of Rights and failed.

Where does Northern Ireland and the complicated rules around the Good Friday Agreement fit in?

If he wants to be Prime Minister, Farage will have to provide some serious answers.

In dole-drums

A STAGGERING 6.5million people are now jobless and on benefits.

That’s up 500,000 in just a year since Labour took office.

Numbers of working-age adults on welfare payments have now risen by 79 per cent since 2018.

Unemployment — made worse by the “Jobs Tax Budget” is now on course to be its highest since the Covid pandemic.

Soaring welfare payments are not only totally unaffordable and a drag on growth, it is also morally wrong to demand working people bail out those who cannot or will not work.

Having ditched its modest welfare reforms — and with the Government now paying a “moron premium” on the UK’s debt mountain — what is the plan?

Unsafeguard

VICTIMS of domestic abuse are regularly failed by the system.

More than 100 women a year in England and Wales alone are murdered by current or former partners.

Many were let down by the DASH questionnaire used by police, social services and healthcare workers as an initial assessment of danger.

Minister Jess Phillips says it doesn’t work and is working out how to replace it.

That cannot come soon enough for those suffering now.

But it’s tragically too late for those who have already lost their lives needlessly.

Open justice 

WHEN an incident unfolds as shocking and horrific as the car ramming at Liverpool FC’s trophy parade, the public has a right to know as much information as possible, as quickly as possible. 

Following Axel Rudakubana’s murderous rampage in Southport last July, silence from the authorities allowed conspiracy theory, rumour and deliberate disinformation to fester online. 

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This, in turn, fuelled terrible scenes of violence and destructive riots. 

By revealing the ethnicity and age of the arrested suspect in the Liverpool incident within two hours – and swiftly ruling out terrorism – the police stopped malicious or kneejerk attempts to spread false narratives. 

They were right to do so, and local politicians have expressed their support for the decision. 

It’s a welcome step back from recent sinister attempts by police and Government to muzzle our free press. 

But the real test of our authorities’ new-found spirit of sensible openness will come the next time there is a tragic incident or terrorist attack. 

As Jonathan Hall, the Government’s terror law reviewer, points out: “The lesson has been learnt, don’t give any fuel to the conspiracy merchants. 

“You’ve got to roll with it. 

“If it had been a Muslim, an Asian, a black man or woman, they would have to say that. 

“You’ve got to be fully consistent.” 

Having now embraced transparency, the public will not understand why they shouldn’t always be given the full picture by the cops. 

Whatever that may be. 

E-bike blitz

CRACKING down on lower-level crime is known to help prevent more serious offences later on. 

So Government moves to crush mopeds, bikes and e-scooters used by criminal yobs within 48 hours rather than weeks to curb re-offending should be applauded. 

Just one problem: how does this get-tough approach sit with Labour’s prison reforms. 

After all, they will mean thugs convicted of crimes which should attract a 12 months sentence are now a lot less likely to go to jail? 

Reform rebirth 

BRITAIN isn’t having enough kids. 

Instead, we have come to rely on importing more and more young workers from overseas in a faltering bid to get the economy growing, and pay the bills for our ageing society. 

Nigel Farage’s proposed tax breaks for married couples could help to reverse that damaging long-term trend. 

Making it more affordable for young parents to have children is key. 

No forgiving a Brexit betrayal

WILL today go down in history as the day Sir Keir Starmer betrayed Brexit and the British people?

From the moment he entered No10, or Remainiac Prime Minister — who spent years in Opposition trying to reverse the historic 2016 vote — has been hellbent on securing a so-called “reset” with the EU.

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His approach to the negotiations with Brussels has been naive at best, and craven at worst.

Indeed, the message his public desperation sent to the hard-nosed Eurocrats was “I want a deal at any price, so shaft me”.

The vengeful EU — which will never get over Brexit, and cannot stand the idea of us being a sovereign nation again — duly obliged.

Its list of demands, in return for a defence partnership, a sop on passport queues and the simple lifting of some spiteful checks on British food exports, would put a mafia extortionist to shame.

Through a series of snide anonymous briefings (the EU’s tactic of choice for decades), we know it expects to agree the following at today’s Lancaster House talks:

Britain to slavishly adhere to every pettifogging Brussels edict on standards, a straitjacket known as “dynamic alignment” which would make trade deals with the rest of world far harder.

Subservience to the over-mighty, expansionist European Court of Justice.

Generous access to our fishing waters for mostly French vessels for ever more, undermining a core reason why millions voted Leave.

Bundles of cash to once again be paid into the EU’s coffers for participation in its various programmes and schemes.

Most unbelievably, a “youth mobility scheme” for anyone under 35 – yes, 35! – which would restore free movement by the back door, and give 80 MILLION EU citizens the chance to live and work here.

So much for getting a grip on runaway immigration.

And what has Sir Keir’s response been to all of this?

He and his Chancellor have effectively said bring it on, and that this is just the start of a much deeper future partnership with the EU.

We remind them both of two things, before they sit down to formally ink this seemingly wretched surrender deal.

First, the best economic days of the EU are long behind it — look at the state of the German and French economies.

Britain should be looking to do ambitious trade deals beyond Europe — indeed the new partnership with India, and the recent easing of US tariffs were only possible because of Brexit.

Not tying our hands and alienating allies like Donald Trump.

And, second, the British people voted nine years ago to take back control of our money, borders and laws.

If the PM hands all of this back over to Brussels today, he will not be forgiven.